The mad cupcake scientist

   When I am asked to bring cupcakes for something my mind instantly goes into this weird warp and I turn into some strange robot that must find the best cupcake recipe known to man. After blacking out for a few hours and becoming some mad cupcake scientist, I have before me delicious cupcakes ready to be gobbled up.  Don't worry, I am never injured in the blacking out process.

   Ty and I had a couples babyshower to attend on Tuesday night and I was asked to bring the cupcakes.  Of course, I was ecstatic!  I instantly went to researching cupcake recipes.  Let me tell you, I always love unique recipes and will try all the weird ones JUST to see what they taste like.  This time was different though, I wanted something basic, but better than just the basic.  The best basic.  So I went with a chocolate cupcake and peanut butter frosting.  I, on the other hand, don't really like just making chocolate cupcakes.  I feel like they always come out kind of dry or just not the right flavor.  This time I finally found my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe.  Sour cream chocolate cupcake.  Its so moist, dense and delicious!  On to the frosting.  I. along with most chocolate cupcakes, hate frosting.  Probably 95% of the frosting I make has a cream cheese base.  It keeps it from getting too sweet.  So naturally I made a cream cheese peanut butter frosting.  It turned out better than I had expected, it tasted exactly like the inside of reeses pieces!  (Martha, feel free to steal this recipe for your website.  Email me and I will send you the secret recipe)  Enjoy the pictures, they aren't quite as yummy as the cupcakes actually tasted.

  

That same day I was asked to make cupcakes for Ty's work.  They were having a bake sale and he volunteered my cupcakes.  This one I wanted to do something crazy and completely out of the ordinary.  I found this recipe and HAD to try it.  Cream soda cupcakes with browned butter frosting.  Yes, browned butter frosting.  DELISH!  This was not cream cheese based but it had browned butter, enough said.  The cupcake was good, I didn't think it was amazing but it was good.  Ty's work loved them so that made me happy.  I thought they were adorable, so enjoy these pics!

The John Deere Way

So to start this post off, I want to first tell you how proud of my husband I am.  He has an amazing job and is even more amazing at it.  He works so hard to provide for us and is truly the most amazing and hard working  man I know.  I got the opportunity of seeing where all the magic happens this past weekend.  Not only did I get to see his work place but I got to see his NEW work place.  John Deere has been building this new building for a while and they finally got to move in 2 weeks ago.  It is a "green" building (not John Deere green!), everything in the building is made out of recycled materials or natural stone.  It is beautiful!  I sure wouldn't mind going to work there everyday!  So like a teenagers mother who constantly embarrasses them, I took my camera with me.  I tried to get as many pictures without being the creepy wife.  I know the pictures don't do it justice but I hope you enjoy them anyway!

They brought in equipment for the Grand Opening

Back in the late 1800's all the John Deere buildings had a bronze deer out front.  Over the years they slowly disappeared.  They found them in a warehouse and started displaying them again.  This is one of the last ones.  His name is Hershey, he looks like he is chocolate.

The Grand entrance!  I wish I could have gotten it all.  Off the right was a waterfall down the wall with a copper backing.  To the left is a hallway with meeting rooms and the cafeteria. 

Ty's cube!!!  He gets to be right next the window on the 2nd floor.

The view from his cube:

One of the meeting rooms

Another meeting room.  This building has tons of windows!

A small meeting room. They all have different names.  This one is representing good ol' DC!  HAD to get a picture!

Apparently its a common thing for birds to fly into all the windows.  There are these birds "prints" all over the windows.  I am sure this bird is fine though...... 

The cafeteria.  They have outdoor seating that overlooks the lake.  Its beautiful!

A new sprayer that was displayed.

A new 9670

This is the entrance to when you pull into the drive

They even have a lake with a fountain when you enter.

Office Space

After 3 days I finally finished the office and it is now a guest room AND an office!  Clever, huh?  With the help of my trusty side-kick: Ami, this room looks completely different, and the best part is???? I did it all for $68!  Luckily I had some paint left over from our bedroom (refer to "The Big Reveal" post) so that was "free".  A new desk, a few baskets and a little elbow grease were all we needed.  The room before was purple-a pretty gray/purple I had painted for my husband and put all of his K-State memorabilia up on the walls.

  The desk before was giant.

  You know what, that's an understatement, this thing was monstrous!  Not to mention, not the prettiest thing.  The previous owner had left it in the room because of its size, it physically could not fit through the door unless you smashed it up into a million pieces.  Which is exactly what Ami and I did.  With a hammer.  

After the demolition, we realized we had better find a desk, and QUICK!  I found this adorable desk at walmart for only  $40.  Wow what a steal! It cant have THAT many parts.  Wrong.  It had so many parts.  And screws that you had to screw at an angle.  Lots of them.  Thank God for Ami, I would have never gotten it done with out her.  Next up:  the closet.  

This is how a guest room closet looks inside, people.  If you say yours doesn't, you are lying.  Unless you are my grandma in which everything is always beautiful and tidy or Martha Stewart.  But you aren't my grandma nor Martha Stewart.  So you have a messy guest room closet.  Naturally mostly everything in here is junk and can be thrown out, that's what you do with junk, you stack it high behind doors of a closet.  Its human.  So after sorting through and throwing most of the stuff away or putting it in boxes for storage in the basement, the closet was soon empty.  After removing the doors, we now have an extension to the bedroom!  Which I have macgyvered into a cute little closet office.  To match the desk I spray painted an antique chair of my grandmas black (yes, the tidy grandma) .  It was a light yellow and didn't match anything.  Not it looks super chic.  

What happened to all the K-State memorabilia, you ask?  Well its still going in the room.  The plum colored drapes and accent pillow on the bed bring in the purple for the K-State memorabilia to match as well as Ty's K-State diploma.  We haven't hung them yet, I am waiting for Ty to help with that.  He is tall.  And a man.  They do stuff like that better.  Alright, I wont keep you waiting anymore, here is the room:

Happy Birthday Wyatt Paul!

One year ago today my nephew, Wyatt Paul, came into the world.  Little did he know he was coming into the best world he could ever ask for.  He was greeted with loving arms by his mama and daddy and has definitely grown to be a mamas boy.  I would too if I had a mama like that!  He has the best parents a little guy could ask for.  Of course, big brother, Fisher, wasn't going to let his transition be am easy one.  He had to show him the ropes.  For the first week of Wyatt's life I witnessed these "ropes" being shown by Fisher sharing his toys with Wyatt, bringing them out one by one, as not to overwhelm Wyatt with too much to play with.  While napping he did the same gesture with his blankets, piling them high on his feet to keep him extra warm and snuggled.  It was a tough job for little Fisher, but someone had to do it.  Wyatt loves his big brother and I know he will always look up to him. He will always be teaching Wyatt and showing him the ropes, even if Wyatt is the BIG little brother.  Now, a year later, they are the same size. Wyatt has a "tough guy" way about him and likes to take Fisher's toys from him all the while keeping the adorable dimple grin wide on his face.  Perhaps the tables have turned!  Or maybe they are just brothers that are going to grow up to be best friends that love each other even more than they do now.  Either way, Wyatt has changed Fisher's life.  Wyatt has changed all of our lives just by being in it.  We love you, Wyatt!!!  Happy 1st Birthday!!

The beginning......

Dabbling in a different decor

Fall is nearing closer everyday, everyone knows what that means!  Yes folks, if we are lucky, possibly a week of blissful weather before the harsh winter gets here.  Why does fall have to go so fast?!  I wish I could keep it around a bit longer, so I do.  I decorated the house with not only fall trimmings but Halloween as well.  If you know me, you know that I LOVE to decorate for the holidays.  I have even conned my husband into letting me decorate for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving.  After all, it is deemed the most wonderful time of the year.  Obsessed? No. Just ask Martha, she is known for going over the top with decorations and look how successful she is.  And if you are asking yourself:  Is Jeni going to put up photos of decoration ideas she learned from Martha this Christmas?  Then the answer is yes.  Phew, glad we got that covered. The anticipation was almost unbearable.  I am more than thrilled to get decorating for Christmas.  But, for now, I have to pace myself and focus on the holiday at hand.  I never have really decorated for Halloween.  Growing up the main focus was on Christmas, but never really Halloween or Thanksgiving.  This year I have tasted the waters of new decor.  Thanks to hobby lobby and a little elbow grease I have officially decorated for Thanksgiving and Halloween-a month early :)

The centerpiece on the dining room table.  The hubby named the bird of course, but I don't like to get too attached. 

OOOOOOOO, Scary mantle!!!! Kidding.  We really do clean and don't have giant spiders and birds living in our house. 

The Entryway.  I made the wreath for $10.  Pretty thrifty, eh?

Soon my pretty pink flowers with die and another mum will replace them, but for now summer is still in the air.

Lovely Little Saturday

Friday night a couple friends of ours decided to take the plunge and got engaged.  It was especially exciting because I helped him pick out the ring for her a couple months ago.  Its beautiful and we are so excited for them!  They invited us to go to Weston, MO for the day on Saturday to celebrate.

 If you have never heard of Weston, MO then you don't know that the small, historic town is driven on booze.  Which, for us is a win, win for everyone.  Becky and I got to shop in all the little shops and antiques stores that were RIDICULOUSLY overpriced (but super cute) while the boys got to sample beer everywhere we went.  We found this delicious little candle shop where I had to buy candles because I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.  The boys told us to take our time shopping as they shopped with us suckin down a cold one.  Each little shop was so unique in itself but if one thing was for sure, if you owned a shop in this town you knew how to please everyone.  A lot of the shops had pets that roamed freely and let you pet them-heaven for me.  One cat even got up on a little cushion and did little tricks for treats.  Maybe I can teach #2 to do that.  Then again, maybe not, she is quite thick and small brained.  One of the last shops we went to was called Buffalo Ranch, Ty's mom would have gone nuts in here!  Buffalo heads, steer heads, and cute little raccoon lined the walls.  Ty and I found more than one thing we would love to decorate our "cabin" with.  ( we don't have a cabin, we like to sometimes pretend we are rich and have random things).  This chair was my top pick for the "cabin"  and at the measly price of $2600 why not buy 2!!!

This is going a little backwards for our story of the day, but I had a nice flow going and didn't want to interrupt it.  When we first arrived in Weston, we stopped to eat a lat lunch at O'Malleys pub, which was quite delish and they had some great home brewed beers.  Ty got the sampler, which I helped him sample.  It came with six beers.  We also ordered on the side a sample of hot pepper beer- jalapeno infused beer.  It was different but good, however I wouldnt want to beer bong one.

 After our shopping excursion we somehow made our way back to O'Malleys Pub and down into The Cave, an underground bar that was utilized from the Civil War through Prohibition as a bootlegging hideaway. This place was so cool!  It has many stair and a very steep slanted walkway that I wouldn't want to get caught wearing heels or be any sort of tipsy on ( even though I did the tipsy test on it yesterday, oops!).

After the slippery walkway and stairs, this is the opening with even more stairs behind us, where the bar, a stage and lots of drinking happens

These next 2 are the boys showing us how low the ceiling was in the walkway and stairwells

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The slippery walkway!!!!

And of course, the reason for us being here: Becky's ring

Needless to say, we never made it to the winery's since they closed at 5, there just wasnt enough time in one day!!  I was a bit bummed but we had a blast and I suppose we will just have to make a trip back!  Next time, Ty and I want to get a room for the night at one of their historic hotels so we don't have to make the 45 minute trek home.  We will need to plan way in advance, considering their hotels are booked up until the end of November! Turns out everyone else loves this little town as much as we did!!