Merry Cupcakes!

So Rob's work is having their Christmas party tomorrow and I thought I would bake something for them. If you don't know I am awesome at making cupcakes. Ask anyone. They love them.  I have made cupcakes for them in the past and they are always a hit. One of Rob's coworkers said I should own a bakery. If only I had the cash. Talk about my dream job. Anyways, since it's a holiday party I had to make something holiday themed. I've been obsessed with Peppermint white mochas lately. So I thought how about peppermint chocolate cupcakes? Umm yes! So as always I wanted to share this recipe with you lovely people. Let me know what you think.

The delicious final product

Chocolate Cake

1 Box Devil's Food cake
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil 
3/4 cup milk
1/2 sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract. 

Peppermint White Chocolate Buttercream

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter (softened)
2-3 tsp peppermint extract
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips (chopped finely)

Candy canes (crushed)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners
• In a large bowl mix together eggs, oil, milk, sour cream and vanilla.
• Slowly mix in cake mix until smooth.
• Fill cupcake liners and bake for about 15 minutes   

• For the buttercream beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. 
• Add peppermint extract and slowly add powdered sugar
• Add white chocolate chips that have been chopped.

Use a piping bag and frost each cupcake. Then top with crushed candy canes. 

These are AMAZING! Hopefully everyone else agrees. If it wasn't 10:30 at night I would probably sit here and eat 4. Luckily it's late and I'm too tired to stuff my face. Enjoy! 

Update On My Makeup Journey

A few weeks ago I talked about my new discovery of makeup. Since then I have made it a thing to wear makeup everyday, except for the lazy days. I went from never wearing eyeliner in my life to wearing it everyday. The first time I used liquid eyeliner it looked like a 3 year old drew on my eyelids. It was horrible. After a few tries I got it down. Starting out I had one mascara and one eye shadow. So I figured I should probably go shopping.  This is what I have so far. 

I already had Cover Girl Lash Blast but didn't really like it. I recently purchased Maybelline Volum' Express The Colossal. Let me just say I love this stuff. I wanted something to make my lashes POP. It makes my lashes longer and fuller. The only downfall is that it kind of smells like playdough.

As I have said before I get a Birchbox every month with lots of fun samples. Sometimes the samples are full sized. Well I've gotten a few things lately that I really love. The first thing is called Stainiac. It's a lip and cheek stain. I mostly use it for my lips. It adds just a hint of color. Another item is by Wey To Go Beauty. I use it under my eyes to cover my dark circles. I am one of those lucky girls who looks like I got punched in the eyes. That's a lovely trait I got from my dad. The last thing is the Stila all over liquid luminizer. I use this thing as a primer for eye shadow, as a highlighter and so much more. It's the bomb.com 

                             
What is your favorite makeup item? What is a staple that you can't go without? I'm still at Kindergarten level so any help is much appreciated. I will keep you all posted with any new discoveries. 

Pumping Iron and Dropping Lbs.

If you haven't heard I've become a gym rat. Well I mean I have been for a few months but now it's getting real. I've been seeing a trainer for 4 or 5 months. The first month was pretty easy. I was just getting use to all the equipment. Well now he's got me doing a crazy workout in the bodybuilder's section. You know the area where all the big guys are grunting and throwing weights on the ground. Yup, I'm hanging with the boys now. I'm not going to lie I like the looks I get when I go to do a bench press or some other weight related workout. They look at me like "Are you sure you're ready for that?" Then I start lifting and give them the "Hell yeah I am!" look. You know what I'm talking about. 

Well my husband has started working out with me and is seeing the same trainer. As of lately we have been on the same diet. I know men lose weight faster than women but I feel like I'm in a Slimquick commercial.  I have lost 5 lbs in about 2 weeks and he has lost 10. Not that big of a difference BUT he is now wearing his "skinny" jeans and had to tighten his watch. I noticed my scrubs are a little looser. But they are always a little loose. He calls it the injustice weight loss disparity between men and women. I call it just plain unfair. Anyways I shouldn't complain because I've lost weight and have new muscles I've never seen.  It could be worse. I could be heading the other direction. Especially since my favorite cookie shop opened a store down the street from my house. Talk about the ultimate temptation. 

On a funny note I was talking with my trainer the other day about food. We were talking about good veggies and protein. I started talking about Kale (which is a favorite in our house) Well he was talking about how he heard it was good and asked me how much it was. I told him usually about $1 a bundle. He gave me this weird look and said "A bundle?" He then proceeded to tell me he though Kale was a type of fish. I corrected him and explained that kale is green and leafy, not gray and scaly. Silly little boy. 

I've got a goal set and now it's time to hit it. 

Growing Up Tomboy and My New Journey

So as I've mention before I was a tomboy growing up. I wasn't one of those girls who just didn't wear dresses. Yes I despised dresses with a passion but I was on another level. Almost all of my clothing included a Nike symbol and was most likely bought in the boys section or the athletic section. I don't recall owning a dress until my step mom came into the picture. Even then I hated wearing dresses. I'm not going to lie. I just recently started wearing dresses and enjoying them. I'm 26. Once I hit middle school I started to wear cute girl clothes and makeup. Yes makeup. After my sophomore year of high school I went back to not caring as much. No makeup and lots of sweatpants. My little sister is now at the phase of high school. It's like reliving high school through her. Though she makes more of an effort than I ever did. I'm not sure how I got away with wearing sweats to school and still had the friends that I did. 

Anyways. Let's fast forward to today. I now own a few dresses. I own more than just running shoes. I even have a pair of high heels. I love to paint my nails and can never have too many nail polish colors. The one thing I just recently got into is makeup. I know you're thinking wow that took a while. Don't judge me. I'll admit it, I'm lazy.  Usually I just wear makeup when we go out on fancy dates. The other day I decided I'm going to make an effort to wear makeup everyday. At my job people mostly see my eyes since I wear a mask most of the time. Why not make it pleasant to look at. As of right now they are looking at my tired eyes hiding behind my glasses. Also I'm sure my husband would enjoy the view. Even though he loves me for the yoga pants wearing person I am I'm sure he would like me prettied up a little bit. 

What I look like most of the time

So where do I start? I do own a few staple items such as mascara, eye shadow  and lip gloss. Though I own about one of everything I just mentioned. If you haven't heard of Birchbox look it up. I've been getting a Birchbox for about 6 months now and it has opened my eyes to makeup. Well with Birchbox you can earn points. If you earn enough points you get $10 of Birchbox cash. So I've been saving up my birch box cash and decided to use it for makeup purchases. I am proud to say I bought my very first eyeliner. It should be a fun experience. Today I'm going to take an adventure to the store and buy more eye shadow colors and makeup brushes. Yes I'm going at this thing head first. Usually when I have an idea I go balls to the wall. This is no exception. I've been researching on Pinterest to see what the cool kids are doing. Not to mention I have a super stylish sister that could help out if I need her. 

So let's make an improvement to the photo above. I will keep you all updated on my makeup journey. Wish me luck and hope I don't look like The Joker when all is said and done.  It's happened before....

Tacky Prom Party

Party In My Tummy

So it's been cold here in Texas. By cold I mean low 60's but in the evening it's been down into the 50's. You're probably saying "Holli, you should know cold you lived in Indiana." Yeah like 6 years ago. So what do you do when it's cold outside? You make soup. My husband found a recipe for corn chowder that sounded good. So I decided to make it. I made a few changes. Let me just say it is #2 on my favorite soups that I make. I thought I couldn't keep this to myself, so I decided to share with all of you! Here is my take on the recipe.

Ingredients

6 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed, divided (I used sweet corn)

4 cups low-salt chicken broth, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil

12 ounces smoked Spanish chorizo*, cut into 1/4-inch cubes 

2 cups chopped onion

2 pounds unpeeled red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

2 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups fat free half and half

*Chorizo is kid of greasy, so I'm sure you could use another type of sausage.

Preparation

Blend 3 cups corn kernels and 1 1/2 cups broth in blender. I just left it in the blender until I needed it.  

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add chorizo and sauté about 3 minutes. Transfer chorizo to small bowl. 

Add onion and remaining 3 cups corn kernels to same skillet (Do not drain out the the chorizo juices, it adds flavor)  Sauté over medium-high heat for 5 to 6 minutes. Add potatoes and stir about 2 minutes

Put corn mixture into a large pot. Add dried thyme, cayenne, pureed corn mixture, and remaining 2 1/2 cups broth to pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered 10 to 12 minutes. Add half and half and chorizo. Simmer uncovered about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper for some extra flavor. 

I served this with some fresh tortillas I bought at the store. Our grocery has a station where little ladies press tortillas all day. They are AMAZING!

This recipe makes a ton of soup. It will probably feed the two of us for the rest of the week. So try it out and let me know what you guys think. 

Growing Up With Asthma

I have had asthma ever since I was a toddler. Most of my childhood revolved around this. I like almost every kid had asthma but mine was not mild by any means. I was pretty much destined to get asthma. On my dads side almost everyone had it. My aunt still has it. My mom grew up with asthma but grew out of it. On top of genetics did I mention my dad smoked like a chimney? I think that may have something to do with why I still have it.  I spent most of my childhood in the hospital. Talk about fun. From toddler age to about 3rd grade I would spend 2-3 weeks in the hospital from asthma attacks, bronchitis, and pneumonia  I became a regular at Parkview. No really. I had the same nurses each time. To this day when my mom sees them out and about they ask how I am doing. I am almost 27, so yeah I made an impact. I also spent a few holidays in ICU along with my birthday one year. Have you ever trick or treated in a hospital. I have. They came around room to room and handed out candy.

Most kids got away with taking an inhaler every once in a while. I had so many medications that my mom said I looked like a drug dealer. I had a bag full of inhalers and pills. I lived with my dad growing up(my parents were divorced) and he was super protective. If it was under a certain degree outside I couldn't play outside in fear that I would get sick. He also made me wear a coat until almost summer time. Could you imagine little me running around with a coat on in 60 degree weather? Well I did. The other thing that sucks is that I can't be tickled. If you tickle me too long I could have an asthma attack. My poor husband tries to tickle me until I yell "Stop! I can't breathe! Where's my inhaler?" Doesn't that sound like fun?

Unlike most kids I did not grow out of my asthma and still deal with it everyday. Let me just say being an adult with asthma sucks. I hated it as a kid but hate it more as an adult. I still have to take an inhaler everyday to keep my symptoms regulated. The thing that really sucks is when I get a cold it's never just a cold. It always turns into an upper respiratory infection, bronchitis or worse pneumonia. Just this week I felt a cold coming on so I went to the doctor. He said it was just post nasal drip and sent me on my way. Forward about 3 days later and I feel like I'm going to die. I go back to the doctor and go figure I have bronchitis. This happens every time I get sick, so I try my hardest to not get sick.  Let me just say I am so grateful I have insurance, because all these meds and doctor visits aren't cheap. I haven't always had insurance so I know it's expensive. My one inhaler without insurance cost $300 and I need to buy that one every month. I have learned little home remedies that seem to help a little. As you all know I'm a little bit of a hippie. I learned that anything caffeinated is good for asthma, especially hot black coffee or my favorite espresso. That's why I always drink coffee. 

A t-shirt I found that I want.

So for all you asthmatics out there I feel your pain! I aint easy being wheezy! Hang in there and drink lots of coffee. Dr. Holli's orders! 

I Married a Gamer

My my name is Holli and my husband is a gamer. This is not a new thing. He has always been a gamer. It's one of the things we connected on while dating. Growing up I too was a gamer. My dad was big into video games so we owned every system ever made. My favorite game happened to be Super Mario Bros. Not to brag or anything but I beat the game multiple times. Oh and I found the secret worlds. Booya! So back to my husband. When we moved in together it became apparent how much of a gamer he was. When we first lived together we worked opposite shifts. He worked all day and I worked most of the evening and night. We crossed paths around dinner. I believe during that time Battlefield was his game of choice (I could be very wrong). Well anyways, when I would get home from work around 11 and you could hear the sounds from outside. It sounded like World War III was taking place in our apartment. From that moment on I knew he had a secret lover, her name was XBOX (I'll called her Xena) My friends always ask "how can I deal with him playing?" I always say "at least I know what my husband is doing when I'm not home." That is when he gets most of his game time in. He does play when I am at home but not very often. I'm not that nice of a wife. I enjoy spending time with him away from zombie killing and Call of Duty. Not saying that my husband is anti-social. He does get out. 

So lately he has started playing Dungeons and Dragons. Yes he is a big geek, but that's why I love him. This is nothing new as well. In the past he has played Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft. Yeah BIG geek! Well with the new D&D lifestyle he plays 3 games a week, one at a comic shop and two at home. The one on Wednesday he is dungeon master. If you are wondering "What's that?" well he calls the shots. No they don't sit around dressed up as wizards. At least he doesn't. I can't speak for the guys he plays with. He plays over in the reading area of our living room but I can hear everything he says. Let me just tell you I have learned a new language. I am now semi fluent in D&D. Sorcery, spells, elves and damage points. Now what! He has tried to get me to play but I don't think that will ever happen. I don't think I could take it seriously and in the long run would probably annoy him more than anything. Maybe one day I will give it a try but not anytime soon. I have too much on my plate with work and keeping up on my shows. Yes I am 90 and still call them shows. Don't hate! 

How many of you are in a relationship with a gamer? I know I'm not the only one. Don't be ashamed.  Unless they spend more time playing games than spending time with you. Homey don't play that! 

Why I'm Eating A Vegetarian Diet This Week.

The past week I have had a love/hate relationship with our refrigerator. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to keep my food cold or melt and ruin all my food. One day last week it decided that the food I had in there wasn't good enough and shut down. When I got home my fridge was warm and all the food in the freezer was melted. I was PISSED! I had to throw everything out. We called the repair guy to come check it out. Come to find out our fridge was heading to the appliance cemetery. So today we got a new fancy fridge! I'm like a kid on Christmas.    

Our new fridge

Our old fridge

                 

So since the refrigerator has been schizophrenic we have not been able to keep food in the house. This means we have ate out more than I would like to admit.  With all this eating out my body has begun to hate me. I usually try to cook during the week and then we will go out for meals on Saturday. We like to call that out cheat day. So I'm not accustom to all this fatty, processed food. Growing up I ate that kind of stuff all the time. My dad's favorite things to eat were Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. When we ate at home it was usually Hamburger Helper or t.v. dinners. Every once in a while we would cook something like stew or homemade pizza. How I was so skinny I will never know. Once I moved out I began to cook a lot more. Now we hardly eat any processed foods in our house. 

So this coming week I've decided to go back to a vegetarian diet just until I feel better on the inside. A little background story is that I ate a vegetarian diet for quite a while. Once we found out we were moving to Texas I thought we better change that. I mean we were moving to the state of the 72 oz steak and BBQ galore. My lovely friend Katie introduced me to the lovely world of being a vegetarian. Ever since she brainwashed me I can't turn away completely. For a while my carnivore husband was also eating a vegetarian diet. He said he felt better and lighter on the inside. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. I'm not sure if I'm ready to take the plunge back to full veg. I mean I also have a love affair with hamburgers. So I'm going to take it week by week and see how it goes. Wish me lucky. 

Do any of you lovely readers have a good website for veg recipes? I have a few but would love to have more.

My New Obsession

So if you haven't figured out by now I wasn't the girliest girl growing up. Actually I was a straight up tomboy. I finally grew out of that phase around middle school. Up until then I loved to wear boys clothes and wasn't really interested in girl stuff. Of course one of the things you do as a young girl is get your ears pierced. Well I didn't do this until I was about 10. As I got older I got more holes in my ears. Well I grew out of that stage and now I'm down to one in each ear. Anyways you are probably wondering where this is going. You say "Holli I don't care about your boy phase". Well too bad this is a blog about GROWING up awesome. 

So as of lately I have been obsessed with these super cute stud earrings. In the last few months I have bought about 9 pairs of them. I have a slight addiction to Etsy. If you have never heard of Esty I suggest you stop spending so much time outside and start spending more time on this site. I could literally spends hours looking at stuff and spending money that I should be saving. So back to the earrings. I have found two awesome shops that sell these earrings and I thought why not share them with you guys. 

So the first shop is called Botny. This lady does awesome work. All of the earrings are hand drawn and then coated with a resin. There are a ton of colors and designs. 

These happen to be one of my favorite colors.  I find myself wearing these even if they don't match my outfit. The great thing about these is that there are so many colors that you could wear a different pair with every outfit you have. If you want to check out her shop go here http://www.etsy.com/shop/botny

My other favorite shop is called EarSugar. This lady also does awesome work. She hand forms her earrings out of a polymer clay and then finishes them with resin. 

This just happens to be my favorite pair that I got. She has lots of colors and designs. I just recently purchased 3 pairs and can't get enough of them. If you want to check out the store go here http://www.etsy.com/shop/EarSugar

The other awesome thing about both shops is that they are reasonably priced. So go check out these stores on Etsy and spend your whole paycheck on earrings. Well maybe not your whole paycheck. I mean you do have to be a responsible adult and pay your bills. So maybe just half of it. 

Why I'm Addicted to Technology

So I was watching Parks & Rec last week and it was the episode where Tom hits a fire hydrant while tweeting. His punishment is to go a week without screens. Ron takes him to the wilderness and tells Tom to just say what he would say through text, tweets ect... So Tom starts by saying that he wakes up and checks Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. After he checks those he gets on Reddit. When hearing this I thought O.M.G. I do the exact same thing. Do I have a problem? The answer is probably. Actually it's yes, who am I kidding. I mean really who lays in bed and looks at Instagram and Twitter at 5:30 in the morning. This girl. Not only that but when I am at home I am usually spending endless hours reading Reddit or Ohnotheydidn't. If you want to actually have a life away from your computer DO NOT visit Reddit. It is like crack. Everything you could ever think of is discussed here and posted. It's the best/worst thing that has ever come into my life. 

So then this got me to thinking what else has a screen besides my phone and computer? Oh my lovely television, how could I live without you? The answer is I can't. I have way too much time invested into some really good shows. For example Dexter, Breaking Bad and Homeland are all good shows I can't bare to part with. Sadly AMC is ending my relationship with Breaking Bad for me. Oh and if you haven't watched Homeland you better start. That show is straight up crazy! Who am I kidding I also watch shows like The Real Housewives, which I'm pretty sure just kills brain cells. I know this all makes me sound like I have no life but really I do. I go to work, the gym and the grocery store. I have friends that I go out with. Oh and I have my wonderful husband who takes me out on nice dates. I live in Austin so there is a festival every weekend and I usually hit up the good ones. So I am not a complete shut in I just enjoy being a homebody most of the time. 

I think back to the days when there weren't cell phones attached to our palms and the internet took up your phone line. I can say I remember the original dub-step song it was called the AOL dial-up. You remember the song. Waaaaaaaaweeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...... That was my jam! 

Am I the only one with this problem?Of course not. I know people much worse off than I am. I can go without t.v. and internet. I have done it before, I just don't like to.

What is the one piece of technology or social media you can't live without?

Inappropriate Conversations and Auto-correct

So we all have that friend that we can talk about anything to. I mean ANYTHING. I have a few but my favorite has to be Katie. We talk almost everyday and usually at one point it gets inappropriate. We talk about things like her kid's poops, farts that almost knock you out and your uterus falling out of your vagina. Yes these are normal things for us to talk about. We do have normal conversations too but the gross ones are my favorites. 

So the other day I was being lazy and watching The Doctors. It was some episode about how normal activities can harm you or something like that. I was intrigued. So they talked about things like brushing your teeth with a hard bristle toothbrush will ruin your mouth. I could of told you that, it's not rocket science. So the next thing that talked about was your uterus falling out of your vagina. They told a story about a lady who coughed so hard her uterus fell our of her vagina. Talk about scary. I mean she was older and probably popped out a few kids. It's still scary though. So of course right after hearing this I had to tell Katie. Just to let you know we were texting this conversation. I proceeded to tell her that now every time I cough I was going to squeeze my vag muscles. However, auto-correct had something else in mind. Instead of sending out vag it changed it to cat. So what was sent was "now every time I have a cough attack I'm going to squeeze my cat muscles". To which Katie about laughed so hard she about peed her pants. I then replied that if my uterus did fall out of my cat(which is the new name for my vag) that I would love to see the doctor's reaction to me saying it just like that. To which she said "I hope it happens just for your blog's sake". So I decided why hold this gem of a conversation all to myself. Sometimes auto-correct can go horribly wrong but in this case it was comedic gold.  So I hope this taught you a good lesson. When you have a cough attack beware! Oh yeah, also check your texts before you send them. 

Scary Movies and Stupid Costumes

When people ask me "What is your favorite holiday?" I always say Halloween. After I answer I usually get a weird response. Ever since I was little I loved to dress up as something for Halloween. I don't remember ever dressing like a princess or barbie. I was usually a vampire or zombie. As I get older I've gotten more creative with my costumes. Yes I am 26 and still dress up. I have been a homeless person, a zombie killer(Zoey from Left4Dead), and a zombie prom date. I feel like if I'm going to make an effort to actually get dressed up it might as well be entertaining. I've never been a fan of the sexy Halloween costumes. Unfortunately there is some unwritten rule that once a girl turns 16 they must dress like a prostitute for Halloween. Take a look at Facebook October 31st and count how many of your friends dress like sexy________. Tally it up and report back to me. I bet you that 85% of your girlfriends make the list. I figure if you're going to dress as something sexy you should pick something in real life that looks like a whore. Like a whore costume. You can't dress up like sexy Bert or Ernie because they are not sexy in real life. Yes there is a sexy Bert/Ernie costume, google it.  I'm sure that guy looking at you dressed like that isn't thinking man I can wait to bang Bert and/or Ernie. There are better ways to get a guys attention on Halloween. Dress up as a video game character or comic book character. I know that's what gets my husband's attention. My little sister is now that 16 year old and I hope she does not follow the trend of the other girls in her school. I swear if she wears one skanky costume before shes 21 I will fly home and lock her in her room. Just remember that DJ Sexy Jerk!

Our Left4Dead costumes

My other favorite thing about Halloween is the continuous play of horror movies. My favorite kind of movie. When I was little I would watch horror movies with my dad. Yes my dad was such a great parent that he let his 4 year old watch Nightmare on Elm Street. That was one thing we bonded over. The more demented the movie is the more we have to talk about. I like the classic movies like The Exorcist and Halloween. My all time favorite Halloween movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas. I know it's a kid movie but I love it. I could watch that movie everyday. I could actually have a Tim Burton marathon with that movie, Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice. 

So while you people are trying to think of the next sexy/unsexy thing to be I will be figuring out what to dress up as to creep the kids out in my neighborhood. 

What are you going to be for Halloween?
 What's your favorite scary movie?

Growing Up Artsy

So as I have said before I was an artist. Well I still am I just don't make much money doing it. Anyways ever since I was little I was into art. I was an only child for 10 years so I had to keep myself entertained somehow. I mean you can only have your best friend sleep over so many nights in a row before her parents want her back. I always had crayons, coloring books and paint all over the place. I wasn't really into the normal girly toys when I was little. For Christmas I always wanted art kits and drawing supplies, unlike my cousin and friends who wanted Barbie and Skipper. Even as an adult I love getting art supplies. I think about 4 or 5 years ago my wonderful husband got me an easel for my birthday. I now use that thing once a week sometimes more If I'm feeling frisky (a.k.a. artsy) 
I began taking painting classes when I was about 7 or 8. My mom still has those awful paintings in her house. Time to upgrade to the modern era. My junior year in college (I was a fine arts major) I took a painting course and loved it. Ever since then I just can't stop. My style has changed over the year. I went from painting flowers and landscapes to painting things like Jimi Hendrix and zombies. Here's my Jimi Hendrix

So when I moved to San Diego I was surprised that people actually liked my artwork. My friends like my art so much they were willing to pay for it. I was amazed at how much some were willing to pay. Not that I would rip off my friends but wow. Now I understand how artist can sell a painting of a line for thousands of dollars. So once I had a pretty good following I decided if they like it so much I wonder how other people would like it. I decided to open an etsy store. It's a new thing but I want to see how it goes. My good friend Angi, who also loves to buy my art, does an awesome job of promoting my store. She said why don't you blog about it.  She's a genius what can I say! So here I am telling you about how awesome my art is. You all should check out my store. Right now I just have a few pieces up but I do custom work as well. Let's see how much action I can get. Not that kind of action you pervs. Check out my awesome store here http://www.etsy.com/shop/ColorWonderland and give me some feedback. What do you think? Or you could just buy something and have your friends admire it for hours over a nice Chardonnay. 

My Secret to a Happy Marriage

Food! I mean of course there is the love thing but that's pretty much a given. I remember asking my husband "what you would do if I couldn't cook?" His answer... we wouldn't be together today. So there you have it ladies! It is true that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. When he asked me the same question of course I gave him the same answer. It's not the 50's and I don't do all the cooking. So this morning I decided to be the good wife that I am and cook breakfast. Usually on the weekends I don't want to cook breakfast but this new housewife thing must be rubbing off on me. If I start eating bonbons shoot me please! 

 So this morning I thought I would get fancy and make chocolate chip pancakes. Then I remembered we had Andes Mint chips in the fridge. So in my head I thought this could be an awesome idea or it could go terribly wrong and we would be eating at Cracker Barrel. So I put the mint chips in and served them to my husband and (drum roll please) Success!!! They were the bomb diggity (no doubt) So I can't take full credit for the recipe I got it from here http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/05/05/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-pancakes/ I just made a few changes. I tripled the batch and it made about 6 medium sized pancakes. Now before you go crying about it being a vegan website just give it a try. I have made a few of her recipes and didn't tell friends that they are healthy or vegan until after they ate it. No one could tell or if they could they were too nice to tell me. 

So now I am in this baking mood and turn into this bake-a-holic. I had three nasty looking bananas. All black on the outside but still delicious goodness on the inside. So for you people out there that know what nasty bananas are good for keep your mouths shut! Just kidding of course you were going to say banana bread. If you were thinking something else well sorry you were wrong. In the past I have made this delicious chocolate chip banana bread pictured below

And yes I am addicted to Instagram so get use to it! Anyway this bread is AMAZING! My husband's co-workers can't get enough of it. So I've decided to make it with my nasty looking bananas but this time instead of chocolate chips I used the mini Reece's Peanut Butter cups. And let me just say Yummm! So the picture I have isn't that great. Not even Instagram can save it. All the peanut butter cups went to the bottom so next time I think I will put them on top and let them sink as it bakes. I got this recipe off of the Hershy's website http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=4890 I split the batter between two small bread pans so I can give some away. If not I would sit my fat ass down on the couch and eat it all. Don't think I could....dare me. 

Well I hope you wonderful people have a great weekend. I will be eating my way up a jean size and then regreting Monday at the gym.

Why I Cannot Be a Stay at Home Wife

So it's been a whole three days since my last day working as an orthodontic assistant. Let me just say day time television is horrible! Between the constant reruns of The Real Housewives of every city in America and Jersey Shore I feel as if I am getting dumber by the minute. 

Anyways...

I don't understand how women without children can be stay at home wives and enjoy it. Once I have children of course my opinion will change. I will have   probably more work than I can handle. In the last few days I have found myself cleaning an already clean house and taking unnecessary naps. I have been watching too much mindless t.v and spending an unhealthy amount of time on the internet. I do go to the gym but me and the husband tend to do that together. 

So what to do to keep busy? Well next week I will be temping in a few offices and hopefully that will pick up. In the meantime I have decided to apply at Bath and Body Works. I just read that seasonal workers can get up to 50% off merchandise. Yes 50%!! Can you imagine how much money could be saved or on the other hand how much crap I could get!? I'm hoping they will look pass the fact that I am a little over qualified for the job and see what an awesome person I am. In all reality though I just want that discount! I also decided Starbucks might be fun just for the free coffee. I've never really had a fun part-time job. Don't get me wrong being in people mouths all day is fun and interesting, but until that end picks up why not have a little fun. Oh an did I forget to mention THE DISCOUNT! Anyways we will see what happens. Until then I will be watching The Craft (guilty pleasure) and many more movies on Netflix.

Let Me Take a Minute to Introduce Myself

My name is Humpty. Just kidding! You all know that's what you were singing in your head. My name is Holli and I am pretty awesome. Well maybe not awesome but pretty dang close. I grew up in Indiana, then moved to San Diego, and now I live in a suburb of Austin. I am an artist turned dental assistant. Yes you read that right. I am a wife and a lovely mother to two cute but slightly stupid dogs. 

Bender the trouble maker.

Cosmo the model

I love cooking and baking,  I will most liking be posting my food porn photos from time to time. I have a slight obsession with celebrity gossip blogs and this site called reddit. I could watch John Hughes movies all day. I could also eat ice cream and hamburgers everyday. What can I say I'm a Midwestern girl.