Here's the story since I truly need to explain. This time, I called on my buddy Duncan to help me bake lemon cupcakes.
First batch: Fail. I didn't fill the cups enough so they were all sunken in and had mysterious (though I found out nonpoisonous) brown spots on top.
Second batch: Eh. They were bright yellow and WAY poofed up (since I filled them extra) and a little soft on top. I put them in the fridge over night so I could frost them this morning. And here's where I really went wrong...I put the frosting in the fridge. When I pulled it out this morning, that hard icing combined with the smushy yellow cupcake tops...you know the rest.
After much prompting from my co-workers, I went back home around lunchtime to pick them up and bring them to work anyway. I was originally too distressed to bring in my hideous baking fail. At least they tasted good...
Note: Bottom right corner was the last one I frosted. Can you tell I was angry?
Monday, November 29
Today was a fairly epic day in the life of Ashley Barnas. I went to Trader Joe's for the first time ever and my life was changed. OK, maybe it wasn't that epic, but it was certainly a benchmark in my life. How have I never been to Trader Joe's before? Thank goodness for my friend/co-worker Vikki, who decided it was time for me to take that big step. In addition to all the fun stuff I found, I had to buy the cute reusable bag, too. That means I'll definitely be going back.
Sunday, November 28
I know I've taken so many photos of Oakey's autumn leaves already, but when I came home for Thanksgiving this weekend, Oakey was almost all bear except for the beautiful red, purple and emerald leaves on top.
Saturday, November 27
Celebrating Mikey's 18th birthday while the whole family's together in one place
Friday, November 26
Colin's first Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 25
Through Oma's front door
Wednesday, November 24
My first attempt at making sugar cookies from scratch. I got the recipe with the Christmas cookie cutters Mom gave me and then realized I don't have a rolling pin yet! Alas, I was stuck with making your typical round sugar cookies rather than fun snowman and gingerbread man cookies. Looks like my next fun purchase is a rolling pin.
Tuesday, November 23
I have been hoping to find a hook to keep my keys by the door, and guess where I found one! Why, Anthropologie, of course.
Monday, November 22
Full moon
Sunday, November 21
Saying hello to an old friend. I have been wanting to dig up my Polaroid camera for a new photo adventure and my mom finally found it for me. Now if I can only track down some film...
Saturday, November 20
David Ledford, editor of The News Journal, gave me great tickets to today's University of Delaware football game. It was awesome to be able to go to the big game against Villanova.
Friday, November 19
This week's Anything Once adventure was learning how to bake bread at the Black Lab in Little Italy.
Thursday, November 18
Today was the day. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Shockingly enough, I did not see the midnight showing (as I have for the past six movies), but I did get to shoot a man-on-the-street and talk to some of the crazy fans decked out in their best Harry Potter costumes. Sadly, all I have to offer is this cell phone pic (which was taken the night I FINALLY saw the movie, Thanksgiving Eve...sorry today's photo is a big time cheat on my part).
Wednesday, November 17
After a blustery evening, I awoke to find the first leaves on my welcome mat!
Tuesday, November 16
An unusually slow day in the office means it's time to clean the keyboards
Monday, November 15
For the final "25 Who Matter" I got to visit the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association to meet some rowers and go out on the water with them. Difficult to grab a still image from all the movement on the water, so here's the video:
Sunday, November 14
More than four months ago, after my job interview at The News Journal, my mom and I explored the area around New Castle. That's when we first discovered the glorious Anthropologie in my mall. And that's when I fell in love with this bird lamp. I finally decided enough was enough...I caved and bought it for myself at an early Christmas present.
Saturday, November 13
Sunset in the nation's capital
Friday, November 12
It's a tie for today's photo. I was having a very reflective day in New York City as you can see.
Thursday, November 11
A night I'll never forget...seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Breathtaking.
Wednesday, November 10
I'm officially a real person and my apartment is complete now that I have a welcome mat!
Tuesday, November 9
Today was an AMAZING Wawa experience. Daniel and I left the office for an afternoon adventure. It's important to mention that this would be Daniel's first Wawa experience...something that is bound to happen sooner or later once you move to Delaware.
I was fully set on getting a coffee, but then I saw - drumroll - a milkshake machine. Say what!? I knew I had to be adventurous and get - no, MAKE - a Wawa milkshake. I turned to Daniel and said, "You can make milkshakes in Wawa!? For real!?" And he just laughed at me and pointed out that the milkshakes are actually made by the "Milkshakes." brand. Even better, the milkshake mixes said, "F'real" on them. No lie.
After staring at the machine in awe, I decided on a cookies and cream milkshake and Daniel got the same. I followed the step-by-step instructions, taking it very slowly so as not to make a mistake and, quite honestly, to relish every moment. A man at the coffee stand looked at me, clearly baffled by my joy at the discovery of the machine, and said, "It doesn't take a college degree to work that thing." Yeah, yeah. Cut me some slack. I was entranced! So, that's my glorious story behind today's thousand a day. It was one heck of a Wawa memory.
Monday, November 8
Sunday, November 7
Saturday, November 6
My Ya-Ya sister, Caitlin, is now the proud mommy of an English chocolate lab puppy. We threw her and Westin a puppy shower and just cooed over him, in addition to giving him and Caitlin lots of fun presents.
Friday, November 5
It was my first time being captain of the football ship tonight since Andre was out of town. I knew I was in for an intense night, so I'm really happy I survived it. Damian and Daniel brought their game tapes back for me and I edited theirs first before working on my two games. Lesson learned tonight: I much prefer being Gilligan to Skipper.
Rather than try to take a still from those videos, here is one of the games I shot this week:
Thursday, November 4
I got to partake in a unique Delaware tradition today. Return Day is held the Thursday after Election Day in Georgetown, Del. (Sussex County), and celebrates the end of the election season. Marching bands and politicians parade around the square, the town crier announces the returns and the opposing candidates literally bury a hatchet. Well, they hold the hatchet up together and then pass it off to party leaders who proceed to place the hatchet in a glass box and then fill it with sand. The only downfall to this awesome day was the off-and-on (though mostly on) rain. Daniel and I got to team up for this assignment, so we combined our footage to produce two videos later that night (we captured the footage on the long drive back to the office...very MoJo - mobile journalist - of us).
Here's the sights and sounds video I edited:
And the official ceremony video Daniel edited:
Wednesday, November 3
Another adventure with Justin Williams for "Anything Once." This time, he spent a morning working as a toll booth collector on Del. 1. The story runs Sunday, Nov. 14.
Here's a still from my morning video after O'Donnell finished voting.
I had the afternoon off and returned to the office after the polls closed. I waited for Damian and Daniel to come back with the tapes of O'Donnell, Coons, Urquhart and John Carney delivering their victory/concession speeches. (Here is O'Donnell's concession speech and Coons' victory speech videos.) While I was editing, David Ledford, the editor-in-chief, came over to show me the front page design with its glorious headline. It was, as we like to say to each other, "off the hook."
Monday, November 1
Another adventure with Justin Williams, this time for a special feature other than Anything Once. We spent a morning in Smyrna learning how to harvest cranberries. I'll post the story and video after they run Wednesday.
Sunday, October 31
Daddy's adorable pumpkin with melon friends
Saturday, October 30
Baby meets baby at Amanda Maloney's baby shower. We played the baby pin game where each person gets a pin and if they are caught saying "baby," they lose the pin to the person who catches them. It's a struggle. Now, I can say baby as much as I want.
Baby.
Friday, October 29
Favorite tree outside my apartment
