You've gotta swim... don't let yourself sink.

I haven't posted in awhile - not exactly sure why. I guess I feel like I don't have very much interesting things to write about these days. I like how alot of blogs have a specific purpose - fashion, food, home, kids - but mine doesn't. Maybe I'm feeling sorry for myself for not being fashionable, not being a good cook, not owning a house, and not having kids? Either way, I'm going to try to post more.

Who knows, this might even turn into a mainly baking blog soon - I've been baking something "new" every weekend, with the except of last Saturday, when I repeated (for the third or fourth time) my Oreo Cheesecake Cups. I even made my own chocolate whipping cream for the tops of them. Oh, they were delicious.



This weekend's plan is a Chocolate Swiss Roll, which I found in this book, which I purchased last weekend for $2 on the clearance rack at the bookstore in the mall:



The recipes seems pretty simple, though I've never made anything like this before, so we shall see what happens. I plan to make alot of stuff out of this dessert cookbok in the near future. Everything in it sounds amazing - and there are no pictures so I don't have to compare theirs to mine.


On another note, I got a haircut last weekend, and it's quite a bit shorter than I've had before, and I have swooping bangs that I've never had before. Here's a picture from the car ride home, after the haircut:



I love it - and although I might grow it back out in the winter, this is definitely my new summer cut!

Oh, I have a list that I'd like to keep up-to-date here:

Things I have to look forward to:

- The Humane Society Wiggle Waggle Walk a Thon - this Sunday! We have already raised about $150 in pledges!

- June 18-20, Toronto Tattoo Convention. Paul might be getting tattooed at it, and it'll be my first tattoo convention ever.

- June 25th = Spill Canvas show in Toronto (SO excited!)

- July 3-7 = Going to Paul's parents' cottage!

- July 15th = my next tattoo appointment!

- August 13-15th = Our one year wedding anniversary (already??). We are going to Niagara Falls for the wedding!


Yay Summer!

I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well.

I know it's Wednesday, but I still feel the need to write about the weekend and how great it was!

On Saturday, we got groceries and everything we needed for the following day's BBQ. Then I made Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes, which turned out amazingly tastely, but not so pretty to look at... haha.

Here's how mine turned out:

After I shot the filling into them.


After I dipped them in the ganache.


After I took a bite out of one of them.

Sunday was beautiful outside, so we took the dogs to the dog park (got sunburnt) and then spent the following couple of hours doing yard work. Paul cut the lawn and I did some weeding, and I also got the backyard ready for the BBQ. We were only expecting a couple of our friends to come over, but in the end there was eight people here (including Paul and I)! Paul BBQed, I made antijitios and caesar salad and we all spend the evening in the backyard.


Paul, posing with his new "toy".

I had a few too many glasses of wine, and we stayed up a couple hours too late - I had a terrible headache when I had to get up at 7:30am the next morning, for work. But it was worth it!

It's half way through the week already, and I'm hoping to get a haircut this weekend. I am *thinking* about possibly going with a new look, but I'm not sure yet. We will see. I'm open to any suggestions on a new haircut.

Happy middle-of-the-week, everyone!

This is more than just a dance hall drug.

We had a really good relaxing weekend, which was much needed. On Saturday we went to Paul's parents' house for dinner, as they had some relatives visiting from Holland who Paul hadn't seen in a long time. We had dinner and visited for while, and it was really nice.

On Sunday we went to Walmart for groceries - and ended up coming home with those as well as Paul's new BBQ. He's been putting off purchasing one for a few weeks now, waiting to make sure we had the money (we don't use credit cards at all). He's also getting tattooed in a couple weeks, which is at least $500, so he was going to wait to get the BBQ. Well, he finally couldn't wait any longer and bought this beauty - which he put together by himself last night (until 3am).



It was under my price range I gave him (which was $400), I think it was actually $299! Currently it lives in the garage until probably this weekend, when we'll have friends over and use it for the first time (as long as it's not raining - which it's been doing for the past week, on and off).

Paul has been working hard (and alot) the past few months and he totally deserves his new BBQ, as well as his tattoo time - he hasn't been tattooed in well over a year now and he likes to remind of that. :P


Ear scallpeling update

My ears are doing great. It's been just over two weeks now since I had them cut and I love them! The right ear is doing amazing and is practically all healed - the left was doing good and now is a bit swollen for whatever reason... it'll be all good soon, I hope. They don't hurt all anymore and now that I've changed jewelry, they are even nice to look at! Haha.





(Please ignore the messy hair and silly face...)

Seems like a good day for...

... some pictures of my babies.

With all of the talk that is going on about how we are (hopefully) soon going to be pregnant, I often wonder how a baby is going to change/affect our dogs. We got Ruby two years ago when I started having baby fever. Then last year, Paul got Olivia for his birthday, but I was happy to have a puppy again... baby fever was hitting hard again. Now that we are in a place where we can't just keep getting puppies - and that we are "ready" (whatever that means) to start trying to have a baby... I fear that the dogs might get pushed to the backburner. We love these dogs like they are our children (and treat them that way, too) so the dynamics are definitely going to change. This makes me sad.

Anyway, for the time being, here are some cute-as-ever pictures of my girls:

Miss Ruby -







Miss Olivia -

I love Kijiji...

... without it, I would not be complete.

Two years ago (almost), I began looking on Kijiji for Pugs. I really wanted a baby (still do, but then it was nuts how bad I had baby fever), and since the time was not right, Paul and I decided to get our very first puppy. First, we started looking at the Humane Society, but I was really dead set on a pug, and if there are ever pugs there, they are gone fast. Then I started looking on Kijiji. I probably looked every day for a month - the prices were a bit higher than what we could afford. We go to Paul's parent's cottage for a week every year, in July. That year, Paul said we could get a puppy when we got back from the cottage. We got back on a Saturday, and I was looking on Kijiji right away, and I found her! The price was right, we just had to drive to Hamilton to pick her up!

Then, about a year later, when we started thinking about moving out of the apartment, I searched Kijiji for houses to rent. Every one (including the one we are in now!) that we went to see, I found the listings on Kijiji. We also got Olivia indirectly because of the site, as well - our friends found the people who had a litter of Husky puppies and went to get one, and then told us they also had Bostons.

Back to the point of this post. Recently I realized that we needed a microwave stand/baker's rack to clear off some of the stuff cluttering the countertop in our kitchen. We don't have all that much countertop space to begin with, and having the big microwave on there was getting silly. So, we searched Walmart, Canadian Tire and Home Depot and found nothing we liked - and the one we did like was $100 - which was way more than what we wanted to spend. So, yesterday Paul decided to search Kijiji for a second-hand item, and I'm very glad he did. After work last night, we went and picked up this beauty, for the very low price of $25!



And yes, I realized already that though I was going to put items like my sandwich maker, rice cooker etc. on that middle shelf, it is now a cat house.


And here's a picture to show how nice and empty the countertop where my microwave used to live is. It used to sit where the toaster/bananas/knives are now:



I don't doubt that we will find many more awesome things from Kijiji - it really hasn't failed us yet.

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In other news, this upcoming weekend will include us (Paul) buying his very own, brand new BBQ! He's been looking at them every time we go out, for months. He finally picked one under his price limit that I gave him ($400) and he is very excited. He always wants to get some paint to paint the garage and fix it up a bit - he gets paid on Friday and since it's the "middle of the month" payday, he will get to spend some on himself. Hey, I already got my mircowave stand and a new purse last weekend, so I can't really say much. Hehe.

Happy Wednesday - hope the rest of the week flies by for everyone!

As the weekend ends...

I decided to post with pictures of the amazing cupcakes I made on Thursday. The recipe was in my previous post - the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. They turned out aweosme, though I do suggest taking a whole afternoon to make them. I started them at 2pm (knowing, I had to leave for work at 4pm) and was just barely finished them by the time I had to get ready to leave.

I started with the filling, which needed to cool in the fridge for an hour before going into the cupcakes. It was basically just butter, brown sugar sweetened condensed milk and flour (and mini chocolate chips)... basically it was cookie dough. Here it is before going in the fridge to cool:



Then I began the batter for the cupcakes, which didn't take too long but it was pretty specific. I was afraid it wasn't going to turn out right, but it did. Here they are while baking:



And then the cupcakes all baked (they kind of just looked like chocolate chip muffins):



Then I made the frosting, which was the best icing/frosting I've ever tasted. Whoever thought up that recipe is my hero. Ahh-mazing. Here it is, in the mixer bowl:



Next (after the cupcakes were cooled down), I cut out cones from the middle, and filled them with the delcious filling, like so:



Then, I used my cookie press/icing gun and put the frosting on the cupcakes - here's the finished product:



And then, finally, here's a picture of one of them cut in half, showing the whole thing, as well as the cookie dough filling:



That's all for today, as I'm still getting over this cold and it's my last night off. As much as I love having the weekends off these days, working Monday to Friday is really hard, especially since I'm so used to having at least one day off during the week (and working the weekend). Oh well, I really shouldn't be complaining. Bah, who am I kidding? I have to work at 9am tomorrow, and that sucks. :(