46. try and/ or create at least 10 new cupcake recipes

7/10: played around with a new recipe for coca- cola cupcakes… not quite as coke-y as i’d like but it’s got a good consistency and they’re yummy regardless with a chocolatey frosting and candy coated chocolate bits on top, i’m definitely going to have to try this one again to improve the coca cola taste… i’ll keep you posted!! (:

*completed april 10th, 2010

49. work with a new photographer

I met John Park for the first time yearrrrrs ago when i did a shoot for Gnarle clothing and he recently found me on facebook and my oh my has he continued to grow and improve as a photographer. When he hit me up and asked if i wanted to do a shoot, i was more than stoked and we made it happen quicker than quick. When you’ve got the time, check out his website and see his other amazing shots <3

*completed april 7th, 2010

47. buy a  new laptop/ clean out old one

finally got my new macbook pro to clean out my old mac and use purely for dj’ing (: i’ve been meaning to do this for SO long now, it feels good to finally be making it happen <3

*completed march 20th, 2010

43. try 5 new restaurants near home

1/5: the roomie and i were in the mood for quiche and so we looked up a french restaurant near the house and realized there are 3 creme de la crepes in our local beach towns so we went over to hermosa and ended up spending about 2.5 hours at the crepe shop… the menu was so amazing and the crepes sounded so good that i forgot all about quiche and ordered two crepes… both were AMAZING. The shops are genuinely french owned and family run and the sweetest french boys work there while going to school here in the US… we’ll definitely be adding it to our frequent dining rotation! (:

*completed march 27th, 2010

33. go to a poetry reading/ spoken word event

i used to watch def poetry jam every night that it was on and for my 18th bday bff took me to see them at UCLA while they were touring (SO SO RAD), then for my 19th bday another bff got me all the dvds… i used to go to poetry readings and spoken word events at least once a month or every other month but i’ve been lagging the past few years- especially since i’ve been out of the country but now i’m home and i’ve been refreshing my love for spoken word- i’ve recently started frequenting one of my favorite open mic nights again… it’s so so inspiring to be in the presence of so many open minded people from all walks of life (from young angst ridden teens to a 92 year old WWII survivor) who are incredibly in tune with their world and how they feel… and so many of which who express themselves so beautifully <3 i LOVE it. 

*completed march 30th, 2010 onward (cuz i’ll definitely keep going!)

46. try and/ or create at least 10 new cupcake recipe

6/10: made some cupcakes for game night on monday for matt’s going away and since he’s such a big fan of chocolate and peanut butter, i decided to try making chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter cookie bottoms and peanut butter frosting with a chocolate bunny cookie on top (:

*completed april 5th, 2010

46. try and/ or create at least 10 new cupcake recipes

this is hmm… 5/10? chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling, cream cheese frosting, fresh raspberry sauce, & blueberries (: 

*completed march 26th, 2010

12. take a cooking class

i’m always a little hesitant to bake pies because we so rarely made them at home when i was growing up… but lately i’ve been really wanting to experiment and get better/ more comfortable with baking pies so it was a perfect opportunity when William Sonoma near the house announced their pie class… definitely learned some amazing tips- for example i figured out how to make perfect meringue AND how to make a new new kinds of crust… i also learned that i’m much better at making pies than i thought! i’ll definitely be baking more pies in the future (:

*completed march 28th, 2010

44. go dancing

So i’ve been dancing for as long as i can remember… i’ve done ballet, tap, jazz, hiphop, ballroom (waltz, tango, foxtrot), & salsa (rumba, cha cha cha, etc) … i’ve even tried breakdancing (unsuccessfully! haha) but i had never been swing dancing before! SO for Saint Patricks Day this year i found inspiration in a few of my dancer friends and we gathered up the gang to go swing dancing to live jazz at the Strutters Ball down in orange county.

Chanz & the gang came down early from Hollywood to help me pick from my recently growing collection of vintage dresses (: When we finally got down to the OC we had missed the beginners class (which would have been for my benefit) and we didnt want to interrupt the advanced class so we headed down and around the corner where we discovered an old fashioned soda fountain shop! Incredible! After a good meal, lots of old fashioned candy, and a peanut butter and banana milkshake, we were off to the dance!

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Ridiculous amounts of fun.  The vibe of the whole place was great! The people were sweet and fun and even though i had never tried swing dancing before, they were more than happy to teach me and take me for a spin on the dance floor (: it was AMAZING. I’m definitely going back and next time we’re gonna try to get there early enough for the lesson… well, i’m going to need the lesson haha the rest of them were tearing up the dance floor- i’ll try to post videos later, but for now, here are some photos (: i’ll be putting more up on my other blog xx

* completed March 17th, 2010

46. try and/ or create at least 10 new cupcake recipe

this is 3/10: although technically i think this one is more pie than cupcake, i did bake them in the cupcake tins AND i have a plan to add a cupcake top to them as opposed to how i made them this time. i went to the farmers market on tuesday and bought some peaches which i cut up and seasoned into a pie filling then filled cupcake cups with pie crust. the peach filling went in the pie cups and then brie was dotted on top AND THENNN the whole thing was topped off with a little butterfly shaped piece of crust (: they’re pretty dang good! the brie is a real subtle taste… like i said though, these came out kind of like pie/ tarts… next time i’ll bake them with a cupcake top (:

*baked on March 17th, 2010