My weekend through Instagram. 

new stuff

Just recently I've decided to make another home at Society6!

I love, and I mean I lurrrvvvv offering iphone cases & laptop skins to customers. So much so, I just bought myself my first (and I don't mean like an upgrade, I mean my VERY FIRST) iphone case.

Check out this little beast of a case named Scales!

Sexy, right? I can't wait to get it on my new iphone. Oh, I should probably buy that....

Yeah, I bought the case before the iphone. So?! Don't judge me...

I just finished packing some prints that will be headed in all directions within the US, and that is seriously amazing. It still shocks me that people, strangers even, are loving my prints. This feeling comes in particularly handy when I start feeling like everything I shoot is crap, and I should give up. Then I get a ridiculously nice email, or a special print order & you guys remind me why I'm doing this in the first place. Thank you so much! 

Come see me on Society6 and check out the iphone cases & laptop skins featuring my prints!

middle - october

I had quite a few things I wanted to do in October and I hate to admit, I haven't done any of them. Slacker, I know. I don't even have a right to complain, because I know it. Does it feel like this month is just slipping through your hands? October feels like it doesn't belong to me this year, it's kind of depressing.

This weekend was busy busy (with another wedding just right around the corner!), and I woke up Saturday and thought "Ok, seriously. This is ridiculous, I need to do Fall-like things today." So to the farm we went.

I picked up lots of pumpkins and gourds for our porch, as well as a few big luscious mums & I'm starting to feel a little bit better, a little more like I'm living in this season. Instead of watching it from a distance.

A list seems to be in order. These are things I need to do let's say....before I leave for Florida (and the insanely hot climate) November 20th.

- find a farm, pick some apples
- make pumpkin churros
- drink lots of pumpkin spice lattes
- watch The Frighteners, The Last Exorcism, the original House on Haunted Hill
- finish The Passage
- um....work...out


Who is doing awesome Autumn inspired things this month? What are you cooking? What is your Halloween costume? Any good scary movies you would recommend?  I need to live through you people!

Silversands & Maroma - Mexico part 1

Our Holiday has ended. Our Trilly is back home, and I've got a few photos to share with you! It didn't cross my mind until after I started editing that I didn't concentrate on the ocean as much as I usually do. It may have to do with the lushness of the jungle, or the fact that I spent most of my time jumping waves (and obviously that's too dangerous to bring a camera along...), or the ridiculously hardcore ping pong we played, but nonetheless I appreciated it's colors and vastness. Even if I forgot to photograph it :)

                                     

To be continued...

     

Donde estas tu pantelones?

I totally forget to tell anyone that I was going to Mexico! Opps. A much needed vacation was in order, and it just so happened that our good friends needed a honeymoon destination so wah-la! Montamos un avión a México!

Just dropped by to say a quick hello, and back to the beach we go :)

- T

Winner!

Congrats to Amanda Zahn for winning our end of summer giveaway! Thanks to all who entered, and please remember I am still offering 30% off in the shop. Thanks again to Kaelyn for offering a free print!

I am going back to enjoying this relaxing weekend Holiday, anyone have Labor Day plans?

PS - Has everyone seen all the Halloween decorations already out in the stores? PPS - I think I need to start compiling my scary movie list for October...

end of summer giveaway!

With summer coming to a close, I thought it would be a great idea to offer a giveaway! Oh and Kaelyn Michaels is in on it, too.
Here's what you'll win!

8x10 -  The Island

8x8   -  Emerald Coast

Both prints will be on that luscious metallic paper we just can't seem to get enough of.

And this is how you enter:

1. Follow me on Facebook - Here

2. Follow Kaelyn on Facebook - Here

3. Come back to the blog, and leave a comment with your name (plus email!) and a favorite summertime memory.

The winner will be chosen using Random.org

This giveaway will end September 1st at midnight EST! Winner will be announced the next day.

Good luck to everyone, and I look forward to hearing about all your summer memories!

Candied Lemon Cake - successfully failed

I seriously considered not posting this recipe because it really was a disaster. But I didn't know that then.

With each successful recipe, I think a lot of bakers will admit there is always one that goes horribly wrong. I've burned a few cookies in my time, which totally frazzles my mood and turns the situation into a competition with the oven.

Here is the recipe (my notes on how I'm an asshole, to follow):

Candied Lemon Cake
original recipe from Donna Hay

candied lemon slices
1 1/2 cup superfine sugar
2/3 cups water
4 lemons, thinly sliced

cake
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Butter an 8-inch cake pan; dust with flour, tapping out excess.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk.
Pour batter into prepared pan, and smooth the batter out. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Let cool slightly.

To make candied lemon slices (from Donna Hay)
Place sugar and water into a saucepan over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the lemon and bring to a boil. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until syrup has thickened and the lemons are translucent. Pour the syrup over the cake and top with the lemon. Allow to cool before serving.

-

ALRIGHT. So. Everything had worked out smoothly in the cake baking department. I love this buttermilk recipe and I use it often. I don't really remember why, but I choose to use it instead of the cake recipe Miss Donna had given (Mistake #1)

The lemons. Dear God, those lemons. They were sliced, ready to go, and it's a given I have only made a syrup (caramel) once before (which didn't ...um...come out right.) but I am tenacious and went along with it like it was per usual.

I gingerly placed the slices into the pan, watched it closely, kept the boil even, and felt pretty damn satisfied with myself. Then in a matter of, oh I don't know, 25 seconds the syrup became way too brown and I had to jump ship and save those lemon slices! It happened pretty fast but I think I caught the whole thing in time. (Mistake #2)

The recipe calls for pouring the syrup onto the cake, then add the slices. No directions on getting the slices out of the pan and where to put them so they don't become sticky and not move from whatever it is you put them on! It was tricky, but I managed clearly breaking a sweat at this point.

Pouring caramel, not easy. Let's leave it at that. It's also really important to know exactly where you want to place a lemon slice, because once it's there it's there for good!

NOW. Cake is done, and it looks like this.

It's kind of gorgeous, and I was so excited while shooting it. Oh - is there more photographs you ask? Yeahhhhh, no. No, there isn't. 

I formatted my card thinking everything from this shoot was saved (Mistake #3). There it is, there is the super assholey move. 

But we're not finished yet! It's time to eat the cake! I think it was a mash up of mistake #1 and mistake #2 that made it hard to er, well eat. The candied lemons were so chewy and hard, while the cake was light and fluffy, it wasn't quite magical in my mouth. Like most cakes are supposed to be. 

I mean my family still ate it, but it was a super let down to me anyway. So if you want to make this recipe (cause after I just destroyed it, why wouldn't you?!) please follow Donna's cake recipe & watch your lemons. If I try it again (errrr...) I think a studier cake, like pound cake, would be perfect.

Louisiana BBQ Shrimp

I have a feeling I am going to be making this dish all summer. It's just that good, and super easy. It's going to be a scorcher on the East coast this weekend, I hope to find myself in lots of air conditioned rooms.


Louisiana BBQ Shrimp

1 lb. deveined, peeled shrimp
3-5 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup green pepper, chopped
1/4 - 1/2 cup white onion, chopped
1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons creole seasoning (whichever you prefer)
1 tablespoon flour
3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

In large saucepan, cook bacon pieces until just about crisp. Remove and let excess grease drip onto paper towel. Add green pepper & onion to pan and saute until halfway cooked. Remove vegetables to a bowl or plate. Season the shrimp with salt, pepper, and creole seasoning. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan , sear shrimp. About 2 minutes on each side. Push shrimp aside, place the green pepper & onion back into pan, add 1 tablespoon flour & chicken stock. Stirring, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer for 10-12 minutes or until sauce thickens. Add in bacon, stir and serve in a bowl with a french baguette.

The sauce gets it's smoky bacon flavor from reusing the bacon fat to saute the vegetables and shrimp. This is kind of a one pot wonder, and since it's Summer and seriously hot in my kitchen I'd like our dinners to be as simple as possible. I hate sweating in the kitchen, don't you?

I know I'm late in the game but I just started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  It will be quite a feat if I can keep away from all the spoilers from the movie on social networking sites until I finish the book.  I'm 2 chapters in, and I'm already heartbroken about this being the last of the series.

Who has read it? Any suggestions on what I should start reading after Harry Potter? I have a feeling I'll need a rebound book when I am finished.

Into The Forest

I've been taking the long way home from the studio this week. The roads up and through the encampment trails of Valley Forge are my favorite. Yesterday I got stuck in a thunderstorm, in the middle of a mountain with not a soul in sight.

It was so effing awesome.