Just a normal Thanksgiving...nothing unusual here!

Happy Thanksgiving, all! I know it's been a while since my last post, but things have been rather crazy with me starting a new job and all. Anyway, this Thanksgiving, I wanted to share what I am most thankful for.

I'm grateful for wonderful friends and family, for my amazing Evan, Cali and Mercedes. I'm grateful for a roof over my head and good food to eat. I'm grateful for Pinterest. It has actually become something of an addiction for me and I'm not sure if it's a good thing. I'm also grateful for this:

Nothing unusual here. Just some Martha Stewart craft supplies, a boring Thursday afternoon, a little love sprinkled in there, and...oh SNAP, WHAT'S THAT?!

IT'S AN ENGAGEMENT RING! That's right! We're getting MARRIED!!

I hope you're all ready to be completely annoyed by all the fun things I'm doing for our wedding. I can't begin to tell you how excited we are! Stay tuned!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Eat up!

Cupcake Wars Part 3: The Final Countdown

Dear Employees of my Awesome Boyfriend's Kick-Ass Company,

I have to say a huge thank you to all of your support and participation as test subjects for my many baking endeavors. I know it must be hard on all of you when Evan brings in boxes of cupcakes for your approval and commentary, but I appreciate you persevering for the benefit of my culinary skills. Today's feat was particularly challenging and I know that asking you to decide between the epic Cookie Dough Cupcake and the tasty Chocolate Guinness Extra Stout/Irish Cream Cupcake was not going to be a simple one, but I knew you were up for the challenge. You did not disappoint. For that, I applaud you! I will remember you for future baking challenges and hope that you will continue to entertain my need for approval by devouring my delightful treats and offering comments and suggestions.

You are truly heroic.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Shelly

Ah, now that we've got that out of the way...

It is time for the results of the epic Cupcake War: Cookie Dough vs. Chocolate Stout/Irish Cream. Evan so kindly hauled 5 boxes of cupcakes into his company's kitchen today. I had them all laid out on plates and they looked so very pretty, but that just wasn't practical. I mean, there was no way that they would survive such a very dreary, drizzly day and a ride in Evan's car, so we packed them into their tupperware boxes and he delivered them in 36 beautiful pieces.

I had my thoughts about which cupcake would reign supreme, of course. I assumed that, since everyone loves cookie dough and not everyone is as wild about beer as my dear boyfriend, the Cookie Dough Cupcake would come out on top.

At first, the reviews were mixed.

I received word from my dear friend, Casey (who happens to work at Evan's company), that they were a big hit. In fact, her exact words were: Loved your cupcakes this am!! Guinness/Bailey's Cupcakes=Breakfast of champions!!!

One of the other employees said: The cookie dough was completely amazing! I didn't try the stout but the cookie dough rocked!

Once I talked to Evan, however, there was a clear favorite. The Chocolate Stout/Irish Cream cupcake flew out of the kitchen while the Cookie Dough cupcake was slow and steady throughout the morning. I hesitate to call either on the "winner" but, if we're going by initial interest alone, The Chocolate Stout came out on top. I think curiosity killed the cookie dough.

I tried to get "artsy" here and give you a shot
of the Chocolate Stout in front and the
Cookie Dough in back, but it didn't turn out like I expected.
But you get it, right?

I look forward to hosting more of these challenges in the future and hope to have more conclusive results for you all. I have to say that I feel like it was a win-win situation for both cupcakes though because they taught me something new and made me think out of my Betty Crocker box. Thanks, rainy days and boredom, for inspiring me to do something I've never done before.

For the love of...US

What a crazy year it’s been…

A little over a year ago, I met the most amazing guy…we went out, we had some dinner, we went to Ikea…we fell in love.

Since then we’ve had about a million adventures and made some really great memories. With Evan’s birthday fast approaching, I wanted to give him something heartfelt and original. Well, maybe not so original…Evan and I recently went to church with my friend Rachel and there was this amazing painting behind the pastor…I might have used that piece as my inspiration, but I definitely made it my own!

What I did was paint the entire canvas red and let it dry. Then I layered different colors top of it with no real rhyme or reason. Finally, I painted a big red heart smack-dab in the center.

While that dried, I sketched out some of the things I wanted to put on our “For the Love of Us” painting. In case you couldn’t tell what really is on there, it’s a year’s worth of inside jokes, things that we’ve done, places we’ve been and a lot of who we are. Evan’s family is from California, mine is from Georgia, we’ve taken quite a few trips this year, we got a dog, we love Ikea…just the usual stuff.

Anyway, after about 3 hours of sketching, I didn’t want to have to re-do all of my pictures, so I decided to use transfer paper and then go over those pictures with sharpie later…

This also allowed me to cut the pictures out and place them where I wanted to and mix it up a bit. So, that’s what I did. After I’d placed all of my important pieces, I realized I had a lot of space left over so I filled in with little phrases we say, tiny little things that only make sense to us.

Now I was planning on giving this to Evan on his actual birthday, but he had to go pick up the pup from my place and I forgot to hide it before I left. Anyway, he saw it way before he was supposed to and now it’s hanging over Evan’s couch. He loved it! (or so he says! Haha)