LA Cupcakes: Mrs. Beasley's

Founded in 1978, Mrs. Beasley's is popular for their fresh baked muffins, cookies, brownies and cakes sold via their mail order catalog, website and multiple retail stores througout Southern California. Three years ago though the bakery started making "gourmet cupcakes," says store manager Maridel Castro.

My bi-monthly LA Cupcakes MeetUp group headed to their Brentwood location in the charming Brentwood Country Mart (like a tiny Grove/Farmer's Market) last week. Their cupcakes are labeled "gourmet" according to the big sign on their window. They sell for $3.00 each, minis only $1.25 and include flavors like apple pie, blueberry, cherry, chocolate ganache and lavish lemon. I was surprised by their amount of choices and colors, considering they are more popular for their cookies than cupcakes. The icing on each cupcake is piled high (less so on the minis), but according to their tag line "it's all in the frosting." Although I'm not big on too much icing each flavor's icing tasted differently instead of the same whipped cream taste on all. Thus, the icing on the cherry and strawberry cupcakes tasted like strawberry and cherry and were quite good. The vanilla cupcake bottoms though were a bit dry or more like a real cake, however their chocolate bottom cupcakes were moist and tasty especially their orange chocolate sherbet cupcakes (my favorite). Other group members appreciated that the cake in the peanut butter cupcake tasted like peanut butter as well as the icing. Not the best cupcake shop in L.A. but I was pleasantly surprised by the pretty shop and tasty icing. It's especially perfect for gift basket giving and when you're at the nearby market.

We were also told that stars like Kelly Preston and Jamie Lee Curtis have been known to stop by. In fact, the manager said they usually get a celeb in each weekend after lunch.

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And the winner is

Congratulations! You'll be contacted for your address and we'll be awaiting your photos and review after the show. Have fun!

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Giveaway: Cyndi Lauper True Colors concert

Courtesy of the Premiere Marquee Club, the Gibson Amphitheater and The Greek Theater's annual subscription program, I am able to give away two free tickets to Cyndi Lauper's True Colors concert featuring 80s diva Cyndi Lauper, the love shacking B-52’s, comedian Wanda Sykes, plus host Carson Kressley from Queer Eye and more. The show takes place on June 28th at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

Back in 2005 I had the pleasure of attending a Cyndi Lauper concert and meeting her briefly backstage. I was excited to see her in concert although I only really knew her big hits like "True Colors," "Time After Time" and of course "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," however after seeing her in concert I quickly became a Cynner and a bigger fan. I have seen both her and Madonna in concert and there is no comparison. Cyndi is the real singer, holding notes for long periods of time, playing instruments, writing the lyrics to her songs and not taking a break during her two hour show, where Madonna was so much more theatrical and didn't even sing that much. Anyway, I hope you win the tickets and then can see what I mean. Below is an excerpt from my resulting article in the Greenwich Time newspaper.

Lauper, who turned 50 in June and is the mother of a 6-year-old son, defied the aging gods with an incredibly energetic performance. During her two-hour nonstop performance, she jumped around the stage, held notes for long periods of time, banged her head, joined the audience out in the bleachers, and yelled to the people way in the back and to the side – all to the delight of the audience. The people around me kept shaking their heads over her endless amounts of energy, while going crazy with applause and screams at the same time.

During the performance her actions and expressions were very animated and theatrical, keeping audiences eyes on her constantly just to see what she would do next. She kept dramatically leaning against the big speakers on the sides of the stage with her eyes closed and her arms up over her head. In between songs, she told amusing stories about herself and how she used to have pictures of The Beatles and Davy Jones on her bedroom wall. She also managed to bring tears to audiences’ eyes, as she sang emotionally to “True Colors,” and told about how she wrote the song for her friend who died of AIDS in 1985. (read full article)

So, how do you win the tix I mentioned way earlier on from the Premiere Marquee Club? Well, just post a comment here and agree to be my special guest blogger by reviewing the show if you should win and sharing your experience with all of us so we can live vicariously through you (photos from the concert are indeed welcomed). Please leave your email address in your comment so that we can notify you if you win. I'll choose the winner by putting everyone's name in a hat and picking randomly. Good luck! Oh and if you want me to be your plus one, just let me know ;) Deadline to enter is Sunday March 30th at 5 p.m. PST.

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Home improvements

Since buying our condo last April, we hadn't made too many improvements to our new home. Not many were needed though. We had added a ceiling fan, decorated of course and put up some wooden blinds. This weekend we got to work though.

First to go was the 70s quartz sink vanity in our bedroom. As the guy who removed it said "you can tell it was top of the line in the 70s but now...." I had hated the yellow color with brown swirls, it reminded me of an old motel. However, because our sink size was an odd size at 42 inches, we had to go custom and couldn't do the Home Depot route. We found a granite and tile place in Gardena that was reasonable and we purchased and loaded my car trunk with a new golden granite top with sink. We then of course had to buy new faucet fixtures, which is fine since the others were like huge globes.

Before:

After:


Our cabinet doors under the sink, meanwhile, had been painted so many times they never seemed to close completely. So Raphael bought new fixtures after painstakingly chipping the paint off the old ones to remove them. With the new hinges, the doors close just fine now, ridding the cabinets of their former warped look. If you’re considering an upgrade, RTA Kitchen Cabinets could be a great option. Tomorrow I'm repainting the paint-chipped areas.

We then moved on to the shower and removed the old knobs that were moldy inside, for a quick sprucing up. We didn't do this sooner since we thought we had to turn off the building's water supply, but a guy in the hardware store told us we could slip them off and on without worrying about that. Although, they were so old that just removing and turning the screws would turn on and off the water. Here is a photo after changing the first two and with the old one still on for a good comparison shot:

Additionally, we had crown molding installed in our living room and dining room area. There is a molding supply place nearby our home, so again we went out and purchased ones that resembled our baseboards and hired a "contractor" to put them up and paint them white for us. Our place is small so it didn't take too long, except we had to move all our furniture and cover it with tarps. Thus, the putting back and cleaning up after was a needed hassle. Here's our new molding, it's now hard to remember our place without it:

Another quick fix, we removed the plate like light above the vanity with a more modern dome with chrome fixtures. Raphael did this one, with me holding the flashlight. At first all our electricity in the room went out, but it all came back to normal once the new light was installed.
Before:

After:


Easter Sunday before working on the lights, we had headed to church in Beverly Hills (my first time there, since we usually go to Santa Monica) and although it wasn't my intentions it was perfect for some celeb spotting, lol. There were a bunch of faces I recognized from sitcoms, but ones I never knew the names for in the first place. I did recognize Timothy Olyphant, the handsome bad guy from Scream 2 and Live Free or Die Harder, who was there with his family. After church we brunched with friends at Literati 2, where the Bellini and champagne easily went to my head.

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Flipping out about the flip

A few weeks ago the Flip Video Ultra camcorder came to my attention and I became obsessed with wanting one. I read all the reviews on Amazon and the information on their site and knew it would be perfect for a blogger to have due to its easy USB video upload and purse fitting size. It also comes in pink, which really was the straw on this camel’s back. Plus, the attractive relatively cheap price of $142 on Amazon was very enticing too. After some legwork though I was able to get Pure Digital Technologies to send me a 60 minute Flip Ultra in black to review. I received it two days ago and have been playing with it ever since.

About the size of the original iPods, but lighter and with similar intuitive controls, this camcorder is super easy to use. I hate reading directions, in fact I never do (much to Raphael’s chagrin). Basically if I can’t figure out how to use a product without directions, then I’m not a fan. It was easy putting in their double A batteries and turning it on and setting the date and time. My first using the device was yesterday at the Glam.com happy hour on unsuspecting PopBytes author (see post below). Then, I went home popped up the USB tab and uploaded the video. The application and software loaded immediately, no CD or work on my part. Then I had options to edit the video, add sound, effects and/or upload it directly to YouTube, MySpace Video and AOL. The file size was a lot clearer in its full version, but when I chose to publish the video to the web it automatically converted it into a file size that was only 1MB, so a smaller format to upload and share. However, once you resize it to for web use, the quality goes down a bit. If you want to preserve the original higher quality you can do that and load it onto a DVD or use their DVD service, where you bring the file to to an authorized Pure Digital retailer (CVS, Rite Aid, Longs, etc.) for custom DVDs

It also records up to 60 or 30 minutes of video depending on which model you buy, and no tapes or memory cards are required since the memory and storage is automatically in the device. You can also capture still photos too and besides pink the flip comes in orange, black or white.

BUT how is this different then my Cannon Power Shot camera with video though? Well, it is better looking (yes, I’m a sucker for that) and for video it’s really easy for me to use and edit and upload video for my blog. I also hope it will help me to record more videos without getting out my bulkier camcorder either like I did two years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival red carpets. With the flip I’d have everything in one and could upload video that night to my blog and other sites. I also like that it records high quality video and web video depending on what I need it for. The only negative is that the zoom isn't that powerful, so this is more for up close handheld shots.

So now I’m going to buy the pink version and get the water proof case accessory for some snorkel shots on my honeymoon trip to Hawaii (note to self: You really need to start booking and planning that btw, 6 months to go). Here's a quick video I did of the flip boxing and of my desk at work.

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Glam Media Happy Hour

Tonight I headed to the 2nd Glam.com happy hour for local L.A. network bloggers held this year at The Belmont Cafe in West Hollywood. I got to see some familiar faces again--the awesome M.K. from PopBytes, LA Story's chic Stevie Wilson, HollyScoop and the sweet Sandra from Debutante Clothing.

Among some calamari and wine, I also met some new bloggers: a former Jersey couple with the healthy food blog Dani Spies (do check out their video on making chocolate covered strawberries, just make sure you eat first because now my stomach is growling); Maegan with truebrideconfessions.com & truemomconfessions.com; and Robert from Coochicoos, a modern parent's resource to innovative baby design.

Using a Flip camcorder (I'll blog about that soon) I asked PopBytes for the latest celebrity gossip live, enjoy:

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My Little Cupcake

My Los Angeles Cupcakes Meetup Group headed to My Little Cupcake in Studio City this past weekend.

I had heard mixed reviews and I think in the end we were still mixed. The strawberry cupcake was very moist and we all liked that it had real strawberry bits inside. The other cupcakes though were a bit dry or at least not as moist. Besides their big cupcakes they also sold mini ones for only $1.00, which is cool. Their Hi Hat cupcake is interesting, it has a marshmallow on top and the entire chocolate cupcake is dipped in chocolate. Other members liked their red velvet cupcake, Bugs Bunny (organic carrot cake) and their Reese's one. The owners come from Israel and say they have been around for a year and a half now, but baking for four. There are tables outside, but it was a windy day and their balloons tied to the chairs kept hitting us. (Photos). One of our newer group members, Laura, also designs cakes, you can check them out at Cakes by Mom.

Oh, and I wore my new cupcake ring (I'm obsessed!) from SorryImLate.etsy.com. Thank you PulpSushi for tipping me off about the online store

PS: Top 50 Los Angeles Blogs -- guess who is number 10!?

Also, pretty please vote for me as Best Lifestyle blog in the Glam Network Awards. Thank you!

PPS: I just rode the elevator with actor Grant Show from Melrose Place. His hair was a bit longer and he looked tan and comfortable in jeans and a tight dark tee. He's looking older, but sexier too. I had jumped into the elevator just as the doors were closing and nearly collided with him. As I did, I was like, "he looks familiar." Then it came to me as we rode the next few stories together. He was talking with another guy, his agent/publisist perhaps?

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Roundtrip to Seattle

On Friday I caught the 8 a.m. flight to Seattle for a new biz pitch and was then back on the 6:10 p.m. flight to LAX. So a 2.5 hour flight there and another back. *sigh*

Here is what I saw of Seattle:




Flying back I was seated next to an older Latin woman who spoke very little English. As soon as she sat down she told me with tears swelling in her sad eyes that she was headed to Guadalajara because her mom was sick and she just found out. She had a four-hour layover in LAX and was taking the 1:15 a.m. flight from there. I don't speak Spanish very well, but I can understand a good deal and it seemed to be the same for her with English, so we somehow managed to talk the entire flight with hand gestures and in our own languages with each other's mixed in. We shared photos of loved ones and some more tears together. A mother of four, she (Ophelia) also confided that she had nine brothers and sisters. It turned out that she was fighting with one hermana (sister) and hadn't talked to her in 21 years and she was upset that she was going to be there too, but she said she wasn't going to make a big deal in front of her sick mother. I asked why they hadn't talked in so long. Apparently, the sister married her now ex-husband, my gaping reaction after I translated what she said must have been comical, telenovellas got nothing on this conversation. Anyway, it was a somber flight. I walked her to her next gate after landing and we hugged goodbye.

It's weird that in one aisle on a flight from Seattle to LAX, there I was traveling for business, Ophelia for a family emergency and the other woman in our row was visiting friends. During the breaks in our conversation, I tried speculating why the other families and travelers were headed to Los Angeles, a wedding, Disney Land, business? Interesting to think about the different reasons why we were all on that plane.

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How I Didn't Meet Your Mother

I'm jealous, Raphael got to attend a St. Patrick's Day party with the How I Met Your Mother cast this evening to celebrate the return of the show. I couldn't go (not that I was invited) since I was at a Sex and the City girls night out party (yes it was a night of TV show parties apparently). Bob Saget was also in attendance since he narrates the CBS comedy show. At least I had already saw/took photos of Neil Patrick Harris at that Heroes art gallery event that we went to back in the fall.

So today's photos/scoop are from blog contributor, When Raphael Met Blog:

Above is HIMYM cast members Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Bob Saget's back (apparently he was with a hot young chick).

Oh and I love the below YouTube HIMYM "Suit Up" montage. I crack up every time Barney says "this is totally going into my blog" (my poor friends can relate to hearing that!).

News: Britney Spears Having a 'Blast' on How I Met Your Mother

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The City That Care Forgot

Although downtown New Orleans looked normal and fun during my visit with no visible signs of post Katrina/Levee breeches to this outsider, we did take a tour of the Greater New Orleans area to the unfortunate 9th Ward area.

After the levees broke back in the summer of 2005, a total of over 1,500 people died. I swear I didn't know it was that high of a number, probably because the final numbers weren't released till way afterwards and by then it wasn't getting the same amount of coverage. This part of our tour was of course very somber, looking at miles and miles of devastation. Empty lots with just metal gates and cement slabs still remaining in empty squares of grass where homes used to stand and people lived. Graffiti markings on the still standing but ruined homes, marking the day when rescuers were finally able to search the homes for bodies or for life. Piles and piles of rubbage, toys and roofs. Terrible. I'll let our snapped photos do the rest of the talking though.

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A little bit of this and a little bit of that

During our Texas/Louisiana road trip we sampled some new tastes, treats and drinks.

In The Big Easy we tried some yummy Creole gumbo at The Gumbo Shop as well as turtle soup (tasted like gravy) and spicy fried aligator (good but hot) at Felix's:

For drinks we had to sip Pat O'Brien's famous hurricanes (and received a to go mix from my friend and author Farrah). I also tried my first ever Mint Juliep after hearing the Southern drink mentioned in Gone with the Wind, Golden Girls and in many books--it was strong and left me more than tipsy.

The Mint Juliep was later followed by a Grenade, which apparently has absinthe in it. Who knew? I didn't halucinate like shown in Moulin Rouge, but I definitely didn't need another drink that night. Take a look:

For breakfast we hit the famous Cafe DuMonde for their yummy French beignets, which are a lot like Italian Zeppolis or fried dough with powdered sugar.

Oh and while in Alvin Texas I had the best BBQ ever at Joe's BBQ Company. To die for! The baked potato with all the fixings was the size of my head.

Lastly, I hit the Hey Cupcake!-mobile cupcake stand in Austin for a Vanilla Dream.

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San Jacinto

Or "San Jack" as the locals call this city outside of Houston, which houses the San Jacinto Museum of History. It looks like the Washington Monument, but with a 220-ton Texas star at the top that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, a decisive victory in the Texas Revolution. Like the building in D.C., this monument also has a reflecting pool in front of it.

Being a Yankee I knew little about Texas' independence from Mexico, but names like The Alamo and Davy Crockett definitely rang a bell and I learned more during my visit and enjoyed the view from the observation deck at the top.

Here I am trying to climb the 570-foot column:

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Spent the weekend

in Austin playing with this kitty (Gianni), he's older now, but his baby video is adorable, Cute Overload move over, you've seen it here first.

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Ms. Tara

Today I visited my friend's 2nd grade classroom in San Antonio. We had crashed at her place the night before and had to drop off her key while she was still at school. So Raphael and I checked in at the school's main office and received hall passes and were then told to look for the orange hallway, but first passing the blue and yellow ones.

After introducing us to her kids as Ms. Tara and Mr. Raphael, we toured her colorful classroom and met each student. Just as we were about to leave to head to Austin, I was asked if I wanted to read a story to the class. I couldn't resist the chance, especially after little Giovani handed me his own library book to read-Mrs. Smith Reads Again. They all sat quietly on the little carpet as I read a tale about dinosaurs as animately as I could while still holding the book outwards so they could see the pictures. I loved it.

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