The ultimate birthday cake for the man in your life

Deciding on the perfect cake for the guy in your life...

For me, this decision is a hard one as I am a Baker who is dating a guy who has very little interest in eating cake (his family raised him to be the pie type.) Plus he isn't really a fan of sweets in general. So that leaves me with the choice of a fruit based dessert.

While on one of my pinterest searches, I came across the idea of a different twist on the conventional cake. Below is the finished product of my first ever beer cake.

It couldn't have been easier! I just bought a case of his favorite beer, found a piece of styrofoam that resembled the standard circle cake, covered it in fabric, and placed the beer bottles around and on top of the styrofoam. For an added touch I used my cricut expression to cut out the number 29 and a happy birthday wish, attached them to skewers to resemble candles and secured the bottles in place with ribbon.

It was a hit and he said it was the most delicious cake he has ever tasted! Fast and easy, he loved it and it didn't lead to me breaking my healthier choices plan with eating several slices of cake (I am not a beer drinker so that is 24 "slices" just for him!)

New Year's Improvements

Resolutions... I feel the word itself is meant to be broken.

So instead I am going to try a different approach... New Year's improvements =)

The goal: make small changes every week

The first is a savings plan! I am sure you have seen some version of the 52 week plan to increase the money you save weekly so it builds but doesn't feel like a hardship on your budget. The end result is a savings of $1378 if you stick to the chart I have posted. My other half and I hope to use this plan plus a little extra to save $1500 by the end of the year. That is of course if we can refrain from using it.

Along with this weekly plan we decided to start saving for Christmas/birthdays... Rather early I know but, with $7 a week we hope to not have to rely on a credit card to get our family gifts. This will give us over $700 which means no additional debt for 2015!

Fingers crossed and wallets shut!

A New Year for trying new things!

A new year, and a new adventure.

Newbie blogger, that's me. I am always looking for different ways to express myself, and this year I am going to share my efforts with anyone who is willing to read them. Lucky you!

As with hundreds of thousands of other people, Pinterest (and Google of course) has become my go to for all things crafty, my on and off healthy kicks, expanding my food horizons, and beauty secrets. With this blog I hope to share my pinterest attempts and hopefully some original ideas as well.

Stay tuned for what I hope to be an exciting year here in Central Pennsylvania!