so a couple years ago i got a tumblr and then never did anything with it because i forgot my password. Blogspot became a big thing, so when I decided to start blogging, I got one. I decided to try out tumblr again and I absolutely love it. It is so much easier to use, especially with photos and I love the queue and the different variety of posts you can create. So go check it out since I've been addicted to posting stuff and i love it. I'll still use this occasionally..maybe. the photo uploader is just such a pain on this one. And, I ordered a new camera that I'm super excited for so there will be more pictures than ever...we'll see. In the mean time the url is www.toyblox.tumblr.com.

Thanksgiving came and went. Jesse and I had three of them to get through so it was pretty hectic. We were up till 4 in the morning the night before making enough food to be able to take to each. Doubling and tripling recipes gets crazy. There was also a lot of driving since we had one in sandy, downtown, and bountiful, not to mention they all pretty much started at the same time. Seriously, I cannot wait to have my own house and do my own Thanksgiving so I won't have to run everywhere else. There is always one aspect of the holiday that tends to linger too long, the need to eat a lot! And it's not hard at all with all of the leftovers just sitting around. It's not just the eating, it's the sitting around recovering from all of the eating that makes the whole entire weekend nonsense and completely unproductive. Jesse and I have honestly been sitting at home since Friday eating leftovers every hour and watching movies. Then there's the cold, gray weather that puts you in a gray mood where food is once again, your savior. It's a vicious cycle.

I made my first attempt at pie and it was fantastic! The process was long at 2 am but I felt like a kid again, playing with dough. Our results were better than I had hoped and I even managed a nice, rustic lattice top that I was pretty impressed with. Considering that I don't really like apple pie or pie in general, it was pretty good and people really liked it. There are definitely a few changes I will make to the recipe when I attempt to make pie a second time but for now, I'm pretty happy with my first pie experience. Next on the list is Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake with a Gingersnap crust that I've been putting a recipe together for. First attempt at cheesecake which happens to be mine and my mom's favorite dessert, so she'll definitely be loving it if I'm successful. Pics and post to come with that but for now, enjoy thanksgiving photos.

{apple pie before oven}


{apple pie after oven}


{pumpkin cupcakes before oven}


{pumpkin cupcakes after oven}


{jesse found these liners in fall colors that were perfect for thanksgiving}


{pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting & a glazed pecan}

autumn special edition

There have been many thoughts occupying my mind lately and many endeavors I've been attempting to undertake. I've taken the first steps into launching something big, which will make its appearance in months to come I hope. This autumn has proven to be quite an inspiring one as I've dug out my boxes bursting of old Vogue's and subscribed for new ones once again. Inspiration has also led to a frenzied whipping up of baked goods especially now that the holiday season is in full bloom. And birthdays seem to be happening about every other week. We just celebrated Jesse's 25th in a classic way and this time I have pictures to prove it. Since his day landed on a Tuesday this year, family came first and on Saturday we celebrated with friends. I made his favorite (although everything I make is his favorite of course!) Pumpkin Cake but opted to marble it with chocolate to add a little something nice, and finished with a classic cream cheese frosting. Three layered and delicious, it went along with an all natural Vegan Apple-Apricot Cake for Joshua that was perfectly Fall and surprisingly rich. I wanted something that would be special for my old man and inclusive for Joshua. On Saturday, though I'll never tire of Fall flavors, I made Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with both chocolate frosting and cream cheese frosting to go along with a black and white theme. They turned out so well with a slight almond-y flavor and smelled so amazing! Did I mention that along with all of this deliciousness, we went to Harry Potter twice? Yes we did! and we're taking today to recover before we take on Thanksgiving in t-minus 4 1/2 days...eeeeee!

Going to my recurring obsession with Vogue, I've, in the past weeks, taken to an obsession with finding my perfect red lipstick. Those who have tried, understand that it isn't as simple as it sounds, finding the perfect red. They're broken into yellow-orange toned reds, blue toned reds (which whiten your teeth), pink-toned reds, and the elusive true red that is hardly ever made anymore. The rule of thumb is picking a tone that is the opposite of your skin tone. So, I'm yellow toned and therefore, should look for a blue-toned/true red lipstick. Since I began my search I've purchased four different reds, three of them drugstore brands. I finally ended up buying the infamous Russian Red by MAC based on numerous reviews that have labeled it a red that looks good on everyone, and also because it was a blue toned red, I thought it'd be perfect. Well it definitely was. It's the perfect pin-up, statement red that is super flattering and classic. Now, I'm looking for a more muted and daytime-wear red so the search will continue. As a result, I've decided to do a Red Review every blog on red lipsticks (and probably other makeup products) that I am trying just for my own reminding and also as a guide for someone who's also interested in finding their own perfect red or whatever. I'll most likely start this in my next entry because I'm a sucker for organization so be excited for that.

I'm guessing everyone is excited for Thanksgiving and this year, I'm looking to contribute my usual offerings with something new that I've yet to attempt: Pie. Homemade Mac & Cheese, Pumpkin Cupcakes, and Apple Pie. I'm a little nervous because I want so badly to master pie-making (so classic and homey!) and especially since this first attempt is making its appearance during the grandest food holiday of the year..have to pull out all the stops. So that's coming up in the next few days and then before you know it, the semester is over and it'll be Christmas!

Enjoy the picss since they're ever so rare.

{pumpkin swirl cakes}


{frosted}


{vegan apple-apricot cake}


{glowing cakes}


{make a wish}


{dry mix & dark cocoa mix}


{dark chocolate..mm}


{onetwoThree sticks of butter}


{lots o sugar}


{ready to go}


{almost done}


{black & white cupcakes}


{close up}


{more!}


{everyone got a candle for luck}

Can you believe it's October? It is part one of my favorite three months of the year. I get all giddy and fluttery when the leaves turn orange and pumpkins are out and it starts raining and smelling like christmas. Oh man. I think about writing something every day but school is kicking my tush and I am just too lazy to upload pics I have taken..but it will happen.

The past months have been crazy busy. Summer ended far too quickly and school won't end fast enough. I turned 21, and surprisingly haven't really felt that different. My car got slammed into which marks my first accident I've ever been in since I started driving. Thank god it wasn't my fault. I experienced my first gambling trip to wendover, one of the best nights of this year. Baking happens occasionally but I NEED to get back into it. I think about it all the time, but actually doing it is difficult especially when I have homework and when I just want to sleep when I don't have homework. I cannot actually believe that it is a week into October and I haven't made any of my pumpkin cupcakes or pumpkin chocolate cookies or peanut butter cup cookies to eat! I haven't even talked about our newest addition: my espresso machine!

Well I promise all to come, especially the photos. I will also be attempting to make caramel popcorn this month so be excited for that post. Other than that I am looking forward to fall break in Cali this weekend with my family and jesse so definitely photos from that!

yay for autumn

For some reason that is completely beyond me (mostly), I always get semi depressed around my birthday. So I felt like I had to blog something and I'm super embarrassed that my last one was from May. Well we've been in Moab since Wednesday night to visit Jennet and Josh and Emma while they're house sitting for Jesse's aunt. It's really nice to be back and go on some adventures. We went boating down the river yesterday (which was the first experience of that kind for me) and it was so much fun to just relax and catch the scenery. Moab is beautiful! Except the horseflies. I HATE horseflies. It stings when they bite you and for some reason my bites are bigger and itchier than everyone elses. Damn horseflies.

We're heading back to slc tonight and tomorrow will be a full day and then I'm turning 21 on Monday! I was excited like a month ago but as it draws closer and closer I'm dreading it. Not the actual aging part, just the thought of having to do something on that day and what to do and who the hell to do it with. I really hate planning my own birthday party because I feel like a self absorbed brat and this year I genuinely do NOT want any presents which throws people, like my boyfriend, completely off. Then they start making themselves believe that "I'm just saying that" and I really do want presents. While it's no question that I love getting presents, I'm just not into it this time. Part of that is because Jesse quit his job and we are both going to school full on this fall so we both need to save money. So perhaps that can be my present!

Other than that I don't really know what this lull means in recent years and even lately. I wonder if maybe there's some statistic on it somewhere or if this happens to other people around their birthday or if I'm just being utterly odd. Maybe there's just nothing to it and it has nothing to do with my birthday arriving. I just happen to be consistently depressed at the same time every year. I guess there's a full moon tomorrow. Maybe it's the moon.

i have sooo not been available these past couple weeks. Summer has started but not really since I have summer school and I have a new job and we just took in a litter of kittens and their momma! We had to take them in so we could fix the mom and protect the kittens from predators. At first we had to bottle feed the kittens because we had to separate them and we weren't sure if the mom was feral, but she's fine. Oh man bottle feeding three kittens is pretty much like having three little babies. Formula every 4 hours, then burping, washing, and helping them go potty..equals no sleep for anybody. We decided to re-introduce the kittens to their mom this week since it will be 2 weeks till we get her fixed, and things have been a lot easier. She's awesome with her babies and she's getting more used to us. Pictures will come soon since they are super adorable. We have found one kitten a home and we are hoping to find the other two homes but jesse and I love the little grey one (i want to name her wednesday) so we will see what happens. If anyone desires a little cutie, please tell me, they're going to be awesome cats.

Another event occurred last week that has become a huge moment in my baking career. I made my first Tiramisu which turned out to be a ginormous success (amazingly!). It was for my stepmom's birthday since she loves tiramisu so much and it was delicious. I didn't buy enough lady fingers so the cake wasn't very pretty to look at (authentically kept in a covered bowl-in my case, tupperware) and since I didn't have any of my baking stuff (park city lays claim to 80% of my things) I had to make it the old fashioned way, no mixer! I still am amazed that it turned out but not only that, that it was so delicious. It is important to let it sit overnight in the fridge so all that whipping doesn't go to waste, and to use good mascarpone cheese. I swear by REAL mascarpone. Some people use a mixture of cream cheese and sour cream as a substitute because it is a little expensive (about $6-$8 for 8oz) but since it's all about the mascarpone cream in the cake, it'd be silly to not use actual mascarpone. This goes back to the brownie blog and using good quality chocolate for something that's all about chocolate. I took some pics but I since I will be making a second attempt for a prettier version, I'm going to post those pics up instead. Wait and see.

It's been a minute hasn't it? well things are certainly different. No need to dwell. This shall be new beginnings.

Plan on seeing me around campus a lot this fall. Me and my new bike that is. The one that will be arriving by post this week. I'm sure there will be pictures taken because I'm just so darn excited.

Well, I thought I'd write this post on how "bad ass cranberry juice is". Not the ocean spray juice cocktail shit, not even the 100% juice cranberry juice that they try to pass as legit (look closely and you'll find apple juice and grape juice right in there with it). I'm saying Just Cranberry juice, pure and friendly. Just $8 a quart. The stuff is glorious..not your every day glorious, definitely with a little kick, but glorious nonetheless.