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.

As much fun and great it was to explore another city on the other coast of the U.S., it's so nice to be back home and back into my routine.

I figured as this week goes, I'll post pictures of my trip. Possibly daily posts of what I did each day. We'll see how it goes.
Here are a few things that made this week awesome.

I got a special bracelet made for me from my brother's girlfriend. She ordered these skull beads and African beads and made so many bracelets. I especially love the purple skull.

While in Seattle, I took a trip to the Seattle Mall, Pacific Place. Went into Barnes & Noble in the basement and came across Amy Sedaris' craft book in the bargain section. Seven bucks! Couldn't say no. It's such a great book, hilarious and crafty! She never lets me down.

I just got home from seeing My Morning Jacket play at the Williamsburg Park, formerly Williamsburg Waterfront. I was disappointed to see they changed the location. Even though it was moved a few blocks down, it's such a different experience from what it was before. No more grass, view of the water, and view of the city. Besides that, the band played a great but long set.

Despite the fact that it's their most known song, I love this song by My Morning Jacket.

01. This was the first handmade book that I made in a while. Possibly the first one I made this year. I need to get back on the bookmaking train and start making some more.

02. I never quite got the hang of making good home made paper. They're still a little crappy and not useable for things I'd like to make. I've decided to put all the sheets I made to use and create little tags for products I sell and send out. I bought alphabet stamps and ink (from the clearance bin at Michael's) and finally found a good use for them!

03. Met up with some friends the other day at TCBY to talk business. My friend Steven recently started up his dream business and has hired me to help. Things seem to be going really well so far and we just started recently!
Check out our website, facebook, and twitter!

04. I can't believe the time has finally come. I'll be hopping on the plane early tomorrow morning. I've been dying to visit Seattle, and dying to finally go away for a few days! I need a change of scenery, and I've got some nice things planned for this trip. I'm ecstatic.

Have a wonderful week!

Here's just a tiny list of things that are currently making me a happy camper.

01. Crayola Crayon Maker

Seriously, this thing is the coolest ever. I've only used it a few times since purchasing it, but I'm so happy I did buy it. I'm all about reusing and upcycling and whatnot, so being able to make old gross crayons into new nice ones is pretty wonderful.

02. I finished my summer job on Friday which basically means that summer is pretty much over and the Fall semester will start up in no time. One thing that's keeping me positive is the fact that I'll be going on vacation this week! I'm leaving on Monday for Seattle, and I am so psyched.

03. Here's another little store update: I officially have eleven items listed. I am currently working on a bunch more and hopefully before the semester begins, I'll have about twenty items up. That's my goal for now, so we'll see how that goes!

04. I've downloaded the app for StumbleUpon, and I do not regret it. I have really come upon some awesome links that I otherwise wouldn't have found on my own. Such a handy app to keep me busy during train rides and such.

05. I feel like I should have known this, but I just discovered that Aimee Mann was the vocalist for the band 'Til Tuesday. I was really surprised when I found that and I feel like I appreciate 'Til Tuesday much more now.

...Now to do some last minute packing.

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything. I've been super absent from the world of the wide web, and I won't apologize for it. I've been productive and enjoying my summer. I find that pretty awesome and important.
Here's a quick summation of what has been keeping me so busy.

01. Ever since I've started up my online store, I've been busy making more and more things. I've been playing around with my own stencils and experimenting with prints. Here's a shirt that will hopefully be done and added to the store soon.

02. Along with prints, I've been playing around with color and pattern combinations. Another shirt that will hopefully be up soon.

03. Of course have to throw in some galaxy related items as well. Here's my subtle mustache galaxy tee.

04. Besides store related projects, I've been spending a lot of time trying to sew up a dress for a friend. Our goal was to finish it by Friday, but couldn't meet that deadline due to broken sewing machines. So we had to stick with my usual hand sewing method.

05. I tried so hard to master the art of paper making, but I haven't quite gotten it yet. I've given up on that for a little bit, so I've been playing with paper mache. I've decided to put all my scrap paper to good use by making paper mache canvases and such.

06. Last but not least, this morning, I quickly threw together a hand-made book to be used as a 'brainstorming note pad' for ideas and such for projects and products to make for my store. I've been so motivated; I can't be stopped! I'm on a roll with makin' and constructin', I have to keep track of it all somehow.

To keep me fully loving life, I have wonderful classic '80s new wave to get me through it all.