My early 20s were a time of transition for me. I graduated from college on the East Coast, drove back to California with one of my high school friends and then decided to turn around and move back to Boston in order to give my now ex-boyfriend another shot. I settled in to life in Boston, found a job in corporate retail that I absolutely LOVED, and spent time with my college friends. About a year later I realized that the relationship I had moved back for wasn't going anywhere and that Boston wasn't my home so I quit my wonderful job, said goodbye to my college friends and packed my bags once again. This time I headed back across the country with my brother in my overloaded volkswagon jetta.
{Mount Rushmore seen on Road Trip #2 - August 2008)
This move was much more exciting than the last because I was moving closer to family, friends, and a pending relationship. We made the trip from New York to San Francisco in 5 short days and once home I dropped off my bags, gave my mom a kiss and headed to San Francisco to visit this new guy. All my friends and family thought we were crazy, moving in together on the first date, adopting a dog in the first 3 months, and taking our first big trip (to Costa Rica) before we had even introduced each other to our parents. Fortunately we weren't crazy and the man I moved home for is now the man I am going to marry. Our love hasn't been conventional but it fits us perfectly and I couldn't be more excited to spend the rest of my life with him.
{Ian, Sierra and I at the beach - October 2008}
After moving to San Francisco I found another job in corporate retail but the love I once had for the industry was gone and the job I found wasn't what I was hoping for. Despite disliking my job I was good at it and as I received promotions and recognition it became even more difficult to quit. It took me two years to finally gather the courage to stop moving up and focus on getting out. I put my career on hold to figure out what exactly would make me happy. I had what every 20 something girl wants; a well paying job, a fabulous fiance, and a beautiful one bedroom apartment, and yet nothing seemed to matter because my days were filled with resentment towards the very place that was paying my rent. Fortunately this job led me to start a blog, to bake for fun and eventually, with the encouragement of my boyfriend (now fiance), I turned my love of baking into a full time endeavor. I quit my job to attend pastry school and while I worried what my parent's might think or how I would pay my bills I realized that this was a change I had to make for myself. Pastry school was a huge blessing and after one week of unemployment my best friend offered me a part time job that would allow me to pay my bills and continue to follow my pastry dreams. Life isn't always what you expect but if you put your mind to it and follow your heart it has ways of working out for the better.
{Pastry School Party -December 2010}
So now as I embrace my 26th birthday and say goodbye to my early 20s I get to look forward to my wedding, hopefully opening my own pastry business, and most importantly spending the rest of my 20s moving forward instead of standing still. I hope that my story inspires you to follow your heart and do what you truly love because life is too short to be anything but HAPPY!
I have always loved strawberries and I love baking with fresh ingredients so when my coworker challenged me to bake an all strawberry cupcake I was quite excited. I bought fresh strawberries from a fruit stand in Sonoma and then adapted a vanilla cupcake recipe by adding fresh strawberries and a fresh strawberry puree. I then added some more strawberries and strawberry puree to my buttercream and the final result was very tasty...or so I've been told since I gave up unnecessary sweets at the 3 month mark.
Now that all the fun wedding stuff has been checked off my list I find myself occupied with all the things I had been putting off for the past 8 months. I spent most of today writing wedding vows and organizing our ceremony. Ian and I have opted to write our own vows and our own ceremony for that matter in order to make our day as personalized as possible and while I was putting this daunting task off for quite some time now that I have started I am really enjoying writing what will ultimately be the most important part of our wedding!
I love all of these envelope ideas! It's amazing what you can do with an envelope besides mailing letters and my crafty side is very excited about the endless possibilities. With 100 days until our wedding I am thinking of putting together an envelope countdown to represent all the mini milestones leading up to our wedding!
I wasn't able to stay up for the royal wedding since I had to intern at Miette early Friday morning, but I still had princess on my mind as I made lots of Princess Cakes! I personally did not catch Royal Wedding fever leading up to the wedding of the century but I was excited to see Kate's dress and while it didn't disappoint I actually think her sister and maid of honor Pippa stole the show. Did you watch the royal wedding? Do you like princess cake?
