rainbow cupcakes!

i made the rainbow cupcakes i told you about last week for birmy's art walk festival & it was actually a success!!

they were pretty darn fun to make.   i put together a standard vanilla bean cupcake batter, seperated the batter into six bowls, added quite a bit of food coloring to each to make them the colors of the rainbow, & portioned the batter into my cupcakes tins a tiny bit of color at a time, in rainbow order, of course!

the red & orange & yellow were vibrantly covering most of the top of the cupcakes, but little bits of green & blue & purple burst through as well.  & the inside was super colorful too!

cupcake fun!  & no frosting means more delicious to me too.

as for my football update on this football & baking monday - i should pull out a pretty good fantasy football win tonight with the completion of nfl's week 1.  go fuchsia monkeys!

love love,
kjp.

fun fact friday!

remember when you were little & those email chains went around asking you to answer a lot of questions about yourself?  or the slightly newer versions on facebook that just say list 20 things about yourself?  i always love those.  i feel like i actually learn a lot of things about myself.  so i'm starting one on my blog.  fun fact friday!

here's one for you - when i cook, i really like to watch cooking shows on tv.  chopped is my current favorite.  top chef is always good too.  however, when i bake, i like to listen to music.  super girly music.  patty griffin.  adele.  

maybe baking takes more concentration, thus i can only listen instead of watch.  

either way, my happy places.

happy friday to you, friends!

love love,

kjp.

thankful thursday - a place to worship & serve & belong.

i am really thankful for our church home in alabama.  blakey & i have been attending trinity umc for, oh, a year & a half now.  we started our journey with the contemporary service on sundays.  & then we joined a young married adults group, where we have met some awesome people & have grown so much in our marriage.  & now i have finally found a way to serve.

remember many months ago when i told you about my new year's resolution to do service at least once a month?  big fat fail.  blakey & i did a great habitat day in january.  put together a fun care package in february.  & then nothing.  for 6 months.  i really wanted to find service projects we could do together as a couple.  but, alas, residents are really busy.  so i found something fun to do myself!  & to make up for the six months i missed, i will be volunteering twice a month :)

i am helping serve dinner at our church before wednesday night small groups.  yesterday was my first time & i met two super sweet girls about my age, a lovely grandmother of seven boys, & a lovely gentleman.  it is fun to see all of the kids smiling faces & to have an opportunity to spend an hour thinking about people other than myself.

so so important.

i have certainly missed it.

& i am thankful for the opportunity.

{hey birmy friends - if you have been looking for a chance to serve some adorable kiddos & want to join me in the fun, let me know!  i believe they are looking for a few more volunteers.}

i hope you can think of something today for which you are thankful.

love love,
kjp.

my favorite sunday morning.

sunday mornings in our new home have become a favorite part of my week.  little guy & i {& blakey too if he's not working} sit on our patio to enjoy the beautiful mornings.  i usually have a big cup of coffee & tanky always has green man.

i've been re-reading mere christianity by c.s. lewis.  wow, he was a smart fellow.  i do believe i am enjoying it more the second {third?} time through.

i do love our new home.  especially on sundays.

love love,

kjp.

steel city pops.

do you know about this new popsicle trend??  i am loving it.  my friend, ashley, & i headed over to steel city pops one afternoon to try out this new gem in birmy.  they have a plethora of fruity & creamy choices.  ashley went with a super refreshing lime popsicle & i chose the spicy & delicious chocolate chili.  it was fully of cinnamony spice & actually got my taste buds all fired up.  i loved it.

next time we go, i want to take blakey to try it out too.  i bet he gets the chocolate chili.  & i will have to try the coffee.  maybe peanut butter too.  & orange cream...  but i will probably leave the avocado one to julie byrd.

love love,
kjp.

football & baking.

football is here!!!  opening weekend has come & gone.  & to sum up ou's performance: it's going to be a long year.  i love my sooners, but that was painful.

{saturday morning game day is back!!}

sunday morning, one of my alabama friends asked how i was feeling about that ou game.  my response:

like our high school team came out.

1. we always always underperform against bad opponents.

2. we underperformed even that yesterday.

3. first time i've ever said this, landry actually looks pretty good.  but our receivers look horrible.  so that nullifies the good qb.

4. stoops, who i love, needs to get his act together as our special teams coach.

5. embarrassing.

6. if passing is working, running it up the middle over & over & over again for maybe 2 yards is not the best idea.  you don't need to establish the run game every down.

i think that about covers it.

to which he responded that i should start a blog about college football & baking!  not many people with those two loves.  but since they are two of my biggest, here you go!  my blog post with "expert" football analysis.  & i'll end with a little baking too.

{our saturday evening football view} 

by the way, i will totally hand it to oklahoma state for their performance yesterday.  yes, i understand savannah state isn't exactly a big opponent.  but anyone scoring 84 points, especially with a freshman qb - impressive.  well done, pokes.

to end with my baking love: i'm thinking about making splatter paint cupcakes this week for artwalk.  super artsy, right??  of course, the idea came from pinterest.  check it out {here}.  wish me luck!  i might need it.

love love,
kjp.