hannon & cameron save the date

I was so excited to see these come back from the printer today, 

I have had so much fun working on Hannon's save the date 

and there more fun to come for her wedding...

Printing by Patrick Masterson

bethany & jerod's wedding

this weekend i did the flowers for my friends bethany & jerod's wedding... they are a super sweet couple, and they had an awesome selection of antique bottles they collected from a beach in brooklyn called dead horse bay - which is a magical place where all sorts of old medicine/cleaning/liquor bottles wash up - on my list of places to visit for sure!
the color scheme was inspired by that of a peacock feather so we worked with blues, purples, greens, and golds. i put together somewhere around 60-75 little arrangements in their bottles which we clustered on the tables at the reception. since tiny arrangements are my favorite, this was a ton of fun! bethany & jerod had so many fun friends on hand to help make it all happen - every little detail in the wedding was truly a labor of love. some pics are below!

i am still obsessing over this hydrangea.

bridesmaids' bouquets - my oh my, there were TWELVE!!

an awesome old noxzema bottle.

only part of the bottle collection

kyo & tim - blogged!

don't let my delay in blogging it fool you - i am super pumped because earlier this week kyo & tim's wedding was featured on green wedding shoes! - which means my flowers were on there too!! kyo did such an amazing job planning the wedding, i had so much fun doing the flowers, and i'm so excited that it was featured! - check out the full post here.

scotch nail polish

Scotch nail polish has some lovely colors and the packaging is so well designed.

Scotch nail polish is also non-toxic and eco friendly.

julie and nathan

Julie is a sweet friend and a recent bride I worked with on her wedding. I did her wedding invite and programs. I love some of her pics by Stephen Devries and wanted to share.

 

Julie and Nathan both love golf, their reception was at a country club,
I love these shots, they give me giggles.

I thought the cake by Angel's Confections was beautiful.
It really tied in well with the design of the program as well.

Leaving pictures are always so fun! Click here to see more.

cooking with jenny-lyn

So Kathleen and I went to Jenny's the other night for one of her cooking adventures...we made homemade peanut butter cups, recommended by Brigette and found on Design Sponge...they were delicious, here is the post by Jenny from her blog Real Kitchen. Real Life.

These were also real simple to make, especially with the handy dandy help of Jenny's Pampered Chef products.

P.S. Jenny hosts the most fun Pampered Chef parties, so if you are interested in stocking you kitchen with some great tools click on her blog above and there is contact info for hosting a party.

What defines a friend? That's a deep question, but I'll give you one characteristic I enjoy: someone who sends me recipes to try. There's something about it when someone says, "Jenny, this made me think of you, so you should try it." Big. Warm. Fuzzy. That, my friends, is how I acquired this mind-blowingly awesome feast of chocolate and peanut butter goodness. My sweet friend Holly went on a send-Jenny-a-bunch-of-fun-recipes spree, and now all followers of Real Kitchen. Real Life. benefit. Thanks, Holly! You can tell from the picture these are worth making. In fact, you should stop whatever you're doing, buy the ingredients, and get to work.

(Displayed on a Dots Salad Plate from the Simple Additions Collection)

Peanut Butter Cups

chefjennylyn.com

3 cups chocolate

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 cup graham crackers, crushed

1 tsp. sea salt

Place liners in 12 muffin cups.

Melt 1 1/2 cups chocolate in a double boiler. Remove it from the stove, and turn off the heat. Paint a layer of chocolate in each cup, liberally covering the bottoms and sides. Set the double boiler aside, and save remaining chocolate.

Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator for 20 minutes while making the peanut butter filling.

Combine peanut butter, crushed graham crackers, powdered sugar, and salt. Stir until well-combined.

Return the double boiler to the stove, and heat over medium-high. Melt remaining 1 1/2 cups of chocolate.

Remove the muffin pan from the fridge, and divide peanut butter mixture among the cups, smoothing it to fill the bottoms. Each will take about 1 1/2 tbsp. of this fluffy, fabulous filling.

Using a spoon, dip chocolate from the double boiler into each cup, and be generous! Smooth the tops, or create a swirl (whatever floats your boat).

Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator for 40 minutes to an hour.

Make history.

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This recipe is originally from Design Sponge

What's more fun than making sweet treats? Making them with friends! Holly and Kathleen came over to try these with me, and all three of us were pleased with the simplicity of the recipe and the great result. Kathleen is filling the Stoneware Muffin Pan with foil liners.

She'd heard of the Measure-All Cup, but this was Kathleen's first experience with it. All I can say is that she left a huge fan of this tool, the standard for measuring all things sticky, creamy, or gross. She used the Skinny Scraper to fill it up, and the rest is history.

Holly is the person who designed my blog, so you know she's super fun. Not only does she design well, but she melts chocolate like a pro. Put a little water in the 3-Qt. Saucepan, place the Double Boiler on top, and stir occasionally. This double boiler has been upgraded, so that's why it looks different on my website. You can't tell, but Holly's using the Mini Mix 'n Scraper to stir.

Graham cracker crumbs in the Manual Food Processor! I promise this tool is every bit as good as it seems, and it's even got a silicone grip on the bottom to keep it from sliding around.

Painting with chocolate! Holly's using the Chef's Silicone Basting Brush to get a good, thick coat on each liner. You don't realize how handy a basting brush is until you don't have one. This one is perfect, and it goes in the dishwasher for easy cleanup, even when it's full of chocolate.

Kathleen is using the 5" Strainer to sift powdered sugar into a Stainless Mixing Bowl. For small amounts, this can't be beat. This is about to become peanut butter filling. AAAHHH!!!

The Medium Scoop turned out to be the perfect size for to fill the chocolate cups. A leveled off scoop for each cup was what we ended up using, and there was just enough filling. Sorry, but there's not any leftover after that, so don't get ideas about snacking on the filling. In fact, I had to use the Mix 'n Scraper to get everything out of the bowl and stretch it to fill all twelve cups.

Each cup then gets a huge serving of chocolate to top it off, and boom! Recipe complete. Refrigerate these, and they're ready for consumption in less than an hour. If you're super excited, stick them in the freezer instead. Yes, the Stoneware Muffin Pan can go in the freezer.

These are full-size peanut butter cups. There's no playing with this recipe; it separates the men from the boys. Sure, I could only eat half a cup, but that just means I get to save the other half for later, right? I've got so many ideas for making these again, and I can't wait for an occasion that justifies the effort. Otherwise, I'll end up with twelve huge peanut butter cups in my house, and that has disaster written all over it.

kyo & tim - photographed

even though i sprang for a fancy new camera this winter, i don't pretend to be a professional photographer - so it's always fun to see weddings i work on once they've been photographed by the real pros - in this case, the pros were merrill and tim - the sweet little photographers.

i am pumped because they just blogged some of their initial pictures from kyo & tim's wedding a couple of weekends ago... and of course they look WAY better than the photographs i took... i've posted just a couple of detail shots below, but the rest are awesome and can be found here!

sidenote - how fab was kyo's getaway dress???

more tornado relief

It has been so cool to see how the community here in Birmingham has been pulling together to help with tornado relief. All the stores have been having clothing drives and lots of organizations and churches collecting food and supplies and gathering teams.

This little sweet necklace is for sale at local boutique, Doree, and 100% the proceeds benefit tornado relief.

You can get silver ($35) or gold ($40).

nathalie lete at paper source

I love the illustrations of Nathalie Lete, so I was quite delighted to discover these new items at Paper Source.

 

new lonny office

I love the Lonny's new office featured in their May/June issue.

jessica and wes cake topper

I made this fun cake topper for my friend Jessica's wedding..I also did her program and invitation 

and will share those when i get some pictures.

I love Jessica's bouquet of peonies and white anemone. Beautiful!