Cupcakes on the Road: San Diego

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Orange you glad...

I've been on a non-processed food bender for the past (almost) two weeks and am enjoying my newfound energy and just better overall feeling. It's fun to seek out incredibly tasty treats that I can feel good about eating/drinking. Who enjoys post-treat guilt anyhow?

I took a trip to World Market this afternoon, one of my favorite places to wander when I have some free time. It is sort of a Pier-One-meets-Home-Goods-meets-Trader-Joe's -meets-IKEA-Marketplace. Among some treats of the vino variety, I decided to indulge my love of chocolate and orange. Preferrably together:

Valor Pure Dark Chocolate with Orange - Spanish chocolate that is 70% cacao and has the perfect amount of orange zest to give it a little tang. The bars also come in solid 70% dark chocolate, mint and almond. What I really love is that it is scored into 12 squares, so I can keep the bar in the freezer and break off just a bit to satisfy my chocolatey sweet tooth. Who am I kidding... the perfect serving would be the entire bar! Dark chocolate is said to possess certain beneficial effects on human health, so eat on my friends!!

Republic of Tea Orange Blossom White Tea - It was a little on the pricey side, but with 50 tea bags it'll last me a few weeks. You can read up on white tea and its benefits here. The orange flavor is not overpowering and the tea flavor is just strong enough (I'm drinking a cup now!).

Initial finds

Over the years, we've collected several initial/monogram letter "C"s. I wanted to start a collection of something and being just married at the time it seemed like a fun thing to scour flea markets and design shops for. We have a narrow wall that slightly partitions the open kitchen/Mr. Cupcake's office/living room area that we use to display some of our favorites. Since we moved in October I haven't found any new ones and I'm itching to add to our collection. Until now....


Something whimsical:
Anthropologie: Fabric covered - $12.00


Something handpainted:
BabyBox.com: Hand painted - $10 & up


Letters big and small:
Jonny's Sister: Handmade - £5.99 & up



For the crafty among us:
The Purl Bee Blog: Fabric Magnets - cost of supplies

Trying: An Observation

I had a friend tell me today that she and her husband have decided to start "trying". Now, of course I know that she means they have decided to start their family. And I'm happy for them, really I am.

Maybe it's just me, but when Mr. Cupcake and I feel we're ready to bring in a mini Cupcake (are we ever really going to be ready?) the last thing I intend to do is announce it to friends, family and even strangers - as she did while we were in line at Target.

But let's call it what it really is... She's announcing that they are having lots of sex. Is that something I need to know? Not so much...

Eureka!

In completely unrelated news of the I-just-need-to-share-this-with-someone-who-can-appreciate-it type...

Backstory #1 - Right after we got married, I went out an picked out the most fluffy, comfortable bedding I could find. We spent a small fortune and rationalized it by saying we spend 1/3 of our day in bed (no dirty jokes) so it might as well be comfortable. Plus, we'd already spent a separate small fortune on our actual bed frame a few years before so we thought it just wouldn't be right to cover said bed with cheap linens. It was worth every penny because we've been sleeping on a cloud ever since.



Backstory #2 - When we moved to Dallas, I couldn't get over how "masculine" our apartment design was. Each unit has a decorative color throughout the place with accent walls and back splash tiles all painted this grey-ish/brown-ish color (this particular layout wasn't available with the turquoise-ish green that we wanted). Not to mention, all the wood cabinets, dark granite, poor cabinet space/layout and harsh, track lighting. Clearly this building was designed by a straight man. So one of the first rooms I tackled to decorate was our 2nd bathroom, which is across from my studio. I found the Jane Paisley prints on sale at Pottery Barn so I was able to do almost the whole room for under $100.

Backstory #3 - The San Marcos outlets outside of Austin are amazing. We'd stopped last trip but only got to go to the Crate & Barrel outlet because someone, who shall remain nameless, was quite hungry and wanted to get back on the road. Since then I've been dreaming of my return trip to the Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma/West Elm outlet since it is at least twice the size of the one I used to frequent in New York. (Side note: I generally avoid paying retail at all costs).

Ok.....So...

As the weather here is inching into the mid-80's we realized that we need to pack in our fluffy comforter for something a little lighter weight for the summer. After eyeing this great medallion printed quilt at West Elm for too long, it went on sale and sold out before I could act. I remembered that the Jane pattern from our bathroom also came in bedding, but the quilts were all sold out through Pottery Barn. We were in San Antonio a little over a week ago and I took a drive out to San Marcos one afternoon with the express purpose of finding the Jane Quilt in blue. No such luck there, but I did find the West Elm quilt!!! I'm still trying to hunt down the matching shams but I was so happy to find it -- and at less than 40% of the retail price!!

Isn't she pretty... and so me!

Storms: Perfect and not so much...

How boring am I - No blog in 2 1/2 weeks! Truth be told, I've been in sort of a funk and creativity was nowhere to be found. The weather has been grey and tornado-y (2 more episodes like my last post) and I thrive on sunshine. Lucky for me, The Weather Channel predicts 10 straight days of rain, thunderstorms and mid-80 degree weather for Dallas so there seems to be little relief in sight. Aren't I cheery?

Well, all is not so glum. Our federal and state tax refunds, Mr. Cupcake's bonus and some good business planning have all come together to create the perfect storm. This financial hurricane has allowed me to not only pay off all of my business loans almost 2 years early (yay!!) but tag along with Mr. C on his trip to San Diego later this month. I am in desperate need of sun, sand and surroundings that are not Texas. With any luck, we're going to be extending the trip a few days so we can spend time in some other areas of coastal Southern California. Hooray for tax refunds!!!

I'll be updating the site over the next few days with the remaining Wide Preppy Ribbon headbands and all of the hair clip and bow styles that have been waiting for pictures. The newest fabric sash headbands along with wide versions of the French Paisley and Vintage styles will all be added before the newsletter mail out next week. Stay tuned!