Saccharine Thoughts

With the Texas Summer 2010 now in full effect, I have been on a major ice cream kick. I admit this without a drop of shame for my waistline, because when it's reaching the mid-90s on a daily basis down here in Austin nothing sounds better than something cold and creamy. Ice cream has always been one of my favorite indulgences, and it is quickly becoming one of my absolute favorite things to make. So many flavors! So many options! Toppings, toppings, toppings! Thus, you'll understand the utter appreciation I hold for my original Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Or, held . Until I saw this. You can go ahead and color me green... and blue... and orange with ice cream maker envy while I continue to spin my ice cream in my plain white maker. This moment trumps the moment I found an avocado green Kitchenaide, shortly after receiving my white one.

As you may have noticed, I am falling further and further behind in my quest to complete 25 New Things before my 25th birthday in November. I only have 5 months left, so I am going to take this time to revamp my list a little bit. There are many things that have come up and taken priority far over others, so I would much rather expend my energy on the awesome and upcoming, than on the thought-I-wanted-to-do-a-year-ago-but-now-I-couldn't-care-less. But that's not fair, you say? Well, I like to think of it as simply giving myself the advantage in my own challenge. You call it cheating , I call it facilitating the completion of my goals . Tomāto/tomäto. Here, I present a revised list of 25 things that I plan to do in my 25th year... Yes, that means that I plan to give myself until the end of the year to complete these things. I know, now you think I'm REALLY breaking some rules. But! Here's the deal: Saccharine Thoughts will turn 2 on January 1st, 2011, and if

I realize that I am way farther behind on these 25 Things than should be acceptable, so here is an installation that is long overdue. Let me rave about my city for a moment: Austin rocks. Really. As long as I remain in Texas, I will be in Austin. Having access to so. much. to do. around me is just not something I could give up. Local shops, eateries, the lake, semi-obscure classes and one-of-a-kind community events give this city some serious character, making it a haven for weirdos like me. One of the many kick-ass things offered here is Austin's Free Day of Dance in January - a city-wide celebration of dance . This consists of several dance studios across town teaming up and offering free classes all day long . Does it get much better than that? MissK and I took the Arthur Murray Studio up on this offer and checked out the bellydance class with Bahaia . This little lady was out and about teaching bellydance workshops just weeks after birthing a child. Uhm, intimidating much?

We have another 2-year celebration on our hands this week! One of my absolute favorite blogs - Yes and Yes - is turning 2. The blog mistress, Sarah Von, is giving back to her readers by means of a pretty stinkin' sweet giveaway! Jewelry, artwork, accessories, and all sorts of really neat trinkets have been offered up from her very talented audience, so head over and check it out! And might I suggest browsing her archives while you're at it? They tend to be on the inspirational and/or down right hilarious side, with some seriously sage advice thrown in the mix.

Um, do you see that? DO YOU?! That's a cupcake. On top of cupcake. DIES . Apparently the decorative potential of Reese's is endless.

Things are finally slowing down, and I don't think I have ever been happier to see the Spring come and go. The month of May was jam-packed with a number of really awesome events! I am still settling in at the new job at Arthouse, but was thrust into the organization's ins and outs with the signature fundraiser on May 13 and 14, which reached out to over 1,000 people in the Austin art community. The Dude (yep, new moniker; get used to it. ) and I made a surprise one-day visit to Mineral Wells for Mother's Day brunch which both thrilled and pissed off Mama Lou, as I suppose she hadn't planned to meet him wearing overalls, sans makeup. We also took a trip to New Mexico to visit his familia which was a wonderful and welcome escape from Austin, but just didn't quite last long enough. Throw in some celebration for graduations, birthdays and... you get the picture. After four straight weeks of awesome, I was ready for some down-time. Enter: Memorial Day Weekend. I mad