Formal Half Up Long Curly Hairstyle

I found another one of those hairstyles WITHOUT INSTRUCTIONS. I think it looks interesting, so I'm willing to give it a try.

Ok, so I had to study the picture a little bit. It looks like a section of hair is pinned at the crown all bumpit style, and a section from each side near the face is pinned next to the creepy bumpit thing.

First, I parted the hair in half from ear to ear and pinned the back half to keep it out of the way.

Then I separated the side and front sections and clipped them.

In the picture, it looks like the roots are "teased". Well, I don't do that. I just twisted the hair and pushed it forward a little. My hair is poofy enough by itself. No teasing necessary. It took at least ten pins before I felt like the hair wouldn't fall down.

I brushed back each side section and attempted to pin them in place. The pins didn't work, so I used a little clip for each side.

Then I let the bangs out and released the back section from the clip. I really liked the way it looked, in spite of the time and all the pins. I should have set a timer so I would know exactly how long it took. The web site says to allow at least two hours for hot rollers and teasing and spraying and pinning and whatnot. Yeah, I'm not doing all that. I don't think I spent more than 15 minutes, and that was only because I was figuring out how to do it.

Style: Updo and Down

I really wanted to try this style, but it totally wouldn't work. I sure could have used some instructions, more than what kinds of pins or clips to use. I hate sites that just show the style and don't give instructions.

Like always, I had to save a section of hair from the front to be pinned back later. In the style picture, there appears to be some hair left out in the back, so I did that, too.

I tried the banana clip multiple times, but it just kept popping open. I guess I have too much hair or too thick hair for those things. Now I know. Instead, I made two ponytails, one at the crown and one in the middle. From each ponytail, I took two small pieces of hair, twisted them and pinned them into the ponytail randomly.

It really just looks like half up half down.

I decided not to pin back that front section. I guess I got lazy.

Yeah, definitely a failure. It would have been much easier with a banana clip. I could have used hair pins, but I don't have time to stick 40 pins in my hair and then take them out before I sleep. That's just ridiculous.

Birthday Cupcakes!

I knew I would be baking cupcakes for my birthday, but I've been feeling a need to make cupcakes with filling. I don't know why. So I found one recipe with the filling added after the cupcakes are baked and another recipe with the filling baked into the cupcakes. I've never done it either way before, so, yes, there were issues.

The recipe said to use cake mix. Alright, I'm not arguing, Plus I was a little pressed for time with the laundry and birthday dinner and dentist.

Here I go again adding too much batter to the cups. This is probably going to backfire.

Yep, they're too big. Also, they're a little burned on the part that's touching the pan. I just put extra frosting there and hoped no one would notice. That's probably because I baked them at 400 for 15 minutes so they would be done faster.

I was supposed to have two full pans, but when I made the first batch too big, I messed up the yield.

Much better size. I'll try to remember to use less batter next time.

I cut a little pyramid out of the top of each muffin and then cut off the pointy part to make more space for filling.

I went to Target for supplies, and they didn't have any lemon instant pudding. I thought about using another flavor, like vanilla or chocolate, but I thought that would be too weird.

There's about 1.5 teaspoons of pudding in each cupcake.

For the chocolate cupcakes, I had to make the cream cheese frosting separately. I didn't read the directions very carefully, so I mixed the ingredients in the wrong order.

I was supposed to cream the cheese and sugar together, whatever that means. Maybe I'll look it up later. Instead, I mixed the sugar, egg and chocolate chips.

It was a little difficult mixing the cream cheese into the chocolate chip mixture. I used neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese, just because I've never used it before. That maybe have been a mistake.

According to the instructions, the filling should be on top of the cupcake batter. Well, that sounds more like topping than filling. I was a little worried, but after I took them out of the oven, some of the "filling" started to sink into the cupcakes. They looked weird, but the frosting took care of that.

I used cream cheese frosting for the chocolate cupcakes and lemon frosting for the lemon cupcakes. Everyone really loved them, but I didn't actually eat one myself. Sometimes after I bake something, I don't feel like eating it. Is that weird? Probably. I'm thinking maybe I'll do scones next.

It's My Birthday! Or It Was....

My birthday was on Sunday, September 18th, and I am now super old. Originally, I didn't have any plans. I usually celebrate with my friend whose birthday is the 15th, but we're too far apart and too busy for that now. The only thing I scheduled was a dentist appointment. Yes, I realize getting fillings on my birthday is really messed up. In addition, I was desperately in need of a trip to the laundromat. Yeah, laundry on my birthday. Awesome. Also, I was determined to make cupcakes. Cupcakes with filling. Luckily, my friend living in New Brunswick was up for a birthday dinner with me, so I actually got a chance to celebrate.

After my dentist appointment (and 3 fillings), I couldn't feel my entire lower right jaw. I'm amazed that I could smile straight. Anesthesia is some really great stuff. One of my coworkers called to wish me a happy birthday right after I took this picture, and it was pretty hilarious when I tried to say thank you.

Of course, I had to put on my tiara to go out to dinner. I always wear a tiara on my birthday. Usually people ask if it's my birthday, but no one did this time. I guess tiaras are normal in NYC? I've definitely seen stranger things.

KOREAN FOOD!!! Kunjip on 32nd St between 5th & 6th Aves. I don't remember what this stuff is called, but it was really good. It's rice and vegetables with scallops, clams and little octopus thingies and a fried egg. It's the type of dish with the hot bowl and it's still sizzling when they bring it to the table. Yeah, I burned my tongue multiple times.

Pan-fried rice cake? My friend really wanted me to try it, and I'm glad I did. It was pretty tasty. When I took the first bite, I chewed it for about a minute while making strange faces trying to process the flavor. I'm assuming the faces were strange because my friend was cracking up at me.

Soup with ox bones? I think that's what the menu said. It may have had ox blood, too. Yeah, maybe I'll try this next time. Maybe not. My friend had this one all to herself. She couldn't decided between ox blood or ox bones, so I encouraged her to get both while inwardly cringing.

For me, the best part of Korean food is all the little appetizer plates. Fish cake is  my favorite, but they didn't give us that one. I felt shafted. I really liked the sweet dark-colored beans on the left side, and the radishes and sprouts were good, too.

The menu said SakSak Orange. Ok.... I had no idea what it was, but I wanted it. I read the can and thought "wtf is sac?!" It turned out to be the little jelly thingies in some Asian drinks. I've only had it in white grape, which is awesome, definitely better than the orange.

After a little walking around the Herald Square area to digest the food, we needed to have dessert. On the way to dinner earlier in the evening, we passed a pastry shop called Koryogang (I think) and decided to go back for dessert. Of course, before the pastry shop, we had to stop in the "adult bookstore" on 33rd St, but they didn't have anything good. Ok, I'm not into anything weird; I just like their thigh-high tights.

My friend had this little square chocolate mousse cake. I should have tasted it, but it was after midnight and I don't exactly think straight when I'm tired.

I chose this little round cake because it had a plastic strip with music notes wrapped around it. I'm not even sure what it was, but it sure was tasty.

Yeah, tasty. At that particular pastry shop, you can't sit at the tables unless you order drinks. We didn't want drinks, so we just went to Penn Station to eat and wait for my friend's train, which came at 1:22 AM.

Since it's gotten chilly outside, I decided to break out the knee-high boots for the first time this season. I love these boots and I wear them as often as possible, usually with tights and a miniskirt but sometimes with jeans.

Overall, I think it was a pretty good birthday. No drinking, clubbing or partying, but I'm not really into those things. At least I had cake and a tiara and Korean food and awesome shoes. Those things make any day special.

Mila Kunis: Low Undone Bun

This is actually the second time I've done this style, but I forgot to take pictures the first time. This is another one of my journeys into the land of hairpins. They really are amazing.

1st step: ponytail. I found that the short hairs in the front can actually reach a ponytail if it's high enough. However, this ponytail is low, and I hate the brushed-straight-back look, so I'm gonna pin it to the side.

Take small pieces of hair, twist them, and pin the ends into the base of the ponytail. I don't even know how many pieces I used. Maybe ten?

Oh hey, red streak! That's not dye. That's just too much time in the sun. Natural highlights and whatnot.

Mmm cinnamon roll hair. I didn't make it messy like the directions say. There's no point in trying that unless my hair is straightened and dry. That's probably why it looks drastically different from the Mila Kunis picture, but I like the way it turned out. With all the pieces of hair twisted around, it looks a lot more complicated than it is, and it feels really cool. I like to keep touching it all day long.

Mini Pies!

One of my coworkers was recently promoted to assistant manager, so I asked him what he wanted me to bake for his promotion party. He said blueberry pie. I've never made that, but I'll try anything once. The party turned out to be on a Saturday night at a club, so I waited until Monday to bring the pie. I found a bunch of recipes for mini pies, but I decided on this one. I didn't want to deal with making the crust, filling AND topping ALL FROM SCRATCH.

I don't know why, but the first step is making the topping. Ok. This is the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour mixed together.

I don't have a pastry blender, but I'll probably get one because cutting up butter is very tedious. I'll be honest. I had to Google "how to cut in butter".

Ok, it's supposed to be crumbly, but it isn't. I suspect that cutting up the butter first wasn't such a good idea. Also, I didn't add nuts, and I probably mixed it too much.

Biscuit halves flattened to a 4-inch diameter. I used the top of a grits container to size them because it was the first 4-inch circle I found. The hard thing is getting them to stay stretched out. They started shrinking as soon as I put them in the muffin pan. These biscuits are Grands Homestyle. I know the recommendation was for the flaky kind, but the grocery store's inventory was kinda depleted.

Canned blueberry pie filling. From a can. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. This picture shows 2 tablespoons in each crust. That's actually too much because blueberry filling tends to bubble out.

Ok, this is definitely not pretty. The filling is oozing out and the topping doesn't cover the pie, BUT the taste was unaffected. I'll definitely be doing another batch of blueberry anyway.

This is my second attempt at topping. I took the butter straight from the fridge instead of letting it sit out and dropped the whole stick into the topping mixture. Then I used 2 knives to cut it up. Much better results and much faster!

This is my batch of apple pies. I used the spiced apple pie filling that was next to the blueberry pie filling in the baking aisle. The apples were sliced, so I had to cut them up into little cubes. I used 2 tablespoons of cubes. I wasn't worried about the filling spilling out because there wasn't much sauce.

Here's my second batch of blueberry. I only used 1.5 tablespoons of filling this time, but it still oozed out. I think it's ok because the topping is better in this batch.

Yeah, these are definitely a LOT prettier.

Here's my finished product. I took 16 blueberry and 16 apple to work with me. That should have been enough for everyone who wanted one to get one, but a bunch of people had two. Too bad I'm too lazy to carry more than two containers during my 75-minute commute. I'll consider bringing extras (of whatever I make) this Monday.