Doppleganger

I've been looking for ways to better myself recently, challenge myself outside of the office and get cultured. I was finally inspired by a doppleganger. No, not my doppleganger... my cat's.


As I went about my day doing what I usually - falling into an internet cat black hole - I rediscovered the Clinton's cat, Socks.  Lil Boo to Cat Island, to Cat lovers (lovers that are cats) and somehow to Socks - this image in particular.

Socks Clinton really had quite the presence and more importantly Rabbit is a dead ringer for Socks.We really missed out on all the dough to be made as a celebrity look-a-like.

                           Rabbit                                                                                                                                 Socks

http://www.obit-mag.com/articles/nine-lives

Since I couldn't get my cat his deserved fifteen minutes of fame, I was inspired by Socks to do something else, train my cat to sit on my shoulder. I don't think Ill look quite as endearingly authoritative as Bill here, but I'll at least be the most original pirate in the land.

http://www.americanheritage1.com/assets/images/presidents/bill-clinton-favorite-cat-socks-photo-1.jpg

So naturally, I started to Google how to train a cat to do this... the most interesting one made it look like a cat does this to poop in your ear and said you had to start young. So forget them. I think we can manage this by Easter.

LOOK! Rabbit already has a natural curve.

Manicure Shmanicure

So, I am going to ease back into this, real gentle-like. Let's not talk about my Rabbit (the name of my cat) or the various apartment changes. And sadly, I am not starting again with a beautiful batch of cupcakes, but a few terrible redoes of some nail art.

Living alone now I find it a lot easier to do things like finish bottles of wine by myself and spend 8 hours painting my nails. In an effort to reclaim some of my creativity, I wanted a little project. What with Pinterest and my addiction to hellogiggles.com I feel like I see so many adorable ideas for manicures.

Here are some of my faves:

Source: tumblr.com via Kerrianne on Pinterest

                                                                                          Source: heynicenails.com via Kerrianne on Pinterest

Or you can check them on my "The Beauty" board on Pinterest


When I was younger we would do outrageous nails, like for the 4th of July - american flags, fireworks - but this did not go as smoothly as I remembered. It looks like I have a palsy that resulted something more like nail farts than nail art. But pretty, colorful farts. At least round one. Round two looks like I casually swiped yellow on the tips of my nails. And when I say casual, I mean real casual, like I wasn't even looking. Just finished round three, which turned into a confused barbie that wants to glow in black light. Sometimes you have to let go of your dreams, you know. I can just accept one color of nail polish.

Take 1

 Take 2

Take 3

Sunshine Cupcakes

So, I made some cupcakes (shocker) to inspire mother nature to give me some Spring. I am really tired of wearing my drab, gray wool peacoat to work, which I have had since 8th grade. So I made funfetti cupcakes, which is fool proof and popular and switched it with the frosting. I used white chocolate that I colored - inspired by my sister and my new favorite treat, Starbuck's cake pops. I brought these cheerful cupcakes to bowling - where they were almost completely devoured, and to work. They were a big hit and a pal at work said if I had a hippie name it would be Sunshine Cupcakes.

                      

Dino Cake

Apologies for the hiatus – this lazy beach girl is adjusting to the 9-5 work life.

The week before I started work I made an amazing cake. I know what you thinking, ‘But, Kerrianne, you always make amazing cakes!’, well this ones was double amazing for a few reasons:

1. Blue inside.

2. Size innovation (made it smaller for 2 people).

3. Reference to all the dinosaurs dying (a.k.a. dinopocalypse).

4. Successful representation of a deadly meteor.

5. I made watermelon martinis with actual watermelon puree.

It was a pretty hard idea to come up with, especially since the gentleman it was for had zero opinion and interests that are hard to put on a cake (comic books, the office, indie bands, flannel shirts – i.e. hipster interests). I was close to doing flannel, but it just isn’t my style. Here is the gloriousness of the dino cake which now graces the home screen of his phone. PS It has also been added into the 'I make stuff' cake album.

Boca

 It is my first day back in the real world, and by real world I mean I am sitting on the couch at 11 AM watching television.  My sister and I spent the past five days at Boca Raton Resort (i.e. The Waldorf something-or-other).

Alberto!

The hotel was very nice, obviously-I mean, it is a Waldorf. Unfortunately with a name like, I had a lot of expectations. Our room was great—as in great location, with a beautiful view. The room was definitely in the best building, I mean, hello…JAY LENO was staying in the tower too.  Our huge, beautiful view had the entire property the ocean, the waterway, and all the manatees in between—literally, manatee sightings. When we were at the pool, people probably thought we were incredibly pensive, back to the pool, looking out on the waterway. But no, we were just looking for manatees, or our favorite lizard, Alberto.

See that guy in the navy suit? It's Mr. Leno

We sat in the same area of the pool everyday, despite almost getting into brawl on Day #2, he result of some of her entitlement issues (probably the only drawback to the hotel, the guest attitudes at times). We split every meal at pool, and got no crap for it. Apparently, we really can do whatever you want at a Waldorf. Our theory was they would never say no, they just might suggest an alternate way to do it – i.e. “ I would like to hire an assassin”, “Well, ma’am, we don’t offer that service but I do respect your wishes. Could I propose toothpaste on the seat prank to save you legal expenses?” Jen and I eventually adapted and were able to take advantage of this; I even sent my breakfast sausage back because it was cold. HOW EMPOWERING! But, really, I used to always make Jen do that stuff, but I guess if your paying for that kind of service, you should take advantage of it. (We were using Hilton points, but no one had to know that).

Along with lacking the sense of entitlement other guests had, we also lacked the wealth, but saved loads more money by bringing our own snacks. LOTS OF SNACKS. The white, stretch limo that picked us up (yeah, I said limo) brought us to the grocery store and liquor store on the way to the hotel. Quite a site, pulling up to a Publix in a limo, and walking out with Cheez-Its and beer. Pure class.

If only we’d had our celebrity sighting when we were in our limo. We saw Michael Lohan. That was more Jen…

“That guys just really stared at us. He looks so much like Mike Cogan”.

“Yeah...what does Mike Cogan look like?”-That’s how far from my head Michael Lohan is. Finally, I figured out who she was talking about, but of course I didn’t believe her, so I decided to prove her wrong, and shouted “LOHAN”, and that man whipped his head around, so I hid under a towel for a half hour. I believed Jen the next three times she saw a celebrity. She saw Donny Deutsch, who I still don’t know.  The best ones were Marimoto, the Iron Chef, and Jay Leno, who actually smiled at Jen when he walked by during breakfast. We ate Marimoto's restaurant there the night before he came ...of course... but the food was delicious. I had spicy shrimp tempura roll and a ginger mango drink. It was awesome, they made the drink with Canton, which I have tried since I worked at a liquor store but never splurged on buying it - it is delicious. Did I say it was delicious yet?

A close second to that meal, was our spa day. We went when it open so we could use the services all day, for me that meant everything: eating the free food, steam room, sauna, inhalation room (no drugs just eucalyptus), and the pool. In the hallway to the door to go out to the pool there was a little table with fresh fruit, lemon and mint water, cucumbers, and cold face clothes. After sitting at the pool and drinking fresh iced tea all day we went in and showered before our ritual bath, and waited in the lounge area (that might have been nicer than our room).  

The treatment started with the steam room, our 'facilitator' took our robes-so yes, we were standing naked in the middle of the hallway-and gave us a cold glass of water and sent us in. The we went to a personal tub, full of bubbles, where we had a cactus face mask, exfoliant, and a yummy little dish of grapefruit sorbet. The next two treatment where like medieval torture methods. I climbed into what look like a well, and had my butt massaged by jets - then she pushed the DELUGE button. Just that word, I have only ever used that for overwhelming quantities of things - like insults or booze. So I felt like I was a protester in the 60s with a fire hose on my back, it certainly loosened my muscles. Next was the Swiss shower, AKA nipple eraser, AKA hell. You stand in a closed chamber with little jets of water that spray really, really, really hard. Its like being sand blasted, and I warn you to cover your sensitive parts if you want to keep them intact. It was especially challenging since I'm short, probably four inches too short-so I also got blasted in the face. No breathing for me. What made it worse was that I couldn't see, but the lady specifically told to press the jet button not the deluge button to stop it - and I couldn't find it. Finally, I escaped and got to go into a big group jacuzzi, just like in Rome (hence 'Ritual Bath'). All in all an exhausting luxurious day. 

Pretty flower from our room service

Off to Boca Raton

Right now, as we speak (ermmm type) I am on my way to NYC on the Amtrak Acela.  Have I ever mentioned how amazing it is? Especially in first class…just look at this meal. Also, when you have ridden this route enough you know which side to side on for the ocean views.

It is just the beginning of my I-got-a-job-and-soon-I-will-work-too-much trip. I am taking the train to New York and leaving with my sister (read her Florida post here) tomorrow morning at 6:45. YIKES. That is an early-ass plane, but that way we’ll be on the beach by Noon, with a margarita by 12:15. The reason I am leaving from NYC, instead of just meeting her there, is that Spirit Air had incredibly cheap flights and a coupon. Spirit Air brings me back to traveling on cheap airlines in Europe, where there are no assigned seats, it is every man for himself, and they gouge you for everything else—including a carry on and likely charge for oxygen.  I was going to bring cupcakes to celebrate her blogiversary, but I figured I would be charged, or other starving passengers would steal them. The irony here is that we are staying a Waldorf Astoria where arriving by yacht is one of the options after directions from the airport.  While being in Boca is preferable to being extremely untrendy in South Beach (I mean, have you seen the trip t-shirts I make for us?), we probably won’t be able to afford a drink at this hotel, and you can assume we will be stealing purse size foodstuffs from breakfast. We might be cheap and wear black, stretchy clothing too much, but we are certainly resourceful.

Just a quick aside—this attendant has a heavy hand when it come to pouring the wine.

That sister I mentioned earlier is a true gem, this trip—especially the amazing hotel part—wouldn’t be possible without her, or at least her Hilton points. She planned the whole thing, though I will take some credit for pushing FLA over Vegas or Napa. The goal ultimately was somewhere warm and relaxing, she needs a break from work and I need to celebrate the last few weeks of my freedom before work.

This trip comes in handy as it knocks off one of my to-dos and wanting to take full advantage of these couple of weeks, I made a list:

1.     Get Jen lunch (She was hungry—we both struggle with rational thoughts when we are hungry)

2.     Go to a show (concert) in Boston

3.     Go on a celebratory trip. This gets checked off and switched to Get a six-pack by Thursday - which, I was already unsuccesful at, unless there is a miracle tonight.

4.     Complete a Paint-by-number

I already finished this one

5.     Do a free hand painting

6.     Learn a song on the guitar

7.     Change my sheets (that one is courtesy of my sister)

8.     Clean my room

9.     Find a nice blazer – like the one’s J. Crew seems to have that you can fold the sleeves up a bit

10. Go to NYC

11. Go to an art museum

12. Make a nice dessert (other than cake and cupcakes)

13. Make a cat t-shirt

14. Take Gladys (the cat) into a store wearing a dress

15. Read a book: I just started reading Let the Great World Spin

16.  Finish/Start a knitting project

17. Find a work purse

18. Find some good loafers

Red Velvet Valentines

Valentines day was wonderful…any excuse for me to decorate cupcakes or cake is a good day in my book. I went all out since I could decorate them however I wanted. Now that I know my full potential I decided to invest in some extra decorations, but I literally had no idea where to get them – so, I obviously turned to Amazon.

First of all, fancy decoration can be pricey, but they are very neat. I wound up with some metallic silver and pink heart sprinkle (more like the consistency of sequins though) and light pink metallic food paint. The paint can apparently be airbrushed, but I really didn’t want to get that involved. SO I used it to mix with some white frosting and brushed it on top after it had hardened a bit. I also used it on my pièce de résistance, the white chocolate hearts.

I got this idea after watching my sister make some nonpareils. First of all you have to work quickly – they aren’t lying when they say chocolate is hard to work with, especially white chocolate. We got our method of dispensing the chocolate from our friend’s blog, Rachel Passing Notes. Basically used regular white chocolate chips and a little shortening, melted them at intervals of 30s at a medium power and them somehow got it into Ziploc baggies that we snipped on of the corners off of. Homemade piping!!! Luckily, I had watched my talented sister fail, so I was prepared for chocolate piping speed.  I made some purple and pink hearts simply by adding some food coloring to the chocolate before I put it in the baggie.  

The first round wasn’t quite as successful, I tried to cut the white chocolate with a cookie cutter, but it was pretty heard to get it at the right consistency, that’s when I just straight-up piped the hearts, and they turned out a little kitschy, but perfect. I admit, this time I used a boxed red velvet mix. The Duncan Hines actually yields more than the regular box, so I got A LOT of cupcakes. For the baby cupcakes I used some frosting left over from another cake, that turned out to fade in the sun – actually looked better. But the end result was AMAZING, if I do say so myself.




I would say my best delivery was to my beautiful sister. She had an early train on Monday so I left her treat where (I hoped) she wouldn't miss it.

And here is a sweet (both meanings) slideshow of my cupcakes. Lucky for you I edited it down from 52. Imagine how many photos there will be when I have children.