New home!

New home, new blog! My new OC adventures/craftiness/snarkiness/embarrassing stories will continue here. Thanks for reading!

Meeting Martha Stewart: A Teaser Trailer

This blog post was supposed to be about how I met Martha Stewart last week. (I KNOW RIGHT?!) But I have way too much to write about IFBC this past weekend, so writing about Martha will have to be put on hold.

Yes, I KNOW I should have written about it the second I got home, but I had a Zumba class to get to ASAP!

I am aware of the fact that that is not an excuse.

For now, I will post a teaser picture.  I will get back to this soon, I promise.

This book is the most expensive book I will ever purchase, textbooks aside.

That's my bff/roommate

Dream team right here. Both going to be working full-time now, but on opposite ends of the state. We're still in denial, but that's okay. This picture sums each of us up perfectly.

That's my sister

The lovely thing about living the freshly graduated, unemployed life is that I actually have time to create.  You can tell that I've been working on this since 2009 because I was brunette in Laguna (bottom pic). Longest craft project ever.

From top to bottom: K & me in San Francisco, Venice, Carlsbad

Renegade SF: A Real-Life Etsy Party

Hello San Francisco! I'm here!

Well, not right now. Right now I'm blogging from my Davis apartment, watching Jerry Maguire with my fabulous best-friend-slash-roomie (who is actually crafting me me, I'm so proud) because it's one of those classic movies that I know I really should see so that at some point in my life I can say "You had me at Hello." Isn't that the dream?

But I was in SF last weekend, with my best friends from high school--has it really been four years? Thanks to a series of coincidental events, we all ended up in the bay area this same weekend. AND it was the same weekend as Renegade. I couldn't miss it.  I couldn't miss it after following their blog and tweets for years, hoping to be in the same city at the same time. I've either been up here in Davis when it's in Los Angeles, or back home in LA for break when it's up in SF. I would eagerly look at the photos afterwards, trying to remember to breathe as I scrolled through deliciously colorful pictures. Yes, it is possible to taste beautifulness.  But this year was the year.

After catching the wrong bus (Dad: "Here is the best transportation map of San Francisco EVER. I've had it for years." Note to self: don't trust 10-year-old maps), and realizing that yellow paint on a pole signifies a bus stop in Chinatown, we made our way to the Fort Mason Pavilion.

It was fantastic. If Renegade were a Broadway musical, it would be called Etsy: LIVE!

Make your own business cards with Paper Pastries

I had to snag one of these. From Kelso Doesn't Dance

Chic vintage jewelry holders from W.Ho Made It

Unique candle jars from typelites

Lovely fabric necklaces by Homako

LOVE the bunting decor. Tako Fibers

The World's Smallest Post service! Courtesy of Leafcutter Designs and Chronicle Books

Fell in love with these. Next DIY project? From Nice

Both of these cupcake holder displays are fabulous. Linea Carta

Can I just buy the typewriter?

Sweet treats!

My purchases of the day! From Kelso Doesn't Dance and Rag Trader Vintage 

The business cards are mini works of art in themselves!

OMG. Photobooth lovin'. Didn't get a chance to use it though.

I was so intent on browsing the booths, I totally walked past the front table. Adorable vintage souvenirs galore.

Sneak Peek: Renegade SF!

I know that it is going to take forever--and I mean that quite literally--for me to coherently sum up all of my excitement, sightings, and discoveries at Renegade this past weekend. To appease my readers in the meantime (hi Mom!), here is just a preview of the fabulousness. More pictures and descriptions to come soon!

Containing my excitement over this is hard.

This is a letter from Joy.  I'm sure you know her.  I often attempt to recreate her recipes, and more than often don't do them justice.  That's okay though.  My roommate helps me finish off the batter, I post semi-delicious-looking photos of the outcome, and everyone is happy.

Wait, did you catch that first part? THIS IS A LETTER FROM JOY! She's embarking on a Thirty Things Before Thirty Years journey, and one item on her list was to write more handwritten letters.  Apparently I was having a good Twitter reflex day, because I was one of 30 people to see her tweet and quickly email her my address.  Bam, a week later, look what shows up in my mailbox. The card even has a cupcake design on it from Cakespy. It's like we're best friends or something...or I blog way too much about cupcakes.

It isn't everyday that one of your fave creative celebrities takes the time to handwrite a letter to you--and Joy is most definitely a celeb in the blogosphere.  She'll be humble about it, but it's totally true. When I was in elementary school, I wrote a letter to Lisa Frank asking her to create a mermaid character for her colorful school supplies line.  Lisa never wrote back, but I would like to credit myself with the fruition of said design a year later. Perhaps that's wishful thinking.

Thank you Joy for making my day! When I'm back in LA this summer, I'd love to attend one of your pop-up catering events with your partners-in-crime and actually meet you :)

The Crew Does Vegas: The Music Video

Last winter, I went to Vegas with my roommate/best friend Tierney and our 6 best guy friends, who also happen to be our neighbors.  Actually, it's because they are our neighbors that they're our best friends. Anyway, what was supposed to be a Skype session telling Tier that she was crazy to think that all 8 of us would commit to such a trip, turned into her booking us a 4-night stay at The Mirage.

Best decision ever. Tier is always right.  And she's been pestering me to upload the music video that I made of our trip on my blog, so here it is.



Vegas Part II: Graduation Celebration, coming in June to a point-and-shoot camera near you.

Rainy Day Whole Wheat Semi-Healthy Cookies

Things that I like:

1. Being done with finals.

2. Spring Break!

3. A week at home in LA.

4. Rainy days.

Things that I don't like:

1. Being sick.

Unfortunately, being sick had to coincide with all of the above.  Can't bake, can't drive downtown to be in the "crowd" of a music video filmed by the talented Kurt Hugo Schneider...can't do too much at all because I sort of feel like death. On this plus side, I can catch up on everything in the Twitter/Pinterest/Blogging world that I put on hold during finals week, and post this recipe that I recently adapted from Joy the Baker (quite successfully, I might add).

After this baking catastrophe, I was determined to prove that I'm not a total fail at baking from scratch.  Plus, the Whole Wheat in the title makes me think it's sort of healthy, so we're just gonna roll with that thought. I used bigger portions of dough per cookie, I wanted them to come out super soft, not as crunchy (see how mine are thicker, and hers are thinner and oh-so-stackable)  I also didn't freeze the dough; I can be very impatient.

Here is Joy's recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars.  Beat until well incorporated.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  Add the egg.  Beat on medium speed until mixture is glossy and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Stop mixer and add the dry ingredients all at once.  Mix on low speed until all of the flour is incorporated  Stop mixer and finish incorporating ingredients with a spatula. Spoon batter out onto a sheet of waxed paper, and form loosely into a log.  Roll and seal cookie dough and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Once chilled, divide dough in half and place one half on a lightly floured counter surface.  Lightly flour a rolling pin and roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness.  Use a heart shaped (or whatever) cookie cutter to cut out cookies and place dough on prepared baking sheet.  Very lightly brush cookies with water and sprinkle with granulated or turbinado sugar.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove from the oven, allow to rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Roll and cut cookies, re-rolling the dough once or twice, until all cookies are cut and baked.

Cookies will last, in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to five days.

Take a look at Joy's list of recipes--they'll make you want to bake for days!

Chi-O Cookies 2011 Part III: DIY Cupcake Stands

Literally made these the day of Chi-O Cookies.  Since we were short on time and tight on budget, my goal was to create centerpieces that doubled as dessert stands.  Presenting Candy Land Cupcake Stands made straight from the game board!  This project was super easy and inexpensive.  The board games are from thrift stores, wine glasses from the dollar tree, and one dollar movie-sized candy boxes from Target.

Candy Lands as far as the eye can see...

Attach wine glasses to board with a really strong glue.

Fill glasses with colorful candy of choice.

Cut another game board in half, finish off edges with black paint, and glue to wine glass rims.  Finish off with the little gingerbread playing pieces!  See Part II for more decor ideas.

Chi-O Cookies 2011 Part II: The Decor

Grande iced latte in hand and absolutely no sleep the night before, my amazing Philanthropy Committee and I turned our whole sorority house into a Candyland of desserts.  It was a true all-you-can-eat dessert buffet.  From homemade apple pies to oreo cake pops, vegan peanut butter fudge and almond rocha, my XΩ sisters really outdid themselves!  For DIY cupcake stand instructions, see Part III.   

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Started with a quick sketch...

...and had it turned into this AMAZING logo!  These were our shirts :)
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Bunting is all the rage these days, check out this one at The Pretty Blog.
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The results of the Candy Land cupcake centerpieces made from a total of 8 games!
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Placecards for the desserts, especially for the gluten-free, vegan, allergy-specific etc, all made from elements of the board game.
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Giant lollipops with a sprinkle of vintage Candy Land cards.

Chi-O Cookies 2011 Part I: The Dessert

Chi-O Cookies 2011 was a total success!  After sifting through hundreds of blogs for the past few...months...bookmarking photos and recipes for dark chocolate this and vanilla bean that, I had to come to terms with the fact that I couldn't turn our sorority house into Candyland overnight AND bake every single thing that called for flour.  It came down to whatever I could do in the 12 hours before the event.  Naturally, we pulled an all-nighter-baking-bonanza, complete with a 4am emergency frosting run to Safeway.  Here are the pictures of the cupcakes that I made (9 dozen total...yeahhh don't talk to me about it). See Part II for the decor.

Vanilla cupcakes with a caramel center, topped with brown sugar caramel frosting and sprinkled with coconut.

Chocolate Banana cupcakes  dipped in chocolate ganache and topped with a chocolate covered banana.

Dark chocolate cupcake with a chocolate ganache center, topped with vanilla frosting with caramel drizzle.SO. DELICIOUS.

And blue + green cupcakes for Dr. Seuss's birthday! The plastic cupcake containers were perfect for transporting them all to the Chi-O House, I picked some up from the grocery store for a dollar a piece.