One Year Later: The Pinteresting Month of April

Last year, I was a very little blog.  Not to say I am not still a little blog, but back then I had less than 10 readers.  I came up with this awesome plan [because I was so obsessed with Pinterest] to do something from Pinterest each day for a month.  I'd have to say, it was a lot of fun, but boy was it a lot of work!

To celebrate NOT doing it again this year, I am making ONE Pinterest recipe to start the month and I will be working on one Pinterest project to share at the end of the month.  Scroll down to see what I chose for April 1st, and if you have any suggestions of an on-going April project, check out my boards and make a suggestion :)

Here's a rundown of what I made, created, bought, designed, and got last year:
April 1: Oatmeal, Cereal, and Peanut Butter Snacks
April 2: Waterfall Braid
April 3: Paint Chip Easter Garland
April 4: Masters Golf Cupcakes
April 5: Speckled Nails
April 6: "Anchored for Life" Tattoo
April 7: Bunny Cake
April 8: Infinity Scarf
April 9: Cinnamon Toast Crunch Toffee
April 10: Mozzarella Sticks
April 11: Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies
April 12: Banana Split Bites
April 13: Jolly Rancher Infused Vodka
April 14: Simple Skin Care
April 15: DIY Workout Shirt
April 16: Peeps S'Mores
April 17: Letter Cork Board
April 18: Getting Rid of Fruit Flies
April 19: I Am Somebody
April 20: #coverthenight
April 21: Oreo Cupcakes
April 22: Strawberry Jam
April 23: Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter Ice Cream
April 24: Fried Ravioli
April 25: Triple Bun Up-do
April 26: Vodka Gummi Bears
April 27: Bobby Pin Keeper
April 28: Backyard Fire
April 29: Baby Shower Cupcake Tower
April 30: Deep Fried Oreos

Jeesh, just making this list took forever!  I can't believe I did that last year haha.

Here's what I made to start April! It seemed like a nice spring-y recipe and strawberries were on sale for the first time this year!

Source: lilyshop.com via Meghan on Pinterest

Happy April!

Look back at 2012 [a little late]

Sorry this is a little late, but here's my recap of 2012:

January: ran my first half marathon

February: started my obsession with baking. and here. and here. 

March: Mike's 26th birthday and traveled to Phoenix for work

April: got my first tattoo and completed the worst experiment of my life

May: Color Me Rad

June: a month of work. just work. 

July: new roommate[s]!

August: weekend adventures: Vermont, Maine, PGA Tour playoffs

September: went to the Ryder Cup

October: my 24th birthday

November: lots of time with family

December: Florida vacation [um, yeah, I'll work on finishing my posts about that soon - there's my new year's resolution!]

...so what I've learned is that my entire life is recorded via this blog.  Please tell me that's a good thing, right?

Other than trying to stay up-to-date in blog-land, my new year's resolutions include trying to eat healthier, running at least twice a week, and doing laundry at least once every two weeks [yeah, trust me, that last one is a stretch most of the time haha].

oh how i've missed you, pinterest!

so, like i said yesterday, i'm home alone for a few days.  so obviously i am monopolizing large spaces in the house at a time, wearing oversized sweats, and turning the tv up so loud that i can hear it in any room of the house.  you know, the normal stuff.

in all of this, i decided to reinvigorate my love for pinterest.  i haven't been pinning a lot lately, but there are a lot of pins stored up since i finished my pinterest april.  and for some reason, last night, i had a lot of ambition to finish some of these projects.  it's probably because i know i can clean up after myself as slowly as i want, and [like i said before] spread out across the house.

so, here are a few of the creations i made last night:

first i made some homemade cheese-its.  they didn't quite look like the photo but were pretty good!  they were also really easy.

i finally found the mystery mint chocolate chip cookies recipe! and i'm so glad i did!  the only thing i changed was adding a bag of andes baking bits instead of crushing my own mints.

i finished folding the bags for my plastic bag holder.  i also bought extra fabric so i can make more as we use more containers!

  

now i can get rid of some of the many plastic bags stuffed into the cracks in our kitchen island! weird storage system, right?

alright, so maybe i didn't make these - but i did eat like 3 oatmeal cream pies last night!

i also found this HYSTERICAL blog pinstrosity.  i definitely have a few of the "pinstrosities" shown in my own pin collection, so i might not being doing those anytime soon haha!  you HAVE to take a look!

one more thing: music monday. loving this maroon 5 song right now.  

pinterest day ... DONE! celebrate!

Dear,

YOU ARE DONE!

AAAAAND my little blog is one year old!

yesterday was the first day since march i didn't blog, and boy did it feel good! 

however, we did finish our amazing patio [well actually, start and finish], so i was busy!

i will post about that tomorrow :)

time to celebrate all of this with some cake batter rice krispie treats!

honestly, i didn't think they tasted much like cake batter [and i added doubled the cake batter] but they were still yummy!

ingredients:

6 cups rice krispies

2 tablespoons butter

10 oz bag mini marshmallows

1 cup yellow cake batter [dry, not prepared]

few tablespoons of sprinkles

directions:

-melt the butter in a large pot on medium

- add the marshmallows and melt them, stirring often

- add the cake batter and stir it in

- add a couple tablespoons of sprinkles

- take off the heat and add the rice krispies

- put in a 13x9 pan, sprinkle more cake batter and sprinkles on top, and let cool

pinterest day 30: deep fried oreos

day 30: deep fried oreos from my "favorite recipes" board

deep fried oreos

i love these! we always keep at least 10 oreos in the freezer for random times when we want fried oreos.  

all we do is put some dry krusteaz mix in one bowl and some krusteaz mix mixed with water [in a thicker consistency] in another bowl.  dip the frozen oreos in the wet mix, then the dry mix, and in the wet mix for a second time. fry them on 350 degrees in the deep fryer for 45-60 seconds or until golden brown.  top with powdered sugar and enjoy!

all you need 

you can tell we haven't made deep fried oreos in a while since these were christmas oreos!

pinterest day 29: baby shower cupcake tower

day 29: baby shower cupcake tower from my "ideas for clients" board

i tried to replicate this for my client today

today i had my very first official cupcake delivery!  i have made countless cupcakes for friends and family in the past, but today i dropped off 60 cupcakes for a baby shower i was referred to by a coworker.  i gave the grandmother-to-be a bunch of different photos, and she chose this one.  i think it came out pretty well!


i made two batches of my aunt zena's chocolate cake cupcakes, one batch of french vanilla cupcakes, and frosted half of each with a blue buttercream and the other half with my aunt's chocolate frosting [i will post some of these recipes soon!].

making bears for the top of each cupcake

finished bears 

finished cuppycakes 

two towers with 60 cupcakes total

ready to be delivered!