May Update- Countdown til Vacation

8 days left!

although i am in the middle of a 6-day vacation from work as it is. i had a couple extra days, so i am making an extended weekend out of them.

it's been a while!

been working a lot, for the most part, got an upgraded phone, which is part of the reason i haven't made it on here- had to re-set up my authenticator app- and just getting ready for vacation stuff. i am playing the waiting game at this point, and by waiting i mean making sure i have everything i can do done before we leave, since i have one more 5 day stretch before it's here.

got a little pre-beach feel when we went to new jersey to visit broad street dough co- aka we drove 5 hours for donuts. super awesome, by the way. they were only a couple miles from asbury park, so we hit up the boardwalk for lunch and such. it was pretty nice, and we lucked out with a 70-ish degree day (while it rained all day at home). there is about to be a tea lounge here, too, which will be another day trip- it is a CAT tea lounge! like those crazy japanese places you pet cats and drink tea? yep. so donuts and tea for another day. imma have to rent a damn bus to fit all of us next time though. we rented a car and 5 of us went down for the day.

i haven't really had much time for baking, which kind of sucks. i mean, immediately after we got back i had a cake to make, which was awesome on it's own, because FINAL FANTASY 7 AND CHOCOBO!!

i still can't get over my goddamn chocobo. i love them so much. but in my defense, i am a crazy bird lady so it's only natural. i wish i was able to spend just a little more time on him, but thats what i get for agreeing to stuff and then forgetting. i legitimately forgot until the day before we left for jersey, so i had to speed bake, i made chocobo in the car on the way down (sculpted him, baked him the next morning and painted him at work), and finished the cake at work. i am a mess.

on my first day off wednesday, i made some more zuppa toscana and some baked donuts, which were delicious, but not the prettiest things ever, so no pictures. i am going to try to do a cake either today or tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. it has been so rainy and cold. it is may, right?

 a couple weekends ago, i brought this idiot to work with me. dad was being mean to him the night before (aka sprayed him and covered him up super early), so i stuffed him in my coat and brought him to work for the day. i abducted him from his home immediately upon waking him, lol. he whistled and barked at the cars and rain, and then just sat on my shoulder pretty much all day. i was very surprised he did just that, seeing as lots of people usually makes him upset and he chomps my neck or whatever he can reach.

just this past sunday, i brought nubs with me to work. he was kind of the opposite, and preferred to be away from everyone and the excitement. he stayed in the back room for the most part, i hadn't thought about it until i left, but he hasn't really been for any car rides or out of the house, so this was completely new for him. i'll probably bring him out again somewhere else, but in the mean time, he is just being a poop. i haven't been home much lately, so this was kind of fun to bring them and have their company for the morning. not to mention being home the last few days, punk ass hasn't left my shoulder if he could help it. i fell asleep with him earlier and his little feeties imprinted into my arm! ☺♥ ohhh i love them.

in other news, i finally installed my short shifter i got for christmas! it didn't really take too long, i got to pull out half of my center console and use a dremel. it took me about 2 hours, but that is in part because i struggled with this little washer that the directions said you could remove with a screwdriver, my neighbor found me and i asked if he had a dremel, went to hardware store with car in disarray and bought the bits, and dremelled the shit out of the washer. yay!

i went to do my brakes on wednesday and THAT turned into another adventure, since a couple bolts were rusted on and i couldn't remove them. ended up having to wait for ron to get home to help, broke these little rubber boots for the pins that go into the caliper, and went to get more of them. i am nervous to do the rear brakes, because the way my luck has been, something is either gonna break, or my car is gonna fall on me. i mandolined my thumb on wednesday also making that soup....stupid thing is still cracking open and bleeding occasionally. wednesday was not a good day lol. i still have 3 more days to make up for things. rear brakes, oil change, and a couple other loose ends and i should be good.

anyway, since i don't have any treats today, i guess i will leave it at my adventures here, and see about getting stuff done with the rest of my free time. have a good weekend, all, thanks for reading!

April Showers Bring, Like, Treats and Stuff

 i didnt actually make too many things this month. i made another carrot cake cheesecake, and some strawberry oatmeal muffins (no pictures because they did not turn out the fanciest). i got mad at ron yesterday because he got halfmoons from holland farms (this awesome place in utica) cuz he was at his dads, so we went on a late night (well, like 9:30) adventure to wegmans to GET some halfmoons. they were satisfactory. wegmans is awesome, but specialty cookies....halfmoons specifically...what will i ever do when i leave the state? pretty much nowhere else believes in a proper halfmoon cookie OR tomato pie for that matter. its like a utica thing.

i will just have to make my own and cry about it, i guess.

easter has come and gone, as we speak, we are down to 41 days until our annual north carolina trek. i can't wait for that, either. duck donuts can't get here soon enough. or the beach. or anything down there, really. is it bad when you default to your favorite foods and stuff being a motivational factor to go someplace?

look at that. this beast is a thing of beauty. dat cheesecake layer, tho. the frosting kind of makes it, also, but what cake doesn't that apply to?

it is the same recipe that i used from my previous blog, from shugary sweets. super awesome, considering i got to try it this time! i am glad i spent the time to remake it!

uncle david and grandma giacona- dad's side of the family on easter ♥

in other news, ron and i got to hit up painting with a twist! one of those paint night things, for those unfamiliar. it was pretty fun. they did a star wars night, we loaned them our darth vader costume from work, and they gave us a couple tickets to come to the event! apparently my painting was so cool, they offered me a part time job over there ☺ considering it! i miss painting and doing art in general.

everyones costumes were super great, the whole night was really fun. ron even had "more fun than he thought he would." next time i may consider either a- bringing wine, or b- getting a slushie or beverage while there.

i mentioned it last time, but i finally went through and did it. i had a new friend help me remove the color from my hair, and brought back the rainbow. i really did miss it a lot. the red and orange is like my favorite part. purple is awesome too, but just something about the vibrancy of those warm colors. i will upkeep this for a while.

it is not often you see a rainbow.

work has been pretty uneventful itself as of lately, other than our dr who trivia we had on saturday. i guess there were two other conventions going on which drew away people. i am trying to get access to our store's facebook page so i can freely post more and interact with people, and with any luck, have more cool events.

the only other exciting thing was with starbucks, they had a unicorn frappucino for a limited time, which kristen and i went to three different starbucks to get said frappucino. it was quite magnificent. they also came out with a parrot cake pop, which, bird, i had to buy it.

magical unicorn hair needs a magical unicorn frappucino. and of the few people we had at our event, someone built a fully functioning k-9 unit from the show. he was pretty awesome.

lastly, i will probably be transplanting my garden into a slightly bigger home this week. they are getting quite tall and tangled in their starter pods. the second batch of tomatoes took off pretty well compared to the first, and my cilantro finally decided to grow! it only took like 4 weeks.  i hope transplanting them doesnt kill them, too. they've made it this far. it is so interesting and exciting to watch them every day. the basil is starting to smell like basil, too!

for now, i will call this a post. keep checking instagram, my social media home, as i post there quite often (must not be offended by cursing, because its what i do). i will leave this picture of punk ass here, in his new home, since he loves to steal what little body heat i have and try to burrow in my hair. have a good week! thanks for reading! ☺

March Has Come and Gone Already

yeeeaahhh you know what time it is. march is girl scout season. because they're all over the mall on the weekends, and i bought a case worth of them to stuff away in my freezer. i mean, i think at this point they are officially done selling for the year, but every weekend in march? yep.

i know they don't look that fancy, i need to invest in one of those super big round tips to get that big bubble of frosting on top, but i mean, it's thin mint frosting, so it doesn't have to look pretty when it's tasty af. the pretty part, i will get to another day. i honestly just made these for myself to eat. i had been meaning to do a girl scout cupcake for a while, and what a perfect opportunity to present itself!

the cupcakes are my usual hersheys cupcake, topped with buttercream frosting with crushed thin mints IN the frosting! yes, that's right. probably top 5 frostings i have ever made, and its only because of the addition of the cookies! it's crazy what one little change can do in some cases.

i actually spent a bit of time in the kitchen this month, even though for the last week straight i haven't been home at all. i made these cupcakes, i made some roasted tomato sauce, we had a gathering for st patricks day and had corned beef/cabbage (etc), baklava and a mint chocolate cake, i made more cupcakes.....tacos. because tacos are great.

this recipe came from foodiecrush. it really is a simple sauce, and it's really great! you roast basil, tomatoes and garlic, then blend it all up! add spices if you'd like, or even ground beef, sausage, etc. i haven't added any meat to mine yet, but it is tasty on its own, with a little sprinkle of parmesan.

man, i am trying to be excited over all of this, i really am. i have been sitting by my computer for over an hour. you ever just get overwhelmed by feels and just don't know what to do? i am feeling at a loss, slightly unmotivated, just want to eat a pile of donuts or cake or something (but at the same time no to the sweets?). i will probably go running in a bit, but ehh. seriously, its been a straight week since i have been home for more than 20 minutes, and it's great to not have to do anything, but i have so much on my mind, that it catches up and i can't figure out what to do. a friend is also going through a tough time and i wish i could do something more to help, i feel pretty useless, amongst other things. sigh. anyway....how about some more march stuff?

in case you haven't heard, spring has been kind of the devil  in new york lately. about 2 weeks ago now, it was sunny, happy, 60 degrees, and then it was 20 or lower and dropped 2 feet of snow on us in the course of a four day period. i actually got called out of work because the mall closed down early because it was so bad. i was going a little crazy because this gave me three days off in a row unintentionally (was off monday, called out tuesday, and off on wednesday). i didn't leave the apartment except to shovel my car out, and then ron and i went for a walk....through the 2 feet of snow...which was his idea, for the snow part. i am short, so walking through snow a third of my height proves rather difficult, and was so much effort.

 my baklava came out absolutely magical, on the other hand! it took a long ass time to make, and a lot of butter, but totally worth it. would make again.

acquired this awesome recipe and tutorial from natasha's kitchen! it looks difficult, but seriously it is just timely. you make a honey glaze before baking (it needs time to cool to room temperature), then crush some walnuts and cinnamon together, and layer that with the phyllo and butter. this site tells you just how to layer it and whatnot, so it comes out just right.

i didn't take a picture of my cake because it looked like a melty mess. i mean, it was mostly the filling, i added too much milk and it got runny, but regardless. my thin mint cupcakes looked better.

look at how beautiful this turned out! AND....it was delicious. it was a (somewhat) request for our friend who lives in florida, she was up to visit for the week. apparently baklava is a holiday thing here (which was last time she came up), sooo i made it, and i am totally glad i did.

just at the beginning of this week, i made a birthday cake (a mini one) for a friend, too. she found it on the internets, from shugary sweets, so i set out on an adventure to make this. i put a twist on it though, i mean plain frosting is great, but it's even better when it's unicorn frosting:

ZE MAGICKS

i tagged her (shugary sweets) on instagram, and she even liked and commented my picture! i was not expecting it, so i was pretty excited. to be recognized by the internet famous! next step, get out of this tiny apartment so i can have a proper photo taking kitchen, rather than dragging all my goods out to our only window to get some natural lighting. or photoshop the crap out of everything (which a lot of times i end up too lazy for).

kind of like this one. dat fluorescent lighting tho, making everything cool tones. chocolate cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes though. this was another batch of the hersheys cupcakes with the remainder of the cream cheese frosting from the carrot cake PLUS some cocoa powder. chocolate cream cheese frosting! brought these out for "mom's" birthday (kristen's mom, she passed away 2-1/2 years ago and we have celebrated it every year anyway), and for cards/laundry night. will probably bring the rest to work tomorrow night. i love chocolate as much as the next person, but i wanna experiment with something else. like i bought these two pie crusts- granola pie crusts- and i want to make a coconut cream pie. probably a key lime pie as well, i found this triple layer one on the pinterest i want to try.

on a last note here, i am also attempting a small garden, more specifically a container garden! i hope i can manage to not kill everything, since it seems my black thumb is getting closer to green. my pineapple plant is two years old! i also inherited two other plants from this lady in my apartment complex for helping her move, and surprisingly enough, they haven't died in over a year. haven't killed the second orchid yet. so let's see how this goes!

i have tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, basil, kale and cilantro. so far the bell peppers and cilantro have not sprouted yet, but the pack says they take a little longer to germinate, so i am still hoping.

every time i say i will try to keep up here, it gets to be a longer gap, so for now, here's "til next time!" next up: galaxy hair was great, but not feeling it anymore- probably some more cakes- ze veggies: will they survive?- birbmaster 9000: how to become one of them

visit my instagram @birdladyleesh

thanks for reading, check back, and have a great week! ♥☺

Sweet 16 Cake

hello! i know it's been a while again. seriously haven't had much going on. just been working all the time, as usual, taking care of things at home (like the birbs, i can't remember if i've mentioned it, but poor punk ass is on subcutaneous fluids, which basically means he has to get injections in his legs every few days), and just being lazy in general. even though its only a half an hour later and a slightly longer drive, the new job makes me tired. i don't even do anything all day, except fight people with light sabers and stuff.

anyway, i suppose you don't want to hear about me being tired, so lets get on to this cake, shall we?

i kind of wish i knew more people who would share coconut treats with me that i would actually see every now and then (that darn work thing again). this cake was a vanilla cake with raspberry filling for the bottom tier, (homemade raspberry filling i found on pinterest) and the top was a coconut cake out of my southern cakes book, with toasted coconut between the layers. i rarely get to make any coconut treats, so i was pretty surprised with how well it came out. it called for juice from a coconut, but i didn't have that. i took the milk needed for the recipe and heated it with some coconut flakes over the stove to infuse it! i left the coconut in there and dumped it all in, it worked like a charm!

my bow was a little derpy looking, but it turned out pretty good. this was for my sony rep's daughter, just over the weekend. he told me the entire cake was gone and everyone loved it! i hope there was enough!

i didn't really have a "sweet" 16. it was just me and three of my friends, because for some reason everyone else bailed or was sick (i mean, like 4 other people i invited), and we ate a whole cake between "dinner" and "breakfast." one thing about my parties, however, was that where everyone else got pizza, i made tacos. because who doesn't like tacos? shut up. (i want tacos...)

i had (have? theres still a piping bag in my fridge) some leftover pink frosting, which i made some cream cheese swirl brownies and topped with most of the remainder of the frosting. everybody needs frosting covered brownies. i brought those with me to my friends to do laundry. have i ever mentioned free laundry is always a good day, too?

not much else has been going on, other than ron and i took our "valentines" day on saturday by going to the auto expo and dinosaur bar-b-que. super awesome, by the way. here are a few pictures from the expo, though!

the only time i get to touch the pretty cars....well, not entirely true. somehow or another i've met/known someone who was nice enough to let me drive all of these except the ns-x (and an older version of the corvette) so i can't complain. the new model of the prius is the prime, which i just had a good laugh because i was thinking transformers, and how all the badges should be replaced with the autobots logo. that's just the way it should be.

anyway, i will leave it at that for now, and with this picture of punkass just because i can. have a good week, thanks for reading!

January Treats and More!

hello again all! i suppose this is almost turning into a bi-monthly thing, or something like that. i dont dare say i might have a consistent day off, because if i do, i will probably curse it, just like every other time. as per usual for my posts lately, here is another summary of the last couple weeks.

we start with one of the best things- i made (more) cake! except this time, i made it just for me to eat. because everyone needs a little cake now and then! also, because chocolate....

i feel like ive been needing too much chocolate lately. people get stressed out and drink and spend lots of money, i just gorge myself with chocolate until i cant stand it anymore....which usually takes a while or doesnt happen. i mean, even with this cake. i made this super awesome dark chocolate frosting, courtesy of sally's baking addiction, to try and tame the chocolate beast, but i basically just wanted to eat it with a spoon and call it a day. i put it on top of a devils food cake from my book, all cakes considered, and filled it with a homemade strawberry jam. that little hint of strawberry was a perfect combination with the cake and the frosting. oh, i am sad to see it go (we just finished it with dinner tonight). i suppose i can make it again though. i'll probably make something different to change it up a bit.

it has been a long couple of weeks with work and whatnot. since i have the joy of continuing to work for gameshop, i got to see their continued love for their employees with all the payroll theft to stay under our 10% budget for the fiscal year. what that means is, i get to spend a lot of time alone in a busy mall store, and it sucks. it continuously makes me want to eat chocolate all day. i really hope things will change next month (end of fiscal year).

i got really sick not long after i posted the last post. i actually left work early two days in a row, three times in total since one day i worked doubles and left both jobs early. it was a hard weekend. thankfully i ended up with a sunday off and did nothing for the most of the day. kind of like today. anyhow, one of the days i camped out on my couch, kairi came over to sleep near me. i barely remember him flying over, but i woke up and there he was. they all need to be attached to me. those other two pictures, one was when i woke up in the morning, the sky was really pretty with all the orange and purples, and the second one was kind of an "accident" or coincidence? it is this lamp post outside our window, and ron had lit a candle, when i looked out, the reflection of the candle in the window lined up with the lamp and it looked like the light was in the lamp. i thought it was neat. this coming from the person who cant stop laughing at bird videos.....

....or the fact that i am a living birb meme. because, like i said, they all need me. miraculously, they didnt try to kill each other in this one. kairi is on my knee, satch had a shoulder, i was holding cosmo away, and nubs is at his house. that was not long after i was sick. maybe even one of the nights i came home early. i dont really remember.

i DO know that the weekend after, we had our grand opening weekend, by which time my boss had captured my plague, and was unable to make it through the day, so i got to supervise and make sure everyone was doing their thing.

oh, and take pictures. ☺

i took pictures for all of our cosplay contestants with my fancy camera and hung out with our dm for the day. he is from florida, so it is probably the only time we will see him around here. he was pretty cool though, along with the other guy from home office.

i wish we had gotten a few more people who dressed up, but oh well. our opening celebration took place 3 weeks after we had opened initially. there will be more in the future i hope!

aside from all that, things are okay i guess. post holiday cooldown. aside from rons car, which we have dubbed "princess," now i am just working on saving up for our annual north carolina trip. we are going the first week of june! i just hope things work out.

today, the most exciting thing i did was make lasagne. i havent done so in a while, and it seemed like a good idea. with any luck it will feed us for a few days. the only thing i need at this point is a good sauce recipe so i dont have to use canned sauce. nothing wrong with it, but i put everything else together, so a nice home made sauce would be great. for the cheese layer, i use a part skim ricotta, mozzarella, eggs, oregano, basil, onion and garlic powder, thyme, and rosemary, then there is a layer of sweet italian sausage. i was pretty satisfied with it. i still am on a soup kick, maybe next paycheck i will make my cheddar broccoli soup.

also. this year.....i WILL make a goddamn coconut cream pie!! im pretty sure ive said this like 3 years in a row now. like, a legit pie, not out of a bucket or a box. soon.....

the last thing i got, last week i went ice skating for the first time EVER. kris and ron were with me, it was pretty fun. a little weird because its different from rollerblades, but fun. it was really cold in the rink. i mean, i guess it has to be, but i couldnt feel my fingers after an hour or so.

ron just had fun either dragging me around, or threatening to throw me somewhere. i was also unintentionally really good at spinning in circles when i tried to stop. i dont really trust front brakes on blades or skates, i just feel like ill end up catapulting forward and fall on my face instead of stopping gracefully or something. not that there is anything graceful about me to begin with, but whatever. i am kind of hoping to go again, i guess this place shuts down in march for the summer.

anyway, i guess i'll leave it at that for now. kris was just here and we played a round of clue- the harry potter edition. it was pretty cool, even though i am not good at guessing games. better than the game of life, where i couldnt avoid getting through life without any kids. my birds are better.

have a good week all! thanks for reading!