Is Cupcakery Even A Word ?

Ok, so I would like to think I jumped on the cupcake bandwagon long before these tiny sweet confections became the new fad. Like I have mentioned before (in this post), I have a love for all things cupcake. Now it seems like cupcake shops are popping up everywhere. My only gripe about some cupcakeries (totally just made that word up) is that they try too hard to make a "gourmet" cupcake and end up crossing the line with weird icing or strange cake flavors. Cupcakes, in my opinion, should be simple.

Today I ventured over to Georgetown Cupcake, in the rain (is this girl desperate to get out of the office? Y.E.S.). This is THE hottest cupcakery in the DC metropolitan area. The line, as usual, was snaked around the tiny shop.

I decided to try a classic flavor for my first cupcake - chocolate birthday. Here is their description of this flavor "chocolate topped with a traditional sweet vanilla buttercream frosting topped with rainbow sprinkles." Pure. Heaven. It was by far the best cupcake I have sampled in a while. I highly recommend you try them. Immediately.

 

PS-I am not being compensated by Georgetown Cupcake for my above review. Although I welcome the idea!

Adventures in the Burbs

Last night was a test to my sanity and ability to stay calm in freak-out-worthy situations. I was about to cook dinner when I saw something scurry along the baseboard. Oh crap! And from what I could tell it wasn't a mouse. Oh $h%&! And let me just clarify that I was HOME ALONE. So what is a girl to do when she's home ALONE with an unidentified scurrying animal in the house?! I was on the verge of freaking out but then my adrenaline kicked in and I was DETERMINED to capture whatever this thing was or else I was not going to sleep a wink that night. So I grabbed the first thing I saw on the counter, a bowl, and was on a mission to catch this thing.....

DONE. Ok, so now what?!

I

Solution: wait for the hubs to come home and make sure nothing moves or escapes from this bowl!

An hour later, the hubs comes home to a bowl on the floor with an unidentified furry animal inside...so the hubs grabbed a piece of flimsy card-stock paper and then a cookie sheet...and off to the back yard we go! MY HERO!

The anticipation was killing us both to examine what was underneath this bowl...only to find out, that this "thing" was already dead. YUCK!

From what I gather, this "thing" was a vole. No that is not a typo, a vole. I googled it. And google knows everything, DUH.

Here is the hubs (in business attire an all) tossing our dead vole into the bushes. YUCKEROONIES.

But wait, there's more. I found evidence near the basement door. That little vole chewed away the spray foam we used to seal a hole we discovered in the frame of the basement door. 

Looks like we will be running to Home Depot this weekend to find another solution to patch up this hole. One thing is for sure....life is always an adventure!

The Weed War

I apologize in advance if I start sounding like a broken record, but....I swear with every weed I pull in the yard, 3 pop up in it's place. The area on the left side of our house is a jungle mess of weeds, dandelions and everything in-between. A few months ago I spent the better part of an afternoon clearing this area of all the out-of-control weeds. I even had a run in with Ms. Ivy who came back for some revenge (literally). But I was determined to win this battle. Only to realize a few weeks later the weeds came back with a vengeance. So I weeded some more, only to realize a few weeks later that this battle was a full on war. Needless to say, the area looked like this...

(BEFORE)

Pretty much a total embarrassment in my opinion. So the hubs and I were determined to win this war with weeds. So we decided to lay down landscaping fabric in hopes to suffocate and lock out those pesky weeds. It seemed like a relatively easy and cost effective solution. So we weeded one last time and started to lay down fabric - seen here....

S

Oh, and it's virtually impossible to tell in the photos, but it was about 95 degrees out, 80% humidity and we were dripping with sweat. Hence the hubs taking a break (or purposely turning his head to avoid my photo?). But after laying the fabric, we covered with mulch and and voila! Instant transformation!

(AFTER)

Looks like we won this war!
 

Warp Speed.....

Life in the burbs is moving a warp speed...I feel like summer has crept up on me and there are still plenty of projects to get done! Summer's should be spent sitting poolside or lounging on the patio with a margarita in hand. Apparently I live in a fantasy world because there is no time for that! The new screen door in the porch needs to be painted (4 weeks later....oops!), my flea market chair (in this post) has been begging for my attention since last year, and the side yard's jungle of weeds needs to be tamed with landscaping fabric and mulch. I swear with every 1 weed I pull another 3 pop up in its place. Not to mention the gazillion "helicopters" from our maple tree that have taken over and sprouted everywhere.

And yes, we are now those neighbors that have tree's a mini jungle growing in our gutters - which apparently you have to pay people to clean? They look like this...

The photo above is NOT my gutter, just a stand-in photo at the moment. But don't worry, our gutters look FAR worse that this one. I plan on taking a pic or two to post just for giggles this weekend. Warning: you may be horrified at the current state of our actual gutters! Stay tuned!

Sugarprints Photography

 

Many of you have been requesting to see more photos of Emmit, the new addition to our family. I love taking photos but must admit that taking them of an energetic, 14-week old puppy is near impossible. So when my dear friend, Katie, of Sugarprints Photography, came to visit me recently, of course she brought her camera along. Check out her recent blog post with some photos of Emmit! She's incredibly talented and does amazing work. Such an inspiration! Thanks Katie!

The Dreaded 3 - Oh!

Oh crap. It's here. Today I officially mourn the loss of my twenties. I. AM. FREAKING. OUT. I have been dreading this b-day for a year and am pretty much in denial. But as depressing as turning 30 is, I look back on the last decade and am so grateful for what I have accomplished (while continuing to feel, and act, like I am still 16).

Though I still can't help but feel like life in the 'burbs is moving at warp-speed....slow down please!

I remember when I was growing up, my Grampy would never say how old he was on his birthday. He always phrased it like "I'm celebrating the 4th Anniversary of my 20th Birthday". I never understood that really until I got older. So today I am celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of my 10th Birthday!(Wait, is that even correct? I'm blond so if it doesn't, just let that one slide today, ok?) Once I get past this denial, I am really looking forward to what the next decade will bring. Cheer's to now being able to check the age 30-45 box on forms! Yikes! Oh, and here is my motto from now on...

Porch Makeover Project Completed!

  (BEFORE)

 

                       (AFTER!)

This weekend marked the completion of the porch makeover project!! As you can see in the (BEFORE) photo above, the screened in porch is off the side of the house, behind the carport. The hubs and I used it a TON last Spring/Summer and even into the Fall when the weather was nice. It's a great patio but we couldn't help but feel that is felt unfinished. It was just a bit dark and dingy and looked unfinished. The ceiling had exposed beams and you could see the plywood roof which was dirty as seen in the photo below...

The hubs and I talked about painting the porch and re-screening it because some screen was stretched out, old and needed some help. PLUS, during Snopacolypse 2010 a branch from a tree fell and sliced right through the screen. Nice. Now we knew this porch makeover project was pushed to the top of our "to do" list. 

We opted to tackle the demo of the old screen ourselves to save some money. 1 makeshift tool belt (for hubs), 1 hammer,  3 pairs of pliers, 9,345,201 staples later = sore hands and fingers. Check out all those staples...I wasn't kidding!

 

But thanks to several family members helping with the demo and one great handyman and MANY trips to Home Depot, we have a new porch!

(BEFORE)

 

                        (AFTER!)

Here is another picture of the back of the finished porch...

Now the porch seems to blend in with the house rather than stand out. We couldn't be more thrilled with the outcome. Just hope our resident squirrels stay off of the new screen! Next up is some landscaping around the porch. Yes, it's never ending!