Oh, The Places You'll Go

YAY!!!  Today is my one month Blogiversary!!!  Too cheesy?  Yeah, I know.  I couldn't help myself.  Anyway, I started this whole journey one month ago today.  It's been such a great month!  My new favorite thing to do is work on my blog.  I'm so excited about all of the things I am planning. 

I wanted to do a  little something to celebrate but I couldn't think of what to do.  Then one of my coworkers found this recipe at Something Cakey's blog and I thought it was perfect!  I could make something AND celebrate this milestone at the same time!  And I liked the idea of trying something new since that's really what this blog is all about.

The recipe is called Mocha Ice Cream Cupcakes!  Do I really need to say anything else??  Coffee...chocolate...ice cream...cupcakes???  Of course I'm in!!

I made some modifications to simplify.  Instead of dealing with the chocolate covered espresso beans I just bought some Starbucks Java Chip Frappaccino flavored ice cream (It's my favorite!!).  It called for almonds, toasted and chopped.  I just chopped up some almonds because I didn't see the "toasted" part until I was home from the store.  Shhh...don't tell. It'll be our little secret.

Mine isn't nearly as pretty as the one in the picture.  How did they get the ice cream to look so pretty???  Mine looks all flat.  Oh well.  I'm just thrilled that it came out in some sort of cupcake form so I'm calling it a success!  :o)

It was really yummy!!!

 And now for something completely different...

The other day at the grocery store I saw this card and it became the inspiration for my one month anniversary blog.   

Don't get the wrong idea.  I'm not saying I'm so clever and talented or that my blog is the best thing ever.  I'm just saying that I'm inspired to try new things and find out what kind of talents I might have.  I'm excited to see where this experience takes me.  ;-)

I am a big fan of children's books.  I guess it was all that time I spent reading to the kiddos when I worked in early childhood classrooms.  Some of my favorites are Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle.  I love their illustrations! 

Anyway, the point is that one of my favorite books of all time (kid book or not) is Oh, The Places You'll Go.  It's such an inspiring book! 

 

This isn't the best quality video (as the person who posted it said so eloquently at the beginning...urgh!) but I really wanted to have it here.

I started to think about all of the "places" I wanted to go with my blog, all of the things I wanted to try.  I came up with a list of short term goals (the next few projects I have planned) and long term goals (things I want to learn to improve my blog and big projects I want to complete).

Short Terms Goals (I'm giving myself a couple of months to complete these.):

• Make mosaic tile flower pot stand and matching flower pot
• Make laptop sleeve from One Yard Wonders 
• Make Tissue holder from Aranzi Cute Stuff (It's soo cute!)
• Make hair bands for Grace & Elissa (the girls I babysit) from Aranzi Cute Stuff 

 Long Term Goals (These don't have a time limit.  These projects are much bigger.  I either have to spend some money or learn something new for these so they will take longer to accomplish.)

• Turn extra bedroom into craft room
• Make a mosaic tile table
• Make a banner for my blog
• Learn HTML (SCARY!!!)
• Make a stop motion animation (it can be short to start)
• Learn how to use GIMP to edit pictures

I have been brainstorming a few ideas for upcoming posts and some that may show up regularly.  I have a lot of ideas but I have to really think them through before I start posting them.  I want to try to get more craft projects done.  It's hard to find the time but I will try harder.  I love crafting so it's important enough to make the time. 

I want to work on improving my writing skills (because I'm not so good) and taking better pictures.  These are the two things that draw me to other blogs the most so I think it's important that I try to improve those things on my own blog. 

I really need to learn how to get my point across and not ramble on and on for so long!!!  Sorry about that.  I'll work on it....next time. ;-)

I have fallen completely in love with blogging.  The community of people is amazing

and inspires me daily.  It is such an encouraging group of people!!!  I'm so excited to learn more and to see where this whole experience goes in the future. 

Thanks for all of your support.  Stick around!  Hopefully it will keep getting better and better.  :o)