30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 6

Day 6 - A picture of something that makes you happy.

Circa 2006: at the beginning of graduate school....Gulf Shores, AL

Ahhh...the joys of grad school...when you're still young and naive....and you have no idea how stressful/amount of work you're going to do.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 5

Day 5 - Your siblings.

A picture from the past.....

 A pic from now...

Introducing my little brother, Jonathan. We have been through so much together in the past 22 years together. When we were younger, we did not get along. I remember my dad sitting down with us saying that one day we would only have each other and we needed to learn how to get along. After I went off to college, things got better and we have been the best of friends ever since.


Love you little bro :)

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 4

Day 4 - Your parents.

Here are my parents during Father's Day Festivities.

Some fun facts:
-My parents met on a blind date.
-They the perfect example of how opposites attract.
-They have been married for over 30 years.
-My parents had two kids....one you've met (me) and one you'll meet tomorrow (my brother).

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 3

Day 3 - Your first love.

Growing up I had a few first loves....mostly blonds ;)

Some of you all may remember this guy from Casper or Little Giants...

Devin Sawa 

(Back in the day, I would've thought this was an awesome pic of him)

Of course, I didn't just have one first love....

Before he was swooned over in The Notebook and looked like this:

 I was swooning over this unknown actor, who I remembered looking more like this:

Does anyone remember a show that came on about a school on a cruise boat? I can't remember the name of it, but that is the show that first introduced me to Ryan Gosling. I have been a fan every since....

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 2

Day 2 - Meaning behind your blog name.

 Snapshots of My Life 

I mean, I feel like it's pretty straight forward.  This blog is suppose to give a little snapshot into my everyday life.

When I googled "Snapshots" this is one of the pics that came up....ENJOY!

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 1

Day 1: Introduce yourself, recent pic, and 15 interesting facts.

Hello Everyone!

I'm Sarah.

This was taken at Kacey's birthday party 2 weekends ago.

Just the Facts:

1. I just bought a house and will be closing on it in a month (YAY).

2. My favorite shows are comedies. The Office. Modern Family. How I Met Your Mother. 

3. I LOVE to wear dresses.

4. I'm a natural blond.

5. I love to cook and bake. 

6. I'm known for my cupcakes, guacamole, chicken dip, along with other yummy foods.

7. I love the beach. Wishing I could be there right now.

8. I'm a very neat person.

9. I love taking pictures. Even despite my friends groaning when I take out my camera.

10. I'm obsessed with looking at photography websites.

11. I have met/been in close contact with many celebrities, including Rich from Big and Rich, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Tomlinson, Montgomery Gentry, Megan from Megan wants a Millionaire, and have rode on an airplane with 30+ WWE Next wrestlers. (True Story!)

12. I love all kinds of music, including rap and r&b.

13. I'm from Tennessee.

14. I have had the weirdest school mascots....the Pride, Camels, and Blue Raider. (Really? Could I at least have one normal one?)

15. I LOVE Asian Food! Chinese, Japanese, Sushi, Thai, Vietnamese, etc I love all/most food.

30 day blog challenge....

I decided to do the 30 Day Blog Challenge for you guys to get to know me a little bit, ENJOY!

Here are the 30 Day Blog Challenges:

Day 1 - Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts.
Day 2 - Meaning behind your blog name.
Day 3 - Your first love.
Day 4 - Your parents.
Day 5 - Your siblings.
Day 6 - A picture of something that makes you happy.
Day 7 - Favorite movies.
Day 8 - A place you've traveled to.
Day 9 - A picture of your friends.
Day 10 - Something you're afraid of.
Day 11 - Favorite TV shows.
Day 12 - What you believe.
Day 13 - Goals
Day 14 - A picture you love.
Day 15 - Bible Verse.
Day 16 - Dream House.
Day 17 - Something you're looking forward to.
Day 18 - Something you regret.
Day 19 - Something you miss.
Day 20 - Nicknames.
Day 21 - A picture of yourself.
Day 22 - Favorite city.
Day 23 - Favorite vacation.
Day 24 - Something you've learned.
Day 25 - Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs.
Day 26 - Picture of your family.
Day 27 - Pets.
Day 28 - Something that stresses you out.
Day 29 - Three wishes.
Day 30 - A picture.

Birfdays...

Here's some highlights from the birthdays I've been celebrating the past 2 weekends....

 Yummy sushi.....

 Kisses with the birthday girl...

 Lots of dancing....

 Raffaldini vineyards...

 More kisses...

Beautiful!

April's request....Lemon Dairy-Free Cupcakes

In my group of friends, I am known for making cupcakes. I try to make cupcakes for each of my close friends birthdays, but it can get very overwhelming. However, April had requested cupcakes be made...and I very well couldn't say no. April can not eat dairy, so I went on a quest to make my very first Dairy-Free Cupcakes.

I thought that lemon would be very refreshing and I knew that April liked lemon.They turned out amazing and you couldn't tell they were dairy free! Here's the recipe:

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened plain soymilk
• 3 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice (I used pre-squeezed juice)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 T. and 1 t. baking powder
• ¾ t. salt
• 2 T. fresh lemon zest
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) soy margarine (I used Blue Bonnet Light margarine)
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ cup applesauce
• 4 large eggs 

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) dairy-free soy margarine, softened (I used Blue Bonnet Light margarine)
• 1 lb. confectioners' sugar (I ended up using more than this...about 1.5 lb)
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 2 T. cold soy milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the soymilk and lemon juice and set aside.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.
3. In another bowl, using an electric hand mixer at a medium speed setting, cream together the soy margarine and sugar until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs and beat until incorporated. Switch down the speed to low and add in half of the dry ingredients, beating until combined, followed by the soymilk mixture and apple sauce. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake cups and bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat the dairy-free soy margarine with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Add in the remaining ingredients, beating for about 2 minutes on a medium speed setting until the mixture resembles a glaze. Chill slightly before using.

Adaptive from About.com

Tons of birthdays....

April brings showers.....

...but it also brings these lovely ladies' birthdays...

Ashley and Kacey....

April....

and Sonya (on far left).

What does this mean? Lots of cupcakes, hair curling, and other crafts....

Stay tuned for posts about all the birthday activities!

Carrot Cupcakesssss

For those of you who know me, I love making cupcakes. In fact, I try to make cupcakes for my friend's birthday when it comes around and when I actually have time to slave over them. My dad's birthday was last month, but I didn't get to celebrate it with him until last weekend.

If you know me, you'll also know that I LOVE Annie's Eats blog...LOVE LOVE LOVE!! I naturally went to her website and made the cupcakes and they were AMAZING! I did change one thing though. I didn't shred my own carrots, I bought the already shredded carrots (i <3 short cuts). Other than that, I followed the same recipe. Annie never lets me down. Here's the link (I forgot to take a picture!!)....

Carrot Cupcake

Enjoy!

Giveaway @ Words by Katie

My friend, Katie is having an AMAZING giveaway on her blog....

Go check it out!!

Words by Katie Giveaway

Dear.....

Dear Reese Witherspoon,

I am glad that you got married this weekend, however I think my invite got lost in the mail. Congrats!!
 -Sarah

britney spears on gma

Dear Britney,

Seriously, what has happened to you?? You used to be a phenomenal dancer and now...NOW...not so much. Please work with your trainers/choreographers and get back to dancing! I mean...did you see the amazingness of the clips at the beginning??
-Sarah

Dear Christina, Xtina, whoever you are...

Seriously. Let's not be a hot mess. I know (I know) you are divorced now and you're out having fun, which is really great. However, there's a way to not be a hot mess about it. Getting arrested, leaking nude picture, etc...not cool. I mean next you'll be bringing back the a$$-less chaps from the dirrty days. Not something that should come back Xtina.
-Sarah

Music Obsession...

So for those of you who do not know me, I love music. On top of my love for music, I usually get obsessed with certain songs and to the dismay of my poor roommate (sorry Em)....I listen to the songs over and over (and over and over) again. So what songs can I not get sick of right now....well here they are :)

Rolling in the Deep

~Adele

Uncharted

~Sara Bareilles

Moment 4 Life

~Nikki Minaj

Tonight I'm Loving You

~Enrique Iglesia

What are YOU listening to?

Things I am loving this week....

NARS blush in Orgasm...

NARS Sheer Matte Makeup....

Vanilla Rooibos...

HIMYM.....

 IKEA rug for my future living room (insert lots of screams and dancing)....

and my vintage bread box.


What are YOU loving this week???

The obsession has started...

Now that I have come to terms with my blog reading obsession, I have decided to write my own blog. Some of you remember "The 62 Days of Sarah" blog from last summer that chronicled my life last summer.

this.

blog.

is.

different.

This blog is not just about what I'm doing, but also about my thoughts and tips about every day life.

For those who do not know me, I am Sarah. You can usually spot me as the girl with the blond hair wearing bright colors. I'm a Tennessee-born, North Carolina-bred 20-something. I enjoy cheering for NCSU and UT (University of Tennessee, not to be confused with other UT schools). I went to a small undergrad (Campbell University) and a large graduate school (Middle Tennessee State University). My area of specialty is psychology.

I love my family, friends (both new and old), all things girlie, the colors pink and purple, traveling, beaches, being with my FABULOUS girls, local restaurants, autumn, working out, being outside, music, laughing, cooking, baking, hiking, photography, and dancing (preferably booty dancing). My blog will probably cover all, if not more, of these topics.

I hope you will find my blog to be funny, straight forward (my friends say I shoot straight from the hip), and somewhat helpful at times....those are my intents at least.

and now the blogging has begun....