It's My Birthday [& A Giveaway]

Source: sweetapolita.com via Angela on Pinterest

Today is my 28th birthday!

I can't believe this is my fourth year celebrating

my birthday with all of my wonderful blog readers!

Thank you to each and every one of you,

that takes the time to comment on my posts

and those of you that "lurk" in the shadows!

All of you are so special to me!

Let's start celebrating
and have a giveaway!

I'll select one comment {at random}

to receive a pair of
Kendra Scott 
Elle Earrings 

in the color of her choice!

Tiny Elle, the sister of the legendary Danielle Earring, 

adds a statement of color in a dainty yet bold way. 

This bitty bauble is a sure show stopper. 

Half the size, half the weight, just as gorgeous.

a small example of the colors offered! 

Please leave ONE comment for EACH thing you do!

1. Share your favorite birthday memory.

2. Let me know you follow or are a new follower.

3. Tell me what color earrings you would choose if you win.

4. Tweet about my giveaway and include @sweetteadiaries in the tweet. 

Come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did this.

5. Follow me on Instagram! I can be found by searching for Angela Lynn OR sweetteadiaries. 

Come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did this.

6. Blog about my giveaway on your own blog.
Leave the link in a comment letting me know you did this.

There are a total of 6 possible entries per person.

Please enter by next Wednesday, May 2.

Again, thank you for celebrating my birthday with me! Good luck, and remember:

[DISCLAIMER: Kendra Scott is not sponsoring this giveaway, and I will be paying for the winner's earrings with my own money.]

News!

Warning: Long post and no pictures!!

Hi readers and friends!

Today, I'd thought I'd share with everyone what I've been alluding to over the last couple of months (see here & here). Thanks for hanging around even when my posting was sparse. I appreciate every single one of you!

So let's get to it...

In the last month [& a halfish] Chris and I have made a big, life changing choice. We made it in the hopes that one day we will be able to have the future that both of us envision. Marriage, family, and our own home are all things that we want, but are unattainable in our current situation. I'm sure most of you know that living in California is very expensive. If you are not from here, it may shock you to hear that Chris & I pay $1,350 a month for a one bedroom, one bathroom, 623 square foot space...in an awful neighborhood. Obviously, this is crazy! Factor in gas [currently $4.21/gallon], food [a gallon of milk is around $4], and utility bills and we're lucky if we have two pennies left to rub together. I know that there are much more expensive places to live, but for our current situation, this one isn't working for us.

We have always talked about moving somewhere together, but were never able to agree on a place. One of the most important things to me is moving closer to my family, especially when we decide to have a family of our own. I want my children to grow up knowing their grandparents and cousins. I've never been shy about letting Chris know that at some point, we'd have to move. I was patient, and found it kind of worked itself out in the end. Chris ended up coming to the conclusion on his own and I'm so grateful for that. Otherwise, it would always be in the back of my mind if I felt I was forcing him to do something he didn't want to do.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that we are moving to Atlanta at the end of the month! Who knows if this will be our permanent destination, but it puts us much closer to our families and friends.

Oh, and I QUIT MY JOB! I decided that quitting my job had a lot more pro's than con's. I understand that it is a tough job market and unemployment is really high. However, I also know that my job was not enough reason to stay in the situation I was in. I actually feel really happy knowing that I made a change for myself and even though it's scary, it's what is best for me.

There's the story, straight from the source! And now, we're all on the same page. Thank you so much for reading my blog today. I'd love to hear from anyone who has any road trip tips [we're taking the I-40 back with planned stops in the following cities: Flagstaff, Sedona, Albuquerque, OKC, Memphis, and Nashville]. Or if you just want to wish us luck or give us advice, I'd appreciate that too!

PS - Birthday giveaway will be posted on Wednesday...I'm so excited!

iPad [original post was deleted] & Weekend Recap

I had a post up on Saturday night, but deleted it by accident when I was messing around with the BlogPress application. Sorry if you tried to go to the post and weren't successful. Basically, I was just telling all of you that my Mom and Dad surprised me with an iPad (YAY!) for my birthday!

And I'm in love! I thought it might just be like a larger version of my iPhone, but really, it's so much better. One of my favorite apps so far is called Air Video. You can stream any video you have on your computer to the iPad. So fun!

Over the weekend, Chris & I put together this collage (made using the free Pic Collage app) of us playing with the iPad and showing off all of the features. It's kind of a joke and we just had fun with it. I sent it to my parents so they could see how happy we were with my new present!

And now, all of you know what I did the ENTIRE weekend. Oh, and I watched Beauty and the Beast for the first time (that I can remember). As a child, I really did refuse to watch many of the Disney movies. I stuck with the basics - Peter Pan and Aladdin...on repeat. Over and over. And A Very Brady Sequel, starring the Brady Bunch. I'm not kidding. Those were the three movies I watched ALL THE TIME.

Anyway, back to my birthday...I can't believe I'm going to be 28! I have a really exciting giveaway planned for next week as a way to say thank you to all of my fabulous readers! I think y'all will really like it. Stay tuned [giveaway will be posted on Wednesday]!

Oops - Edited to Add: Giveaway will be posted NEXT WEDNESDAY...not tomorrow.

Happy Spring!

Oopsie, forgot to post this on Friday!

It's kind of an unspoken tradition that I bring some sort of baked treat to work every holiday. People expect it! Not one to disappoint, I knew that I wanted to go big or go home this time. I basically copied this cake that I found on Pinterest. I loved the idea of the ombre look with the inside layers and mirroring that in the shades of the frosting. A lot of people have done this cake (in all sorts of shades) so I'm in no way original, but I take comfort in knowing that at least I did something that my co-workers probably haven't seen before! They're an easily impressed bunch so even though my cake was in no way close to as beautiful as the original, they were still so excited to see it and of course, eat it! My recipe and adaptations to the original can be found below.

The original inspiration had piped roses on the outside, but that was an utter disaster for me. So I had to improvise and kind of blend the different shades of frosting together instead.

I hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Cake (I doubled this recipe for 4 layers):
1 box Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix
Sub milk for the water
Sub melted butter for the oil
3 eggs

Notes: I used 8 inch round cake pans for the layers. For the colors, I used 1 drop of pink gel food coloring for the lightest layer and added 2 more drops for each additional layer. I also made these in advance, let them cool, then wrapped them in 2 layers of plastic wrap and froze them. When I was ready to assemble, I removed the layers from the freezer, and let them thaw for 20 minutes or so before evening the layers out and putting on the cake crumb frosting layer.

Frosting (again, I doubled the original recipe):
White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Filling (between the 2nd and 3rd layers):
Trader Joe's Lemon Curd

Thursday's Thoughts

I'm thankful for Thursday's because it allows me to put all of my random thoughts together and call it a blog post!

• I have tomorrow off of work for the spring holiday! I'm really looking forward to a 3 day weekend!

• I made a fun cake for Easter and brought it into work today. Here is a sneak peek of the outside! I'll put up more pictures and the recipe I used tomorrow.

• I also bought plastic eggs and filled them with candy and a little note that said "Happy Spring!" and left them on my co-worker's desks. It looked like the Easter Bunny made a stop at our office!

edited using Instagram & pixlr-o-matic

• I read that Instagram is now available for Android users! I love this photo app, and use it all of the time. I also like being able to follow people and see what new pictures they are posting. If you have the app, come follow me at sweetteadiaries!

• My birthday is this month! 2 1/2 weeks away, actually. I have so much other stuff on my plate that I haven't really thought about it. I'm usually obsessed! Oh well, all the things that are happening are like gifts to me so I will have a very blessed birthday, even if I don't have the presents and fancy dinners to show for it.

• One of my favorite shows is Dance Moms. That being said, I'm so happy that the season is on a break for now. I am so tired of Abby berating all of the girls week after week (except Maddie) and I'm tired of the Mom's pointless fighting. I'm also sick of Cathy and wish the show would stop giving her airtime. This isn't a show about her or her studio so why is she constantly there? Also, I have no desire to watch Dance Moms: Miami.

• I don't keep track of my stats on this blog. I don't want to make money or find out how people come across my blog. It's just not important to me! But I logged into my dashboard to write this post, and saw I have had 111,111 pageviews - I think it might be lucky with all the 1's so I snapped a picture!

• This video will make you cry - at first because it's sad, but then again because it's so happy! If this doesn't make you tear up, I'm pretty sure you aren't human. Get the Kleenex ready!

That's it for today! I honestly can't believe that April is here and it's already time to celebrate Easter. Check back tomorrow for my Easter cake recipe and details!