That time I owned a cupcake business

  The other day was boss's day and I whipped up some yummy German Chocolate cupcakes for my boss and that reminded me that I never shared with y'all that I kinda used to own a cupcake business. It was never like a "big, this is my only job, how I make all my money" business....it really just started out as a hobby.

  It actually all started one day back in August of 2011. At that time I was working a very stressful, time-consuming job, but still felt like I was searching for a hobby. One day I was stuck at home all day, while our windows were being replaced, and I was sucked into hours of TV shows on TLC and a show came on that I'd never seen before, DC Cupcakes. It's this fun show about two sisters that quit their corporate jobs and opened their own cupcake shop in Washington, DC. They're quirky, fun and I immediately feel in love with cupcakes. After about 4 hours of watching them bake thousands of cupcakes, I thought...I could do that! I decided that baking cupcakes would be my hobby!

  I originally started making cupcakes just for fun, and then people began wanting to place orders! I never intended for my "hobby" to become a "business", but hey...I'm not going to argue.

  I came up with a business name and my wonderful friend, Callie, a very talented graphic designer, developed a logo for me.

  I don't really do the cupcakes as much anymore, mainly because it's just hard with a full-time job and other Ginger Warrior activities. It's not that I don't do them anymore....I'm just not out there looking for business. I'm happy to do cupcakes for anyone that contacts me requesting them. :-)

  Here's the German Chocolate that I made the other day, along with other cupcakes that I've made in the past.

Key Lime Pie

Oreo Cheesecake

Snickerdoodle

Maple Pecan

Pumpkin

Strawberry Shortcake

Breakfast in a Cupcake-French Toast cupcake, Maple buttercream frosting and topped with crispy bacon

Lemon Blueberry

Gingerbread

White Chocolate Peppermint

  I have to be honest. The cupcakes that I made for boss's day were the first ones I've made in a long time. As I went through my computer files looked for these pictures I began feeling these mixed emotions, between remembering the awesome feelings of creating these cute, little cakes and wanting to cry because I miss doing it. As I turned my hobby into a business I lost my passion for it, and the other night I re-found that passion. I love making cupcakes, and I have to begin doing it again.

Friday Funnies

This is both funny and just completely adorable. I couldn't resist. Happy Friday everyone!

Take me out to the ball game

  T plays on a co-ed softball league and last night was one of his games. T has always been very athletic and baseball/softball is probably one of his favorite sports to play, and he is very talented! Molly and I like to sit on the sidelines and watch. As I discussed in a previous post....I don't really do sports, although they were about to make me play last night because they were almost short a female player. That would have been cute....me....playing softball....without a glove....wearing a fleece pullover, blue jeans and pink converse tennis shoes. I could totally rock that outfit on the softball field!

  Anyways, so I snapped a few photos from the sidelines, but not too close. Y'all have to understand....there's like this "wife code" when it comes to watching the hubby play sports. I can't sit too close to the fence, which doesn't allow for great pics. And, you better believe I'm not allowed to stand up and get closer when he's at bat to get a picture of the intimidating, swinging thing that he does with the bat while waiting for the pitcher to throw the ball.

  Also part of the code, no yelling or congratulatory remarks! These are reserved for after you and the hubby are in the car, then they can begin. These are embarrassing to the hubby during the game and must be avoided....so I just blog about them instead. Tehehe.

  T, playing Shortstop.

  Talking (yelling) to his teammates.

  Getting ready to go up to bat.

   Woohoo! Made it to first base!

  And, second base!

   Strategizing with his teammate.

  Molly likes to go watch T play softball because there's new things to smell and new dirt to dig in. 

   Molly watching T play Third Base Coach.

Motivational Monday

I love this. I think sometimes it's so important to sit down, stop thinking, relax, and just breathe. 

Have a little faith. 

Life will go on. 

lovewkanc.com

The hubby is home and the zombies return tonight!

  This post will be the ultimate of randomness, but it was like I could hear my computer calling me to come and write a blog post, because I need to update you on all the new and exciting things that have been happening in my life in the past few days! Ok...not so exciting...I just feel like writing!

• So, the hubby is home from his business trip. He got home late Friday night, and thankfully was able to get a ride home from the airport. I was out of town for a continuing education conference with my job, and I got home early Saturday evening. While T was gone I dvr'd all of "our shows" so we spent the night vegging out and catching up on a few shows. 

shielassays.blogspot.com

•  Speaking of TV shows ( I promise that T and I are not TV obsessed and we do have many other interests) one of our favorite shows premieres tonight, and we are super excited! I can't even believe I'm about to say that I like this show, because I can't even believe it myself. It's The Walking Dead on AMC! In a very short summary, this show is about a small group of people outside of Atlanta trying to survive after the zombie apocalypse. There's a lot of gory, zombie-killing, human-necking-biting action, and I still can't believe that I've been wildly obsessed with the show for the past two years. The show definitely has the whole drama factor, along with the goriness, and I think that's why I like it so much. On top of the dramatic features, this show can be scary at times, and I am not, I repeat NOT one for scary stuff!! I don't do scary books, I don't do scary movies, I don't even do scary movie previews. Sometimes The Walking Dead gets a little scary. That's when I pull out the wimpy voice, sad eyes, and ask T to come and sit next to me. He chuckles a little bit and then complies. I also refuse to take Molly outside for her potty break after watching The Walking Dead, because it's already dark. Who knows? The zombie apocalypse may have begun during our hour long TV show.... I'm not venturing outside because they're probably about to come over our fence any second. I definitely encourage you to check out The Walking Dead. It's an amazing show.   

•  On another funny note, regarding our exciting premiere tonight, T and I sometimes like to plan a fun meal around a season premiere or finale. Well, we didn't plan one this time but this morning during breakfast, right before we're about to go to the grocery store, T says, "Oh! We should plan a meal around The Walking Dead premiere!" I told him that I hadn't really thought of anything, but that I was planning on getting things to grill some hamburgers. He said that sounded great, and then asked me if I could shape the patties into the form of zombies? Oh husband. What am I going to do with him??

•  Speaking of zombies, T is obsessed with zombies. My brother is also obsessed with zombies. If you put T and my brother together, within 5 minutes they will begin planning our family's escape plan for the zombie apocalypse. They are very detailed and take this very seriously. I like to sit in the background and chuckle, but hey, if the day ever comes, at least I know these two guys will have my back. Oh, and don't you know that we've already started our little weapons stockpile. Awhile back, T told me that he needed an ax to chop some branches off a shrub in the yard. I thought another tool we had would work, but I let him go get his ax, because I know that an ax is an important zombie-killing tool. 

• Ok, enough about zombies.....

• Today I made some awesome homemade hummus. I've made hummus before, but I tried a new recipe today. I didn't take pictures while I was making it, because I didn't think I'd want to blog about it if it didn't turn out well, but I promise I'll share it with y'all next time I make some. 

• Tomorrow is Molly's birthday. We don't have kids yet, so we're allowed to celebrate these kinds of things and you can't make fun of us. She'll be three years old and we'll be celebrating tomorrow night with doggie ice cream. Ok, wait! Molly will be celebrating with doggie ice cream. The closest I'll be getting to that is holding the little cup for her while she licks it. Today to celebrate, I gave Molly a bath. I don't think that Molly thought it was a celebration. During her bath, Molly looks at me like I'm slowly, permanently removing peanut butter from her life (Molly LOVES peanut butter). The hilarious thing is that after her bath, Molly runs around the house like a kid in a candy store and is the happiest we ever see her.  

  Ok....I think that's enough of my rambling for today. I hope all of you have a wonderful Sunday evening. Stay tuned this week for some excited posts!

Friday Funnies

Bahahaha! This says it all! I absolutely love it! I laughed so hard when I saw this!

My kitchen appliance love

  I must admit....I'm slightly in love with one of my kitchen appliances.

  The coffee maker??

  Not quite....but close. It's actually my Crock-Pot!

  Our love is actually a new love. We received our beautiful slow cooker as a wedding gift, but prior to about 6 weeks ago we'd only used it to make queso dip during Super Bowl parties. Sad....I know. We'd always been a little nervous about leaving it on while we were gone during the day, but we gave it a shot one day, and we'll never go back. It's absolutely amazing! You take about 3 minutes to throw your ingredients into it in the morning before you leave for work, turn that baby on, come home 6-8 hours later and you have an awesome meal waiting for you. Not to mention that your house smells amazing. I just always feel sorry for Molly, who's probably been salivating all day with the yummy smells!

  So, last night I had two friends over for dinner. I wanted to do something easy since they'd be over soon after I'd be getting home from work, so I decided to use the slow cooker. I tried out a new recipe and they were my little guinea pigs. Tehehe! Thankfully, I think they really enjoyed it!

  Here were my ingredients. Three things people! That's it! 6 chicken breasts, 1 packet of taco seasoning mix and 1 bottle (16 oz.) of salsa. I accidentally picked up the chunky salsa so I added a little extra water.

  Next, I placed the chicken in the slow cooker, sprinkled the taco seasoning over the chicken and then poured in the salsa and a little water ( maybe 1/4 cup or so). Here's what it looked like.

  I set the cooker for 7 hours. Mine has a handy-dandy feature where you can set the cook time and once that time runs out, it automatically switches itself over to the "Keep Warm" setting. So, by 2 pm it was done cooking, and had moved over the "Keep Warm."

  When I got home from work a little after 5 pm it looked like this.

  I removed the chicken and shredded it with two forks and then threw it back into the cooker to simmer in all the nice juices until we were ready to eat, but not before snapping a quick pic. Yummy!

 

  I served the meat in corn tortillas with diced tomatoes, shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheese and lime wedges with black beans on the side. It was a delicious meal and I had a great time catching up with my girlfriends!