Ketchup and Mustard

I wore this over the weekend to my friend's Memorial Day party. I had gone into TJ Maxx on a whim one night last week and came across this dress. I instantly fell in love, of couse, because of the shape and the polka-dots. I've also been really into yellow, lately. Actually, I've probably said this before, but I've really been into the whole mixing of primary colors. I've been having fun doing it a lot lately. I just love the way it looks. It's bold and a little different.

Dress: Sans Souchi
Shoes: Thrifted from Savers

It's been a long time since I've taken outfits photos in my yard. I used to do all of them there! I just didn't have time this weekend to go out for a photoshoot, so I took a few quick pictures in the yard. Ahh, memories.

It's been pretty humid here. We've been getting lots of random bouts of rain and thunderstorms. We had a really awesome one Sunday night. My friend and I ended up going to the beach in the middle of it to watch the lightning. We ended up getting wet until we took cover under an awning. I love watching and listening to the rain. It's really soothing and beautiful, in a way. I'm usually not one to praise rain, but I do love it on certain occasions. It's when it ruins my outdoor plans that I hate it! I especially love the rain in the summer when it's hot out and the rain is nice and refreshing. I love sun-showers and always get excited when a rainbow appears. It's just one of those simple pleasures that will never get old. :)

Memorial Day Bakefest

You just gotta love long weekends. Regular weekends just go by too fast! This weekend was full of food, friends, family, and heat. I was planning on going swimming, but each time I could have I felt too full to even stand, nevermind swim. Oh well. Summer is pretty much here and there will be plenty of aquatic opportunities ahead!

I baked A LOT of cookies for this weekend. I had a party at my friend's on Saturday and a cookout at my grandparents' today, so I decided I'd bake for the occasion. It took me a while to narrow down my baking choices, but I had decided on sugar cookies (since holidays are the perfect decorating opportunity) and apple pie cookies (since it's Memorial Day and apple pie fits the American theme, to me).

It took forever to decorate these flag cookies, but I really like how they came out. I wish I could've found some white star candies or sprinkles instead of just using icing, though. I could only find red and blue ones. :\

For some reason, in my crazy baking fit, I decided that these two cookies and the 8-9 hours of work that went into them wasn't enough, so I made these really awesome peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. The recipe only calls for five ingredients (peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda, egg, and chocolate chips), so they're SUPER easy to make. Plus, there's no flour or butter in them, which I thought was neat. This recipe is also dangerous because we usually always have all of the ingredients in the house, so at any given moment I could give in to a cookie temptation and make them.

So I brought those three to my friend's party and they were a hit! You'd think that I would've been satisfied with my selections by then, but I wasn't. I ended up making these graham cookies that I've made once before in addition to the other three cookies for my grandparents' party. They taste like, you guessed it, Graham crackers! These have become one of my new favorites because A. I love Graham crackers and B. They're really soft and chewy.

Did I stop there? Nope. I also made my Bac 'n Mac (macaroni and cheese with bacon) to bring. I doubled the recipe and it was almost gone by the time I left. I really love making things that people can love and enjoy, and I'm glad that this weekend's adventures in baking and cooking were a success! Hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

My Other Love

As you all know, I love fashion, vintage clothing, adventures, photography, etc., but what you may not know is that I love to bake. Love. To Bake. I will spend hours looking at recipes, going through entire baking/recipe blogs and bookmarking the ones I want to try. I have so many recipes that I want to try, that I get a little overwhelmed sometimes! I'd love to take a vacation where I just bake all day every day and try out different recipes and learn different techniques. A bake-cation, if you will.

[Pumpkin bread. It's not autumn without it!]

I'd have to say that my favorite part about the baking process is decorating. It's an art, and when I can sit there and decorate 30 cookies, I get lost in it. I'll start at 9 P.M. and the next thing I know, it's 1 in the morning and I don't know where the time went.

[This past Christmas's gingerbread family]

[And some special guests.]

Although it's my favorite part, decorating does leave me frustrated sometimes. I'm no expert, so there are times when things don't really come out how I imagined them to or I use the wrong kind of icing or something. But there are times when I discover and try new things, and that's always super exciting (on-the-verge-of nerd-dom kind of exciting). I recently experimented with cookie/royal icing and how to flood a cookie with it and the cookies came out looking pretty good!

[Valentine's Day treats.]

[The rare Loveasaurus.]

I was looking into fondant, but honestly, I prefer the taste of frosting and icing. Fondant looks really pretty, but it doesn't taste as good. Just one of the many things I've learned! It's always so rewarding and exciting when I try something new with baking and it goes as planned. I'm always trying to work at increasing my baking and decorating skills.

[For Easter! The eggs are Reese's Pieces eggs. :)]

[I love any excuse to use graham cracker crumbs in my decorating.]

Although cakes are fun to make and decorate, I think my favorite thing to bake is cookies. I think it's the size. They're portable and snackable! I can never resist a nice, soft and chewy cookie.

[Apple cookies. These things are addicting. Seriously...I get begged constantly to make them.]

[One of my more recent endeavors: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.]

Who doesn't love the glorious combination of chocolate and peanut butter? I mean, come on. It's irresistible! Which is why I've made loads of chocolate and peanut butter treats over the years, including this pie:

And this concoction:

[Oreo Peanut Butter Brownie]

Last night I made Apple Pie Cookies and tried a new sugar cookie recipe. I decorated the cookies as flags and stars for Memorial Day. This took a very long time (I started at 8 and went to bed at 3:30 and they're still not done!). I'll have pictures and a post about it soon!

[Ok, I didn't bake this, but I did cook it from scratch, and it's the best mac and cheese I've EVER had.]

Fruitful Habits

Yes, I went to an orchard...AGAIN. I can't get enough. And it's only going to become more frequent when the pick-your-own season begins next month! This past weekend, one of the local orchards had free samples of locally grown foods...including their pies and applesauce. Mmmm.

Top: Lauren Conrad
Skirt: Forever 21
Flats: Gap
Sunglasses: H&M

I've always been a fan of tulle, petticoats, and the like, so this skirt is a favorite of mine. I just can't deny the awesomely fun look of a perfectly poofy tulle skirt! I know this one isn't THAT poofy, but I still love it. I recently discovered that I can incorporate this skirt into a lot of outfits, so you might be seeing more of it! 

We found this trolley/train car near an antique shop and decided to check it out. I love old-fashioned vehicles! Part of me really wants to get an antique car someday and fix it up, keep it nice and display it at tons of car shows. I think it'd be a really neat hobby, but it's probably pretty expensive. I just love the look of those old cars. I'd love to own one! ::sigh:: A girl can dream...

Most Wanted: ASOS

I thought I'd share some of my wishlist items from the various online shops I virtually frequent. I have to admit, I get a little obsessive and religious with the way I check certain websites. For instance, I'll check Modcloth at the very least, 3 times a day. Yeah...it's a little crazy, but it's fine. It's fine! I can stop whenever I want! Anyway...

Here are some of the items I'm wanting most from ASOS. Some of them are sold out completely or sold out in my size, but I still have hope that I can somehow manage to obtain them someday! (If you click the pictures, they'll take you to the store!)

[I love that it's covered in letters in what looks like typewriter font!]

[Very basic, but with just a hint of nauticalness]

[This is the one I want most. I'm in love with Florida and I don't care that the dress may be considered a tad tacky. I NEED it.]

[I've been loving the whole crop top/bustier trend and I love how this one is fruit-themed and 70s-esque.]

This is one that I just recently ordered since it went on sale. I CANNOT wait to receive it! Don't you just love getting packages in the mail? It's kinda like Christmas!

[I love strawberries, I love bikinis with underwire, and this one comes in pretty much any bra size. It's a win/win/win.]

These are just a few of my most wanted things. There's so much more, but I'll save them for another time! :)

Berry Fields and Kite Fails

This past weekend, I went up to an orchard that sells hanging strawberry plants to buy one for my mom for Mother's Day. These pictures aren't from that orchard, but from a berry orchard that was nearby and unfortunately closed. Berry season doesn't really start til June, and you can bet that I will be out picking them when it's time!

The particular area we were in was abundant with orchards and farms, which is exactly the kind of setting I love to be surrounded by. I love the scenery, environment, and atmosphere of it all. It's just so welcoming and neighborly.

Shirt: Mudd
Shorts: H&M
Shoes: Rialto Comfort
Sunglasses: H&M

[I love this picture!]

Since it was such a gorgeous and incredibly warm day (75 degrees!), we decided to head to the beach to try to fly the Spongebob kite we had bought. It was my first time ever flying a kite!

We had a little trouble trying to get it to fly. Chris was getting really frustrated to the point where it was a little amusing. Whenever we'd get it in the air, it would always fall down after a few seconds. But hey...we got it at Walmart for about $2, so what do you expect? I still had fun running around in the sand, trying to get it up in the air.

[Sad kite times]

On a side-note...I just discovered the ASOS Marketplace TODAY. How have I been missing out on such awesomeness?! I've been a fan of ASOS for a while now and I had no idea they had a marketplace for used stuff. Amazing! I'll have to scour it for fun vintage finds later. :)