It had to happen. The really belated Valentine's Day post. This is mostly because I had an odd Valentine's Day (for me at least) this year. It started with a fight, extremely sour moods, and then an extreme desire to make cupcakes. For the past forever I never celebrated Valentine's Day. Mostly because after being in grade school you no longer get free chocolate or candies and therefore, spending it alone this year should have been no different right? Well, as said above..it had a terrible start. SO! Instead of being sour I turned all my frustration in a cupcake making storm. ...Okay maybe not a storm, but nevertheless, I went out in the afternoon, got my ingredients and set up everything in my kitchen.

I am not very original. Not when I'm pissed and just want to quench my cupcake fix. I just used the magic of Google and entered whatever site came first for Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting. I also dragged my pet turtle Mertle into my cupcake business. No, I didn't bake her into a cupcake. She just kept me company nearby.

CUPCAKES ONWARD!!

I have already mixed the the dry ingredients at this point. Not much of a mess made, but here is a picture showing the cupcake tray I used. Yes, that is a very old style sifter at the bottom left that I attempted to use but instead resulted in a strainer. Because strainers are awesome.

Here is the lovely pair of dry ingredients and the nice fatty pile of cream ingredients on the right. I don't have remotely professional looking baking supplies.

EGGS! After five of them. That's a lot of eggs.

TURTLE BREAK!! She's trying to climb out. But she can't. Aww. And for those wondering if I'm a retarded turtle owner, that's her feeding bucket, not her actual tank. I fed her (you can also see bits of lettuce she refused to eat because she is a fatty).

FOOD DYE TIME!!! Looks like I just killed someone. I love that.

 

The recipe says one teaspoon of red food dye. I put in one and a half teaspoons of red food dye and it still didn't seem red enough.

Okay! Ready to put the batter in! The little cupcake wraps are so cute. <3

 

I don't have pictures for putting the cupcakes in but after my first batch of twenty four little cupcakes were put in I worked on the frosting This part was so much easier and the results are so nice.

 

First Batch done. They aren't all even but they are all so cute and tiny. :3

CUPCAKE TOWER!!!

And finally, the batter was much more than I thought it would be. Simple math does not always come easy.
In the end I made 102 cupcakes. 96 small ones and 6 normal sized ones. Several got eaten in the middle of the process when I was "testing" them.

Anyhow! Here's the glory run off cupcakes I made! I am not a baker. I do not usually have successful baking projects even though I adore sweets to death. Most the time something goes completely wrong because I forget an ingredient, order of ingredients, or the correct measurements. Despite my history of screw ups I persevere. And I don't think these cupcakes turned out half bad.

Just a warning. The recipe was made for normal sized cupcakes but I was using a smaller size cupcake pan, because I just prefer tiny cupcakes. Therefore, the timing in the oven has to be cut in half. My first batch was 20 minutes. I tried them and realized they were to dry, because they were a smaller size. The second batch was 15 minutes. Softer, but not enough. I settled on 11 minutes for my third and fourth batch. They came out wonderfully.

I also happened to have burned my fingers when taking out the pan of regular sized cupcakes from the oven. I didn't want to drop them on the floor so I held on to it longer than I should have  giving it enough time to be settled on the floor at a small distance than if I was standing. So, I got lovely burns on three of my fingers. DO NOT RUN IT UNDER COLD WATER. That burns. Like an ax to your face. But not really. I put ice on to numb it enough so I could put frosting on the cupcakes (YES my priorities were the cupcakes not my fingers). After which I proceeded to put on everything cool in the house on my fingers. Aloe Vera gel. Aloe Vera lotion. More ice. Aloe Vera leaves ( a lot harder to apply than it seems). I am pretty good at tolerating pain though. So by the next day it was barely anything to worry about. It just looked and felt funny.

Anyway I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day.
Love, live long, and prosper!! <3 <3

This past Wednesday I attended the emergency NYTech meet up protesting the passing of SOPA and PIPA with my fellow interns at Campus Clipper. If you don't know what SOPA/PIPA is (which you should if you know how to visit blogs) you can check here -->  MORE ABOUT SOPA AND PIPA

 We arrive at the site location about half an hour early so we decided to wait around until the event was actually going to start. We managed to sneak into the front before the cops noticed and closed the gate behind us, but BAM right behind the cameras, closest areas to the speakers and a crowd of SOPA/PIPA protestors behind us.

The protest was exactly as it should have been. Clear. Concise. Controlled. Informative. And most importantly Inspirational. Many people know about SOPA and PIPA but not exactly how it affects everyone. One of the problems noted by the speakers was that the senators that support this bill do not understand the internet and therefore do not understand WHY this affects us as much as it does.

This bill will kill the internet. The last free resource we have. The last form of communication that allows us to change, develop, and create as we will.

While many people will look at this and all the other "STOP SOPA STOP PIPA" protests and go "Yeah, this bill is bad. Someone should stop it", you have to realize that this affects EVERYONE.

The people who go on Youtube to watch videos either for music, updates, cat videos, etc.
Business who are starting up through only a website and depend on it.
Wikipedia. We don't want this to happen...

This also hurts the new artists coming into the field as well. I know people who are just graduating or in graduate school who do comic, graphic novel, and illustration work. This field requires a lot of self-promotion to get your name out there. Many times as an artist you have to hit another fanbase, such as a television show or anime, so that you can gain fans through those fanbases and once they know and love your work you can produce and promote your original pieces. This process, which is important to these new artists, will be slaughtered with this bill.

All in all. What did I learned from going to this meeting? We think we have no voice as regular people, but in reality we do. We can sign this petition and make a difference. Our future, the future generation, depends on this bill NOT passing.

So...SIGN THE PETITION!! It isn't hard. Just Click below:
 ------>   CLICK HERE TO HELP STOP SOPA /PIPA <---------------------

Lingerie. Who doesn’t want to occasionally prance around in lace panties? This past weekend I went shopping with a friend of mine. For me it was more of selective window shopping/watching her pick through the undergarments section of our nearby department store for new panties. As I traveled through this sea of colors and lace there are some thoughts that come to mind. Who am I even wearing this for? Can I even afford this? I forgot what size I am and its too late to do a google search on “how to find out your real bra size” with measuring tape within grabbing distance. The thing is though, all those questions could be answered quite simply.

First of all, wear lingerie for yourself. Don’t live to please others. For the longest time I would shy away from these places, despite my love for all intricate designs that lingerie offered, for the mere reason that I thought lingerie was meant to be shown off to someone. Then a girl friend of mine enlightened me with the idea that maybe, just maybe, I wear the lingerie for myself. While wearing lingerie just to make yourself feel good seems selfish it really is no different from buying coffee from Starbucks or clothes from Hollister.

Lingerie is pricey depending on where you buy it. Like shopping for any other clothes you just have to be smart about it. It is a vanity item so I personally choose to buy fewer and better quality.

As for finding out your size, I used to do trial and error until one seemed to fit me the best based on a loose assumption based on measuring tape. However, there are something called bra fitters at lingerie stores who can help you find out your real size. So for all those who enjoy and adore the lace, the ribbon, the cute and sometimes uneccessary designs, I wish you luck, love, and all the good things that life has to offer.

For those who are interested here is a coupon below for the fabulous lingerie store La Petite Coquette:
http://campusclipper.com/new/popup1.php?CUP_COD=2386

Hello everyone!

I decided to create this blog after months of indecision until finally I decided that it would encompass all that interests me, the sweet little things that come to you in life. So here you'll find lots of sweet things: art, food, clothes, makeup, events, people, places, turtles (I absolutely adore turtles), and more. Maybe I'll put some of my own work up as well.

 Yes, I know first posts are awkward, but I do hope you enjoy and come back to visit.

Life is beautiful :)