Giveaway!!

Yes, its true! I am doing my very first giveaway because I know everyone loves to win cool, free stuff right??


This is officially my 100th post on this little bloggy of mine. Woohoo! 


So, in honor of that little bit of excitement and the even better news that summer is here I decided I should get the future winner something that would be fun and perfect to share and impress their friends with at the next summer gathering.


Drum roll puuuh-leaseeee...

From one of my favorite shops...

What could be inside??

Cupcake gear, duh!

So, the winner will receive Sprinkle's famous Red Velvet cupcake mix (trust me, it tastes EXACTLY like what you get in the store!) and the world's cutest baking cups and decorations to make your summer BBQ a hit!

Summer is, after all, about good BBQ's with good company.


So...you enter in the usual way: 
1. be a follower of "Made with Butter and Love" and leave a comment on this post about what you are looking forward to most this summer
2. Blog about this giveaway 
3. Be my follower on pinterest




Easy peasey right?


I hope you all enter! Have a great week! :)
The winner will be announced one week from today!

Day Trip: Hollywood & Beverly Hills

Last weekend I some girlfriends and I went for a day trip to LA.  It was so great to see these girls. They all have so much going on in their lives (furture actress moving to the UK, love bird moving to Canada and future producer taking no prisoners in LA) and I am so excited for them!

 

We went out had some dinner, did some shopping, did some drinking and dancing. The next morning we went on a search for breakfast. We ended up at Urth Cafe (no, we didn't see anyone famous...so disappointing). 

They had some great looking treats and their lattes were my favorite thing. Someday I will learn how to make these designs!

The food was good but the baguette that came on the side was TO DIE FOR. Also, they serve you a salad with breakfast...? Is that normal in LA? I definitely don't think of a mixed green and balsamic salad at 8 am in the morning.

Happy Monday! :)

PS- Stay tuned for something exciting.. :)

Specialty's

I drive by Specialty's Bakery every day on my way to work and think "hmm, I should really try that place".  It took me three months to finally make my way over there to enjoy their tasty little shop. 

It was also joined with a Peet's Coffee. Heaven sent, I know.

Not only was it nice, clean and organized - the food was great and the service was very good. I swear, customer service makes all the difference! One interesting thing was that they had "self-serve" type computers where you could place your order if the line was really long. I passed on that to actually go to the counter but it sounds like a pretty efficient idea.

I went for the goat cheese, berry and spinach salad which came with its delightful little friend also known as rosemary focaccia bread. It was really satisfying!

This story sounds incomplete doesn't it? What comes after lunch? 

COOKIES...obviously!

I remember my dad raving about this joint's cookies. He served them at a company event once and said they were the best he's had. That is saying a lot because we get to enjoy Paradise Bakery cookies on a pretty regular basis. His bold statement popped into my mind while ordering so I just haddd to order a semi-sweet chocolate chip cookie. Pull my arm.

The girl at the counter seemed very relieved by my order saying "oh good, I don't have to convince you to get a cookie". Tough day at work, sounds like.

So, back to work I went with my delicious lunch in toe. Specialty's is a chain so if you happen to have one near you I highly recommend it for a cozy little lunch.  

Don't forget the cookie!!!

Happy Father's Day

...to all the dads out there. 

And most of all, my wonderful dad.

I love you more than anything pops!

I can't begin to explain how much you mean to me and how lucky I am to be blessed with such incredible parents. Thank you for all you do and have done. I wish you were here today but can't wait to see you guys and hear about Australia in a few days! Love you so muchos!

Happy Father's Day to my amazing Grandfather's too! :)

They are the cutest/best grandparents! I love you both!

And to Mike's Dad who I am celebrating with today since my padre is having a great Aussie Vacation.

I hope your day was full of family and fun!

Fill Ins and Aussie Update

Surprise, Surprise. Brittany is LATE again. Gosh, I told you I am horrible at being on time didn't I?  Sorry about that friends. Here are my Friday fill ins on Saturday. Would you expect anything less from me?

I am headed up to Hollywood today with one of my best friends from college, Rachel. You all might remember her from the 3 day walk. We are meeting two other girls from our sorority and having a girl's night out in LA. I am so excited. I haven't seen these girls in sooo long and haven't had a girls night out in about the same amount of time! oh man. 

So I will be back next week with photos of fun and silly things. For now, here are some suuuper awkward slash awesome pictures of my parents in the outback. They have been in Australia visiting my brother for the past two weeks and come home in a few days.  Without further adieu, please enjoy.

1.   The last movie I saw was      Little Fockers. We tried to watch that last night but I definitely fell asleep before anything happened. So in real life, the last one was X-men: First Class. Not half bad if I do say so myself   .

2.  I want to    have a looong vacation and not have to go back to work!!!  

3.  Surprises are     exciting! I am easily fooled so you could definitely pull something past me. I on the other hand am horrible at surprises because I can not lie or keep a straight face to save my life  .

4.  The best accessory is   earings or a bag...or in my case today a sparkly headband .

5.  My favorite warm drink is     a plain latte, which I am drinking at the very minute. Second place goes to hot chocolate.  .

6.  My favorite cold drink is       beer (dos equiss amber)   .

7.  Currently loving       the possibilities that the future holds. now just gotta get some courage and jump!    

PS- my brother met Carrie Underwood in Australia last night and gave her a flower. What a (lucky) gentleman right?

A Weekend Captured

I was so happy to have 75% of my weekend free from work. I tried my best to document the weekend in photos. I'll admit I forgot to take pictures of a lot of things but here is what I got over the past two days. How was your weekend? Lovely, I hope.

 

1.  Peonies. Trader Joe's floral section gets me everytime!

2.  Brownies anyone? (They were an experiment and lets just say it was an epic fail. So no, you do not want these brownies but the picture was cute!)

3. Taking a drive along the bay. Taylor loves the wind in her face! The view ain't to bad either.

4.  Sparkly pink nails. My favorite.

5. X-men movie date. Mike's choice obvi, but it was good.

6. Trying to get back in shape...trying...

7. Beach side breakfast with my loves. Chocolate chip pancakes...I have no shame. (This really contradicts picture #7...wow. go me! haha)

8.  Winding down the weekend with a glass of vino and Tay is already down for the count.

It was a wonderful weekend! Now for another week of work then I have a girl's weekend in LA with some college friends. Can't wait.

I never promised you a rose garden..

That title was just an excuse to give a shout out to my girl Martina and an oldie but a goodie song of hers. 

So I left work early last week because I had nothing more to do so naturally I come home and start making cupcakes. This time was known to my co-workers as "working from home". SHH :)

I needed to practice my rose making so I frosted each cupcake with a rose.

Here is my rose garden for you all. Enjoy

And then they were gone...mmmm :)

Mission Pedicure: FAILED

In case you were wondering, it is impossible to get a pedicure before the lunch hour in Pacific Beach. Ugh, what a waste of a morning I have had!  My girlfriend and I woke up early to go to a 6 am boot camp only to find out that they signed up too many people and were full [fail], then I schedule a massage (yay!) to find out that the therapist did not show up for work today [fail x 2], then drove around for an hour to find somewhere to get a pedicure and found nothing [fail x 3].

What a morning right?!

So, instead I am going to lay on the couch with Tay and watch a movie. I don't think it is possible to fail at that!

Happy Friday! Here are my fill in's.... :)

1.   This weekend I'm       going to lay at the beach with Mike and Tay (as long as this weather gets better - its gray and wet!)   and      try to sleep in :) my favorite thing   .

2.  My last vacation was    New Years in Mexico...wow has it been that long???  .

3.  My next vacation will be     not on the books, sadly! I want to go to Chicago next month but we shall seeeee  .

4.  My favorite way to relax is   cuddle up in bed with a movie or good book and have a good candle burning .

5.  When vacationing one should always     do as much as possible! take advantage of those random opportunities .

6.  When vacationing one should never       skip out on french fries, drinks, ice cream or whatever it might be. life is too short to worry about that on vaca!   .

7.  The best part about a vacation is       everything...there is nothing bad about it  .

PrepKitchen Del Mar

As you all know, my younger brother has been studying abroad in Australia for the past sememster and he is in his final month.  He is really bummed to be coming home soon because he has really come to love Australia - kangaroos and all.  For the next two weeks he will be living the high life because my parents just landed in Brisbane and the three of them are going to travel for two weeks together! First stop = great barrier reef. Tough. Life. 

So before my parents left on another trip of a lifetime (they travel like it's their job - needless to say I am jealous).  They drove down to North County San Diego to have dinner with me, Mike and a relative who was in town from Maryland. We went to PrepKitchen and it is officially one of my favorite restaurants. It has an amazing atmosphere and the food was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.  

mom & rick

dad & me & mike

We started with a "cutting board" of different meats, cheeses, crackers and veg. I had an amazing trout dish and the boys had their pork chop special. Let's just say our plates were cleared. Everything was outstanding. Then we moved onto dessert, of course.

We had the best bread pudding I have ever had in my existence, some double chocolate cookies and a salted, caramel, fudge brownie. Don't act like your mouth isn't watering.

We

Obviously

Hated

Everything

....

Good meals with the people you love are some of the best times and best memories. I love that we found a great new place that we will probably be coming back to.

Have you guys found any great restaurants lately??