The Violet Reaction

Stained Glass Vision

2012-02-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

The church I go to is old. Really, super old. Old enough to have stained glass windows and a built-in organ. Old enough to smell old. Yup, it's old.

One of my favorite parts about this church is that we sing old songs sometimes. You know, hymns. I really like hymns because they usually have some real thought and effort put into the lyrics, as compared to some of the more modern "Jessusss Jesssus, Ooooh I lovoveeee you Jessuuss!!! You died for meeee!!!" type-songs.

My all-time favorite hymn is a pretty popular one that most people are probably familiar with even if they don't go to church or know many religious songs. Be Thou My Vision is an Old Irish Hymn that was translated into English in the early 1900's.

Be Thou My Vision

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,

naught be all else to me, save that thou art;

Thou my best thought by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, thou my true word,

I ever with thee and thou with me Lord;

Thou my great Father, I thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight;

Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower:

Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

It goes on for 2 more verses but in the interest of space I'll stop there...

Though it might seem weird for a young person to really be into hymns, I think it's actually quite common for people my age to be enjoying these older songs. Maybe it's all just a part of the 'vintage' stage that the whole of younger-Portland seems to be going through, but both of the young-people churches I went to before finding my current one played hymns as well. I think it's pretty neat, actually.

You're the Winter Sun

2012-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been really, well, sunny.

I know some of you guys probably live in places where it's normal for it to be nice in February, but let me tell you, Oregon is not one of those places. Oregon is the place where the only safe months to plan an outdoor wedding are July and August. Oregon is the place where you carry an umbrella in your purse no matter the weather, because you never know when the sky just might decide to break open and dump buckets on you. Oregon is the place where 3 consecutive days of sunny weather any time before June is prime time news-worthy.

Can I ask you guys a silly question? Have you ever eaten a fried egg on toast before? If so, isn't it, like, amazing? I usually opt for plain scrambled eggs, but the other day I felt like trying something new and just fried them and threw 'em on toast. Yum. Happy eggs to match the happy weather.

Well, one of my eggs was happy at least. I had some difficulties with the second, as you can see...

(Cheddar cheese with apple is another of my favorite combos)

So now that my belly is sufficiently full of eggs, toast, apples, and cheese, I'm going to enjoy sitting on the couch with all the curtains open, studying French for my mid-term.

Bonne journée!

The post title is from Miss Esperanza...

Banana Split Cupcakes

2012-02-05T16:20:00.000-08:00

This is the best cupcake I've ever made. Hands down.

The combination of textures, flavors, and colors is just perfect. The gooey insides are so satisfying. They're fun to make. There is nothing un-wonderful about this cupcake. Nothing at all.

I know you've probably already left your computer screen to go start making these, but wait! You forgot the recipe!

Vanilla Cupcakes

Adapted from HowSweetEats

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well.

Combine flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Add half of dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix until just combined. Add the milk and mix. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Divide batter evenly among 12 liners and bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Ganache

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate

2 tbsp. butter

Put chocolate and butter in a bowl and set aside.

Bring heavy cream to a simmer in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate and butter. Let sit for 1-2 minutes, then begin to stir slowly until the chocolate melts and the ingredients are fully incorporated. Allow the ganache to sit and cool for 5-10 minutes before using.

Vanilla Cream Frosting

Adapted from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add heavy cream and vanilla and beat until smooth.

You will also need:

Strawberry jam/preserves

Bananas (1-2 based on the thickness of your slices)

12 maraschino cherries

Chocolate sprinkles

To assemble the cupcakes:

1) Use a small round cookie cutter to remove the centers of your cupcakes. I would recommend doing this while your cupcakes are still warm so that way the middles will come out more easily.

2) Resist the urge to eat all the the centers. You will need them again in a minute!

3) Slice up your bananas and get your strawberry jam ready.

4) Put a slice of banana inside of each cupcake, add some strawberry jam, and then put in another slice of banana.

5) Carefully cut off the bottoms in the cupcake centers so they are thin tops. Put the tops back onto the cupcakes, fully covering the banana. Push them down gently so they stick on.

6) Slowly and gently dip the cupcakes into the ganache. When I did mine I did not have any problems with my tops falling off into the ganache, but if you do have that problem you can apply the ganache with a knife or by pouring it over the top of the cupcakes.

7) Let the ganache set on the cupcakes to continue cooling and hardening. The next step will be to add the frosting, so you really want to make sure the ganache is completely cool before then otherwise your frosting will melt or slide right off the top.

8) Once the ganache is fully cooled, add a swirl of the vanilla cream frosting to the top of each cupcake. I used the Wilton 12 tip to do mine. Add chocolate sprinkles, then top with a maraschino cherry. Voila!

These cupcakes are little intense to put together, but the end product is totally worth it. I hope you get the chance to try these out some time!

Broken Bones Always Seem to Mend

2012-02-04T02:44:00.000-08:00

I think it's safe to assume that most everyone is familiar with the phenomena of under-appreciating something while you have it and then really missing it when it's gone.

That's me and the piano.

I lived in a house with a piano in it for the first 18 years of my life. I took lessons for about 11 of those years, and part of taking lessons is practicing. So yeah, I played quite a bit. But what I never really did those 18 years was just play. Just sit down and play with no real purpose other than to just enjoy it.

Well, I went off to college and now live in a house with no piano. And what do I want to do? Play piano. Like, all the time.
Now, let me just say, there are a lot of good reasons I chose the church I go to. I like the pastor, the people, the music... all the important things in picking a church, you know. But I would be lying if I said that the beautiful Steinway & Sons piano didn't also play into my decision. I go at least once a week now just to play. To play whatever songs I feel like, to make my own songs, to tinker away to my hearts delight.

The blog title is just lyrics from Angus and Julia... no broken bones here!

And in some non-cupcake-related-type-business...

2012-01-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

I have decided to change the name of my blog back to The Violet Reaction, which is what it was originally named. When I decided to make this a cupcake blog, I thought I should make a new name to reflect the new focus, but I really just haven't grown fond of the new name and have been missing the old one. So yeah, just wanted to give you a heads up! :)

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes Filled with Raspberry Jam and Topped with Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache

2012-01-22T00:37:00.000-08:00

OK, so that is pretty much the longest cupcake title ever. For such a long title you might expect a rather grand-looking cupcake, but let's face it, these don't look like much.

I would have liked to top each cupcakes with a fresh raspberry, but ohmygoodnesshaveyouseenthepriceofraspberrieslately?

What they lack in fireworks, however, they more than make up for in tastiness. Cross my heart. The cupcakes had a really excellent butter-milky flavor, and the ganache had a nice raspberry hint to it. Perfecto.

You know, I often hear people saying how baking is such a precise art. They talk about it like if you change one tiny little proportion, the cupcake (or cake, or muffin, or whatever) will be ruined. But let me tell you, when I was halving this recipe I did quite a bit of rounding up and down on some numbers and they still turned out fine and dandy. The moral of my story? Relax a little. It's not rocket science. An 1/8 of a teaspoon of baking powder isn't going to make a big difference.

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 18 Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry (first 5) ingredients together and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add whole eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated. Add egg yolks and continue to beat until combined.

Add dry ingredients to wet mixture in 3 batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk. When fully combined, beat in vanilla.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups and bake for 16-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache
Adapted from food.com

1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup dark chocolate chips (or milk, or white...)
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
2 tbsp. butter

Heat heavy cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. When it reaches a simmer, remove it from the heat. Add the chocolate chips, jam, and butter, and shake the pan gentl(y to immerse the ingredients into the cream. Let it stand for 1-2 minutes, then beat with a whisk until the chocolate melts and the ingredients are fully incorporated.

Allow the ganache to cool slightly to thicken.

Filling

I decided to fill my cupcakes at the last minute because I still had half a jar of jam left and wanted to use it up. I put it in the microwave for a little while to loosen up and make it easier to work with. To fill my cupcakes I used a small round fondant cutter to remove the centers of my cupcakes, filled the holes with jam, and then covered the hole with the top of the piece I cut out. Had I planned ahead, however, I would have done it like the first time I filled cupcakes with jam.

After you've filled your cupcakes, dip them into the ganache.

Eat up!

(Sorry for the lack of pretty pictures today... these guys aren't very photogenic, plus my daylight was quickly diminishing when I took these and most of the pics turned out fuzzy.)

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

2012-01-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

Hey guess what!

These are YUMMY.

Guess what else!

I've made these cupcakes 4 times in the past month. Yeah, 4.

The first time was to test the recipe and make sure it didn't suck. It didn't. The second was for the craft fair. The third was for Christmas Eve dessert. The fourth was for my sister to take to her work for New Year's Eve.

The moral of the story: these are definitely worth making again. And again. And again.

Even if you don't like cupcakes, just make yourself a batch of frosting. If you like peppermint, you will love the frosting.

Side note: I love chocolate and peppermint together, but yet hate peppermint patties. I can't explain it. It just is.

Mocha Cupcakes

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Make 12 Cupcakes

1 1/8 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup instant coffee powder

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tbsp. sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry (first 5) ingredients together until combined. Set aside.

In a medium-large bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth. Add milk, butter, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix. Stir in sour cream.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners and bake for 15-19 minutes (mine have varied each time I've made them from 16-18 minutes), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

Peppermint Frosting
My own creation.
1 3/4 sticks butter, room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. peppermint extract, or more as desired.
Milk, as needed

Beat butter on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Add vanilla and peppermint extracts and mix until combined. If the frosting is too stiff, add milk 1 teaspoon at a time to reach desired texture.

Garnishes:

You can mix up a little cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and milk to make a chocolate drizzle for the top. Or melted chocolate would be good. Pretty much anything brown and liquid-y will do. Okay, so not anything, but you know what I mean.

Crush up peppermint candies and sprinkle on top.

Craft Fair Pictures

2011-12-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it sure has been a while, hasn't it? My lack of posting isn't reflective of my lack of cupcake making. Rather, it's reflective of laziness. That darn guy.

I'm sitting on two really yummy recipes I want to share with you, but they aren't ready yet so in the mean time I will share a few pictures of my wares at the craft fair that I sold cupcakes at. It was a fairly successful day and I ended up selling about 2/3 of the cupcakes I prepared (I made over 100), which was far more than I was expecting.

I was originally planning on coming up with a more creative display than this, but alas, I slept though my alarm and had precious little time to frost and garnish my cupcakes, let alone figure out a good way to display them. I was literally pulling my bacon and toasted coconut out of the oven 15 minutes before the craft fair started. Total chaos.

Yes, I said bacon.

The cupcakes:

Top Left: French Toast
Recipe Coming Soon

Top Right: Chocolate Coconut
Cupcake recipe HERE
-I used 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk instead of 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of milk
Frosting recipe HERE
-I omitted the shredded coconut from the frosting and opted to just have the toasted coconut on top instead. I liked the smoother texture of frosting better.

Bottom Left: Peppermint Mocha
Recipe Coming Soon

Bottom Right: Raspberry-Vanilla
Recipe HERE

The French Toast cakes were hands down the most popular because they have bacon on top and no one can resist bacon. I only had one left, which I gobbled up myself. The second most popular was the Peppermint Mocha, which pleased many a mint-lover. The other two didn't look quite as exciting so they didn't sell as well, but I can't say I was too sad about that because I got to enjoy them for the whole week after the craft fair (they keep quite nicely in a sealed container, in case you're wondering).

I also made a few mini cupcakes (vanilla with choco frosting) for kids, but hardly any kids came so I only sold like 2 of them, both to adults. But again, I can't get too sad about that... the rest found happy homes in my stomach and in the stomachs of my friends.

Anyways, I hope that you all had wonderful Christmases and New Years! I've been enjoying a relaxing few weeks at home with my family and sweet pup.

Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

2011-11-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

This coming Saturday I will be participating in a craft fair selling my cupcakes! I've done a few craft fairs before, but always for jewelry. This will be my first venture in the world of selling baked goods... so naturally I'm a bit nervous. I still haven't settled on which flavors I'll be making yet, but I'm about 90% sure the following will be one of them:

The frosting for these cupcakes is super easy to make because it only has 3 ingredients. I was going to add other things... vanilla, salt, milk, etc, but after I had the first 3 ingredients in there it tasted great. So I asked myself, "Why add more if it's already really good?". I even made a partial batch of this frosting to put on some mini vanilla cupcakes I made for myself a few days ago and I just mixed it up by hand using a spoon. Like I said, easy.

Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes
Adapted from How Sweet it Is
Makes 12 Cupcakes
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup milk
12 tsp. (1/4 cup) seedless raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well.

Combine dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add half of dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix until just combined. Add the milk and mix. Add the second half of dry ingredients and mix until combined.

After I added the jam, before I added remaining batter.

Fill cupcake liners approx. 1/3-1/2 full. In the center of each cupcake, add 1 tsp. of raspberry jam. Distribute the remaining batter evenly so the jam is covered.

Bake for 18-23 minutes (mine were ready at 18 minutes). These are a little tricky to test with a toothpick due to having jam in the center, but do your best to poke around the sides a bit and make sure they're done before removing.

Remove from tins and completely cool before frosting.

Raspberry Frosting
My own creation.

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cups seedless raspberry jam
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and raspberry jam until completely incorporated and smooth. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and beat until the desired consistency is reached. Frost cupcakes liberally.

And then I did this because I was bored...

Wouldn't you have?

Anyways, if you are a Portland person (I know many of you are!) and would like to come say hi and grab a cupcake this Saturday, please do so! It's at 1748 SE 12th Ave. and is from 9am-4pm. There will be free coffee, cocoa, and cider!

Well, that's all I've got for now. Enjoy your week!

Apple Pie Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

2011-11-18T18:57:00.001-08:00

I'm thankful for a lot of things these days, but what I'm really thankful for at the moment are these:

Ooohh my gosh. So good. Sooo good. Sooo sooo sooooo good.

SO GOOD.

Hands down these are the best cupcakes I've ever made. They are probably the best cupcakes in the world, though I haven't tried every cupcake, so I can't say with 100% certainty. More like 98% certainty. I really just cannot imagine anything better than these cupcakes.

And how perfect would these be for Thanksgiving dessert? I know apple pie is kind of the traditional dessert, but why not shake things up a bit? I promise you won't be disappointed!

Cinnamon Cupcakes

Adapted from The Craving Chronicles

Makes 12 Cupcakes

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

On the stove, heat milk and butter in a saucepan over medium until butter melts. Set aside to cool.

Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and set aside.

Using a mixer with a whisk attachment, beat eggs and sugar together until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Add milk mixture and vanilla and beat until blended.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

After cupcakes have cooled, carefully remove the center of each cupcake with a knife. I attempted to use the cone method, but the cupcakes were so soft that I ended up basically just scraping out the centers with the edge of my knife. They should look like so:

Just make sure you don't cut down too deep... shoot for about half way down or a little less.

Apple Filling
Adapted from Annie's Eats

1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. sugar
3 medium-sized Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced

Heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high. Add the cinnamon and sugar and cook for a minute until the mixture starts bubbling. Lower heat to medium and add apples. Mix well. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, stirring the apples every minute or so. Remove from heat.

Once the apples are cooled, spoon apples into the center of each cupcake.

Caramel Frosting

My own creation.

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. caramel topping

Beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add caramel and vanilla and mix well.

Add a small swirl of frosting on top of the apples, but not covering them completely.

I hope you guys enjoy these, if you should be wise enough to make them. Really, they are just the best. They were a huge hit with the roommates, many of whom declared it to be the best cupcake they've ever had. They're a bit more labor-intensive then your average cupcake, but it's totally worth it in the end. I plan to make these guys many times again in the future.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy spending time with your friends and family.

Pink Pomegranate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

2011-11-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

So, I wanted to make pomegranate cupcakes the other day. The first hurdle that one must deal with when attempting to make pomegranate cupcakes is opening a pomegranate. This involves a lots of stress and staring blankly at the foreign-looking fruit sitting on the table in front of you. Also the watching of several youtube videos is advised. For those less inclined towards videos, Google "What the heck do you do with a pomegranate" for some good how-to articles.

All of the Youtube videos I watched acted like their method of opening a pomegranate was some big secret that they came up with all on their own. The catch? They all used the same method. So I am inclined to think that it's not a secret, and none of them thought of it on their own. Fakers. To show how much of a non-secret it really is, I will shout it at you, okay?

OPEN THE STUPID THING UNDERWATER.

Alright then, now that we all know the proper way to open a pomegranate, let's carry on...

If I'm being 100% honest, which I try to be 98% of the time, I'm not the biggest fan of these cupcakes. My roommates all thought they were great, though, so maybe I'm just being to critical. I still debated briefly about whether or not to post the recipe because I don't feel comfortable posting a recipe that I'm not totally in love with, but I saw these pictures and knew that there was no way I could not post about these. Even if you don't use the recipe, you must use this style of decorating sometime! Pomegranate seeds are a dream to embellish frosting with and make for a striking picture.

Don't get me wrong... there's nothing wrong with these cupcakes. Perfectly fine. Perfectly acceptable. They will not, however, make you want to jump up and down with happiness. I know that probably sounds weird for me to say on my own stinking blog, but I'm just being my 98%-of-the-time 100% honest self. Do with this information what you will.

Pink Pomegranate Cupcakes
My own creation
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk (or, if you have it, pomegranate juice)
1/2 tsp. red food coloring*
1 cup pomegranate seeds

*I used 1 tsp. and they turned out cosmic pink, as you can see. If you want them to look like mine, by all means, use a whole teaspoon.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of your mixer. Add butter, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, milk, and red food coloring and beat until smooth. Fold in pomegranate seeds.

Divide batter evenly. Bake 19-23 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from Savory Sweet Life

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1+ tbsps. milk or heavy cream

Cream butter. Add powdered sugar and cocoa and mix well. Add vanilla, salt, and 1 tbsp. milk and mix until smooth. Add more milk as needed to reach desired consistency.

Frost cupcakes as desired. Garnish with extra pomegranate seeds.

Pink!

Chocolate Blueberry Muffins

2011-11-13T19:58:00.001-08:00

OK, be honest. You're totally thinking, "Wow, what ugly muffins", aren't you? It's okay if you are, but just know that if you let the appearance of these muffins deter you from making them, you'll be missing out in a delicious treat.

I know I said the last muffins I made were the best ever, but I think these might be better. It seems like every time I declare something to be "the best", the next thing I make is better. It's a good problem to have, yes?

These muffins are pretty dense, but I like it that way. Super flavorful and super yummy. Exactly what a muffin should be. And they have blueberries in them, for goodness sake, so they're healthy.

OK, so maybe not. Oh well. I love them anyways.

Chocolate Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from How Sweet It Is
Makes approx. 12 muffins
1 cup all-purpose flour*
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup milk

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/4 cup chopped chocolate (I used dark chocolate)

*If you're really into whole wheat, feel free to do 2 cups of WWPF instead of all-purpose. Alternatively, you can do 2 cups of all purpose flour if you don't have any WWPF. It's up to you.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with liners.

Add first 7 ingredients to a bowl and mix until combined. Using a whisk, stir in the egg,vanilla, melted butter and milk just until combined. If the dough seems dry, add an additional tablespoon of milk (I added one to mine). Fold in blueberries and chocolate.

Spoon batter into liners. Bakefor 13-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Eat up.

Due to the chocolate and berries, these are best served warm. Right out of the oven is ideal, but if you're having them later be sure to throw them in the microwave for 15 or 20 seconds so they'll be nice and gooey

Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

2011-11-12T11:51:00.001-08:00

I'm feeling remarkably uncreative at the moment, and have nothing to say about these cupcakes other then that they are yummy and you should make them. And eat them. And love them. You know the drill.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup butter, melted

1/4 Cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and brown sugar until smooth. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Add dry ingredients to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth. Use a 1/4 cup measure to add batter to liners. Bake for 14-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

White Chocolate Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

4-5 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 oz. white chocolate, melted

1-3 tablespoons milk

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar (start with 4 cups) and mix well, then add the vanilla and mix again. Melt the white chocolate and stir it in. Add milk as needed to reach desired consistency. If the frosting needs more firmness, add more powdered sugar.

Frost cupcakes as desired. I didn't have my frosting tips with me when I made these, so I just used a plastic bag with the corner cut off.

You can leave the cupcakes as is, or garnish with the topping of your choice. I personally chose chocolate covered strawberries. Simply melt some chocolate chips and dip some clean (but dry) strawberries in and add them to the top of the cupcakes.

I think due to the melted chocolate, the frosting was fairly stiff the day after I made them. For a softer texture, I'd recommend that you make the frosting the day that you will be eating it and not in advance.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins

2011-11-10T16:13:00.001-08:00

So I know this is a cupcake blog, but I think I'm also going to start incorporating some other types of recipes on here as well. For a while there I was on a cupcake roll, but more recently I've been trying to use my baking skills for a wider variety of foods, namely muffins.

These are the best muffins I've ever made. True, they are only the second batch I've ever made and the first ones turned our horrifically (make a note: whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour are not the same thing), but still, I think that these guys will be hard to top. Chocolate chips and banana is a real winning combination.

I actually spent the first 18 years of my life under the impression that I didn't like bananas. I don't know why... I just got it in my head somehow and maintained that theory until just a few months ago when I ate one and was like, "HOLY CRAP THIS IS GOOD." Ever since then, I've been trying to find ways to sneak bananas into everything I eat. Hey, there are worse things to binge on.

Fun Fact: I like to eat bananas when they are still slightly green. Don't laugh at me.

To try and satisfy my daily banana craving, I went on the hunt for the perfect banana muffin recipe. Believe me, there is no shortage of banana muffin recipes on the internet right now. However, most of them are all healthy-like and sound like something you'd find on a weight-watchers diet. This one, however, is no such muffin. Regular flour and chocolate chips... definitely not for the health nut.

These are seriously the perfect muffins. Soft, moist, and very flavorful. The banana is really pronounced, and the chocolate chips are the perfect complimentary ingredient.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Adapted from All Recipes

Makes about 14-16 muffins

1 3/4 cups flour (all-purpose)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup yogurt - plain would be ideal but I used strawberry-banana because that's all I had and it was fine.

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup mashed banana (approx. 2 bananas)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mash your bananas in a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine egg, yogurt, oil, and vanilla and mix. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until combined (do not over mix!). Fold in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips.

Fill liners about 2/3 full. Bake for 18-24 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Consume.

Blueberry Breakfast Cakes

2011-11-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

This morning I ate this:

When I ate it, I felt like this on the inside:

True story.

(Oh, and random side note: if you are ever feeling down in the dumps, google "happy puppy" images. Guaranteed cheeriness right there.)

I followed this recipe to a T, so I won't bother re-posting it here. You can find the original recipe by clicking HERE.

Best. breakfast. ever.

Coffee Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting and Chocolate Syrup

2011-11-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today I put together a quiz for you.

Do you like cupcakes?
a) Heck yes I do! Cupcakes FTW!
b) Yup
c) Uh, well I'll eat them if you give them to me, but they're nothing to get excited about
d) No way jose

Do you like coffee?
a) YESYESYESYESYESYESYES.
b) Yes
c) Eh... it's OK
d) No

Do you like coconut?
a) You better believe I do!
b) Yeah, it's pretty good
c) I could take it or leave it
d) YUCK

For every A answer, give yourself 3 points, for every B answer give yourself 2 points, for every C answer give yourself 1 point, and for every D answer give yourself no points.

The Grades:
0-2 points: You are not a human being
3-5 points: These cupcakes are probably not for you.
6-7 points: You will find a decent amount of satisfaction in making and consuming these cupcakes.
8-9 points: These cupcakes are your soul mate. For reals. Make them, eat them, love them.

OK, so now that I have analyzed your personality in a very awkward manner, let's bake some cupcakes.

Irish Coffee Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 15 Cupcakes

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Cup Boiling Water
3 Tbsp. Instant Coffee Powder
1/4 Cup Milk
1 Stick Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
2 Eggs

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Pour boiling water over instant coffee powder and set aside to cool. When cooled, add milk.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until light brown and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each. Beat in flour mixture, alternating with the coffee/milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.

Fill 15 cups with batter, about 3/4 full. Bake approx. 17-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes our clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Coconut Frosting
From How Sweet It Is

2 Stick Butter, room temperature
3 2/3 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp. Coconut Extract
1-2 Tbsp. Coconut Milk
1/2 Cup Shredded, Sweetened Coconut

Cream butter until completely smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. Add vanilla and coconut extract. Beat for a few minutes until fully mixed. If it's too stiff, add coconut milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. For more firmness, add more powdered sugar. Finally, fold in the shredded coconut.

Frost cupcakes liberally. I had enough frosting to do all 15 cupcakes as pictured and had a little left over as well. If you don't want as much frosting on your cupcakes, reduce the frosting measurements, otherwise you'll have a lot left over.

I used the Wilton #12 tip to frost these.

Chocolate Syrup
from Food.com

1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
Pinch of salt

Combine the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a sauce pan. Add the water and mix until smooth.
Over low-medium heat, slowly bring the mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for 1-2 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside to cool. Once cooled, add vanilla and mix well.

This syrup is very runny and does not thicken up very much. If you want yours to be thicker, stick it in the fridge for a while.

Drizzle the syrup over the frosted cupcakes.

This recipe will make more than enough syrup to do all 15 cupcakes. Refrigerate and put the rest on your ice cream tonight. It's wayyy better than Hershey's syrup, I swear!

If you want, toast some more of the shredded coconut in the oven for a few minutes and add it to the top as garnish.

And don't forget to take pretty pictures of your cupcakes before you eat them all!

Oh, and Another Thing...

2011-10-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

On Monday I will be changing my blog name to "Cup Sized Cake". I will no longer be showing up on your blog feed as "The Violet Reaction"! Just wanted to give you a heads up so you don't have a panic attack when you can't find me on your blog feed. Because I'm sure you look for me every day. Right? Riggghhht?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

My First Win and The Crazy Things I Do

2011-10-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

So, first up on the menu, I need to tell you all that I am now an award winning cupcake baker. So you can rest assured that all the recipes I post here are safe and will not kill you.

What is this award that I won? Well, let me tell you! I won the sweets category at the Comfort Food Challenge at the house I live in.

The deathly white apparition on the left is me, just fyi.

It was a for-fun competition and there were lots of awesome people and awesome comfort foods there.

This is my entry:

I made 3 different kinds of mini cupcakes: a breakfast one, a lunch/dinner one, and a dessert one. I was going to make 4, but alas, time was not on my side, so I had to settle for chocolate drizzled on the plate to disguise the missing 4th cupcake. And no one said to me, "Gee Leanna, your plate looks dumb with only 3 cupcakes on it," so I must have succeeded on my mission.

From left to right, we have a French Toast cupcake with Maple buttercream frosting and crispy bacon on top, a Cheddar and Herb bread with goat cheese topping, and a classic Red Velvet Cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a pecan on top.

Let me describe them for you using one word for each:
Yum.
Yum.
and
Yum.

Let me tell you, if you've never had a cupcake with bacon on it, get your butt away from the computer right this second and go make one. It will change your life. Forever.

I have plans to do individual posts for each of these recipes, so hang tight for a week or two while I get my act together. I ended up going off-recipe a bit and didn't actually write down any of the changes I made, so I'm still not entirely sure how I'll put the posts together. It'll happen, though. Just don't hold that breath of yours.

So that's it for the first part of the post. Now onto the second part, which I shall entitle:

This is SO Not Worth 10% Extra Credit.

Right now I'm on Day 4 of a one week long extra credit assignment for my Globalization class. The assignment? Live on $2 a day. I don't know how many of you have been grocery shopping lately, but what this loosely translates to is "Eat Top Ramen for a week".

Actually, it's not that bad. I went to Fred Meyer's and bought all my food at once and actually got a fair amount. And by fair amount I really mean:
-7 Packages of Top Ramen
-4 Packages Instant Mashed Potatoes
-3 Cans Tomato Soup
-7 Cups of Yogurt
-1/2 Dozen Eggs
-1 Box of "Spread" (I don't know what's in it, nor do I want to. It was cheap and I bought it).
-1 Loaf of White Bread
-6 Bananas. This was my one splurge item... I really love bananas and couldn't imagine going a week without them. I had $1.26 left in my budget and they ended up weighing in at $1.22. I took this as a sign from God that I was supposed to buy them.

What I did NOT buy:
-Coffee
-Milk
-Tea
-Juice
-Any other liquid

We're allowed to drink water for free, but no other liquids unless we buy them. This sucks. I don't like water. I never, ever just drink water, and literally had to write myself a note to drink some today so I wouldn't forget to drink like I did yesterday. It occurred to me last night as I was getting into bed that I hadn't gone to the bathroom since I woke up in the morning. TMI? Yes. But now you know how awful I am at drinking water.

This honestly is a lot harder than I thought it would be. In reality, it's enough food and I've never been hungry, but I'm having a hard time mentally. No, I'm not going crazy. But I am finding myself craving to eat all the time, just because I know that I can't. And the other day I was waiting at my busstop, which is next to McDonald's, and I was just itching to go in and get something.

DID YOU READ THAT? I WANTED MCDONALD'S!
I was so ashamed.

The hardest part though, at least so far, is definitely the coffee. I wanntttt coffffeeeeeee. The second my week is over, I'm going out and buying a Venti mocha at Starbucks. Yeah, it'll probably cost the equivalent of my entire food budget for this past week, but the heck with it. I. Want. Coffee.

Obviously on this budget I can't afford to make cupcakes, but rest assured I'll be back on that ASAP. I've got like a gazillion new recipes that I've bookmarked, so be expecting a lot of yummy things to come your way soon.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2011-10-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not happy with how this cupcake looks. Not happy at all. Everyone has said they look fine, but if you knew the picture I had of them in my head before I started, you'd think these are pretty ugly, too. But looking at the bright side, they at least look better than these guys, which were my first attempt at a peanut butter frosting:

Haha! Look at how boring and ugly these ones look. Thankfully, is was at this point that the decorative bug took over me.

I have something to tell you, though. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but just in case you missed it:

I hate peanut butter.

Yes, 'tis true. I can't stand the stuff. My mom says even when I was a baby I'd just spit it right out when she gave it to me. Some people get offended when you flip them off; I get offended when you eat a PB&J within 20 feet of me. The smell... oh, the smell! I couldn't imagine anything worse than being forced to eat peanut butter. May it never be.

So why, then, am I making Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes? Well, despite my hatred for PB, I recognize that a majority of the population does not share my distaste for the stuff... in fact, many of them quite like it. And I happen to live in a house with 10 other people, several of whom have said that I should make a peanut butter cupcake. *Sigh* I do it for the people, friends, I do it for the people.

And indeed, the people were pleased. I've gotten several compliments on these guys, so even though I haven't eaten them myself, I feel confident enough in them to share the recipe with you.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup butter, melted

4 tablespoons sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk egg and brown sugar until smooth and no lumpsremain. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir insour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix untilbatter is smooth. Line a muffin tin with liners and using a 1/4 cup measure,add batter to each cup. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

Adapted from How Sweet It Is
1 cup peanut butter
5-6 cups of powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons of milk

3/4 cup butter,softened

1 pinch of salt

Cream butter and peanut butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add 5 cups of powdered sugar and mix well. Add milk and vanilla extract. Mix until frosting is smooth. If too thick, add more milk; if too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Chocolate Ganache
6 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high until it comes to a boil. Immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until completely mixed. Set aside to cool and harden.

When I did my ganache, I didn't wait long enough for it to harden and it was still too soft to pipe. I envisioned it being a pretty flower on top, but I ran out of time (I had the have the cupcakes ready at 7pm) so I went ahead and just dumped a bit of the ganache on top and a little pile. Totally not as cute as I wanted it to be, but oh well. I would definitely recommend making the ganache first, so that way it'll have plenty of time to stiffen up while you're making the cupcakes and frosting.

Also, I really wanted to put a peanut on top. How cute would that have been? But like I said, I was out of time and I didn't have any peanuts, so it didn't happen. If I ever make these again I'll definitely plan ahead for that and get some at the store.
Enjoy! Unless you're sensible, like me, and don't like peanut butter, in which case I'm sorry. You can rest assured that my next recipe with have no trace of the wretched stuff in it.

PS. They also make great goofy eyes.

Just sayin'.

Strawberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

2011-10-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Making these cupcakes was quite the up-and-down adventure. Things started out well enough... I whipped up the batter pretty quickly and stuck them in the oven, but then things started to go down hill. I made a vanilla frosting I found online and it pretty much sucked. It was runny and gooey and was an awful consistency. I tried adding more powdered sugar, but I eventually realized that it was just not going to work and chucked the whole batch. Frustrated, I turned to Google to find a decent "vanilla buttercream frosting" and printed the first one that didn't call for whipping cream or more than 4 cups of powdered sugar (I'm almost out...). Thankfully, it turned out very well and was perfect for frosting. When I had my first bite, all my frustration with the frosting melted away and I literally did a little jump. Seriously, these are yummy cupcakes.

Let me just say, before I got into cupcakes I thought that frosting would be really hard. Not so. You just throw a tip on the bag and squirt away. As long as you have a steady hand, you'll be fine. Pretty frosting isn't nearly as difficult to create as it looks like.

In all honesty, these cupcakes taste a lot like a muffin. I suppose the line between muffins and cupcakes is pretty thin anyways, but the cake itself has a rather muffin-y quality to it, and the chunks of strawberry only add to that. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm just "keeping it real", as a person more hip than I might say.

StrawberryCupcakes
from How Sweet It Is

Makes approx. 18 cupcakes

1 and 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter

3 eggs

3 teaspoons vanillaextract

2 and 1/4 cups flour

2teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 choppedstrawberries*

2-3 tablespoons milk,if needed

*I used 1.5 cups but thought they could use a bit more, so I've upped it to 2 for this recipe. If you really like strawberries, definitely go with 2 cups. For a lighter strawberry presence, only use 1.5 cups.

Preheat oven to 350degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugar together for about 2 minutes until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixuntil combined. Add flour, baking powder and salt with the mixer and mix until combined. Add in chopped strawberries and beat for 1-2 minutes until the strawberries break down. If the batter is too try, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Divide your batter evenly, filling each cup about 2/3 full, andbake for 20-23 or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out dry.

VanillaButtercream Frosting*

from Savory Sweet Life

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2-4 tablespoons milk

Beat butter for a few minutes on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and mix well until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Add vanilla, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

*I had just enough frosting for my 18 cupcakes. If you are planning on doing more frosting than I did, you'll need to add more to your recipe.

Frost cupcakes as desired. I used the Wilton 1M tip. Garnish with sliced strawberries.

And the final step: devour. You'll be glad you did.

The New Name:

2011-10-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

So, I've decided to get a new name for my blog, since The Violet Reaction doesn't make me think of cupcakes at all. I tried to think of something witty, but after about 15 minutes of that I just gave up and decided to be boring instead.

Cup-Sized-Cakes.

I know, total bore, right?

You've probably noticed, but I've changed the banner already to reflect the new name. In a few days, I will also be changing the blog name "officially" in my settings, so on your blog feed I will no longer be showing up as "The Violet Reaction", but instead as "Cup-Sized-Cake". Don't say I didn't warn you.

ALSO, I'm contemplating changing the URL as well. I'm not 100% sure on that yet. If I do decide to, I will let you know a few days before hand, just in case any of you have my URL bookmarked and want to change it.

Thanks for the positive feedback on my last post! I'm glad that some of you are excited about cupcakes!

So Here's the Deal:

2011-10-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

Guys, I love cupcakes.

I don't know what happened to me. My plain old self was just sitting on the couch, watching the Food Network like I used to when I was at home with nothing better to do, and this cake show came on. It was called Fabulous Cakes, a show I'd seen before. At some point during the show, a light bulb just came on. I sat up, and I literally said out loud, "I want to make cake".

Well, after a few minutes of recipe-surfing online, I came across a recipe that was actually for cupcakes, not cake, but it looked so great I couldn't say no. It was Irish Coffee cupcakes. I made them, and they were yummy. And the rest is history (excuse my uber-lame choice of words). I've been making cupcakes ever since.

So what does that mean for you? Well, let me tell you.

I miss blogging, but the truth is I don't have anything to blog about anymore. I am a college student now and spend a good portion of my day walking to and from bus stops and in between classes on a large campus. I love getting dressed up and wearing heels and carrying impractically small purses, but it's just not practical for me anymore. I wear jeans. Every day. I wear flats. Every day.

So long story short, no more fashion blogging. You see people wearing jeans and cute tops every day, so to continue outfit blogging at this point would just be wasting my time and yours. But like I said, I miss blogging, so I figured, why not blog about my new love?

Yeah, a cupcake blog.

I know there are tons of cupcake blogs out there, but I'm not doing it with the intent of becoming famous and world-renowned. I just want to make cupcakes, take pictures of them, share them, and share the recipes as well so other people can love cupcakes right along with me.

I briefly considering starting a completely new blog, but then I realized how silly that would be. I already have a blog. Why bother starting a new one? It's no big deal if I have old fashion posts.

So I guess my main reason for this post was just to let everyone know about the upcoming changes. I'll probably be changing the name of the blog, and naturally everything like the banner and such will change. And let me just say, it's totally cool if you want to unfollow. You started following this blog as a fashion blog, so if you're not interested in cupcakes I totally understand.

But yeah, I'm really excited to get started! I'm not 100% sure when I'll be doing my "first" post... might be tomorrow, or it might be in a week. Or maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and think this was a terrible idea. OK, so that's probably not going to happen, but you never know.

Ridiculous

2011-09-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

Oh friends, so I have such a treat for you today! No, you don't get one of those delicious cupcakes I showed in my last post. You get to see this picture of me in this ridiculous dress:

You're welcome.

I got this dress from a neat thrift shop in Portland. Yes, it's kind of horrific as is, but I was really attracted to the print and couldn't pass it up (it was only $5, after all).

The problem with the print, though, is just that there's way to much of it. It's a busy, busy piece of fabric, and an entire dress made of it is a nightmare. So I did the sensible thing and reduced the amount of the print by over 50%.

And voila:

Earrings and Ring: Handmade --- Top and Skirt: Thrifted --- Shoes: Seychelles via Amazon

Now I have the fabulosity of the print in a pint-sized version of the original piece. It's a great, floral, summery piece that I can wear with a variety of tops and accessories...

... and all it took was a pair of scissors. Somewhere in the world, the old lady that owned this dress before me is rolling over in her grave.

Well, the time is drawing near for me to move out and on to the big cit of Portland! School starts on Monday, so I'm starting to get my stuff together. The only catch is that I don't actually have a place to live yet... I looked at a few places but they didn't work out. I have one more place to look at this Friday, so I'm super hoping it will work, or I may have to live in a box on campus. Hey, the rent would be a great deal, no?

I just hope wherever I end up living will have a semi-decent kitchen so I can keep up my new-found fascination with cupcakes. Look at what I made today:

Ghirardelli Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache.

Get. In. My. Belly.

My New Love:

2011-09-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

So within the past week, I've made 3 different kinds of cupcakes. The first batch was Irish Coffee with Whipped Cream frosting. They tasted YUMMY, but they were kind of ugly. So ugly that I couldn't bring myself to take a picture. OK, so maybe they weren't actually that bad, but in my head I had envisioned them much prettier, so when they came out only looking so-so it was a major disappointment. So no pictures of these ones, unfortunately.

Batch two was Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter frosting. I don't like peanut butter at all, but my family was coming home from a long trip that day and they all like peanut butter, so I did the "noble thing" (in my dad's words) and made a frosting that I wouldn't like. I wasn't too noble, though, as I did leave 3 un-frosted for myself. These are what they looked like:

The cake part tasted decent enough... not quite chocolate-y enough, and they sunk a lot after taking them out of the oven, so I don't think I'll be using the cupcake recipe again. The frosting was quite good, though, or so I was told since I didn't have any. Or maybe they were just all lying to me to be nice. I think I didn't wait long enough for the cupcakes to cool before adding the frosting because it was a lot more firm in the bowl and kinda got a bit melty looking on the cupcakes. Lesson learned.

My third batch is the one that I'm most excited about, solely for the fact that they actually look a teensy bit as awesome as I hoped they would. I mean, seriously, just look at them:

Cookies and Cream! With Oreo cookies in the cupcake, the frosting, and on top! What's not to love? The frosting is so good. I just made these this afternoon, though, and haven't even any of them yet, so I don't know if the cake part it OK. I followed the directions exactly so I can't imagine why they wouldn't, but I can't determine whether they're winners or not just quite yet. But man are they cute. Almost too cute to eat!

So yes, this is what I've been doing with all my time instead of dressing up and taking pictures. Now you know.

Jason Wu Spring 2012

2011-09-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the kind words on my last post... I'm very excited about starting school! To answer your questions, I'm going to Portland State University (which has 27,000 students, so if you're thinking about being a creeper and stalking me in real life, good luck finding me!) and studying linguistics and education.

Anyways, on to more important matters!

Pop Quiz:
Leanna's Favorite Designer is...
A) Jason Wu
B) All of the above.
C) A and B.

Yay! You got it right!
Mr. Wu showed his Spring Ready-to-Wear line at NYFW, and like any devoted fan would, I refreshed Style.com every hour until they posted the pictures from his show. Because, as you all are well aware, I'm a nobody and will never be enough of a somebody to merit an invitation to such an event, so I much satisfy my fashion cravings via the all-knowing interwebs.

Images via Style.com

I've blogged Mr. Wu's three previous collections (Pre-Fall 2011, Fall 2011, Resort 2012), and if I'm being honest this one if probably my least favorite out of the 4. That's not to say I don't like it, but it doesn't make me say...

OHMYGOSHILOVETHATIWANTITANDINEEDITLOVELOVELOVEFREAKINGGORGEOUS!!

... like his other collections have.

Probably the main reason I'm not totally in love is the liberal use of granny panties, of which there are 5. That's 5 too many granny panties for me. Also, I really don't like the styling, which I know has nothing to do with the clothes themselves, but still... it's just distracting. I really hate that orange lip stick they're all wearing, and what's on the back of their heads?

Like I said, though, I'm definitely not saying I don't like the collection overall. Take away the granny panties and funky lip color and there's some really great stuff going on here. That black and white floral print is pretty gorgeous, but even more so in the blue. I really like the peachy-pink color he used some at the beginning, but definitely do not like the pink he used at the end. There's a couple pieces in there that are pretty unflattering, but mostly there are lots of clean, elegant silhouettes.

My favorite part is that so many pieces from this show are actually wearable. So often you see "ready to wear" shows that look like couture shows, with ridiculously outrageous color and silhouettes that no one would really ever wear. And while a lot of the pieces from this collection are a little more fancy than most people probably have use for, there are still a number of pieces that could be incorporated into an everyday wardrobe.

F21

2011-09-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Dress: F21 --- Belt: Thrifted --- Shoes: Payless

So, this is the dress that I got from F21 with my gift card. Actually, this is the 2nd dress I got with that gift card. The first had to be returned because I ordered a Large and I was basically swimming in it. I really just do not understand Forever21 sizing... I have a long sleeve top from them that is pretty much skin tight and is a Large, yet I can get a Large dress and it feels 3 sizes too big? Anyhow, I learned my lesson (the lesson being that F21 is ridiculous) and got a Medium this time around and it fits much better.

I really like it, though. Hands down the nicest article of clothing I've ever got from F21. A lady at church said it looked like J. Crew. That's one compliment I can really appreciate. :)

Anyways, I've got some super happy fun-time news for you!

I'm going to college!

Everything happened very last-minute, but long story short: I applied mid-August, and was accepted Sept. 7th, went to Orientation Sept. 8th, and am now in the process of looking for a place to live. I'm very excited, and very nervous, about starting school, but I think it'll be fun. Wish me luck!

Cascade

2011-09-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Top and Skirt: Thrifted --- Shoes: Payless --- Earrings: Handmade --- Belt: From my mother dearest :)

I saw a girl walking today who was wearing tights under her skirt. Man, is that a depressing thought. Within a few weeks it's going to get really cold and the all the scarves, cowls, and tights that I stowed away so neatly and tightly on the top shelf of my closet are going to have to come out once again. Le sigh.

Anyhow, I kind of love this top even though it looks like I have a waterfall descending from my neck. Also, it's a touch too small, but I just have to be careful not to eat too many brownies while wearing it and everything will be fine.

This might get me in a bit of trouble, but I just have to say:

I do not like Goodwill.

There, I said it. Please don't shoot me.

Reason #1: The dressing rooms. They make you wait for someone to come unlock your door for you like it's some fancy department store. And then to make it even worse they only let you take 6 items in. SIX. Maybe that's fine for some people, but I'm more the sort that grabs anything and everything that I think has the remotest possibility of looking good and can end up with 20+ items to try on. Not so at the Goodwill, though.

Reason #2: They're expensive. I don't mind paying several dollars on a thrift store item if it's something cool and unique, but I don't want to be shelling out $10 for a used Old Navy top that probably only cost $10 to begin with.

Reason #3: Speaking of Old Navy tops, I think they could just go ahead and change to name from Goodwill to the Old Navy Resale Shop. I'm sure it's different in each Goodwill, but seriously, I think think half the stuff I looked at in there was Old Navy. I go to thrift stores to find interesting, unique stuff, not last season's Old Navy styles.

So there you have it.

Lacey

2011-09-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Top: UO --- Necklace: F21 --- Shorts: Target --- Wedges: Kohls --- Purse: Thrifted

Two outfit posts in a row consisting of me wearing shorts... what is the world coming to? Since I haven't been working I don't have as much cause to dress up quite so much, so shorts it is.

I got this pink lace top from UO when I went up to Portland to hang out with Lea. Have any of you bought anything in UO lately? Aren't their new shopping bags awesome? I feel like I need to buy something every time I go in now just so I can get another bag. I save them all. Good for you, Urban Outfitters, you have successfully figured out how to buy my love.

OK, so do any of you guys have Netflix? If so, what are you favorite movies on Instant Play? I'm looking for new, good movies to watch, but I think their navigation is kind of useless and I can never find anything good browsing the sections. Anyways, if you've got a favorite movie on IP, please let me know and I might love you forever! (I love documentaries, dramas, foreign movies, action, thrillers, and comedies. So pretty much anything. Except not really scary movies... unless it's a really good scary movie.)
And lest you think I'm all take and no give, I'll share some of my favorites for you to watch if you feel so led:

Paper Heart - It's got Michael Cera in it! What else do you need to know? Many thanks to Kira for recommending this one.
State of Mind - An excellent documentary about 2 North Korean girls training for the Mass Games.
Downton Abbey - Costumes and sets to die for, friends.
Arrested Developement - Pretty much the funniest TV show ever.

I mostly use Netflix to watch TV shows and documentaries, in case that wasn't apparent. :)

Earthies

2011-09-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

Blazer: Thrifted --- Top and Shorts: Anne Taylor --- Earthies Heels: Piperlime --- Vintage Clutch: Etsy

It is entirely Joni James' fault that I have these shoes. I wasn't going to buy them. Really, I wasn't. But then she had to go an send me an email when she found them on sale at Piperlime, and there was just no hope for me after that. I can't say I'm upset, though... they're certainly super comfy and cute to boot.

My mom and I went to Anne Taylor the other day, which is always fun because it's one of the few stores we can both go to and find things we like. I was happy to find myself this plain ivory top on sale because the other plain ivory top I have has holes in it. Classy, I know. Not on my list of things to get, but equally as exciting, were these shorts. You can't tell from the pictures (actually, all you can tell from the pictures is that they're wrinkly, but let's not talk about that...), but they're really shimmery. Shimmer shorts! Every girl needs a pair. I declare it to be so.

---

Oh, and if you were wondering which of these two I ordered...

... I ended up caving and getting them both. How else was I supposed to get free shipping? Seriously, I hate paying for shipping.

---

ALSO (I'm almost done, I swear), I am so bummed because I went to Nordstrom Rack on the way home from Portland today and tried on the cutest pair of bright red Miz Mooz platform sandals. They were $60, though, and one of them was scuffed up a bit so I decided against getting them, telling myself that certainly I'd be able to find them online. Well, no such luck. I've looked all over the internet and can't find that style anywhere... I guess it was last year's style and no longer sold. Boo!

Reminisce

2011-08-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

Scarf: Bosnia --- Top and Skirt: Thrifted --- Seychelles Heels: Amazon --- Earrings: Handmade

Well hello there, wind. Thank you for coming an making my hair look epic.

I really love this outfit because it combines several of my current favorite wardrobe pieces (mustard Seychelles, black lace tank, scarf from Mostar). I made it a point on my trip to Bosnia not to buy any 'keepsake souvenirs' like little figurines and things that sit on your shelf and collect dust (or more often end up in a box under the bed), but instead to get things that I can wear and be reminded of my trip that way instead. I got myself this scarf and some jewelry, and I'm not sad at all that I passed on the miniature Stari Most statues.
The street where I got my scarf:

Gosh oh golly do I miss that town...

And real quick before I go, I have an opinion question. If you happened to have a $25 Forever21 gift card in your possession and were trying to decide what to buy with it, would you get this dress or this bag?

This isn't related, but aren't those shoes the model is wearing awful with the dress? Completely wrong style.

Red Head

2011-08-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

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Dress: Thrifted/Portland --- Belt: Thrifted/St. Vincent's --- Vintage Purse: Etsy/vintch --- Seychelles Flats: Amazon

My hair is back to a socially-acceptable color once again... I'm really quite in love with this dark red. I had been thinking for a while about doing something completely different (i.e. blond), but I've been thinking lately that my calling in life is to be a red head. Well, my true calling is to be a plain brown head, but that's no fun.

Really, though, I've never gotten so many compliments on a physical characteristic before as I have gotten on having red hair... I've had people walk up to me when I'm out shopping just to tell me they like my hair color. A few people have even asked if it's my natural color (one lady told me I was blessed to have such a naturally beautiful hair color - she was quite let down when I told her I dyed it.)

---

I happened upon Lykke Li the other day in the same way that I happen upon basically all of my music nowadays... via my Florence + the Machine Pandora station. I downloaded her more recent CD, but I've been listening to the tracks from her debut album on YouTube and honestly I think I like those more. Also, she gets brownie points because I really like the covers she has for some of her singles.

Because album covers are the really important thing when it comes to music, you know.

Maxi

2011-08-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm baccckk! Well, I've actually been back for 3 weeks, but as you've probably noticed I've been posting the guest posts that didn't get up while I was on my trip. I've been out of blogging for so long that it'll probably take me a while to get back in the swing of things. I also have some big life changes coming up here pretty soon (i.e. moving, starting college, all that fun stuff...), so we'll see how this goes. Things may be kind of sporadic around here for a while.

Maxi: H&M --- Sandals: UO --- Necklace: Croatia

These pictures are from about 2 weeks ago when I first got back from Bosnia and my hair was a funky gold-ish color on top mixed with my overgrown roots. Needless to say, I got that taken care of very soon afterwords, so my hair is now back to red again. I still wanted to post this, though, because I love this dress. Only $15 at H&M (regularly priced!). I'm excited to move to the big city this fall, but I do fear I may go broke from shopping at H&M all the time...

Also, this is a necklace I got in Croatia (Europe is quite lovely for the fact you can drive 2 hours and be in a completely different country) and am quite enamored with it.

Guest Post: Madeline from Madeline Quaint

2011-08-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Dear Readers of The Violet Reaction - I'm Madeline from Madeline Quaint. While Lovely Leanna is away, doing a lot of good in a tiny but beautiful European country, she asked me to help her out with a blogpost. Of course I said yes, as her blog is one of my absolute favourites!
This Illustrated Shoot is inspired by her blog title. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed imagining the violets' reaction. :)
I hope you like it too, Leanna, and thank you for asking me to fill in for you! :)

Oh, in case you wondered what I wore, here is the rundown:
Jeans: Takko, Sandals: Tamaris, Top: Handed down, Necklaces from H&M and from the UK, Rings: H&M, and the owl ring was a gift.

(Note from Leanna: To see more of Madeline's outfits, illustrated photos, and pictures from her beautiful country and travels [she lives in Hungary!], check out her blog HERE.)

Guest Post: Claire from Like Spinning Plates

2011-08-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

Dress, necklace, shoes: Forever 21
Bag: Urban Outfitters
Hat: All Saints
Ring: Mandee
Nail Color: OPI- Do you think I'm texy

Hello there! I'm Claire from Like Spinning Plates and I am super excited to be doing this guest post for Leanna while she is enjoying her vacation! Unfortunately, I'm not on vacation... which is why I am here writing this post for her, of course. This is actually my first ever guest post. So I hope you will love it and think it was the best first guest post in the history of first guest posts.

A lot of this outfit is from Forever 21 because I have a HUGE one by me and I can't stop myself from going in once a week and buying tons of new things. I recently scored with this floral dress and robot necklace. I'm in love. And the necklace was only $2.50! You can pretend that it's solid gold though, if you want =p

I think I'm going to challenge myself and see if I can make it through an entire month without going to Forever 21. It could be part of this new and outlandish thing I want to try called "saving money". What's that like? Has anyone ever attempted it? Let me know...

So since I have to be awake in 6 hours, I'm going to wrap this baby up and say goodnight. Hope you enjoyed this post and have a lovely day! =)

(Note from Leanna: Solid gold, indeed! Check out Claire's blog HERE for more cute outfits and witty writing. Like really, really witty.)

Guest Post: Nicole from Coco Maria

2011-08-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone! It's Nicole from Coco Maria here. When Leanna asked if I would do a guest post for her blog while she's away in Bosnia, I was so excited! Leanna is such a lovely lady, and her blog is one of my favorites. At first, I was stumped on what to do for this post. After looking through my closet, I decided it would be fun to remix a dress and show a bunch of different ways to style it. I decided on a black floral dress I picked up from the Salvation Army a while ago. I've hardly worn it, since I was a bit stumped on how to style it. So, I figured this post would hopefully give you a few ideas on how to style a dress that's been stumping you since you bought it, as well as help me figure out how I could wear this dress! So, here we go!

Look 1 Hat: Modcloth, Flats: Urban Outfitters. Look 2 Knee highs: Target, Belt: Delia's, Sandals: Urban Outfitters Look 3 Blouse: Urban Outfitters, Wedges: Forever 21, Belt: From another skirt Look 4 Skirt: Urban Outfitters, Shoes: Restricted (Note: This is going to sound super nerdy, but I tucked the dress into a pair of undershorts to keep it from showing under the skirt!) Look 5 Blouse: Sears, Sandals: Forever 21 Well, I hope this post has given you some ideas on how to style dresses in your own wardrobe! Also, thanks again for Leanna for asking me to do a guest post! -Nicole

(Note from Leanna: Thanks, Nicole! Everyone be sure to check out her lovely blog HERE.)

Guest Post: Lea from Pretty Prudent

2011-08-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

(Note from Leanna: This post, along with a few other guest posts which will follow in the days to come, was supposed to go up during my trip to Bosnia. Unfortunately with the way things worked out I ended up not getting the posts up like I'd planned. I didn't want to slight the lovely ladies that put together posts for me, though, so I'll still be posting their blogs. With that bit of explanation, here is the first post from Lea, who blogs all kinds of pretty things at Pretty Prudent...)

Hello followers of Leanna. As you've probably gathered, she is gone (for a long time too, which is sad since I love her blog) and she was awesome enough to ask me to do a guest post for her. I'm excited, since this is the first one I've ever been asked to do :D It is also exciting, because technically, this outfit counts as #1 of my 30 for 30. So in it, I'm obviously still in the phase where I am comfortable with my clothing selection and made a pretty obvious outfit choice: dress + cardigan + socks + shoes.

This is me being a dork and looking through the slats:

Funny thing about this dress. My grandma picked it out while we were browsing around Forever 21. I honestly never would have looked twice at it. It's too bright and I'm usually drawn to dresses and things that cinch in at the waist. I do like it though and am happy I let her buy it for me. This might be a baby step into brighter colors for me.

I hope that I have been sufficiently interesting to all you people who are used to Leanna's lovely face and outfits. I hope that she is having a great time in Bosnia :) AND, random, and many of you might
have seen this, but we met back in the beginning of the month and our height difference is somewhat amusing:

(Leanna again: Be sure to check out Lea's blog HERE. She is studying graphic design, so in addition to her sweet style you can see lots of her art work there as well.)

Back from Bosnia

2011-08-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well hello again! I returned home from my summer trip on Sunday morning and am very happy to be home again in my own bed. I had a great, albeit exhausting, time in Bosnia. It was hard work and the weather was quite difficult (either blazing hot or dumping rain), but it was a very rewarding experience and I'm glad that I went.

All in all I took over 650 pictures, so obviously I'm not going to post them all, but I do want to share a few so you guys can see that I was actually doing something the past 2 months and not just being lazy.

Just a reminder: This was a missions trip through my church and a majority of my time was spent working at a summer camp and sleeping in tents. If you are expecting to see a glammed-up Leanna, please expel that image from your head right now and prepare for roughing-it Leanna. :)

The lake near the campsite.

Bombed-out building from the war on camp property.

Showers! No hot water to be had...

The tent village I lived in.

Campers at the 1st kids camp.

Meharia and myself.

Cute little boy.

Zip line.

Singing.

At the teenager's camp I was in charge of the jewelry station. Here I'm helping a boy make earrings for his mom.

Some of the teens at the song writing workshop.

Jumping rope.

Me with the girls in my group during the 2nd kids camp.

My oh-so-glamorous rain poncho.

Where we had all of our meetings and worship.

Precious.

On the weekends in between camps the long term team would clean everything really well, and one time we even did the sleeping mats.

Painting road signs for youth camp.

Me and my good friend Muhamed. He said, and I quote, "You have to look like a lady for this picture, OK?" haha.

Water balloon volleyball.

Dina and Vanja, camp directors, and Juliana and Brooks, husband and wife team that ran games at all the camps.

The long term team! There were 16 of us total.

The day after camp ended the long term team went to Croatia for the day. This picture is on the way to the coast.

Hellooo Croatia. :)

Me and Kate, who is from the UK and has come to work at the camp for many years now.

With Miss Aleksandra, who didn't know English but we got along splendidly anyways.

Disgustingly gorgeous.

Stacy (we came together from the same church), myself, Kate, Eldina, and Miki

After we finished cleaning up camp, I went to Mostar for 3 days before coming home. The drive from camp to Mostar is GORGEOUS. You're on the river almost the whole way and the landscapes are just stunning.

The Stari Most at night.

A beggar girl in Mostar. I had to give her money to take her picture, naturally. Absolutely adorable.

Me and Stacy.

I've seriously wanted to see this bridge for years so I was super thrilled when I found out I'd be going to Bosnia.

With Mostar in the background.

This bridge isn't as grand, but it's actually older than the Stari Most ("Old Bridge").

B-e-a-utiful.

All in all it was an amazing trip. I met loads of awesome, inspiring people and really learned a lot through the experience.

As I said in my previous post, I didn't get to do all the guest posts while I was gone like I wanted to, but I'm hoping to start putting those up over the next couple of days while I continue to recover from my trip (i.e. sitting around my house in my jammies watching Netflix all day). Hopefully in a week or so I'll be ready to get back to posting normal things again, but until then enjoy the guest posters I have for you!

Quick Update and Apology

2011-07-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hey lovelies! I'm about half way through my trip here in Bosnia and and still alive... it's been hard but I'm having a great time. Apparently I did such a grand job cleaning the bathrooms the first week that they decided to put me in charge if bathrooms and showers for the whole summer. I'm already getting sick of looking at toilets every day, but that's why this is called a missions trip and not a vacation. :)

Also, I need to say a ginormous I'M SORRY to all the lovely ladies that wrote guest posts for me. I thought I'd be able to get them sorted out when I got here, but so far my internet time has been very limited and the connection here is so slow I don't have the patience for it. I will be sure to post every single guest post that was given to me after I get back. So again, I'm super sorry to each of you.

Where I'm Going:

2011-06-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hey again!

So basically, I am leaving in about 2 hours to go on the longest trip of my life. I've been looking forward to this trip for quite some time now and am super excited (and nervous) that the day has finally come to leave.

So where am I going? Well, let me show you:

Yup, I'm going to that little red country (though I doubt it's red in real life); Bosnia! My church has sent a missions team out for two weeks each of the past 5 summers or so to help them set up an outreach camp for adults, teens, and children throughout the summer. I figured I had nothing better to do with my summer this year, though, so I volunteered to stay there during all of the camps. So instead of staying 2 weeks I'm staying about 7.

During these 7 weeks I will be:
-Sleeping in a tent
-Showering in cold water
-Eating whatever they feel like feeding me
-Setting up scads of tents
-Spending a majority of my time outdoors (as of now the only true building at the camp is the kitchen, which is a bombed out house left over from the war).
-Having internet access just one day a week.

Yup, only 1 day of the internet for me. I know that's not terrible or anything, it'll just be an... uh... adjustment. Obviously you shouldn't be expecting to see much in the way of blog posts from me while I'm gone, but I do have a few guest posters lined up to share with you guys in my absence. I might post a few updates here while I'm away but nothing lengthy, and certainly nothing fashionable.

I suppose I'll "see" you guys when I get back... I hope you all have wonderful summers and if you're ever in need of a good laugh just picture me huddled in a tent clutching my bug spray!

Oh, and PS, the winner of the giveaway was Madeline. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to mail it until after I get back because I kind-of-sort-of forgot that I was doing the giveaway and would need to go to the post office to mail it, but fortunately I know Madeline is a sweetie and hopefully won't throw things at me for it. :)

Where I've Been:

2011-06-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed a few things lately:

1. No outfit posts
2. OK, so basically no posts at all.

Those of you who read every post word for word (which isn't many, I know. Don't worry, I've been known to skim, too) will already know that I'm no longer working, so I don't have a reason to get all dressed up every day. My boss, who had been going through some very serious medical issues, is back to work now so I'm no longer needed 6 days a week. I thought my life would get calmer and more relaxed as a result of not working, but instead it's only gotten busier, leaving even less time to blog then I had before. I am especially missing blog reading! If you haven't gotten any comments from me in a while, I swear it's nothing personal.

Anyways, I thought I'd put a blog post together and let you guys know what I've been up to these past 2 weeks to prove that I actually do have a good excuse for not posting much as of late. Brace yourself, this might be kind of long.

In no particular order:

1. Meet Up with Lea

I was so thrilled to be able to meet Lea of Pretty Prudent last Tuesday. She was sweet enough to show me around Portland and take me to her favorite thrift shop, especially considering it was the day before her final critique for class and I'm sure there were many far more productive things she could have been doing than moseying around with me. We had a great time together and I really enjoyed it. So far I have met 2 people from the internet in real life and both of them have been delightfully not creepy. That's a pretty good record, if I must say so.

2. Perfecting the Art of Having a Brother

A while back I mentioned that we got a last minute exchange student, and that is still going quite well. Granted, things were a teensy weird at first because I have absolutely zero experience living with a male besides my dad, but I got over it quickly and now me and Gabe are basically super siblings. We both like to play piano so we've been hammering out some duets, he's been learning how to play tennis is is basically as good as I am after only a few outings (dang natural talent, you know), we both like to play dumb games like Mario Kart and Age of Empires so we play those together, and generally speaking we have a very similar sense of humor.

I have to say goodbye to Gabe on Monday, and I'm not looking forward to that at all. I'm going to miss him like heck. Well, at least until the next exchange student anyways. (Just kidding, Gabe, because I know you're reading this. I'm superly going to miss you. Come visit me every summer!)

3. Going to the Beach

The prettiest beach I've ever had the pleasure of walking along would have to be Cannon Beach. I've been there plenty of times over the years, and we went there again on Wednesday to show it to Gabe. We had lunch at Bagels by the Sea, strolled down Cannon Beach down to Haystack Rock, walked back through town, got candy at Bruce's Candy Shop, and the swung by the Tillamook Cheese Factory on the way home to get ice cream.
Oh, and of course, taking goofy pics on the beach:

Gabe, Me, and my oldest Lindsey.

Gabe did the crazy tourist thing and ran into the water. For those of you not familiar with the Oregon coast, you should know that the water here is never, and I repeat never, a suitable temperature to swim in, and you shouldn't stay in there longer than 2 seconds or you risk certain death by hypothermia. Just saying.

On our drive we had to stop at one of the view points and risk our lives standing on the rocky ledge. Believe me, you wouldn't want to fall off this thing. It's a loooong way down and not much to stop you along the way.

We also scoped out a random cave in which Gabe and I stood and acted like dummies for pictures.

I know it's difficult to read, but the following sand message says "Leanna + Phil = <3". Gabe wrote it for me. The interesting thing, though, is that I don't know anyone named Phil, and neither does he. Perhaps Gabe is going into the prophesy business? I'll let you know if I ever marry anyone named Phil and then Gabe can start making beach predictions as a career.

4. Taking and Editing Picture after Picture after Picture.
Amanda from Anthropomorphity asked me to do her senior pictures (we played tennis together 2 years ago so that's how I know her), and we had a grand time. I ended up with over 600 pictures and have been having the hardest time narrowing it down to under 100 to edit. Seriously, she is just so dang cute and photogenic...
Here's one of my favorite pics so far:

As if having Amanda's senior pics to edit wasn't enough for me to obsess over, Gabe also wanted a few pics to print off as wallets to give to friends at his graduation party. My favorites of his:

On top of that, Gabe's friend Katey tagged along to get a few pictures as well:

Ooh, and did I tell you they needed some pictures together as well (they had their graduation party together)? Because they did.

AND one of my other buddies Micky came as well because he wanted a picture for his new blog.

I'm all done with everyone except Amanda's. I still have about 50 more of hers that I want to edit.

5. Making a Cake

The aforementioned Micky is starting his blog to showcase the thing he makes/hopes to make, and for his first entry he wanted to make a cake with me and for me. What a pal. We had a good time, and even though it didn't look like the picture when we were done it still tastes super yummy. I'd show more pictures, but since I'm sure Micky will be putting them on his blog soon I don't want to steal his thunder or anything. :)

6. Hiking/Falling into Silver Creek Falls

Silver Creek Falls in probably one of the prettiest spots in Oregon. You can just go and see the big fall and walk behind it, or you can also do the longer 5 mile walk and see several smaller falls along the way. We had lovely weather and it was a very quiet and uncrowded.

That's a cool picture above, right? Gabe and I had to carefully cross the little creek in front of the waterfall to get to that rock. All of the rocks were wet and very slippery, and on the way over we both got our feet soaking wet from them sliding into the water. After the picture was taken and it was time to head back across, I got tired of going to slowly and foolishly jumped onto a rock without testing out how slippery it was first. The result was this:

Yayyyy. I fell in the creek. Go me. I've got some lovely bumps and bruises on my elbow and knees, but other than that I'm mostly unscathed. It was an experience to say the least.

I could go on, but those are all the interesting pictures I have to accompany my little snippets of text. Hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into my life as of late. Do you guys even recognize me wearing jeans and a t-shirt? It's weird, I know.

Mini Wallet Giveaway

2011-06-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

Well, forgetful little me forgot that I was going to do a giveaway this week. I know I just wrapped one up last week, but I did say a while back I'd giveaway the mini wallet I made for the tutorial so I figured I better get on it before anyone decides to eat me. So without any further ado...

The Prize:

The prize for this giveaway is the mini wallet made oh-so-famous in the mini wallet tutorial. It has 2 pockets for credit cards, IDs, coffee punch cards, and anything else your heart desires, and 1 pocket for cash. Remember, this is a mini wallet, so you'll have to fold your cash in half to put it in the wallet.

Who can Enter:
-Anyone. I don't care if you live on Pluto. Well, actually I think shipping to Pluto might cost a lot, so on second thought I'm limiting this giveaway to residents of the planet Earth. Sorry, aliens.

How to Enter (all entries are optional; do as many or as few as you like):
-Follow this blog with Google Friend Connect.
-Follow this blog on BlogLovin'.
-Tweet about this giveaway. (Include link in comment)
-Blog about this giveaway. (Include link in comment)
-Share it on facebook. (Include link in comment)

You can leave your entries in separate comments or in the same one if you like. Maximum of 5 entries per person. Please include a method of contact in at least one of your comments (a blog URL or email address is acceptable).

Giveaway closes Friday, June 17th at 9pm PST. Winner will be selected with the random # generator.

Style Inspiration: Jason Wu Resort 2012

2011-06-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

If you've been following my blog since the beginning of the Fall 2011 Fashion shows, you may recall that I'm basically Jason Wu's #1 Fan. OK, so I don't own any of his clothing or have a t-shirt with his name and picture plastered on the front, but in my dreams we are BFFs and he uses me as his muse to design dresses.You're super jealous right now, right? I thought so.

Anyways, it has been with bated breath that I've been waiting for Mr. Wu to debut his Resort 2012 collection, and when I saw it show up on Style.com a few days ago I just about had a mini seizure. And let me just say one word about it: Stunning. The man just can do no wrong.

Check it out for yourself:

Image Source: Style.com

I mean... I think... I LOVE. Each and every single piece is perfect, and the way he matched everything up is even more perfect. Perfect perfect perfect. Oh Jason Wu, why must you be so fabulous? I'm pretty sure that you could send your models out on the runway stark naked and I'd applaud it as some sort of revolutionary genius and become a nudist the next day. That's just the power of Jason Wu, people.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-06-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed things have been pretty quiet here on the blogfront lately. I am no longer working, so my excuse to dress up (and the awesome space to take pics in) is now gone. I'll try and think of some other entertaining things to post about until I have a reason to dress up again, but until then things may be sort of hit and miss here on my blog.

But anyways... there's a giveaway that needs a winner!

I made up a list of the entries (as seen below) since some people combined all of their entries into one comment and I wanted to make sure that everyone got credit for the entries they did.
Entrants List:

And the winning entry, as selected by Random.org:

Congrats to Suzy! I will be contacting you soon :)

Thanks again to everyone who entered! I will be posting another giveaway sometime this week (yes, it's for the mini wallet I made in the tutorial), so if you like free stuff be sure to keep on checking back!

Prettiness

2011-06-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

I found another awesome site while Stumbling the other day. This one had a few images called Cinemagraphs, and let me tell you, they kind of freak me out. I've seen plenty of moving images before, but these ones are kind of freakishly, hauntingly, beautiful. Below are my favorites, but check out the full collection HERE.

All Images by Jamie Beck via HERE

PS. Only a few hours left to enter the Brydferth Bobby Pin Giveaway! Get on it!

Mini Wallet Tutorial

2011-06-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's finally here! Do you guys have your sewing machines out and ready to roll?

Before we begin, let me just say I am sorry for how picture heavy this post is. I am, however, the type of person that learns by seeing, and nothing drives me crazy more than a tutorial with only 1 picture every 5 steps or so. I like to see pictures for every single step. So if that's you, you'll enjoy this. If that's not you, well then, I suppose I'm sorry. But not really.

Click on any image to make it bigger.

Outer Fabric - The fabric I like to use for this is from the Home Decor section at Joann Fabrics. It's 100% cotton, but it's a heavier weight and more durable than plain cotton.

Lining Fabric - I just use plain, thin cotton for this. Your wallet is going to be pretty bulky around the edges by the time you're done sewing it, so try to go as thin as possible to avoid adding any extra bulk you don't need.

OK, you ready? Let's go.

1. Cut your fabric into 8 pieces (4 from the outer and 4 from the lining) matching the measurements below.

2. Set aside the 7x5.5 pieces. Match up the rest of the pieces according to size. Lay them on top of each other right sides together.

3. Sew each section together along the longer (5.5 inch) edge using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

4. Open up each section and iron the seam allowance to one side, and then fold along the seam and iron again. Do this on all 3 sections.

5. Get your large, 7x5.5 inch piece of lining fabric and lay it out right side up.

6. Lay the 3 smaller sections you just finished sewing and ironing, right sides up, on top of the lining piece in order of height. Lay down the tallest first, then the second tallest, then the shortest. The finished edges should be on top, and the raw edges should all line up across the bottom.

7. Lay the large (7x5.5) outer fabric on top of this stack right side down.

8. Pin the bottom half together. If you laid everything out right you should be pinning through 8 pieces of fabric, so it'll be trickier than usual to pin it.

9. OPTIONAL: Before you pin the top half, cut small triangles from the top corners.This will give the front flap of your wallet a little more shape.

10. Finish pinning around the top. Leave at least a 2 inch gap on the right side.

11. Sew all layers together, except for the marked gap, using a 1/2" seam allowance.

12. Snip a small amount off the bottom two corners. Be careful not to get too close to your seam.

13. Turn the entire wallet inside out through the 2 inch gap. I know this can be tricky, but just go slowly and try not to tug too much or you may burst your seams. Once it's turned inside out use your fingers to push out the corners and make it as flat as possible.

14. Iron the life out of it.

15. Make sure the raw edges where your 2 inch gap is are tucked inside. If they are sticking out or are folded funny, straighten them out, tuck them inside, and iron to hold it in place.

16. Put two pins just above the tallest pocket. These are your "don't sew past this point" guides.

17. Now the scary part! Top stitch around the top half of the wallet, stopping before you cross the pins. Technically speaking you could top-stitch all the way around the wallet, but chances are your machine can't sew through that many layers without busting into flames or something like that.

Remember that when you top stitch you want to stay very close to the edge of the fabric. To keep myself in a (relatively) straight line, I try to line up the edge of the fabric with the side of the hole in the center of the presser foot. The main goal here is to be sure that you're sewing close enough to the edge to sew over the raw edges where your 2 inch hole still is. If you sew too far in, you won't get them and they'll pop out and fray.

When you're done it should look like this:

18. Double check that the formerly open gap is now sewed securely shut. Give yourself a pat on the back if it is. If not, it's time to familiarize yourself with my good friend the seam ripper and do it again. (My first mini wallet got top stitched about 4 times before I was satisfied with it, so no worries if you don't get it the first time).

19. Fold down the front flap and iron it.

20. Almost there! The last step is to attach your closure of choice. Follow the given instructions on the packaging of the item you bought to add it to the wallet. Check, double check, and triple check that everything is lined up correctly before committing to anything.

21. Jump up and down with joy, because you're done!

So that's it! I know that's a lot of pictures and a lots of steps, but it's really easier than it looks. Like I said before, I'm the type that likes to be babied through projects like this, so it's my personal preference to have each step outlined and have a picture for everything. I hope it all made sense! If you have any questions or suggestions to make this better/easier, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll try to get back to you. And of course, if you make a mini wallet, please show me! Post a picture on your blog and let me know about it, or send me a picture via email to violetreaction@live.com. Happy sewing!

Leanna Loves...

2011-06-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

1. This Video (a must see for any Indiana Jones fans out there)

2. This Apron

Stephanie of Stuph's Stuff held a giveaway on her blog a few weeks back, which I entered and did not win. In her post congratulating the winner, however, Stephanie graciously offered to send a consolation prize to those that entered and didn't win. Obviously I am completely unable to pass up an offer as awesome as that, so I quickly wrote her with my address, and then this freaking adorable handmade apron showed up on my mailbox a while later. Isn't it perfect? And it's reversible, too. Now I'm feeling like cooking something just so I can have an excuse to wear it. Too bad I don't know how to cook.

3. This Wallet

I finally got around to doing my mini wallet tutorial! I'll work on editing the pics and doing instructions tonight and hopefully will have the post ready to go up tomorrow.

4. This Game/Music-Thingee
I found this on StumbleUpon and find it strangely addicting for some reason. It's called Tone Maxtrix. You start out with a blank black grid, and you just click on the boxes and they make noise. I can't really describe it, so check it out HERE to see the awesomeness for yourself.

5. This Movie

The word on the street (i.e. the internet) is that a lot of people who read the book weren't too pleased with the movie, but I've never read the book so I was able to enjoy the movie for what it was. That's not to say I didn't think it was totally weird, though. The only thing I knew about this movie is that it had Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley in it, so when it started in on all the organ donation stuff it hurt my mind a little bit. The whole thing is rather dreamy, though, and I ended up really liking it.

The Last Hurrah

2011-05-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to tell you right now that I got a little crazy editing pics today. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Today I'm wearing my oh-so-glorious Kork-Ease, and let me tell you something: my feet are happy. Who knew that such clunky shoes could be so comfy? Also worthy of note is the skirt, which while strikingly similar to this skirt, is not the same. I decided that the other one was probably a little too yellow for my skin tone, so I went back to the fabric store and got a more neutral tone. It's a bit more easy on the eyes, I think.


Cardigan: Target --- Top: F21 --- Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt: Handmade --- Shoes: ShoeBuy.com --- Purse: Etsy/Bombshell Bettie's Vintage --- Rose Brooch: Etsy/Brydferth --- Ring and Earrings: Handmade

I wish I could report back to you guys that I stayed strong in the face of temptation and didn't buy any of the shoes in my previous post, but that simply would not be true. I did decide, however, that the pair I treated myself to would be my last. OK, so not forever, but at least for a while. I have practically every color and practically every style of shoe there is to own, so I'm biding farewell to shoe shopping. I've just added a little text box in the sidebar to keep track of how long I last. Wish me luck, and above all else, DO NOT send me links to any cute shoes. :)

PS. Don't forget to enter the Brydferth giveaway!

Bombshell

2011-05-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Top: Charlotte Russe --- Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt: Etsy/bomshellbettiesvint --- Shoes: GoJane --- Clutch: F21

I got this skirt a few days ago from Bombshell Bettie's Vintage on Etsy. That means I'm a bombshell, right?* It's super lovely and has the cutest purple and pink-ish floral design on it. My favorite part is that the background is gray, so I'll be able to wear this one year round because it fits into practically any season. I follow Nicole's blog, and I was lucky enough to spy her post on a 50% off sale, so I got it for a great price.

*It's OK, you don't have to answer that and hurt my feelings. :)

If you haven't yet, check out the Brydferth bobby pin giveaway. 1 week left to enter!

It's Memorial Day weekend, which means there are sales out the wazoo right now. That darn Joni James found the Earthies I've been lusting after on Piperlime for nearly 50% off and just had to send me the link, so now I'm having a mental war waging in my head over whether or not to get them.

here

3. Then I was looking at Michelle's blog and she posted about some cute shoes at American Eagle that are already on sale, and American Eagle is having BOGO 50% off on shoes, PLUS they're having a 30% off everything and free shipping sale this weekend. So I could get 2 pairs of these cute shoes, which were originally $50 each, for $31.46 total. Normally I wouldn't be too tempted by American Eagle stuff, but the colors of these shoes are freaking adorable. I'm thinking about getting the red and mustard pairs:

here

Long story short: I am addicted to shoes. I'm really hoping I resist, but I'm not feeling particularly willful this morning. Pray for me, friends.

Leanna Loves...

2011-05-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

1. Gorgeously Divine Dresses:

Vintage Chiffon and Lace Dress, $98 via Great Lake Outfitters

Have you ever seen a more beautiful dress than this? I am so head overs heels in love with this thing I want to buy it and marry it. And sleep in it every night. And run miles in it. And swim in the ocean in it. And write love songs about it.

I mean, just look at it. Per-freaking-fection. If I had even the slightest idea of where I would wear this dress I would buy it in a heartbeat. I do not, however, have the slightest idea of where I would wear it, so I am going to restrain myself. At least for now. Who knows what tomorrow holds.

2. My Kork-Ease:

Yup, these are the shoes from this post. I wrote a list of things I would do for these shoes. In reality, all I actually had to do was pay money for them, so don't worry, my eyebrows are still securely in place. They are comfy as heck, and the color is gorgeous, even if it was slightly more green than it appeared in the pictures. I would definitely recommend them.

3. My New Earrings Display:

Sorry for the stinky lighting, I just took these pics and it's already 11pm so needless to say there's no natural light around. Anyways, this is the cute earrings display that my sister made for me as a birthday gift. Apparently she'd been on the hunt for a long time to find the right frame for me and thought of me when she saw this one because it looks like of 80s. Some people might be offended by that, but I actually quite like it. What can I say... the 80s made cute dresses!

Now my earrings get to be out hanging on the wall instead of shut up in my closet. Yay! Thank you, Lindsey!

I hope you all had lovely Thursdays! Tomorrow will be my 3rd day in a row of not getting dressed up for work... I feel positively slovenly.

Giveaway: Brydferth Bobby Pin

2011-05-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning to you all! As promised, I've got a giveaway, and for the first time ever on this blog it's not jewelry from my shop! I'll pause for a moment and let you guys all do a happy dance.

The creator of today's prize is Hailey Rose, the owner of Shop Brydferth. I met Hailey way back when I first started on Etsy. She was the first person to include me in a treasury, and also the creator of 3 of the treasuries that have got me to the front page. We write often on Etsy and do the occasional trade, and I'm so thankful that we met and are friends now, even if just on the internet.

Aside from being a total sweetheart, Hailey is super talented and makes the most gorgeous fabric rosettes. She makes headbands, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, purses, brooches, hair clips, shoe clips, and pretty much anything else you can stick a rose on. All of her items are hand sewn and very well constructed. I myself have 6 of her items (2 headbands, 3 brooch pins, and 1 ring), and they are all gorgeous and beautifully made.

Just a few of the items in her shop:

All images via Hailey's Etsy shop.

So now that you're all covered in drool after looking at those lovelies, let's talk about the giveaway. Hailey has offered one lucky person a made to order cotton rosette bobby pin in the color of your choice.

Some examples of bobby pins currently for sale in her shop:

To see Hailey's full selection of bobby pins to get a better idea of what your bobby pin will look like if you win, click HERE.

Details about the winner's bobby pin:
-1.5 inches in diameter
-Made with cotton fabric
-In the color of your choice. (You are not limited to the colors shown in her shop. Hailey is a pro at finding the right color, so feel free to request any color your heart desires.)

OK, so now you want to know how you win yourself a lovely bobby pin, right? Well here's how..

Required Entry:

-Go to Hailey's Etsy shop, Brydferth, pick your favorite item, and leave a comment here saying which item you like best.

Additional Optional Entries:

-'Like' the Brydferth Facebook page and leave a comment there saying Hi or something awesome like that. Comment on this post saying you did so.

-Share this giveaway on your blog, twitter, and/or facebook. Leave a separate comment here for each place you share, and please include a link to the post(s).

Please leave separate comments for each entry! Also, if you are an anonymous poster or do not have a blog, be sure to include your email so I can get a hold of you if you win.

The giveaway ends Saturday, June 4th at 9pm PST. I will pick the winner using the random # picker at random.org.

Frilly

2011-05-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

When I picked out outfits to wear this week, I ended up picking out a bunch of rather girly and frilly tops. Yesterday I wore pink, today I'm wearing lace and poofy sleeves, and the next two outfits I have planned are both pink and one has frilly shoulders. What's happening to me? Next thing you know I'm going to start wearing curly pig tails and pink lip stick. Beware.

Even though it's more frou-frou than I'm used to wearing, I really do love this top. It was $7 at the thrift store, but it was a white tag sale day so it was 50% off. I know I use this word a lot when referring to thrift store finds, but I'm going to say it again anyways: score.

Top, Belt, and Skirt: Thrifted --- Necklace: F21

Shoes: GoJane --- Purse: Etsy/58bluebirds

Thank you to everyone who gave me eyeshadow suggestions yesterday... I made a list of the ones that were recommended and will be doing a bit of online shopping/price comparing today to decide what I'm going to get.

Tomorrow I'm not working, so in the absence of an outfit post I'm going to be hosting a giveaway! So far on on my blog I've only given away jewelry from my shop, but this time around a dear Etsy friend of mine was sweet enough to offer a piece from her shop. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see who/what is, but I just wanted to let you know to keep an eye out for it (especially if you were getting bored of jewelry giveaways).

Little Red Couch

2011-05-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

A few of you guys commented on my post yesterday wondering how I do indoor pictures without them looking 100% terrible (I'm paraphrasing). The answer is that I just happen to be super lucky and work in a shop that has awesome track lighting, so I can get great lighting as long as stand in the right spot. Obviously I don't use flash - an evil creation if there ever was one - and then I just do a bit of brightening and color fixing on my computer to make them a tad less dark and yellow.

I really do prefer outdoor pictures, though. It's just that my current situation doesn't allow for me to go running around outside, so I make do with what I have.

Blazer: F21 --- Top and Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt: Handmade --- Purse: Target

Rings: Handmade --- Shoes: Payless

This is my favorite couch ever. We have it in the shoe section so wee little lads and lasses can have a proportionate place to sit while their mom's shove shoes on their feet. I kid of feel like a giant sitting on it, but I basically am I giant no matter what chair I sit in so that's nothing new.

Anyways, I hope you all had lovely weekends. Mine was pretty boring, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with a boring weekend every now and then. You would think with all the bored time I had, I would have done a mini wallet tutorial like I said I would, but yeah... I'm not even going to try and make an excuse for why I didn't. Are you still dusting your sewing machines? It's OK, you can probably stop that now.

And one quick question before I leave you....What is your favorite eyeshadow? I'm on the hunt for a neutral (nothing colorful, just some nice shimmery skin tones and browns) pallet, preferably a trio or quad, but a duo would be OK too if it was super awesome. I've tried most of the available options at Target and haven't found any that I like yet, so if you have a favorite that you really like, please let me know and I'll check it out!

Miss Independent

2011-05-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Top and Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt and Sandals: UO --- Necklace: F21 --- Purse: Target --- Rings: Handmade

I think I've been bitten with the hair bug. No, not lice. I mean the bug to always want to do something new with my hair. I adore my bangs and the color I got just 2 weeks ago, but I'm already planning the next big hair upheaval. It's kind of interesting that I got a comment from Tamara yesterday that I would look good as a blond, because I've actually been wanting to try that for a while. Don't worry, it would be a while before I did anything as drastic as that, but what do you think?

I applied for Independent Fashion Bloggers two days ago and I finally got approved last night. I doubt they actually turn anyone down, but I have to admit I got a little nervous after I hadn't be accepted after their stated 24 hour window. Mean! Anyways, if you are a fashion blogger and haven't checked it out yet, IFB is actually pretty neat and has lots of good articles and info. You can click on the IFB icon in my sidebar to see more.

And I just have to say I giant I'm sorry to anyone that was looking forward to a mini wallet tutorial today. I forgot to take the camera home from work with me yesterday. I will try to do it Sunday afternoon and get the tutorial up on Monday. So you still have plenty of time to dust off those sewing machines!

Outfit Post Part 2

2011-05-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

The following pictures are the result of the following reasons:
-I got a camera remote yesterday and it's majorly fun.
-It's a slow work day and I'm bored out of my mind.

And that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I Be Floral-y

2011-05-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Cardigan: Target --- Brooch: Etsy/Brydferth --- Top, Belt, And Skirt: Thrifted --- Pumps: Nordstroms/Seychelles --- Purse: Forever21 --- Rings: Handmade

Yesterday was such a nice day I decided to get off my lazy butt and do some shopping (which, you know, is such a burden). I did have to walk there since no one was around to give me a ride and I'm a turkey and don't drive, but it was positively lovely outside so I didn't mind at all. The only sad part about walking is that I can't wear as cute of shoes as I would like to, since generally speaking none of my cutesy heels are the type of shoes I'd feel comfortable walking a few miles in.

I only got a few things at the thrift shop, but they are pretty nice things so I was happy with the trip. My favorite find was probably this red tank top that I'm wearing today. It's Anne Taylor and has some cute pleating/tucking around the top. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the foolish, foolish woman in my town that bought it, left the tags on, never wore it, and then donated it to a thrift shop so little 'ol lucky me could score it for only $7. Brand new, people, brand new.

Anyways, I also went to the fabric store yesterday to get some fabric to make a mini wallet tutorial! I'm not sure how my time will go, but I'm hoping to do it tonight when I get home and put together the tutorial to post tomorrow or on Saturday. So dust off those old (or new) sewing machines of yours and get ready to make the cutest little wallet you'll ever own. Oh, and I'm going to give away the wallet I make for the tutorial, so be sure not to miss it! :)

That Tweet Thing You Do.

2011-05-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Long Version:
I was reading on Miss Claire's blog today about how she joined twitter. I used to do twitter quite a lot for my Etsy shop, but I made the mistake of going for quantity over quality in my followers and followed just about everyone and anyone. It got pretty spammy and junky so I stopped using it, but I decided today to start a new account and do this the right way and only follow people I actually care to read about.

The Short Version:
You can follow me on Twitter now. Why? Who cares why.

If you have a twitter account, please follow me and tweet at me or something, or if you want to be lazy (understandable), you can just leave your twitter username in the comments and I'll look you up.

Ohh, no pictures for this post. Darn! Let's resolve that situation by checking in on my dear puppy Pippin, who I haven't showed off on my blog in a while.

Well hello there, Pippin, how are you doing today?

Angelic, as usual.

The Case of the Missing Earring

2011-05-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

Earring: Charlotte Russe --- Cardigan and Top: UO --- Belt: Forever21 --- Skirt: Thrifted --- Wedges: Kohls --- Clutch: Etsy/58BlueBirds

Man oh man, this skirt is like my #1 favorite thrift find ever. How much do I love it? I'm not sure exactly, but I loved it enough to buy it even though it was about 5 sizes too big for me and barely stayed up over my hips. I begged my mom to fix it for me, so she, being the genius she is, cut holes on the inside of the waistband and put some elastic through it. Now it fits perfectly around my waist. Y'all should be jealous she's my mom an not yours.

Did I mention it's Nicole Miller? It is was only $3? Because it's both! It's a thrifting score for the ages.

This morning when I got to work I noticed something weird. On one ear, I had an earring. On the other, I didn't. There are 3 possibilities of what happened to said missing earring.
1) I only put one on because I was thinking about unicorns or some other deeply interesting thing like that.
2) I did put the 2nd one off, but it fell off sometime between when I put it on (duh) and when I looked in the mirror at work (doubly duh).
3) The monster that lives in my ear ate it.

The world may never know.

Yesterday I made myself a new baby wallet. I've been getting tired of having to empty out my regular sized wallet every time I use a small clutch, so I finally got around to making myself a miniature one that will fit in any and all of my purses.

So I know several of you guys asked for a tutorial on the skirts I've been making, and I still want to do one of those in the future, but would you be interested in a mini-wallet tutorial? They're actually really simple and take only about 15-20 minutes to make once you get the hang of it. And they're super cheap, too, because they don't use much fabric. Anyways, let me know if you'd be interested, and based on your responses I may or may not do one.

Today I Fell In Love

2011-05-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

No, not with a boy. Who do you think I am?

With these:

What I would do for these shoes:

-Sing a song in public.

-Spend 2 hours in a room with a hobo spider.

-Listen to nothing but Lady Gaga for a whole day.

-Shave my eyebrows.

-Give up the internet for a week.

-Kiss a frog.

Color Splash

2011-05-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Earrings: Handmade --- Top: Macy's --- Belt and Skirt: Thrifted --- Bracelets: Walmart --- Shoes: GoJane

I really love this top, but you'd never be able to tell by how often I've worn it in the past year. I wore it in France during my trip there last July, but not once since then. When I was doing a closet purge a few days ago, I saw it and gave myself the final ultimatum: Wear it or toss it. Since I couldn't bring myself to toss it, I'm wearing it and am quite happy I chose to do so.

Anyhow, I hope you all had lovely weekends! My weekend was probably the busiest (and most fun) that I've had in a good long while, and I barely spent any time blog reading and commenting and such so I'm looking forward to catching up on that this week. I'm actually going to have a good portion of this week off from work, but I've got a few goodies up my sleeve to keep you entertained in the absence of outfit posts.

(psstt... there might be a giveaway. just sayin')

Showering a Baby

2011-05-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Top: Forever21 --- Belt, Skirt, and Watch: Thrifted --- Shoes: GoJane --- Purse: Etsy/Vintch --- Earrings and Rings: Handmade

This is actually yesterday's outfit, but I was too scared to post it after seeing the previous post, along with the comments I received on Wednesday, get eaten up into the giant black hole of the internet when Blogger went down. Thankfully the post got restored, but not the comments (yet?), so if you commented on here recently and am wondering why I haven't commented back yet, it's either because (a) I spent almost zero time on blogger yesterday or (b) Blogger ate your comment.

But enough complaining.

Last night I had a highly amusing conversation with our exchange student. It started out with me telling him that I was going to have a baby shower at work tomorrow, and he wanted to know what that meant. So I told him how people rent out the space in the back of our store and they come have their showers here instead of at their homes.
Gabe: Does is cost anything?
Me: Yeah, it's $100, but if more than 20 people come it's an extra $30.
Gabe: $100! Why does it cost so much?
Me: Well, they're paying for the space. Plus we set everything up and clean when they're done. A lot of people don't like dealing with the set up and tear down part of it, so they'd rather just pay to have someone else do it for them.
Gabe: But $100 just for one shower?
Me: Uh... yeah? How many showers do you think it should be for?

It was about at this point that I realized that we probably not talking about the same thing, and then it dawned on me that the word shower, quite obviously, has more than one meaning and that, more than likely, the definition that a foreign exchange student would be familiar with would involve lots of water. Poor Gabe had to wait about 3 minutes before I was done laughing for me to explain that a baby shower isn't giving a baby a bath. And certainly not for $100.

This is Not a Dress

2011-05-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Necklace: Handmade --- Top: Zara --- Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt: Etsy/58bluebirds --- Clutch: Etsy/LookBackCloset (closed) --- Shoes: Target --- Earrings: Charlotte Russe

Today I had a dilemma about what shoes to wear. See, I just wore these ones like 3 days ago and I usually try not to wear the same pair more often than once a week or so. But no other pair looked right with this outfit so I eventually decided to wear them anyways. But if the biggest dilemma I have today is about what shoes to wear, I suppose I should thank my lucky stars and quit whining.

At first glance I think this look could almost pass for a dress. When I was trying to pick a shirt to wear with my new vintage skirt (is that like an oxymoron or something?), I was running into trouble left and right, but when I saw my striped white and navy top I knew it was too good to pass up. So yeah, it's a lot of stripes, but how could I resist wearing these together?

Anyhow, I wanted to share these freaking adorable stickers I got from Miss Courtney of My SoCalled Denver. She posted them on her blog and offered to send a few to anyone that wanted some, and of course I jumped at that. Seriously, I <3 Vintage. Love these things. I love them so much I'm having trouble deciding what to put them on. Suggestions?

Also, as if she wasn't sweet enough for sending me freaking awesome stickers, she also included this super cute little necklace with a shiny gold oval in the front. I am totally in love with the mixed metal look (the chain is antique brass).

By the way, Courtney has a really awesome Etsy shop where she sells vintage accessories. I am madly in love with the vintage clutches and purses she has there, especially these three:

1, 2, 3

Gorgeous, am I right?

Minty Fresh

2011-05-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

Top: Anne Taylor Loft --- Belt and Skirt: Thrifted --- Shoes: Kohls --- Earrings and Ring: Handmade --- Bracelet: Charlotte Russe --- Purse: Etsy/58bluebirds

You know what I realized this morning? I have no blue or green shoes. It's a tragedy. I must resolve this situation as soon as possible.

I am feeling very optimistic about the weather today. It's forecast to be 67-freaking-degrees today, and though so far it's sitting comfortable around only 50, I am hopeful that I did not wear a nearly sleeveless top in vain.

This belt is seriously going in the "Favorite Thrift Finds Ever" category (don't ask me what else is in that category... I just made it up). The shade of mint is perfect, and it fits me perfectly. And for only $2? Yes pleaassse.

This morning I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to tell my new co-worker Sherri that I was going to work today and need tomorrow off. So I was sitting at the desk this morning around 9:45 when in walks Sherri, and I instantly start to feel stupid. Like really, really stupid. Hopefully I was just getting all of the stupid out early so now I'll do nothing dumb for the rest of the day. Not likely, but I can hope, right? Anyways, it turned out fine because (a) she didn't yell at me for making her come in to work for nothing and (b) she can work tomorrow. Crisis averted.

Maxi to the Max Part 2

2011-05-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Top and Necklace: Forever21 --- Skirt, Belt, and Purse: Thrifted --- Shoes: Target --- Rings: Handmade

Today I'm wearing 3 things I picked up on my birthday thrifting trip (I used my birthday as a good excuse to spend lots of money this year). Thankfully these items didn't cost much, though! The purse, which I did a little gasp for when I first saw it, was only $6, the maxi skirt was $3, and the belt was $2. Score, score, and score. *Curtsy*

I don't know how you guys feel about maxi skirts and dresses, but if you don't have any, go buy some ASAP because they're awesome. You can dress them up or down pretty easily, and they're just so comfortable to wear. Love.

Anyways, I had a fairly busy weekend, starting on Saturday night when the exchange student Gabe talked me into going and playing Capture the Flag at my old high school at 9pm. Long story short, he's probably never going to ask me to do that again, which may or may not have anything to do with the large amount of complaining I did the whole time we were there. Sorry, Gabe.

And of course, yesterday was Mother's Day, which meant family coming over for a steak lunch (including my cousin Stephanie, who is still hosting a giveaway on her blog to win 2 rings from my shop. Go enter!). A lot of you guys posted some really sweet blogs about your mom yesterday, which I enjoyed reading. I didn't do a whole post for it, but rest assured I think my mom is pretty fabulous. :)

Cupcakes, Anyone?

2011-05-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

Top, Purse, Necklace, Owl Ring: Forever21 --- Belt: Thrifted --- Skirt: Etsy/pegasusvintage --- Shoes: Kohls --- Wire Rings: Handmade

I just realized that this will be my 3rd post with the word cupcake in the title. Does that make me obsessed?
The first post with the word cupcake in the title was just about me feeling like a cupcake in that particular skirt.
The second post with the word cupcake in the title was about how I was eating a cupcake when I heard that Osama bin Laden was dead and that I will remember that cupcake forever.
And today I have the word cupcake in the title because today is baby shower day at work, and that can only mean one thing:

Yeah, cupcakes.

Maxi to the Max

2011-05-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

Blazer and Belt: Thrifted--- Dress and Purse: Forever21 --- Necklace: Target --- Heels: GoJane

Hey look, I have teeth! I was looking at my pics yesterday and was like, "Wow, I look so pissed in all of these". So then I looked at the previous day's pictures, and the pictures from the day before that, and from before that, and I look grumpy in all of them. So sorry about my grumpy face... I'm not a grumpy person, I swear! It's just a little difficult to give natural facial expressions to a camera when you're in a room all by yourself. Those of you who are blessed with someone to take your pics for you should go give that person a big hug (and possibly a kiss, unless that would be too awkward or something).

But anyways, I made a conscious effort to do a teeth-smile for you guys today. I doubt that'll happen often, but just know that I smile with my teeth quite often in real life. :)

This evening we're going to a baseball game, providing it doesn't rain. If my parents had to pay for the tickets I would have opted out because I pretty much hate baseball, but we got 4 tickets for free so I figured I could suffer through it since no one had to pay money for me. But seriously, I just don't get baseball. I watched a little bit of Gabe's JV game the other day and I almost fell asleep, and that's saying something because I was sitting on those uncomfortable bleacher seats. Last year we went and saw a Mariners game in Seattle, and while that was a little more interesting because of the huge stadium and atmosphere, it was still basically boring.

Sorry if I'm offending any baseball fans out there... I actually really love watching tennis, and I know a lot of people think that's super boring so I suppose it goes both way.

Setting Fire to the Rain on Cinco de Mayo

2011-05-05T11:34:00.000-07:00


Earrings: Handmade --- Cardigan: Urban Outfitters --- Top: Anne Taylor Loft --- Belt and Skirt: Thrifted --- Shoes: Vera Wang for Kohls --- Vintage Clutch: Etsy/LookBackCloset

I am very much not in love with this look. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to seeing myself with bangs yet, but I think the most likely reason is that I picked out this outfit this morning. I rarely pick out clothing in the morning anymore... in fact I usually pick out outfits several days before I wear them.

Anyhow, I'll quit my complaining and wish you all a happy Cinco de Mayo! I'm not sure what people who celebrate this day usually to do celebrate it... do any of you guys celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Do you have a big party? Piñatas?

Thanks for all the kind words on the hair yesterday... when I woke up this morning and my bangs were pretty much sticking straight up in the air and looked ridiculous, I started panicking again that I made a mistake, but I read through the comments you all left yesterday and it calmed me down a bit. :)

This morning I bought myself Adele's 21. Her first album 19 was pretty incredible, but let me tell you, 21 is stunning. Just listen to these songs:

I could never get tired of listening to her voice... it's just so perfect.

Nineteen and Hair "After" Pics

2011-05-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

Today I enter my last year of teen-dom. This is unfortunate because I feel no where near mature enough to be anything but a teen. I've heard "you're so mature for your age" countless times over the past few years so I guess I give off a mature vibe or something, but on the inside I still feel like I'm 8 years old.

The past several birthdays have been rather uninteresting for me. "Oh, it's just 16, no big deal... it's just 17, no big deal...", but not today. Today I'm feeling like, Wow, I'm nineteen. When I think about all of the things I am going to do when I'm 19 it freaks me out. I am going to start school when I'm 19. I'm going to move out when I'm 19. I'm going to move to a giant city where I know about 5 people when I'm 19. I'm going to have to pay rent when I'm 19. It's kind of mind boggling to think about all of the things that 19-year-old Leanna is going to do.

But anyways....

Ahhhhh. I have bangs. Right after my hair cut yesterday I was already starting to feel bad about it, but I told myself I needed to wait until after I washed and styled it myself to freak out. I'm sure it's highly inadvisable to wash your hair the day after you get it colored, but that's exactly what I did this morning when I got up. Good thing, too, because I love it a lot more now than I did yesterday.

It's been quite a while since I've had bangs. Let's take a look, shall we?

Apparently I really, really, really, liked the Alice in Wonderland ride, if my face is any indication. And apparently my dad could not wait to get off it. :) Note the ginormous video camera he's holding. Ah, the 90's...

Anyhow, I'm glad I switched back to bangs. It's something new and different for me. I'm already super excited to wear my hair up in a bun because I think it's going to be twice as cute now as it was before.

The color ended up not being as light as I had asked for, but I'm actually really please with how this turned out. It's a really nice, rich shade.

Since my mom has a meeting tonight and my dad may have to play tennis, we celebrated my birthday last night instead.

Calm yourselves, friends, that's not a boyfriend. That's Gabe, our exchange student from Italy we got last week. All you need to know about Gabe is that he likes to bake. Thus, my birthday cake was born. It's a 3 layer chocolate cake with coconut, caramel, and almond filling (and also some kind of fancy frosting, but I don't like frosting so I didn't eat that). Yeah, pretty much the best exchange student ever.

He learned a good lesson when making the frosting, though. Powdered Sugar is not the same thing as regular sugar. It's probably safe to say he won't make that mistake again.

Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying your Wednesdays! I'm off to treat myself to a birthday thrifting trip, so hopefully I'll score some good deals.

Ducky Savior and "Before" Hair

2011-05-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

On the way to work this morning, my mom and I had to stop so a duck and her 4 baby duckies could cross the road in front of us. I think adult ducks are seriously like the ugliest birds ever (okay, so maybe not THE ugliest, but they're up there), but a baby duck makes my heart melt into a puddle of goo.

Well, after the ducks passed in front of us, we continued on down the road, but my mom noticed in the rear view mirror that the mother duck had jumped up onto the sidewalk from the street, but that the baby ducks were too small to jump up onto the high curb and were still on the side of the road. Well, as if my heart wasn't already melted enough, seeing 4 little baby duckies desperately trying to jump up on the curb to be with their mommy made it melt all over again. So my mom did a u-turn, drove back to where the duckies were, and I got out of the car and picked up each little ducky and put them on the side walk with their mommy, who was wildly hissing at me the whole time. Ungrateful, ugly bird.

I reunited my 4 little baby ducky friends with their mommy, so now they can grow up to be old, ugly birds too. Good deed for the day: completed.

Anyhow, today I'm wearing jeans. I can't remember the last time I wore plain, blue jeans out in public. I wear them around the house quite often, but ever since I've discovered my passion for skirts, my jeans haven't seen much action. Today, however, I'm going to be doing quite a lot more walking outside than usual, and since it's a bit windy and has the potential to rain, I figured jeans would be a better way to go today.

Necklace and Purse: Forever21 --- Cardigan and Shoes: Target --- Top: Dijon --- Jeans: Buckle --- Watch: Thrifted ---- Rings: Handmade

And the picture is fuzzy. Wow. Oh well, you get the basic idea.

A few weeks ago I thought I was going to get my haircut, but it ended up being postponed because my hairdresser got the flu. Well friends, today is finally the day. And let me tell you, I am nervous. I had bad dreams about it all last night, and when I woke up I almost felt sick. Not sure why... I'm not doing anything too drastic. This will, however, be the first time I do a permanent hair color. I've done a few of the 30 day dyes before, but there wasn't much pressure with those because I knew if I hated it it would be gone after a few weeks.

I suppose I'd probably be nervous even if it was just going to be a trim though. I have just never liked getting my hair cut. Never, and I repeat never, have I got a haircut that I liked right away. I spend the first 3 days after the cut wishing I hadn't done it. Eventually I warm up to it, but for the few days immediately following the cut I feel awful. I have no doubt that today will be the same.

So yeah, I'm pretty scared right now. Scared that the color won't be right, scared the cut won't look good, scared she might accidentally slice my neck with her scissors (OK, so not really)... you know, just scared in general. But I keep on telling myself: It's just hair. I will not fall over dead if it doesn't look good.

Wish me luck!

I Will Remember a Cupcake Forever

2011-05-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

Jewelry: Handmade --- Top, Belt, and Skirt: Thrifted --- Tights: Kohls --- Shoes: John Fluevog --- Purse: Forever21

I got this top at St. Vincent's a while back during a 50% off sale, so it was only $1.64. It's J. Jill, which I know is kind of an old lady brand, but I couldn't resist the awesome stripe detailing on the front, which is actually strips of fabric sewn on the front. Love.

Aquamarine Swarovski Ring, Teal Swarovski Ring

On a more serious note, I'm sure all of you have heard by now that Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday. I'm not a political person at all and like to avoid discussions about politics or watching about politics on the news at all costs. I did watch a live feed online for a while last night, though, because they kept on saying Obama was about to say something about it (I got bored of waiting and turned it off). One of the news anchors, though, said something I found highly amusing:

"American people will always remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Osama bin Laden was dead."

While I highly doubt that is true, I did find it funny because right when I turned on MSN and saw the headlines that bin Laden was dead, I was eating a cupcake. So I guess every time someone talks about bin Laden, an image of a cupcake is going to pop into my head. Sweet deal, if you ask me.

So what were you doing when you heard the news?