I've been bitten...

... by the shopping bug!

Spring seemed to arrive out of no where late last week and temps have been well above normal by double digits. It makes me so glad that I finally replaced my missing pashmina two weeks ago! The change of weather has inspired some warm weather shopping which, in addition to my just-moved-and-need-to-buy-new-everything shopping has been helping to ease [distract me from] what has been a surprisingly difficult transition. Some fabulous new treats have been making their way into the Cupcake apartment, so let's take a trip through my AmEx statement:

L.L. Bean - Rugby Stripe Boat & Tote in Lime


Garmin - Nüvi 660

This particular purchase has even inspired a surprise getaway for Mr. Cupcake and myself!Yes, hon, I know how you hate surprises -- even fun ones -- and, no, I am not going to tell you... so don't even ask!

Staples - Sloane Luxura Manager's Chair

I've been after the Eames manager's chair in light blue for years but snagged this sort-of-look-alike for almost 50% off!

Merrell - Plaza Leather Moccasin in black

Aside from being absurdly comfortable (hellooooooo, new street fair shoes!), I found them at Marshalls, on clearance!

What gems have you found lately during your own retail therapy?

Robin Roberts: Little Greek Boy?

I love positive stories about strong women:

Robin Roberts loses her wig... truly a beautiful moment!

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!

Live Blogging: Newark Airport

I am blogging to you, live (as opposed to??) from the Admiral's Club in Newark Airport. I've been sorely behind in my rantings and ravings lately and wanted to remedy that while I had some spare time.

Mr. Cupcake is quite the seasoned traveler and has flown over 200,000 domestic miles since October, 2006. In this time he has had one flight that was canceled on him. The powers that be must not be too happy about our moving back East because we have not had much luck on this particular trip. We boarded our 7:05am flight to Newark on Tuesday morning and upon getting our wings de-iced, the de-icer guy noticed a problem with the plane's engine (that the rest of the mechanics and the pilot did not?!) and we were promptly de-boarded. American wasn't able to procure another plane for our flight, so they canceled it entirely. Three hours later, we boarded a new flight and taxied to the runway a scant hour after we were scheduled to takeoff. Not so fast! There was some bad weather in New York, so we were blessed with over 2 hours of waiting on the plane, on the tarmac before finally taking off a mere 6 hours after we were supposed to.

Surely with all of that hassle, the travel gods would smile on us for today's trip back to Dallas. Clearly not! After being delayed 30-minutes, our flight was canceled entirely because the co-pilot mysteriously was "unable to make the flight". Fan-freakin-tastic. So as an entire plane full of people bum rush the counter, we book it to the Admiral's Club. OK, so Mr. Cupcake booked it while I lagged behind. Miraculously, he is the very first on line and the wonderfully cheerful receptionist was able to snag us the last two confirmed seats on the plane. Whew! Finally, a ray of hope.

Even though our new take off time has been delayed twice, I feel OK. I just need you to cross your fingers that we actually get off the ground sometime tonight!

The Shop is Closed!

I closed out my last order this morning and The Creative Cupcake is now officially closed for the move. Assuming that everything goes smoothly (ha!) we'll be back up with the new Spring styles on April 15th. Just in time to spend your tax refund!

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!

Animal Disguise of the Day

Oddly colored cows, or gigantic Oreo cookies?

Photo taken along US-75 North on our drive up to Tulsa, OK yesterday afternoon.

Phone Call of the Day

If I don't answer when you call, it probably means I'm on the other line with Hill.

The Big Ta-Da! of the Day

Without further adieu, I bring you my enormously big, absurdly important news:

We're moving back to New Jersey!

Whew! You have no idea how good it feels to get that off my chest. I was made to swear absolute secrecy (on my massive headband collection, nonetheless!) back in December and couldn't tell a soul. In truth, we took the idea off the table twice during the decision making process, but in the end Mr. Cupcake's was made an offer he couldn't refuse. At the end of the day, while we love the calm, quiet (read: boring!) life we live here in Texas, we know there are a lot of opportunities waiting for us back East.

Oh yeah, we're moving in less than 2 weeks! Not that we have any say in that what-so-ever. For those of you just joining us, Mr. Cupcake and I moved to Dallas about a year and a half ago under similar circumstances. This time we will be heading up to NJ into temporary housing for a few weeks until we can find an apartment/house to rent sometime before April 1. April Fool, indeed.

For all of my Jersey girls, I'll be back on the show circuit in full swing this Fall and Holiday season. Once I have concrete dates and locations worked out, I'll be sure to post them.

Last time I was able to keep The Creative Cupcake open during most of the move, but this time is going to be a little different. I'll be taking orders until 2/25 (next Monday) and then re-opening on/around 4/15 with the launch of our Spring 2008 lines. I'll be keeping up the Basics Sale until we close, because I'm nice like that. Get your orders in ASAP!

With that said... I'm off to freak out about the 6,742 things I have to do before the movers show up!

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?