A Tinsy Tiny Problem.

I am a broke college student. There, I said it. For one more semester next spring I am paying for my schooling out of pocket. Yeah yeah, it's only community college prices, but still. That $150/month is semi detrimental when it comes to this problem I have - I love shopping. So since I cannot go shopping any time soon, I am going to cyber-window-shop. And I am going to show you some things I am looking at. 


Pretty much all things Steve Madden: 


But I am particularly fond of these. I love ankle straps. 

Gretta

You could pretty much point out any Steve shoe and I would find a way to rock it. Another trend I am loving? Boots. Not just ordinary brown/black-to-the-knee-boots. But biker-esque or military-style boots. 

Puzzled

Oh man if I had money...

I would buy this Chambray shirt from Levi's. Or really any other source. 

I also need this immediately. 

Kate Spade Sparkle Summit Brynn

I love the Versace for H&M line. Hello, Love.

Leather Dress

And this leather coat is why I wish I lived in a city that got colder than 45 in the winter. C'mon Arizona. 

Versace for H&M Coat

When I think of Versace, and when I think of leather with gold trimmings, I think of Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory music video. She wore vintage Versace throughout. I have never seen anything more beautiful. And that may be why I love the Versace for H&M line so much. 

Basically what you can gather from this post is that I am craving every single thing out of my price range. It sucks when you have a price range of $0-$5. Sigh... Off to look at more fashion blogs. 

P.S. Something that confuses me about women with fashion blogs - how do they afford to buy all their clothes?! I just can't get over it. If you want some recommendations on blogs to read, just comment or shoot me a message. I'd be happy to share. Some of them are listed on the side panel. 

P.S.S. It's the holiday season. A season of giving. If any of you are feeling generous, I will happily take any of these items. Thanks.

**Update. (I originally wrote this post like 2 weeks ago). Since then, I walked around the mall, which I have not been to in AGES. And I found a super cute leather-looking skirt from Forever 21. They don't have a picture of it online. So just imagine it in your head. And last night I had an epiphany that it would look awesome with the above chambray shirt, awesomely patterned tights, and either a killer heel or a cool boot. 


SECOND EPIPHANY! The leather skirt -think this kind of fit, just in black leather. I need to pair it with my white button down, with a v-neck sweater over top. And again with the tights/shoes. 


I heart outfit epiphanies. 

ASU game pictures and such.

Alixx also has a post on this... fyi. 


Here are some pictures of the ASU vs. U of A game we attended last Saturday. We went with a group of fun people and had a blast! Yes, ASU lost. No, I don't really care. I'm technically not even a student there yet (next fall!). It also goes back to the fact that I'm not a die hard football fan. I love going to the games, but it's more of an atmosphere thing. I was CONSTANTLY asking Sky what was going on. He laughed at me a lot. 

Pre-Game... Keep scrolling through to see if we remain friends through this bitter rivalry. 

What a cute BF I have... 

"A" for Arizona!... Or America. Or Alixx! 

Woo taking the field! 

A mixing of the bands! Which is completely acceptable, even if the schools absolutely hate each other. The guy that was sitting behind me was boo-ing non stop, so I turned around with my angry face and "WOOOOOOOOO"'d him. It was awesome. I think he was slightly intoxicated, so I couldn't explain the rules of Marching Band to him. Bands pretty generally like other bands. And non-band nerds will just never understand.  

This was within the last minute of the game. Even an "ehh" football fan like myself had a pounding heart. 

STILL FRIENDS!! Duhh... Like we would let some silly school rivalry tear this apart. Please. 

Where have I been all your life?... Recently.

Oh hey... So yeah, may as well address the elephant in this online room. I haven't blogged in a couple weeks. I'M SORRY. Really I am. I always judge those people that write on their blogs only every so often... And now I am one of them. I have bowed my head in shame. So here are some pictures snapped from my phone from the last couple of weeks of my life. They are in no specific order because I am a.) lazy and b.) really need to get to some homework before I go to bed. 


So I have been:

Laughing at my insanely cute cat & the way he lays. 

 Seeing the ironic things that make life great - this is some math homework I got back... Second & Friday were two fill in the blank answers. Fate. 

I've been hanging out with my love-muffin.  

Watching pretty flowers being planted, then feeding them to my dog.  

Getting crazily excited for this masterpiece. Another thing you'll have to deal with on our blog - we are devoted Lady Gaga fans. Alixx received one of these also. This is the entire Born This Way album on 14 records with art on every single one of them. I'm in love.  

I've been insanely busy planning my Mom's 50th birthday party with my sisters and step-dad. It turned out great!!  

I have a ton more pictures of this night on my camera. It was beautiful! All purple/black/zebra! 

This is the cake we ordered her from Caketini! It was huge & beautiful... And delicious!  

I've been laughing at my brothers. And my boyfriend, who's plan this was. Caption: Zebra Mummy!  

Work. Work. Work. With this picture and the one below, I guess I should make it known that I just got a little seasonal job at Bath&Body Works! So with this addition to my regular desk job, for reals. Work... It's all I do when I'm not doing school.  

I am ADDICTED to this lip shine. It is minty & wonderful. Basically the entire C.O. Bigelow line is sent from the heavens above. Go and get yourself some. The stuff above goes on like a gloss, but then just makes your lips soft like you have chapstick on, and it really does freshen your breath!  

I've been falling more and more in love with my dog, Macy. She really is the cutest, most sweetest thing ever. She decided she had to come snuggle in my room one morning while I was getting ready for school/work.  

I've been painting my nails like they're a 1970 Chevy Chevelle :D 

I've been getting great fortunes from Panda Express.  

Skylar and I had a date night on Friday. We ate at Chipotle & went and saw Tower Heist. It was okay... not as funny as we thought it would be.  

I've been frying up some pork chops for the above mentioned dude. These were divine. and the recipe can be found here. Thanks, Betty!!

And finally, I've been loving that my cats & dogs are finally getting along. 

So there you have it. I promise I'll post more. Love, Kels.

Candy Coatings & Sprinkles

Before I start this, I want to list all the things you'll need - I should have taken a picture of it all, but I did not.  
You'll need: cake mix (any), ingredients to make cake, cake pan, a knife, a can of frosting (more on that below), candy coating wafers (in any flavor/color you want), wafer dye (like food coloring, but specifically for the wafers), various bowls/plates to mix/hold stuff, lollipop sticks, sprinkles (any), something to hold the pops upright (I got Styrofoam from the craft store), patience, and clean hands! 


This is a cake pop - say hello! These are both easy and fun to make. Let me show you how.

Hi! Don't I make you feel all warm and bubbly inside?

And let me warn you now... These pictures were taken on my iPhone. They look super awesome on my phone's beautiful screen, but don't translate all that well to a computer. Bear with me. 


So here we go!



You can use ANY cake mix you want. This is Funfetti! It's so fun. Anyway, mix it up and get that sucker into the oven. Prepare, mix, and bake it from the directions on the box - nothing fancy yet.
Yes, that is a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. I wasn't even sure if this was going to work out because I had no idea if you can use evoo in cake mix. I took advice from an eleven-year-old boy I was babysitting and just did it. (It turned out just fine.)

So here's the cake. I know it's ugly - that's because I felt the need to a.) cut the corner out as soon as it came out of the oven and eat said corner, and b.) peel off the weird, flaky top that the cake created. 

Don't be like me, please.

So now you want to take a knife (I used a plastic one, this is where you're allowed to be like me).


And cut/chop/mangle that cake like there is no tomorrow. 

You want lots of crumbs, and not a lot of big pieces.

Now, take a can (I just realized I call them "cans of frosting". It's a plastic container.)... take a plastic can of frosting and soften it in the microwave for a couple of seconds. This is the first warning I'll give about the microwave - don't let anything distract you from watching the frosting in the microwave. If you accidentally let it go for the ENTIRE MINUTE you set it for, it will become pure liquid, and will begin to separate. It's disgusting. But you'll use it any way because it's the only one you have, and you can't go to the store.


Mix the cake crumbs and frosting until everything is wonderfully coated. You don't want to find any dry spots of the cake. And no giant clumps of frosting. 





I do everything in one pan, saves dishes! Shove all the mixture to one side, find a five & thirteen-year-old to help you, and roll the cake-frosting mixture into one-inch balls. (Shame on you if you thought that was my hand.)

It'll eventually take up the whole pan - perfectly! 

Use a plate to melt a few of the candy coating wafers.  This is just plain, white, vanilla. Roll one end of a lollipop stick in the melted candy. 




Now insert the lollipop stick into the cake ball.  You don't want to go all the way through, but far enough to really anchor it in there. 
Continue with all of them...



Now put them in the fridge for at least an hour. You want the cake balls and the "glue" to be cold and set. 
While they're setting up, you can move onto this...

And THIS is where it just gets stupid. I knew I wanted to make super cute, bright cake pops, but I didn't want to have to buy 5 different bags of candy wafers. Instead, I bought one giant bag of white, vanilla ones, and bought that little box of dye's you see. "Custom Colors!" it proclaims. Why would I choose the box that had green, red, orange, and black? Why wouldn't I choose the one that had way better colors? I have NO idea. I don't know what they expect you to make with these colors. Brown? Dark Green? Dark Red? 

It took about half of that little dye container to make my candy coating that bright.

I ended up making green, orange, red, gray (from the black), blue (from a little gel dye tube I found in the pantry), white (that one was easy), and a purple that I had from the previous batch of cake pops I made (pictures at end).





So you dunk...



Tap off extra... Carefully!



Shake your sprinkles of choice on...



And voila! 



Crappy picture, but aren't they cute? The gray color was actually a really cute choice with the contrast of the bright sprinkles I used. You can just dip the top or cover the whole thing. Which ever you choose, just know that a knife is helpful for getting extra coating off. 




This is where my second microwaving warning happens - do not microwave the candy coating wafers too much! I don't know why it only happened to the orange, but it hardened right up. After that I was very careful about how much I was putting the other colors into the microwave. 




And here is the whole mess of them. Feel free to lay them however you want once the candy coating hardens up.  Those purple ones are from Halloween themed ones I made earlier with the kids I was babysitting. They're Devil's Food cake mix with the purple vanilla coating. 




And the reason some of them had letters on them is because they spelled this! 

And here are shots of the Halloween ones!

These are so fun to make! Make them for your next special occasion, or just because they're delicious and fun to eat.