Weekend Review | Valentine's Day and a Birthday Celebration

Hello readers!

I thought it would be fun to share weekend updates every now and again, as a fun way to stay connected and share what I'm up to. I get a lot of questions about whether or not I'm still baking, what married life is like, etc., so I figured this would be a good way for me to answer some of those questions and continue with my passion of writing.

Valentine's Vacay

My husband took it upon himself to plan a trip for us to one of our favorite locations, Russian River. I was so surprised and happy to find out that we were going back to the place where we had our very first romantic getaway together. We arrived on Valentine's Day and spent the first night in the wood-burning hot tub, watching The Proposal and doing a little Valentine's Day gift exchange.

C got me a stunning pearl locket in the shape of a shell and I fully intend to put one of our wedding pictures in it. That night was insane because it was pouring rain the entire night! And being in an airstream made it incredibly loud. Which, ironically, is the same thing that happened the last time we stayed in this airstream. Russian River has a tendency to flood, so he was very concerned that we would wash away in our airstream. He even called the county flood hotline at 2 am to make sure that we would be okay. While I snoozed peacefully next to him, unfazed lol.

We spent the trip eating delicious food, going on beautiful hikes in the redwoods and just enjoying some restful and much needed relaxation time together. I filmed a vlog of the whole trip which is on Patreon here.

A Last Minute Birthday Cake

As we were returning from our trip, my best friend told me she wanted to have a last minute birthday dinner! I volunteered to make her cake and made a delicious raspberry lemon cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting. It was a hit! She actually messaged me this morning and told me people are still talking about it, it was that good!

I wrote a blog post sharing the recipe and what I did to make it my own here.

Since I had never made this cake before, it was truly a practice in trusting the process. But it came out so well and I'll definitely be adding it to the rotation of things I make for birthdays and special events. My mom has already requested it for Easter this year and my husband said it was one of my best cakes yet.

I had a lot of fun decorating it. I've always wanted to take cake decorating classes, but never have! It was fun to use the star tip to create little swirls on top and it looks pretty novice, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Click Here for The Recipe

In The Garden

I'm very excited to be expanding the garden this year. We have a full fledged farm happening people! So far, I've started snapdragons, cosmos, nigella, irises and zinnias. Arguably, some of these I've started too early since it is a little chilly out. But I keep reminding myself that in the gardening zone we live in, there really is no threat of frost after February, meaning I can get started now!

We've got several new raised beds thanks to my husband and he's just finished filling them with organic soil this morning! Very exciting.

I start to get a little bit of Winter Fatigue by late February early March, so I really can't wait for Spring. I try to remind myself that we are still in Winter, it's still cold and rainy out and it's okay if I want to sleep all day!

Have a wonderful week everyone!