Friday High 5

I want to bring this blog segment back from the dead! It's been so long but let's just jump right back into it!

1.) My last day of work is Saturday and I thought I'd be sad about it but I'm really excited to close this chapter and move on to our business.

2.) The Super Bowl craziness is FINALLY over. Living near Seattle has been nuts during this time. I think I made enough green and blue cupcakes to feed the entire military population. Ridiculous. And it's finally over. Yayyyy. :D

The victory parade was yesterday and I've never been so happy to NOT be in Seattle.

Source

3.) I did a little shopping this week to makeover the other bathroom in our rental that I hope to share later this week! It turned out really well for very cheap.

4.) I drove the Bake My Day truck for the first time since the test drive. I was really nervous about driving it on the freeway and around town but I did great! I think I really got the hang of it. I definitely need to take it out more and get more driving time but I definitely feel more comfortable than I did before. 

5.) I found that cute bakery art at World Market, what a score! :D

Have a happy weekend!

Sweet Rewards

Sometimes I get an urge to go somewhere. I think to myself, "Yes! I definitely want to hit up Target/World Market/Ross/Homegoods/Marshall's, etc. today." Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. On this particular occasion I was being called to World Market and my shopping urge was richly rewarded.

This. So cute, so perfect for our bakery, right?! It was only $14.99 and I had a 15% coupon email because I had joined the email list. 

We could hang this in the truck (with velcro to secure it!) as is or put a piece of scrapbook paper or fabric behind the glass to change it up. I'm smitten. 

And so was Ian. Well, probably not smitten but especially curious as to what I was doing while snapping this photo. He loves to photobomb, so annoying. 

(Bath)room For Improvement

Where we last left my little downstairs bathroom, it looked like this:

But, I started looking at my little frame arrangement and thought to myself, "Eh, I'm over it." So I wanted to switch it up especially when I found some cute frames at Burlington Coat Factory for $9 each. They're actually nearly exactly what I had originally envisioned for over the toilet anyway. 

I'm totally in love with how uncluttered this new arrangement looks. I enjoyed the eclectic look for a while but I'm loving this new streamlined pair. I thought about changing up the art but I'm still happy with the colors and how it looks. Maybe I'll change the top frame to something if I come across something especially inspiring. 

Since my bathroom has absolutely no storage, adding this little turquoise "bucket" from World Market for $9.99 gives me an extra place to put things. I also added the little succulent next to it from Michael's that was on sale for $4.50. 

I think I can call this room... done? Maybe? I don't know, I can never really say I'm done with a room anyway. ;)

We Have A Winner...

So, we officially have a truck! It's scary and exciting and scary and crazy.

And it's Seattle Truck #2!

Here's a few more pictures:

It's got a huge serving window (where we plan to make some adorable curtains for). The large counter to the left is where we're planning on setting up a little drink station for coffee makers. We're also planning on putting down a subfloor with some checkered tile. We're also shopping around some area salvage stores like Seconduse.com for some inexpensive cabinet options (they have some great cabinet pieces for $20!) for more storage space.

Here's the awesome fridge that came in the truck that'll be great for drinks and things that need to be refrigerated like truffles. We need to get that securely anchored down (because I miiiiight have almost tipped it over driving along the pot-holed roads of Ballard on our test drive when I dared to push the gas over 20 mph...). 

We're planning on removing that mirror to make more room for shelves or cabinets for some storage. The hood and counter where the stove top would be needs to be removed so we can install some bakery racks for our food storage. We also want to install another wall in the front area so we can put in a jump seat for another passenger. 

This serving window has two sliding sides which would be great for an ordering and a pick-up window to keep a line moving steadily (and I do hope there will be lines!). Wouldn't a curtain look absolutely adorable?

So next on the agenda, this:

We need it painted a cute shade of mint green. Then...

-decals

-permits/inspections

-electrical line installed for generator

-new rear mirror

But there's sooooo much to do. So that leads me to another small, minute announcement; last week I put in my two week's notice in at work. I'm scared to leave because having that extra $800+ish a month was really helpful but I'll never get this truck in gear (no pun intended) without having time to devote to it. My last day at my grocery store job will be February 8th and I'm actually really looking forward to it (especially after all this Seahawks craziness... OMG my hands have been stained green and blue for weeks now). 

I can't wait to share more pictures as we get going- my plan is to really makes this as adorable as I can on the inside because the three of us me, my Mom, and the my bestest friend and most-awesomest-person-ever-who-decided-to-trust-us-with-a-huge-investment-that-I'll-never-be-able-to-thank-her-enough-for-making-our-dream-a-reality, are going to be spending a ton of time in there and I want it to be comfortable and homey. I also want customers to be able to see in our truck and see how clean and nice everything looks. It's so important to me that everything about our truck is visually appealing because that's how we will draw them in and pique their interest. 

Around The Web: Dissecting Dialect

I stumbled upon this New York Times quiz that asks you questions about your pronunciations of words to pinpoint parts of the country your dialect has originated. This fun quiz has been around for a little while but I decided to share it with my family and take it again myself just to see what the results were. 

Half of my life was spent living in Akron, Ohio and the other half was spent growing up in Yuma, Arizona. My results are scarily accurate!

And here's Mom's who grew up in Kentucky:

Take it here and see what you get!

Busy Bidness

I've been busy, tired, and lazy. 

I've also been trying to have as much time with Russ before he leaves for deployment which is swiftly approaching. :(

Buuuuut, I do miss blogging. 

Here's what's been going on:

This past week and a half we've looked at three trucks.

There's Portland: which had a lot of potential but the outside was rough. Still considering. 

Seattle 1: a 1981 empty truck in really great shape that could be a great blank canvas for what we could get it for. Problem?... it's so short inside that it nearly touches my head (I'm 5'8"ish). 

Seattle 2: This is the front runner and it's nearly done as it just needs another electrical line run for the generator. My problem with the truck is that it's (what feels like a whooping) 25 feet in length. The price is wonderful but I'm afraid it might be too much truck for us. But then again, we might be so busy that we will need this space. 

We're still weighing our options and talking to each of the sellers...

I also want to share this deliciously wonderful birthday cake I made for my Mom!

It's a Black and White cake which is alternating layers of white cake and chocolate cake filled with alternating layers of white whipped and chocolate whipped filling. I tweaked it a bit and made the outside icing a mocha whipped icing which tasted delicious! I then covered the outside sides of the cake with white and chocolate curls.

Oh. Em. Gee. The layers! Look at those beautiful layers! 

Needless to say the cake, with it's lovely light, tasty filling and spongy-moist cake, wasn't around too long. 

We Wish(ed) You A Merry Christmas!

Who wants a very belated Christmas post?!

You do!

Well, even if you don't you're here and reading this so that's what you're going to get. 

Anyways, here's our lovely little dessert spread: Chocolate Pie, Chess Cake, Derby Pie and a little cookie assortment of hopscotch, chocolate crinkles, and snickerdoodles. We also had some yummy spinach dip. 

Before dinner I had the three of them find the pickle on the tree for a special 'pickle present.' Mom gave up rather quickly and Russ ended up finding the prize; a $10 Fred Meyer gift card. 

For Christmas Eve dinner we had ham, green bean casserole, scalloped pepper potatoes, rolls, and deviled eggs. 

And for Christmas entertainment we had my brother in a horse mask and Santa hat.

Ian stole Brayt's phone for a while and was trying to text some of his friends before he realized that he doesn't have thumbs. Or friends. 

At least Russ isn't camera-shy. 

The only picture I took on Christmas Day was Russ opening his black and white Batman statue in front of our roaring fireplace TV.

Absolute Resolute

I like the idea of making resolutions but they never really stick around after the first month of the new year for anyone. As pointless as it seems, I still try to make resolutions because I like the idea of a clean slate and I think that it's important to always want to improve yourself. So here's mine:

And I feel like I have to explain #5 a bit because in our selfie-obsessed world we live in, it seems kinda goofy to resolve to take more narcissistic images of oneself. But, I noticed something while I was scanning my Instagram photos from the last year. There is but TWO photos of myself out of 170 posts. Two. I despise my own image on camera so much that I'm missing out on taking memorable photos. Photos of having fun, photos with family. I'm omitting myself from happy memories. It probably doesn't help that I'm feeling the weight gain from the last year of not really paying attention to what I'm putting into my body.

But, just because I don't capture my image on camera doesn't mean that my body doesn't exist. I live in this body and my photos should reflect my life's journey even if my body doesn't always look the way I want it to. Well, I'm going to try anyway.

Happy New Year! 

12 of '13

1.) January- Our first trip to Seattle. 

2.) February- The Experience Music Project Museum.

3.) March- Emerald City Comicon.

4.) April- Cake Internship.

5.) May- A best friend's visit.

6.) June- Lovely cabin.

7.) July- Logo.

8.) August

9.) September- Alice In Chains concert!

10.) October- Pumpkins.

11.) November- Thanksgiving.

12.) December- Our cozy, snuggly Christmas. 

Cheers to a New Year!

Snow Day

On December 20th, the day after my birthday, I awoke to the sweet sight of it softly snowing outside. I meant to post these pictures earlier (.... like the day it happened) but forgot about it. The snow only hung around until the next day but it was beautiful while it lasted.