About

About Me
That's me, and a sloth.
One of the perks of the old job.
Photo courtesy of Doug B.
For most of my life I had known I always wanted to work with animals, but after actually working with animals in a zoo for a year I realized it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do.  I had always loved working with kids and one of my favorite parts about working at the zoo was being able to teach others about conservation and environmentalism.  I enrolled in a local college's post-baccalaureate teacher education program and had just finished my first semester in May 2011 when I decided to start this blog.


About My Blog
Enter Quarter Life Crisis, which is what my life felt like at the time.  I had just quit my job to go back to school and was shattered by the realization that I had been chasing the wrong goal for my entire life.  I was living at home and needed a way to occupy my time, so I decided to fill it with new activities.  I wanted to keep this blog as a way to chronicle all of the changes in my life and hopefully inspire other 20-somethings that were going through similar issues with their own lives.  This blog started with entries about my first 5K, the perils of my garden, some thoughts about my quarter life crisis, and an insane 4th of July cake I decorated for my party.  Since then, it has grown into a blog about working out, cooking, baking, and teaching, as well as quarter life musings.  I hope that when people read Quarter Life Crisis, they will understand that there are others of the millennial generation who, like myself, graduated from college and had nowhere to go except back home, which is totally ok as long as you make the most of it.  I hope you enjoy reading about my trials and tribulations and hope that you are inspired to enrich your lives with food, sports, and old friendships as I have.  


About My Cookie/Cake Decorating
My cake decorating fix started in the fall of 2010 when I took a Wilton cake decorating class at a local high school.  My instructor's name was Rosemary and she made me fall in love with cake decorating.  I learned how to pipe flowers and borders, how to write legibly, how to make my own buttercream and royal icing, how to ice a cake without getting crumbs in the icing, how to dye my frosting, what equipment to buy (and not to buy) - basically everything a novice cake decorator would need to know.  During my quarter life crisis, I was actually toying with the idea of applying to some bakeries or attending pastry school.  However, cookie/cake decorating is more of a hobby than a passion, and I believe my true place is in the classroom.

Clockwise from top left: my first rose, my first cake,
my final project, Thanksgiving cake, engagement
cake for a coworker (not commissioned, just for fun),
details of final project and Thanksgiving cakes. 

About My Recipes
On my site, I have listed many recipes that I have adapted from other sources or made up myself.  You can find these recipes through the recipe label in the side bar or if you just want the recipes themselves, you can find them through my recipe box (more on that below) underneath the header.  I have no formal training in cooking and baking and everything I have learned has been through trial and error, forcing my creations on my friends and family and asking for their opinions, and reading other blogs and articles on the Internet.  I am very proud of many of my recipes and as such ask that if you decide to use them for yourself, please remember to reference back to me or the post related to the recipe (please see the formalities below before sharing a recipe).


About My Recipe Box
In my recipe box located under the header you can find easily printable recipes for every recipe listed on Quarter Life Crisis.  Some of my recipes (like the butterbeer cupcakes) require more than one recipe from the recipe box. I choose to keep each component separate so that you may mix and match recipes and directly print the exact recipe you're looking for.  Any recipes that specifically go together will be mentioned at the top of the page.  You may also print recipes directly from a blog post - click on the "print friendly" button at the bottom of the post and simply click on any extraneous paragraph that you do not want to print.


Some Formalities...
Everything on this site (blog posts, pictures, and recipes) is protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means the following:
- You must attribute all work on this site (blog posts, recipes, etc) to Quarter Life Crisis if you choose to share it in any medium.  If you reference a blog post, provide a link back to the original QLC blog post.  If you use or adapt a recipe, provide a link back to the original QLC post about that recipe.  You may not use pictures unless you have consent from me.
- You may not use any of this work for commercial purposes.  For example, you cannot submit a recipe from QLC to a bake-off or other cooking competition.  You may not profit off of the recipes on this site as well.  If you want to sell something, it needs to be an original.
- As stated above, you may share this work as long as credit is given back to QLC in the appropriate manners listed above.

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this, I hope you continue to enjoy reading Quarter Life Crisis! If you have any questions, comments, or inquiries please feel free to email me at alibqlc@gmail.com!

3 comments:

  1. I'm having a very similar problem, I started out in one path and realized that it really wasn't where I belonged. I definitely look forward to seeing where your journey takes you!! :)

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  2. Thanks for adding me on Tasty Kitchen! I think I can relate a lot to your whole quarter-life crisis thing - I'm in my late 20s and definitely thought I'd have my life more "in order" by now. I started my blog (http://waikatohouse.blogspot.com) because I felt like I needed a creative outlet. Looking forward to trying your waffle tips!

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  3. This is a great blog idea! I'm 24 and believe I'm currently going through a quarter life crisis. I've worked in Admin for nearly four years and my life isn't how I thought it would be. I've started blogging as well as a creative outlet. Nice to know us quarter lifers are not alone in this! :) xx

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