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Hey my blogger friends! It's Michaila. Originally starting this blog as Mic's Room, then moving to the Wonderkept Life...now I started a new blog, 70 times Seven! Lifestyle + art and recipes and photography.  I'd really, really LOVE to see my old friends around my new spot. Thanks for following my journey and blessing me with your sweet comments <3 You all have been great friends and hopefully we'll keep connected. God has blessed me with such great opportunities and I thank Him for these new paths!

Seventy Times Seven

When you were a kid, when you caught fireflies and put them in a jar. When you ran in the dark barefoot without any fear. When you never cared what you looked like...and if you thought you did you never really knew.
When your siblings were your besties; when your Mamma had to drag you in from the outdoors. When you always got soaked (hose or pool or water balloon or ocean or cup of ice water take your pick). When you loved to dance; when you smiled. And laughed at everything.

When you cried and ice cream made you feel better. When a band-aid with a cartoon face eased the pain. When staying up late was 10:00 p.m. When Saturday mornings were special because of pbs kids.




Your not so different now; your flowers in your hair might be a little more open than closed, and the fireflies might turn into starlight. The late day goes till 2, and your Mamma might have to drag you out rather than in. Your smile takes longer to dimple. And your favorite show comes on at 10:00.

But through all of this...your thankful. Because God always had and has his hand over it all.

Your life is just budding; and how beautiful it's been so far.
Without the thorns, what is a rose, and without pruning the next bud cannot bloom.

Do you remember when you used to catch fireflies?

Do you feel the need to be more thankful (I do)?

Here it is simple: I'm changing my blog url (the top address where it says lovelypinkduckshome.blogspot.com). You are currently following that address; you need to follow my new one, wonderkept.blogspot.com, in order to receive new posts from me in your blogger feed.

It's easy; just unfollow, and refollow. Simple as pie. Or cake.



Super easy, right? Make sure to do it, I don't want to lose any friends! If you are following by email/bloglovin' don't worry about this.
Thanks guys!

Did you unfollow & refollow?

I really wanted to make my Mom's birthday special this year...and, I thought bake. Yes. So I found this super simple and amazing original recipe for carrot cake (https://www.nelliebellie.com/best-homemade-carrot-cake-recipe/).

We try to stay away from processed sugar and bad-for-you ingredients over here, so I replaced many of the original ingredients with more natural, healthier alternatives like coconut sugar, Organic products, and Xylitol (which is a natural sweetener that tastes actually really really good). It was the first cake...first bake...I've made without Mom present (how did that happen). I was a little nervous, since it was the day before her birthday and I wanted it to be...to not be a complete failure *laughs at me*.

And it turned out delicious.



As you see I added coconut flakes to the top; if your not a coconut-flake person, you can just leave 'em off (I did not include it in the recipe card). The pecans also went amazing with the cream cheese buttercream frosting, and there are some ground crumbs on top as well.


The curled carrots on top were a bit of a funny task; I just peeled a few (or 10) pieces, rolled them starting small end up, and speared them through with a toothpick. Then I let them sit for around 21 hours in a sealed container of ice water in the fridge. 
I took out the toothpick and pulled each end of the curl away from each other. Most of them flopped; if I was to try it again I think I would let them chill longer and peel thicker pieces.



I want to add a note here that the amount of baking time depends on the size of your cake pans. I was using 10" round ones so my time was not as long as the original recipe. Just check on it and test it with a knife or toothpick to make sure it isn't wet before you pull it out.

*note...I used all organic ingredients for this cream cheese buttercream