It's MOVING TIME

It's time to get packing. We're moving out of G-Vegas on Friday. It came suddenly. It was supposed to be 3/15ish, but, after some thought, we have decided that this weekend is the most opportune time to pack up our stuff and head on down to the Burg. I have mixed feelings about this.

I hate that Layla won't have her own room. I also hate that I have to be without my love for a couple of weeks while he finishes school in G-Vegas. I also hate that I have to share space with my parents, because, well, how awkward is that?

But, I really like that I'm living with my parents too, because, well, lets face it, they're a huge help. They pay the bills, cook the food (but I'll be doing a lot of that too, duh), watch Buggie while we're working...I can work! I can go to class. I can be around my old friends. But I'll also miss my G-Vegas buddies. Not for too long though. I know they will visit me. :]

So now we're rushed to pack. Actually, most people would find this incredibly stressful, but it's actually pretty relaxed for us. In the past, we have moved alll of our belongings in our own car in less than 24 hours-usually more like 12 hours. This time, we're getting a TRUCK -- oh yeah, doin' it big, baby! -- and taking 3 days. How awesome is that?! ha.

I need to update this blog-a-roo more often. Fo shizz. Keep checking. I'll try to update every Wednesday, at least. Because JennaMarbles inspires me. Ohhh yes. INSPIRATION!! <3

The BEST White Cake Cupcakes I Have EVER Tasted.

Oh yes, I'm back to making my famous Cupcakes. :] I've been wanting to for days, but poor little miss Layla has apparently not been feeling well, so she hasn't given me a chance to bake any. I also did a complete cleaning overhaul in my apartment on Thursday, so it's so much easier when you have a clean & well organized kitchen to work with.

Now, I had stocked up on cake mixes a month or so ago when Publix had them BOGO. (P.S. PUBLIX BOGOS ARE THE GREATEST THINGS EVERRR!) So, I've been sitting here with a few boxes of cake mix in my cabinet, with no intention of making a boxed cake. I am not a fan of processed foods, and boxed cake, to me, is just to blah & generic. Anyone can make it. It's not WOW enough for my liking. I'm ashamed to make boxed cake. I don't like my food tasting average. It's just not me.

I knew these cake mixes had to be used though. I'm not a food waster. I hate throwing out things that have expired. A certain someone in our family (I won't mention names here but some people know who I'm talking about because it drives me absolutely insane) likes to pass food along to us. Because she's an EXTREME couponer and buys more food than is humanly possible to consume. Now, I'm all for free food, and handouts, but here's the thing: she gives us EXPIRED food. It's absolutely disgusting. I'm not talking like "oh this expired a month ago", I'm talking YEARS ago. She gave us 3, count them THREE, boxes of food a few months back. I read the dates on them, and I threw out all but about 4 canned goods (which we all know last decades). They had all expired like 2 years ago. Yes, years. That is not an exaggeration by any means. But, I digress. This has nothing to do with my amazing cupcake journey.

Where was I? Oh yes, not wasting the cake mix. So, I had the genius plan to doctor up my mix a bit. Make it a little more unique. So, I took a recipe I found at Recipe Girl and adapted it to the items I had in my kitchen. Here's the end result:

1 (18.25 ounce) box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated white sugar
a small pinch of salt
1 cup water
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg whites

Whisk together all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Mix well with hand or stand mixer. Pour into either a) well greased cupcake pans or b) cupcake pans with liners in them. Bake on 325 degrees F for 18 minutes. 

OH.MY.LANTA. These are by far the most amazing, perfect, soft, moist, spongy, white cupcakes EVER. No lie. You can eat them without frosting. They're that good. In fact, Daniel & I ate two of them without frosting, fresh from the oven. They are absolute perfection. I'm a culinary master. tehe. 


I just wanted to share that recipe with you guys. If you make it, be sure to let me know how yours turned out. I'll post my end product & frosting recipe tomorrow. <3 Goodnight, cupcake lovers.

Happy New Year!

First post of 2012! Hooray! :)

I think I need to update this thing far more often. Resolution?
Speaking of, here is my list of resolutions for the New Year, and the most important part, my plan on achieving them.:

1. Not Be Pregnant in 2012. :)
How to accomplish: Use birth control. Be careful. Be smart.
2. Be bikini ready by February. (Trip to Dominican Republic!!!)
How to accomplish: Exercise. Eat right. Cut out fast food. Cut out sodas. Cut out candy. Take vitamins.
3. Be sexy.
How to accomplish: Be confident. Practice good hygiene. Wear cuter clothes. Care about my looks.
4. Be organized.
How to accomplish: Organize one room at a time. Get rid of unnecessary things. Keep up with the cleanliness of my home.
5. Be an awesome mom!
How to accomplish: Take care of Layla. Play with her often. Teach her. Let her have some independence. Love her.
6. Be financially stable.
How to accomplish: Fill out a monthly budget & stick to it. Don't buy unnecessary things. COUPON!
7. Grow my mark. business.
How to accomplish: Sell. Recruit. Work on leads. Help other reps. Work closely with my mentor. Sell. Recruit. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. :)

Good stuff? I thought so. It's a lot, but it will make me better in the end. I'll be sure to blog about my journey.

What are your resolutions? And MOST importantly, how do you plan to accomplish them?

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Oh my goodness! It has been PURE insanity around here lately! I'm not kidding.
We went to a party a couple weeks ago that I made baked good yumminess for.
I had final exams, so I went home to my mom's to finish it all with no distractions.
I graduated Santa Fe last night with my Associates Degree in Journalism.
And now I'm about to spend some much needed time with friends...and take Layla to get Santa pictures done.
All while also preparing for Christmas and spending far too much money!!!!

And, to top it all off, Daniel's birthday is on Monday, and I'm having a party then too.
But, thanks to my awesome shopping deal-hunting & couponing, I got everything I need for BOTH today & Monday's parties for $36. Yep, 2 parties under $50. It can be done, people!!!

 

I made these candies for the Christmas party a couple weeks ago. Easy stuff, and It's SO much fun!!!

Just get molds from JoAnns or Michaels. Melt White Chocolate Chips (DONT use ones you've put in the freezer, it will not work). Add candy colors (available at Joanns & Michaels), and get creative! Put skewers in as directed.
Let them sit in the fridge till you see that it looks a bit "frosted" on the backs.

Gently remove! I'll post a pic of the finished, wrapped ones, in the next post.

Easy as pie!  :]

Baking In My Undies!

Last night I decided I wanted to bake something yummy. I had picked up some canned pumpkin dirt cheap the other night, and wanted to use some, because, well, who doesn't love pumpkin? I wanted to do something new--not the pumpkin cupcakes again (although they were amazing!), and not a pumpkin pie (because we already had one in the fridge). I did some research and found a great idea, and made my own recipe from it. Here we go...My recipe for Pumpkin Brownies!

I guess these might technically be considered "Blondies", but they have chocolate in them, so I call them brownies.

Ingredients
2 cups of All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of butter/margarine
1/2 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of canned pumpkin
chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a pan with aluminum foil & spray with nonstick spray.
2. Combine dry ingredients in bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.
4. Add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin and mix until smooth.
5. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time, and mix until it's all combined.
6. Add chocolate chips to the batter. Chocolate chips are at your discretion, if you like a lot of chocolate, more chips, less chocolate, less chips.
7. Pour batter into pan and top with chocolate chips.
8. Bake for 35 minutes or until light brown around edges.
9. As hard as it may be, let cool before removing from pan and devouring. 

AMAZING stuff. Daniel even calls them "Deliciousness". 

If you make it, be sure to let me know how they turned out!! 

Now, back to my trigonometry homework I've been neglecting.

Layla's First Bath!

Layla had her very first real bath the other day. She was SUCH a good baby!! I was surprised she took it so well. Here's photos:

Such a perfect baby. I love her. <3 

Black Friday Insanity!

I cannot believe how intense this Black Friday was. I've always gone out with my family on Black Friday, but this year was just plain CRAZY! First of all, whoever decided to start the sales at midnight apparently doesn't enjoy sleep. Toys R Us even opened at 9pm. So here's how my Thanksgiving night/Black Friday morning was spent:

3pm: Daniel left the apartment to begin waiting in line at Best Buy. We were hoping for the 42" TV for $200.

4pm: My parents arrived at my apartment. Mom helped me clean the kitchen, which was a pain because my sink decided to spring a leak on the biggest cooking day of the year. I had a nice flooded floor. 

6pm: My parents, Layla, and I left the apartment to start our shopping spree. Took Daniel some things to keep him warm and occupied in line, then went to Michael's. 

Things I bought at Michaels: 

-bells for the Christmas tree

-ribbon for the Christmas tree

8pm: Went to the Toys R Us side of town. Waited in a longer line than was at Best Buy. If you know anything about Gainesville and Toys R Us, you can understand this: The line went past Jason's Deli when I got there. We moved up significantly, and the line was still past the Chinese Buffet. Toys R Us was SO stupid. The store is already set up weird. To make it even worse, they decided that the checkout line would go through literally EVERY SINGLE AISLE. So you have people shopping down the middle of the store as best they can, and people waiting in line in every aisle. Waiting to check out must have taken over an hour. I wouldn't know. We gave up. I couldn't find anything in Layla's age group on sale anyway. It was just too crazy to wait in line to not save anything.

Things I bought at Toys R Us:

-NOTHING.

On the way out of Toys R Us, someone from The Lingerie Company said they had free smoothies and food inside. So of course, I had to visit. Can I just mention how awkward it is to eat and drink with your mom in a pole dancing studio? And then proceed to shop in the lingerie/toy part of the store? It's odd. But my mom and I are close enough for me to handle it. 

Things I bought at Lingerie Company:

-mystery bag with $40 worth of product for $10. 

10:30pm: I got a call from Daniel. He didn't get the ticket for the TV we wanted, but did get a ticket for a larger, more expensive one. I went to Best Buy to discuss this with him. I ended up waiting in line with him until Midnight to go see what the TV was like & decide if we wanted it. Cox gave out free Krispy Kremes, which was a nice touch. 

12:17am: We finally get into Best Buy, only to wait in more lines to get our items. Checkout lines through the aisles again, but not all of them. Kill me. 

Things I bought at Best Buy:

-46' Plasma Smart TV

2am: Finally out of Best Buy. Went to Kohls with the parentals and Layla.

Things I bought at Kohls:

-memory foam bath mat. $9.99

3am: Time for food. Went to the mall, ate a cinnabon, shopped at Sears.

Things I bought at Sears:

-3 outfits for Layla

-1 outfit for my good friend Jess' baby 

-Reindeer doormat. 

-FREE COUPON BOOK

-FREE ORNAMENT

Finally decided to go home around 6am. I was exhausted, and slept all day. 

Layla was a great shopper. She was quiet, sleepy, and perfect. Here's a picture:

Oh Black Friday, until next year....