Tilly Puppy is 6!

I haven't mentioned my sweet pup in awhile, but today is her birthday and it's time to celebrate!

Here's a little backstory:

We got Tilly in January of 2010. She was born in September of 2009. My little sister and I had managed to convince my dad to stop at the Pet Co Adopt a Dog day and well...we walked out with a dog! She is a Brittany Spaniel, Australian Shepard mix.

her car ride to her new home!

I call it fate. We wanted to name our dog Tilly and the dog we wanted was already named Matilda. Meant. To. Be. If you ask me! (her full name is Matilda Bartholomew) She's fancy!

The shelter that we got her from was unsure of her actual birthday, so I made it September 22nd because that's my favorite number. She was abused before she came to us, so she was verrrrrry scared at the beginning. She was not fond of men at all. She cowered in the space between our furniture and our walls for days. I bribed her with treats and we've been best friends ever since.

she sat like this for days. (look at that puppy face)

Tilly is a member of our family, not just a pet. She has come a long way since we adopted her. She can still be skittish, but she is sooooo loving. She will lick your face off if you'll let her. She loves french fries and tortilla chips, taking naps, and watching reality tv. Sooo, she's basically me.

cuddling this weekend, still my BFF

She lives with my Dad and I miss her constantly. However, I'm puppy sitting her for the next week - just in time to spoil her rotten for her birthday.

grown up Tilly! 

My coworker made fun of me for acknowledging her birthday. How do you feel about it? Do you celebrate your pet's birthday? I would love to know!

What Really Happens to Your Body After Drinking a PSL - A Response

I read Yahoo articles every day. Some are interesting, some are dumb and I skip right over them and some are so enticing that I have to share. Today is the latter.

Let me start by saying I LOVE ALL THINGS PUMPKIN. The basic white girl life is the life for me and I'm not even sorry.

The article I'm going to respond to is all about how terrible the PSL is for your body. You can read it here. Guess what? I don't care. Everything is bad for you, blah blah. Everything will give you cancer, blah blah. Don't you dare take this away from me, Yahoo!

Here is the image found in the article. This is not my own image.

 I completely disagree. They left out some very important side effects and I'm here with the truth.

Blood: I only get 1 pump of syrup and no whip in my drink, so my blood is happy and soaking up all the pumpkin goodness. Okay!?
Heart: My heart is full of happiness, cloudy weather, and piles of freshly fallen leaves. I don't have any trouble sleeping either.
Bladder: Uh hi, I pee all the time. You can't blame the PSL for that.
Liver: My liver is just glad I'm not drowning it in alcohol like most people my age.
Appetite: Caffeine is an appetite suppressant for me, so I beg to differ here.
Productivity:  I can basically conquer the world after enjoying one of these bad boys.

In conclusion, this attack on the PSL is completely irrelevant and extremely personal to me. I hope you agree with me, but it's okay if you don't. My PSL will keep me warm at night. LOL.

I'm off to go feed my addiction, bye!

:) 

Smores Dip Recipe

I'm so ready for Fall. I'm sending out all my Fall vibes and getting nothing in return. Actually, it's a little cooler today, but that's about it. (this whole last week was 100+ degrees)

I made this super easy and super delicious smores dip this weekend to share with all you lovely people who are throwing out your Fall vibes as well. Where are all my PSL'ers at???

You seriously only need three ingredients for this dessert/snack. Grab your pen and paper or get your screen shotting fingers ready!

• chocolate chips - mini or regular - milk chocolate, semi sweet, doesn't matter!
• marshmallows - regular or jumbo
• graham crackers for dipping

First things first! Preheat your oven. I chose 350 degrees. I used a little ramekin for my dish. It's oven safe, big enough for 2 people to share (or just me who am I kidding) and looks cute! Fill your ramekin 3/4 of the way with chocolate chips.

If you're using regular sized marshmallows, you can just cover the chocolate chips with them. I used the jumbo this time and cut them in half.

Once you've done that, put your ramekin on a cookie sheet and stick it in the oven! Dance around the house for 3 minutes and you're done. Seriously, that's it. The chocolate chips will be molten and your marshmallows will be gooey and toasty. You can put your oven on low broil for 30 seconds to a minute if you want those marshmallows extra toasty, but watch them closely!

You can dig right in! I used graham crackers this time. In the past, I've used cinnamon sugar chips or you could even use strawberries for a healthier twist. (all about the balance, yo!)

So make this dip and send those Fall vibes my way, okay???

PS. What's the weather like where you live? I'm hoping less than 100! 

Cupcakin' Bake Shop // Berkeley, CA

I can't remember if I ever officially announced it, but J got into UC Berkeley! This past weekend, our roommates from Monterey came to stay with us. We decided to BART over to Berkeley for the day and get an official tour from a very official student. It was game day, so there was a lot of people out and about! We spent the day walking around and eating all the food. Before we left that morning, I looked up a cupcake shop. The Yelp reviews were awesome, so I made sure we stopped.

Cupcakin' Bake Shop was everything I hoped it would be. It's located on Durant Street - a short walk from the campus. The outside was so stinking cute and welcoming. I spotted it from the other side of  the street and may have jay-walked ran across the street to get there.

The girl behind the counter was very pleasant and patient with us. Cupcakes are serious business and the flavor decision is crucial!

Beth got the summer berry, which was vanilla cake, vanilla frosting and fresh berries. Holy Cupcake, that was the best vanilla cake I have ever had. It was fluffy and moist and perfect.

I got the s'mores. I usually get some sort of chocolate cupcake from shops because I like to compare them all. Much to my surprise, there was an actual graham cracker crust on the bottom of the cupcake. That is my absolute favorite thing about s'mores cupcakes, but not all places do that. The crust was buttery, the cake was moist, and the marshmallow fluff was homemade and toasted. I mean seriously you guys. I'm so picky when it comes to cupcakes and I almost went back to tell her how amazing they were. They even had these super cute Berkeley cupcakes on display!

The blogger in me failed to get a mouth watering picture of our cupcakes unwrapped, but I can assure you, they were gone in 3 bites.

Rocksbox Set #2

In case you don't know what Rocksbox is, it's a jewelry subscription box. It's $19 a month. You create a wishlist and your designer sends you pretty jewelry pieces to borrow and/or buy. If you hate everything in your box, you can send it right back and get another one sent out once they receive the original! If you want to keep a piece or two or three, you simply pay online and keep the pieces you wish. Also! Every month you get $10 of Shine Spend that can be used toward your jewelry purchase. How cool is that?

I recently became a Rocksbox ItGirl and it has been so much fun to try jewelry pieces that I may not usually choose for myself. You can use code "meranneduh1xoxo" for your first month free! You won't regret it!

Piece #1: Loren Hope Blythe Necklace in Neon Pink : $75

I looooooved this necklace. I'm pretty I wore it every other day while I had it. It was just so cute. Unfortunately, I cannot justify spending $75 (or $65 with my Shine Spend) on a necklace. :/

Piece #2: Gorjana Aurora Large Stud Earrings : $40

I thought these were so cute! Different and sparkly, just how I like it! I'm always stalking Gorjana's website, so I was super excited to see these in my box!

Piece #3: Sophie Harper Double Bar Ring in Gold : $24

I loved the simplicity of this ring, however, I found it to be nothing special. I didn't purchase it for that reason.

Overall, that necklace was my favorite piece. I'm really loving hot pink right now and I got so many compliments when I wore it! I can't wait to see what comes next.

VIP at a Kelly Clarkson Concert!?

All my middle school dreams came true on Sunday night, you guys. I was given VIP tickets to a Kelly Clarkson concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre. (why does that word look SO weird?) Anyway! I didn't get to go back stage or anything, but we really did get special treatment!

I took my mom, my sisters and myself. We got VIP parking right next to the amphitheatre. We got to eat in the "VIP Terrace" before the show. Free food? Sign me up! We got to sit in box seats. They're about 20 rows from the stage. So awesome. There was even waiters that would come take your food and drink order, so you only had to leave your seat to pee! Haha!

First up was Abi Ann. She's the cutest 18 year old girl that sings a song called "My Future Ex-Boyfriend" and I loved it. I hadn't heard of her before the show. Second up was Eric Hutchinson. I had never heard of him either, but he was so fun! He wore a light blue suit and actually came into the crowd!

Third was Pentatonix. Um hi. They made my life. I knew they did the A Capella version of Cheerleader and I loved that.  They were seriously amazing. I had goosebumps the whole time. The crowd was SCREAMING for them. There were more Pentatonix shirts than Kelly Clarkson shirts! We followed all of them on social media right after their set finished.

Last but certainly not least, Kelly came on. Barefoot in all her prego glory. She is adorable. She had a sequins jacket on. AND (in case you haven't seen her recently) the side of her head is shaved. She had it glittered, you guys. It was fantastic. She was so sweet and so funny. AND. She can belt those songs out. She was so good! I was kind of joking about how I didn't know much of her new stuff, but she played all the classics and she absolutely blew us away.

If I could relive the concert, I would. The whole evening went flawlessly and the show was AMAZING!

I stole this from Nikki's snap chat. (me, Maddie, Nikki)

5 Layer Twix Cake!

Say whaaaat? You read that right.

This last weekend, my family and I celebrated my Dad's birthday. In case you know absolutely nothing about me, I bake. Mostly cupcakes, sometimes other random things. But I don't make cakes.

I wanted to do something  special for my Dad's birthday, so I figured I would surprise everyone and whip up a super awesome cake. And I did. (Modesty was never my best quality.)

My dad loves Twix. So, I obviously had to make the most ridiculous Twix cake any of us have ever seen. I've actually never seen a Twix cake, so it wasn't that hard to beat. :)

I used these super awesome Wilton Easy Layer pans that my BFF got me for my birthday last year. 5 come in the pack and they are really shallow. Perfect for this. The cake only had to cook 10 minutes at 350.

I did a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting as my base. I bought shortbread cookies and caramel sauce and went to town. I wanted to be a little more creative than just throwing Twix on top. To save my family from diabetes, I only added the shortbread and caramel to every other layer. ;)

First things first, put a glob of frosting on your plate or cake board and push the first layer of cake down on top of it. That's your base. then spread a layer of chocolate frosting. Crumble up a short break cookie and drizzle with caramel. Add your second layer of cake. Spread the frosting. Skip the cookies and caramel. Add your third layer of cake. Add the cookies and caramel. The fourth layer is just cake and frosting. And finish off with your fifth layer and all the cookie and caramel goodness you can handle. If you add too much caramel, it will be a sticky mess. So maybe go easy.  I just did a little swirl.

I made this quick cake topper with wooden skewers and a piece of craft garland that I had. I hot glued each end to a skewer and voila! I got the candle at True Value. I figured my Dad would love it.

I do realize that this cake is ridiculous, but it's only 6 inches in diameter and 9 of us were sharing it and we still had left overs! We cut the cake into quarters and then each took a couple layers. We decided that would be the best way to tackle the beast.

What's your favorite candy bar? Maybe I'll turn it into a 5 layer cake ;)