Gather your ingredients:
1 package (two sheets) frozen puff pastry
3 tablespoons sugar
1 package cream cheese
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (this was our homemade vanilla. Yummy!)

Preheat the oven to 375.


On a lightly floured surface, roll one sheet of puff pastry out until it is about 10 inches by 14 inches.





NOW EAT THEM ALL. While they're too hot and will burn your fingers. They're totally worth it...

About two weeks ago, I got my hair cut shorter than it's been since Junior High. Last September, I cut fourteen inches of my hair off (see above! Look how long it was!) to donate to Beautiful Lengths, a program similar to Locks of Love. After the requisite cleaning up, it ended up hovering around my shoulders. I got it trimmed once in the winter, but it grew out again, and I wanted to go even shorter. And so, two weeks ago, I made the appointment and brought in some nice photos and my lovely hair stylist cut my hair off to just below my chin! I LOVE it. It feels so light.

I've had migraines for the last twelve years, and I found that even the first time I cut my hair off to my shoulders took off so much weight that it helped with the headaches. I talked to my grandmother- who had migraines for years and years as well- and she said the same thing had happened to her when she finally chopped off her hair.

I miss my long hair a lot sometimes, but I really do love how this short haircut feels, and long hair isn't worth the (literal) pain. The main downside, I think, is that I used to be able to wake up in the morning and usually just go, because my hair was so heavy it sort of straightened itself out or at least was nicely wavy. Or, I could throw my hair up in a braid or a bun if I wanted to. Short hair doesn't really work like that. Some mornings, I wake up looking like a totally insane person (seriously, hair EVERYWHERE) and I do have to straighten it. Ah, well.
Also, it took me a ridiculously long time to get around to taking a photo of myself with my new haircut to put on here. I take photos all the time, but photos of myself? Not nearly as often as I take photos of other people. And cookies. And jewelry. And cats. Hah. Luckily, I live with another photographer and I could bribe her with cookies to go outside in the heat with me to snap this photo. (Thanks, Lindi!)

Last night our apartment complex threw their annual pool party. It was pretty awesome. They invite the whole complex to come to the pool for games, food, music and a chance to win money off rent and other fun prizes. I don't know of any other apartment complex with management as awesome as ours. I mean, they grilled us free food!

When we first headed over there, I was convinced that I was not going to play the games. Sack races? Twister? No thanks. And then we got there. And I played EVERY SINGLE GAME.


And you know what? I completely dominated at Twister. I haven't played Twister in fifteen years... but I won the girls' game, and then I beat all the boys, too. It was awkward and hilarious and especially hard because all the people who were all drippy from the pool got water all over the Twister mat and made it slippery.

That was the only game I won, though. Jessica and I lost spectacularly when we tried to play the game where you race to the finish line with a balloon held between your heads. (Yes. We are that awesome.) We also lost the three-legged sack race. And I was the second one out during the balloon popping game.



However, it was still a lot of fun. It didn't really matter that I lost.


During musical chairs, someone spilled their beer all over me. (WHO carries a beer with them while playing musical chairs? Yuck.)


I am also very bad at limbo. In my defense, I'm pretty tall. Surely it's harder when you're tall, right?

I mean, just look at her:


It was a lot of fun. We didn't go last year because we didn't know anyone in the complex yet, but this year we knew a bunch. It's really one of the best places I've ever lived. We even swap meals with our neighbors, Jessica and Olivia, and bake the office staff cookies! I'll be sad to move away someday. But for now... I can't wait for next year's party!

I don't know when I first heard the phrase 'wedding porn,' but let's face it- it totally fits. It's all that pretty, pretty wedding stuff that sucks you in, in magazines and on blogs and such. And one of my favorite blogs? Emmaline Bride: The Wedding Guide for the Handmade Bride. It's wedding porn and crafty stuff and so many pretty photoshoots, all wrapped into one. How could I not love it?

(And before you ask, YES, it is a year+ after our wedding, and I am still subscribed to at least half a dozen wedding blogs. Because they're pretty. In my defense, we are wedding photographers, so there's that...)

Anyway, at EB they have lots of fun DIY projects like these Airmail Save the Dates...

And these super cute succulent favors. (I love succulents, even the ones that look like alien lifeforms. We have a little row of them in our kitchen above the sink. It's lovely.)

And then they have SO MANY pretty engagment shoots, weddings, styled shoots, and so on. I love it.

Ahh. So pretty. So, if you're married/engaged/just like pretty wedding-related stuff and photography, what are your favorite sites?

*I've not been paid or perked for this post, just so you guys know. I just like sharing all the pretty stuff. ;)

Well, more specifically, reading nooks that are ALSO window seats. My roommate from college, Angela, used to sit on the wide shelf in front of our windows in our first dorm room and read, and she got me hooked. I've always loved little hidden away places to read, and just looking at photos like this makes me want to curl up in the sun with a good book for a few hours. Someday when we buy a house, I want one of these. (And hardwood floors! And a spectacular kitchen!)

Click over to Gabrielle's blog Design Mom for this super fun tutorial on how to make monogrammed mugs with thrift store dishes and porcelain paint. This is actually a tutorial from last year that I saw a long time ago, but it just showed up on craftgawker today and I was reminded of it. We actually bought porcelain paint markers to do this project, but haven't gotten around to finding some porcelain dishes yet. I'm looking forward to when we do, though! For now, though, you all should do this and tell me how it goes.

Our wedding was featured today over at A Bicycle Built for Two. I'm excited! Tracey has put together a really lovely blog over there, and I'm so happy that we get to be a part of it.

Photo by Stephen Ironside of Ironside Photography.

Caller: Hi, I need to talk to John.
Me: John W*** or John R****?
Caller: John.
Me: ...Yes, certainly. But which one?


Caller: I need concrete dispatch.
Me: (I have no idea what this means.) Yes, of course, do you know the name of the person you're trying to reach?
Caller: Concrete dispatch.
Me: Yes, sir. Do you know what department that would be?
Caller: I need concrete dispatch for Fayetteville.
Me: Yes, of course, but I'm not sure who to direct you to. Do you want to buy concrete? Or do you want to speak with someone out in the field?
Caller: I want to buy some! To be delivered! To the site!
Me: Ah, okay. Just a moment.


Me: (After putting another call on hold to answer the new phone call, which has waited 25 seconds, literally, for me to answer. I know this because I have a timer on my phone system.) Thank you for calling [company], how may I help you?
Caller: WHY THE F*** DOESN'T ANYONE EVER ANSWER THE F***ING PHONE AT THIS PLACE!!?!
Me: ... I'm sorry, sir. How can I direct your call?


Me: Hello, thank you for calling [company], how may I help you?
Caller: Yes, who am I speaking with?
Me: This is Helen.
Caller: Kristen?
Me: No, Helen.
Caller: Ellis?
Me: No, Helen, spelled H-E-L-E-N.
Caller: I think I have a wrong number.


Me: Thank you for calling [company], how may I help you?
Caller: Is this a computer?
Me: Er... no, this is a person...


And then my personal favorite, when I answered the phone and the person on the other end was whistling. Loudly. And out of tune. I don't really think they knew they'd called me. Hah.

Here is our weekend in a nutshell: ice cream, loaded mashed potatoes, ice packs, naps, and lots of reruns of Angel and Leverage plus a few movies thrown in for good measure. Lindi had her wisdom teeth taken out on Friday afternoon, so she was on pain meds and we pretty much just lazed around all weekend so she could heal. As any of you who have had widom teeth surgery will know, you can only eat soft foods for a while afterward, so I went to the grocery store after work on Friday and got a good assortment of yogurt, jello, pudding, popsicles, mashed potatoes and so on. And ice cream. Lots of ice cream. It's Lindi's favorite food, so it was a nice excuse for her to eat lots of it: vanilla, pomegranate blueberry, birthday cake, triple chocolate cake. Yummy. I may or may not have eaten a little bit of it with her.

We're planning two photoshoots for this week and next week and a wedding coming up soon, which I'm very excited about. When we don't do any sessions or events for a little while, even if we do some everyday photos, my fingers start to get a little itchy to get back on a camera. Hah. Itchy camera fingers. We're also getting back into gear to put some more product in our Etsy store. We kind of fell off the wagon with the update-every-week plan, so I'm glad we're going to be back on track soon.

What about all of you? Any exciting plans for this week?

So, I have thick, but rather straight hair. Really straight, actually, and every time in my life I've tried to curl my hair, it goes right back to being straight unless I make my head all crunchy and 90s with loads of hairspray. Yeesh. And then the hairspray won't come out, and I look like an alien. It is not a pretty picture.

I'm more or less just given up on the curly hair thing. I don't really pay THAT much attention to my hair, as as it isn't sticking out in random directions (which is usually how it is when I wake up in the morning, but I fix that with about thirty seconds with the straightener.) However, Lindi curls her hair all the time, and she'd been looking for a better hairspray for a while. A non-crunchy hairspray that looked like it was made for this millenium, at least.

Then this happened:





We found the answer in the form of the hairspray our friend Hillary uses! And she always has great hair, so that boded well for our experience with it. It's pretty pricey- about $18 a bottle in stores, but we got it for $13 online on Amazon.



Enter, the amazing Bed Head Masterpiece... because it holds my very-not-curly hair in curls. I even have proof! Because the first time we tried it on me, seriously in the middle of the night so I could just wash my hair and go to bed when it inevitably looked terrible. But then... it didn't! And I wished it was the morning so I could wear my hair that way all day. Instead, it was one o'clock in the morning, so we just took some pictures for fun (and posterity!) So here's my proof:


1 a.m. curly hair fun times! We did these curls with a 1" cheap straightener (it actually is better if it's a cheap one, because the better one we have is TOO good and doesn't let the heat through to the exterior metal.) You put a piece of hair into the straightener about two inches from the roots, wind the hair around the bottom plate of the straightener and then back through the middle. Holding the hair taut, slowly move the straightener down your hair, keeping the hair wound around the bottom plate. Rotate the straightener gradually as you get to the bottom of the piece. You will end up with one wonderful bouncy curl! Then you have to repeat it for the rest of your head.

For the front, finger-wave look, put the front piece of your hair in the straightener and make a small arc away from your head. Then repeat, with the same piece of hair but starting at the end of the first arc, in an arc going toward your head. Repeat until you have that vintage wave, then pin into your hair to your liking.

I love polka dots all the time, too. Look! Look how many pretty polka-dotted things are in the internet!


Green polka dot hairpins from Tizzalicious on Etsy.



Polka-dotted circle skirt from yystudio- it comes in lots of different colors. I love the black and white one, and the red and white one.



Bunting is another one of those mason jar things. Everybody loves it, including me. Here's a glass polka dot bunting necklace from BajoLaLuna.



And vintage things. Vintage swim suits. Yellow and white polka dots. Swoon! From The Red Dolly, who makes all the suits custom to order.



And I love these cupcake wrappers. We actually have these, though we got them from a different source, and they're so festive and adorable! From The Bakers Confections on Etsy.

What about all of you? Do you have a favorite pattern?

The gorgeous and wonderful Emily moved to New York City this summer, but we had fun playing around and taking some photos of her and her puppy in her apartment in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I just realized I hadn't put any up on the blog, so here are just a few:




























I just adore that girl to pieces.

I stumbled across this adorable tutorial on how to make your own pretty pins for sewing and crafting over at Scissors.Paper.Wok earlier today. She used shrinky dinks! What a fantastic idea. Head over there for the tutorial.

So, last year Lindi and our friend Kirstyn were shocked to find out that I had never, in fact, used shrinky dinks in my childhood. As a result, I got some for my birthday last year. It was actually a lot of fun to play around with it- we made some pendants and medallions, but using it to make pins is such a new and fun idea! I think we have some of the paper left over. I'll have to try and find it so I can make some of these for myself!

So, a few nights ago we were sitting on the couch watching a movie and I sighed and said, "All I really want is cake. Or a cookie. Or something." Lindi got up a few minutes later and went into the kitchen, and all of a sudden (okay, like twenty minutes later)  there were cake cookies in my life. Cake cookies! They're cake AND cookies! What a great invention.



Ingredients:
1 box milk chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup millk
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Mix everything except the chocolate/peanut butter chips together.
3. Add the chips. Mix again.
4. Drop spoonfuls on to a greased baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.
5. When you take them out of the oven, move to a wire baking rack to cool.
6. Eat warm with a big glass of milk (or soymilk!) Eat at least four. Your mouth will be very, very happy.

Enjoy!