Mini Haul, Birthday Celebrations and Martha Stewart's Lies

Around the time of my birthday (which was about a week ago, by the way) I happened to be in the city and do a little shopping. I meant to take some more pictures of things like my birthday cake and meal and such for more of a lifestyle and photography post, but I didn't really take many pictures and I kind of forgot to bring my camera along. Which is why I have never done a lifestyle post to this day. But don't worry, there's some coming (hopefully).

When I went shopping I obviously had to see if there was anything I could purchase for spring and summer or as a little birthday treat for myself. And Of course there were a few things.

Isn't it lovely to see things basking in the sunlight?

Sweater- Joe Fresh Skirt- Walmart

Covergirl Flamed Out Shadow Pencil in Ginger Flame

Joe Fresh Nail Varnish in Melon

And some fake flowers to add some cheer to my room

These were some of the things I bought myself whilst shopping.

I also had a few friends over and we had tea and cake and crappy macarons (more on that below.)

There were people there, I didn't just have a tea party by myself, geez. I would just rather protect their identity.

So onto the macaron story. So some of you may have seen the recent Martha Stewart Living magazine cover. You know, the one with all the gorgeous macarons on the cover? (Sorry, I couldn't find a picture.)  I decided I was going to attempt to make them. I knew macarons were difficult to make as I had made them before from some recipe I found on a blog somewhere in cyberspace and they worked out well, but I have no idea where that recipe is anymore. But I thought, it's Martha Stewart, it couldn't be that bad of a recipe. Besides, at Christmas time I made some gorgeous caramel from a Martha Stewart Living recipe. I was wrong. Very wrong. That said, it might not be completely Martha's or whoever wrote the recipe's fault. It might be partially mine. First of all, there was no cream of tartar in the recipe. Anything I've ever made that has had a meringue base, has cream of tartar. I realize that Martha and crew were trying to do macarons for under twenty five cents per macaron, but is it really necessary to cut a necessary ingredient out of a recipe for the sake of it being inexpensive!? And, really, how expensive is it for a canister of cream of tartar?! It's like three of four dollars, at the most and you only use a teaspoon or two for every batch. Secondly, macarons are made from ground almonds which you can either grind yourself or buy already ground. We happened to have an unopened package of already ground almonds that my mom told me I could use to get rid of. Perfect, right? Wrong again. The recipe wanted you to grind your own almonds. Therefore, I had no measurements of the volume I needed for already ground almonds. I then spent twenty minutes googling how to convert this and ended up attempting to add and multiply thirds and eighths. No thank you. So I took a very wrong educated guess. I must of added too many because the macarons came out heavy instead of light and airy. They were edible, but did not have the right texture. Also, the recipe was supposed to make 25 sandwich biscuits, instead it made seven. The only good thing about the recipe was they were edible and Martha's suggested flavours were amazing and worked rather well, especially the espresso one.

Despite my macaron situation and issues with Martha Stewart, I really had a lovely Birthday "weekend" filled with good food and company. I hope you guys are all enjoying March so far. I'm really enjoying it so far and there's even better things to come, which is really exciting. Cheers!