In college and in Philly

I'm terribly sorry for the hiatus! Pre-college stress had been getting to me, but I'm now settled into my new home for the year! I absolutely love the city, I love my neighborhood, and I love my classes (for now). Hopefully this will be a year of happiness and excitement.

Back to familiar times

Much like my renewed interests in 90s RnB, yogurt drinks, and the France NT, coloring books have been making a comeback in my life, after spending a couple of years in my proverbial dusty cupboards. I blame this occurrence on my keen eye for cutesy items in Target's dollar bins, as well as my sheer boredom this summer. Add along the pre-college stresses that have been haunting my last weeks of summer and coloring books would make for great, relaxing therapy.

Gotta catch 'em all!

I gave in and ordered the 50 packs of stickers! And this is what ensued. An array of stickers which took HOURS to organize and put into the album. But oh so worth it.

I still have quite a few stickers that I need to collect, though I must say, I cleaned up better than I thought I would. I am a couple stickers away from completing a couple of national teams, and with the ongoing trades with some friends, hopefully my quest of collecting all the stickers will be deemed successful.

Though I must say, I am kind of itching to buy more packs. Perhaps not a huge 50 pack box, but I'm thinking of ordering a couple more handfuls of packs. It really is an addiction (a rather expensive addiction, at that). Even if trading, I'll still have a few more empty spots in my sticker album. So really, what else is a girl to do?

Cupcakes and sunshine

After unearthing a cake decorating kit in my kitchen, I decided to put it to good use by experimenting with the piping tips. Which, of course, gave me a good excuse to bake up a fresh batch of cupcakes, which acted as my mini canvas for the frosting.

I opted for a simple (yet delicious!) chocolate fudge cake recipe, and an amazing cream cheese frosting to top it all off. I love the subtle tang from the cream cheese, and it is also not as sweet as conventional buttercream frosting (which, for me, can be a little too sweet to handle). Cream cheese frosting is also a great choice for cake decorating, though a few words of advice: it's best to chill the frosting in the fridge for about an hour before beginning to pipe. I made the mistake of piping the frosting right after whipping it together, and thus the heat from my hands began to melt the frosting a bit as it was in the piping bag. Which also brings up another piece of advice: work quickly!! When I began to pipe out the frosting, I was a bit meticulous and it ended up taking too much time, and therefore the frosting melted even more. Swift, consistent piping will actually make better designs and also save time (and frosting).

Cream cheese frosting (from "Cupcakes!" by Elinor Klivans)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla together until smooth, and then slowly add the powdered sugar. I like to add the powdered sugar in thirds so it's a slow, consistent mix with very little lumps. This recipes makes about 3 cups of frosting.

Also, this frosting is VERY versatile, so it'll work for most cake recipes. I decided to dye the frosting a soft pink, which was a nice contrast to the chocolate cake.

The cake decorating kit also came with booklet with loads of piping ideas, so this will not be the last of my cupcake bonanza. I have yet to plan out my next foray into summer cupcakes, but now that I'm done with work, I can bake a batch soon.

What's just as good as cupcakes? Getting some sun! I went to the beach twice in a week and I am more sunkissed than ever. Nothing beats a warm day on the sand with a good book.

Playin' around with playsuits

I will admit, it took me a while to warm up to the idea of playsuits. It wasn't so much the aesthetics of it that concerned me, but more so its practicality (how on earth do you go to the bathroom with it on?!). But now I can't help but think that playsuits are such fun little summer pieces, fit for bright, sunny picnics and strolling on the boardwalk at sunset.

[top to bottom: Urban Oufitters, Alice + Olivia, Topshop, Asos]

There's one tiny little problem in regards to my search for a playsuit...I can't find the perfect one. I am a rather "picky" shopper, which may be a good thing in terms of my bank account. But I have yet to find that quintessential "me" playsuit that is within my price range. I will just settle for constantly checking the prices on store websites, hoping that one day they will reduce to a personally more suitable price. In close running to have a place in my closet is  romper from Urban Outfitters (top). Luckily it's already on sale, but I think that I'll wait before ordering it just yet. 

After all, I need to find some kind of occasion to wear the playsuit, schlepping around the house and going to work aren't really the perfect times to frolic in a romper! 

Long fulfilled retail therapy & bracelet mania...

With the help of the Girl Gang, "stickermania" has affected my weak soul. Not that I have never had a penchant for adhesive cutouts of fun, as a matter of fact, I've always been a sticker fiend. Instead of Hello Kitty or fuzzy scented stickers this time, I have been inflicted with the 2010 World Cup Panini sticker fever.

Think trading cards, except with a sticky back. And a special album to collect all players, emblems, and team portraits. It took a lot of debating within my psyche, but I finally decided on ordering eight packs of stickers plus a sticker album. After opening up each pack, I placed all the stickers aligned in neat columns, examining which players' stickers I had gotten, and also which stickers I was disappointed to say that I did not obtain yet. I got a lot of African players' stickers (especially Ghana...oh, the embittered irony), and I had a few stickers from England, Greece, and Portugal, among others. To my dismay, I did not have ANY USMNT stickers between the eight packs, and only one Spain sticker (Busquets...of all people!). 

I looked at my new collection of stickers with a tad bit of disappointment. Don't be fooled, I was thrilled to kick start my novice sticker collection, but I could only crave MORE stickers at this point. I've been eyeing a 50-pack box on Amazon for about $42 to appease this emptiness, but can't find the heart to place the order just yet. Part of me thinks, "$42 for STICKERS?!" and the other side of me (the sticker-obsessed side) just wants to be liberated. And now what? I've searched high and low at stores in my town and have found absolutely no stickers. The only possible choice is to order a giant box. Should I? Shouldn't I? It's killing me!

I also ordered Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski and The Hunchback of Notre Dame on DVD. They were actually things that I've had in my Amazon cart since...December. Call them "post-Christmas presents to myself," if you will.

My soccer-less days have been going by ever so slowly, but it's less painful when I am wasting the days making soccer-themed friendship bracelets. 

I had made the Spain, Germany, and USA bracelets during the World Cup, and since then I've made an Italy one for a friend, a Germany and USA/Korea one for another friend, and yesterday I finished...wait for it...an Arsenal bracelet. Just in time for today's preseason friendly against Barnet. 

Note that the pattern is heart shaped. Because, as cheeseball as it sounds, they really are the loves of my life.

If you haven't gathered already, soccer is an ever-going constant in my life. And yes, this blog will probably be filled with soccer posts. But alas! There WILL be non-soccer posts, just wait for them. I have a few ideas coming along. 

...oh man, I think my debit card is calling for me to order things on Amazon again. Help!

Jenny Crocker Does World Cup 2010: Changing history, one win at a time.

[photo from ESPN]

And so, the FIFA 2010 World Cup came to a close yesterday, with Spain making history and winning their first ever World Cup title. The champions beat a rough-and-tough Netherlands side 1-0, thanks to an Andres Iniesta goal. From disappointing underdogs to world champions, La Furia Roja has grown significantly in the last couple of years. Players such as Xavi Hernandez,  the aforementioned Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Carles Puyol, and Iker Casillas helped personify a Spanish side with flair, strength, and heart.

Although they did not win with their usual goal extravaganzas (most of their wins being 1-0), Spain carried on without ever backing down. Despite their first loss in the tournament against Switzerland, they never let that match get them down and were able to continue on in their journey to the cup final.

To be honest, it still feels surreal. It feels like it was only yesterday that they had just won Euro 08. Is this a dream? The "let's at least make it to the quarterfinals" Spaniards actually won?? After years and years of history working against them, La Selección finally won the highest accolade in international soccer.

Many tears of joy and jumps of happiness later, I'm left very proud, ecstatic, and...exhausted. This World Cup has been a whirlwind of drama, controversy, suspense, surprises....everything that makes soccer interesting. And although there are some problems within the soccer-sphere, it's still one of the greatest sports of all time. They don't call it "the beautiful game" just for kicks (no pun intended). It's hard to believe that South Africa vs. Mexico was just a month ago. So much has happened since then, both on and off the pitch in my life. To a certain point, it feels like a blur. That all my joy and agony endured as a USMNT fan was a thing of years past. When in fact, it was just a couple of weeks ago. Even as a USMNT fan, my emotions have run amok, perhaps more so than my Spain-rooting side. But I wouldn't have it any other way. My heart still mourns for the USMNT while celebrating the accomplishments of my Spain team. And the France NT drama? Perhaps I like schadenfreude, but it still interests me as it did in the beginning of the tournament. Questions still left unanswered, and who knows for how long! There's always going to be the controversy over goal-line technology, but of course that is a debate that will live on for what feels like forever. Even though some of the big soccer superstars have been disappointments (Messi, Rooney, Kaká, and Ronaldo to name a few...), I have fallen in love with new players and have been exposed to their talent and sportsmanship, like Thomas Müller and Mesut Özil. It's the beauty of the world cup, you always find the most unexpected gems. And they could be the ones who will shine for many years to come.

I don't know what the point of that rant was. Honestly. It might be the music blasting on my earphones, the blazing heat, or the fact that it's past two in the morning. But I think that what you could gather from my little ramble was that...I love this sport. So much. And say what you want about it, soccer is one of the few constants in my life that just seems so right. And it is my escape, whether it involves heartbreak or happiness. That may seem counterintuitive, but that's just the rules of my life. That at the end of the day, soccer is what my happiness is. It's more than just my team winning. And the world cup can't be a better way to epitomize this happiness.

So what's next? As I wait impatiently for Euro '12 to arrive, I shall be busy with club soccer (Arsenal FC and Philadelphia Union). And although I am very bummed about the world cup coming to an end, there is nothing more comforting than seeing my boys together again. I have been watching the Union all summer, but in the case of Arsenal, it has been too long. I have been listening to Arsenal chants and songs all night, getting myself pumped up for the preseason.

After four years of anticipating this month-long tournament, I'm back to square one, waiting another four years for Brazil 2014. Who knows how different things will be then, but I have an inkling that things will probably be very, very interesting.