I just loved this simple outdoor wedding in Fayetteville. There was so much joy, the light was so beautiful, and the bright bridesmaids' dresses that matched the farmers' market flowers were just lovely! Congratulations, Rose and Matthew!
Want to fancy up your cupcakes a little? One thing you can try is making your own cupcake wrappers. You can buy them, certainly, but it is inexpensive and easy to make them and you get to choose your own designs.
We used this template, three or four sheets of 12" scrapbooking paper in various designs and a dozen cupcakes. The chocolate cupcake batter was so dark that it bled through the pretty white polka dots on the cupcake liners! We printed out the template, chose our pretty scrapbooking paper, and went to work.
BEFORE we frosted the cupcakes, we cut out one wrapper and tested it around a cupcake to make sure it was the right size. We taped it together with clear tape, both on the inside and the outside of the wrapper, to hold it together. Then we made the rest of our wrappers the same size as the first. Depending on your muffin tin or the height of your cupcakes (how fluffy the tops are), you might need to make the liners slightly taller or trim them to be a little shorter.
We used plain scissors on some of the wrappers and "fancy" scissors (that is, the scissors with scalloped/zig-zag edges) on others. We frosted the cupcakes once they were safely in their wrappers, just because that was what was easiest for us.
We used this template, three or four sheets of 12" scrapbooking paper in various designs and a dozen cupcakes. The chocolate cupcake batter was so dark that it bled through the pretty white polka dots on the cupcake liners! We printed out the template, chose our pretty scrapbooking paper, and went to work.
BEFORE we frosted the cupcakes, we cut out one wrapper and tested it around a cupcake to make sure it was the right size. We taped it together with clear tape, both on the inside and the outside of the wrapper, to hold it together. Then we made the rest of our wrappers the same size as the first. Depending on your muffin tin or the height of your cupcakes (how fluffy the tops are), you might need to make the liners slightly taller or trim them to be a little shorter.
How adorable is that? We don't do this often, because usually we like our cute cupcake liners to show, but once in a while this is fun and easy way to make our cupcakes just a little fancier. Hooray!
I met up with David to do some headshots before he moves to Florida next month, and it was such a fun session! Here are a few of the ones we got:
How can it be nearly the end of August already? It has been a whirlwind of a month. So much has happened that I barely feel like I've been able to stop long enough to take a breath.
Our two year anniversary was at the beginning of the month, and we had a lovely evening complete with a teeny tiny cake!
At the beginning of the month, our dear friend and roommate Kim packed up her things and moved to California, and we had goodbye dinners galore and a final photoshoot before we took her to the airport.
My lovely friend Kirstyn came home for part of the summer. She spent the last year teaching elementary school in Palestine and left earlier this month to teach a second year. I miss her already! We got to see her a lot before she left, though, so that was good.
I also got to see our friends Lanie and Austin, which was amazing. I haven't seen them since our wedding and it was lovely to visit!
We went to Tulsa for Kaytee and Ronnie's housewarming party. They are two of our closest friends and they bought the sweetest house earlier in the summer! I wish the house was a LITTLE closer to where I live, of course... hah! But all the same, it is a lovely home and fits them perfectly.
We did a photoshoot of the two of us (hooray for automatic timers on cameras!) and I got eaten alive by bugs, but it was worth it.
This beautiful baby boy, Milo Elliot Portello, was born. He is our first nephew! We spent a whole weekend at the hospital with Lindi's sister Melissa and her husband Joseph, and after 62 hours of labor, this spectacular little person joined the family. Lindi took photos during his delivery. He is so precious! We are going to spoil the heck out of him, no doubt.
We celebrated my birthday with some of our best friends, delicious treats and a very fun photobooth complete with props.
And Lindi and I had a free weekend this past weekend, which we VERY rarely do. We almost always have photo sessions or weddings to shoot, or plans with family or friends. It has been such a breathless month, though, that we decided we needed a few days to ourselves just to unwind. We spent Saturday morning yardsaling, and went to the farmer's market for a huge bag full of veggies and stopped at a restaurant that uses locally grown fruits and vegetables and had lunch. It was delicious! We went thrifting in the afternoon, and between that and the yardsales, we ended up with three vintage typewriters, some board games, a huge bag of books, some fun costume-y things for photoshoots and a 1947 Victrola that will hopefully work once we've gotten it rewired. It was a lovely day! And on Sunday, we just relaxed and baked and watched a movie and made dinner with our farmer's market loot. It was such a good weekend.
And, August. Whew! It's nearly over, and it was full of a lot of amazing things. I'm ready to take on September!
Our two year anniversary was at the beginning of the month, and we had a lovely evening complete with a teeny tiny cake!
At the beginning of the month, our dear friend and roommate Kim packed up her things and moved to California, and we had goodbye dinners galore and a final photoshoot before we took her to the airport.
My lovely friend Kirstyn came home for part of the summer. She spent the last year teaching elementary school in Palestine and left earlier this month to teach a second year. I miss her already! We got to see her a lot before she left, though, so that was good.
I also got to see our friends Lanie and Austin, which was amazing. I haven't seen them since our wedding and it was lovely to visit!
We went to Tulsa for Kaytee and Ronnie's housewarming party. They are two of our closest friends and they bought the sweetest house earlier in the summer! I wish the house was a LITTLE closer to where I live, of course... hah! But all the same, it is a lovely home and fits them perfectly.
We did a photoshoot of the two of us (hooray for automatic timers on cameras!) and I got eaten alive by bugs, but it was worth it.
This beautiful baby boy, Milo Elliot Portello, was born. He is our first nephew! We spent a whole weekend at the hospital with Lindi's sister Melissa and her husband Joseph, and after 62 hours of labor, this spectacular little person joined the family. Lindi took photos during his delivery. He is so precious! We are going to spoil the heck out of him, no doubt.
We celebrated my birthday with some of our best friends, delicious treats and a very fun photobooth complete with props.
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| (I just adore this photo of the gorgeous lady I married.) |
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| (We have fun leaving each other mirror notes!) |
And Lindi and I had a free weekend this past weekend, which we VERY rarely do. We almost always have photo sessions or weddings to shoot, or plans with family or friends. It has been such a breathless month, though, that we decided we needed a few days to ourselves just to unwind. We spent Saturday morning yardsaling, and went to the farmer's market for a huge bag full of veggies and stopped at a restaurant that uses locally grown fruits and vegetables and had lunch. It was delicious! We went thrifting in the afternoon, and between that and the yardsales, we ended up with three vintage typewriters, some board games, a huge bag of books, some fun costume-y things for photoshoots and a 1947 Victrola that will hopefully work once we've gotten it rewired. It was a lovely day! And on Sunday, we just relaxed and baked and watched a movie and made dinner with our farmer's market loot. It was such a good weekend.
And, August. Whew! It's nearly over, and it was full of a lot of amazing things. I'm ready to take on September!
Our music recommendations for the week: 1. Best Coast - The Only Place
2. Foxes - Warrior
3. Christina and the Queens - Narcissus is back
2. Foxes - Warrior
3. Christina and the Queens - Narcissus is back
Here's a preview from Brenna and Erik's lovely wedding last month! How gorgeous!
We looove pizza and cheesy breadsticks, and we love to make them at home. We've tried so many crust recipes I've lost count, and some were pretty good but this is the best yet! We adapted Lauren's recipe slightly and it turned out absolutely delicious. (Hit the link for some more photos and specifics about why each ingredient goes into the recipe!)
Ingredients for the dough:
1. Mix the water, honey and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large metal bowl.
2. Add in salt, oil and 1.5 cups flour. Once incorporated, add the rest of the flour bit by bit until the dough is slightly tacky but does not stick to your fingers. (If needed, add more than three cups of flour.)
3. Lightly grease the dough and bowl and cover with plastic wrap, then let rise 1-2 hours. At this point, you can continue on to make cheesy breadsticks or pizza, or you can wrap tightly in plastic wrap, put in a ziplock and freeze the dough until a later date! (That's what to first photo above is-- we made extra and froze one batch!)
4. To make the breadsticks, preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
5. Roll the dough out and place onto a pizza pan with a dusting of cornmeal. (Alternately, you can prepare the dough to pop it onto a pizza stone!) Melt butter and garlic in a small bowl; spread over the dough. Sprinkle the two cheeses liberally over the top and add a little pepper.
6. Bake 9-10 minutes or until the top is golden and bubble. Serve hot with marinara sauce or garlic butter! Yum!
Ingredients for the dough:
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups bread flour
Ingredients for the cheesy garlic breadsticks:
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 pound grated mozzarella
Pepper to taste
2. Add in salt, oil and 1.5 cups flour. Once incorporated, add the rest of the flour bit by bit until the dough is slightly tacky but does not stick to your fingers. (If needed, add more than three cups of flour.)
3. Lightly grease the dough and bowl and cover with plastic wrap, then let rise 1-2 hours. At this point, you can continue on to make cheesy breadsticks or pizza, or you can wrap tightly in plastic wrap, put in a ziplock and freeze the dough until a later date! (That's what to first photo above is-- we made extra and froze one batch!)
4. To make the breadsticks, preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
5. Roll the dough out and place onto a pizza pan with a dusting of cornmeal. (Alternately, you can prepare the dough to pop it onto a pizza stone!) Melt butter and garlic in a small bowl; spread over the dough. Sprinkle the two cheeses liberally over the top and add a little pepper.
6. Bake 9-10 minutes or until the top is golden and bubble. Serve hot with marinara sauce or garlic butter! Yum!
Our music recommendations for the week: 1. OK Sweetheart - All we have
2. Greg Laswell - Comes and goes (in waves)
3. James Vincent McMorrow - We don't eat
2. Greg Laswell - Comes and goes (in waves)
3. James Vincent McMorrow - We don't eat
I looooove coconut. And coconut macaroons are one of the easiest, yummiest ways to use shredded coconut out of the pantry! These cookies are quick and delicious. I adapted this recipe from from the lovely Baking Bites-- I like that they don't have and sweetened condensed milk in them and only have four ingredients! I wanted smaller macaroons so I made my scoops with less batter than the 1/4 cup each she calls for, and they turned out great! This made about 25 macaroons.
Ingredients
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut, chopped roughly with a knife
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Whisk together the egg whites, sugar and vanilla and then add in the chopped coconut and stir until combined.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop heaping tablespoons of coconut mixture onto the sheet about two inches apart. Form the mounds into pyramids with your fingers.
4. Bake 10-15 minutes or until the edges and tops of the macaroons are golden brown.
5. Let cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
Ingredients
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut, chopped roughly with a knife
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Whisk together the egg whites, sugar and vanilla and then add in the chopped coconut and stir until combined.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop heaping tablespoons of coconut mixture onto the sheet about two inches apart. Form the mounds into pyramids with your fingers.
4. Bake 10-15 minutes or until the edges and tops of the macaroons are golden brown.
5. Let cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
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