Playing With Makeup

I'm not really sure what made me do this. I recently dyed my hair red, and I LOVE it even though it's not the darker red I was hoping for. It's brighter, and is now fading into basically a strawberry blonde, but when I took these photos it was still really strong. This isn't a cosplay or anything, although it definitely has a fantasy feel to it. Inspired by this photo. 

Ombre Nail Art

This was one of my first tries ever at nail art! A lot of the methods for doing an ombre design called for supplies I don't have, so I ended up winging it. I started with a bottom coat of the lighter color (actually a very pale lavender). To get the shading, I mostly just used the brushes to paint the nail polish colors back and forth, adding a little more of one or the other depending on what it looked like. I did try mixing some polish together and painting that on, which helped for the middle section. I like how instead of a smooth gradient I ended up with something a lot more vibrant and visually interesting, but still shows as an ombre effect at a glance.

Chocolate Cake With Coconut Filling

This recipe turned out great! I believe I originally got the idea from "From Cupcakes to Caviar," but ended up looking up several for reference, so I'm not entirely sure. 

I think possibly my favorite thing about it is how fantastic and classy it looks, and how simple it actually is to make. I had some trouble with the coconut rope falling apart, but it wasn't too bad because instead of trying to poke it down into the batter (why you would even do that I don't understand) I poured about a third of the batter into the Bundt pan, placed the rope in the center (I did poke it in just slightly with my fingers) and then poured the rest over the top. It was as simple as that.

Ugh, I hate how messy the plate is in this picture, but it does give you a good view of the filling!