Cake Pops!

My friend David was asking me for fundraising ideas last week for his student organization, and I was thinking it would be neat if his group made cake pops and sold them for $1 each. They could make them in VCU colors (black & gold..or yellow since gold candy coating is hard to find).

Bakerella (bakerella.com) is awesome and I love her cake pops. They are perfect for any little occasion especially if you want to do something new or different, besides the old cupcake/cake routine.

I made some yesterday as a test run to show David and get his thoughts on them.

Here are my step by step instructions:



Get a boxed cake mix and tub of frosting. I used devil's food cake mix.





Bake the cake!




Put the cake in the oven. Takes about 30 minutes to bake in a 13x9 pan.




Wash up while you are waiting.




Look at your reflection in your favorite pyrex bowl.





Make sure the cake is done after the timer goes off. Let it cool!





Once the cake cools completely, crumble that thing up!




Then, mix 3/4 of the frosting in with the cake crumbliness.




Roll the cake mixture into balls. You should get about 4 dozen. I got 40.




Pop 'em in the freezer for 15 minutes. Or cover them and place them in the fridge for a couple hours, if you can wait that long.




Get your candy chips in your second favorite pyrex bowl. I used yellow, since VCU's colors are black & gold.




Melt those chips down! You can heat them in the microwave on 30 second intervals. Keep stirring in between intervals until melted. Don't burn them. You want a smooth consistency that is not thick.






Dip the end of the stick in the melted candy coating. Then pop it in the ball (don't go through the top!). Dip the ball in the candy coating to cover it completely and then tap it on the side of the bowl to get the excess coating off. Stick in a styrofoam block to dry.




Cover with sprinkles of your choice. When dried, you can write on them with edible markers (food coloring markers). I have some and will try that later.




It's okay if you mess up one one. You can try to fix it or you can eat it. Or something.




Wrap 'em up! I use little treat bags to wrap them, and then tie them off with a twist tie. The twist tie package they sell at craft stores comes with 50, but they are big enough you can cut them in half to get 100. The bags are sold in all sizes and usually packs of 50 or 100. The sticks you can get at the same place..as well as the candy coating. The candy coating tastes like white chocolate.

I tried making cake pops in the past with regular chocolate but it doesn't work the same way because the consistency of the chocolate is too thick compared to the candy coating.


Anyway, I hope David and his group like the cake pops and it will be fun to see these around campus.

Plans

Thinking about warmer weather is the best way to warm up this time of year..besides wearing coats/boots/scarves.

I am looking forward to getting back outside when the weather is right.




Fossil Beach is definitely a place we'll be heading to soon, regardless of the cold. Just need to wear the right things and we'll be fine. Gotta love galoshes!




I also plan on going letterboxing for real this year. We found our first one last year (photo above), so I am looking forward to finding many more. I made my own stamp and carved a shark tooth design for it. I see lots of hikes and other adventures in the near future.






This is one of my favorite photos of my nephew Joseph while camping. We went camping for July 4th 2009 with Fayth & Tom-it was a lot of fun. It was his first time camping so he had a blast. Now he is in the boy scouts and is really enjoying it. I hope to take him camping again this year some time.





It'll also be nice to spend time at the beach. This photo is from Honeymoon Island in FL. I don't see FL in our plans this year but you never know.





This photo is from Venice Beach in FL..LOVE that water.




I sadly can't remember the last time I was at VA beach (concerts don't count). I will definitely be hitting it up several times this year!




There will also be a lot of time spent at the river here in Richmond. And places around town. I love this city.




Of course there will be a lot of time at the pool, too.



I also see lots of road trips, gatherings, and good times in the near future. Some graduations this year, reunions, birthday bashes, and more great stuff ahead.


Speaking of reunions..Daniel's 10 year high school reunion is this year. Crazy.

What's in our office...

Here's our office...it's tiny but it works for us. We recently moved the piano into the living room and out of the office..now I have my own area for my craft cabinet/cubbies.




When you walk in, this is what you will see. The dresser is from the same series as the dresser we have in our bedroom. In the corner to the left is my craft area, and to the right (which you can't see) are three big bookcases. We still need to tackle those, so I haven't taken any photos to share here. Embarrassing how cluttered they look! The craft area is a little cluttered but it's definitely a lot better than it was. I am slowly organizing it the way that I like it. I like to be able to just grab what I need when I am making something..so it's convenient the way that it's currently set up.

On the wall we have our college diplomas hanging up. On the left side are some other college framed certificates, but those are not in this photo. Those curtains used to be in the bedroom but I didn't like how short they were (we now have long brown curtains that meet exactly at the carpet in the bedroom). I still wanted to put something on the windows in the office, so I put these up in here. It's simple and works for the space. There's 2 panels on both windows (and one window is smaller than the other just like in the bedroom, but I also hung the rods the same so they look the same size).


There is a closet in the bedroom but it houses Daniel's clothes as well as some extra closet items we don't want hanging out in the office. The closet in the bedroom is mostly my stuff and some storage.





Here is the small little desk where Daniel's computer sits. We both have laptops but lately we have been using the desktop more than the laptops. I guess since the office is looking so much better now we want to spend more time in it!





Of course we have an MJ tribute on the wall..Daniel's framed Thriller record.






This is probably my favorite thing hanging on the wall in the office. I want to get it framed sometime soon. It is a map of NYC, with a house number and transit guide on it. I actually found it at a store in Carytown a while back..and it's actually sold as a sheet of wrapping paper. It's a thick sheet of paper, though. and it has the map company logo in the bottom, but it's printed by Cavallini Papers & Co. I love it!




These are some random frames we have on top of one of the bookcases. I didn't want to hang them on the walls but I still wanted to keep them around.





We also have this in the office, but I haven't gotten around to hanging it up. I think it should be framed. We got it on our honeymoon..and it's kinda cool because it's a print for the silent movie for Phantom of the Opera. It's neat that we went to see the broadway version in NYC for our second anniversary..kinda ties it all together.



Once the bookcases are tackled, I'll post another entry about the office. That's all for now!

Today..

Today I listed a bunch of stuff on half.com. A bunch of old college text books, other random books, a ton of Tori Amos sheet music books, some Tori records (actual records), and some unopened dvds we had.

38 items total. Almost $1000 worth of stuff (I added up the total for what I was selling everything for). I hope we get some sales!

Project,..

This is something I have been meaning to share:



This is my letterpress drawer revamped! I was inspired by Apron Thrift Girl (http://apronthriftgirl.typepad.com/apron_thrift_girl/2010/08/letterpress-box.html).



More to come..

What's in our bedroom?

Recently we changed some things up a bit with the decor in our bedroom.

We moved in 6 months ago and I just didn't like the way anything was set up. First of all, I didn't want to move, but now I have finally come to terms with it. Our new place is a lot cozier than the last. I can only hope the next place we move to is a house. It'll be nice to not have to worry when Daniel plays piano if the neighbors are mad at us. It will just be nice to have our own walls and our own place. We have made this place our's, so it will have to do for now.


So anyway, here's some photos of the master bedroom:



The view when you walk in. I love the long brown curtains. They are taffeta and each window has 2 panels. We hung the rods and measured them the same. One window is bigger than the other window, but both windows look much bigger with the way we have hung the rods and curtains. Each window also has curtain holders on each side to hold the curtains, even though they could easily just slide to the side..I just like the look of them.




The side wall and our "Brown" sign. I got these letters a long time ago from Kohl's and just couldn't resist. I had a lot of plans for them but never followed through and we have finally decided to give them a home in our bedroom. I like the way we hung them up..you might find it weird but it just works for our space.






This is in the corner of the room, a small bookcase with different things from our wedding/about us on it. In the corner is a bundle of branches I got from Hobby Lobby and I also have the same bundle in the opposite corner of the room. On the top of the bookcase is my wedding bouquet, a candle, and a cool pot with different feathery things in it that I like. Hanging above the bookcase is a photo of us in Central Park (NYC) together. It's one of my favorite photos of us as a married couple.

Also on the bookcase is a basket we received as a wedding gift from Daniel's great aunt Angelia, and some other little trinkets we want to hold on to. Like the vase of origami hearts. The vase of seashells from our honeymoon. The vase Daniel's Granny gave us as a wedding gift, filled with some vintage bingo balls with our wedding date and some of our origami roses. There's also an old photo of us from 2004, a fossil beach photo, and a jar of shark teeth we collected on our honeymoon. A photo of the sunset from our honeymoon, a carved & personalized ostrich egg (another wedding gift, from the Egg Man, Ron Cheruka, who is a family friend), and our wedding album, some other wedding photos, and another cool vase I picked up that has birds on it. Daniel's boutonniere is also on there. Oh the things we hold onto...





The dresser with the stereo, and a couple of the centerpieces from our wedding. On the wall are a couple of prints we got as a wedding gift from Daniel's great Aunt Georgia Anne. The prints are original P. Buckley Moss prints. The guy playing the piano looks just like Daniel.. :)





Our bed and our wedding "guest book" quilt hanging above it. We love it and this was the perfect place for us to display it. On the other wall is a frame with some wedding photos.

Old School

Some old-school photos I found the other day...






















Funny! It's so funny looking back at old photos. I found a ton from high school and college.

What I'm Loving..

Roman Holiday. It's another classic and I can probably watch this over and over again without getting tired of it. Two of my favorite actors (especially Gregory Peck), and it's such a cute fun movie.




This lemon paradise lotion by Victoria's Secret. It's an older one, and it's on their big sale right now. It's lemon sugar and vanilla and it smells so good. Much better for you than actual lemon sugar and vanilla cupcakes.




I also love this set from Sephora by Philosophy, called Sweet on you. It's sort of like candy hearts but smells better. The set I have has the 3in1 soap/lotion/shampoo, the lipgloss, and the lotion. Perfect for February!




I also love our ion record player. Daniel got it several years ago and lately we've been using it to play some of our old records. It's fun and I love the sound from a record player-something about it sounds so much more real to me. Okay quality wise it's different, but it's just a cool feeling to hear records playing the way they should be played. Don't get me wrong, I love mp3s, but records are physical. I love that.




And as ashamed I am to admit it, I really love John Mayer live. He keeps popping up on my pandora mix and he's just great.




DMB's album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King..I am really loving these songs, especially You & Me.

2011

Happy New Year everyone!



We had a nice dinner together and watched the ball drop on new year's eve. We spent the evening watching season 8 of 24 (which we later finished over the weekend). Someone in the neighborhood had fireworks, but we just soaked up the moment and taking in the fact that it's a new year.



During my break from work, a lot happened. Christmas eve/Christmas with my in-laws and the Fernandez family. A huge snow storm. Interesting discoveries. Lots of time with the Mr. and home improvements. New goals and dreams. Checking everything off my to-do list and having a clean slate for the new year. All of the Christmas stuff was put away and our entire home was completely cleaned out in time for the new year. It's always good to do a whole clean sweep to prepare for the new year, so you can start the year off right.

We recently bought a dresser (from the same series as our other dresser) from Ikea (awesome sale price), and we rearranged our office completely. The piano is now in our living room and now I have a separate area in our office for my "stuff." This includes my craft/stamp stuff. I also bought new curtains for our bedroom and hung them up-they are brown and really long. I reorganized our closets and made a huge donation pile. I'm not even going to bother with a yard sale any time soon-the donation pile is going straight to Goodwill.

Dresser we already had:

New dresser:

(the wood for our dressers is the same)

I also hung up a couple of spice racks (Ikea again) in the kitchen, and they are just perfect for holding the spices we have on hand.



I was thinking recently that it would be cool to frame some of the back of Cook's Illustrated magazines. Every now and then Daniel brings me some (from work), and I tear off the backs I really like. If I frame any of them I will hang them in our kitchen/nook area.


I saw this place listed in a Richmond magazine.. Gather. http://www.shopgather.com/welcome.htm It is an awesome looking shop I am going to have to check out.