RedVelvet Lifestyle

Kahlua Truffle Mix:

Once the cupcakes are cooled, let's assemble.

You can cut out the center of the cupcake, or I've found it just as easy to take something cylindrical, like a end of round flatware, or like those old liquid medicine tubes. Or a test tube. If you're like me and have them.

In the center push down until you hit the bottom. Then, take your truffle mix from the fridge, it should still be pretty playable, but cool to the touch. Pipe these in the center of the cupcakes.

Once you have all of them piped, place the cupcakes back in the fridge for about 15 minutes while you make your ganache to firm up. 

Now, this is literally so easy. Wisk together voila. I added more than the 4 tbsp to be honest, but I wanted a punch of the alcohol.

Dip the cupcakes in the ganache, and put back in the fridge while you make the marshmallow frosting (recipe here).

If there's one thing that hasn't quite hit me yet, it's that I'm a full fledged adult. An adult that's about to get married, buy a house, and have children.

Like the type of adult you dreamt of being as a kid, and now that it's here - I'm not too sure about it.

I miss the days of going to school, coming home to snacks and tv, playing with my friends, and going to sleep, in order to wake up and do it again. What was I thinking trying to be an adult?

I guess the biggest thing about being an adult is keeping track of finances. Ugh. That is a task all on its own. I've been generally ok with budgeting, I've managed to create a lifestyle in conjunction with my career that allows me to live comfortbly - however, with a home in the very near future, and kids about two years away, I need to start saving where ever I can, and be able to knowledgeably speak about my finances, and my current state of affairs. To be able to know I wont be paycheck to paycheck with the added daunting horror of propery taxes.

So, I decided to get real about this, and create a budget binder. I can't tell you the number of failed organizational binders and processes I've created in the past, but I've never quite had a fire under my tush like I do now. My goal: keep up with it and learn where I can cut and save, learn where I can start putting expenses, learn how I can pay certain loans off earlier than expected. 

After hours and hours and hourssss of research on budget binders, pintersting printables, watching youtubes on planning and budgeting, I decided to take it in to my own hands.

I never found a printable that I was just like Damn, that's the one. So, here I am creating a spreadsheet to use. I've also created it to share with you, in hopes this helps you with your future budgeting endeavors.

Included is a cover, yearly overview, bill checklist, and monthly budget. Make sure you print out twelve of the monthly budget ones! I'm still tweaking my personal one, so I'll update as soon as it's complete. I'm also working on a "deluxe" budget binder. Look forward to that!

It's that time of year, the wonderful time where even though work can't be more stressful, you seem to be full of cheer at the smell of fresh pine and home made goods. 

The Holidays.

There's something comforting about counting down to an event. I am the master of paper chains. I've had to severly limit my chain making now that I'm considered an "adult". 

So, the holidays present me with the second best alternative - the Advent Calendar.

We have the premade kind, you know, the ones we all grew up with but the chocolate tastes like metal? Yeah. That one. I decided that wasn't enough, that I wanted a reason to look forward to each day before Christmas. I wanted to do something memorable, something that could be the focal point of our days and bring me and the fiancé closer together. So I decided to do something about it.

And thus was born the couple's activity advent calendar. 

Here's what you'll need:

Scrapbook Paper

Numbers (I had paper ones, came in the most amazing scrapbook paper package)

Tape

Cutter

Candy

Clothes Pins

Twine

Paper Lunch Sacks

Ribbon

To start, decide what activities you want in your advent calendar. Here's a few ideas from mine:

Bake (there's a plethora of these in mine)

Watch someone's favorite holiday movie/cartoon

Go see lights

Hot Chocolate Night

Send holiday cards

Geocache (we love this)

Play a holiday game

Bake Santa Cookies

Buy Snowballs (or if you live in a cold climate - get yours free!)

Once you have your supplies and ideas - begin construction. I used medium size clothes pins, so I trimmed about 4 inches off the top of the bags. From here, I took my numbers, framed them, and placed them on the front. 

I then wrote all of my daily activities of scrapbook paper and placed one in each corresponding bag with two pieces of candy (one for me, one for him) and folded it over and sealed with ribbon.

Once I had all of these prepared, I took two pieces of twine, about 10 foot each, and placed them on the wall. I used thumbtacks and tied it around before putting in the wall.

I then used the clothes pins and put each one on the twine. I had days 1-12 on the top row, and 13-25 on the bottom. I rounded it all out with a Merry Christmas sign in the top center.

 Ta-Da!

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, etc :)

Happy Holidays!

xoxo

Meagan