Cupcakes Everywhere!

The Cookie Jar Bakery

My being a blog stalker has made me discover that cupcakes are the "in" thing nowadays. For the past month, I have read several blogsites that revolve around cupcakes. First, I read my favorite blogger, Jen Lancaster, talk about cupcakes which then led me to another website about cupcakes called, "Cupcakes Take the cake ", then led me again to more and more cupcake blogsites. To top it all, while I was checking my brother's Flickr site, he had several pictures of cupcakes in different forms and colors. Hmmm...is this normal?I now believe that we are presently having our own little "cupcake culture" (which btw is another blog).

My curiosity about these cupcakes made me ask Alan if he wanted to have a little adventure in downtown Houston to check on two different cupcake shops. I wanted to know why people are so into it and if I could also be a fan of the so-called "in" thing.

Are people wanting cupcakes instead of the traditional cake because it limits the size and calories they're eating or people like cupcakes because they could eat more variety of cakes in a single blow as compared to a traditional cake wherein you're stuck having an entire 8 X 8 or 9 x 13 which we'll all be sick of after a couple of slices?

I'm off to my journey...

First stop: Sugar Baby's Cupcake Boutique

Located near my fave, Wholefoods, Sugar Baby's is a cute cupcake boutique shop. I like its retro-ish decor in black and pastels. When I went there though, there wasn't a huge selection of cupcakes . I ordered the velvet cupcake and my fiance fancied a plain choco cupcake with vanilla frosting. I guess the fun part of being in the shop is actually not about eating the cupcake but taking pictures of the new place. I feel that people go there, not because of their cupcakes, but because it was designed beautifully. The people in the shop are so friendly too. I recommend that you see the place. It's a little bit Serendipity-ish
Rate: the velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting tasted good, I just ate it a little too late. (like after 2 days)


2nd Stop: The Cookie Jar Bakery

Located across the local elementary school of Post Oak, this bakery reminds me of the traditional bakery where the locals would just stop to read their newspaper and have a cup of coffee. This bakery looked a little bit run down as compared to Sugar Baby's but this shop has more of an at home feeling to it. As you enter, there are stuffed toys, game boards, books, and magazines all over the place. Totally kid-friendly. The cupcakes are also cheaper. I ordered a choco cupcake with nutella frosting while Alan ordered the tres leches cupcake.


Rate: the nutella choco cupcake is divine!

***The two shops had almost the same cupcake menu but both cater to different crowds. I think Sugarbaby's has a little flair to capture the yuppie crowd while the Cookie Jar targets the kids from the school across them.

When we got home, I took a bite of my nutella choco cupcake and it was quite okay. I wasn't impressed with the tres leches though. I guess I was expecting a little bit more. Thanks to actually living in a border town I know how to decipher what authentic mexican food is and tres leches is one of them. I also needed to taste the cupcakes from the other shop so the following day, I had a few bites of the velvet cupcake. It was yummy but it was too rich. One cupcake would actually fill you up immediately.

Finally, I can now say that I've tried the cupcakes and won't be joining the club. They're just glorified buns for crying out loud. Thank God!

Wedding Escapade Series- PAPARAZZI

Who would've thought that photographers nowadays cost an arm and a leg? Well, the last of my wedding escapade was all about getting a photographer. My brother offered his services and said that he'd do it for free. At the back of my mind, I was thinking that this was such a great idea in terms of how much we would be able to save. Alan then told me that if something goes wrong though, I wouldn't want my brother and myself to feel crappy. Also, I wouldn't want my brother to feel pressured during the event.

To prove how naive I am with the latest trends in photography, I thought that it was still the traditional layout wherein you could choose the pictures you like and the photgraphers would just do the layouting for you. Well, I was wrong. It's totally different now. All the photographers we've been to are actually into the "magazine" layout style. What does this mean? Think about the magazines we usually read, it's flat right? That's how albums look like nowadays. Pictures aren't just matted in anymore, they're more artistically presented with the "magazine" format.

I was actually impressed with the pictures and surprised with the prices. I've thought of a way on how I could tell you how much photographers charge in the Kingwood area without actually telling you what the rates really are.(checkout the legend)

***-Tres tres EXPENSIVE
**- Expensive but reasonable compared to a three star
*- Reasonable, still expensive, but who cares...we're running out of time.

Photographer # 1

I have thought that this photographer was on the list of vendors Kingwood Country Club gave us. I was browsing through it and his name isn't listed as a contact. Since we always see this photgrapher's shop along the 1960, we just decided to stop by, take a look at their work, and check what packages they have for weddings. Chris Walter Photography was the name of their shop. Husband and wife operate the business and Mr. Walter looks exactly like Santa. Hohohoho! A funny thing here is that their shop was actually advertising that Santa will be available for pictures this coming December. I wonder who that would be.

Anyway, Chris showed us a variety of albums, styles, and add-ons. The couple were very professional and as I've said earlier, we were very much impressed with the albums they showed us. When we discussed prices and packages, I just took a big gulp because I couldn't believe it. It wasn't the rate I was expecting. I remember mentioning to Alan that we should scout for three more photographers before we made a decision. Alan knew that the was the going rate of photographers in the Kingwood area.

Rate: * *

Photographer # 2

Alan and I decided again to check out the packet Kingwood County Club gave us for contact numbers of their preferred photographers. First on the list was Charles Falk. I gave his office a call and made an appointment in the afternoon. His place was still in the Humble Area but boy was it hard to find. This guy mentioned he didn't need to advertise because he had an abundance of clients. Lucky him then.

Again, it's a husband and wife tandem. Wife is incharge of finding out the details of the wedding and the husband is the master photographer. My impression of Charles is that anyone who'd ever work with him will have a blast because he loves to talk. He kept conversing with Alan the entire time that at one point, I was a little distracted and semi-annoyed. Hello...I'm here for the pictures!

Looking at his work, it's quite obvious that he's been in the business for so long. This was another very professional encounter that made me an immediate fan of all the photographers who take pride in their work.

The downside of this meeting was when the wife gave us their quote, it was way above our budget. For someone who didn't have a budget at that time, I just had to put my foot down and claim that it's not within our budget. This was an obvious one, it wasn't them.

Rate: * * *

Photgrapher # 3

It was actually Mama Florist who recommended this photographer. His name is Steve Tarver. Alan and I actually met up with him in his house after Thanksgiving. We were greeted warmly by his entire family. He told us that taking photographs is a family business and his wife and daughter were part of it. Each one of them had a role to play.

Mama Tarver was incharge of the interviewing, gathering details, and showing off their work. Daughter Tarver was incharge of the business side of things and Papa Tarver was the head honcho.

Most of the information we needed was discussed to us by Daughter Tarver. Their packages were reasonable enough and there were so many freebies included. Since I was aware of the rates, any package they showed me didn't come as a shock anymore.

One thing nice about this family is that they made you feel at home right away. We were even able to insert some humor now and again. The family was also able to recommend some vendors for a band and a minister.

Towards the end of the meeting, Nicole (Daughter Tarver) surprised me with a goody bag. In that bag were coasters, a bottle of water, and some brochures about their business. This was way too good. I had a feeling that they would end up being our official photographers. (Hah! I knew I could be bought)

Thank you, Nicole ;)

Rate: *

I was right! By Sunday, November 25, 2007, we were able to finalize our decision and we decided to hire Steve Tarver as our official photographer. Alan and I can't wait to work with them for our engagement shoot and the wedding.

Wedding Escapade Series-MINISTER

Okay...what's Hugh Hefner doing on my blog? At one time, Alan and I thought that the minister we were dealing with was a Hugh Hefner look alike. Seriously!

Day 2
November 21, 2007

We had a meeting with the minister at around 10:30 and it was quite a long trip because he was from La Porte. La Porte was actually closer to Galveston than Kingwood.

In all honesty, I found the minister online and obviously since I don't know anyone in the Houston area I gave the website a shot and asked the fiance to contact them. I won't be putting their website as a link for I have actually mocked him a little bit by showing a Hugh Hefner photo. I am to blame here.

I knew that something was already fishy when I saw the town. I was like thinking, who would actually be conducting services over here. Then, as we neared the place, it looked so "un"holy because it turns out that the minister we were checking out was actually a real estate agent. Hmmm...it doesn't sound right at all. To make things worse, the office building was closed and fliers of all the houses the minister was selling were posted outside his office.

Suddenly, you see a man driving a shiny black top-down sports car waving to Alan. (Hmmm, my eyebrows arched again--this time higher!) Alan immediately tells me that the guy who was over speeding was him. No f$%&$"g way!!!!

Man in sports car tells us that the minister will be late but he is also another minister in the company. Something was very wrong here. The bright side of this was that the man in the sports car was very friendly. Told us about how he became a minister and how he got his certificate online. Okay, you decide...should we get him or not?

Minutes after, a man in dirty clothes, a cowboy hat, and a cowboy accent enters the room. Introduces himself as the minister and sits on his leather chair. We wanted to run there and then, but still being polite, we continued having a conversation with him. I couldn't help but notice that the minister actually had a tattoo on his right arm and a diamond earring on his left ear. Alan on the other hand noticed the clicking sound of his false teeth that bothered him to bits. Since he was already turned-off with the entire thing, all he heard was, "click, click,click".

(Add the diamond earring, cowboy hat, and lightnin' tattoo)

That's it! Who really needed signs? No way on earth would we be getting him or sports car guy to officiate our wedding. It felt like the solemnity and importance of our upcoming wedding would just be put to waste if they were handling it. It wasn't their personality that turned us off. It was more of how they presented themselves to their clients. Do you actually think that I'd be proud telling all of you that the Hugh Hefner look alike or the sports car guy officiated my wedding?

I felt so relieved leaving the place. Luckily, our official photographer (which I'll be blogging about next ) recommended someone who officiates weddings.

Now, we have a reason to make fun of our adventure. Totally hilarious.

May God understand why I wrote about this and may we be led to the right person who will handle our wedding ceremony perfectly.

***Note: This is not to ridicule the minister nor his company.

Wedding Escapade Series- FLOWERS

This is how I want my table to look like.

Alan and I have decided to use the holidays for planning, checking wedding vendors, and basically getting things accomplished.

The drive to Houston took 10ish hours. It wasn't that bad because we got to Kingwood at around 7:00. We were so tired so it was an early night for both of us.

The following day was work day for the fiance. Since I was stuck in the apartment I decided to make Chicken Pot Pie from scratch. In a semi-kinda-sorta way, I felt it was a success despite the dryness of the sauce (I left it in the oven while we went out for a breather--breather means like 4 hours).

Going back to the wedding, I tried Virginia's Bakery for a possible meeting to inquire about wedding cakes. Each call I made was answered by her very informative answering machine. Answering machine informed me that Virginia is booked til the third of December.
Finally, I got a hold of her. She seems warm enough and told me that we can have an appointment around January of next year. Okay...isn't she in demand? So here I go explaining my dilemma that I'm not from Houston. She did understand my concerns but I guess she told me, just in a nicer way, that I could have a meeting with her this January...still (didn't get my hint at all).

Taken in one of the flower shops

Day 1

November 20, 2007

I still had to figure out what this day was about. We were going downtown to check on flowers. Turns out that we made numerous side trips to; 1) my cupcake shops (which I'll be blogging about next); 2) my favorite, Wholefoods, and; 3) Borders for CD's, coffee, and a bridal magazine.

As we hit Main St., we saw a lot of shops that were selling their flowers wholesale. It was like the trading post of flowers. Prices were very reasonable and I was able to see the flowers I wanted. I learned that the orchids I wanted are called Phalaenopsis. They're white, pretty, simple,and elegant. The long stem holds around 3-4 orchids. Again, I was envisioning how it would look like on the table (check picture on top).

1st Shop,

They had the flowers but none of them understood what I wanted and they couldn't communicate with me because they didn't speak English. The orchid was sold for $25.00 but it was set in a pot. What I was trying to point out to them was that I needed these orchids to be in a vase, a glass vase to be exact. No one gave me an answer and just handed me a business card.

Phalaenopsis Orchid

2nd Shop--Nora's

Better people because we were able to communicate. All their orchids were in a refrigerated room and the Phalaenopsis came in several colors. Nora, the lady incharge, was saying that they don't know when these flowers are available so it would be better if we get back to them around April and check again. Price of orchid--$28.00 per stem. The shop was better than the first too.

3rd Shop

The rudest of them all just told us to "GO HOME"... literally! If we weren't buying his flowers today, then we don't have any business being there. So there...$%^k him and his store. We were actually plotting something very evil with Alan. How about throwing eggs and flour at his shop during the night and TP his entire store? Too juvenile eh?My frustration and blood pressure just went up BIG TIME. All I can say is that he lost a client who was willing to spend on flowers. So eventhough his shop had the bestlooking and biggest Phalaenopsis, he had an attitude of a miserable ogre. Btw, the price of the orchid was $26.00.

***
The following day, we found our Mama Florist, Connie. It just so happened that we were driving by and decided to check her shop out. Ironically, she turned out to be "our" florist. She welcomed us immediately and answered most of our questions. Her shop is a run-down trailer named the Flower Market. She told us that she started her business during the late 70's and knows Kingwood Country Club very well. I told her what I wanted and she gave me a quote that was actually more than okay. The package included everyone in my wedding party. Aside from that, she said that she would personally deliver the flowers, help with the bouquets, and pin the corsages and button holes. This would mean less work to do during the wedding.

Phew!

That's one task down, a lot more to go.

At the End of the Day

All clip art in Discovery School's Clip Art Gallery

createdby Mark A. Hicks, illustrator.

This is how I feel at the end of the day...aside from gaining 2 pounds in one month (this is a fact, btw). What more can I ask for? Please feel free to comment.

Gossip Girl: GLAMOROUS

Setting: A Sunday that I don't remember. Apartment. Mood: my usual hermit self.

Watched the reruns of the show,Gossip Girl ,and I loved the version of GLAMOROUS.

Rating of the song: *** (3 stars) for creativity and "flossy"ness!

Priceless Artwork

Diva

Pucker Lips

Daydreamer

Straight

The Art teacher in our school had a wonderful project for my students. Obviously it was to draw their teacher in the finest way possible. Everything my students did were priceless. If you look at it thoroughly, you will see how each child sees me through their eyes. Total coolness.

THE ONE

I've come across this blog written by a thirty year old woman. The blog started with the question," How do you know you've met the one?". Recently, I've been bombarded with negative things about married life including stories about being unfaithful due to not having strong feelings for the partner. Since I'm Miss In-love with Love, I'll try my very best to negate the negative things I'm hearing into a positive. Think math (a negative and a negative make it a positive)! I'm still not affected by all these negative things. I still have a positive outlook in love no matter how screwed up the stories I've been hearing are. To prove a point, I asked "the fiance" about this.

This is what he said:

"It's not about not having strong, crazy feelings for someone (this is a little bit edited but the gist is intact) or being inlove, it's about making a marriage work."

Then, while reading the blog I've mentioned earlier, the blogger asked her Mr. Right the same thing..."How do you know you've met the one?"

Here's what he said:

"There is no ONE. No one that exists out there in pure form, in spiritual perfection, in theoretical bliss. We make it the one every single day…in what we say to each other, in how we treat each other, in what we do together. On dog walks and in car rides, over dinners and through disagreements. So stop looking for some theoretical one out there in never-never land. And agree to make this the one, each and every day, with me."

Very well said. I rest my case.

iPod Touch

iPod Touch Techie or not...the gadget is pretty impressive. Check out the new iPod Touch. It comes in 8 GB and 16 GB. They say that it's the same as the iPhone sans the phone. Hmm...should I or should I not? Christmas is just around the corner and I know someone who'll be quite happy to have this.

Hint: Not me.

Naughty Lit'l Black Book-the edited version

It's November and I now feel the need for me to be seriously planning for the "Big Day". Months ago, I felt that I had everything covered just to realize that I've skipped a lot of the small details of the wedding. I've totally forgotten about the linen, I still haven't found my perfect invitation (although I have my Save the Date cards ready), I'm not sure if I want my ceremony to be outdoors or indoors, my wedding party isn't complete, I don't have an officiant, and I need to figure out if I should have a band ( if the budget permits) or not. Even my blog feels like a run-on sentence. It just is not wanting to end with so many things in my mind (still about the wedding).

So what have I been doing the entire time? Nothing. I told myself that I'd devote the weekends for my planning and I end up browsing through wedding websites, blogs, and other stuff that are totally not connected to what I am supposed to do. I've decided to take a couple of days off before the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays so I could go to Houston to atleast sort a few essential things out. Hopefully Alan and I could settle some stuff. The reason I think I'm in panic mode is because it's November. The month where it says on the Checklist that I should be done with the major Wedding Planning. Oh well...there goes my being organized. Flush it down the toilet.

I stumbled upon this website called the Little Black Book of Wedding Vendors and it shows a compilation of several wedding vendors across the US. It may be helpful for us in every aspect. I saw a nice link on wedding invites but the price is unbelievable. Again, it's way above my budget. Another nice link is Style Me Pretty. It also talks about wedding stuff . The site deals more on color palettes, designs, and decor.

Honestly, I love to browse through wedding blogs instead of just the plain wedding websites. It lets me hear how people feel about certain wedding things that they are endorsing. It's more personal. That's how blogging should be, right?

FYI: It's a Saturday. It's my "Think about the Wedding" day.

Juicy!

Juicy Couture Small Velour Bag

Juicy Couture Baby Fluffy Satchel

Great!!! I have two dream bags at the moment. I love the funkiness of Juicy Couture. The pink bag is so cute that it makes me feel like Elle of "Legally Blonde" or some kid with her glittery lip gloss and candy. With all the people having the same designer bags, I feel that there are so many designers that have pretty styles who are under-rated. Have you ever wondered why these designers keep a very low profile and the popular ones are just screaming with their logos? Right... as if i really don't know the answer. Oh and seriously...are the designs really utterly amazing or is it just a matter of perspective? Ponder...ponder...ponder!