Where I'm At Right Now

Hi, Hello how are you? No really, how are you doing right now? I seriously want to know because I feel like we often go through life without stopping to take a few minutes to really know whats going on in each others lives. Even though we only know each other through the internet, I really care about my readers and think about you more than you'd think. So lets talk!

First of all, I just want to say a huge thank you. To you, yes you. I started this blog a few months ago because I love beauty products and makeup, and fashion and the internet. And everyone else seemed to love this online beauty community so I thought hey, what the hell, let's give it a shot. Well a few months down the road and I can't believe we have come so far. I know I only have 170 something followers, which to many is nothing, but to me it is everything. I honestly remember getting excited at 2 and then 3 and then hitting a number like 20 or 30 seemed crazy. And I've had the opportunity to talk to some great people, and (not to jump too far ahead) work with some great companies (spoilers!). I honestly am so critical of myself and my blog. I'm always thinking, I'm not posting enough beauty posts, or fashion posts, or tutorials or reviews etc... and that you guys will all get bored and leave me. And then I get a message, email, tweet, whatever from someone about my blog and it brings me back.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Second of all, I feel like I owe it to you guys to be completely honest about my life. That's just the kind of person I am. I don't like to hide or pretend. The past few days/ weeks have been rough. So much is changing in my personal life and that's really hard. Some good changes, some tough changes. My best friend (who just started a blog which you should totally check out and follow here) just moved back into town and is only a few minutes away from my house. This makes me so happy because we haven't seen each other as much as we'd like and she is literally my soul. Another friend of mine is moving an hour or so away, and that's weird. Like really weird. Plus school starts and I'm really scared that I'm going to be a bad teacher (no not like Cameron Diaz, because I would totally love that). I'm scared that I won't have any good ideas this year and I'll look like a complete fool. And I'm scared because I graduate next spring and I don't know what I want to do after that. Do I want to teach, take a year off, go to college for something else? I have no idea. And on top of that, as you may know, my little guinea pig Penny is still sick. She wasn't getting any better so we brought her back to the vet and he said just to keep her on medicine. Normally guineas don't do well with pneumonia but Penny's already survived it once and we pray she will again. She seems to be doing a teeny winy bit better so please, prayers and good thoughts are still appreciated.

Thirdly, school is starting super soon (this Tuesday to be exact) and my schedule is legitimate insanity. We're talking 12 hour days filled with co-op, interning, projects, professional development programmes. Just craziness. So I don't really know where Mirror Mirror falls into all of that. I am by no means giving up on this blog nor am I going to stop posting. But I will have to commit to a schedule in order to ensure there is consistent content that is manageable with my school schedule as obviously that must come first. So stay tuned, once I get into the swing of things regular posts will be coming!

And lastly, let's finish off with some good news shall we? I am officially the owner of a new Volkswagen Jetta! She is so beautiful and fun to drive! This is my first car so being able to go where I want, when I want is great! And even though this is a bit of a tough time for me, I know I am blessed and so fortunate to have so many amazing and loving people in my life. We must persevere even when things are tough because "there are far better things ahead, than any we leave behind" (C.S Lewis).


xoxo
-A

Baking with an Update!

So this is going to be one of those all over posts. A bit of an update, and a bit of baking. So first for the update! I finally got my phone back so I can start to take pictures for my blog again, but I've been really busy. As I'm sure you all know school is starting back up soon and I've just been doing a lot of administrative stuff the past few days as teacher's college requires things such as background checks, orientation etc... Also my little guinea pig Penny is sick :( She had pneumonia during the winter and the vet didn't know if she would even live, but she's a fighter and pulled through! But now her breathing is a bit laboured so she has to go back to the vet to make sure she's ok and possibly get her back on some medication. Prayers and good thoughts are appreciated!

Now onto the baking! If any of you are as obsessed as I am with YouTube then you probably know who Tanya Burr is! Well this week she posted a cookie recipe and I decided to give it a try!! I know this isn't technically original content but I wanted to show you my interpretation of the recipe and give you a written copy of the ingredients and directions as it was somewhat tedious to have to keep pausing and loading the video!

You will need:
200g butter
300g caster sugar* 
1 egg** 
325g self raising flour
dash of milk***
200g white chocolate
200g milk chocolate

*Caster sugar is just a really fine sugar often used in the UK but here in the Americas you can use regular sugar and just grind it up it it's not fine enough.
**Whenever using eggs to bake, make sure they are room temperature as it helps to make the texture of whatever your baking finer (but if you forget it's not a really big deal).
***After pulling your batter together if you find it's a bit dry and crumbly then just a dash of milk and that should bring it all together.

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 200degrees Celsius or 390degrees Fahrenheit

2. Mix sugar and butter together with handheld electric blender.

3. Add egg and blend together.

4. Mix in flour a bit at a time. If you put the entire amount in all at once flour will fly and you won't be able to properly mix it together. 

5. Once your batter is all ready its time to add the chocolate! I used Cadbury dairy milk bars as the large chunks of chocolate are way better than chips. But I've never seen white chocolate in bars available in Canada unless it's Christmas or a speciality store so I had to settle for white chocolate chips. Make sure when you mix in the chocolate you bring the batter from the bottom up that way there is tons of chocolate in every cookie!

6. Ball up a handful of dough and place them on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven. Make sure you set your timer for 10 minutes, 12 maximum. Even if they don't look 100% cooked they will continue cooking after as you need to wait 20 minutes before eating them. 


These cookies are so delicious and so easy to make, definitely one of my favourite recipes! Click here to watch Tanya Burr's video of the cookies!

xoxo
-A