i could be sweet and i could be sweeter

recently, my friend yajaira suggested we set aside one evening every other week to hang out and catch up. we've been doing this for the past couple of months and i always look forward to our 'date nights'. we usually meet somewhere for dinner and then spend a few hours talking and laughing until one of us has to go home :) we grew up together and we've always had a lot in common, so it's nice to spend this time with her again and it is definitely long overdue. as i get older i realize how hard it is to find true friends, and luckily for me, that's exactly what yajaira is.

last weekend was her 25th birthday, but she was sick and i was out of town, so we decided that we would celebrate last night. our plan was to meet up at the standard restaurant, but i snuck in ahead of time to drop off the birthday cake i had made for her (aka 're-made' if you read my last blog post). i actually walked right past her with it in my hand! but fortunately she was focused on her iphone :)

we had a great time (as usual) and as we were finishing up our meals, i gave a little wink/nod to the waitress who then formed a choir of busboys and waiters to sing happy birthday to a completely shocked yajaira :) the best part was when they pronounced her name correctly mid-song (thanks to my phonetically spelled cheat sheet i had slipped the waitress earlier: JUH-hide-UH)... i recorded the entire thing and the smile plastered on her face made me super happy :) here are a few photos i took of the birthday girl blowing out her candles and of the birthday cake itself:

Surprise! Yajaira blowing out her candles...

i made her a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting – yum!

...and since i know she is an avid reader of this blog, i wanted to wish her (again) a happy twenty-fifth birthday and thank her for being such an amazing friend to me all of these years...

me, you <3

one more perfect rendezvous

last night was our final cake decorating class, and while i'm sad to see it come to an end, i have a feeling i will lose about five pounds without the weekly temptation of frosting. i mean, let's be honest- it's hard not to lick your fingers when things get a little messy, and you have the option to eat any mistakes you make :)

third class: practicing frosting techniques on cupcakes

a little recap* sully and i signed up for this class for a couple different reasons- to have fun and learn something new, but mainly to spend some quality time together. after we purchased all of our materials and baked some cookies for our first class, we sat back, and looked forward to what we thought would be an easy wednesday evening activity. we were stupid.

final class: sully's love bird cake

all of our classes were pretty challenging due to the weather and time constraints, and last night was no exception. we were supposed to bring a two layered cake with a center filling, fully frosted and ready to decorate. now, i typically wouldn't complain about something as minute as this, but as the only two girls in the class with nine-to-five jobs (we assumed), it made all of our tasks that much more difficult. not only did we have to bake, prep and refrigerate everything nights in advance, but then we had to shuttle it all from our apartments to our offices and then from our offices to our class. so it's no surprise with the weather we've been having, that sully showed up with a melted cake, and all of my pre-made sugar flowers were just small piles of pink by the time we arrived... from there, it was all down hill.

our frosting was too thin, our shapes wouldn't hold, the cakes were falling apart, my colors started running, everything looked soggy.... so long story short, on my drive home, i looked over at my cake just in time to see the whole thing turn to soup. literally, all of the frosting had melted off of the sides and formed a big blue/green puddle at the base of my cake keeper :/

i guess the moral of the story is that you should wait until winter if you want to take a cake decorating class...


*p.s. i took before and after photos, but i cant post them until tomorrow, because, unfortunately for her, i made this cake for my friend yajaira :)

anything to make you smile

all of us, equipped with our 3D glasses

a few nights ago, we saw despicable me (for the second time) with my parents and we couldn't stop smiling (above photos are proof). but, if you're the type of person who needs a little more incentive, here are my top 5 reasons to see this movie:

• the main characters are the voices of steve carrell, kristin wiig, jason segal, etc...
• the tiny yellow 'minions' that speak a language made up of gibberish and giggles

* agnes, the youngest orphan, who sings songs about unicorns

• the entire soundtrack is by pharrell williams and it's pretty awesome 
• bonus: if you see the movie in 3D or iMax, the roller coaster ride kind of makes you want to throw up :)

so go see it! i promise it wont disappoint...

*click the link below..

The Unicorn Song by Agnes, Despicable Me Soundtrack

moats and boats and waterfalls

i would like to report that megans birthday extravaganza on the sacandaga was a success :) after a bumpy start and some heavy rain – the sun came out and drunken debauchery ensued, accompanied by about fifty rounds of horseshoes. luckily, we had a sober designated driver on board:

Landon Crane, Captain

meet landon :) isn't he freakin' adorable?? here are a few examples of his extreme cuteness, among the many other things this kiddo has stashed in his arsenal- when asked "what does a kitty say?" he replies (multiple times and in several octaves...) 'meowwww'; he called the family of ducks we spotted "babies"; he giggles uncontrollably when you tell him "no" (which is only funny if you're not his mother); and, after our full day on the lake, he totally had the little coppertone baby bottom tan line from where his diaper was covering. i love this little guy <3

another day late and one year older

tomorrow is one of my best friends birthdays! and because she is such an amazing lady, mommy to landon, and wife to ryan, i baked her a fancy cake.

chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting... yum!

so to celebrate, we are spending the day with her (and her perfect little family) out on their boat on the sacandaga lake. i've got to go finish frosting the dozen cupcakes im bringing along (cake is just too hard to eat on a boat), but i wanted to say happy 25th birthday megs- i love you lots <3

this years love...

is it just me or is everyone getting married this summer? (ok, slight exaggeration, but still...). i've already been to two weddings within the last month and there are three more on the calendar before the end of august! everyone i talk to is telling me about a wedding they've just been to, or one that is coming up... hell, even my cake decorating class has four soon-to-be brides, and that's out of a class of seven!

anywho, last weekends' wedding was for the cutest couple ever, aka michele and sean, who are currently enjoying their honeymoon. it was such a beautiful ceremony and we were so happy just to be included in their special day. check out how fancy they looked:

Mr. & Mrs.Wyse      July 17, 2010

my boyfriend and i sat at a table with my friend kim, and her hubby mark, who kept us entertained all evening :) and then we danced the night away with aaron and janae - the owners of spa city swingers! i would like to say that i was swing dancing at one point, but i think i was just being spun around by a very patient dance teacher, as i closed my eyes and stepped on his feet...repetitively. (oops! thanks aaron!)

but even with the dance-related injuries, the excessive amounts of tissues, and consistently over-indulging in some super sweet wedding cakes- i say bring on the next one :)

sweet disposition

my friend sully and i enrolled ourselves in a cake decorating class this summer and last night was our second lesson. we learned different piping techniques and we even created different colored frosting for the very first time! (<-- more exciting than it sounds for anyone who's ever taken color theory in college)

for our first class (last week), we were instructed to bring 6 large cookies to decorate. for our second class, we were told to bring a cake. except neither sully nor i caught the whole 'cake' part, so we showed up with another batch of jumbo cookies. needless to say, while everyone else was actually doing what the name of the class implies- we created these beauties...

*sully's double decker, fun in the sun, cookie-cake

*my caterpillar-cookie (with accompanying 'grass' cookies)

...and as much as we enjoy these classes, i know our boyfriends appreciate them even more - because they get to eat these sweet treats every wednesday night when we get home :)

mixtapes' a masterpiece

my boyfriend makes killer mixtapes :)

he treats the whole process like a homework assignment. or a thesis. an entire project that has to be well-researched and tested before handing it in. sometimes it takes weeks, and sometimes it takes months, but they are always worth the wait. he finds bands and artists that i have never even heard of, and instantly makes me a fan. he knows my likes and dislikes, and sometimes i think he tricks me into liking things that i would have never liked before...

i'm writing all this jazz because i just got my latest mix and i cant stop listening to it... so i was thinking that i would add a few of my faves to my blog playlist and share the love :)

*just a doodle

xoxo