Life: Day Zero Project

101 in 10001, Day Zero Project, Dreams, Goals, Life

Earlier this year I saw a blog entry that Joy from How Joyful posted that really caught my attention and I decided to look further into it,  the Day Zero Project.  The project can be described as a realistic bucket list or a set of goals that one wants to achieve in a 3 year span.  I few years ago I decided to write a bucket list in one of my journals and have slowly been crossing things off but now I have decided that I want to join the Day Zero Project. I want to make more of my goals into a reality and I believe that this project will help.  This year has gone by so fast and there are so many things that I want to do and I feel that if I set a realistic timeline for them I will complete them.  So here goes nothing or perhaps everything…


If you want to learn more about the project go here.
For more inspiration go here, here, and here.


Here’s my list:


For Others
1. Give blood at least twice a year. (0/6)
2. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.
3. Make Crème brûlée for my best friend.
4. Volunteer at Rescue Mission at least 6 times a year every year. (0/18)
5. Bake a cake to give to someone on a special occasion. (0/8)
6. Volunteer once a month for a year at a non-profit organization. (0/12)
7. Donate to a worthwhile charity twice a year every year. (0/6)
8. Donate my wedding dress. 
9. Donate things we don’t use or need around the apartment. 
10. Recycle everything we possibly can in our apartment by installing recycling bins.

For Myself
11. Get an awesome job that I love.
12. Try kobe beef.
13. No social networks except blogging for an entire month. (0/30)
14. Get a facial every year. (I’ve never had one.) (0/3)
15. Learn French.
16. Get a massage every year. (0/3)
17. Not watch t.v. for an entire month. (0/30)
18. Learn mandarin.
19. Wear a two piece bathing suit at the beach.
20. Learn Italian.

For Health
21. Average at least 3 days a week at the gym for 6 months straight. (0/6)
22. Eat at home for 30 days straight. (0/30)
23. Sleep 8 hours a day for a month. (0/30)
24. Run Disney half marathon. 
25. Run Las Vegas half marathon.
26. Run the Los Angeles marathon.
27. Go walking with the hubby everyday for a month. (0/30)
28. Give up fried food for 6 months. (0/6)
29. Give up sweets (except fruit) for 3 months. (0/3)
30. Lose 50 pounds. (0/30)
31. Give up dairy for an entire month. (0/30)

Family, Friends, and Love
32. Get pregnant? (hm maybe).
33. Enter a sandcastle competition with family and friends.
34. Visit my parents once a month for a year. (0/12)
35. Work on genealogy tree for our family. 
36. Transfer all old family movies into DVD’s.
37. Have game night at our apartment once a month for a year. (0/12)
38. Have dinner with my cousins and my best friend once a month for year. (0/12)
39. Have a cookie swap party at our apartment. 
40. Teach my little godson how to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch. 

Learn Creative Blog
41. Learn Photoshop.
42. Learn HTML.
43. Learn XHTML.
44. Learn Java.
45. Learn Excel.
46. Learn all the function in my DSLR.
47. Enter a photo competition.
48. Enter a baking competition.
49. Complete the 365 photo challenge.
50. Make our wedding photo album.
51. Re-decorate all rooms in apartment. (0/5)
52. Learn how to use all the features on my mac.
53. Blog at least once a week for 52 weeks. (0/52)
54. Make/bake colorful macarons.
55. Bake 20 recipes from the cookbook my aunt sent me from Mexico. (0/20)
56. Make a photo book for every year the hubby and I have been dating. (0/10)
57. Learn CPR.
58. Make/grow an indoor herb garden.
59. Carve a cool pumpkin for Halloween. 
60. Learn how to make tamales.
61. Organize all our photos. 
62. Redo the chair I found in the alley. 
63. Re paint our dresser drawer. 
64. Bake a cake and decorate with fondant.
65. Bake a cake and decorate it with royal icing. 

Entertainment and Travel
66. Visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 
67. Visit family in Kansas with mom.
68. Visit the Grand Canyon.
69. Visit Jalisco, Mexico.
70. Visit New York, NY.
71. Go camping to Yosemite.
72. Visit Guatemala with the hubby.
73. Go to Sequoia park with the hubby.
74. Go to Vegas with my parents, the hubby, and my in-laws. 
75. Go to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
76. Go on vacation with a group of friends. 
77. Go on a cruise with the hubby.
78. Visit Chihuahua, Mexico.
79. Visit another continent besides North America and Europe.
80. Go kayaking with the hubby. 
81. Go snowboard.
82. Go snorkeling.
83. Build a snowman. 
84. Go horseback riding. 
85. Go to a film festival.
86. Buy another lens for my camera.
87. Go to Monterrey Aquarium.
88. Go hiking in Point Lobos. 
89. Visit Big Sur.
90. Go paintball fighting with the hubby and friends. 
91. Visit my cousin at his architecture school. 
92. Visit Yellowstone. 

Business and Money
93. Open an Etsy Shop.
94. Save up for closing cost for a house.
95. Set up my own photography website.
96. Write out our living will.
97. Sell a cake.
98. Sell a photograph. 
99. Get sponsors for my blog. 
100. Get my own domain name. 
101. Write code for my own website. 

BONUS – Donate five dollars for every goal that I have not accomplished at the end of 1,001 days

Thanks Joy Kelley for inspiring me to do my list! 

Sweets: Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cookies

Baking, Cookies, Recipes, Red Velvet Cookies, Sweets

About a month ago I had a red velvet cake box sitting in the pantry but I wasn't really craving cake or cupcakes.  After doing a quick google search I found this recipe from the lovely Paula Deen and since I had everything on hand away I went.

Instead of using chocolate cake mix like Paula did I used the red velvet cake mix I had at hand.   Let me just tell you that my co-workers and neighbors loved them and keep requesting them.

More loveliness here »

Life: Honeymooning it in style

Honeymoon, Life, Vacation

Last New Year’s Eve as the hubby and I were siting around not doing much we decided that this year  we were going to do something spectacular to bring in the New Year since we haven’t had a memorable one yet.  We thought about spending New Years in Paris after finding this tour on Contiki.  I mean imagine your husband coming up to you and asking you, “If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?” I screamed out, “Paris!”  Well he didn’t really need to ask since he knows how obsessed I am with EVERYTHING Parisian.  Fast forward to September and we still don’t have any plans for New Years.  So, why am I bringing this up?  I’m bringing it up because as a result of that talk we had nine months ago we are finally going on our honeymoon.  We took the idea of going to Paris and ran with it and decided that if we were going to invest so much money on the trip we better make it worth while.  Our New Years idea turned into our 10 day honeymoon trip to London and Paris.

When we got married the hubby was working on so many projects that I didn’t want him to be stressed out because he had to leave them to go on our honeymoon.  Let me just say that he didn’t take any time off for our wedding unlike most of his coworkers.  Last year I was still in school and our schedules didn’t line up so we couldn’t make it happen either but this years everything worked out.  The hubby now has a new job where he works less and I finally graduated.  Things are great and I can’t imagine why people go on their honeymoon right after the wedding.  I have been planning every aspect of our honeymoon and I am ecstatic about it.  I can’t wait to share with all of you the many photos I’m planning on taking and all the bakeries we are going to visit.

If you could go any where in the world where would you go?

Baking Inspiration: Disney/Pixar Toy Story Cakes

Baking Inspiration, cake, Disney, Pixar, Sweets, Toy Story

The hubby and I were watching The Pixar Story on Netflix the other night and I began to thinker with the idea of making another Pixar inspired cake like the one I did here.  One of my favorite movies from the Disney/Pixar collaboration is Toy Story. Just in case you were wondering I love all of three movies equally.  I don't have plans on making a cake any time soon since its so hot right now but how cool would it be to make one for a little boy or girl.

Here's the list I came up with so far…

Please click {Source} to see where they originally came from!

                                                                                                         …Jessie…
{Source}

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D23: I must confess I’m a total Disney geek…

Cakes, D23, Disney, Life, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse

…well let me rephrase, as my mom would discribes it I have a love affair with “the” Mouse.   I’m not exactly sure when I began to love Disney so much but somewhere along the line it happened.  I bet what you’re thinking now this girl must be one of those annual pass holders that goes into the park and spends all her day pin trading or an all around Disney freak but I’m far from that.

What I am is a Disney fan who used to be a cast member that devoted almost 10 years of her life to the Mouse (I quit to focus on my education).  I visit Disneyland about twice a year, I’ve been to Disney World once in 2006, and I’m planning on visiting Disneyland Paris next month since I’ll be in Europe.  My apartment is not decorated with Disney stuff and the only clothing I have that has a Disney logo on it are my old Disney VoluntEARS t-shirts.  As a matter of fact unless I tell people directly about my love for the Mouse they don’t have a clue.  Maybe later on I’ll share with you some of the magic that I got to create when I worked there.  Yes, you heard me right MAGIC!

So, why exactly am I telling you this?  I’m doing it because I want to be more transparent and because I wanted to share with you some photos of our visit to the D23 expo.

The hubby surprised me back in April with tickets to the event and you bet I was extremely excited.  We only got tickets for one day and after being there all day I realized why people get the weekend ones.  It really was so much fun even for non Disney fans.  There was a lot of painting, exhibits, and things to do.

Isn’t Tow Mater adorable? He’s so darn cute I couldn’t help but take a picture of him.

This was very creative.  I wonder if he’s going to be walking around with Jack on Halloween. 
How cool would it be to go on a Cruise on board the new Disney Fantasy?  I’m hoping to convince the hubby to take me on one sometime soon. 
They had a section of the expo dedicated to Disney parties and cakes.  The cakes they had came from their officially licensed partner Cakes.com.  
Isn’t this Mickey and Minnie cake adorable?
I love this Woody and Buzz cake. 
If you would like to see more of my photos from the D23 expo please visit me at Flickr!
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Blogging for Jennie (#afundforjennie)

#afundforjennie, giving back

I know I’ve been out of the blogging world for a few months now (as a matter of fact my husband just gave me a puzzled look as I left the living room and I told him I was going to write this post) but I’ve still kept up with my favorite blogs.  Last week I noticed that a lot of the food bloggers that I follow were baking peanut butter pies and I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence especially since I kept seeing #piesformikey attached to the recipes.  It turns out that a beloved food blogger named Jennifer Perrillo from In Jennie’s Kitchen suddenly became a widow and a single mom to two adorable little girls.  I cried as I read this post and was touched by how the blogging community reacted.  I said a little prayer for her and her family and kept them in my mind for the remainder of the day.  Her tragedy had an affect on many bloggers out there and a list quickly grew for Pies for Mikey.  The blogging community has taken this a tad further than simply baking pies and desserts in Mikey’s honor. Bloggers without Borders has set up a donation site where one can donate or bid on different items that are being auctioned.  I urge you to read her story and try to donate as much as you can by clicking on the banner below.

Donate to Bloggers Without Borders
Thanks in advance!! 

My attempt at a Disney/Pixar Car’s Cake

Baking, Buttercream, cake, Cars, Disney, Sweets
Without further ado here is my first attempt at a themed cake.  I am really pleased with how it turned out and more importantly the birthday boy loved it.  I completely forgot to take a better photo of the cake once it was assembled since I was rushing to make cupcakes right before we left.  Next time I'll take the time to put more effort into my photos. 

More loveliness here »

Baking Inspiration: Disney/Pixar Car Cakes

Baking, Baking Inspiration, Cakes, Disney, Sweets

My friend recently asked me if I would make her son's 3rd birthday cake.  So, what do you think I replied? I sure would! She told me that they invited 100 people and that their theme was Disney/Pixar Cars.  Another thing she mentioned is that she would like a chocolate and Vanilla Cake.  With all this in mind my task this week is to create a fantastic cake that will get the approval of a bunch of 3 year olds.  Tonight I'm going to re watch the movie with my hubby and try to find inspiration from other sites.

Here is what I've found so far:

{Source}

More loveliness here »

Life: Baby Shower Re-cap

Baby shower, Life, Parties

The baby shower was great this weekend and I wanted to share with you a few photos of the event.  When I was looking through the photos I realized that I forgot to take a picture of the mini cheesecakes I made for the mommy to be.  I used my go to recipe for cheesecake that I previously posted here since that was the recipe the new mommy to be requested.  I put them in a cupcake tray with baby feet cupcake liners. I used the water bath and kept the same temperature for about half and hour.  I decorated them with a bit of whipped cream and a small teddy bear pick and some confetti candy.  I hope you were able to visualize it and I promise next time I’ll make sure to take more photos.

If I hadn’t mentioned it before it’s a girl and everyone is extremely excited!
The mommy to be wanted fresh flowers on the tables. Her father-in-law bought a few bouquets at Trader Joe’s we separated them and arranged the flowers in bases they purchased at the Dollar Tree Store.  They turned out beautiful.
The mommy to be picked up these pink pacifiers for her party favors at the flea mart.  You never know where you can find a great looking party favor. 
The baby shower was held at a community center that her neighbor had access to.  The family gave a down payment which was then returned upon leaving the location spotless.  We went early in the morning to decorate the community center and transform it into a cute enough baby space. 
We set two tables as the main focal point.  One was for the parents to be and the other one for the gifts the guests brought.  All the decorations and prizes for the contestants were purchased in the Dollar Tree Store.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a nice baby shower.
We played several fun games including this traditional one.  For those you that might not be familiar with it I’ll attempt to explain it.  You blind fold someone give them a big spoon and a plate.  They place the plate on their head and they attempt to pick up cotton balls with the spoon.  The contestants only have a few tries to do it.  
Another game we played was one that I had never heard of.  It mainly consisted of picking out a baby item’s name out of a bag and matching it with someone that pulled out the exact same thing.  When both people find each other they sit down. The last two people standing get kicked out.  You do this until you only have two people left. It might sound confusing but it sure was fun. Just look at people’s expressions. 
Congrats to the mommy to be and my cousin.  They make such a beautiful couple.  We are all excited and can’t wait to welcome a new baby into our family.