MWF ISO Perfect Lip Liner Pencil

Every girl has at least a couple of Must Have items in her beauty arsenal. I, for one, can not function when I know that I am down to my last tube of of Burt's Bees lip balm. Dry lips and the occasional raggedy cuticle are all no match for my teeny tube of yellow goodness.

Tip: Stock up when the holiday gift sets go on clearance at Target the week after New Years. I found them for 50-cents for a package of 3 tubes and a tin!! I am STILL working through last year's haul!

A few years ago, the product designers at Bobbi Brown had the smarts to stick a small lip brush at the opposite end of their lip liner pencils. It was handy and meant there was one less thing I needed to carry around in my makeup bag, plus the lip pencil was wonderfully creamy and not at all drying. Perhaps more importantly, it got me to fork over the $$ for its multi-tasking ability.

I have been using mainly glosses and tinted lip balms over the past few years, but lately I find myself wanting something with a little bit more pigment and staying power. Hello lipstick, old friend. So when I went to the Bobbi Brown site to pick up a new liner, I was sad to see that they have done away with my little friendly brush!

A quick check online tells me there are a few other options to try. But I'm still torn.

So I turn to you, my 2 {sometimes 3!} readers out there. Do you have a favorite pencil I should try? Am I ridiculous for making a big to-do about a silly little brush and stick with my must-have? Besides, does anyone even use lip liner pencil anymore?

Whoops! & Flickr Friday Favorites

I knew I had a busy week, so I wrote and scheduled a few funny/interesting posts for this week... or thought I did. Heck, I even remember doing it. Apparently the blog gods were conspiring against me, because not only did they not post, they are completely gone from my account! Oddness... I will certainly have time to post next week, so in the meantime, want to take a guess on what has been consuming my time??

1. Welcome to Las Vegas (178/365), 2. Peacock Plumes, 3. 03.12.09: ladies..., 4. Lace Jacket for Wedding Dress, 5. Wheel of Fortune, 6. Pristine, 7. My new 3 1/2" high heel sky blue DUNE shoe, 8. Vegas Baby!, 9. Ribbon Curls (Infinite)

Happy Halloween... just don't ring my bell!

I am not one of those people who get all excited about Halloween. Frankly, I pretend I'm not home when kids knock on my door, grubbing for candy. Ha-ha! Trick's on you... I'm sitting right here on my couch.

My mom was not one of those crafty, creative stay-at-home moms that my friends had. She had a job and less than no time to come up with something unique for me. When I was growing up, the extent of my costume creativity was to throw on one of those flammable smock deals from the local County Discount with the plastic mask that would totally be illegal today. I did have a brief stint as a homemade She-Ra in the mid-80s, but I clearly peaked early. In high school I upgraded to less whorish versions of the Slutty Devil or the Slutty Witch but that was just about as festive as I ever got.

Not much has changed since those days. This Halloween will be just another Saturday, cleaning the house and running errands. Now, if you want to talk day-after-50%-off-candy... I'm your girl!

I *will* be back...

I'm just now getting around to sprucing up the place, so I'm asking you to please pardon the mess around here in the meantime. There have been a lot of changes over the last year or so here at Casa Cupcake - new apartment, new habits, and even a possible new career - and I am looking forward to getting back to blogging on a more regular basis. My yummy recipes and annoying observations aren't going to write about themselves, you know!

To blog or not to blog...

** I know that I am quick to unsubscribe from stagnant blogs, so if you still check in from time to time, stop in the comments and say hello! **

Once upon a time, this very blog was both funny and snarky, superficial and insightful, topical and regularly updated. Then, as it is wont to do, life happened. Month after month of complete and utter nonsense were heaped upon both Mr. Cupcake and me. Pure rubbish, of which we had no control, but were somehow responsible to clean up. But who wants to hear the boo-hoos about all that?

The good news is that, within the next week, most of it will be behind us and our lives can go back to "normal" [ha... normal]. My normal used to include blogging here and, the truth is, I miss it. Sometimes things happen and need to be shared, but my 140-character Twitter field just can't do them justice.

I am going back and forth about whether to continue on with this blog (and a major revamp) or start up something completely new. I have been blogging here since 2005, but I want to go in a different direction and not focus on The Creative Cupcake as much. I am taking my daily creativity in a whole new direction, and I'd love to be able to share what I am doing. Naturally there will be talk of shopping, great reads, DIY craftiness, tasty eats, and all things pink and preppy. So if you like photos of yummy baked goods, or are dying to know my very biased opinions on cheesetastic television , stick around!

Hope is a 4-letter word

It seems strange to me to feel such joy and promise on election night. My first two presidential election nights were coupled with feelings of amazement, frustration and the notion that somehow I was being swindled. Tonight it quite different.

Looking at Barack's (I'm sorry... President-Elect Obama's) 52,076,486 votes - and counting! - and knowing that one of them is mine warms my heart. No more will it be "us" and "them". The "real Americans" versus, what, us "fake Americans"? Tonight's speech gives me an entirely different feeling: one of pride and, dare I say it, hope that our country's future is in the right hands.

* I do reserve some frustration for the outcome of Proposition 8 in California. Only 22% of the votes are currently in and things are not looking positive. I have a hard time understanding how someone feels they should have the "power" to take away someone else's existing right to marry the person they love. But maybe it's just me...

It's my party, and you'll pay if I want you to.

There was an article on CNN.com a few weeks ago about inviting people to a party you are throwing and then expecting them to pay for themselves and, in part, for you. I've been invited to a few such parties in the past, some of which were handled (in my opinion) properly, and some not so much.

Friend A was having a birthday party. She gave me the date/time and name of the restaurant, and never mentioned my paying for myself, her or anyone else. Even when talking about it, somehow it conveniently never came up in our conversations that I would be expected to pay.
I picked out a fabulous gift and arrived eager to celebrate her big day. Fast forward to the end of the evening, after several bottles of champagne and a rather extravagant menu, you can imagine my shock when I was handed a bill for my portion that was well over $200 - between this, her gift and parking in the city, I was out close to $350! Until that moment, I had never even heard of being invited to a party and then being expected to pay. I quietly paid the bill and when I tactfully brought my surprise up with her a few days later, she accused me of being a bad friend and not caring about her happiness. Ummm... what?! Needless to say, she is now simply referred to as "A" since the "Friend" part is long gone.

Friend B also had a birthday party with a set menu with wine/beer/soda, tax and tip included, and notified each of us of the price per person beforehand. Knowing that money was tight for us at the time, in no uncertain terms she explained that she wanted me there to celebrate with her and she didn't want us not having the extra money to keep me from coming. She did not expect anyone to pay for her and she paid for half of each person's cost (the restaurant charged $50/head and we only paid $25). She even arranged for any additional bar tabs to be put on individual checks so that each person was responsible solely for their own consumption. Also, she specifically put on the invitations that gifts would not be accepted since "our presence was all the presents" she wanted.

Personally, I am not a fan of these types of celebrations in any capacity and have graciously turned down the last several such invitations. I would be mortified to surprise my closest friends with a $200 per person bill at the end of an otherwise enjoyable night out. At least with Friend B's approach, I knew what the expectations were before I arrived. I realize people throw parties like this for a variety of reasons, but I just could never ask someone else to pay for my own party. Let's not even discuss people who have (vocally) expected me to pay AND bring an expensive gift.

What do you think? Have you ever been invited to a pay-your-own-way party that was done in a "proper" way? Any horror stories?

Up to: lately

I haven't had the chance to update lately because of both terribly interesting and absurdly boring life-nonsense. In the midst of all of the kerfuffle, I managed to glitter some pumpkins and turn yet another year older. Technically, much like last year, I celebrated the 3rd Anniversary of my 25th Birthday. Even my cake played along:

The celebration itself was quiet and low key since I haven't been in much of a celebratory mood lately. I cooked my own birthday dinner: Salmon with lemon dill sauce, roasted asparagus and fingerling potatoes. Easy-peasy and SO tasty! I also baked my own (really, really, really yummy) Cookies & Cream cake. Not only was it my own favorite birthday cake, and I've had several fabulous ones from the Cupcake Cafe, but Mr. Cupcake claimed it was the best cake he's ever eaten. And that man has eaten an awful lot of cake in his day! It was a Devil's Food cake with a Vanilla Bean frosting, which I think was the most delicious part. It had the consistency and spread-ability of the frosting in a can, but without all of those stabilizers and preservatives. I can't remember where I originally got the recipe from, but I urge you to try it next time you bake. Heck, I wish I had a bowl of it right now!


Vanilla Bean Frosting
4 oz (1/2 brick) cream cheese, at room temp
1 stick butter, at room temp
16 oz (1 box) confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1. Combine butter and cream cheese.
2. Slowly add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until smooth.
3. Add vanilla beans and extract, stir until combined.

Notes: (1) A hand mixer should work just as well as a stand mixer. (2) If you don't have a vanilla bean, you can add an additional teaspoon of vanilla extract. (3) This recipe makes enough for 12 cupcakes. If frosting a large (9"+) layered cake, you may want to double the recipe. I made a 10" cake and had to keep the filling quite thin in order to have enough to barely cover the top and outside. I cheated and just added cake crumbs to the sides to cover the super thin layer.

Bring on the hot chocolate!

I just took a peek at today's weather report and we're looking at a 67-degree high and 47-degree low tonight. As a warm-weather-phobe, I am in my glory. We won't even talk about the fact that last Sunday (a mere 5 days ago) was a record breaking 91-degrees. This weather has been more bi-polar than my Gemini mother!


Fortunately, Mr. Cupcake has a half-day today -- which was supposed to be a full day off, but I lost that battle hands down -- so hopefully we'll get to spend a good chunk of the day outdoors. What I am looking forward to most, besides wearing my ice blue pashmina that makes my eyes look fabulously sparkly, is Starbucks Hot Chocolate. Not being one to drink a hot beverage on a hot day (seriously, I don't get people who do that), I have been itching for my Grande Non-Fat No-Whip Hot Chocolate and I think today will be the perfect day!

Moment of reflection

Seven years ago, today, I was driving to work with the radio on. I was living/working 5 miles from NYC at the time and cursing the traffic I had to fight everyday. Within a split second, everyone's world changed and what used to be important no longer was. Family friends were now gone. Everyone was particularly proud to be an American, whether you lived in Lower Manhattan or Omaha, Nebraska. I remember getting home that night and lighting candles on our front porch and hanging flags from anywhere I could.

I can't help but think about what has happened to that national pride and our feelings of true unity? In an election year, it becomes especially important to keep perspective on what is truly best for our country, regardless of our own personally held beliefs.

Today I'm going make sure I take some extra time to remind myself of what is truly important in my life, remembering that life can change in a split second.

{gasp} She's alive!

Blogger tells me it has been 3 months since my last post, which seems to have just flown by. Quite a bit has happened and yet when I sit down to write a catch-up blog post, none of it seems terribly interesting.

The store is still closed, despite my best intentions to have it open weeks ago. I'm still trying to unearth some of the more vital things from the cavernous depths of our storage room like, say, my sewing machine and my printer. Most of us might think my sewing machine would be found in the box marked "Sewing Machine". Clearly, we would be wrong. I don't know what was going on in the mover's heads while packing everything up, because boxes marked "Living Room" contain bed sheets and those marked "Office/Studio" have been filled with everything from towels to our blender. Not surprisingly, none of these things were located anywhere near the studio in our old apartment.

No official re-opening date has been set, but with any luck it will be sooner rather than later. I have some brand new sizes of your favorite preppy prints (Norwalk, Annapolis and Stone Harbor) that I am super excited about. There are some absolutely gorgeous new vintage and vintage-inspired trims that will knock your socks off, too.

I feel so out of the preppy blog loop that I so adore so I'm going to make a valiant effort to get back to posting regularly. See you around!

When waiters don't give you lemons...

When out for a meal, generally my drink of choice is a Diet Coke with lime. It seems silly, but it really grinds my gears when a waiter will refill my drink but not replace the lime/lemon. I can kind of see if I just order it as a "Diet Coke" but I am always careful to specify the "with lime (or lemon)" part. Heck, bring me a little plate with 3-4 slices to have for any refills right off the bat and you are almost guaranteed a big tip.

I saw this post on Slashfood this evening and I can totally relate to Al Lewis's passion over his lack of lemons. Is anyone else fanatical about your citrus garnishes?

Live Blogging: New Jersey!

Tonight will be out first night in our new apartment and I can honestly say that it did not come a day too soon. This move has been a nightmare at the best of times, and I am thrilled that it is more or less over.

Truthfully, this past month sucked most of the humor out of me so the blog posts that I started along the way were all fairly boring. I could regale you with one tale after another about canceled flights (yes, there were more), movers not showing up and absurdly mislabeled boxes (they packed my pasta pot with our computer monitor?!) -- but I'm sure you'd rather hear about what's coming up for The Creative Cupcake.

Because of complications with our move, we won't be able to open on April 15th like we had planned, and the store will officially re-open by May 15th. There's a good chance some fabulous backstock will make its way into our Etsy store before then, so watch the blog for an announcement.

Our show schedule is starting to take shape and there are some fantastic towns that we can't wait to visit. For all of our local customers: we will be missing the Crafts in the Park in Westwood (which, incidentally, was the very first show we ever participated in back in 2005), but look for us all over Bergen County as well as Central & Southern NJ during the Fall.

With any luck, my blogging and hilarity levels will be back to normal once I can get our apartment into some semblance of order. If nothing else, a photo of our den (where ALL of the office/studio/miscellaneous boxes and things were placed) will provide you all hours of laughter!

Still open for business!

As the title infers, I haven't closed down the shop yet since I might have an extra week to prep for the movers. Inspired by Caitlin's post from last week, I managed to stuff 8 trash bags with clothes I no longer wear. The upside is that they have now moved on to a better home. The downside is that I have so few clothes left, I am now forced to go naked 3 days a week. You've been forewarned.

We're still waiting on confirmation of our official move date, which is driving me absolutely nuts. I'm a planner, and without knowing when the movers are coming, I can't accurately create my lists upon lists 0f important things to make lists for. Not surprisingly, this move is causing my OCD to flare up a bit. Let's just hope the date falls on a day that I have clothing available to me. I couldn't afford the tip I'd have to give the movers otherwise!

Vital information: Starbucks Edition

Did you all hear about this:

Starbucks will close 7,100 stores nationwide for three hours on the evening of Feb. 26 to retrain about 135,000 in-store employees and people who oversee the stores.

"We will have all new standards for how we create the drinks," said spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil. "They will be trained in creating the perfect shot, steaming the milk and all the pieces that come together in a drink."

Some people have speculated Starbucks will return to manual espresso machines, but O'Neil said the espresso-making equipment will be the same. "It's really about ensuring that the customer experience that we provide is the best that it can be."

Starbucks began informing workers over the past couple of days. It will close company-operated stores from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. local time Feb. 26.

It's not as if I go to there every day, or even usually at in the early evening. I can't help but wonder: Will the simultaneous closing of every Starbucks cause a national catastrophic caffeine-deprivation-related event?

Coming soon...

Enormously big things are brewing for The Creative Cupcake and us personally that I am --> [this ]<-- close to being able to blog about. Sure, I've been teasing you and alluding to it for a few weeks, but it'll be worth the wait, I can assure you. Huge, people. HUGE!

Tomorrow/today (since it's already 3am) I'm going to force myself to do a little work outside of our apartment, which usually leads to an inspired blog post or two. And don't think that I forgot that I still owe you a San Francisco recap!

Who needs transitions?

I'm having one of those weeks where there are 101 things floating around in my head and it's keeping me from concentrating enough to get a single one of them done. Actually, I've been meaning to write a few blog entries all week because there is a lot going on, but I feel too scattered to get anything sensical written. Note: Is sensical even a word? Some thoughts:

I need to figure out the key to getting myself to blog consistently. Maybe I need to make sure I work outside of the studio more. Maybe it is just a matter of adding it to my To Do list everyday. I think this week I'm going to experiment and see.

My flight is booked for a somewhat last minute getaway to San Francisco in 2 weeks. It was the very first place I traveled to alone, after college, back in 2001. 10/11/01, actually, so the flight over was a bit ominous, but I never once considered canceling. The Dungeoness crab and sourdough contingencies will be greatly diminished after this trip, I can assure you.

The studio is an absolute disaster and needs attention desperately. Part of me wants to post a picture to shame myself into getting on top of it.

Rather than procrastinate like I have for the past 3 years, I have already started our taxes. I truly miss the days when I could pop in the numbers from a few W-2s and wait for our check. The sheer amount of paper and calculator time is mind blowing, though clearly not quite enough to get me to set up a more efficient system or hire an accountant. At least I shouldn't be sweating it down to April 15th like usual!

Wow... I guess I can make it through a blog post without use of transitions between thoughts. Just not sure it was all that fun to read!

Give me down to there hair

I have a small confession to make: I haven't had my hair cut since we moved to Dallas well over a year ago. For years I've kept my length somewhere between a chin-length bob and just at my shoulders. You see, I really adore my stylist Farrah in No. NJ and have been going to her for years. She just knows my hair and how it acts and which cuts I'd like. I had every intention of having her cut my hair when I would be back east to visit. I wouldn't cheat on her, not in a million years.

But you see, I just haven't been back home. When I was in NYC in November I didn't have time for an appointment. I might be up sometime in February but who knows for sure. My hair has just been growing and growing and I resigned myself to keeping it back/up/in a headband. Then, it came to my attention that it looked like this:



OK... in fairness to me, I usually blow it out straight and it never looks all wavy and greasy but I had it up that day. Bottom line is that it was WAY long for me and needed to be dealt with.

So I did something I promised I would never do. I found a new salon. Ouch, it hurts just to type it (sorry Farrah!!!). But let me tell you something... my hair looks fabulous in it's new, Andy inspired cut!!

Seriously, people.

What could our upstairs neighbors be doing at 1:38am that sounds like stampeding elephants running back and forth across the living room? And what is up with them moving heavy furniture across the floor ALL freakin' night long, every night for weeks. I know there are no small children living up there so what gives? I can't wait until we can afford to buy a place and move out of Animal House. What was funny and tolerable in college is not quite so charming 10 years later. Even if my kitchen is beyond fabulous.

Like a bat out of...

I am blogging to you "live" today from the Cafe in Central Market in Southlake. It is amazing the amount of work I've gotten done by simply getting out of my studio for a few hours. The 5-foot proximity to free refills of Diet Coke (with fresh lemons!) isn't exactly hurting my morale, either.

I managed to do a quick update of my blogroll (see on the right) but there are lots more to add. Particularly my fellow crafty/indie businesses with some fabulous blogs. Baby steps, I guess.

Not much on tap for Mr. Cupcake and me this weekend, but I *did* find the cable to connect my camera so I will have photos of some of the Spring 2008 lines for you next week. Lots of florals (poppies and daisies) as well as a huge bump in the number of vintage-style patterns. Super cute, I promise you.