road trip

I am so excited for this weekend.

Tomorrow is my Friday, along with a 5 day weekend down to North Carolina. I am visiting a very very good friend of mine named Craig and his fiance, Elizabeth. I have not seen them since Memorial Day last year and they recently got engaged, I posted about it here. So I am very excited to visit them again. They live right off of the coast of NC, not far from the beach at all. Before I make my 10.5-11 hour drive I plan on stopping in Washington, DC to visit Sticky Fingers vegan bakery! I have heard of them through VegNews magazine and have seen them on Cupcake Wars, I am just hoping the line won't be too long.

I am making this adventure alone! Steve will be babysitting Fifa for me and visiting family of his own, no big deal.. I love driving. I wish he was going! I have driven this far a few times so it doesn't bother me as much as it does others, driving a manual car can sometimes suck in traffic but I have all day Friday :)


I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend! I will be sure to post pictures when I get home.

project life | title page & week 32 & 33

I forget to add the title page to the PL posts and since I have been a few weeks behind I am just now posting it. I had to start a new book after week 26 and finally finished the title page. I forgot to photograph Week 31, so I skipped it for now!

Week 32 // 8/6/12 - 8/12/12
During this week my one year vegetarian anniversary happened, my roommate moved out (and yes, I cried), Steve built my cupcake stand and sent me tons of pictures of Fifa with captions, I finished my summer classes, and had a movie date night.

Week 33 // 8/13/12 - 8/19/12
Taylor Swift announced her new CD will be coming out in October (!!), I am a teeny bopper for her, not really any others. I went to visit my mom and we did some shopping together, it has been forever, I bought 3 new pairs of jeans at American Eagle. When they say "under $30" they really mean $29.99 so it defeats the purpose, but they fit really well and for me, I am really small so it is difficult to find something that fits correctly without shopping in the children's section. I received two A's = 4.0! Great start. Last Friday some coworkers and I ordered White Castle, they have no veggie burgers so I went with cheese fries, onion rings, and mozzarella sticks; I had to compete with unhealthy foods so I ordered unhealthy too haha. We spent one Sunday at a Rotary Car meet, the entire day. Steve came in 2nd place, bummer but it was still fun.

I used my new stamps from Studio Calico to make the card. It made me happy to have A's! Sorry this is so blurry, it was getting dark outside and I hate using flash. I have been loving these stamps.

I am linking up with The Creative Mom!

clean&simple

I love to clean.
Is that strange? Again, I like to attribute this quality to my spotless mom. She cleans our house like there is no tomorrow. Do not leave things around because it will get thrown away if it is out of place. When they say you grow up to be like your parents I never wanted to believe that was true as a child, but the more I grow up the more I realize how much I take after my mom. And I have no problem with that at all. I am my mothers daughter.

I had an all out cleaning fest in my bedroom the other day. Living with a dog in confined spaces causes for dust and hair = gross. So I moved my bed, desk, book shelves, everything but the dresser (because I am not superwoman) and dusted, vacuumed, wiped down.. everything. I was pleased with myself. And I told you that I was obsessed with aqua and teal. I was not lying to you.

I also wanted to portray my awesome Target dogs Steve bought me for Christmas one year. I really do love that place. And they are Christmas-y, but they are awesome.


And on this note, I am off to spend the weekend with him and Fifa. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

the story of us.

It deserves its' own post :)

****

I always love to hear about how people meet. I find it to be one of the best stories people can tell about themselves. You ask the question "so how did you guys meet?" and you watch their face light up like a Christmas tree as they tell you the story of how they met the love of their life.

So, how did we meet? [insert huge smile here]

I can tell you the exact day that I remember meeting Steve, he will tell you a different side of the story because yes, we met a few times before and I never remembered him, but that is not the point. We met (according to me) April 30th, 2010. Also known as Rutgersfest. My last one as a undergraduate college student. My roommates and I all went out to the concert, had an interesting time, and found ourselves back at our apartment keyless. Why? One roommate lost her keys and phone so she stayed behind with her boyfriend, I gave him my keys because I assumed my other roommate had hers. I was wrong.

When we arrived back at our apartment, Steve was standing on the stairway watching his car, waiting for a parking spot. He was friends with the guys who lived directly above us. We had to climb through our window, over the balcony; Steve decided he could not help, watching his car was more important. I remember thinking jerk haha. Later in the night, his friends came down to our apartment to hang out and we talked, who knows about what.. dogs, Weimeraners, Android cell phones, etc. The night ended and I thought I would not see him again.

A week later, my 23rd birthday. My last birthday at Rutgers (I thought), I went out to the bars with friends and ran into Steve again. He says he planned it, that he came to his friends house to see me discretely. We exchanged phone numbers. I am pretty sure I was "drunk texting," my one and only time ever. I am not a drinker, I do not enjoy it very much, but it was a celebration of my last year at school and I felt it was well deserved. The next day we planned a date.

May 12th, 2010. Why do I know these dates so specifically? Because I was flying on cloud 9, butterflies in the stomach, all those cliche feelings. We also decided later, this would be our anniversary date. The date of my last undergraduate final exam as well. We spoke at dinner about him being a vegetarian (I was shocked), him wanting to move to California, life after college, and whatever else you talk about on a first date. He even noticed my tattoo right away, it is not very noticeable either. I remember going home with the biggest smile on my face, my roommate noticed. We went on 3 more dates before I left for Thailand.

Two and a half weeks of a blissful vacation with my family. Spending an amazing time in this beautiful country that I will continue to return to and everyday, probably two or three times a day, I emailed Steve. We emailed back and forth everyday, gchatted, and I could not believe how much I missed him. I still have all of those emails, I love to look back and read them, read how we got to know each other so well. When I came back to New Jersey, he was there waiting to pick me and my brother up. We spent the entire weekend together. Amusement parks and car drifting shows. We spent every moment getting to know each other, learning different things, and then I knew, this was the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

It sounds so cliche. It is the movie moment where it only takes a few weeks to fall in love, I always scoffed at the thought of it being true, until it happened to me. I fell in love with the best person I could ever ask for. I remember telling myself it was too fast and I needed to slow down, I was afraid of being hurt, but it felt so right. And I remember every moment of that weekend like it was a movie playing in my head.


:)

I love love. Tell me your story. I would love to hear it.

xo

revamp

I decided that I wanted to do something different to my blog and make it more "me." So I did a makeover.

And yes, me, means white canvas with simple black text and a touch of aqua blue. I like to keep things simple and clean, I can say that I take after my mom for this quality and I thank her for it. I love aqua blue. I am obsessed with it. Anything close to aqua or teal is my thing. The title explains everything. I really do write about cupcakes (or recipes), photographs I have taken during the week, and my scrapbook.

When I first started this blog, the sole intention was for Project Life but now that I have been writing for eight months, I wanted it to be more "me." Does that make any sense? Probably not. But this is my story: a girl in her mid-twenties trying to figure out the rest of her life with her boyfriend & dog by her side.


ENJOY!

xo

instaweek

I have been behind on Project Life and taking pictures. I need more time in the day. I put together pictures of what my week was like, I enjoyed it.

1 our "pet" at work, we like to amuse ourselves // 2 my PL desk is a mess // 3 Steve brought over the cupcake stand :) // 4 Fifa and her shark, she don't care about Shark Week // 5 PL binder labels, love // 6 my first grade is up.. A! // 7 vegetarian White Castle lunch at work, miss those burgers // 8 new chevron dress my mom bought me! // 9 rotary car meet with Steve, lots of cars

top 25 at 25.

So my top twenty-five at 25 at this moment (only being 25-1/4)..

1. Fifa ♥
2. Instagram - I absolutely love it. I love pictures.
3. American Eagle jeans.
4. Reading blogs of people who inspire me.
5. Buying new notebooks for school.
6. Having a 4.0 GPA in graduate school (go me!)
7. Rainbow flip flops.
8. Chevron anything - especially the new dress I bought
9. Steve - and how helpful he has been lately with all my DIY projects
10. Mini square post-it notes in bright colors
11. Spending time with my mom
12. Vegan cupcakes
13. Typography
14. TOMS shoes
15. Mani/pedis
16. Washi tape
17. Acrylic stamps
18. Bright colored cupcake wrappers
19. Bubble tea
20. Starbucks.. always.
21. Taylor Swift
22. Summer movie date nights
23. Blogging
24. Grocery shopping (am I crazy or what?)
25. Project Life.

We shall see how this list changes in a few months.
Everything in my life right now is going so perfect. I love school, which seems to be very strange but I can not wait for classes to start. I think the fact is, the sooner classes start, the closer I get to moving out of NJ. It really is my determination for getting a 4.0 and trying to keep it. I love my professors, I never knew any in undergrad in the Biology department- they could care less about students.

I have a busy fall schedule and I am more than excited for it all to start :)

this week

It is finally finished and looking beautiful. The girl loves the cupcake stand and we will be meeting up within the next few weeks to get the little details together. I suggested Starbucks because who doesn't like sitting in a coffee shop going over details? She wants two special cupcakes, toppers, etc etc. So it will be easier if we just sit and talk about it together. I am so so excited for the end of September. It is going to take me a long time to bake and decorate these puppies, especially if Steve is in Boston for a Bachelor party.. I am going to be alone!

I am so happy to have my little dog back. I think she is just as happy to be back and not moving from house to house. I found it amusing that she is attacking her shark toy, during Shark Week. I do not partake in watching it but it still amuses me.

Project Life is catching up with me and I have spent a few days working on everything. I finished the title page of the second book, yes second, oh goodness! And I used the freebie download from Cathy Zielske's blog for the binder labels and I love them! I made them my favorite blue color and they look awesome. I love this project so much. I don't think next year will be the same, I am going to attempt a real 365 instead and do monthly updates on PL, but that is still far away.

Date night is tonight with Steve. Visiting my parents this weekend. Car show on Sunday and the new roommate Taylor moves in. It is going to be a busy weekend for me!

Hope you all enjoy your weekend as well! :)

boyfriend & cupcake stands.

I know that I say this a lot, but I have to say it all the time because, really, it's true.

I have the best boyfriend ever.

We spent the weekend together, because we love each other and stuff haha. Went out to see Bourne Legacy with the not-Matt-Damon and it stilled turned out to be pretty darn good. Admired Fifa's Mohawk haircut and had to say goodbye to my best friend. I told myself I wouldn't cry but hugging and saying goodbye really sucks. BAD. We took some pictures, wished them good luck, and watched them drive away. So sad.

I will be doing a wedding at the end of September, making 120 cupcakes, how awesome! The only problem was, I did not have a cupcake stand to display the cupcakes on at the wedding. I searched and searched, but nothing was as nice as I wanted. They were either cardboard, which was not nice looking, or too expensive for me to spend money on. One of the food blogs I read made her own DIY cupcake stand for her wedding (love & olive oil) so I was determined to do the same. Steve did an amazing amazing job on it! Instead of masonite cake boards we bought mdf and cut them in circles (difficult part). Used a a metal pole with washers to hold the boards in place and PVC pipes to cover them. Painted it white and will glue ribbon around the edges when everything is complete.






I love love love it! And it cost less than $40. Much cheaper than buying one line.

this week

I love to document my life through a lens, whether it be an iPhone/point-and-shoot/DSLR.

I think scrapbooking through Project Life is awesome, but this gives me a chance to post photos of pictures that I may not use in my scrapbook. Some of these are probably going into the book though.

Steve is bringing Fifa back to me today. I miss her so so much, especially when he sends me pictures of her. If you can not notice, he gave her a haircut and decided to shave only the sides of her. Yes, she has a mohawk. Why? I have no idea, he thought it would be really cute and since I am a nice girlfriend I am letting him keep it on her for now. She really does take the best picture, such a funny looking dog.

One year vegetarian! Oh my goodness, I can not believe it has been a year already. Some people are shocked to know that I have only been a vegetarian for a year, they usually think longer, which is amusing since my home friends still can not believe it. I love it though, I doubt that I will go back to eating meat any time soon, maybe never. We'll see. I cook so much more now that I am a vegetarian. I could never be vegan, only because I LOVE ice cream too much to give it up, but for the most part I eat vegan at home. It is really exciting, for me, to realize I have done it for a year now; when I started dating Steve I told myself "I could never do that!" and here I am! I eat so healthy now, fruits and veggies, organic, vegan, water - holy cow I am so different!

Graduate School. I love it. I actually thought I had next week of classes, but I handed in my project and just finished my paper so yesterday was my last night of class for the summer! YAY. I seriously love my classes. Discussions, debates, learning. It's all so new to me. I was never a huge fan of science in undergrad, but now it will pay off my graduate school and I can not complain.

P&S. We are awesome. I took her out to dinner last night to The Cheesecake Factory for one last hurrah together. Our friendship is so great, one year and I would have never imagined I would find such an awesome friend. I wish her the best of luck with John and I can not wait to visit her.

desktop.

What that picture is really telling me is that I need to clean my screen more often.

This picture explains a lot of how things are going lately. I bought a normal non-mechanical pencil and sharpener for the first time in about 10 years for $1.25 (10 pencils + sharpener!), colorful paper straws in a reused jar with some washi tape, and a framed card from Valentine's Day that Steve gave me. It shows my creativity is coming out (totally on the list), I love the framed card and plan on hanging up on a photo wall above my bed. We never used the paper straws at the going away party, I think people thought they were decoration and not for use, oh well. And in the background, you can notice Fifa with Santa Claus from a few years ago. Awesome.

I have been cleaning and reorganizing my room a little. I wanted to decorate more but I talk myself out of it more and more because I will only be there until June. School is over in a few days and I will start taking more pictures. I can not wait until the Fall, as a teenager/college student Summer was my favorite season and now that I am a little older I think that the Fall season and cool weather is making its way to the top.

project life | week 30

It seems like last week was more than just a week ago. It feels more like 2 weeks ago. I've been keeping up lately and it's hard with school, but only 8 more days until I get a break, then back after Labor Day.

I tried to keep it simple. I don't want to go crazy trying to make it perfect because after I am done, I usually love it anyways.


Week 30. Left side.
My term bill hit hard, but when I look at how much it really cost before my tuition was paid.. it's not that bad. I save $7,000. I have come to the conclusion that if I finish my Masters next summer, I will only have paid less than $6,000 for it. SWEET.



Right side.
I used the timer on my camera to take a snapshot of us watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. We like watching TV on my bed in my room. The TV in our livingroom is too small for how big the room is, we prefer relaxing on a comfy bed. My NJ string art project (which I still haven't finished).


I like how clean these look. I used PSE to write on white card stock, printed two out and cut them out to the size I needed. Added some washi tape to attach it. I like how it stands out.


Simple title cards are the best.



I am linking up with The Creative Mom!

hello august

This summer is really flying by. I can not believe it. I can not believe Priscilla is moving out in 9 days. I am so sad. We are having her going away party on Saturday and then she leaves the following Friday. I do not want her to go! Our new roommate will be moving in between the 19th-20th, which will be fun to get to know someone new, but boo at the same time because then it means Priscilla is gone!

Onto other news, Steve and I started my fourth Pinterest project! This one has to be, by far, my favorite one. We are not quite done yet, I have to string it together, which I started but did not like and wanted to destroy it haha. I have about 2 projects that I haven't fully finished, and this one makes it 3. I seem to start and never completely finish these projects because I get side tracked or have not had time to pick up the last part. We spent all of Sunday doing it and it was great.


Step One: Staining the wood. This is Fifa attacking the air compressor. Steve was spraying air and she kept going after it, crazy dog. We used it to clear off the parts we sanded.

Step Two: Staining the wood, my favorite part. It comes out so awesome!

Step Three: Outline printed. Nails starting to go in!

Step Four:Almost completed project. I need to string it, but I have to find new string that I like because I 3/4 strung it up and wasn't happy with it haha.


Now August.. I like the way Elise does her goals, she sets them for each month!

Visit Craig and Elizabeth.
Try a new cupcake creation.
Finish my DIY projects.
Hang up some photos.
Make a photobook from Road Trip 2010.
Take Fifa for a walk every morning and evening.
Take more photos.