Can You Paint With All The Colors Of Your Doughnuts?

2015. 

I'm working on making this my year of DOING.  

Instead of talking about taking that trapeze class, I'm going to do it. 

Instead of fantasizing about what it would be like to ride in a hot air balloon, I'm going to do it.  

Instead of waiting for someone to come along and make me happier, I'm going to be happy on my own.  

And so now, snapping shut my first three-day weekend of the year, it is with satisfaction that I look back over the last few days and realize that, even though I didn't take a road trip or publish a book or make any significant scientific discoveries, it was still good and productive and full and nice.  

Because? Because I actually did things.  

Starting with baking, the one and only place to begin.  

What is this alchemy, that I should have a cupcake order AND a wedding cake due the very same day? 
Well, that was Friday, for starters.  

Sometimes I feel a little awkward delivering wedding cakes, intruding on a family's celebration that I wasn't exactly invited to and didn't really dress for.  This time was definitely no exception, but it was also simultaneously really sweet.  There weren't any specific flowers left for me to put on the cake, so some of the grandmas offered me mason jar centerpieces and gave me free reign on any of the flowers therein. Both the bride and the groom came over to me separately and thanked me for the cake.  Somebody's niece asked if she could help me put the topper on the cake. The groomsman who had made the topper stood by and asked my professional opinion on the tulle.   People were friendly and welcoming and hopped up on love and barbecue sauce, and it was something I was honored to be a part of.  

Saturday morning, our school met up at a local habitat preservation park for a cute little hike that turned out to be more of a stroll.  I'd helped plan it, and then I'd bought $92 worth of hot chocolate to hand out to everyone afterwards, so I didn't mind going, even if it was early on a weekend morning.  The weather was cool and breezy, and though the desert wildlife was a little...scrubbier...than I was expecting, it was refreshing and simple and wholesome all the same.  

Also that afternoon, some girls I used to visit-teach invited me to go with them to the temple.  It was my first experience going through the Mesa temple, and I was so grateful to these spiritual sisters who helped me feel peaceful and at ease in what is still new and unfamiliar territory.  They can't see me right now (and, well, neither can you), but I just did a double chest-pound and flashed a peace sign at them.  
They'll know what it means.  

Sunday: Nicole and I did a little duet for the musical number in church, and then we had friends over for a loud and delicious dinner.  I had some qualms about this buttermilk chocolate cake I tried for the first time, but despite the recipe's VERY questionable mixing methods and the Swiss meringue buttercream I had to scrap at the last minute, everyone still ate it like champs and patiently waited for me to make my drippy butterscotch ganache. Sometimes a little drippy is good, right? 

And then today, MLK day.  No-school-day.  Do-what-you-want-day.  Don't-start-your week-yet-day.  

After talking with a friend about possibly hiking, we assembled a gaggle of friends and then we did! 

We were definitely not the only Phoenicians with the itch to do a little climb today, but it was still rejuvenating and refreshing.  Though it got a little rocky towards the top, it wasn't as difficult as I'd been anticipating, and gave me the undervalued opportunity to plan out where I'll build my next mountainside estate. 

I've never been a huge outdoorsy kind of girl, but I do love a hearty hike, as long as no one falls off the mountain, and now I feel the pull to do more in the area.  Namely, THIS.

So, we hiked, no one fell off of any mountains, we celebrated with hamburgers and milkshakes, and then Nicole bought another couch for our living room.  Success.

And you know what, while I've been hiking and eating doughnuts with reckless abandon and baking so so many cakes, you know what else I've wanted to do? 

Paint.  

And so I started.  

Over Christmas, I got a little amateur set of watercolors and just began painting.  
Late at night, in my bedroom, while watching The Amazing Spiderman 2.

 No, no realism here - just shapes and colors and lines and abstract elements.

And then after watching a few too many episodes of Friends one night this week and eating a few too many no bake cookies and not really being productive, I decided: why not do something more with your life and paint some canvas art for your bedroom?

And so I did.  Enter: the triangles.  

And then, after realizing how wholly unsatisfied I felt about the feng shui in my bedroom: I fixed it. 
I moved my bookcase into my previously empty back right corner.  I hung up art on my walls.  I added lamps.  I cleaned out my clutter.  

And I treated myself to some succulents, who are nothing but thrilled to be up so high, guarding my bookcase and warding off any bad thoughts and ill will from my now-filled relationship corner.  
They make me happy and are so much easier to take care of than four children. 

So. Good weekend.  

Three days. Three doughnuts.

Two hikes. 

One couch.   

Oh, and this isn't related, but my blog is my blog and there are no rules.  
This passage below jumped out to me from the book I'm current reading, The Giant's House, a story about a spinster (code: 25-year old!!!!!!) librarian in the 1950's who falls in love with a boy who suffers from gigantism.  
I know, I know, that's a very specific set of characters. But just look at our protagonist, and how she somehow crawled inside my brain. 

Does that not just speak to you, on some level?