As promised, I am posting Jen's wedding photographer's info, Kelly Nicole. Her work is SO beautiful, and I was really impressed with the variety of photos she had for this wedding. One of the things that Jen and I both agree on is that you can NEVER scrimp on your wedding photos. I mean, if you pay a mint for dresses, flowers, and reception hall to make everything beautiful, but scrimp on the photographer then how can you remember any of it? I think I've already posted a little bit on the bachelorette party and wedding, but here's a bit more on the day.

First of all, I think one of the most fabulous things you can do is be the matron of honor for a designer bride and designer groom! These two had it all together...the colors were amazing, the reception was amazing, the dresses were amazing....

 Okay, down to the dirty details. Jen's wedding was at the Salt Lake Temple and reception was held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building's Empire Room. One of the things I loved was that they had an entire program. It was a flexible program, but it provided 

structure to the whole event which was REALLY nice. When I wasn't chasing the flower girls (my Siri and Felicity and Jen's niece Emma), I was chowing down on the filet mignon, giving the nerve-racking toast, and dancing with my girls. Jen's didn't have specific "colors," I guess you could name them: plum, pink, ivory, green. What she REALLY had was a theme, which was antique. So everything went together without being matchy-matchy. The tablecloths and linens were an antique pink/champaign in silk and the flowers were plum and pink peonies, antique pink and ivory roses, and ivory hydrangea, and baby ranunculus. And by the way, how fantastic are those shoes with the plum dresses (and the yummy salmon peony silk flower?)? The dresses were a great find from Shabby Apple (one of my favorite places to shop for modest dresses). The 5-year old flower girl dresses were pink and Flissa's was ivory. Oh, and I'm sending you to Kelly Nicoles blog to see her most recent photographs. I just hopped over there for a second to grab this link  for you to view more pictures of Jen's wedding. 

One last comment...the picture of Felicity and me in the top photo really strikes me. Sometimes I am completely amazed that this is my child because our coloring is so different! Some seriously strong recessive genes...

All of the photos in this post are copyright of Kelly Nicole Photography.

My friend Carolyn sent me a picture of white chocolate lollipops she made from molds and I had to try it myself for Flissa's family birthday party. (Carolyn says that she has a blog but hasn't updated it for a while. I'm trying to convince her to put her gorgeous little girl bows up...if she does I will be sure to post it here!) So I borrowed Carolyn's daisy molds and made the suckers. They were SO fast and easy to make. All you do is get white chocolate chips, melt them, add a little food coloring (I used two drops of red in one package of white chocolate chips to get this light pink), and let them cool in the fridge. I was sort of surprised at how fast the entire process was. 

That's my short post for the day! I have to get together the rest of Flissa's b-day party and I am working on a new line for  Two Peas which should hit in two weeks! Not only that but I found out this week that My Minds's Eye has picked up a Halloween line from me for the July release (CHA). Lots of exciting things happening and so little time! Will post on the party and new line soon!

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This weekend was filled with parties and events for Jen's wedding. But don't plan on her posting about it anytime soon since she is on her honeymoon. I just thought I would post a couple of tidbits although I don't know that this will be a very exciting post as I promised to not show any of the riske photos from the bachelorette party. I tried to make the food for the party as easy as possible. One of the ladies offered her house so we nixed going to a restaurant for a more comfortable atmosphere. I ordered sushi (from Happy Sumo) and soup (the Zuppa is my favorite from the Olive Garden). I'll be using the Olive Garden for easy parties in the future...the soup was only $20 for a gallon and $4 for 12 breadsticks. 

This is my favorite picture of Aimee and Cynthia (sisters) laughing at  one of the stories being told.

As I said, I wasn't allowed to post any of the ridiculous pictures, so that basically eliminated everything else:).

Okay, a little about the wedding. As the matron of honor (wow, that sounds old, huh?) and with two little flower girls to boot, there wasn't much time for pictures. I will just say that it was a BEAUTIFUL day—the bride looked beautiful and the groom handsome, and well, it was all a fantastic success. When Jen posts pictures, I will DEFIANTLY send you over to her site because they will be fabulous. I will also get the link to her photographer, Kelly Nicole. Here are a few of my candid pics:

The bride and groom

I think this little flower girl is pretty adorable.

This next little flower girl ripped the hem of her dress,refused to wear her wreath, and managed to have a blow out in her dress during my toast (Josh missed the toast and a few other things). She looks so innocent...

Our fabulous cupcakes from cupcakechicutah were AMAZING! I would highly recommend her! We had the red velvet for the wedding favors and we had the chocolate coconut and chocolate mint at our bachelorette party.

This cake wasn't just beautiful, it was YUMMY! Raspberry filled and swirled on the bottom, carrot cake for the middle, and lemon with lemon curd for the top...

Felicity and me...I loved our bridesmaids dresses and those huge peony's we wore in side buns in our hair. We also had fabulous green shoes! That's the fantastic combo you get when two designers get married!

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Last week, something possessed me to take a second away from digital scrapbooking and to actually scrapbook the traditional way. I used my Bella Bella line from My Minds Eye.

It's nice to get off the computer sometimes and really get down and dirty! I think there is something about really feeling the paper in your hands ( I love paper...sheets and sheets of it all over my home just because I like the stuff!). I do think traditional scrapbooking is harder for me because I'm always wishing for a control-Z (I actually wish there was a control-z for a lot of regular things in life!). But once I got use to the idea of planning the layout ahead and being okay with the home spun nature of it all (aka, my glops of glue!), I was good! 

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I recently signed up to do The 8 week Cure with many others at Apartment Therapy. I am currently reading Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's Book—Apartment Therapy: The eight-step home cure. "The Cure," to boil it down, is an eight week program meant to help organize and make healthy our living spaces. There are several things you do including declutters, room remedies, and more. My favorite thing is to bring home flowers once a week for my home. I always put my flowers on our table because then I'll actually clean it up! Dirty dishes and flowers don't really match, you know?

And, to top it off this week, the cure is all about deep cleaning the kitchen. INTO it! My kitchen really needed it! One of the things you do is a new recipe. While I bought ingredients for a couple of new recipes, today I felt like I wanted to revisit a recipe I haven't had a chance to make for awhile! I thought I'd share because it's one of my favorites! It's The Joy of Cooking's Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. I made sure and got it onto one of my recipe cards today so that I wouldn't have to drag the book out again for it! 

   

1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour 
⅔ cup vegetable oil 
3 large egg 
1 ½ peeled and finely grated cup carrot 
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped 
1 cup sugar 
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
½ teaspoon ground cloves 
½ freshly grated or ground teaspoon nutmeg 
½ teaspoon ground allspice 
½ teaspoon salt    

OPTIONAL: 
1 cup golden raisins
½ cup crushed pineapple, lightly drained 

 

 

1. Have all ingredients at room temperature, 68°F to 70°F.   

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

3. Grease and flour two 9x2-inch round pans or two 8x8-inch pans or one 13x9-inch pan, or line the bottom with wax paper.

4. In a large bowl, throroughly whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, all-spice, and salt.

5. Add the vegetable oil and eggs, and stir together well with a rubber spatula or beat on low speed.

6. Stir in the carrots, walnuts, raisins and pineapple (if using).

7. Scrape the batter into the pans(s) and spread evenly.

8. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

 

 

For me, I always do the pineapple, but never the raisins or walnuts. I also added coconut and vanilla for my own special twist! 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.

 

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No designerly posts today. Just a quick post to say that Josh and I ran a 5k today with his East High alma mater (the high school recognizable for being the place High School Musical was filmed). About 700 people showed for the race. It was cold. This is a terrible picture of us, but I thought the snow on the mountains nicely demonstrates the cold.

A final note...my husband beat me. I'm guessing by about 3 minutes. We 'll see when the race results come out. I also had a momentary scare when I was sprinting in and managed to fling my iPod. Don't ask me how...it just happened! Thankfully it was sort of a frisbee fling and it landed in the grass. A race chaperone (is there such a thing? You know, that guy who stands on the side and watches races and gives times) picked it up (thankfully!)

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In honor of March of the Tools, I decided to feature two of my favorite tools: My Wacom Tablet and Scan Card Reader. My Wacom Tablet I've had for a out 2 years now and love. Last May, however, when we moved from Minnesota to Utah, my Wacom pen was lost. I had placed it in my mother-in-law's carry on bag and it somehow got lost in the mix. So I've been without a Wacom pen for most of this last year. Last week I couldn't stand it anymore (mouse drawing is NOT that fun) and I ordered a new pen. I told Josh I ordered a new pen and he said, "Well, you know what's going to happen now don't you? You're going to find your other pen!" I thought he was silly because I had already torn apart the whole house looking for it. 

So last night, my mother-in-law drops by and upon seeing my new pen sitting at my desk, tells Josh (I wasn't there), "I just found one of those at my house! I meant to bring it by." I couldn't BELIEVE it! Serendipitous? 

So I am so happy I have my old pen and can send back the new one (which I have had for a total of 1 and ½ days and was a small chunk of change).

My Card Scan Reader is another tool I can't live without! Did you know that using your regular USB to hook up your camera to your computer is suppose to be hard on your camera? So our IT guy at work gave me this. It works for 5 kinds of cards and Josh and I use it for both the point and shoot camera and my Canon Rebel. It's SO fast and pretty inexpensive! And hey, if it extends the life of my cameras, then it is DEFINITELY worth it!

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