A Fresh Start

I don't mean to sound cliché, but this year is going to be an amazing year! I can already tell! No matter what anyone says, I feel like it is just so much easier to get yourself together in January. It's a fresh start whether you start school at this time or it's just a new semester, make the most of it! Here are some ideas to make 2016 an amazing year. 

Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Get healthy! This is pretty much everyone's new years resolution, but if you have a hard time sticking to such vague resolutions, try setting a goal of going to the gym at least three times a week, that's what I did. I'm also trying a vegan diet for a while. I've always been a vegetarian, but when it comes to eating better, being on vegan diet is the way for me. If it isn't for you, try researching other nutritional diets like the Paleo. I'm not into fad diets so I haven't researched the Paleo, but I suggest trying whatever works for you, even if you have to try twenty diets before finding the right one. 

Next, do what makes you happy! Have you ever been so lazy that you procrastinate on things you want to do? You know what you want but you're too scared to try because of how unlikely it is to get? Well then you're in the same boat as me. I love music, but I almost didn't do anything last year about it and that needs to change. Luckily, I have Avalon to keep encouraging me. Find your closest friend and tell them your goals. Even if they don't help that much, telling someone will give you some motivation to do what makes you happy and complete your goals. 

Wow, I thought I had more to say but that's it! See it's easy to have a fresh start! So now onto what's coming up on the blog. I'm traveling a lot this year, visiting the universities that have accepted me, so I'll post pictures and reviews on the blog. I'm super into tidiness and organization so I'm going to make a post about that soon. And we have a ton of recipes (vegan and normal) coming your way! I hope you're as pumped for the new year as we are! Please follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and bloglovin' to get notifications of new posts! 

Raven  

Christmas Cupcakes!

So every month my religious group goes and serves food at a Volunteers of America shelter. Last year I made cute little reindeer cupcakes for Christmas and the coordinator asked me to do them again since they were such a hit. But I didn't want to do the same thing again, that's boring, especially in such a creative time as December. So I found three awesome designs on Pinterest and ended up with these beauties as my final result!

I'm going to give a short and to the point rundown with tips on how I made them, but all credit goes to the two websites I'm citing below.

I got the recipe for the hot chocolate cupcakes from this website and I got the Marshmallow buttercream recipe from this website.  

Makes 15 -17 cupcakes.

Now on to the recipe!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes: 

• 1/2 cup Butter (at room temperature)
• 1/4 cup Cocoa 
• 1 1/4 cups of All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp of Baking Soda
• 1 tsp of Baking Powder
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 cup Hot Coco 
• 1/4 cup Sugar (preferably baking sugar)
• 1/2 cup Milk 

For the Marshmallow Buttercream: 

• 3/4 cup Unsalted Butter
• 1 Container of Marshmallow Creme (7 oz) 
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

Directions

1. The original website doesn't say this but from my experience with cupcakes, mix the butter until it is very, very smooth and then gradually add the sugar. 
2. Add the 2 eggs. 
3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  
4. Add the Cocoa and the Hot Cocoa and mix until it's all uniform and dark brown. 
5. Add the milk and mix on low first so that it doesn't fly everywhere. 
6. Add the flour gradually and then add the Baking Soda and Baking Powder, make sure the mixture is uniform and typical cupcake batter consistency.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Take your cupcakes out when they look like this. 

Now onto the buttercream!

1. I couldn't say it any better than the original so here's it is: " beat softened butter with an electric mixer over medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add in marshmallow creme and beat until combined. Finally add in the powdered sugar and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing until smooth." 

To Decorate!

I had to decorate it with others in another person's house, so this is how I packed them before leaving. Luckily, nothing was damaged.

The Candy Cane

If I had more time to do everything, I would have definitely piped the frosting onto
this design instead of just slapping it on.  

The Snowman

The picture that I used for inspiration for this actually had
something orange as the nose but I already bought the Christmas
m and m's for the Santa so I just went with the green for this. 

Father Christmas!

This dude isn't as easy as he seems at first glance, but it is definitely worth it!
I loved using the peanut m&m's because they gave Santa his classic
big red nose!  

Some Notes

 I tried to add marshmallows to the batter to see how it would turn out and I loved the taste. But I feel like the look of it and the texture weren't what I wanted, so I didn't put marshmallows in the batter I made for Christmas.

I doubled the recipe to get 34 cupcakes and the frosting covered all of it. But it all depends on how much frosting you want. 

The End Result

This is all the food we made for the shelter and we actually ran out of food unfortunately, but it was so nice to see all the grateful faces. 

Hopefully I'll be able to do this for a third year.

Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoy your cupcakes! 

- Raven  

When Things Don't Go Your Way...

I don't feel too well right now, not going to lie. I hate how this is the first blog post, but I also hate how this is my first chance I've gotten to write on this blog since we made it about two weeks ago. Why I feel the way I feel now is really hard to explain so I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I might make a blog post later when I truly understand how and why I have this feeling. For now, let's just say that I got some really bad grades and my finals were what really sunk them. I know why the grades were bad even before finals; I have almost no willpower. I want so much, yet will do nothing when it comes to putting in the effort, something I'm working even harder to fix now. These last few weeks made me realize that not everything is going to be handed to me on silver platter anymore and that I'm going to have to work to get good grades unlike before. I studied my butt off and did a lot more than usual to prepare for my finals this year, despite it being my senior year, yet I still didn't reach my achievable goals. I had three borderline grades, and the two worst ones dropped even more. I don't think I would have felt this way if I knew that it was impossible to bring my grades up, but I had hope and worked for it.

Despite everything going on, I'm trying not to let this bring me down. It's the past and I need to let it go because it's not in my hands anymore. Trust me, as someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety for years, I know that this is easier said than done. I can't count the number of days I've thought about breaking my clean streak from self harm, but here I am, a few months away from celebrating my first year clean. I have hope that everything is going to get better and that I'm following my set path. I have control in my life no matter what and this setback isn't going to be my breaking point. Not again.

So if you're like me and are having trouble finding joy during this festive season, take a few steps back and breathe. This isn't going to last forever. You have control over your life, no matter what anyone tells you. And you can make it to the new year. I have faith in us.

Feel free to comment and share what you do when you're feeling depressed or any setbacks you need to get off your chest.

Everything is going to be okay.

-Raven