Party On

Well it’s Sunday again, which means I’m about to bombard you with pictures. This weekend we got a chance to take a cheese, wine, and jazz class at Standing Stone Farm and I’ve got to say, it was really fun. I had no idea you could whip up two cheeses and some homemade butter in under 3 hours. I’ve been planning to have a few people over for a wine, beer, cheese, fruit, and chocolate pairing party sometime next month so you can bet we’ll be making fresh cheese and butter for that. In the meantime, I’ll have to come up with a shorter name. Other than that our weekend has been pretty chore-oriented. We did work in our weekly walk. Nature is looking a little less dead, but I can’t wait for spring. Here’s some pictures for your viewing pleasure (Josh even got in on the action). After that I worked on expanding my light & Lightroom skills. Optimus was a pretty good sport. Mmmm we also made de-licious pretzel bread with cheese sauce. I’ve made a few pretzel recipes in my time, bu

It’s Sunday! Which sadly means that tomorrow most of us return to work. I hope your weekend has been relaxing and eventful. We finally got all of Josh’s Valentine’s pieces up in the landing. It took a little finagling (one of the frames broke, one was brown, and one had a major chip) but I’m glad to say the room is almost done. Here’s what we have so far. We got the Predator’s vinyl from Etsy . That’s my new photography cabinet on the above right (from Homegoods for under $50). I just love it. It’s so handy to have all of my equipment put away and in one place. Plus the details of the cabinet itself are so me. We managed to work in our guest polaroids from the wedding and the Star Wars painting I got Josh a while ago (again from Etsy ). Kito seems to like it. We almost have enough bottle caps to cover the coffee table. Hopefully after our St. Patrick’s Day party/beer tasting we’ll have enough. After we finish the table I’m planning to add a neutral lamp and we’ll be finished (for

So my sister-in-law and brother are having their third child this May and when we go visit I’m going to do a little photo shoot with props and everything. I’m so super excited to meet the little one and I’m also excited to see if my photography has improved at all. Since my last baby-shoot I’ve gained a new camera, 4 new lenses, a reflector, and new photo editing software. I’ve also read up on some tutorials (which explains a lot, like how you fit a baby into a little bucket WITH weights and padding) so I’m hoping I get at least a few good shots. I think the dogs are sick of me being in their face and frankly I could use more shots of people. Have I mentioned it’s a girl? I can’t wait to dress her up! It will be so so sweet. Here’s some (yes, only some) of the props I’ve found that I just love. She wants to do a big bow shot with baby and daddy.  For that, I love this white bow , but this green double-layer bow has that extra texture (I would probably do a different color). Then

Hey everyone! Hope all is well. Did you have a good Valentine’s day? I’m soooo spoiled. I can home to a sweet husband, some orchids, an infinity ring that slightly too small (whoops), pizza (yay! no cooking), and of course a bag of Cheetos and a few Twix bars. Of course I’m going to kill the orchids since they’re planted, but they look adorable now!  I made Josh an ice cream cake using this Wilton’s cake pan . My recommendation? Go to Baskin Robins. I may have saved a few bucks but the cake was not moist and it was a PAIN. After I frosted it, the cake just looked like a big ole’ blob. So much for the pretty pan. Next time I use the pan I’m thinking I’ll do angel food cake with a glaze (aka no thick frosting). I also got him a few items for his Man-Cave and signed us up for glass-blowing classes this Sunday. I can’t wait!                                                                      Even though the cake didn’t turn out as expected, I think our pie looked okay. My boss

Hey everyone! I’m catching up on the blog after taking a week off. Last weekend we took a quick trip to NC (a gift from my in-laws for Christmas) so I’m running behind. We just came home from a Super bowl party and I’m going to bed in a few so this will be short and sweet, but hey my mom will appreciate it! Over the past 2 weeks or so I’ve been working on a birthday calendar for my mom. I really love birthdays and buying the perfect gift for loved ones, so I’m pretty vigilant about knowing when everyone in my (humongous) family was born. I really want to make a permanent birthday calendar for our house, but it’s better to practice on someone else right? This is what it looks like thus far. I used modge podge and scrapbook paper for the background on the ‘Family’ sign. It came in really handy and was easy to use in order to cover up mistakes. I just chose a simple modge podge package. It was advertised as being used for preserving puzzles, but hey it worked. For all the letters an