Wednesday, June 30, 2010

not a lame GIVEAWAY

Hi folks...

Blogsnooper here checking in to start her very first not-lame GIVEAWAY!
As I mentioned earlier, I’m giving away 2 terrariums!












Aren’t they so cute?! The one on the left is named Min (b/c its sort of prickly looking and Min sort of has a prickly personality) and the one on the right is named Janice (b/c its beautiful and perfect and Janice is sort of beautiful and perfect)! :) hehe…j/k.

I named them Min and Janice because Easter Ahn Lee names her Jewelry after people she likes..so I copied her and named one Min (my favorite person) and since Min and I come in a pair…I named the other one Janice!!!

Now onto the important details: To enter, answer the following question correctly in the comments section of this blog: What is the name of the blog I read that inspired me to make a terrarium in the first place?

Make sure to indicate which terrarium you would prefer: Min or Janice. If both winners choose the same terrarium…I will give the winners the one I feel like giving them regardless of their preference. hmmm…maybe I’m the one with the prickly personality! Oh well.

Of the respondents that answer correctly, I will draw your names out of a hat! Please read rules and disclaimers below!

Blogsnooper rules and disclaimers:
1. I will not ship these terrariums, so either I need to be able to get to you or you need to figure out a way to get to me.
2. If they die, sorry.

3. If they live, please tell me how you kept them alive…b/c mine always seem to die.
4. Enjoy them…or else! OR else, I will ban you from reading my blog.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

FREE! FREE! FREE!

Did that catch your attention? :) Blogs often host contests and giveaways as a way to attract scavenger blog readers…like me! I’m such a sucker for contests and giveaways on blogs. If you’ve ever heard of thepioneerwoman, she’s gives away some serious loot (Kitchenaid Mixers, LeCreuset Pots and Digital SLR's). I enter every time and am honestly disappointed when I don’t win…even though there are usually over 20,000 readers that enter.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are blogs that have contests and giveaways that are seriously lame! I was a recent recipient of a really really really lame prize. The OC Weekly has a restaurant blog called ‘stick a fork in it’ and about once a week they have contest called ‘guess where I ate'. The blogger takes a picture of his meal and the first person to guess where he’s eating wins a prize. I was THRILLED when I found out that I had won last week contest! He was eating a Papa’s portabella mushroom burger at the Veggie Grill. I eat there all the time...mostly because I secretly wish I could be a vegetarian. Unfortunately, I love meat and don’t feel bad eating animals…but let’s save that for another blog post.



















Anywho, I get an email requesting my name/address and informing me that I can expect my prize in the mail. It arrives! I rip open the envelope, expecting a gift certificate to a restaurant..but which one!!! Honestly, I would have been thrilled with any sort of restaurant gift certificate…McDonald’s, In-n-out, chick-fil-a, Maggiano’s, Maestro’s! yumm!

Instead…lucky me wins 2 guest passes to the Orange County Museum. Wha?! This is a food blog, with a food contest and what do I win? Museum tickets! I have to admit, I was disappointed to the max.















I, on the other hand, will NOT disappoint my readers with a lame giveaway! :) So I’m giving away 2 succulent terrariums!!! It’s part of my terrarium makeover, so hold tight…contest will begin Wednesday morning. And if you're REALLY lucky... your terrarium will include 2 free guest passes to the OC Museum of Art!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Controversy

I’ve noticed that a quick way to rise up to blog stardom is to blog about something REALLY controversial!


Controversial posts spread like wildfire in the blogging community and can catapult you into the upper echelons of blog royalty!!

Case #1: Dooce.com

She started out just like you and me. Blogging about life, which in her case was about how severely she hated her job and people she worked with. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Well…turns out, her lack of filtering any sort of thought or opinion made her really interesting. Maybe a little too interesting, her blog started to spread amongst family, friends, strangers and unfortunately to co-workers.

As a result, she was fired from her job. Now, she’s a famous blogger and coined the word dooced.

She continues to be controversial which remains a large part of her appeal.

Case #2: I am Baker

Rainbow pancakes. Yup…you heard me right…this blogger became controversial over rainbow pancakes. I’ve linked her blog before (much of my cake making inspiration came from her), she’s talented and eventually would become really popular...I'm sure. However, she got a HUGE boost into stardom over these pancakes. Some praised her for her creativity while others accused her for poisoning her kids with artificial colors and flavors!

Point is…I plan on being controversial! Not sure exactly how…it’s just a matter of time.

Maybe I’ll post my family’s famous recipe for puppy stew. =)














But I may need a bigger pot for that!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

One tiny little distraction…

Long long time ago, when I first started to blog =) … the web was my oyster. All I wanted to do was blog all day long and continue to be a serial blog snooper!

Then a tiny little distraction crept up on me and made blogging just an afterthought! Yikes!

Let me introduce to you my new niece Megan!














Because of her…my web browsing has been limited to googling the best diaper bags, strollers, crib sheets, pacifiers, and anything to do with babies! Luckily my sister has benefited because I bestow all of my newfound knowledge onto her. She LOVES when I give her baby advice, especially since I don’t have a baby!

I read Megan a few blog entries and she LOVED them! Then I told her that I haven’t been blogging much lately b/c of her and she wasn’t too happy!



















So let the blogging frenzy continue! Onward Ho!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Small Stump + Studio Choo: Terrarium Take 2

Awhile ago, I made a succulent terrarium. The main reason I chose to build one is because they’re supposed to be pretty self sustaining, and they require minimal maintenance…if any! Considering that I have a pretty brown thumb, I thought this project would be perfect for me!!


Here’s a picture of what it looked like when I first built it. (Most of it is alive!)



















And here’s picture of it now. (Most of it is dead)











Considering, I haven’t watered it in about 3 months…it’s not doing too bad!

I got my idea to build one after reading the Small Stump and Studio Choo blog. They’re a small flower shop owned by best friends in the San Francisco area.

The reason I love them so much is because they make flower arrangements that look like this…














And they have a dog that looks that that…







Now, you must know that I’m partial to anyone who owns a Chihuahua. Everyone knows that they are the most superior dog breed in all of existence!!! Also, don't you love how natural and crafty their arrangements look?

Sometime in the near future, I plan to give my terrarium some TLC and will post pictures later of its mini makeover and the grand reveal!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

How about that?!

My eyes perked up this morning when I saw How About Orange's blog post...how about that?! Hmmm...I wonder how she came across that calliope cake? :)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Blog struck

Hello loyal readers! :)
If you’ve read my past posts, you know that I’ve been pretty obsessed with cakes as of late.
I was doing a google image search, looking for cute cake ideas when I came across this cake:















Cute huh?!?

Well, this particular cake caught my eye b/c of the pattern of the bottom cake. It’s a calliope print designed by Jessica Jones. Jessica has a blog called howaboutorange.blogspot.com and it’s the FIRST blog that I subscribed to! Yes…my blogging obsession started with her cute design blog. Naturally, I emailed her as soon as I saw it and I was pleasantly surprised when she emailed me back. Ha…actually…I was ecstatic, seriously shocked, and jumping for joy! I know…I’m weird and I’m totally blog struck to the max!

I've pasted our email exchange below:
I wrote:

Hi Jessica.
I’ve been a long time subscriber and fan of your blog! :)
You may have already seen this, but I came across this really cute cake that used your calliope print!!
http://www.sugarcoatitstudio.com/ - Look under cakes -> geometrical!

Jessica replied:

EEEEK! Janice, that is so awesome! Haven't seen it before. Holy schmoly. I love it. Thank you!!!
Jess

Holy schmoly right back at ya Jess!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mothers Day Cakes Part II

I’m soooo caked out! I think it’s safe to say that no father out there will be getting a cake from me when father’s day rolls around.


After making 3½ cakes in one week (I’ll explain the ½ part later)…I think I’ve got the basics of cake making down!

A few tips I learned along the way:

Tip #1: The freezer is your friend
Freezing makes cutting and frosting so much easier.

Tip #2: Room temperature butter and eggs are a MUST
I was in a rush and made frosting with almost room temperature eggs and butter and came out with lumpy frosting. I learned from this blog that if you have lumpy frosting, it’s because your butter is probably cold, to fix it wrap a steaming hot towel around your bowl to slowly melt the better. That was great advice…until my frosting got too warm and started to separate! Then according to the same blog, I gave my bowl a nice ice bath to cool the frosting! That worked too…until my butter starting getting lumpy again. After repeating a few more times, I gave up and decided I’d make my frosting look organic (according to Chef Julie … organic looking = not perfect looking...which I was willing to accept by this point)!

Tip #3: Making 3½ cakes in one week will give you major cake burnout
Take it easy or you will hate making cakes! I’m done with cakes for next month or two!! My next project using my stand mixer will be bread…yummm…nothing like freshly baked bread to ruin my svelte figure!!

Enough talking…ONTO the pictures!

Cake #1:











Cake #2:















Cake #3:











Cake #4:
I have 2 unfrosted cakes in the fridge...trust me...they're there.

I went to 2 stores in my neighborhood and they were both out of unsalted butter and confectioners’ sugar (2 very important ingredients for making frosting)!  Someone in Tustin Ranch is out on a baking frenzy…I think they went to all the stores in the neighborhood and cleaned them out! Anywho…this final cake was for my own mother!!! I told her a cake was on its way…but I’m tempted to buy canned frosting! Good thing she doesn’t know how to use the internet and can’t read my blog. HA!


After waiting patiently all week, they were very upset to learn that dog’s cannot eat cake.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Mother's Day Cakes

As our family continues to grow (a special thanks and shout out to baby Megan)…we’ve been having more and more reasons to celebrate! Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, and of course the usual holidays where gifts are likely given (i.e. mothers day, fathers day, Christmas, etc.). While I’m not complaining, it has been quite a strain on our wallets.

In a valiant effort to be a little more budget conscious, I decided to bake mother’s day cakes! Unfortunately, these cakes actually turned out to be pretty dang expensive. If you add up the cost of the supplies I had to buy (tools and groceries), the fact that I made 2 cakes as practice and need to make 2 more cakes as a final...ugh…I don’t even want to talk about how much I ended up spending.

Anywho, thanks to my main squeeze, Min, I am now a proud owner of a kitchenaid stand mixer. Luckily, my handy dandy mixer made making cakes from scratch so easy even though the first two cakes i made resulted in utter disaster. As the saying goes ‘third time’s a charm’ and hopefully this saying will bode well in my favor!!!

I got ideas/recipes for the cakes from the following:

Iambaker
Wilton.com


I’ll post pictures and results later.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Howdy!

If you know me well, you know that I’m obsessed with blogs! I often start my sentences with…’there’s this one blog I read…’ or ‘I read on a blog today that…’.

I figure I might as well start one too and be a contributing member (albeit a lackluster one) of the blogging community!

Blog world here I come!!

Enjoy.