Le Bug

No Pants Dance

The Sunshine Award!

So can we talk about how there are some people that just totally always manage to make your day?

Well that person for me lately has been my bloggy mommy friend +MarisaH.

Now if it weren't enough that she totally makes my day with her always kind and funny comments but she kind of has this ADORABLE baby Marlee that she blogs about who always puts a smile on my face.

And now to top it off she has nominated me for the Sunshine Award.

The Sunshine Award is given to those who inspire us and bring Sunshine into our lives.

Which totally makes sense that she was nominated because Marisa is the epitome of sunshine.

So there are a few simple rules for the Sunshine Award:

1. Include Award Logo in or on your blog post
2. Link to the person who nominated you
3. Answer 10 questions about yourself
4. Nominate other bloggers to give this award

Please visit and follow Marisa and Marlee at http://marleejoandme.blogspot.com or by clicking here

Check her out and I guarantee she will put a smile on your face as much as she does for me! And while you're there you can check out her blog's cute new look (don't think I didn't notice!)

So when I first read Marisa had nominated me I was all





But inside I was totally all







This is my second award since starting the blog and it's so heartwarming to know I'm actually reaching a few people out there. So with that I'll answer the questions left for me by Marisa.

1. Give everyone a little info about you and your blog.

Welp. My blog has basically transformed into this gigantic blob of randomness. I have occasional recipes and DIY projects. And I have LOTS AND LOTS of pictures of Daddy and Bug (my nickname for my 7 month old baby girl Riley) and now recently I have been sharing my photography side work which will eventually become it's own site entirely.

2. What was the inspiration for starting a blog?

This one's easy and the answer is identical to why I decided to make the leap and purchase my camera. My Bug. I'm entirely forgetful, not intentionally of course. In fact I'm infamous for it. A blog became the perfect option for me. It allows me to have a creative outlet through writing which I've always enjoyed. And it also helps me to remember alllllll the little things. All the milestones and the memories, all right here.

3. What would your perfect date consist of?

The perfect date. Hmmmm. Well I'm totally spontaneous and adventurous at heart, whether my time or my wallet allow for it. I think my perfect date would be a trip to my favorite city, New York City. Grabbing some dinner, walking central park, a little shopping, and ending the night with a frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity.

This is a picture of one of my best friends and I enjoying a frozen hot chocolate about 2 years ago from Serendipity, they are life changing and nothing like any of the ones you see at Dunkin (trust me).

4. You have been cast on a reality TV show. What show and why?

That's a tough one. I'd have to say Big Brother, because it requires zero talent haha I used to be a frequent watcher so I guess it'd be kinda cool, and I'm kind of a social butterfly so I suppose I would have that going for me too.

5. If you could travel to any place in the world, where would it be?

Oh god, it's probably a tie between the Maldives:

Or Greece:

Or Bora Bora:

No need to ask me why haha I've been to Aruba twice, Punta Cana, and the Bahamas and these are my dream places to visit.

6. You are stranded on an island and only have three items in your suitcase. What are they?

Oh god, well I'm practical so I suppose the answer to that would be sunscreen, a lighter, and a knife. That's the survivor in me. But if it were me tailoring to my inner-Kerin it would be a good LONG book, a blanket, and lots of Starbucks Lemon pound cake. hahaha No but seriously that shit is delicious.

7. Name three celebrities that you would like to invite over for dinner and drinks and why?

Well my woman crush without a doubt is Rachel McAdams. She is so beautiful, a great actress, and she seems like such a nice freaking person, I would love to pick her brain. Taylor Swift because she is also such a genuinely kind person (and that I know for a fact), and Johnny Depp. He is the epitome of a brilliant actor and I can only imagine he'd be one hell of a time.

8. For your birthday, you can have any gift you want. What is it?

A house for my family to live and grow in.

9. Name one materialistic thing that you cannot live without and why?

Goodness, I'd have to say my phone. As stupid and mundane as that sounds. Like I've mentioned before I'm a social butterfly, it's how I keep in touch with everyone, it's how I take pictures of my bug when I don't feel like or have the DSLR around, I've used it in emergencies, it wakes me up every morning, plays my music, tells me the weather, and how much money (or little money) I have in my bank account hahah it's my lifeline.

10. How long have you been blogging and do you think you will be blogging five years from now?

I've only been blogging for about 7 months coming up on 8. I don't know if I'll be blogging 5 years from now or even a year from now, but I hope... sincerely hope... I am.

So those we're the questions Marisa left for me now for my nominations and their questions.

1. Kristen Genevieve from Sunny With a Chance of Lemons

I recently found Kristen's blog and she is an ADORABLE mommy-to-be.

2. Christa from Possibly Polished

Christa I actually went to high school with she is the sweetest and has talent POURING out of her. Don't believe me? Go check out her blog, that alone is just one of her many talents. Christa can seriously paint her nails, and is always coming up with these awesome ideas. And if that weren't enough, she shares her tips and tricks as well as where and how to et the best coupons and deals in the beauty department. LOVE her. Her personality alone makes her a ray of sunshine so she couldn't be a better candidate.

Now for my questions for you!

1. Tell us about you blog. What do you write about? How long have you been blogging and do you see yourself being a long time blogger?

2. What is one of your favorite quotes?

3. If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be?

4. Where do you seen yourself 10 years from now?

5. What is the best present you've ever received?

6. If you could meet anyone famous (living or non-living) who would it be and why?

7. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?

8.If you could witness any event past, present or future, what would it be?

9. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?

10. What was the last experience that made you a stronger person?

Alright ladies, you're up! And a big thanks again to my wonderful blogger mommy friend Marisa!! :)

Delicious Red Velvet Cupcakes

Sometimes Mommy shouldn't drink while baking.

I don't know what it is but somehow I always manage to eff it up.

Like remember that time I promised you a Recipe . Yea...I may have had a glass of wine or two while attempting to make that abomination of a dessert as well.

Now here's the awesome thing about baking. It's REALLY REALLY hard to screw it up ...AND have it taste terrible.

Unless it is over-cooked or you used an abundance of one ingredient like 57 eggs instead of 3. But for the most part, you add a bit more oil, it'll be more moist, you add a bit more chocolate...well lezbehonest that's not an issue...It's more with your everyday cooking that'll really screw you over. Too much salt...too much garlic...too much hot pepper flake...all bad..very very bad.

So now I'm sure you're asking yourself what the hell it was I actually did...

Welppp, I added too much of the one ingredient that Paula Deen holds dearest to her heart.

Butter.

So how much did I add?

A half a stick.

Not bad you say to yourself...how much did it call for in the recipe?

Well...therein lies the issue.

None.

Not even a little.

So where the hell did I come up with the idea of putting the butter in?

Well, if you ask me the box is stupid.

And to a perfectly coherent person it's probably fairly easy to comprehend, but when you've had a little to drink and you're excited at the prospect of eating red velvet cupcakes...when read quickly the directions can be misconstrued.

Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

The FROSTING requires a half a stick of butter, because somebody had their wheaties the morning they decided at the Duncan Hines meeting that they were going to INCLUDE frosting in this particular box.

GENIUS.

AND it had a fancy frosting bag so I could get all badass cupcake-decorator on those suckers.

Now normally adding butter to something isn't necessarily a bad idea.

Except for the fact that recipe already called for a bunchhhh of oil. And generally speaking in terms of baking a recipe will call for EITHER butter or oil..not both.

So I then proceeded to follow the rest of the recipe accurately.

I threw them into the oven, crossed my fingers, and prayed to the cupcake gods that I didn't just totally eff up my glorious dessert.

When the timer sounded I half expected them to be these gloppy nasty oily red blob things. But they were perfectly formed cupcakes.

Still skeptical I waited for them to cool (which was nearly impossible mind you) and frosted them.

I tasted the first one with my eyes closed like I was about to ingest a live bomb and you know what?

It wasn't half bad, in fact, it was tasty. Really tasty. Moist...a little rich, but definitely tasty.

I've discovered I actually LIKE the taste of butter in it. Would I add that much? Oh hell no.

But what I'm proposing is cutting the recommended amount of oil and adding a quarter stick of butter.

These would make DELICIOUS moist not too oily or rich, buttery yummy cupcakes.

Yum Yum!

Try it with your favorite cupcake recipes and tell me what you think!

Mommy Popsicles

Remember that thing I had mentioned a little while back about the easier the recipe the better?

This simple refreshing cocktail popsicle is the epitome of easy.

To be honest I bought the popsicle mold with the utmost intention of making these bad boys:

Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles

orrrrr maybe these:

Nutella Coolwhip Popsicles

But lets be real here for a second....nutella and cheesecake are great and all....but wine...wine is my kryptonite.

So that's when I decided to make these instead...

These would be EXTRA delicious with pieces of fruit added in....buuuut our fridge happens to be lacking in the fruit department right now so these simple ingredients sufficed.

The amount of the ingredients really depends on your taste...I did 2/3 OJ to about 1/3 of wine. But any number of juices and wines would work nicely together. Experiment a bit and get creative.

They're the perfect summer outdoor mommy treat.

Refreshing, delicious, and... wine...did I mention there was wine? :)

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Blegh.

What a terrible horrible awful day.

Oh my lanta.

I suppose a few pictures from this weekend might help

This Weekend Continued

Saturday Sunset

Alpha Bravo Charlie

I can't think on the spot. Like ever.

Doesn't matter if it's morning, night, I've had my coffee, I've slept a solid 8 hours...I just can't think on my feet.

Well I take calls all day long.

And being on the phone for a living means eventually I need to spell something out...and well as we all know 90% of the letters sound alike "B" "C" "D" "E" "G" "P" "T" "V" "Z" ....ugh.

And we all know there is that Phonetic Alphabet "A as in Alpha" "B as in Bravo" or whatever...except...I don't know it.

I just make sh*t up as I go. "A as in Airplane" "D as in Dragon" ...like my brain just can't think of words fast enough that start with the letter and then when I hesitate ..I get nervous...I stutter and I just frantically throw something out there and hope for the best.

And there are some I just get continually stuck on...like "I"

So I'm all like "I as in.....umm...you know..uhhh...icecream"

Great. Now I sound like an moron and a fat*ss. Cool

The past week I've been saying "U as in Unicorn"....um what?...

And today...well I'd like to blame my sheer ignorance on the fact that it's friday...but lezbehonest...this has been going on for weeks

I definitely said "Y...as in You"

Soon I'll be saying "P as is Pneumonia or Pterodactyl" "K as in Knife"

And don't even get me started on the english language. Whoever made that sh*t up should have been fired. I just..can't deal with how absolutely stupid it is.

Examples:

Which, Witch

Weather, Whether

Too, To, Two

All words that sound the same but are spelt differently. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

But whats worse?

Read, Read

Lead, Lead

Tear, Tear

All words that are spelt exactly the same but pronounced differently. WHAT?!

Why!? Why is that possible?!

And silent letters?! Who was drunk at that meeting when we decided THAT was a good idea.

Don't worry about me...I'll just be over here...losing my mind at how idiotic this language is. Ugh.

Thank heavens it's the weekend.

24 on the 24th

Well the dreaded day has come.

I'm officially an old lady.

24 years old. Wow.

And how did I spend my day you ask?

I was at work.

Yep. Sitting at a desk answering the phone all day pretending like I give a rats a** about what anyone has to say.

And I mean, I've got the I'm-totally-concerned-for-you-and-care-about-your-needs tone-age down pat... but I couldn't help but want to spend the day lounging with bug and boyfriend.

Not even doing anything birthday-ish...just being together all day would have been nice.

But instead I was banging my head against a metaphorical wall praying to the birthday gods that the day would fly by.

And I have to admit, it may not have flown, but I managed to get through the day without punching anyone in the face and that alone is a miracle.

And I suppose it wasn't so bad when coworkers brought me a cake...

...and balloons...and my favorite coffee from crackbucks starbucks....but still.

Now I'm in bed with boyfriend and bumpy asleep beside me, and bug snoring away across the room. And even though it's not much, it's not a gift that comes wrapped, or something with a giant price tag attached...it's these moments that make all the sh*tty ones mean absolutely nothing. And for that I couldn't be happier.

Shots From Yesterday

My best friend Lindsay, as I'm sure you've heard me mention her before...she's the one with the killer Bruschetta Pasta Salad Recipe, well she invited us yesterday to go play at her house for a bit. And Aunty Lindsay's house has the BEST in-ground pool. Except yesterday mother nature decided to laugh in our faces and provide us with one hell of a thunderstorm.

After a couple hours of waiting she must have felt our severe depression emanating from the house so she decided to throw us a break and give us a few hours of sun.

The pool was gorgeous and warm and just what we needed.

Aunty Lindsay's house ALSO has some seriously amazing french doors to the outside which shed some ridiculously awesome light...so naturally I had my camera one me to take a couple ton of pictures.

More to come :)