Welcome to Summer

hola!

once again, time has gotten the better of me and i missed the whole damned month of june! jeez. i was keeping up on this so good for a while there. no matter, that just means i have a crap ton of things to rant on about. if it matters, anyway. vacation was a thing! rons birthday was a thing! my container garden today was a thing!

THINGS.

instead of driving overnight, we left early in the morning, like around 6 am. it worked out pretty well, i thought. we made it in about 2 hours less than it has the last few drives. plus, we arrived at the perfect time (basically) for checking in.

we stayed in duck again this year in a house called jus' beachy. a little more expensive than i would have liked, but we had a few mishaps early on and lost a few people. despite the extra money, it was definitely worth it, it was an awesome house. we had a salt water pool and a tiki bar!

we definitely made it a point to spend some time by the pool. i took advantage of the tiki bar as well and made some strawberry daquiris one night, complete with pineapple straws. because dollar store finds.

we visited the corolla light house and hatteras light house. it definitely rained a few days, we rented a jeep again, and attempted to go out on the beach two days in a row....

...when we got it, it definitely had no doors. we requested a jeep that was covered and, you know, normal, with doors. they decided they were getting ready for summer and took the doors off. when it was like 20 degrees cooler than normal, and raining. we all bundled up in a bunch of layers, had the heat blasting....that we could only feel when we stopped completely. it was a very cold two days. good thing we had a fireplace at the house!

 we had a few other good days though, and definitely made it out to the beach for a couple of those days (and nights)! this is what i live for. the sound of the ocean, the rolling breeze....i wish i could bottle that up and keep it with me at all times.

on another note, i also ran my first real 5k while i was there!

june 7th was national running day (and also my cousin's birthday)! it was early in the morning, kind of cool and one of those rainy days i was talking about, but i came in 33rd out of almost one hundred, and finished in 25:04. needless to say, it went better than i thought it would! i am looking forward to the color vibe in september! (which is at home, of course).

we picked up a cake at a local bakery for my cousins birthday, and made dinner at the house. we did a lot of gift shopping through the week, as well, and just hanging around town. it was a pretty relaxed week, which was a plus. maybe first week of june was a little too early, but its not like i can predict the weather. i much prefer less rain and cold, and spending as much time at the beach possible. i seriously feel like i need two separate trips, though. i love going with people, but i also like to be able to do my own thing.

on our way home, we made our usual trip through virginia beach for lunch. aside from food, we also found another unusual stop....at a cat cafe!

for now, i am going to leave you with ron's birthday cake i made! vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and peanut butter drizzle! i have a weird ass bird bothering me, and i am ready for bed. also, this gives me an excuse to write more! thanks for reading! come back soon!

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

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