Happy Things...

I've had a lot of things get me down this week, most of them have made me just clamp my teeth and try to grin and bear it (like unexpectedly having to shell out for new tires on our car in order to pass state inspection. sigh. don't get me started.)

I realized I haven't posted on here recently, and that's mostly just because life has gotten busy. Don't worry, there will be catch-up posts on the things I've been working on (Hints: Office, Portraits...). For now though, I'd just like to talk about things that make me happy:

Seen this show? It's from across the pond, and even though I've seen all three seasons before, I recently revisited them and probably laughed just as hard as the first time through. Maybe it's because I married a nerd and I can totally relate in a way that I probably couldn't before. You can rent it through Netflix.

Sleep. Really good quality, dream inducing, wow-I-just-slept-for-an-ungodly-amount-of-hours-but-it-was-worth-every-second sleep. Arthur and I collectively have been suffering from a head cold for about the last month. Seriously, nothing is better than sleeping and not being interrupted by coughing, hacking, sniffling, aching or shivering. I'm so grateful for good health. (Also, I'm not a fan of beds with curtains, but I really like those in that picture!)

People who happily listen to what I have to say, and thank me for my suggestions. There was a woman at the salon the other day who is planning a wedding for her daughter and was happy to discuss the finer points of flowers, color schemes, and good cake with me. I felt so validated. Our friend Justin also does this every time we come over-- he asks what I think of what they've done with the decor in their home (they just moved into a brand new house) and I feel so important! It's nice to have people like your opinions and trust what you say. I'm not so brazen as to start another blog about what I think is important, (I'm not that arrogant) it's just nice to feel the perk of being appreciated once and awhile.

My wonderful husband. Just today he brought home a hey cupcake! just to cheer me up. He's the one who can make me laugh no matter how I'm feeling and encourage me to follow my dreams and live up to my potential. He's my best asset and I'd be lost without him. Love Love Love him.

The gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't talk much about faith on my blog, I'm not sure why, but I'm truly grateful for the hand of the Lord in my life. When I'm feeling lost or confused or frustrated, I love that I'm able to get down on my knees, pour out my heart in prayer, and know that He hears me. It's the biggest greatest blessing I have in my life, and it makes me so happy.

Those are just a few things that make me happy. There's plenty more, but this would be a long and tedious blog post if  I listed them all. (Isn't that what happens when you start counting your blessings?)

Mom

Mom--

Today I am giving a talk in church about mother's day and in the spirit of being nice to everyone, I'm not going to talk about how my mother is amazing, but rather on how we can improve our relationships with our mothers.
So I'm going to take the moment here to say to you that you are the best. Thank you for staying home and raising me, forgoing a career when it would have made life a little easier. Thanks for teaching me how to do just about everything, and instilling in me a love of the arts, and teaching me how to truly have joy in my life. Thank you for teaching me the gospel, and being nice to me and forgiving me even when I wasn't so deserving of forgiveness.

I love you.

busy busy busy

Since our last post our calendar kinda read like this:

Tim and Ruthi's Wedding-- a true Austin event (it sounds odd to say keeping it weird, but that phrase totally fits the bill) it was lovely to see all of our friends who are now married and living on the other side of town, or still single.

How to Train Your Dragon-- cute movie but better because we went with our good friends Paul and Elizabeth, who we truly don't see enough. Its nice to have another couple who laughs at all the same parts as you do in the previews.

The best movie EVER-- Arthur and I ventured out to the Alamo Drafthouse to go see "The Good The Bad and The Weird" a korean western. You'll have to believe me when I say it's the best movie I've seen in over a year. That and I had an awesome steak sandwich while I watched the movie. <3

Bridal Shower fun-- I may have eaten one of the best cakes ever at my future Sister In Law's Bridal Shower. Yes, they're not getting married till August. She's doing a study abroad of sorts in Egypt though, and gets back a week before they get married, so that's why there's 4 bridal showers in the next 3 weeks in her honor.

Hello Lake Pflugerville-- in a weird non thinking fit, I ventured to up to Michele and Justin's or what I have dubbed "the other side of the planet" during rush hour traffic. Fortunately, I arrived in time to see some of Pflugerville's finest taking advantage of the good weather. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures because it would have been much too obvious.

The Last Weekend-- Now the semester is nearly over and I regain my husband come Monday. But this weekend, all we've been doing is fighting off a serious cold (Arthur), and preparing to speak in church. (Me)


Oh.... I also got a job. Receptionist work. Part-time.
Yay me.

Optional Instructions: Employ husband.

That's what the instructions for hanging a wall shelf should read. Use husband. Because this is what happens when someone (me) who doesn't know how to put a bit into a drill properly, decides to hang a floating shelf:

Why is that every tool in the house combined with an odd assortment of decorating items?

 Why yes, yes it is.

Are those gigantic holes in the wall, where a floating shelf should be? Yes. The fourth whole over, that really dark one-- yeah, accidentally put the anchor screw all the way through the dry wall on that one. So what did we do? Plaster'd her up, waited another day, and put my husband to work using the kind of anchor screws that actually anchor. (Note: Don't ever use the screws or anchor screws that Target gives you in the product. They will not work. You think we would have learned our lesson with our blinds...)

The results? Voila!

Ok, it's a little color bland. I should probably introduce color into the candlesticks or put a photo of something quite colorful in place of where the saying plate is.

View with the whole room. Awesome!

And one more time just for kicks. It's beautiful.

I love you Arthur. And I promise, I will never wield a drill again.

Winning on the Radio...

Behold, what might these be?

(Sorry for the crappy iphone pic) 

So, if you can't read that, those are 2 tickets to go see The Barenaked Ladies in concert.

They're the fellows who sing this song:

One of my favs. Also, they sing this little ditty you might have heard called "If I had $1,000,000" Go ahead, google it, and transport yourself back to the 90s when you didn't have responsibilities and everyone had money still.

Yeah. Them. GREAT band.

So those two tickets, to that GREAT band, did I buy those tickets?

Please, it's me. I was known in high school for going to school the next day and saying, "No way! [X band] was in town last night? They're my favorite! Dang it!" For growing up and living in the live music capital of the world, I've been to surprisingly very few shows. So alas, how did I get my paws on these tickets???

Well, before spring break, I was on my way to Michele & Justin's house, listening to the radio, when a contest came on. And I kid you not, I almost changed the station, because I have very little patience for talking on the radio. But I didn't. Instead, I heard the DJ ask this question:

"What celebrity has said that if they could, they would shave their head?"

And of its own accord, my hand picked up my phone, dialed the radio station's number, which I magically knew (years of listening and never calling-in perhaps) and within seconds, I was on the air with DJ.

Wanna know what my answer was?? Huh?

This man:

You may or may not be aware, that my husband met this man, Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame, at the austin film festival, when the film How to Be premiered, and my husband frantically ran around trying to get the sound fixed for the showing. Arthur insists, and I believe him, that R-Patz is a blithering english idiot.

So, my one step connection to R-Patz combined with the fact that you cannot pick up a magazine anywhere without something about him in it, has given me 2 items of R-Patz trivia.

1) Supposedly, R-Patz does not shower, and you can smell him before he enters a room. (Explains how the hair stays in place, eh?)

2) R-Patz has said that as an actor, 50% of his performance is his hair. (which I find scandalous, as a former actor. belittling. ridiculous. HAIR? ACTING HAIR? please.)

Going off of trivia bit number 2, I told the DJ that it was Sir Robert. I was correct. I won the tickets. Happy Happy Joy Joy!

If you're wondering, I totally got all squeeky voiced on the radio because of excitement. Figures!

It's Official!

My brother is engaged! Like a true Texan, he got down on one knee and proposed tonight to his sweet, wonderful girlfriend Ashley, on the Lamar Street Bridge over looking downtown. (Style points, bro, style points!) I am SOOO happy for them, and I'm looking forward to August 14th!

cake, cake, cake.

There's a cartoon floating around out there, perpetuating this myth that pie is better than cake over the long run. It's kinda funny, in a I'm-someone-who's obsessed-with-pie-and-I'm-going-to-express-my-rage-in-a-nsfw-cartoon, but I have to tell you its a lie.

Cake is so much better than pie. Fact, pure and simple.

Which is why I volunteered to make my own birthday cakes (yes, plural) for my week long celebration of birth. I may or may not have a slight obsession with making cake. It's really fun. And I'm really good at it.

So, I thought I'd branch out from my usual, and try something new for our family celebration of my day of birth, which happened on Sunday.

Hmmmm, what kind of cake have I not had in a long time, that I'd really like?

Boston Cream Pie! (And that is irony, due to the aforementioned preferential treatment of desserts, and that Boston Cream Pie isn't really Pie!)

I didn't use some special recipe but just the plain one out of Joy of Cooking. You can find it, on page 732, which then lead to pages 714, 755, and 794. (So annoying.)

Follow what I did in the following fotos:

Premiere, le gateaux:

Shiny cake pans, covered in shiny fake butter, or whatever the heck Pam Baking Spray is made out of.

Some buttah. Some people are real sticklers for unsalted butter when they bake. I'm not. Bring on the sodium!

Dry ingredients! Including nifty cake flour! Hey--guess where I shop?

Stuff that goes in with the buttah. Delish.

Secret Ingredient! (And uh, what buttermilk is low-fat? Seriously?!?)

Before assembling all the dry ingredients, I had to sift the cake flour. If you were unaware, cake flour has the consistency of powdered sugar. It's fluffy and has the tendency to clump and after sifting, there is more than you measured out. Magic indeed. However, I was lacking a sifter...so I used my jumbo colander. Still did the job. 

Here we creamed the buttah, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

And then you add the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk. Except I forgot to alternate. Oops. I think it still turned out ok. Fluffy huh?

Golden and Delicious! Success!

Next, Pastry Creme!

I can't quite remember what's in this. There are definitely egg yolks. Oh and some flour. Maybe some salt or baking soda? I dunno, look it up. The objective was a light yellow color though: mission accomplished.

Then the exciting part: watching milk boil. It's so much more fun than watching water boil. (sarcasm)

After this, I combined that light yellow stuff and the hot milk, put it back on the stove, and started whisking as the cream starting thickening at an exceedingly great rate. I didn't have a third arm, so I couldn't take a picture.

Then, the next day, after letting things chill for awhile, I made the chocolate sauce. I didn't take pictures. I was over taking pictures for the prep part. Sorry.

But not for the big reveal! Voila!

Oh yeessss! Boston Cream Pie! And it tasted good. Today, when eating some of the leftovers, my brother Harrison told me, "I am DOMINATING this cake."

Which in man-speak of course, means, I really like your cake.

This is my kitchen. You can't see the counters very well, but they're laden with specks of buttermilk cake crumbs, pastry cream, chocolate butter frosting and every dirty bowl (read: all my bowls) in my house. Between this and making THE strawberry cake for our ladies' craft lunch tomorrow-- I've effectively destroyed our kitchen.

le sigh.

(But! Isn't my new blog layout nifty? I got it by logging into draft.blogger.com and clicking the design template button. Its new!)