MugSwap '14: The Final Report & Link Up

Good morning, mug lovers!!!!

I'm about to call MugSwap '14 a wrap, but before I do, let's recap!!

1164 people participated! WOW. I originally was going to stick to 500 swappers, but by 8:40AM we passed that number, so we went to 1000. After all the assignments were sent out, I opened up a few additional spots, and added another 164. CRAZY. You guys are crazy. In the best way.

If you haven't done so yet, you should check out #mugswap14 on Instagram, there are nearly 2000 pictures of you guys shopping and swapping and sipping. It's amazing. I love seeing everyone's mugs, and hearing what cool things have come about because of something so silly as a mug swap. 

I have been so encouraged by those of you who have shared how the Mug Swap has encouraged or been something special for you. I received two emails, one of which I wanted to share with you guys, because they're just too special not to share:

I ran into my cute, local friends shopping for their mugs, which is one of my favorite things!

Received some goodies, from a really sweet swapper!!

We had 23 amazing, and I really mean, AMAZING giveaway sponsors!!!
And two of you won all this loot!!!

And, my most, most, most favorite part of this whole thing, we were able to bless the Hopper Family in an incredible way. Thank you all who donated to their adoption fund. Susan will have to share more about this on her end at some point! In the end, we actually sent almost $2500!! 

And a few more business items before I get to the link up:

1. If you have not gotten your mug yet, as of your mail delivery today, please email me - I will do one mug follow up today, and today only for anyone who's mug has not been received yet. Please EMAIL ME at cuppakim@gmail.com.  I can only do this once, and only today. I know there are quite a lot of unreceived mugs, and I'm really bummed for you. I really hope that you were able to make a friend and find the joy in at least the sending portion of the swap.

2. If you have not SENT your mug by now, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not ruin this for someone. Please email me AND your person (their email is in your assignment email) and let us know you will be sending it this week. There are a lot of people still waiting, and it really is too bad that they haven't gotten theirs yet. Please don't ruin the mug swap experience for someone else! You made a pinky promise when you signed up.

3. And lastly, and this is the BIG news: I'm going to be planning a new swap in EARLY 2015. I'm talking January here. If you don't already, follow along on Instagram for more info, as this will be where I will be providing hints and announcements about the upcoming swap. Stay tuned for details!!! 

Alright, now, your turn! I know some of you have some great stories to tell, so link them up here!!

Link up here!!!

Mug Swap 2013: The Final Report & Link Up

The Mug Swap, by the numbers:

Total Participants: 877
American Participants: 829
Canadian Participants: 20
International Participants: 28
Countries Represented: US, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Germany, Spain, France, Slovakia, and Turkey
States Represented: 50
Coffee Drinkers: 583
Tea Drinkers: 177
Hot Chocolate Drinkers: 108
1st Time Mug Swappers: 754
2nd Time Mug Swappers: 104
3rd Time Mug Swappers: 17
Instagrams with the #mugswap2013: 1608

Thank you to KatyGirl, who was the button designer & recipient of approximately 3471 texts regarding this swap.

Thank you to Steve Jobs  (may he RIP), for the greatest invention of all time and AT&T and my unlimited texting and data plan.

Thank you to Sergey Brin, provider of all things Google, and the magical form and mail merge spreadsheet which made sending 877 emails possible, without sacrificing my sanity. 

Thank you to THIS guy for his YouTube tutorial on sending mail merges via Google Docs.

Thank you to Instagram, for being the coolest social media app in the world - allowing for a little blogiversary celebration to go viral, and connecting me with hilarious people who send me things like this:

Thank you to the Mug Swap sponsors, many of whom reached out to me offering giveaway goodies, and who received an average of 3 emails each, full of annoying questions from me, because I'm new at this.

Thank you to my Keurig, for taking an insane amount of mug pics for instagramming purposes, as well as fueling each day.

Thanks to all of you for wanting to participate in something like this, and for making the mug swap the fun that it is! Which is the whole reason I do it, because it's FUN.

Thank you to those of you willing to go above and beyond, who replaced broken mugs, sent mugs to those whose didn't show up, sent me kind and encouraging emails, and who have just done lovely things for one another.

Thank you to Susan, Jaime,  Lesley, Hannah, Jenna, Christine, & Rachel who sent some awesome goodies to me. You ladies spoiled me rotten.

Thank you to mugs everywhere for being willing to fly through the skies. From east to west, and west to east. To leave stocked full shelves in Targets, Anthropologie, and World Markets, to join motley mug collections in cupboards across the globe.

And finally, Thank you to the USPS, who, as we all know, are the real heroes of the Mug Swap.
Hug a mail carrier today!

And a few more business related items:
1. If you haven't gotten your mug yet, and you haven't contacted me about it, please email me: cuppakim@gmail.com 
2. If you have gotten your mug but haven't contacted your sender to let them know you did & say thank you, please do so! If you're a sender and wondering if they got it, shoot them a quick email to confirm.
3. The link up will be open all month, so if you don't have a blog post yet (or your mug yet), link up when you do!
4. I'm a huge dork and asked you whether you liked coffee, tea, or hot cocoa. It only took me two weeks after sending out the assignments to realize I forgot to include this information on the assignments.
5. Lastly, come back and check the link ups when you can! I think there are some really awesome mug stories out there!


Alright, and for the last number, LINK UPS. How many is it gonna be? Write your post, include this button, and link up below!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.acuppakim.com" title="Mug Swap!"><img src="http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j472/CuppaKim/4c850227-5bb0-4159-ba5c-0200ea9fe64e.jpg" alt="Mug Swap!" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

10 on 10: Ten Ordinary Moments on a Friday

10 ordinary moments
In one ordinary day.

Ten moments picked from one very long day.
A Friday.
Better than a Thursday.
Not quite as good as a Saturday.

Not exactly over 10 hours.
More like 18.
Buckle up, here we go...

Waking up and shredding.

And then really waking up, and praying. 

The week's remnants.

These shoes are Fergalicious. For reals. That's their brand. 

This girl. She had a rough week. I take her out on the front porch so we can sit under the lemon tree and relax.

Cupcaking. Sipping on a DC. And trudging through piles and piles of work stuff. 

 Finally, the weekend has arrived, and its time to downsize from purse to clutch.

I mean, this wall was begging to be a 10 on 10 backdrop.

Bread basket.  Garlic butter. Yep.

And ending the evening under these lights.

Ten ordinary moments, turned extraordinary.

Happy Friday, friends.

Linking up here: 

PinterTest Kitchen: Molten Chocolate Cakes

This month I was slacking a bit on my Pintertesting...

Here's one of my problems, if I bake something too delicious I end up eating it all.

So I told Jessica I was bringing my testing over to her kitchen.

Because what is more official than using the official kitchen of the Pintertest kitchen.

Here is my other problem, My Fitness Pal doesn't exactly love a lot of my pins.

So I went hunting for something slightly healthy, but still totally delicious. 

And I think I found something that my Pal would approve of in this recipe.

214 Calories Per Serving, YES PLEASE.

So yesterday afternoon I prepped my ingredients. 

Ziplock bags for the dry, and pyrex with a lid for the wet.

Also, I used sweetened applesauce.

And no cinnamon.

And TWO ounces of chocolate.

I probably would use THREE next time.

Call me a rebel if you must.

Have cooler, will travel.

Later that evening, my sous chef helped me prep dessert.

She also may or may not have coughed into the batter.

And licked it.

Sous chefs do what they want.

Sorry taste testers, what you didn't kill you makes you stronger.

We prepped my ramekins.

Which I was asked "how often do you use those?"

To which I replied "this is the first time."

So mental note: ramekins, suuuuuuper practical.

Also, serve with plenty of vanilla ice cream.

This wasn't enough.

Anyway, I think it was a hit.

Maybe those ramekins will be getting a little more use in the near future.

Linking up with Jessica!

PS Thanks for letting me use your kitchen, I promise I didn't break anything (this time).

PinterTest Kitchen November 2012: Pumpkin Bars Make Me Happy!

The PinterTest Kitchen was one rocking linky last month.
Jess hosts it, and so many people linked up so many great tests!

I have been looking forward to the next one all month.

I also have been looking forward to a reason to use this Pumpkin Butter they sell at Trader Joes.
Thankfully, Mel posted this AWESOME recipe last week, and it was the perfect excuse to make these suckers!

I just never know what to use it for.
Pumpkins turned into butter?
What could be better.

Oh yes. MORE BUTTER.
Like Butter-Butter.
And Butterfinger.

The Butterfinger bars are actually used for sustenance while making this recipe. They are totally optional, and not included in the actual bars. I highly recommend adding this to your process.

Also, get a few helpers if you can.
They are extra good at cleaning up the floors if you spill anything.

Here's the deal - my pictures of the steps are similar to Mel's.
And, also, I was having issues with the focus on my camera - which I discovered later was some weird setting on the viewfinder piece. So I took all of these pictures looking blurry through the camera.
Thankfully, they turned out semi-ok.

I also was staying at my parents for the night while they were out of town for my mom's birthday.
She redid her countertops a year or so ago, and they are kind of my fav.
Also, her kitchen has better lighting than mine.
And she has the best oven.
It was a good day to PinterTest.

Someone was REALLLLLLY hoping for a big mess on the floor.
She was standing by for immediate duty, should there be an incident.
There was no incident.

Another fun part of the PinterTest kitchen is it always falls on the first Thursday of the month.
Communion Sunday falls on the 4th Sunday.
So,  it's the perfect scheduling to make goodies, share them on Sunday, and link up on Thursday!

I had used the Trader Joes vanilla cake mix instead of a name brand yellow cake mix, so there was about 2.5 oz less of mix in my recipe. It was totally fine, but my bars were probably on the gooey-er side.

Which was not a problem for me. 

Also, I wasn't really sure how to get a good picture of the final product on a plate. 

That is a skill I'm going to need to work on a bit next month. 

Also,  remember, viewfinder was out of focus.

Final result?
A+++
I LOVED THESE.
And I am pretty sure everyone at church did too.
The pan came home empty.
And I am 100% certain I'll be making these again ASAP!

I don't know about you, but I feel a little OD'd on pumpkin things these days, but for some reason, these were PERFECT. Kind of like a pumpkin coffee cake. HEAVENLY.  Thanks for sharing the recipe, Mel!

Linking up with Jessica!

You should too!