Tag: Fashion

Way Too Hot To Cook

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The past few days have been HOT HOT HOT and not in a good way.   That doesn’t mean I haven’t done fun things

The past few days I’ve:

  • Gone on a trail run in a wild flower preserve.
  • Swam in a creek with a waterfall with a dog here:

This photo is not mine and I don’t know those, but that’s where we swam and it was great 🙂

  • Failed at making black and white cookies

  • Got 3 huge bunches of kale, 1 bunch of lettuce, 1 bok choy and strawberries in my CSA.
  • Enjoyed a salad made with my goodies

  • Started making some dresses

  • Made sangria

On the Agenda for Today:
-Work/Internship Stuff
– Play with ice cream maker my neighbor let me borrow. Interested in beer and wine?  Check out his blog!
-Check the mail every 10 minutes to see if the exciting thing I ordered online arrives!
-and realistically I’ll probably watch a soccer game at some point…

Have a great day!

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Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

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Summer is slowly starting to creep its way out into Ithaca, which means a variety of things:
1.  My apartment turns into an oven.
2. It’s humid outside.
3. I can wear dresses again.

Let’s talk about #3.  Before moving to Ithaca, I basically wore dresses all the time (as in I probably only owned 2 pairs of pants). Then winter in Ithaca happened and my body was confused so I broke down and bought some pants and snow boots.  Not a happy camper.

I was born to wear dresses.

Some women look amazing in short skirts, others in long straight legs jeans.

Me? I can rock a dress like no other.

So naturally when it was 80 degrees out for our department barbecue, I decided a dress was in order.  Silly me, I forgot about the fact that the barbecue was on the lake, meaning it would be colder and windier than around my house.  Despite being bummed that I was cold and worrying my dress would fly up at any moment pretty much the whole time, I had a fun time.

At the very least, I looked cute and brought tasty cookies to share.

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

adapted from Foodess Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (ish)chocolate chips
1 cup dried coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 350.  Cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.  Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips, coconut and walnuts.  Drop tablespoon sized balls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet, bake for about 12 minutes.

Cool and serve with a (martini) glass of milk.

What were you born to wear?

Cupcakes and Shoes! What a Hoot!

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I woke up this morning feeling like P.Diddy pretty good.  The weather is gross, but all is well in the world.  I hung out with friends and may have done a bit of shopping.

What girl doesn’t need another pair of shoes?

Basically I’m ready for summer.  All I need is somewhere to go in these shoes… and a tan! (Note: No flash was used in this picture.  I hope this is a lighting issue and I’m not actually that pale!)

I also made cupcakes!  I’m dying to get a cake decorating set (any secret admirers out there want to shower me with gifts? ), but in the mean time I’ll make due with a knife, a zip loc bag and my trusty cupcake book.

I cheated.

I used box mix and canned frosting.

After not using box mix/canned frosting for so long, I realized how much better my homemade frosting is!

I hope my friends enjoy them!  Maybe I’ll get to work some of it off by dancing the night away with the chicas!  Who knows? Either way, I’ll probably have a fun time.

Have a great night!!

Random Question:  Favorite type of dog?  or are you a cat person?

Wake up and smell the COFFEE Cake!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

About 10 minutes after my last post, there was a knock at the door.  This arrived:

Thanks, Lovely Fella!

After smiling for a good while and admiring my flowers, I headed out on my mission to find new running shoes.  The first stop was Kohl’s.  I tried on pretty much every pair of running shoes they had and decided upon these Asics.

Can you believe they were only $35!!!!  What a steal!

I may have also done some more shopping… long exercise pants and maybe a pair of red pumps…

Sadly, I might have to return them 😦 They’re a little too tight!  This is sort of silly but I saw them at the store, didn’t even try them on just grabbed them and walked straight to the register.  These are the pumps I’ve been looking for!  I made the lovely fella go to every Marshall’s and TJ Maxx in the Bay Area to find my size!  A little sad they’re too small. Oh well!  There will be other red pumps!

Earlier this week, my friend Liz e-mailed a recipe to a bunch of friends (myself included) wondering if someone would be willing to bake it for Valentine’s Day.  You really don’t have to twist my arm to get me to bake… Of course I said yes!

I was intrigued by this recipe!  I’m sure most of you have heard of Pioneer Woman, right?

This is her recipe for Coffee Cake, Literally… as in coffee flavored cake, not coffee cake.

This recipe turned out ridiculously good!  I would definitely make it again (for a new crowd that is!).

The recipe makes a cake but I decided to make cupcakes because they’re easier to enjoy, and they’re just darn cute!   I used my environmentally friendly baking cups!

The recipe called for buttermilk, which I never have around so here’s a tip: 1 cup milk (-1 tbsp) + 1tbsp of vinegar.  Let it sit for 5-10 mins!  Voila!  You’ve got buttermilk!

Honestly, I liked them better without the frosting.  The cake is so light and moist! The coffee flavor isn’t too strong in the cake.  The frosting on the other hand is very strongly flavored!  Pretty delicious as well!

I am thoroughly impressed at how good these are!  I feel like I need to try more of Pioneer Woman’s recipes!

I will be taking these cupcakes to a Valentine’s Day gathering!  But before that, I’m babysitting for a friend so he and his wife can have a Valentine’s Day outing!  They probably need it!

What are your plans for the day?

Have a great day!!!!

Reaching My Goals

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I made it back to LA tonight.  I spent the evening watching the news with the madre.  She then informed me that she had something for me.  This is quite strange in my family… not the buying things but the surprise aspect…

Example: The past few Christmases/Birthdays I’ve been buying my presents and wrapping them myself then signing the card “Mami y Papi” or “Santa”… get the idea?

What was this surprise?

A fantastic sparkly, leopard print sweater that I saw at Macy’s last week when we went shopping.  This will come in handy as one of my goals for 2010 is to dress better (or really just get dressed everyday…).  I love sweaters!  Thanks, Madre!

The next exciting thing is this: the Madre’s make up drawer (my mom is a sassy one in case you haven’t noticed)

Eye shadow and lip gloss.

I’ve decided to start wearing lip gloss.  How does this fit into my goals for 2010?

One of my goals was to stop talking about the things I don’t like about myself and accept myself the way I am (if not fix it).

Well, I’m going to do that.  I never wear lip gloss or lipstick (with the exception of Halloween or themed parties) because I don’t like my lips.  Certain things can’t be changed.  I can’t make my lips smaller.  So instead I’m learning to accept myself.  My brother can tease me all he wants but I’m embracing the bigness/fullness/voluptuousness of my lips and rocking some pink lip gloss from now on!

Is there anything you have learned to embrace about yourself?  Any works in progress?

P.S. Another step toward reaching my 2010 goals will be revealed as I get back to Ithaca on Saturday!  Stay Tuned!