"Iced Coffee" Cupcakes and portfolio "building"

Tuesday was cupcake day. I had chosen an iced coffee cupcake to go with an ice coffee frappe. It sounds fancy, right? Welp, remember how I said I needed to find the recipe box? Since I didn't have recipe on me, I hadn't gone shopping for the ingredients. So, I had basically nothing to make these fancy sounding little cakes. Sadness ensued.

Luckily, I pulled it together and decided to wing it! I smashed the recipe for the iced coffee cupcakes and Hershey's chocolate cake together. And it worked!!

Here's what I did:

STEP 1- Preheat oven to 350F. Line (about 20) muffin cups.

STEP2- Beat 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 3 eggs, 1 (4 ounce) package of instant chocolate pudding and pie filling mix, 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1 tsp vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Make sure it's at low speed so all the flour doesn't create a snow storm in your kitchen!

STEP 3- Speed it up to medium speed for a bit until it's all blended.

STEP 4- Spoon into muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.

STEP 5- Bake 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

STEP 6- Place a scoop of coffee flavored ice cream (I didn't have any so, Caramel Turtle Cheesecake it was!) on top while it's still warm. Drizzle on magic shell topping (Again, I didn't have any so I used regular chocolate sauce) and toasted pecans.

STEP 7- Devour the chocolaty goodness.

In other, non-food related, news, I am still currently career-less. I got some advice yesterday from my neighbor about building an online portfolio in order to boost my credibility. Easier said than done! First, I had to find a website. Then, I had to figure out said website. I tend to think of myself as tech-savvy but, Portfoliobox, the site I ended up choosing, just boggled my mind! It literally took my all of yesterday and a bit of today to figure it out. I guess it didn't help that my work wasn't already readily accessible...

After hours of frustration, I am only sort-of proud of the result. It's something and something is better than nothing. But I don't think that the little bit of something that is online right now accurately represents the caliber and type of work that I am capable of doing. I just uploaded everything I had done from school that could be quickly formated as an image file. That leaves it looking a bit empty.

However, it doesn't look really fancy and professional! While I am not confident that my portfolio as it is will make quite the difference in my job search as I would have hoped, I hope it doesn't turn away potential employers. Maybe I'll try to mock up some more random stuff to fill it out more... I'd rather it be published work though...

Here's the link: brianafetrow.portfoliobox.me. Tell me what you think!

Weekend Recap

What a weekend! The beginning felt so rushed and hectic!

Friday
I worked Friday evening. After that I had to hop on the highway, heading around the city to the south side, to my boyfriend's house. It was around 11:30 by time I got to his house. The next day was the Butterfly Dreams 5K. While it normally wouldn't be bad to head to his house late after work, with a race the next day I knew I'd be exhausted and my feet would hurt from standing on the concrete for hours.

Saturday
We woke up around 5:30 (i think- my boyfriend just came and got me and I just hopped in the car, I really wasn't coherent until 7). I had looked up the race before and my fears were confirmed once we got there. People who had run the course before were talking about how hilly it was and how the last mile was killer. Great. I don't know about everyone else but, I get all jittery before the race starts and then I feel like there's so much adrenaline pulsing through my body, my legs feel tired and tingly before I even hit mile one. And then the hills came... and they were awful. I thought it would take forever to hit the halfway turn-around point! But the turn-around point was the best turn-around cone, ever! There was a little orange traffic cone AND two girls with a PONY!!! It was definitely good motivation! For a little while, at least. Then the hill came, that last mile that everyone was talking about. I felt like I was walking, it was awful! You don't know how happy I was to round the corner and see the final hill. Yes, that does sound a little bit like a typo but after that hill was a tenth of a mile downhill to the finish line. My boyfriend was waiting for me a little before the 3 mile marker. He gave me a pep-talk as he jogged with me to the finish. After all those hills and how slow I felt I was going imagine how shocked I was to see 25 minutes on the clock above the finish line! That's the best I've ever run, EVER! I sprinted under the finish line at 25:38. woot woot!

With that fantastic time, I managed to come in first in my age group.

And my boyfriend won the whole thing! He's amazing.

After the race ended we headed home for a quick nap and tailgate preparation! The Dawgs played Clemson Saturday and we wanted to ring in the football season with a proper party. It was just family but we made a whole mass of food!

There was a cheese ball,
Chesapeake snack mix,
Paula Deen's All-American burgers (made in slider size),
veggies and dip,
chips and salsa,
and Paula Deen's Lemon Bars.
(We like Paula Deen, can you tell?)

It was all really good but the sliders stole the evening. My boyfriend and I were the only ones who stayed awake to see the disappointing loss...I still have high hopes for the rest of the season though. GO DAWGS!

Sunday
The day of rest. All we did this day was run some errands, swim, and relax.

Monday
Labor Day. I had to work. I left his house at noon and worked till 5:30 on a national holiday. Boo. When I got home I checked my email and I still haven't heard anything from any potential employers. So now it's back to stressing about finding a full time job... wish me luck!

Thank you note and Tuesday Things

Hello again, 

I meant to post about this thank you card last week when I went on my crafting rampage. haha But then I got busy. More about that stuff later. 

Anyways, since I was in a crafty mood, I decided to design my own thank you note for graduation gifts I've received. I thought it would show off my talent and be more personal.

After drafting a few choices, I settled on this one:

I love this script font, the open space it sort of captures with the swirls in the "t" and the "y", and the fact that it looks handwritten (read: personal) without being too messy. I not sure of the actual paper type because it was something I found laying around but, it was textured and slightly heavy/thick. The ink didn't stick to it too well and I was afraid it would rub off in the mail. So I sprayed it with some workable fixatif that I've had since art school. It actually gave the card a nice finished shine to it, which was an added bonus!



Now to the list of things that have been going on:

• I started back at work yesterday. It's just my part-time I've had since high school but, it's better than nothing and the people make it worth while. 
• I saw the last of the Hangover series this Friday. It actually wasn't bad. I liked it better than the second one because it had a different story line. There were definitely some gross parts in it but, it's The Hangover.
• My boyfriend came to see me this weekend. We made a chicken philly cheesesteak pizza, it was fabulous!! I miss him so much during the week, it's great to spend time with him on the weekends. 
• I have a 5k this Saturday that I'm nervous about. Looking at the previous year's times, it looks like a slow course... in other words, it's gonna have some hills. yuck. In preparation, I ran my last practice 5k today (26:22. yes!). I'll run 2 miles with my puppy tomorrow and Friday and a 10k Thursday. Hopefully, that'll get my legs ready but not feeling too tired. We shall see...
• I have too much stuff! I just realized that I have three boxes of stuff from my apartment still sitting in my parents basement! I'm never gonna get it all organized until I move out. Which probably means I shouldn't buy more stuff... sad day.
• I still don't have a job and I had started feeling pretty crumby about myself until I went to church on Saturday. The readings for this week seemed like they were talking specifically to me and I knew I should keep my head up and keep working towards my dreams. In particular this part of HEB 12:5-7, 11-13, "So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed." and this part of the gospel, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate,for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
  but will not be strong enough...And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” stood out and resonated the most with me. I've repeated these parts to myself in my head over the past few days when I feel weak and hopeless and I've been happier. 
• It's sunny and almost feels like summer around here now. Now, that's it's about to be fall...
• Is it Christmas yet??

That's all for now folks! If I kind my box of cupcake recipes I might be making more cupcakes today! First I have to find the recipe box.. it should be in one of those boxes from my apartment in my parents' basement... 

Etching Projects

Yesterday I went to Goodwill and bought some glassware with which to get crafty. Today, I continued my crafting journey into the world of glass etching. It's a dangerous and scary place, let me tell you! Anything that warns you to use plastic gloves to protect your hands is ridiculous! But, I guess if you think about it, the etching cream is permanently changing the surface of glass, so I suppose it has to be pretty powerful (just image what it would do to your skin-ouch!)

I found out the hard way that cutting out my own stencil with a box cutter was going to be pert near impossible. So decided to try something new today- painting on the etching cream by hand. Risky, I know. Luckily, I have a pretty steady hand and eye for detail. It probably also helps that this wasn't my first time at the painting rodeo, I was an art major (briefly), after all.

My first project was the tall rectangular vase-looking-thing. (You see, the one on the far right. That one). This one was going to be pretty simple. Just an initial.

Unfortunately, my first go with this didn't work too well... I left the cream on all night; not that it makes a difference, I just wanted to be sure it was visible. Somehow the edges still turned out all wrinkly and raw looking. I was kind of disappointed- this letter "G" was so much easier to make than that milk bottle, I thought it'd be a shoe in for success. But, I guess that's the way it goes, nothing worth having is ever easy (that was deep.). So I repainted it and left it for another couple of hours to see if it would kind of fill itself out.

Below is the final product, if you can see it. Not too bad... It honestly looks better in the pictures than it does in real life but, it's ten times better than that milk bottle!

So I placed a pretty candle in it, filled in with rocks from the back yard (yay, free things!) and called it complete. I must say, it looks awfully professional in these pictures!

But! The best is yet to come! Of all the glass projects that I planned during my Goodwill hunting trip (see what I did there?), this next one was my favorite. I had designed a logo for my boyfriends farm last week and printed a black and white copy of it yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty intricate, so I  got discouraged when I realized the box-cutter thing wasn't going to work. After the "G" project, though, I had a pretty brilliant idea, if I do say so myself! I taped the logo to the inside of the glass and traced the type with a paint brush! Oh, my goodness! It made eyes go cooky looking at for so long as I painted but looked so promising!

Again, I left it on for longer than it probably needed but there was no way I was redoing it if it didn't show up the first time! Luckily, it looks fabulous! This is my favorite of all the glass projects I've done. The etching is still fairly light and I taped it on slightly croocked but, other than that- I could probably pass this off as professionally made! Go me! I have one more of these little vases to do, to make them a set, but, I want to give my eyes a break. Haha

DIY Milk Bottle

I supposed I couldn't really call myself a crafty person if I've never completed a craft in my life. But, I admire crafty things! I have a whole board on Pinterest for "When I'm feeling crafty". I've felt crafty quite a few times but, as of yesterday, I still hadn't made a single thing on that board (isn't that the way Pinterest works though? haha)

However, since I've had nothing but spare time with my lack of career, I decided I deserved some time to do something fun to help me relax. Things that take away my stress: running, cooking, concentrating really hard on something other than what's making me stressed. Well, I already have have a blueberry buttermilk bundt cake sitting in the kitchen so baking is kind of out of the question. I had already run 3.1 miles yesterday and, although I could run some more, I still wouldn't feel accomplished afterwards. At least baking would produce a final product I could be proud of (and eat!). It was another rainy day in Georgia yesterday so, I thought, well, what the heck, let's craft something!

So I went to my handy dandy Pinterest board and narrowed it down to decorative pumpkins (to put me in the mood for Fall) or monogramed glass ornaments (eh, who needs Fall. Let's skip straight to Christmas!) In the end I chose glass etching because I am an unemployed graduate don't really have a whole lot of money to spend and I'd rather buy pumpkins and glass ornaments when they go on sale. Regularly, etching cream would be expensive but, it's 80% off at the Michael's near me currently.

So I got some cheap glassware from Goodwill, paint and etching cream from Michael's and Con-Tact paper from Home Depot.

Here are the glasses I bought:

I have plans for etching the small vases and the tall rectangular one later. For now, I wanted to start with a cute vintage milk bottle.

Step 1: Spray paint! Honesty time. This was my first time spray painting. It was so much fun!!! I was kinda sad when it was all done and there was nothing left to paint... The paint I used was Krylon colormaster in Ivory.

The bottle said it only took ten minutes to dry but, I needed more time to cut out my stencil so it ended up drying for hours. I made my design myself and printed it on copy paper. Then I cut a piece of contact paper, laid it over the design and traced it as best as I could. I messed up once and had to do it again. Honestly, I didn't think this through very well. My design was way too small and intricate to be cut by hand, especially with a box cutter on crummy cardboard. To say this is an amateur project is an understatement. It was almost comical to watch me try and cut those delicate lines.

In the end, I settled for an imperfect stencil because I knew there was only so much I could do. I painstakingly placed it on the "milk bottle"  and painted over it with Martha Stewart glass paint (vanilla bean). The bottle said to let it air cure for 21 days. 21 DAYS!!! So I left it dry over night before I pealed the stencil off.

From far away, it doesn't look too bad! (I hadn't put the lettering on yet).

Up close, however, is a different story... This thing looks like an old woman with a shaky hand painted it while she was sneezing!

The final product, words and all. Not too bad but, not fantastic either...

My mom and I looked up some machines that would make the delicate cuts for me, using my own design and boy, are they expensive!! Overall, I'm glad I finished something and I don't completely hate it. The design looks fantastic, if I do say so myself, and the idea was inspired! In the end, it did what it was supposed to- I concentrated hard on something other than my stress and produced something I can be proud of. I'm also encouraged to keep practicing and making cool projects! I'll post about the actual etching later!

Call me crazy

You know how normal people are obsessed with things like Johnny Depp or photography or something? Well, I'm obsessed with fonts (and cupcakes). I could literally spend hours determining the perfect font for a simple powerpoint. Sure, I want it too look good and I want good grades but, what I really care about is the texture the font brings to the overall look of the slides; does it create movement, does it flow, does it's character jive with the subject matter. You know, all really important things. I swear, if someone wanted to appoint me designated font-picker for anything ever, and pay me, I'd be happy.

My love of fonts and desire to put them together and make something beautiful out of them can be overwhelming. You know how I just ran the Peachtree, on the 4th of July? Well, I entered their t-shirt design contest. Of course, I didn't win- I spelled the name of the race wrong! But, I guess besides that, my design wasn't clean enough. So, I've decided to take another shot at it; this time, I'm gonna make it immaculate! I was so excited about playing with fonts again to possible make a winning design, I literally started last night. That's probably way to early.... But I told you, I'm obsessed!

Well, it didn't last long. My design looks a whole lot better as a sketch than a full blown piece. I'm still not done with it but, I sent it to my boyfriend as I was working, you know to get his opinion and praise for my brilliance, and he kinda brought me down. He said my design was too intricate, it wouldn't be chosen. He was right, of course. My favorite design style is Victorian so I used that as my inspiration and wound up with way too many swirls and ornaments for a t-shirt. So now it's back to square one and I'm bummed. I don't really know what I want it to look like now... good thing I have a year!

So this is it...

Yesterday was my last first day, EVER. With the completion of this class, I'll earn my masters degree and move back into my parents' house. Hmm, I feel like that's an oxymoron..

I'm ready to get out there! I wanna go work for somebody and show 'em what I've got! I literally feel like my brain is busting with all the knowledge Grady has shoveled me for the past three years! Yes, I'm completely scared to fall flat on my face and embarrass myself but, at the same time, I've worked so hard for that moment and that opportunity, it's driving me crazy to be jobless one month from graduation.

On a positive note- I recently ran my first 10k! It was the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia. My boyfriend's family has been running the race since before he was born. So have thousands of other runners because this race is the world's largest 10k with 60,000 runners. Can we just take a moment to contemplate that number? 60,000. Runners. I lucked out to be placed in B group, meaning I was the second group to start, after the wheelchair, seeded and sub-seeded runners.

After the Boston Massacre Marathon, I was terrified at what might happen along the route or at then end, inside Piedmont Park. This is probably because I'm such a hypochondriac. I was also afraid the mass number of runners would run me right over. I was in B group, remember? That means super fast. I do not run super fast. I wouldn't even say I run, I just jog. Slowly. Especially up hills. PLUS, we were late getting to the start line so I didn't get a chance to stretch before we took off, zig zagging around hoards of people to make it into our groups before time started. My legs were cramping, it was drizzling a little, and I barely got to kiss my boyfriend goodbye before he darted off to the sub-seeded group. (His one of those really fast people).

Before we started, under the American flag, the announcer recognized those who help(ed) keep us free and safe. Then he counted down and I held my breath. I started five minutes after group A and I remember looking at the start clock, watching it tick closer to 5:00 and wishing it would just stop or get there faster, enough with all this waiting business! And then they waved a flag (which I couldn't see over all the people) and off we went.

The whole thing was kind of a blur because I was so nervous. It's strange, I felt a little like a celebrity having people lining the streets, cheering and staring and applauding me. I tried to stay along the right side because that's where the slow people like to hang out. Unfortunately, businesses like to hang out free things to people along the left side of the street. Boo.

If you've heard about the Peachtree, you may have heard about Heartbreak Hill. My boyfriend told me it was called that because the hill was so terrible people died on it every year. He's such a stinker! This is definitely not true. I think the hill is only a small incline but boy, it lasts forever! Like half a mile forever! Also, it goes right passed the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital. That's were the name really comes from- seeing those people cheering you on who can't be out there themselves. It didn't really break my heart to see them, it made me smile, because they were smiling. It was extra motivation to keep pushing. Also providing motivation were all the people who started walking on the hill. All of a sudden, I felt like I was flying just because I kept pushing while they all dropped off like flies hitting an invisible wall.

After that hill, my knees started hurting a little and the cramps I had before the start started to come back. All the people along the side helped me push on and forget that I was running 6.2 miles (oh my goodness, 6.2 miles!!!!!). Once you hit about 5.7-5.8 miles (this is me guessing- I'm terrible at guessing!) the number of people lining the streets swelled, the music was louder and more frequent and the cheering, bells, and clapping became constant white noise. That was really energizing. I've never felt that kind of accomplishment before. It was really something special that I don't know I can explain properly. It was something like exhaustion, motivation, pride, relief, inspiration, thankfulness, excitement, and power, all at the same time.

So when the time came that I rounded the last corner, started the down-hill stretch and same the 6 mile sign, I was able to kick it into 3rd gear and sprint under the finish line just under an hour. BOOM!
That's how I felt.
Maybe a little bit more like "boom". haha

I think the worst part of the experience would be after the finish, when I ruined my shoes in the park. It's been raining for two weeks in Atlanta and Piedmont was super muddy. I tried to wash my Nikes when we got home but, they'll never be the same. sob.

Other than that monumentous event and weeping over my lack of job, the only other thing I've been doing is cooking. Tons of cooking. My boyfriend's family has a garden which seems to be over producing zucchini and squash. I think I have those two vegetables coming out of my ears!! Time to get creative I guess!