I love cupcakes. I always have, always will. I was so happy when cupcakes became the "in" thing because it became easier to get my hands on the little cakes that I love. But lately I've noticed a lot of hate on cupcakes. Some say there's a cupcake bubble and it's about to pop. That the hype is over and that cupcake love has reached its maximum capacity. That it's time to move on to the next big thing. I say, go ahead and move on. Cupcakes hold a special place in my heart. If you move on to the next big thing, there will be more cupcakes for me. Hooray!
What makes me love cupcakes so? Well, when I was growing up, my mom didn't bake me cupcakes. That's not a slam on her at all. I ate lots of other great food -- sweets and otherwise -- that were a part of my Filipino culture. We had leche flan at almost every party, along with bibingka, puto and other Filipino treats. Cupcakes? Not so much. But whenever there was a bake sale at school (remember those? bake sales?) I saw cupcakes and gravitated toward them. Little cakes with frosting, sprinkles and a rainbow of pretty colors. They looked so fancy and special. And since there weren't any cupcake shops back then, cupcakes really were fancy and special to me. Today, when I see a cupcake, I remember the bake sales from my childhood. Eating a cupcake brings me back.
When Sprinkles and other cupcake shops started to open and grow in popularity, I realized that maybe others had this special attachment to cupcakes. I felt like a community of cupcake lovers were coming together at these establishments. I'm probably making a bigger deal out of the cupcake craze than most (and maybe people will think I'm a little crazy for writing this post). But I think that everyone has a food item (or two) that brings them back to some place in their past. Admit it.
So if the cupcake craze is truly over, so be it. You go ahead and move on to the next thing. Just don't hate on me and my love for cupcakes. I will take it personally.
Labor Day weekend, I happened to be in Camarillo, which so happens to be the home of the Camarillo Premium Outlets. I'm not one to let an outlet center shopping opportunity pass me by. Especially during a holiday weekend. So I found myself in an American Apparel outlet store where I met the dress of my dreams (at least for now): American Apparel's "Le Sac Dress." It doesn't look like much on a hanger. It's a basic drape dress. The cool factor: long, versatile straps that you can wrap around in at least a dozen ways to create at least a dozen different looks. I am amazed at how easy it is to change the look of the dress simply by changing the way the straps are wrapped around. Even better - the dress was 30% off due to the Labor Day sale. Major score! It regularly retails for $38 which may seem a lot to some people for a basic cotton dress. But just think if you had to buy 12 different dresses instead of buying 12-in-1! Two days later I purchased a different color strap to further increase my look options. The other bonus: the drape aspect of the dress pleasantly hides any "trouble spots" one might have. Hope my hubby doesn't get sick of the Le Sac Dress. I may be wearing it more than a dozen times the next few weeks. 
