It's been a while since I've done a Flashback post.
I figured another cake related post would be appropriate since it seems to be a big time birthday month. A friend's birthday was today, and I have a few more coming up within the next week. I thought to share all of this.

About a year ago I took a cake decorating class with my mom. It was only a three night class, but it was fun. We were on a cake decorating spree after the class was done and over with. We bought so many supplies, so why not put them to use AND make delicious cake?
The first pair of photos are of my cake I made.

Along the way on that cake decorating spree, my mom and I threw together a cake for my brother's girlfriend's birthday. She is a huge Hello Kitty fan, so we whipped up magenta frosting and made the bow. I decorated the sides of the cake and whatnot.

Wonderful, it's almost midnight and I'm craving delicious cake. What to do?
++ Happy birthday to whomever is celebrating!

Now that Summer is officially done and over with for the year, I thought I'd share some television series that kept me busy during the hot season.

01. Harper's Island. My friends raved about it, so I put it on my list. It was the first series I watched after Spring semester finished. Great murder mystery.
02. The Crow: Stairway To Heaven. I'm a huge fan of the original Crow movie. When I saw they made a series, I felt the need to watch it. All of The Crow continuations have been so cheesy - story lines and graphics. I didn't expect this one to be different. As much as fans love this, I really didn't. I'm all for the original movie.
03. Freaks And Geeks. I've always seen bits and pieces, all out of order. I thought it was about time to just sit and watch the entire thing. Great show. Too bad it didn't get picked up for a second season.
04. Kids In The Hall. Oh. My. I loved this show. It lasted for five seasons, so it took up a large chunk of my summer. I was obsessed. After I was finished with the series, I watched the movie and their comeback mini series. I loved every part. So good.
05. Strangers With Candy. I think this was my favorite series I watched all summer. So crude and vulgar, but absolutely hilarious. It's definitely not made for everyone, but I can't get enough of it. The movie was just as great.
06. Wonderfalls. Took me a long time to find the series online. It's a fantastic show - written by Bryan Fuller, who wrote Pushing Daisies & Dead Like Me. If you like those shows, this one is just as great.
07. NewsRadio. I have watched all seasons but the last one (impossible to find online). Dave Foley and Phil Hartman are hilarious. I love sitcoms and this one is now one of my favorites.
08. The Pretender. I used to watch this as a kid - was one of my favorite shows! I decided to revisit it and watch it all in order. Done with season one, three more to go!

Pretty sure I posted a video for this song, but the Kids In The Hall theme song is so damn catchy and wonderful.

Had a very colorful and crafty week.

01. Took crafting to a whole new level when I brought a shirt to sew while commuting. I've never knitted while on a train, but I can imagine it being easier to handle than sewing. Whatever, I got things done!
02. Splurged this week and bought five macarons. FIVE. I don't recommend eating five in one shot, especially in hot weather.
03. Played around with some leather. Never made leather cuffs like this before. Fun to switch things up a bit. I have SO much leather, why not put it to good use? Serina and I made these leather cuffs for her Etsy shop she just opened up. I really recommend you check it out! EclecticNeverland.
04. I've been a roll with binding books that I started and never binded. Put the signatures together. Hopefully tomorrow I can bind them. Goal!

Currently listening to Dreaming by Blondie. Forgot how amazing this song is.

I know I promised this recipe a few days ago, but here it is now!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour

Toppings:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
01. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
02. In a large bowl, soften the butter with a wooden spoon.
03. Add the sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
04. Beat in the egg and vanilla with the dry ingredients.
05. Gradually mix in the flour about 1/2 cup at a time.

*Optional: cover the dough or place on wax paper and refrigerate for one hour.

06. Mix the toppings in a small bowl.
07. Shape the dough into balls and roll them into the topping mix to coat.
08. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
09. Bake to 10-11 minutes.

Leave the cookies on a rack to cool.
When cooled, grab two cookies, take a spoonful of ice cream and sandwich between the two cookies.
I totally recommend using Edy's Loaded Butterfinger Ice Cream, but feel free to use and ice cream you want. Either way, these come out delicious.
Store these cookies in the freezer.

This week is already coming off as a let's eat all the sweet things in the world kind of week. My mom's birthday was yesterday - ate some delicious red velvet cake, and I worked on some things that involve sweetness. Very sweet kind of week. So I plan on making this a sweets post week.

I'll start off with a a group of photos from this time my brother and I went wild and crazy making tye-dye cupcakes and colorful snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches.

That night, we split responsibilities; I made the snickerdoodles and he made the cupcakes. A very wonderful kind of sibling collaboration. Both the cupcakes and ice cream sandwiches came out delicious.

We used a simple box mix for the cupcakes using all the food dye we had. I'll post up a recipe for the snickerdoodles tomorrow. There seems to be different variations of snickerdoodle recipes, but this one is my recipe I stick to.

I can't wait to find an excuse to make these all again!

In the meantime, watch the video for the newest Raveonettes song. I love their new album so much.

With the new semester starting just last week, I wanted to start looking at things differently. I'm sure everyone stops and thinks about this at some point, but as I get older every year, I start to take things more lightly and drop the ignorance a little at a time.

For as long as I can remember, I've always looked forward to the future and created goals to work towards. As good as it is to be prepared for future adult-like living, I always ignored living in the present. I was always excited to answer those "so what do you want to be when you grow up" questions from family members you haven't seen in a long time. I always plan and research everything extensively - sometimes I loose interest since those tiny mysterious factors that drew me in in the first place have disappeared.
Have you ever had friends that always needed to be in a relationship? As soon as they jumped out of one, they jumped into another one almost immediately after. I was always like that with career goals. As soon as I moved away from one, I always wandered towards another one. It always gave me that sense of security that I will be okay financially in the future. I was all about that up until a few weeks ago...

It was my trip to Seattle that changed things. the point of my trip was to check out a school I was interested in after finishing school here in New York. In my second semester in illustration, the idea of pursuing a career in art therapy sounded perfect. I researched and researched, looked into local grad schools, not so local grad schools, requirements to apply for those grad schools, etc. I was SO into the idea. Two days before my scheduled meeting for the school, I started questioning things. I have that personality where if I talk myself out of something, it's nearly impossible for me to talk myself back into it. I had officially talked myself out of this possible career direction. I felt so empty.

It was a Ben & Jerry's in Portland where this decision was made. I talked it over with my mom while we ate our ice cream. I thought what if I go with the flow and just see where life leads me. I have two more years to finish up my degree. A lot can happen in two years. Maybe I should just let it happen and take advantage of everything I'm being taught. That's always been one of my problems. Working towards that art therapy life, I wondered why I needed to take a stupid InDesign class. Being in that mindset made me so ignorant; I didn't take advantage of what I was being taught since my head was somewhere else.

I don't like this clueless feeling that I have drifted towards, but it really has been keeping my head empty of long term goals to work towards, which relieves so much stress. I literally feel empty, but in like a dreamy sense. It feels kinda good.

I guess I just needed to express that thought in words and call it a day. You can say my goal right now is to just go with the flow that my life is just flowing towards and live in the present more. There are a few things I'm currently a part of that is giving me a little reassurance, but for the most part I'm feeling free and happy. I'm working on goals but they're all on my term.