HSH for the Friends of St. Jude Sugar Ball

I've been holding off on this post until it was official. Yesterday it was all confirmed and to say I'm totally elated would be an understatement. I have been given the most amazing opportunity through the Phoenix chapter of the Friends of St. Jude. If you didn't know, St. Jude's Children's Hospital is a pediatric and research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. This hospital is the only pediatric cancer research center where families do not pay for treatment and are not denied treatment because of an inability to pay. That is why fundraising is obviously so important because expenses for St. Jude are through the roof.

There are quite a few Friends of St. Jude chapters across the country where working twenty-somethings hold events and fundraisers to raise money to support St. Jude. The chapter in Phoenix is holding their 2nd Annual Sugar Ball. The Sugar Ball is a fundraising event where about 200 young adults spend the night at a sponsored "ball" after donating their time or money or resources to support St. Jude.

I was approached by one of the event chairwomen to donate cupcakes to the Sugar Ball event!!! She found Home Sweet Home Cupcakes via my Facebook page and emailed me with information about this incredible opportunity to not only gain exposure, but to help one of the most amazing causes. I can't even express in words how I feel about being able to do this. The event is on April 16th in a wonderful new bistro in Tempe. She has given me complete creative license over what mini cupcakes to make and how to decorate my table at the event. I will get the exposure not only through being there, but through their social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. This is definitely the first step in getting where I'd like to with HSH Cupcakes.

I've been bursting at the seams to share the news with the world. I'm glad I'm finally getting this post up, so I can no longer keep it a secret and I can share all my preparations with my readers!! Have a wonderful Wednesday, loves.
  

Life and Whoopie Pies.

I'm loaded up on caffeine and ready for a long night ahead of me. Tomorrow is my first exam and I'm more than a little bit freaking out! I've been making flashcards since last week. (I'm up to 40 for one class and I've been in school for a week!!) I figured I'd do a quicky post because I'm taking another break from the craziness of French knife cuts and kitchen organization.

Today, I went job hunting. It's seriously one of my least favorite things to do, ever. I headed to the mall and applied at two cupcake bakeries and was intent on also applying at American Eagle and Victoria's Secret, but ended up making purchases from both and never asked if they were hiring. ...Maybe that's why I'm broke. Ha. I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed for now!

Life's been good otherwise. I'm still riding the single train. It's surely a different one for me. I'm very used to having a serious long term boyfriend. There haven't been many months since Freshman year of high school that I can recall being single. Everyone is trying to encourage me that the single life is fun and there's nothing better than being independent, but I have to say it's not easy for me and so far, not very fun. I currently have my eye on someone special, but we'll see if history continues to repeat itself for me. (FINGERS & TOES CROSSED IT DOESN'T)

In the past week, I've done more cooking/cutting than baking, so I've definitely been suffering from withdrawals. I've whipped up two special desserts in the past weekend to feed my baking appetite. I'm only going to share one because I'm kind of selfish about my favorite desserts. ;) I was inspired by a new baking book that I got called, Whoopie Pies, and they're kind of insanely adorable. They will definitely be an addition to my bakery menu one day!! These ones I made were from Gourmet.com and they were HUMONGOUS.  If you're about to say pics or it didn't happen:

Yeah, they're massive. I think from the above recipe, I got like 6 HUGE Whoopies. I'd say spoon LESS than 1/4 cup of batter because I spooned about 1/4 give or take and they were just too big to be honest. I also used regular Cocoa Powder because I couldn't find Dutch Process anywhere. There's also a recipe for marshmallow type filling, I didn't use it. I used Martha's handy dandy Cream Cheese Icing recipe, a real crowd pleaser. :) Also, don't forget the egg. (Confession: I did...)

I hope you enjoy these as much as me and my fambam and friendsies did! And I'll leave you with a lovely picture of me without makeup studying with my baby boo sleeping on my bed. Goodnight dolls.

Baby cupcakes on top of big ones!

I got to fill a birthday cupcake order this week for a dozen Red Velvet's with my World Famous Cream Cheese icing. I saw a very cute picture online of some cupcakes and decided to implement it into this order! I'm really excited about how they turned out actually!

Okay :) on to the 20 day challenge for today, while I'm watching Season 1 of Greek on Neflix!

Day 7: Favorite Boy Name

Liam. I love the name Liam. It was the top of my future baby names list on my phone. The name means Strong Willed Warrior in Irish. 

(weheartit.com)

Aw cute little boys with stick on mustaches! How freaking adorable. :) I better get back to work and finishing my school paperwork. Fingers crossed for my final meeting today or tomorrow! Yay!
Have a good Thursday, lovelies.

Playing catch up!

Hello loves. I've been absent for a few days and I am very sorry. My life has been consumed with prepping for school in 19 days. WOW. It's all coming fast and it's becoming a little overwhelming, but I'm excited to say the least! This post will be nothing more than playing catch up with the challenge! I'm writing two guest posts for February for two blogs that I happen to adore and I'm also filling some cupcake orders. It's all positive stuff that will only benefit me in the long run! Well here we go!

Day 2: Write about your closest friends.

I wrote about Alyssa in the previous post, so we'll skip her because she's obvs one of my best friends. 

Next we'll move on to Nicole. She is my oldest cousin and I recently had the pleasure of being in her wedding. She helps me sort out drama and problems I'm having like the big sister I've never had. We've gotten so close since this past summer and it's been fabulous to share my love of baking and Glee with her!

Trey, where to begin? I have no idea. He's my rock. We're almost complete opposites besides our love of watching TV online and McDonald's (and amazing country music!!). He's the funniest person I know & always knows how to make me smile. It's been rough having him 2000 miles away in Ohio, but we're managing. He's a huge part of my family, my life, & me. I am always thankful that my car's unreliable battery died that day in the Hamilton parking lot and you were there to jump it. I love you!

I met Kiara on Facebook, okay not officially, but I stalked her through the ASU Facebook App before freshman year started. We were in the same cluster (Music in Motion aka the deadly mix of physics & music)! We instantly clicked. I knew even before we really started talking that she was the most like me and we'd get along so well. I was right. She's totally crazy and just gets me even when I just call her to vent about mistakes and stupidity and my creeping. She's like my mom's other daughter (in addition to Alyssa).  Meeting her was my downfall at ASU and also the only reason I survived. <3

I've known Courtney officially for all of about 3 months, literally. We were by fate placed in charge of the same squad at 8C Humanities Camp. I felt like I had known her forever and in a way it was much longer. Her and I had read each other's blogs a few years ago through mutual friends, but had never met. She's my other half. She knows EXACTLY what to say or how I feel or what I'm going through. Meeting her has been such a blessing through the rough moments of the past few months. :) She's so amazing, seriously. Definitely one of the most understanding and wonderful people I've ever met.

And last but certainly not least, Dana. She's the thing 1 to my thing 2! Her mom and my mom were close friends in high school, they lived across the street from each other. They were in each other's weddings and had babies within 7 months of each other. We were destined to be best friends before we were born. We did dance class, played together, grew up together, then I moved away. Later on, we realized we were practically the same person and the same with our brothers (also very close in age). I'd kill to have her here with me because she just understands and we don't have to talk to know what the other is thinking. I miss her oodles all the way in Philly.

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Day 3: Your Dream.

This is a pretty easy one especially considering I talk about it on a daily basis with Alyssa or Trey. But I want have a world cupcake empire, seriously. That's exactly how I describe it (and that's what I said to my admission's counselor at Le Cordon Bleu when she asked this question). I want to own so many cupcake bakeries all over the world with my recipes and all my ideas of brown and hot pink old fashioned cozy places for coffee and cupcakes. I also want desperately to be a wife to my soul mate and a mother to a few wonderful children. I want to be hopefully living in Tennessee on a big ranch with grass and a porch and horses.

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Day 4: Someone you wish could forgive you/you could forgive.

I wish Trey would forgive me for my mistakes, my faults, and my part in everything that brought us to this point. I would probably give the world for that; to have everything back. I wish I could forgive myself for all of the above. It hurts so badly, but I can't let go because I know it is all my doing and I can't fix it.

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Day 5: The last person you made a pinky promise to and why.

 This one is funny. Okay, so Alyssa, Charles (my brother), and I are obsessed with the trashy E show, Bridalplasty, and I bet him that mine and twin's favorite girl on the show, the scheming, conniving, intelligent Jenessa is going to win next week on the finale. So to solidify our bet, we pinky swore. (Btw I will be $30 richer after next Sunday at 10 pm)

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Day 6: Your Zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality.

I am a Gemini and traditionally Gemini's are talkative, witty, contradictory, intellectual, and charming. I would say 100% I am definitely a Gemini. It fits me pretty closely. I also share this lovely sign with Twin (ironic for Gemini's) and my dad. We're all very much alike.

  

For the record, I will never fall this far behind again. This catching up was stressful haha. Okay, not as stressful as making sure I will be starting school on time. But I'm glad all of you are getting a better picture of me. It's fun. :) Have a good Wednesday, lovelies.

Baking on a Budget!

I know I haven't posted any recipes lately, but I have definitely still been baking. Trust me, my dishwasher is proof. If you're like me and you're on a budget, baking can get pricey fast! I'm gonna share with you some homemade knowledge that I've been forced to stumble upon, on my own baking adventures. I've probably spent way more money than necessary on ingredients I already had, "the top of the line sugar," and disgusting organic flours that have no place in cupcakes.

1. Don't be afraid of store brand products: milk, butter, cream cheese, etc. I actually am more likely to buy the cheaper "bargain" products at Walmart even when I can afford to splurge. I don't think there is anything wrong with them, even if it is "suggested" that you use top quality products.
2. BUY IN BULK! Oh my gosh, I don't think I can emphasize enough. I bake A LOT, so spending the money on a 25 LB bag of APF (All Purpose Flour) or a pint of Pure Vanilla Extract is so worth it because it lasts forever. I only buy in bulk, the things that do not go bad quickly and that I use in almost every recipe like Sugar, Vanilla, Flour, Baking Powder, etc. 
3. Keep your materials organized. I'm a messy baker. My supplies were scattered throughout my pantry, fridge, counters, cabinets, all over the place really. This made it easy to forget what I had enough of or was running out of. I frequently was coming home from the store with excess of stuff I had and forgetting what I actually needed. (EGGS & BUTTER!!!!) I got my stuff organized in bins on my counter next to my mixer with a list of things I'm running low on, so then you're not spending money unnecessarily!
4. Plan your recipes! Okay, so maybe I should be taking my own advice especially on this one. But here it goes anyway. Take time to make a list of the recipes you'd like to make, print out/make a copy of each recipe and highlight the ingredients you need. If it at all possible choose recipes where "special/different" ingredients overlap like kinds of fruit. That will keep you from making rush shopping trips when you're "in the mood" to bake where you're likely to overspend on ingredients that you'll never use again. (Safflower Oil...) 
5. Try it before you buy it.  No, I don't mean sample the ingredients in the store. I mean make half batches of recipes with expensive ingredients instead of splurging on a huge bottle or bag of something you end up not using or liking. I did this at the beginning with organic ingredients for vegan or g-free (gluten free) cupcakes! I have about 10 types of organic flour in ziploc bags in my pantry and I had 6 different kinds of milk in my fridge! One bag of specialty flour was $15 and it made my cupcakes taste grainy...never again! Just don't commit to expensive things when you know your money is better spent elsewhere on necessary materials like butter and sugar!

The ridiculous amount of natural flours in ziploc bags!!!!

I'll also be finishing each post with a 20 Day Challenge question or statement. Thank you to the wonderful Malori of Sunday Morning Sugar for supplying me with the questions. :) (She's AWESOME! Check her out.) I was gonna wait till the 1st Day of February, but I got excited and needed the motivation to blog everyday!

Day 1: Facebook Profile Picture

If you've read this blog enough, you know this girl, the more ghostly one next to me of course. ;) She's my cousin, Alyssa, but better known as Twin. Literally, when we're out anywhere, I call her twin, never Alyssa. This picture is from Sunday on the drive to church together. Ever since she got half days this semester, she's been practically living at my house. I love it. (Shout out to my twin, who has been working today, I miss you bia!)

Comment below if you have any other baking budget tips or any specific baking questions! I'd love to do an all baking questions post sometime soon.

The Three B's

I'm so incredibly in love with my new layout. I love the tweaks and the changes. It also makes me even more excited for the rest of the things I am planning on doing to my blog and the things that will happen spontaneously. I'm working on the navigation bar above and on my blog buttons as we speak. But I love my about me, the picture label links on the left and the new favorite blogs on the right.

I've finally decided on the direction for HSH Cupcakes and I'm actually ecstatic about it. If you haven't wandered over to my tumblr, then this will all be a surprise to you. There are three things that I feel like I talk about a lot on my tumblr that I'd love to focus on more here: baking, beauty, and books!

Baking: I will be posting more recipes obviously, mostly of delicious desserts. Starting in February, when I start at Le Cordon Bleu, I'll be writing a lot about what I'm learning and my experiences in a new little segment currently untitled. I'm excited to further share my main passion with my readers!
Beauty: I love love love makeup and hair and face products. I don't talk about them a lot, but when I do, it's because I love it enough to share it! I'll be talking about new favorites, old favorites, waste of money products, and things I'm excited to try. I think fashion and clothing will weasel their way into this category as well. :)
Books: I read a lot, everyday. I probably finish about 3 books a month and I find a lot of them that I want to share with people and this is the perfect outlet. I'll also share those on my wishlist and ones I'm currently reading and of course take suggestions!

Tomorrow will be your first beauty post! It's going to be a 2010 Favorites. Look out for that and much more!!

Hello again.

I have not abandoned the blog world. I've actually been working pretty hard behind the scenes on it and it's just been rough to get through with the rest of my life being so chaotic. It's not quite finished yet as you can see, but it's coming along just fine. If you haven't noticed, look above in the URL box, I am no longer Black and Bows. I've decided to convert everything to the name I'm truly in love with: Home Sweet Home Cupcakes. This is also the name of my Cupcake business that has become a huge part of my life in the past five months. It only seems fitting to smush the name and this blog of my life together into one place. I'm gonna share with you some things to look forward to for the rest of December and 2011 for this blog and my life.

December - 

• Finishing the temporary layout! (Temporary until I get money of course.)
• Getting my blog signature and header finalized!
• Adding my buttons to the sidebar!
• Obviously updating on my life right now. 
• Doing an "oh so popular in the blog world right now" blog survey!
• More recipes!!

January & beyond -

• Finding blogs to sponsor! 
• Starting school!
• Implementing the results from the blog survey!
• Eventually adding a place to order cupcakes online!
• Adding the ability to ship cupcakes around the U.S. !!!! :)

All of this that I'm listing is so so freaking exciting for me. I've definitely been waiting to make a change and HSH Cupcakes will be the very first place you'll see that. I'm so very sorry it's been so long since I did a real post, so that will be coming very very soon. Hang in there and keep reading. :) By the way, you can still get here by typing blackandbows.blogspot.com if you are resisting change or if you forget. Thank you to all of you loyal readers, your comments and support and readership is not going unnoticed, I promise.

Lots of love!
- D

BIG changes.

A lot of people can't always say that they have a family that they can fully rely and depend on. I've always been able to say that. I think that love seriously rubs off and people can see it. Tonight I won't say I snapped because that's a negative thing. I've ...come to a realization. I would like to move Home Sweet Home Cupcakes into a bigger and BETTER direction. Another thing that's been instilled in me by my family, specifically my dad is dreaming big and making it happen without taking no for an answer. It's been frustrating to say the least that HSH didn't take off like I hoped and planned on it doing. And that's okay. It really is. I'm 19. It also doesn't make my goals and plans any smaller. I think it's made me want them to be larger than life.
I have this wonderful support system who wants the very same from me. Big things. They never expect anything less and it puts pressure on me, but nothing I don't want or need. Tonight has been a big brainstorming night after creating something SO wonderful last night, by accident? Ha. I guess that's how a lot of the best things happen. I'm thinking about changing the brand completely, the name, logo, pictures, and getting a real website. I need a change. I need a change for me to grow and expand and this is it. 
I thought I'd share this with you guys first. A real post will be up tomorrow afternoon, a gift post. :) If you have any ideas for cute names or any of that, please tweet me @daniellefaz !!!! It'd be greatly appreciated and CREDITED of course.  Lots of love kids!!

Chai Tea Cupcakes.

I've been in a weird mood lately, but I'm finding anything new and exciting has been just what the doctor ordered in more than one area of my life. I've had this recipe in my pocket for awhile, waiting for the perfect time to make them. After a really long day at the main office front desk today, I traded my black lace dress and pink tights for green sweats and headed to the kitchen. I typically don't drink tea at all, but these Chai Tea scrumptious cupcakes made me fall head over heels.

Chai Tea Cupcakes (makes 2 dozen)

Ingredients

• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Black Tea - 2 tea bags
• All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
• Cake Flour - 1 cup (sifted)
• Baking Powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons
• Course Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• Ground Pepper - 1/4 teaspoon
• Cinnamon - 1/4 teaspoon
• Ginger - 1/4 teaspoon
• Ground Cardamom - 1/4 teaspoon 
• Ground Gloves - Pinch
• Ground Nutmeg - Pinch
• Unsalted Butter - 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons)
• Dark Brown (I used golden brown) Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Eggs - 2

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini (or regular) muffin tins with liners.
2. Bring milk to a simmer over medium heat on stove. Remove from heat and add tea bags and cover for 15 minutes. Remove tea bags and squeeze the bags on top and throw out and allow milk/tea to cool completely.
3. Whisk together both flours, baking powder, salt, pepper, and spices.
4. With electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until incorporated. Reduce speed to low.
5. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two batches of tea-infused milk, and beating until just combined after each.
6. Divide batter evenly and fill each 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes (regular sized) and 10-12 minutes (mini's) or until tops spring back when pressed. Frost as necessary. :)

Condensed Milk Icing 

• Unsalted Butter - 1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons)
• Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons
• Course Salt - Pinch
• Confectioner's Sugar - 3/4 cup

1. With an electric mixer on medium, whisk together butter, condensed milk, and salt until smooth. Whisk in confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, until combined, then whisk on high speed until thick and smooth. Use immediately by dipping each cupcake and turning over quickly.

I didn't use the condensed milk icing. I just used my signature cream cheese icing. I also didn't use the oven, I used my brand new:

Original Cupcake Baker!!! ($24.99)

I love it. It only bakes 7 mini's at a time, but they took 5 minutes each batch and they were perfectly moist and golden brown. I highly recommend it, if you are thinking about getting this one or a cupcake baker that is similar. Here's your wonderful recipe for today. I'll also show you a few pictures from Halloweekend! I was a pirate on Friday and a cupcake on Sunday. (Both DIY costumes!) :) I enjoyed every minute of the weekend. It was welcome change. I hope everyone else had fun weekends and enjoy their weeks. 

KK was a baker :) and I was a cupcake.

Cookies & Cream Mini Cheesecakes

These are so wonderful and oh so simple. I'm a cupcake girl, but being able to use a muffin tin and cupcake liners made me believe that I could do this. And I did, they were a crowd pleaser at baby shower and for Trey and the fam. (The plate is missing half of them haha).  P.S. you'll frequently see my interjections, which will be helpful with some of the steps.

Cookies & Cream Mini Cheesecakes (makes 30)

via: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

You will need:

• 42 Oreos; 30 whole & 12 chopped. (one package will do because you'll have left over to munch on later)
• 2 lbs of cream cheese at room temperature.
• 1 cup of sugar.
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.
• 4 large eggs lightly beaten at room temperature.
• 1 cup of sour cream.
• Pinch of salt.

The steps:

1. Preheat your oven at 275 degrees. Use cupcake liners and line standard muffin (cupcake) pans. Place one whole Oreo at the bottom of each lined cup.
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed (or a very strong arm), beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  -This is where it is key to have it softened at room temperature because cream cheese is very difficult to work with when hard.- 
3. Gradually add the sugar and beat until combined; then beat in the vanilla.
4. Drizzle in the beaten eggs, a bit at a time. Beat to combine and scrape down the sides as needed. Beat in the sour cream and salt.
5. Crush and chop the 12 Oreos and then put them in the batter. Hand mix these in to ensure they are distributed well and not crushed further.
6. Divide batter among Oreo-filled cups; filling each almost to the top. -I always use an ice cream scooper to ensure an even amount in each. I use the one with the metal clamp that moves the ice cream out when you click it- 
7. Bake for 22 minutes or until filling is set, remember to rotate the pans after 11 minutes for an even setting. Once you remove from oven, place tins on wire racks or your stove to cool completely. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (up to over night). - The recipe states that you should keep them in the tins in the fridge, I needed my tins and you might too, so I just carefully removed each one and placed them on the plates. They are quite delicate though, so be careful.-

Let me know how they go for you guys, I'm sure you'll love them as much as I do! Have a great Friday!

Danielle Cuppycakes

Hello strangers. I've entered the Youtube world with a new channel devoted to me v-logging and reviewing and pretty much everything I do on here, but with my face and voice. Here is my first introduction video with 20 things about me, most of which you already know. But hey, who cares, I will be posting there frequently and hope to blog today because I've been missing Black and Bows quite badly, so check back for a post later!

Keep following, subscribing, commenting, whatever, let me know you're out there, kids. Have a good Thursday!!

Raves for the week.

I've been having a blast planning my costume for Halloween. I'm going to a pirate party the weekend of, so I decided hey, what the heck let's go as pirates considering Trey already has my banana costume for Halloween day. I've found how easy it is to piece items together especially with the current trends. Stripes are SO in, so everything I'm looking at can and definitely will be used after my pirate costume. Below I've made a quick Polyvore set, but unfortunately none of those items will be appearing. Oh money, why do I not have thee? Oh well, I will find many cute pieces to mix and match to make a perfectly homemade costume!

Pirate by Danielle Fazio featuring a wrap around skirt

I've also been loving watching Top Chef: Just Desserts on Bravo, reading fashion magazines again, and loving new music. So I figured hey, I'll share with my favesies on blogger. :)

Top Chef was never something I was quite interested in, but when I saw it was focused on desserts and pastry chefs, I knew giving it a watch would be worth my time. It makes me SO excited. I love watching their technique, presentation, and hearing their thought process. It's so fabulous. It's something I've fallen in love with and seemingly the whole process of Le Cordon Bleu has been quite simple as I've already been accepted into their February program. So fantastic. I've also started to really see how far I've come in baking.

Today I ate my first full cupcake in three months and no, it was not my own creation. I decided to check out this new little bakery/cupcake shop in a mall close to my house because my aunt is friends with the owner (she's doing my cousin's wedding cake in December) and I could possibly be looking for a small bakery job to start learning the in's and out's in a real bakery setting. Well, the cupcakes were the large size and looked positively scrumptious from top to bottom, all $3.75 of each one. (Yes, $3.75!) Mom got a celebration (something like a funfetti), red velvet, and a chocolate with vanilla icing. All fell short of everything I expected. But it was cool to see that when asked what kind of frosting was used, the workers couldn't even answer and I knew just by the texture of the piping that it was surely buttercream. Yeah, I'm now a cupcake freak. I get it :).

This magazine was begging to be purchased with Lea Michele on the cover and quickly became my September fave! I found the cutest and QUICKEST hair tutorial inside about Bedhead updos. Using your natural hair, a comb, hairspray, and bobby pins, the cutest little hairdo is possible. My hair is thick and sometimes unruly, but fared so well with this look. It took literally five minutes and it stayed all day with minimal spraying. I've probably done it about three times this week when I've had no time to straighten it and it's great!

I also splurged on two awesome cd's that I love in the car. Selena Gomez: A Year Without Rain and Katy Perry: Teenage Dream. Of course, I don't love all the tracks, but a good majority are great to blast with the windows down and the fall breeze blowing through your messy morning hair. 

This post was all over the place, but hey it's all me right? It's everything I have to rave about this week and that's really cool even at 1 am when I can barely function. Good night kids. Happy 10/10/10!!

Sifting through my passions.

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog or my previous one enough knows the constant struggle of my stubbornness and indecisiveness, two things that on their own are dangerous, but pair them together and it's pure chaos. Well, that is my life. For all of you new readers, first off THANK YOU SO MUCH and second of all I'll give you as a brief a background as I can into my journey for the past year.

I was accepted into Northern Arizona University (my first choice university) and to Arizona State University. A month before I graduated high school, my mom offered me a dog to bribe me to live at home and take my full ride scholarship at ASU. I accepted and started Fall 2009 as an Elementary Education major in Tempe, met a lot of people, rushed a sorority, and everything was fine and dandy. When I went back to ASU after Winter Break, I totally lost all motivation. I didn't want to be at ASU, I hated my education classes, and I just didn't want to live at home and drive to school anymore. In March, I decided I wanted to be a fashion design major at Mesa Community College in the Fall, but decided to get my real estate license until then. I got my real estate license and then realized I didn't really want to be in Fashion Design anymore. In the summer, I took English classes to become an English major back at ASU in the fall and I also decided I didn't want that either. Two days before ASU was to resume I got an offer to coach badminton at my old high school and took it and took this semester off to clear my head and figure it all out.

Sometime between being an English major and now, I took up baking: cupcakes in particular, something this blog knows very well. I fell in love, head over heels for cupcakes and for baking. I wanted to leave Arizona, but it has slowly proven to be a feat more difficult than expected. Saturday night, on a whim, I applied to Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School's Pâtisserie and Baking Arts 84 week program. It all made sense, I've dreamed of owning a chain of wonderfully chic bakeries and the first step beyond what I've already done is going to culinary school and I think I'm gonna do it. It is still fairly close to home, Scottsdale, but still new people and bright new atmosphere. I hope to start in January or February because being out of school is really killing me. I'm bored and it's just not fun. I'm excited for this new adventure and I'm really glad I waited to post this blog because I've changed my mind so often, that I wanted to be sure and I am, I really really am.

If you've sat and read this whole thing, award yourself with a pat on the back. And once again thank you to all my newest readers and commenters. I love each one of you and I get so FREAKIN' excited when I get a new follower or comment! So keep 'em coming and remember at 25 followers, I'll be having a kickass multipart giveaway, so if you want that and you're a reader, please follow :)! I'm going to spend the rest of my night watching GG & a movie with the fam.

Ps. All pictures borrowed from weheartit.com.
Pps. My boy gives the bestest hugs ever, seriously, his nickname isn't Bear for nothing. ;)