Newport RI ~ August 2014

Hello All,

Yesterday I told you about how Mama J and I went to Mystic Pizza as part of our mini vacation. The next day we went to downtown Newport. I hadn't been to Newport in years and years, probably since I was like 3 or 4 years old. 

When we got to Newport right around lunch time so we stopped at the Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant. It was super busy and crowded. We had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for our table but they took our drink orders while we waited. When we got to our table our waitress came over quickly and  we ordered out food. I got a lobster Mac&Cheese. It was okay but not the hands down best I had ever had. 

The only ify think that happened was they asked us to move to accommodate and larger group but neither of us had any problem. They were very sweet and I appreciated that the hostess remembered us and thanked us again as we were leaving.  

After that we walked around the town and went into all the little shops. We went into the Alex and Ani Store and the Tervis Tumbler Store. As well as many locally owned stores. I ended up getting one of those female football jersery sweatshirts that say the location across the back. You know those things that are all the rage. If you don't I have picture coming up of it.

While we exploring we found a cute little cupcake place that had DELICIOUS cupcake. If you ever see a Cupcake Charlies promise me that you will go because they were that delicious. 

We were about ready to head back to the car when we happened upon a camera store that had memory sticks! So, we stopped in and we bought one for the rest of our mini vacation and here's a little spoiler I got great pictures that coming up soon.

On our way back to our car Mama J wanted to stop in a Yankee Candles store and waited for her outside and snapped this picture.

We decided we wanted to drive around the non downtown areas of Newport and we happened upon a little beach and we got out to put our feet and the water and of course the blogger in me had to take some pictures.

I think this is one of my favorites

I was trying to be a little bit artsy

Then I try to directed Mama J in taking a picture I had in mind for me and it took a couple of takes.

Take One; too centered

Take two; too much on the left

Take three; the final product and what I had envision Thanks Mama J for being patient 

Finally Mama J told me she wanted to take a selife and it took quite a few takes to get the right one and these are just a few of them.

After the beach we headed back to our hotel and relaxed by watching some Criminals Minds. Our last day of our Mini Vacation was by doing some outlet shopping and then heading back to reality. It was a great little break and at the time I didn't know about the one I would be going on the next week. But more on that on Friday. Tomorrow I'm linking up with Natalie for Blogging For Cause where bloggers are writing about the causes that mean the most to them, so if your looking for a topic on Thursday or Friday think about the link up.

Instagram Monthly Top 5! November Edition

Hello All,

Happy December! And happy Monday! Since its the beginning of December its time to take a look back at November's top picture from my Instagram. 

For those of you who haven't been around of a Instagram Monthly Top 5 here's how it works, each month I look at the pictures I took and posted on Instagram and display the top 5 liked pictures. If there is a tie I feature up to 2 pictures. So, let's take a walk down memory lane.

5th Place

Can I just stay like this forever? #bed #sleepy #comfy #boymeetsworld#dontwanttomove

4th Place (2 Way Tie)

My cousin Joshua celebrating the Red Sox World Series win! #cousin #family #cute#redsox

Typical blogger photo, boots in leaves! #blogger #fall #boots #love

3rd Place

How I'm spending my night, crocheting a blanket. #oldladystatus

2nd Place (2 way tie)

I think its so cute how Walt Disney's daughter realized he was the Walt Disney.#cute #disney #disneynerd #fatherdaughter

Will someone please buy me this shirt for Thursday? #thanksgiving #iwantthis#mylife #mer

1st Place

The cute little Acorn cupcakes I made for Thanksgiving! #thanksgiving #cupcakes#fall #yummmmm (You can read about them here)

Those are this month's Top 5 pictures on my Instagram. Want to help influence which one of my pictures 

make it to the top 5? Follow my instagram by hitting here. 

Do you do a post like this on your blog? Leave the link below so I can check it out. 

Pinterest Project

Hello All,

My life as gotten a lot crazier this week, in a good way! So, unfortunately I was not prepared to write my weekly Big Brother Recap for tonight, hopefully I can get it up tomorrow before I go to work but it will definitely be up Sunday!  

Anyways I figured since I don't have my Big Brother Recap for you guys I figured that I would share with you guys first attempted  at a Pinterest Recipe! 

Yesterday Mama Judy had a rough day and said that the only thing that she wanted were the cupcakes that she had seen that pinned on Pinterest. The cupcakes, were actually suppose to be a cake but in our house we prefer cupcakes. 

First, I made basic white cake batter. I normally use box cake but one day I really want to learn to make cake from scratch but yesterday was not the day. I went picture crazy and took a picture every step of the way. 

After that I crushed up half a box or is consider a bag, of Oreos. I used double stuffed oreos but I think that the standard oreos would have been better. I poured them into the batter.

It looks really good. That basically the batter, after you mix in the oreos you put it into the you pan(s). I was so excited when I made these cupcakes because normally when I make cupthey are never even but this time they were perfectly even! That was my mini victory of my day yesterday. 

Look at those beautifully even cupcakes. The recipe that I used (I'll add in the link at the end) said that you should subtract five minutes from the bake time but when I baked the cupcakes I found the regular bake time worked for me. I also noticed that they cupcakes raised a lot more then normal cupcakes.

The frosting was probably the most difficult part. I don't think I got the consistency correct or because I made the smashed up oreos (the other half of the box/bag) to big. 

Since the consistency was so bad the frosting came out badly so please excuse the ugliness. 

So, what was the reaction? Well Mama J said she LOVED them, she actually came home tonight and told me that she couldn't wait to eat one. I personally only had one cupcake and I like the cake. I didn't eat the frosting because I don't like whip cream and that was the main ingredient. 

If you want to check out the recipe you can here. You can also follow me on Pinterest. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram and like my , Facebook Fan Page  where you get updates and are the first to know when I add a new post. 

So, that was my first attempt at a Pinterest recipe/project. I would say that it was a success and Mama J was really excited about them.

Have you tried anything from Pinterest? Did it come out well? Let me know in the comments below.

Mother's Day 2013

Hello All,

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there! Today I celebrated Mother's Day with Mama J!

We started the day with me giving her, the gifts I got/made her. This year I got her a bumper sticker from my college, a card with a dancing monkey and made her some cupcakes. 

You can see her card in the background.

A close up of her cupcakes, the cupcakes say: Happy Mother Day Mommy! (Yes, I forgot the 's' in Mothers). 

I absolutely love making cupcakes and I think these are some of the best cupcakes I've ever made. Normally when I try to write words you can't really make-out the letters but I these ones you can so I'm happy. And she loved them! 

In the afternoon we went to a beach about an hour away from our house. It was the one place where Mama J wanted to go for Mother's Day. 

The tide was so high today!

Looking down the beach you can see there were quite a few people there today, if you were to look the other way you would have seen even more.

Mama J and I.

I accidently took this picture while I was trying to take a picture of the beach because I forgot to change the way the lens faced. What can I say, I'm a merp!

Mama J went for a walk on the beach, I ended up going to sit in the car. I had to go sit in the car because I have cold urticaria, which basically means that when I get to cold I break out in hives. In simpleton terms, I'm allergic to the cold. My original thoughts was to sit on the beach while she walked and read my book but I started to break out so I went to the car. Mama J was very happy with her walk along the beach though and that is all that matters because its Mother's Day. 

After our trip to the beach we went to seafood restaurant down the road where we met up with my aunt, uncle and cousins. 

All-in-all I think Mama J had a fantastic Mother's Day!

Before I say good-bye I just wanted to share the paragraph that I wrote about Mama J on my instagram: "Happy mother's day to the most important person in my world. She is my inspiration, my role model, my biggest supporter, and my hero. But most importantly she is my best. I love you Mama J." I think this describes my relationship with Mama J. 

XOXO,

Em.