summer's end + mississippi trip

Summer's over but I really can't complain because it's been a very productive 2.5 months. Let's talk about my summer bucket list for a moment. Here is the updated version. Please enjoy my color coded key outlining what I accomplished, areas in which I made progress, and things I just didn't get to.

Things to note...I'm about 70% done in the office so look for an update soon, I ventured into the card making business hobby, which I really enjoyed, and loved every minute spent sleeping in and relaxing by the pool. The life of leisure has come to an end. 

 On another note...I never got to share pictures from our Mississippi/New Orleans trip. We went down to the coast for a Douglas family reunion and had a blast. The humidity on the other hand fogged up our glasses and camera lens (as you can see in the first picture) as soon as we stepped outside.

It was great to meet so many distant family members and learn about our Douglas roots.

cake pops + baby shower

So, after reaching out to some of you on facebook..I took the daring plunge into cake pop world. I've heard they could be time consuming and difficult to make so I was expecting the worse...

After a few stressful encounters, they made it to Becca's Baby shower safe and sound. I used this recipe and highly recommend it for any other pop cake virgins out there. 

All was smooth sailing until we got to the icing. I thought the icing I bought would harden but it did not (note: gel icing does not harden). I needed the icing to harden because I was putting little plastic bags over them as they were part of the favors for the shower. JD and I tried to weasel the bag over the pop without smearing the icing but no luck. I forgot to mention that I had to drive from MD to PA with these pops.

What to do at 11pm? First, freak out and then listen to your husband who recommends wiping off all the icing and then buying new icing when in PA. So, that's what we did and surprisingly enough, the icing came off pretty easily.

So the next day I placed them (ever so carefully) into Ziploc bags and packed them into a cooler (I had class from 9-4 then had to drive to PA and these pops get a bit wonky when out of the refrigerator).

In the end, my mom found icing that hardened and I was able to place the bag over the pop...all in all a success not to mention delicious too.

Here are a few picture's from Becca's shower. We can't wait to meet our new nephew in September.