martha's favorite cookie contest WINNERS!

Graduation festivities have totally been kicking my butt. I have been up at 7 a.m. and not gone to bed until 2 a.m. the past few days, and it's going to be pretty much the same thing every day until I leave for Mexico on Tuesday of next week, ¡Arriba!. It will all be worth it (who doesn't love celebrating their accomplishments?), but it means I have barely enough time to check my e-mail in the morning so The Pink Review has been completely YAWN lately. Never fear faithful readers, it will be exciting again soon. I'm moving to friggin' CHINA, remember?

Martha Stewart announced her favorite cookie contest winners, and I got a bunch of them right once again! Me and Martha are so on the same wave length. Before I applied to graduate school I considered working for her company, but then I find out a lot of entry-level positions make $10 an hour. No thank you, I made that much in high school. Isn't she totally loaded? She should pay her employees more. But back to cookies, her website has photographs of her top picks for favorite cookie, the ones that I predicted would win that Martha also chose include: 1. Oreo cookies topped with a little chocolate mouse, 2. smores cookie, 3. pink French macaroon cookie, and 4. buttercream pistachio. Four out of ten...not bad! Well, I guess technically that's worse than failing, but if you consider that I had 1,000 cookies to choose from, it's slightly impressive.

one ugly black mumu and one super cute dog

As I mentioned before, I have mad Photoshop skillz as evidenced in the above photograph featuring the insanely difficult (aka extremely easy) sunburst effect. Originally I had wanted a former Delta Gamma sister who is an amazing photographer to take some professional photographs of me in my cap and gown, but she lives out of state and my days leading up to graduation are completely packed. So, I had to settle for my mom's crappy camera in my front yard. The only redeeming part of this picture is Tater Tot and the fact that his fur completely matches my hair. How did my mom get him to look so perky and alert, you ask? She had a squeaky toy on her head. Ha, she is totally Tater's bitch.

Also, the poll results for my graduation cap design are in and the "Au Revoir" with an Eiffel tower option was the resounding winner. However, Twin's comment to make a LOLcat "KTHXBYE!" version of Tater Tot inspired me and I just had to do it. I must say, it is the cutest graduation cap in the history of cute graduation caps. I can't wait to wear it. LOLZ. The fact that I didn't follow the results of the poll (which, I might remind you, I was using merely for suggestions, I never promised I would follow through with anything) is only going to feed Rod's misguided belief that I'm a total flake. I'm actually a very reliable person. Sometimes.

*EDIT* I had to delete that picture of me and Tater Tot...I haven't posted in a while so it popped up every time I opened my site and I got sick of looking at it. It wasn't cute, anyway, so no harm, no foul.

i will eventually shut up about graduating

For now, though, I'm going to continue to bask in the glory of being done with my undergraduate education and blab about it non-stop. My fabulous graduation pizza party is only five days away, I'm so excited! I'm actually more excited about eating pizza than I am about walking across the stage. That's totally normal, right? Check out these adorable invitations I sent (and also my serial killer handwriting). It's a pizza box with a pizza that slides out of it with all the party details! I totally love them and the adorable pizza stickers I bought to seal the envelopes. Notice my Photoshop skillz in whiting out the address and phone number on the invite. So impressive.





THEN Sunday I'm having my tea party, and I also found cute invitations for that little soiree. If you get a chance, check out the company's website, they have all kinds of creative stationery. I really want to have a going away party before I leave for China, for the sole reason that it would justify my purchasing their Chinese take out box cards.

it hurts to smile

I'm not just being emo, either. It literally hurts to smile. To be honest, it hurts just to sit here and not smile. I was prepping for my graduation next week (got my dresses steamed, picked out a polish color for my toes, sent out my announcements) and thought, "Hey, I should bleach my teeth so my smile will be stunning during the ceremony!" Of course, this thought occurred to me at 2 A.M. I have yet to learn that no idea conceived at 2 A.M. should ever be followed through with. Half asleep, I grabbed my bleaching trays, generously (VERY generously) coated them with whitening gel, then popped them on for, oh, only EIGHT HOURS.

Currently, my teeth glow in the dark and I've been walking about with a scrunched up Rene Zellweger expression all day long. In a day or two they will look and feel fabulous, but for now I'll continue to wince whenever they come into contact with air. Or my saliva. Or IHOP pancakes.

graduation cap design-off

EDIT: THE TATER TOT OPTION WILL BE IN FELT AND THEN IN PUFF PAINT WILL SAY "KTHXBYE" LOLCAT STYLE! I couldn't make the change officially on the poll because people have already voted.

Okay, graduation is NINE DAYS AWAY, which is sort of freaking me out. But that's neither here nor there. The important thing is I need to decide what to puff paint on the back of my graduation cap. Last year when Twin graduated she put the Greek letters for DG, but I've been alumni from Delta Gamma for a year (and was also not the DG poster child that Twin was) so I want to go in a different direction. So far, I have three ideas but I'm totally up to suggestions. Serious suggestions. That means you, Rod.

My three ideas are:
1. "Au Revoir" in pink then a little drawing of the Eiffel tower (I lived in France for 9 months and am French at heart, for those that don't know me in real life)
2. A drawing of Tater Tot
3. "Goodbye" in Chinese with a drawing of a Chinese take-out box

I'm going to put a poll up from now until Tuesday because I need time to puff paint it and let it dry. When I say "I", I really mean "my mother". I seriously am at a total stand still on which idea to go with, so vote!

martha's favorite cookie contest

Martha Stewart's cutest cupcake contest was so popular that she decided to have another contest, this time for her favorite cookie! Of course, I went through all 938 entries and in between drooling over the delicious cookies I saved a few that I thought might be contenders for Martha's winners, which will be announced on her show May 13th. I love cookies so I had a lot of favorites, but I narrowed them down to 15, hopefully some of my choices show up on Martha's list, too. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Oreo cookies topped with a little chocolate mouse! Totally simple, but it looks so cute AND delicious.


2. Cocktail sugar cookies. I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but I would not be able to resist these! What a clever twist on a the idea of a cocktail party...just serve these cookies instead! Or in addition to actual cocktails.


3. Picnic caramel delights. This is a cocoa cookie rolled in cashews and filled with caramel.


4. Pinkerdoodle. Like a snickerdoodle, only better because it's pink.


5. Smores cookie. Graham cracker cookie with marshmallow cream, topped with chocolate ganache.


6. Cookies and cream.


7. Chewy caramel melt. A brownie-like cookie filled with a caramel cup.


8. Dipped butter cookies.


9. Dreamsicle cookies. Cookies featuring zest of orange and white chocolate chunks.


10. French macaroon cookie. Almond cookie filled with a ganache flavored with almond...and it's PINK!


11. Buttercream pistachio.


12. Cappuccino hazelnut shortbread cookies. Cookies dipped in mocha drizzled with hazelnut icing.


13. Chocolate chip coconut macaroons.


14. Smores cookie sandwich. I know, I know, I already have a smores cookie on the list, but these look soooo good. Two chocolate chip cookies sandwiched with marshmallow cream and chocolate.


15. Chocolate crackle cookies. These are actually my favorite cookie in the world, they are SO yummy. I'll have to make some soon and post the recipe.


Which cookie out of the fifteen listed here is YOUR favorite?

because everyone needs instant camo eyeshadow

I absolutely love unnecessary purchases, i.e. the 5 unopened boxes of cereal in my cupboard and the three exact same tops I have in different colors which I haven't worn. Clearly, when Twin showed me this website selling "instant eyeshadow" that you apply from a color infused strip, I was intrigued. Nothing about this product seems useful or practical. So of course, I have to have it.





No, just kidding, I'm trying to rid my life of clutter one cereal box at a time, remember? Also, I sort of hate that their website URL initially looks like "colonpro.com". Gross. But this product gives me hope that maybe one day I, too, will be able to hawk (yes, that is the way that word is spelled) my own useless wares on people for $30 a pop.

great minds think alike

I went to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago to buy a dress for my Phi Beta Kappa initiation and for my graduation ceremony, and the fashion gods were smiling down on me because I found three adorable dresses. I only needed two, but when you find a cute dress, you just have to buy it, so I snagged all three. My school colors are orange and black, which aren't always the most flattering colors to wear, so I wasn't expecting to find something that matched my University's color palette. I was super psyched about my graduation dress because I found one in orange that was actually cute and didn't make me look like a pumpkin! Since I have red hair, looking like a pumpkin is a huge fear of mine.

My twin sister is flying in from Kansas City, Missouri for that weekend to celebrate my five years of hard work (ha ha) and she had yet to buy an outfit yet. She's a manager of a restaurant, so she normally wears suits and the fugliest shoes on earth (she says they're comfortable), so purchasing some new clothes was a must. Well, I guess she went shopping today and was talking to my mom when she bought her dress and my mom called me a few minutes after they got off the phone, sounding concerned.

Mom: You bought your dress at Forever21, right?
Me: Yeah, why?
Mom: ....I think your sister just bought the same one.

Yeah, she did. Don't worry, we're not going to pull any weird Olsen-twin crap, she's going to return it. But how funny would that have been if she had just shown up to my graduation wearing the same dress as me? I mean, it could have happened if she hadn't told my mom about it. It's cute, though, isn't it?

new nickname

I'm getting pretty bored with referring to my boyfriend as "BF", but he cares a lot more about his anonymity than I do (aka not at all) so I still want to give him a semi-nondescript nickname so he can keep his identity to himself and people that really know him. I've actually been thinking of giving him a new name for a while now, but for the life of me could not think of anything clever or interesting, when it suddenly came to me today: Rod.

I like the nickname because it's 1. sexually suggestive, gotta love that phallic imagery! 2. an actual name rather than an abbreviation and 3. it has some significance. You see, Rod drives an Isuzu Rodeo, and in typical 17-year-old male fashion he thought it was an awesome idea (it wasn't) to remove the "e" and "o" from his car making it an Isuzu Rod. Clever, right? So, cheers, Rod, on your new nickname. Now I just need to convince him to make a friggin' blog and stop commenting on my posts anonymously.

For you Lost fans, check out this Sawyer nickname generator I found on ABC.com. My nickname is "Frosty". Hmm.

can i get a tall, double shot, skinny vanilla latte? k thanks.

I guess technically it's a "make-under" since the recent Starbucks logo switch is a nod back to their original logo still in place at their first store in Seattle. Also, in my head "make-over" connotes positive change, not a gross and inappropriate brown logo of nastiness. Anyway, Starbucks is now featuring Pike Place roast so going back to their roots with the vintage sexy twin-tailed mermaid seemed like a natural step to corporate higher ups. Thankfully, they are only keeping the brown logo for a few months. Not that this would deter me from going to Starbucks, but I seriously hate the logo. Nothing about it is appealing to me which is ironic since Starbucks decided to use it as a marketing tool, hoping it would restore some goodwill with the public and bring more customers into their stores (Starbucks experienced a first-ever drop in sales this year, thanks U.S. economy).

I asked one of the baristas today what he thought of the logo:

Me: So, what do you think of the new logo?
Barista: Well, technically it's the old logo.
Me: Right, yeah. But what do you think of it?
Barista: It's pretty slutty.

Yes, it is pretty slutty. I would also add that miss vintage mermaid needs to non-fat sugar-free her drinks from now on. I thought coffee was supposed to stimulate your metabolism, not turn you into a fatty.

do they sell cupcakes on the great wall?

I've been pretty vague about my post-graduation plans recently, but I can't hold it in any longer! I'm going to CHINA! It seems random and out there, but one thing you should know about me is that I jump at pretty much any opportunity to travel, especially if it's to a place I haven't seen before. Mostly, though, I just really love fortune cookies. And sticky rice, mmmh.

The whole I'm-going-to-move-to-China thing happened in a very serendipitous way. I went to a career fair on campus a few months ago, and after wandering around aimlessly for over an hour BF finally asked me if I was ready to go. There weren't any jobs I was super interested in (mostly sales, yuck), but I figured I should walk around for a bit more since I bought a $200 suit for the event. Sidenote, screw professional clothing for being so expensive, I might as well wear a friggin' formal gown to work for that price. Well, right when we were leaving I caught a glance of a poster out of the corner of my eye advertising a graduate school program in China. Perfect, right? So I talked to the woman for a few minutes, got some information on the school and the internship in China, then left feeling like my two hundred bucks had been well spent.

Ever since I found out about the program (by chance, I might add), my life has been throwing me signs about China left and right. I know the Olympics are in Beijing this year so the Chinese government is really trying to hype tourism in China, but that still does not explain all the strange coincidences that have been occurring. First, a few days following the career fair I was at the gym and I put the TV on the travel channel and Anthony Bourdain was in Hong Kong. I never watch the travel channel at the gym...but for some reason I was drawn to it that day. Then, on the plane ride to Utah in April the cover article for the United Airlines magazine was on Shanghai. I always fall right asleep on planes (thank you, Xanax) but for some reason I stayed up and had forgotten a book, so I was forced to read the provided reading material. Then, when I went to Maryland my ticket sleeve had an advertisement for non-stop flights to Beijing and Shanghai (none of my three travel partners had the same advertisement, their ticket sleeves just showed a picture of a plane). And who did I sit next to on the flight? A Chinese guy! He was literally writing in his journal in Chinese script. So weird.

As far as details on the program, I will be receiving a Master of Arts in International Studies with a concentration in International Education. School begins on the American campus this summer, where I will be taking research classes as well as Chinese language courses (I do not know any Chinese, yet). I leave for a city in China sometime in August--I find out exactly where May 15th--then I will be teaching English starting in September. In addition to teaching English, I will be taking on-line courses through the university here in California and working on my thesis. The internship is a year long, so I will be back in September 2009 just in time to attend my cousin's wedding!

Oh, and look what I found at Cost Plus World Market the other day:



A Chinese take-out dog bowl and fortune cookie chew toy! It took all the will power in the world not to buy it then and there, but my dog already has a bowl and a whole drawer of chew toys and I need to be saving for my trip. Is it horrible that the person I'm going to miss the most while I'm in China is my dog?

the not-so-pretty side to the kentucky derby

I have always wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby. The swankiness, the mint juleps, the big floppy hats...it all looks so fun! Well, I'm not independently wealthy nor am I from/near Kentucky, so yesterday I did the next best thing to actually attending the event: watching it from the comfort of my plush couch snacking on home-made trail mix. Of course, the event isn't really the race (it is only two minutes long, after all), it's all the hob nobbing that happens before the race. Did I mention the fabulous big floppy hats? Love them.

Sadly, the only filly to race the Kentucky Derby since 1999 was fatally injured after she completed the track (in second place, I might add). The television broadcast definitely downplayed the whole event, and it was hard to even see what had happened until the track veterinarian came on air to announce that they were forced to euthanize Eight Belles after she broke both of her front ankles during a post-race gallop. Eight Belles had to be put down because she could not get up by herself to make it into the horse ambulance. Apparently, this happens to a lot of race horses, in addition to having post-race aneurysms and heart attacks. It all comes down to the way the breed the animals for such an unnatural combination of speed, strength, and lightness. I found this amazing article today in The Washington Post speaking out against the way NBC approached the tragic event. Definitely worth the read.

poof is the new pink

This past weekend BF went to a local food festival sans moi because I wasn't in town (it's okay, he had his brother there to keep him company). He couldn't stop thinking about me--as if that's possible--and made sure to capture these Tater-wanna-bes on film when he saw them walking down the street.



Video commentary = "Taterssss, taterssss.....she's walking her cotton balls."

For realz though, aren't those the cutest animals you have ever seen?! I want Tater Tot to have puppies with one of them so his babies will be super poofy, too!

lolcats and puppies

This weekend I attempted to explain lolcats to my dad. My dad barely even understands what the internet is...so explaining something as random and weird as lolcats was not an easy task. First, I had to tell him what "lol" even meant, then I tried to explain the overall concept, but I'm pretty sure he was only smiling and nodding so I would hurry up and finish talking so he could watch some more political coverage (the man is glued to CNN 24/7, I swear). Anyway, get this, I made him GET UP OFF THE COUCH and come over to the computer to see some lolcats so he would know what I was talking about. I nearly DIED when I tried to explain the back-story of this one:



He pretended he thought it was funny, but I could see him checking the election coverage out of the corner of his eye. Can you blame him? I mean, imagine my explanation, it went something like this: "Well, dad, you see, people submit pictures of cats doing whatever cats do and then OTHER people visit the website and go through the pictures and put captions on them using lolspeak. Lolspeak is something lolcats use when they talk...it's a mixture of bad spelling and poor grammar and it's usually pretty simple because that's probably how cats would talk if they did talk, y'know? That makes sense, right, dad?" Yeah, the answer is no, it did not make sense.

Another fun thing I did this weekend was meet this dog at a party in San Francisco for my Auntie Willa who is moving to Atlanta.



The dog's name was Baxster and he was totally awesome and loved me and all the attention I gave him. I realize my pose is pretty awkward is this photo, but have you ever tried to take a picture with a dachshund? Yeah, they're pretty low to the ground so it's not the most graceful thing in the world to do. Side note, you can't tell in this photo but I have a small pimple on my cheek solely because I was bragging to my mother the day before about what wonderful, clear skin I had. Apparently, pimples feed off of narcissism.

total valley girl

According to a few people, I may or may not sound exactly like Kim Kardashian, especially in this spoof from MadTV.



I'm not a huge fan of her show, but at times I find it entertaining, mostly, I think, when it's not trying to be entertaining. Wouldn't it be awesome if they came up with a series made up of spoofs of the show? Now THAT would be funny.

"...and now I contribute even LESS to society". That sums up my blogging 100%.

you guys are sick

Instead of lamenting with me after I relayed my horrifying ant experience a few days ago, everyone was more interested in seeing pictures of the event! Well, number one, ants are disgusting and I hate that stupid ant picture I have on that post and they aren't even being gross in it (i.e. protecting thousands of maggot-like eggs in my room). Number two, I was busy trying not to vom all over myself/trying to save all of the things I had stored in that closet. Number three, re-read number two, because really, when you're actually in that situation the thought of "Oh! I need to photo document this!" is very low on the list of things to do when encountering a swarm of ants living in your room.

That being said, I totally wish I had taken pictures.

Here are two pictures I took after the incident, if you look closely you'll notice a few black-ish marks in the pink square where the ants had their home. I have no idea what those are from, but they were all over the wood, maybe it's ant poo? SICK! Anyway, those two marks wouldn't come off, the rest did, thankfully.

some good news, phew

Thanks everyone who sent positive energy my Grammy's way. She is doing much, much better and was released from the hospital today. Long term, I don't think there will be any issues. She will be on a semi-restricted diet for a while, but other than that she can pretty much do whatever most 83 year olds do.

On a sort of related (but less life-threatening) note, my cousin Lindsay got engaged Wednesday night!! I'm so excited for her, I just hope I'm in the States when she gets married next year. When I saw my Grammy in the ICU Friday night I told her, "You just couldn't let Lindsay have the limelight, could you?" She thought it was funny. With the big rock she got, it would take more than a pesky ruptured artery to take away her engagement glow.

debbie downer

I had plans for a fabulous post today, but then my aunt called this morning telling me my Grammy was going to the hospital in an ambulance because she had been throwing up blood and was very weak.

Turns out an artery in her intestines had burst and she had to have an emergency surgery to fix it (not sure exactly what they did). I went to see her tonight and she is doing fine for, y'know, being in the Intensive Care Unit. She lost so much blood her skin is like, green. Poor Grammy. If you get a chance, say a little prayer for her. If all goes well, she will be released from ICU in 3 or so days.

Isn't it great that the three of us all wore red shirts with jeans? We totally did not plan that. If you couldn't guess which one is me, I'm the one in the sunglasses because I'm so bad ass that I wear sunglasses at night AND indoors. Get well soon, Grammy!! We love you.

iz can haz new names? kthxbye

My mom lost Tater Tot's collar nearly two months ago (the last time he was professionally groomed) and I've been holding off on buying him a new one because I kept thinking the lost one would pop up. But it never did. Then a few days ago one of my dad's employees left the gate open and Tater ran out and went all the way down the walking path without me seeing him. It took me 20 minutes to find him and I was freaking out because he had no collar.

I got him one of those surgical chip things from the vet a couple of years ago, but if a dog is lost it's a lot easier to look at his name tag to call the owner instead of taking them down to the vet, having them scanned for a chip, then looking up the owner. When your adorable puppy is lost, you want to make it as easy as possible for the person that finds them to call you. Of course, I had to give in and buy him a collar and tag after his sly escape the other day, even though I know the old collar will eventually turn up. I took the opportunity to 1. get him a cute collar with reflective paw prints on it in case we ever go walking in the evening time and 2. give him a new name. Awesome, right?

something cute!!!

Okay, that last post still has me kind of retching, and I just had to post something adorable to counter-balance the absolute disgustingness of my ant encounter.

I love Etsy so much because everything is homemade and unique, and you can seriously find anything you could imagine wanting on there. Well, I've been Etsy-stalking Cakespy for a while. I absolutely adore all of her little cupcake paintings and I was toying with the idea of having a custom Cuppy Cake watercolor done for Twin since she's the most devoted cupcake fan I know. I don't know what took me so long to build up the courage to ask Cakespy artist Jessie about doing a custom order, but finally I did and she got back to me right away, was super enthusiastic about my idea (me = "I'm thinking of a similar background to "Le Shopping" with one cupcake holding a latte, a cell phone, and wearing big sun glasses." her = "Cute!! I love the idea!") AND she had it completed in only a couple of days! The woman is amazing.

This is the original Cakespy she painted for me, it is seriously my Twin in cupcake form, I love it:



I'm totally the mint chip Frenchie ice cream cone!