Chocolate surprise cupcakes

Okay so I know, I know it's been a while and I promised to get better at this. I apologize, and unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances (and the fact that I suck) I haven't been able to keep up with the daily challenge. I didn't realize how much time baking/selling would take out of my day and with that and school and trying to actually get my friend to come out of his cave to do something other than watch Adventure Time and Austin and Ally I've been kind of swamped.

And here soon I'll be working on SAT, skateboarding, and a college application. But! I'm going to start reminding myself to try to actually blog. I know it's pretty bad and if I ever actually had an audience (however small) I probably lost it by my sucky posting. So it goes. 

But back to the point of this post! I've been doing a whole lot of baking lately and before this, I never really realized just how exhausting baking can be. I don't know what it is about it, but it can really wear you out. But it is fun and business is going well, so I can't really complain. Yeahhh... So again, back to the point! My mom and I decided that we wanted to do some baking just for ourselves because I have eaten a grand total of one of my own muffins and we bought a giant muffin tin that we've been dying to use. 

So we had some Snickers around that had been bought on impulse a few weeks ago, and I thought why not? We looked up a super delicious chocolate cupcake recipe on allshecooks.com and decided to trade the Hershey's kisses for chunks of Snickers. Now, with them being jumbo and chocolate the baking time was a little harder to guess and they did turn out a little dry. But they are still certainly worth it and I have to say its definitely a keeper! The way we did it, it made 8 cupcakes (6 jumbo and 2 regular), but if you're making just normal cupcakes I think it would make about 15-16 cupcakes more or less. Or 7 jumbo. And as not to steal her thunder because she did such a lovely job, I'm just putting up the ingredients so you can waltz over to her lovely site and check out how to make these scrumptious cupcakes. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa (we used just a tad bit less and it still turned out wonderfully chocolatey)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 snickers bar, cut in slices. (if you are making the full recipe but in small cupcakes then you will need at least 2 Snickers or smaller slices)

As you are pouring them into the cupcake tin only fill about half then drop in the Snickers slice and then fill the rest of the way. 

Sponge nail design

Wow, so it's been a while! I had to take a mini hiatus while I was in the states because I honestly had no time to even begin thinking of trying any posts. But I'm back home again and I've got some time to kill before we move to Honduras in about a month or two. So here goes! 

I know it's a day later than I planned to have this post, but yesterday was kind of a stressful day with a goodbye party for my dad at the clinic where he was formerly director but has since left because of our move. So anyways here's my post. Monday was a boring day and since I had time to kill I decided to try out a new nail design. I've noticed that sponge designs are pretty popular on Pinterest and decided to experiment with one of my own. After I put down a clear coat I got an old kitchen sponge and painted it with a pearl white and pressed it onto the edge of my nail and then repeated it with the black, leaving just a bit of the white to be seen. I finished off with a clear coat. For best results  suggest using the other side of the sponge and dabbing it at the the nail polish while it's still wet to get it more splattered looking. 

Cute framed collage

My brother just recently got married and for their wedding presents I wanted to do something that would be cute and unique. So after looking around, I decided on something I thought they would both like that would sort of match.

I unfortunately did not think of taking any pictures during the process of making either, because hers I finished making at like 1:00 AM after working on it for several hours and his I just forgot to take photos of because I was in a hurry to finish it.

His:

Hers:

But for the most part it's a pretty straightforward project just from seeing the finished project (hopefully at least). It's a pretty easy and cheap to make. I got the frames at Goodwill and the rest of the supplies can be bought from either Walmart or Hobby Lobby.

Supplies:
Black (or whatever color you're wanting to use) sheet of heavy paper ( I bought some for about 78 cents at Walmart in the craft area) or you can buy the wooden letters or pre-cut out ones if you can find them.
 poster paper (Again cheap at Walmart)
mod podge (I made my own just using water and cheap glue)
a cheap paint brush or a sponge brush (Hobby Lobby or Walmart)
The decorative paper you are using for the collage (I used newspaper but I wanted to use old books from Goodwill but I forgot to buy some before we left and for his I just copied different eras of Batman comics and cut them out).
Backs for hanging the pictures if your frame doesn't come with one (neither of mine did. I got them at Hobby Lobby in a pack in the frame section).
a hot glue gun or strong glue (I used Elmer's strong glue)
scissors

Step 1: measure out your poster paper so that it does not show behind your frame.
Step 2: If you are cutting out the letter, measure it out so it fits so it fits neatly in the middle. As you can see I did not do the greatest job of cutting out the letters but since it was sort of a last minute gift idea I had to make do. I would suggest either using a stencil or buying pre-done letters and just painting them the color you want if you get the wooden ones.
Step 3: Cut out your background pieces. I liked to get a lot of different sizes to give it variety and I would have liked to get it from different books to give it some contrast in colors and font sizes.
Step 4: Arrange your paper how you like on the and glue them down. I liked to layer them and put them at different angles, but you can do as you like.
Step 5: Cover the background with a layer of mod podge using either the cheap paint brush or the sponge brush, being careful not to get it too thick on it. Then glue the letter down and do the same to it.
Step 6: Once everything dries, put a layer of the strong glue down on the back of the frame put down your background. To dry put it right side up and leave it on a flat surface otherwise I found that the glue doesn't dry right unless it has a little pressure (then again it might be because I was trying to let it dry in the car on the way to their house)
STep 7: If you are using a frame that does not have a hook or anything to hang with I got a pack at Hobby Lobby that don't require screws and you just have to put them in with a hammer (or as we did, with a meat cleaver since my brother has yet to buy a hammer).

This would be fun to do as kid's wall decoration too or really anything. There's a lot of fun ways you could do this. I'd love to know if anyone does it and see the results!

Strawberry vanilla cupcake recipe

Hi all! Sorry that this is kind of a weird post. I'm sort of out of whack thanks to being sort of "on vacation" you could say so my schedule is kind of weird with driving up and down everywhere to visit my brothers who happen to be in different directions of the state. Fun times. But seriously I will try to at least post once a week, if not twice a week when I can. I have a few things I've been wanting to try out now that I'm here, and have access to an actual art store and places to buy different ingredients I can't get at home. 

Anyways, back to the post at hand! On the 12th we left for the states, which also happened to be one of my best friend's birthday unfortunately. So to make up for the lack of me being there on her birthday, I decided to bake some cupcakes for her and her family the day before I had to leave. Now, I've recently gotten into this thing of baking, but I don't like baking normal people things. I don't want to just make a vanilla cupcake. I want to make a vanilla cupcake with homemade blackberry jam filling and homemade blackberry frosting. I don't just make chocolate cupcakes. I make chocolate blackberry cupcakes. I don't just do a chocolate cake. It has to be a Swedish chocolate cake (which I found out is delicious when you first get it out of the oven, but if you let it cool off too long, which i waited until much later to actually serve it, the cake becomes about as hard as a rock.). So you get the general idea. I like baking things (mostly cupcakes) with a bit of a twist. 

And that is why I got so excited when I accidentally stumbled on this recipe for a cupcake base. Basically all you have to do is make this base up and then add your flare to it. And that's when I had a light bulb moment! I wanted to make strawberry vanilla cupcakes. The unfortunate thing is that this recipe is only in grams for the dry ingredients. Why? I don't really know. It probably has something to do with being more precise or something. So that's a tad bit of a pain, but with a little digging I found a site that you can figure out how many grams (or whatever) it takes for cups (or whatever you're wanting) and this website has different calculators for sugar, flour, and butter. So that's pretty nifty if you need to convert things like that.

For this batch I was only making six cupcakes so I had to mess with the recipe and decided to just borrow my dad's electric weighing thing (very technical term right there.) instead.

Ingredients (if you're doing the full batch): 

• 125g butter, softened (a little over a stick)
• 125g caster sugar (a little over half a cup)
• 2 medium eggs
• 125g self-raising flour (1 cup)
• 2 tbsp milk

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C

Step 2: Beat your eggs and sugar until they are light and fluffy

Step 3: Add the eggs, flour, and milk and beat until smooth. 

All right now for the yummy part! 
Step 4: Add in about 1/2 a cup of strawberry pureed (thrown in the blender) and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix in.

 Step 5: place into cupcake tins and in oven for 12-15 minutes or until risen and the center is firm to the touch. 

Step 6: Wait until cool and then ice. I used a simple vanilla icing from scratch but there are some really amazing strawberry icing recipes (I might experiment and put one up sometime). I ha planned to place  strawberry on top of them, but i used all I had in the actual batter so that didn't work. 

The birthday girl's cupcake!

And the lovely birthday girl!

Please let me know how this went if you try it! From the batter I tasted it turned out pretty well, but unfortunately I forgot to make any extra for me to actually try (yeah, I know, that's kind of bad). So hopefully this recipe is correct and turns out well for all y'all! 

Lemon face toner

Okay so first off I would like to apologize for not posting anything in a while. Things have been super crazy around here. I had my SAT, traveling to the states, a wedding, and a new addition to our family in the last few weeks that has kept me pretty busy. My middle brother and his lovely new wife had asked me to be a bridesmaid for the wedding so that kept me pretty busy the days before the wedding on the 18th and my oldest brother's precious little Coralynn came 10 days early at 3:43 AM on the 18th as well so that kept us on our toes with a lot of reshuffling of plans. But everything has calmed down for the most part now and I finally have time to sort of catch my breath as I will be in America for the month.

So with all that said, let's move on to the actual post. As someone with severely sensitive skin (to the point that any little thing can set off an allergic reaction on my face) I am constantly looking for natural effective ways of tending to my skin. And I found a rather surprising one after doing some research. Apparently lemon/lime juice is a natural facial toner and if left on over night it can even out your skin tone and even get rid of freckles/dark spots.

At first I was a tad but skeptical as I mentioned that I have very sensitive skin. So the first time I put on just a bit and left it on for an hour. Noing bad seemed to happen so I went to sleep with it. Sure enough in the morning I had actually seen a bit of a change and no side effect. So I started trying it out at night and after a few days it really was working!

But there are some minor drawbacks. I have found that if you don't use it fairly consistently the effects go away and your face goes back to how it was. And also if you happen to leave it on when you go out in the sun (an d for me just going out in the sun is dangerous by itself as I am extremely pale and burn very easily) it causes even more damage from what I found from research appears to be a chemical reaction. But if you use it at night and wash it off in the morning before leaving the house it is fine. I do suggest if you are just going to be around the house, wash your face and put on another layer of it.

Okay so now how to use it. It's so easy it's ridiculous. All you need is a small squeeze bottle, a lemon, and water (if you have sensitive skin you will need more water). Squeeze the lemon juice into the bottle (depending on how much you want) and then dilute it a bit with water (more for sensitive skin). After washing your face, shake the bottle to stir up everything, squeeze the juice onto a cotton pad and apply to your face (I use it all over, but you can put it where you feel you need it). It's just that easy!

How to keep jewelry from turning your skin green

Sorry about no post yesterday! I honestly meant to try to get one up, but unfortunately yesterday our volunteer Andrea left after three months of being with us, so I went to the airport with her to see her off and then I had school all afternoon once we finally got back. And since I am finishing school sometime next week (hopefully) things are going to be a little hectic around here, and therefor probably won't go too according to schedule. But I will try get up as many posts as I can. I already have a few planned out ahead of time, so hopefully that all works out.

Anyways, the one that I'm about to show you today is probably the easiest and for a lot of you probably the most useful if you are a budget fashion-chic kind of girl like me. Now my jewelry selection is kind of a crazy mix of a lot of different styles and materials. I don't really care if it is designer or expensive (in fact I usually shy away from dropping a lot of money on a piece of jewelry seeing as how little I really wear it) so most of my stuff is that cheap stuff that the top layer wears off after a while and starts leaving a lovely green mark on your skin that takes forever to get off or ruins a pair of really cute earrings. This has been driving me crazy for a while, because a lot of my favorite stuff is cheap that is now ugly looking because it all wore off. Well no more!

A lot of you might already know this really nifty trick, but for anyone who doesn't, here's the secret to keeping your cheap jewelry looking nice: clear nail polish. Seriously, that's it. You just put that dollar store clear nail polish on your jewelry and bam! No more worrying about those ugly green marks or your jewelry ruining! I paint it on both the inside and outside of my hoops and bracelets because a lot of the time my bracelets tend to turn copper all over. But seriously, for a fashion-savvy girl on a budget this is a huge saver.

Clothespin photo line

While I was staying with my future sister-in-law and my cousin in their dorm room this last October, I saw something really cool in the hall of their dorm. To display some of the art done by the girls that were in that hall, they had hot glued clothespins up on the wall and used twine to make it look connected. Then they hung the pictures on the wall with the clothespins. This is a cute and easy way to change out your decorations if you get bored with it. So a few months ago before I even began thinking of doing a blog, I had decided to try this out as the hot glue does not peel the paint if you are careful about taking it down (not pulling at an angle or sharply, otherwise I accidentally found out that it will rip it.). Well, my first try at it went somewhat successfully until two of the three clothespins I had put up fell off while I was away for a bit. After several months of trying to convince myself to stop being lazy and get out the ladder to put them back up, I finally decided that this would be a good tutorial and got about putting it back up. Unfortunately due to my poor coordination and lack of assistance in this, I could not take step by step pictures, so hopefully this makes enough sense that the end result pictures should be enough.

Before you begin, I do need to warn you to be extremely careful with the hot glue gun. I had an unfortunate incident with the hot glue gun when a huge glob of it dripped off the string onto my finger. Which you can see the lovely results here. This caused a bad blister and a lot of pain, so please use extreme caution when you use the gun!
Note: When gluing the string for the middle clothespins, do not place the glue directly onto it as the glue does not stay on! Place it directly onto the clothespin.

Okay so onto business!

Step 1: Measure out the length of twine or string (ribbon would work as well I believe) that you are wanting to use. I used about 2 feet of string to hang up three pictures, but it's up to you on that one.

Step 2: Once you have your string measured and cut and your hot glue gun is ready, carefully glue the back of the clothespin. I have found that it is best to liberally glue the back of it for added strength. Put it up quickly, and press very hard to ensure your clothespin will hold tight.

Step 3: After your clothespin is dry, open your clothespin and place a spot of glue just below where it opens then put your string in.

Step 4: Continue this with the rest of your clothespins.

Step 5: Once all of your clothespins are up and the glue has dried, place your pictures inside of the clothespins. This can be used for several different styles of pictures and papers, so be creative! I used this to place pictures I bought on the street in NYC and even in the plastic baggies, they still stay up quite nicely.

If anyone does this, or any of my other tutorials, I would love to hear suggestions or see what you've done!

Four strand braid

Well, this post was going to be put up a lot earlier today, but my internet has been down most of the day and then went down yet again just as I was about to start focusing on this.

Anyways, for today's post I decided to do another braid I figured out how to do last night and dragged my poor guinea pig into it. This is another one of those braids that looks harder to do than it is, which is coming from someone who can barely do a normal braid without disastrous results. Today's braid is a four-strand or a four-piece braid, whatever you know it as. I, yet again, learned from a video which I'll put at the bottom in case anyone wants to see that way as well.

Step 1: Brush out your hair and separate into four equal(-ish) sections.

To make things easier, I'm going to number the sections 

Step 2: Take strand 1 and place it over strand 2

Step 3: Take this strand under strand 3

Step 4: Now take strand 4 and go under strand 3 and just repeat what you did the first time: Go over strand 2, bring strand 1 under 2, over 3. Bring strand 4 under 3, over 2. Repeat this until it is at the desired length.

Step 5: Tie off with a clear elastic or hair tie.

Step 6: (optional) For a looser, somewhat messy look tug on the strands gently. 

And now for the video I watched. For this I did the first version, but sometime I might try out the second one as well. 

Fishtail braid

So here is my make up post for being so lame last week. Recently I've been looking at different braids for when I actually get hair (hopefully not too far in the future) and a friend of mine showed me how to do one on her daughter. Well, naturally I was intrigued, so while I was browsing Pinterest, I happened to find the same braid! Turns out it was a fishtail braid. Though hers, unlike the kind I do, was very tight and controlled.

So I managed to nab my poor hair guinea pig (Andrea) and use her in my braiding experiment tonight. As she has such nice, long, thick hair, I asked if I could try some out on her and the poor sap agreed without realizing what she was getting into. By the end of Disney's Brave and two episodes of Supernatural we were both pretty sore and tired of trying to get several different styles down. The first, and probably easiest for me, was the fishtail!

One thing that is fabulous about this braid is that it looks so much more complicated than it is, giving you the look of someone who spent a long time on it when really you could probably do it with some practice in about 5 minutes more or less (depending on your hair length and thickness). I watched a video (which I'll post) on how to do it to yourself, so that will be a nice reference if you get confused.

Step 1: Brush out your hair. It's easier to get a nice smooth finish if it's brushed out, but if you like it messy then leave it unbrushed.

Step 2: Put it up in a loose ponytail with a rubber hair band (I have heard you can buy them at a dollar store or a general store very cheaply) or a regular hair tie. 

Step 3: Separate your ponytail into 2 sections 

Step 4: Begin by taking a section from the outer part of your left side and going over the left side and under your right.

Step 5: Do the same from the right side. Take a section and go over the right, under the left. 

Step 6: Continue going back and forth like so.

Here are some photos to give you a general idea of how it should be looking:

Step 7: Once you are getting towards the end (with about less than an inch or so, depending on the style you are going for) tie it off like you would any other braid. I saw with either one of the clear rubber hair bands or with a regular ponytail. 

Step 8: Carefully remove the top ponytail or cut the rubber hair band if you used one. 

Step 9: (optional) If you would like, fluff it out and tug it some to get a loose somewhat messy look. 

And you're done! Yay! Now, seeing as this is my first successful braid ever if I can do it, I know plenty of you can out there. So give it a shot, and with some practice you'll get it down, I'm sure. 

And here's the video I watched to learn in case you would like to see a video instead or want to know how to do it on yourself easier: 

Coffee Slushie

While I myself am not a coffee fan, our volunteer here has fallen in love with something my brother used to make when he was at home: coffee slushies. So I've taken her word for how good it is after I suggested she should try it. It's a pretty easy recipe and a lot of it is based on your preference.

Step 1: Well obviously to start you need your coffee. You can brew it how you want and put it in extra ice trays. Usually there isn't a problem with this as far as staining the trays, but don't take my word on that one.

Step 2: Once you have your frozen coffee cubes (usually you have to put them in the freezer overnight), figure out how much you want to make. For about a small-medium sized slushie it's about seven normal sized cubes.

Step 3: Toss your cubes into a blender or whatever it is you happen to be using to grind them up. Add in your sugar (she put in about a teaspoon, but this depends on your preference for how sweet you want it).

Step 4: Depending on your amount of cubes, add in your milk. Fill it about to just below the top of the top cubes. She used about a cup for the seven cubes in hers.

Step 5: You can put in vanilla and cinnamon if you want to change it up a bit. She did not like it because it detracts from the coffee taste, but it is good if you want to tone it down a bit.

Step 6: After you've added all your ingredients, start the blender (or whatever you're using) and blend until it's at the consistency that you want. There usually is one or two small cubes that don't grind up all the way. You can try to grind these up better, but it takes a bit of work. 

Finished product