Do the creep!

Dear Reader,

Last weekend I went to DC for the National Book Festival where I saw Lois Lowry, Jerry and Eileen Spinelli, Jeff Kinney, Jewel, and R.L. Stine.

In honor of Mr. Stine, I took a creepy stalker picture of him and Jewel. Jewel probably wouldn't appreciate it. R.L. (or Bob, as it turns out his first name is) probably would. I mean, he's kind of made his living off the creepy.

All those inspirational authors made me want to go home and write. Which is weird . . . because I'm not much of a writer. 

Although, in all fairness, I haven't written a word since getting home. Meh. Maybe one day. 

That night, Lisa and I made an army of monkeys. 

Aaaaand . . . we ate them.

Yum!

Rainbow Rainbow!

Dear Reader,

I hadn't baked anything since moving to Honesdale, so I made my first baking venture exciting:

Rainbow cupcakes!

Basically you just take white cake batter, separate it into different bowls, and dye the batter (gel dye works best for brighter colors).

Then dump a spoonful of each color into the cupcake liner.

And, voila! A super simple (albeit time-consuming) way to make a groovy cupcake!

New York, New York!

Dear Reader,

Last weekend I went to New York City for the first time! I went with Natalie and her sister Amber and it and was the most magical experience ever.

I left from Honesdale on a bus early in the morning and met up with Natalie and Amber at Times Square. Like, actual Times Square!

We walked around for a bit, until winding up at the most fantastic place in all of New York City.

30 Rock.

Oh my goodness. I mean, can you even imagine the joy I felt when I saw that beautiful sign blazing in the misty rain? It was one of the greatest moments of my life. All I wanted to do was walk into that building, go on a tour, and feel like I was a part of that amazing, wonderful world.

Unfortunately, the tour was sold out. That was a huge bummer. But we spent sufficient time in the gift shop and hanging out around 30 Rock eating cupcakes, though, so it was OK.

It was a misty, rainy day. Which meant we couldn't go to the top of the Rock and see the city, either. Ah well.

Not gonna lie, for pretty much that entire day I was quoting 30 Rock like every 5 minutes. Natalie and Amber can attest to that.

We walked roughly 6 miles each day we were in the city. Our feet hurt reals bad. Part of the reason we walked so much was because we got lost when we went to Central Park. We were looking for the bridge and the sidewalk that are in every romantic comedy movie. But don't worry, we found them eventually:

The sidewalk.

And the bridge.

While we were in the park we met a street entertainer who makes huge bubbles. He told us that he was on the season finale of Glee--and I rewatched that episode last night and it's true! He was in it! He was awesome--he let Amber make bubbles (and she has quite the gift for bubble making). He even made a bubble around her. A random little bit of fun in the Park.

We also did a lot of shopping in New York. Pretty much it was all little kid shopping--the American Girl store, FAO Schwartz, Dylan's Candy Shop, the children's section of The Strand . . . we are basically just kids at heart, I guess. (Natalie has the pictures of most of those visits on her camera . . .)

And as for the food. Oh the food. So, so good. A slice of New York pizza, burger at Junior's, frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's, Dylan's Candy Shop, ice cream cones from a street vendor . . . and possibly the worst soft pretzel I have ever eaten in my life. But we'll let that one slide.

Oh, and we also hit up Tiffany's. I wonder what it would be like to walk into that store and actually be able to buy something from it? . . .

We never actually rode on the subway (hence the 12 miles of walking). Every time we walked past it looked terrifying. Like somewhere you go to be murdered. Walking was way cheaper anyway. And good for us since we, you know, did all of that eating . . .

So, in conclusion, New York is very, very dirty. But it was cool to be there and I really want to go back. And soon.

Welcome to Honesdale!

Dear Reader,

I thought it was about time I shared a little bit of this town with you. It is beautiful and cute and wonderful all at the same time.

We'll first start with my home.

OK, well, just the outside of it. The inside is still getting livable. I live in the upstairs. It's super cute, I promise.

This is my roommate. He's a wasp who lives outside my kitchen door. Unfortunately I want him to die. And he probably will soon--as soon as I find someone else to kill him for me.

This is a cute bridge near where I work.

View from said bridge. Oh, and if there was any doubt of whether I could be happy here, please just note the trees.

Enough said.

And now a little bit of where I work!

This is one of the parking lots for Highlights. (P.S. that's my (new to me) car in the background! His name is Jacques.)

I created this little message when I was testing a craft for Highlights. Hm. Why yes, this is the best job ever.

Our beautiful building, built in the 1860s.

One of my favorite buildings off of Church Street.

Alcove of my favorite church on Church Street.

The library! It's insanely cute on the inside, too.

I love how so many cute houses paint their doors bright colors like this.

Luckily for me, this town has a bakery (well, it has a few, but Sweet Eden is my favorite I've been to so far). And they have delicious, cute cupcakes! As seen above.

More updates on Honesdale coming soon!

Quest for Pumpkin

Dear Reader,

I made pumpkin cupcakes a few weeks ago. They looked a little something like this:

Whenever I eat pumpkin cupcakes a get nostalgic about London (Natalie, you know what I'm talking about) and a certain cupcake shop named Hummingbird Bakery.

As I'm sure most of you remember, I went to London in the fall. And as most of you are probably aware, pumpkin is a popular food to eat during that particular season.

Except, apparently, in London. And I found this out the hard way.

Natalie and I searched all over the city and found nothing. NOTHING. I almost doubted London's being the greatest city of all time, but I got a hold of myself before things got too out of hand.

[I should make the disclaimer that there were pumpkin pie type things (very rare, but we found them once or twice), but we were jonesing for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cupcakes, or something of that nature.]

So for two months we looked in every bakery and food stand we walked past--but to no avail. We had pretty much lost all hope until, on the second to last day in London, Natalie was inspired to stop by Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road. Pumpkin cupcakes were the cupcake of the day. Was it fate? I think so. Needless to say, she bought one and shared it with me, and there was much rejoicing. This is kind of what that looked like:

We were clearly all about the product placement.

Natalie also got a red velvet cupcake. That's the one on the right. A very good choice.

This is it. The coveted pumpkin cupcake. It's so beautiful.

It was totally worth the wait.

The cupcakes I made last month were no where near as magical as the London cupcake, but I'm gonna say that's because I didn't have to wait 2 months to eat them.

P.S. Before you get confused and think that I'm good at photography, Natalie took the Hummingbird cupcake pictures. (Well...except for the one of her. I took that.)