Cupcake Pops

For quite a long time now I've been following the Bakerella Blog closely. I love everything she does. She's so cute and she does everything so well!

The things she makes make me want to get into the kitchen and do it, too. Lately I've made a couple items from her blog (I feel like a copy cat) and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. First I made some Valentine's Day sandwich cookies that were over baked the first time around, but the second time I nailed it. I cut the baking time in half, since our new ovens are super ovens, and they were perfect and soft. The cream cheese frosting is one that's not too rich for me. I'm a bit picky with my cream cheese frosting...but this recipe I really like. These are really simple and wonderful treats. I recommend them.



This past week I tried another treat I've been dying to make; the Cupcake Pop. What it is is a cake crumbled into a bowl and mixed with frosting them formed into balls (or cupcake shapes with the help of little flower cookie cutters), stuck on lollipop sticks and dipped in candy coating. I made them for James' Blue and Gold scout cake contest. The theme was patriotic, so we stuck with the red white and blue colors. They turned out delicious.




My bakerella baking goal for this week: 14 Layer Cake. It looks amazing.

Another brilliant idea

I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life and how I'm going to get everything done that I want to do. I've been talking about Culinary School for about a year now and the idea of it still is thrilling to me. This is something I really want to be able to do. However, the few schools I've looked into attending after I graduate are a bit on the pricey side (50k pricey side...) They're close to home, but not close enough to live at home and still attend full time, so I'd have to find a place to live out there. That would just be extra costs. All around, the cost was making me rethink my desire to go to Culinary School. There's no way I can come up with that much money in the amount of time I have.

Then yesterday at church I saw a woman I've known since I was a very little girl and we started talking. I told her I'm considering changing my minor from ballroom dance to culinary arts, just so I can get that done while I'm still at BYU-Idaho. She then proceeded to tell me about a trip she took to Edinburgh, Scotland a couple years ago. While there she met an American girl in the small branch there. She asked her what she was doing in Edinburgh and it turns out she was attending a culinary program in the city. The girl is from the Orange County area and the culinary school she wanted to go to was the same I want to go to but, like me, she lacked the funds. The woman, Sister Macky, encouraged me to look into the program over seas and told me I'd love it.

I looked it up. I love it.

The Edinburgh School of Food and Wine has a six month program after which you get a diploma in Food and Wine and all together, the costs (including living) come out to be about 15k (I feel like my brothers playing their online RPG games when I say 50k and 15k). It's vastly more affordable, a whole year and a half shorter than the other schools I've looked at, and it's in SCOTLAND.

I looked at the dates that the program runs and it goes from January-June. My hope right now is that I'll be able to attend the January-June 2010 program. That means I've have to defer my Summer 2010 semester at BYU-I, but that when when I get home I can go to school straight on through Fall/Winter/Summer and graduate in Summer 2011. Of course, this idea is still in the beginning stages of figuring everything out, so it very well might not happen. There's a lot of research to be done, a lot of money to be made. It all depends. But I'm hoping it'll work out! It would be quite the experience.

Plus, the Edinburgh Zoo has a penguin parade every day. How could I not want to go there?

I'm not a good blogger...but I am good at costuming!

I'm not very consistent with my blogging, now am I? I suppose it's because nothing very interesting is going on. I'm just living a pretty bland life at home.

I am, however, winning when it comes to being an awesome sister. My nine year old brother was invited to a costume party today and was supposed to dress up like the Joker from the recent Batman movie. I wasn't exactly sure if we'd be able to pull it off, but I told him I'd take him to the thrift store and we'd try and find appropriate clothes for the Joker. So we went and struck gold. We found everything we needed (except I got the wrong colored shirt...but that's okay, it still worked). Yesterday we bought face paint to go along with the costume.

When it came almost time for the party I got him all dressed up. I used glue to get his hair to do what I wanted it to (his hair is very very stubborn) and then we sprayed it green. I painted his face as best as I could and now it looks slightly like a mixture of the cartoon Joker and Heath Ledger's Joker. Once James put the clothes on, it all came together. He looked awesome and he was so excited to go show off his costume. I'm glad we managed to make it work.

He told me he doesn't want me to leave in April for school. Awww!


Make up and hair!


The full look


This is my favorite picture.


Why so serious?

Shoutout

Happy Birthday to a kid who has made me smile for a whole year. I hope Indiana isn't too cold for Sam's taste.

Kittens: My children

My sister told me that I talk about the kittens as if they're my children. Around the dinner table Miriam tells us funny stories of things Ava did and said during the week and I take my turn to tell about something crazy the two kittens did. It's true, I talk about them as if they're my children.

I suppose this is due to the fact that not much else is going on in my life. I spend a great deal of time in my bedroom doing an assortment of things, but the kittens are always around. Oh, as a side note, one of them (Mallomar) was adopted a week ago and now I have a new one, Marshmellow. She's the third from that litter and is the most gorgeous kitten I've ever seen.

On Saturday night my older brother and I had some friends over to watch a movie and play games (Curses. SO fun.) During the party the kittens managed to pull the panel off the wall opposite the bathtub that's there to allow access to the pipes. I bet they didn't know there would be a big opening behind the panel, but once it cmae off they discovered this hole and the bathtub, behind which they could hide and I couldn't get them. It took forever that night to lure them out of hiding. I did it, though. Now the panel is duct tapped to the wall. They're upset.

Can't sleep

My task for the next couple of weeks is to perfect a pretty fancy arrangement of O My Father on the piano. I found it in a piano book in our piano bench and I suspect it's Aaron's book that he's neglected to play from. The arrangement is something I would have groaned over if I had been asked to play it back when I was taking piano. However, since then I've gotten much better at sight reading (thank you, Michelle) and am now able to better sit down and play. Although I don't know the arrangement, I know the hymn, so it's not too difficult. Since I can't play the harp, with my being at college half the year, it's nice to pick up piano again. I love music.

Linnea came over tonight and we ate ice cream sundaes and had a girls night. She's been having a tough week, with Tim's cancer and breaking up (though we don't know if it was him who wanted to break up or him just going crazy because of some infection in his brain. scary, I know) and I just haven't really sat down with a girl and just talked since coming home. It was nice for the both of us. She's done a lot of growing up since leaving for college, as have I. It's nice to have someone who's sort of on the same level of seriousness balanced with fun and silliness as I am.

What would also be nice is falling asleep earlier.

It's Simple

I started to leave a comment on Eryn's blog when I realized that I have a lot to say and I might as well write my own post.

For starters, up until recently I've been in this mindset that I have to really know what I want out of life and I have to chase what I have in mind, whether it be academic or boys or friends, with all my heart. I've always had this big grand plan of what I've wanted to do, when I want to get married, who my best friends are. I know it's great to have my mind set on the future, but I don't think I've been going about it the right way.

I do have a plan for my future and I have lots of things I'd love to do, but I've gotten to the point where I know and understand that everything is subject to change. I'm not majoring in Nursing, as I planned to when I graduated from high school. I'm not living with the friends I thought I would be living with. I'm not dating anyone or am even remotely interested in anyone (a first, I know). Things don't go according to plan, especially with time as a factor.

As far as school goes, I have somewhat of a plan. This week I changed my major for the third time. I've settled on University Studies, which is a tailored major to one's own talents and interests. I've got a cluster in English (literary analysis) and a cluster focusing on Spanish Literature. I also have a ballroom dance minor, but I'm contemplating a couple other minors that might be just as interesting but a bit more useful. These are not things I thought I would end up studying when I started college, but I'm comfortable with them and excited for next semester. I want to finish up college in eight semesters (you get $500 from the school if you do...sweet!) and then head off to Culinary school. But you know, I've been thinking about going on a mission so maybe I won't end up in culinary school. It's all subject to change.

I have great friends. I have friends from high school, from homeschooling, and dear friends from college. This coming semester I might be living with Randi again, but I might move into an apartment with five girls I haven't met. I'm really excited. Being in college I have the opportunity to meet so many different people so while I love my best friends, I'm all for new roommates. Friends are the best.

Then there's the whole dating thing. For a while I thought about all the guys I know and all the ones on missions and there are a couple I thought about and realized that, hey, when he gets home I could see myself marrying him. I even considered waiting (and by waiting I mean going on dates but doing my very best to just happen to be single when the two years end) for one of them. Since considering that and talking with my sister, I realized that I don't need to have a plan with who I want to marry. Sure, there may be someone with whom I'm really close and I might think he would make the perfect husband one day, but there's so much time between now and when anything even could happen that there's no point in trying to map everything out now. And dating at school, with how aggresive and competetive it is, I'm not going to throw myself at every guy I find attractive. I'm in no rush, I don't need a boyfriend ( or fiance/husband). I don't need to worry that if I don't pursue this one boy that I'll lose my chance at love for the rest of my life. If it doesn't work out, there's still someone out there for me. Coming to terms with this has made things so much better for me. I feel like I'm able to relax on dates and be more myself rather than put up a front in order to impress the guy.

Overall, my point is to have a plan but remain flexible. Don't have a plan that's impossible. Don't have a plan that is going to make it so you miss out on all the things life has to offer. Take chances, accept change, let things happen as time allows them to happen.