The only excitement in my life this week has been my quest to make the famous Bakerella‘s cupcake pops. They looked adorable and mouthwatering, and I had to have some. Thus, I had to make some. Luckily, my mom, two of my aunts, and my grandmother all have birthdays around now, so we had a mini party on Sunday at my grandparents’ house, giving me the perfect opportunity to make a batch of these little suckers (get it…suckers, like lollipops…like cupcake pops….and I’m leaving in shame….) without the very frightening (and very real) possibility I would eat them all myself.

It was certainly a process. Friday I went and gathered all my supplies. (Luckily, my mom used to be an avid candy maker and knew what the best kind of chocolate would be for this venture…) and made my cake. Saturday, the real work began. First, I had to mix the cake and icing (without eating too much of the icing by itself) and form them into the shape of the cupcakes:

Next I had to cover the bottoms in milk chocolate (again, avoiding the eating all the supplies issue)

Then I had to dip the tops into blue candy/chocolate (I’m not sure what it is exactly, except delicious), then cover the tops in sprinkles and a little dark chocolate M+M. I was proud of how adorable they turned out.

They also made the sink look like this, which was a fun added bonus. (It’s like a party in the sink!)

AND, I’m extra proud of my organizational skills in keeping my kitchen looking like this rather than like an explosion of chocolate and sprinkles had hit the kitchen:

On Sunday, they looked adorable on the table at my grandparents’.

So, if you’ve got a spare 5 hours and a hankering for chocolate filled with cake and icing,  I definitely recommend these. My cousins ate three each and my dad and uncle (below) seemed to have fun with them, so I think they were a success.

Other than the cake pops, we had a really fun time with the family on Sunday. I think I sold my cousin on getting a Nikon camera after she walked around the party for an hour with mine. We also may have made plans to see the Hannah Montana movie together, as she is still in middle school and can be my beard to get into the movie without shame. (Not that I have any…I think I lost my ability to feel shame at the movies when I purchased my tickets to HSM3 for the third time.)

The rest of the weekend was spent car shopping with my mom. Every time we walk into a dealer, we have to explain that we need three cars in the next four months (one for my sister, one for me, one for Mom and Dad) and then have to wait as all the salesmen finishing battling to see who gets to walk us around the lot. We even had the owner of one dealership walk us around for a while. My personal dilemma right now is that I can afford to get a new car, but the new cars I want are all hybrids (because in CA, I’d get to drive in the HOV lane ALL THE TIME and if you live in CA, you know how AWESOME this would be, especially in traffic. Plus, less time out of my life pumping gas? Yes, please!), but of course, all the hybrids are way expensive, so I’d have to go used. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful to be having the option of either a new regular car or a used hybrid at all, but still, it’s a tough call.

Other than that, life has been pretty boring: working, watching ridiculous amounts of television on Monday nights (Last night my dad and I had to split up at 8 – he watched House upstairs as I watched the season premier Greek of in my room, all while our DVR taped Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, and Big Bang Theory. Then, of course, I have to watch Gossip Girl online. Is there really no other time ANY of these shows could be on?), and reading for TFA.  I’m debating (and I guess will have to decide to do by the end of the day) NaBloPoMo in April, since I’ve been slacking on the blogging front and could use some motivation. I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

The last few days when I should have been recapping my trip to LA or my day trip to Annapolis, reading my TFA readings or  my new found novels, I’ve been online shopping…well, online window shopping, mostly for my future LA apartment. See, picking out items and decorating in my mind makes me feel less like I’m living at home for a few months and more like I’m just passing through, planning for my new fabulous life, which I suppose I am, even though it doesn’t feel like that most of the time.

Some of my favorite finds include:

1. 3-D Chandelier – Urban Outfitters

2. Autumn Kiss – Original Papercut Art – Tinatarnoff on Etsy

3. Yes Frills Jewelry Organizer – Urban Outfitters

4. EXPEDIT Bookcase – Ikea

5. Phone Gocco Screen Print – Labpartners on Etsy

6. Brighton/Vanity Desk – Crate and Barrel

7. Wall Art Vinyl Decal Sticker Decor Headboard – Art Wall Project on Etsy

8. Happiness Ring Catcher – Five Tress on Etsy

In searching for apartment dressings, I inevitably end up on Etsy, which then inevitably leads me to look at pretty, pretty jewelry (and the occasional purse and headband) for hours and hours. I mean, how adorable slash beautiful is this stuff?

1. Ruffle Linen Bag with Lace – Straige

2. Strech Me On Sterling Silver and Pink Swarovski Ring – Always Chic

3. Leaf in a Drop Earrings – Shlomit Ofir

4. Pearl Scented Rosebud Stud Earrings – hot-pins

5. Poppy Ring with Gold Centre – Simone Walsh

6. Citrine and smokey quartz double sterling silver necklace – Essensual Jewelry

7. Long Double Element Necklace – Simone Walsh

And now I guess you can add writing this post to the list of things I’ve been doing instead of what I should be doing. Ugh. Off to do some reading…maybe…oo look at this ring!

And back from my week in LA. Going there is starting to feel like going home, as it seems I’ve pretty much been going back and forth between LA and Boston for the last year and a half – plus the fact that most of my friends currently live or will be living there in the coming months (including, my lovely sister.)

I’m still mildly out of it, after getting up at 5AM Pacific time for the last three days (for a school visit, then an airplane ride, and then work…) and I still haven’t unpacked or uploaded pictures (two very necessary and logical next steps to returning from a trip.)

All I’ve done is find a JACKPOT of books in the basement my sister left behind in her many moves, many of which I’ve come very close to buying in the last few months, because I didn’t know where her copies were. I now have SO MUCH READING to accomplish before June between the rest of the Teach for America reading (I’m halfway done!) and all these books I’ve found.

Here’s a semi-complete book list. Any thoughts on what I should read first:

Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler
Little Children – Tom Perrotta
IV – Chuck Klosterman
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Post Birthday World – Lionel Shriver 
Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris (Technically, I would be reading this for the second time…) 

And of course, one teaching book: The Essential 55 – Ron Clark (Yes, of the wonderfully amazing TV movie “The Ron Clark Story.” And it’s signed!)

Coming up next: a small trip recap with pictures!

The last few days have been filled with nothing but work and playing with my new camera…and really, all I’m doing at work is playing with a very similar camera…so exciting blog posts have been hard to come by, unless you are just dying to read a little story that goes like this: Today I work up. I took a shower. I drove to work. I took pictures of a family. I drove home. I took pictures of my family. I watched insane amounts of television while cooking and eating dinner. I read blogs. I watched Jimmy Fallon (he’s getting better, right?). I went to bed. THE EXCITEMENT NEVER ENDS, I TELL YOU!

I figured instead of regaling you with that tale and instead of ignoring you all together, I should share some of the massive amounts of photos I’ve been taking, as that is all I can really offer except for maybe a rant about American Idol, which was my original plan. (I mean, picking Jasmine over Ricky?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME, IDOL!? *Deep Breaths* Just remember Anoop….and that Tatiana is gone…gooodddd….breathe….) I swear, if that show wasn’t so culturally relevant and full of potential train wrecks, I’d stop watching. (For a very close description of my thoughts, visit Michael Slezak at Entertainment Weekly.)

Now that I got that ALL THAT off my chest, onto some photos! On our drive home from Food Heaven, aka Trader Joe’s, I noticed the light was beautiful (for once), so my mom suggested we go on walk through a nearby park with her beloved dog, Sookie. I love my mother both for suggesting this and for putting up with my obnoxious picture taking (and for learning to be a kick ass model for me.) Thanks, mom! Everyone should tell her how pretty she is. Seriously, I’m going to look AMAZING in 20 years. 

If you’re bored, you can check out the rest of the photos here. The photos shown are, sadly enough, a very small cross section of the photos taken. (Aka what I could edit before my eyes started blurring from staring at my parent’s giant monitor.)

I’ve been in a weird funk all week, internet wise, and I’m not sure why, because I’ve had some things I could’ve blogged about.

I started working part-time job at a portrait studio. It’s actually the perfect part time job for me, besides the fact that I can only work for about three months before I leave. They knew that hiring me, though, so I don’t feel terrible about it. I’ve been training all week, learning how to use the fancy equipment (by photographing adorable stuffed animals on baby pillows) and memorizing all the package prices. It’s fun to utilize my burgeoning photography skills into a money making situation and to learn a little bit about portrait photography in the process.

Using fancy DSLR’s all day, however, was making me more and more sad that I hadn’t been able to buy my own DSLR that I’d been lusting after since July, especially now that I’m making money (and got a sweet tax refund), which had been my excuse for not buying a camera for the past two months. That mild sadness and frustration then combined with stress over my TFA readings (which are alternately making me feel mildly prepaerd and unbelievably unprepared) and the occasional lonliness of being at home with only  my parents to hang out with, thus making me super fun these past few days. After being sick of the funk, I  instigated many, many mildly tense conversations with my parents about how I’d really like to use my money to get this thing I’ve been wanting to get for months and months as a small reward for working hard, graduating early, and living at home to save money. I somehow convinced them it was a sound idea, found a way to finance it  and today, I went to Best Buy and got myself……

A BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, NIKON D90!!!! SUPERPHOTOEXCITEMENTWOOHOOO!!!!!

I, of course, came home, waited impatiently for my battery to charge, breezed through the user’s manuel, and started snapping photos of my only available subjects:

My mom’s uber cute, super tiny dog, Sookie.

My dad – who happily posed for a ridiculous amount of photos.

And of course, myself, in the obligatory mirror shot to show off myself and my beautiful new toy. (There was one where I looked way more exicted, but I figured I’d attempt to look cool for a brief moment.)

Hopefully, I’m now offcially snapped out of the funk. This week I’m finishing training at work and will hopefully be moving on to photographing actual children soon. Next Sunday, I’m meeting Jillian in New York to see Sleepwalk with Me (more on that soon), then a week from Tuesday, I’m heading back to LA for a week!

For now, though, I’m going to go take pictures of snow.