Happiness is...

...having a reason to make cupcakes.

Tomorrow we're picking up the husband's sister and her boyfriend at the airport. From there we're heading to Mt. Rainier to spend the weekend celebrating my father-in-laws birthday.

It was all supposed to be a surprise, but now that the gig is up, I can focus more on what to bake versus trying to be sneaky.

I think I'm going with the flourless recipe, again... but this time, I'm going to fill them with raspberry jam. Nothing is quite as delicious as fresh homemade freezer jam- and along with a dark decadent chocolate? It's simply begging to be tried.

Wishful Wednesday #1

So this will be the first installment of Wishful Wednesdays.

This one I discovered on the ferry to Port Angeles on Friday night. We had the joy of parking front center on the ferry, right next to the motorcycles. My eyes about flew out of my head when I saw a bike like this:

Photo by Joshua Hoffman. Featured at Bike EXIF.

Behold- A 1982 Honda C70 Passport.

I can't get over it- it's like a Schwinn/Vespa lovechild.

I used to be all about having a motorcycle. I would tease my mom about starting a biker gang- we'd both get matching tattoos and beefy cruisers that would be way too powerful for us. When I met my husband, it was a major goal in our lives... Life events kept getting in the way, not to mention the lack of garage and the increased theft in the area. It simply wouldn't be convenient.

But this makes me reconsider our lack of motorcycles. We've been daydreaming and talking about taking the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course for about two years now- it's a good way to learn how to ride as well as to get endorsed for two-wheeled vehicles. There's a class going on at the end of August... maybe it's time to make this daydream into reality.

You can find these bikes for less than $1000. Seriously! I've spent more on handbags!

This weekend...

..was full of roses from my father's memorial garden...
...and sunshine...
..and good food..
...and enjoying the bright side of life.
(It was hard to be grumpy while cruising around around in this car. Believe me, I tried.)
Couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Meringues

I made meringues (chocolate meringue, too!) for the first time in my life. It's magic. Three little itty bitty egg yolks made so many delicious bite-sized morsels.



Don't tell them that I told you this, but they turned out kind of ugly. I mentioned this was my first time, right?


Ugly or not, they were absolutely delicious. Paired with rose tea, they were the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

I Spy With My Little Eye...

Wait... could it be?? Is my office truly coming together? Someone pinch me- I think I might be dreaming!

Closet!

I'm so glad we finally decided to do something about our storage issues. I think our issue isn't necessarily our space, but the fact that we're not using what we have efficiently.

So, with a happy heart and about 8 hours of work, I present to you our bedroom closet.

Wallpaper

I've made a big decision regarding my wallpaper.
It's not going to be permanent.

Why?

1. It's a tiny space I'll be papering. It's a small enough piece to hang with tacks.
   
2. I want to save the paper for when we find an abode more permanent.
3. What if I decide I hate it after I stick it on the wall for good?
   
4. I don't want to spend money on wallpaper hanging materials unless I have too.
5. I'm curious.

It may be a bad idea. It may be totally awesome. We'll see!

Hello, Cupcake!

I made cupcakes last week. Flourless, maraschino cherry chocolate cupcakes. Being further inspired by Judy in Her Natural Habitat, I made cupcake wrappers from wrapping paper I had been saving and fondant cherry blossoms to complete the birthday set.



They were delicious!

Epsom Salts + Jars

Ran across this today at The Inspired Room- Epsom salt snow!

The Inspired Room

I love epsom salt. Whenever I feel glum and/or tired and/or sore, I'll toss half a cup of salt into a hot bath and just soak. It never ceases to make me feel better.

I love the way it looks, too- there's something about the way the light hits it that makes it so lovely. Perhaps it's due to the fact that we did not have much of a winter this year... but I cannot wait to make these.

Building the Beehive: Continued

Here's what we have so far. Most of it is in boxes. We should be up and running by next week!

Things I Need:

• File Folders
• Curtains
• Curtain Rods
• Book Ends
• File Holder
• Wallpaper Hanging Supplies

Things I Need to Decide:

• The Desk: Should I paint it the same color as the walls in the rest of the bedroom?
• The Curtains: Bright white? Off-white? A different shade of blue?
• The Files: Too many pretty designs to choose from. Loveliness overload!

Things I need to do:

• Find a home for the remaining clutter in the closet.
• Hang wallpaper (it'll be here Wednesday!)
• Set up smaller closet (custom drawers also arrive Wednesday!)

More Jar Ideas

This weekend I'm obsessing over jar storage. At first I was tempted to find some spice jars with metal lids, paint the underside of my shelf with magnetic paint and simply stick them on. Then I discovered the glass painting technique... I could use cute jam jars in all shapes and forms, and still have them match in color.

But simplicity often is the best route. While browsing for a more time efficient and simpler solution, I discovered this at Country Living.

Country Living

I have to say, I'm impressed. They simply screwed the lids onto the underside of the shelf. Simple. Adorable. Efficient.

And speaking of adorable, I came across this at Design*Sponge in a tutorial regarding paper scrap recycling.

Design*Sponge

This tutorial shows you how to utilize old paper scraps to decorate can lids AND to make gorgeous pencils out of it. I have a nasty habit of collecting pretty paper- I'm glad to have found a proper outlet for it! And more importantly, I'm glad I'm not alone!

So with these discoveries, I'm leaning towards recycling old cans, wrapping their lids so they're presentable (and match in one way or another), and securing them to the underside of my shelf. They might just be far too pretty to hang up though... Decisions, Decisions.

Sunshine on Saturday.

What Dreams May Come

Last night I dreamed about blue mason jars and performing Tai Chi Kung Fu in front of my old classmates.

I'm not sure what to make of this. All I know is that I do miss practicing Tai Chi.
And blue mason jars rock my world.

I've been eyeballing blue mason jars for the last few months. It doesn't help that they would fit perfectly in my micro office- but I have yet to find one in any thrift stores. I'm hesitant to just ebay for them- at around $15 a pop (shipping + handling will get you every time), I kind of want a cheaper solution.

So I was google image surfing when I stumbled upon this tutorial at Bridal Buzz. You can paint your own jars to give them that gorgeous turquoise blue look. Twelve jars? $10. Paint? $8. And I can pick the perfect sized jars to suit my needs.

Photo from Here

Building the Beehive

Welcome to my first post on this blog! First posts are always so awkward (kinda like first dates, huh?), I'm going to be a bit of a hussy and just dive on in.

So I'm in the process of converting our teeny, tiny, little bedroom into a finely tuned workhorse. I painted it a glorious shade of blue (Hello, Behr's Bleached Denim- where have you been all my life?), ordered a custom closet from Easy Closets, and have schemed and planned and made many many lists and made far too many sketches to be healthy.

And because I'm a firm believer in pictures, here's the approximate color of our room:

From Home Depot

And here's the amazing closet office that spurred this great project:

Discovered at Country Living

I had no idea that wallpaper could make such an impact. I never, ever would have considered using wallpaper in a smaller area like a closet- but I can see why they did it. It looks phenomenal! Therefore, I took it upon myself to try to find the perfect wallpaper. I wanted one that was a bit whimsical, a bit brighter than the base room color, and have a good variety of colors to pull from.

And I discovered this:

Norwall Wallcoverings

How could I not fall in love?