Yesterday was my 21st birthday! It was mostly low-key, meaning my boy took me shopping & we finished with a small cake (above, from Bolo) and 21 pink-lipped roses at home ♥ On Saturday as more birthday celebration however, I'll be going to shop in New York City with Dalin of La Vida Frills & Miss Lumpy!



And my favorite birthday present from my boy - this giant Hello Kitty pillow/plushie! So soft and has her pretty sleepy eyelashes. I call her Sleepy Kitty and she is just perfect for snuggling.

In America, 21 is a milestone because you can now legally buy alcohol in shops and restaurants and bars, as well as be admitted to clubs where alcohol is present. I'm really interested in the art of bartending, especially the kind involving flaming drinks, dessert liquors, and rims of glasses frosted with sugar. I'm a Cancer on the western zodiac, which means I should be good at cooking and creating - but instead my gift manifests through mixed drinks. So here are two cute ones to enjoy, including the one I drank at my party.

(note: please do not imbibe if you are below the legal age of your country, I'm not encouraging you to get trashed, stay classy, etc.)

(left, Birthday Cake Martini; right, local berry wine)

Birthday Cake Martini

You'll need a martini shaker for this one! If you don't have a martini shaker, you can use two glasses, one with ice and one without, by transferring it back and forth. Make sure to strain the ice so that it's not in your drink, where it will melt and water down the flavor.

-two parts pineapple juice
-one part vanilla vodka
-three parts amaretto
-maraschino cherry

Pour ingredients over ice in your shaker, shake, then pour into martini glass. I pre-coated my glass with pink sugar to pep up the biscuit color of the martini. You can also float some sprinkles on the drink for extra festivity.

How to Rim a Glass with Sugar

There are two ways to rim a glass. The first is to take a lemon wedge and run it around the edge of the glass, then tap the glass into a dish of sugar. The other is to tap the glass onto a sponge with water - useful is you don't want a lemon flavor on your drink. There are also 'rimming kits' which are two parts, a sponge dish for the water or juice and a flat dish for pouring your salt or sugar.

Cotton Candy Cosmo

-1 1/2 ounces SKYY vodka
-1/2 ounces X-Rated Fusion liquor
-1 ounce cranberry juice
-cotton candy (check drugstores or candy stores, as it's usually a fair/carnival find - sometimes they sell bags or tubs at CVS)

Shake ingredients in your martini shaker over ice. Put a puff of cotton candy in a martini glass and pour the drink over. The cotton candy will melt into this pretty pink sugary syrup and add a huge sweet-tooth to this drink.

For the more daring drink connoisseurs, and if you're feeling adventurous and science-y - and can get your hands on some liquid nitrogen - you can have this Alice in Wonderland inspired cocktail, Nitro Caipirinha.