Thinking about blogging

I feel like I never have much to say on my blog, despite having random ideas of things I could post about throughout each day. It's been longer than I thought since my last blog! Since then, a lot of exciting stuff has happened -- mainly, I got engaged!!! Yay! We are so excited and are having a lot of fun planning our wedding, which will be next summer! :D We have a lot of our vendors set  and only need to figure out a few smaller things like invitations, ceremony music, and then all the smaller details like the exact menu and music, making table numbers and place cards and any other printed things, favors for the guests, hotel gift bags, the possibility of a chuppah and/or a ketubah, and making or getting some decorations and candles to place around the venue.

I keep trying to think of ways I can make money while I'm home. I have been trying a chocolate business from home, which is a lot of fun and people seem to love seeing pictures of the chocolates I make, but unfortunately, it's not exactly lucrative. I had a few orders, but factoring in the cost of supplies barely has me breaking even...if not at a loss. I've also been working on Amazon Mechanical Turks -- where you complete short tasks to earn amazon money. They're pretty good, but generally you get about $.01 to $1.00 for each task, so it's more for a slight amazon discount than anything else. It can be frustrating when the tasks don't work, but overall it's ok. I tried signing up for some random work from home things too -- most seem pretty scammy, but some may pan out. Who knows. I applied for one today where you transcribe audio into text. I had to pass a typing test and submit a resume, so I'll see where that goes. It seems slightly more legit. It will take a few days for them to get back to me, it says, so we will see. It's amazing to me and kind of sad and aggravating that in this day and age of computers, high speed internet, and video chat, that anyone needs an actual office anymore. I honestly don't get the point of having one for any company. I never really did. Unless it's a storefront for customers, it just seems like a complete waste of money.

Anyway that's my rant for the day, haha!

PS -- After a brief google search, I found that even a magazine that always takes the corporations side, a conservative, business-minded magazine agrees with me! Maybe I'm not hopeless corporation material yet! Maybe some day, some forward-thinking company will understand me and hire me for my brilliant ideas ;) Meanwhile, I'll just contemplate them to myself while all the companies continue to do things wrong and stupidly.

Seriously, check out this Forbes Article.

Subway Ride

Last night, we took a long subway ride down to Brooklyn to see a Nets game at the new Barclay's Center! The game was great, but something that happened on the subway really stuck with me and made me remember how good people can be.

A few stops after we got on, two tough-looking guys got on our car. One big guy sat next to me and his friend sat across from us. I was a little wary of them and held on a little tighter to my boyfriend and my bag. A few stops later, a man got on with a speaker and microphone. "Oh no, a performance now..." I was thinking. The guy started to talk, doing imitations of the subway announcements, making crazy noises, and just being hilarious. He did a great impression of all of the subway announcement voices, and it was really funny. The best part was the two 'scary' guys near us absolutely loved it! I watched them slowly start to smile and by the end, they were cracking up and laughing so hard, it was hard not to laugh myself. They loved it so much that they kept searching for dollars to give to the guy before he got off of our car. It was just a good reminder not to make snap judgements on people and that people are generally good and generous, and just need to laugh sometimes. Throughout that one subway ride, it was great to see a car full of bored-looking people thinking about their own lives and problems stop to listen and smile or laugh at the hilarious subway performer. I hope I come across that performance again sometime!

Keep On Trying!

Well after a day or so of being upset about not getting that last job I interviewed for, I stopped looking at the company with rose colored glasses and realized that yes, the job sounded great, but it wasn't perfect. There were some things I didn't like about it and I'm sure something even better will come up.

I applied to a few this morning and am keeping with my scheme of applying only to jobs that I really want and would be happy with. I know that sounds logical, but when you're looking for jobs, I've found that I used to apply to anything I was remotely qualified for, no matter the company or position. Now I am only applying to places that I genuinely like and would be excited about.

In the meantime, I'm trying to enjoy my time off as much as I can. It's rare to have this kind of time to just do what I want to do and not worry about a schedule or work. I'm catching up on shows, reading, blogging, cooking and baking a lot and that's been a lot of fun. I"ve actually gotten to try out some Pinterest recipes I pinned! I'm sure I'll eventually find a job where people see my qualifications, but until then, it's nice to enjoy the time without a job.

Rejection

Well, I didn't want to post about the fact that I had a job interview last week because I didn't want to jinx anything. As it turns out, it didn't matter, since this afternoon I got a rejection letter from the company. The job seemed so perfect - it was easy to get to, part-time, great hours, and what seems like a truly fun and cool office environment. I thought I was more than qualified for the job, which was basically doing QA on their website for restaurant listings and menus. The people I met were very nice and the office had some very cool features.

This morning, I got a form email from the company stating that "After reviewing your background and qualifications, we find that we do not have an appropriate position for you at this time." It's very disheartening knowing that I could do that job -- probably better than anyone else they hired. I would be good at it and I would have liked it, and yet they don't feel I'm qualified. I have held more complex positions and excelled. I've been out of the corporate world for a while and took some time to focus on another field. That may have been my biggest mistake -- no one seems to take my application or qualifications seriously.

Anyway, it's just very frustrating. It seemed so perfect....but I guess it wasn't. What I really wish is that I could start my own business. Unfortunately, you need money for that and the only way to get money is to get a job.

Fondant Part 2

So, the marshmallow fondant was fun to make and tastes good...very sweet...but yesterday I tried to use it. That proved to be harder than it seemed. I added a lot of confectioners sugar to the marshmallow mixture to try to get it as smooth and non-sticky as possible. It stored well and when I first rolled it out, it worked well. The first few cupcakes, I used a glass to cut circles in rolled fondant and place them on top of cupcakes that I had pre-iced with a touch of buttercream that works as a glue. They worked really well and look great, but the fondant was a little too thick and make the cupcakes way too sweet. The next few, I tried to roll thinner, but as the fondant warmed up, it became more and more sticky. It got to the point where when I rolled it out, I couldn't pull it up from the table or the rolling pin. I got a bunch more done, at a slow pace, but finally gave up when it became extra sticky.

Th cupcakes themselves taste good, and the fondant does look good, but I don't know if I'd bother with it again. I think they still taste better with regular icing. They may not look as perfect as well-done fondant, but they are much easier and taste better.

Marshmallow Fondant!

I've been saving recipes to Pinterest for a while and am just starting to get through some of them. Today I decided to try to make fondant out of marshmallows and confectioners sugar, which I pinned a few weeks ago.

I use to love working with fondant. I bought a special cake pan and a bunch of colors of rolled fondant back in college and tried to decorate a few cakes with it. They always came out looking wonderful but the fondant tasted really weird and ruined the cakes. I thought about making my own but the recipes online at the time seemed really complicated and I never got around to it.

The recipe I just used was really easy. All you do is grease a bowl and pour some mini marshmallows into it. I used about 3 big handfuls. To that, you can mix in some water or some flavoring. I used vanilla extract. You microwave them for 10 seconds at a time, stirring with a greased spoon each time. It took about 4 10-second increments until it was all melty and easy to stir (very sticky of course). Once it was done, I added food coloring to the goo. The first batch I did was purple and the second was green.

Once it's all colored, you start adding confectioners sugar. I stirred it with the spoon for a little bit but once it started coming together, I tried to get as much off the spoon as I could and then used my hands for the rest. All you do is keep kneading in confectioners sugar until it starts to feel like fondant, until it would be easy to roll out with a rolling pin. I had to knead in a lot more sugar than expected.

Anyway, once the fondant was done and no longer sticky, I saved it by wrapping it in greased plastic wrap and I put that into a tupperware container.

Tomorrow I plan to use the fondant, so stay tuned to see how it worked out!

Wall Art

I just saw an idea on Pinterest that caught my eye. If you mount 12 x 12 scrapbook paper onto a square piece of styrofoam (or I guess any square, sturdy object), and frame it, it looks like a piece of art. Get 3 or 4 or even 5 or six of them and hang them next to each other and it can look very cool! As a scrapbooker, I am definitely tempted to try this out. 

The apartment is really starting to come together, and I think once we get some things hung up on the walls, it will really look good. I have a ton of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, which is a good start at least. I was thinking of using this idea as an over-the-bed piece, but our bedroom is burgundy and gray. The burgundy was handed to us since that is the color of the carpet, but I'm really starting to like it.  Of course, it seems that the only color of scrapbook paper that I don't have is burgundy. I guess I would have to go to Michaels or A. C. Moore for the styrofoam and frames anyway, so I could pick up some burgundy paper too. That might just be the plan, unless I find other paper that would work in one of the other rooms instead. 

My other fun art idea is to go through all of our old photographs and pick out some favorites. We can get these printed and framed and have our own art on the walls. I actually like this idea even more and think it would work well in any room. Going through photos might just be my project for the day tomorrow. Pinterest is also great for this because there are a lot of pins about hanging up different size photos in clusters. There are some really nice layouts that would look great. 

Of course, we both already have a lot of wall art from our previous places. Mine is, of course, a lot of Beatles art -- I only took the good ones - framed, signed, and/or numbered pieces. His is also a lot of music and pop culture related art as well. All of it is pretty neat and luckily now we have plenty of space for it all. It's hard now to picture exactly where everything is going to go, but hopefully we'll get that figured out soon! Wish us luck! 

Been a while

I haven't posted in a while. Over the holidays, my boyfriend and I finally found an apartment together and we are in New York City now! Between the move and job hunting and the holidays, I haven't had much of a chance to blog, but hopefully I'll be able to update this more regularly.

We've been buying lots of furniture and doing some decorating, so hopefully future posts will involve some decorating ideas and tips as well as other stuff I learn as we get our new place together. Currently, I'm waiting for UPS to deliver an entertainment center that we ordered about a week ago. I'd love for it to come soon so I can start building it today.

I'm also hoping to do a lot of cooking while I have some time at home. I love to cook and am excited to share some recipes on my blog!

I'm also looking forward to sharing some blogs about my current job search. At the moment, it's kind of discouraging because I have applied to a lot of positions without ever hearing anything back....except for one rejection which I received less than an hour after I applied, which was pretty disheartening (they couldn't have looked too hard at my application). I have a lot of experience, but I feel like employers won't be able to look past the fact that I left my last job to try teaching. It's something I'm glad I tried, but turned out not to be for me. I'd love to get back into my marketing roots, especially being in a city with so many truly interesting and fun companies, but it's not easy to get that across in a resume and cover letter. I know I'm smart and I know I can do pretty much any job, but it's hard to get anyone to give you a chance, when there are so many people with lots of focused job experience competing against you. I know I'll find something -- it's only been a week of actual job hunting, but it's definitely going to be hard.

Anyway, that's my update for now. I'll be back soon!