Hello Tuesday!  So as you know, a few weeks ago I was in California to attend our last wedding of this year (our eighth one)!  But this wedding was a different one for me because my husband played groomsmen and I played assistant photographer/second shooter to Anna Wu Photography!    I was able to really use my new 17-55 F2.8 lens to its full capacity.  I took a ton more photos than I normally do for a wedding and they were all in RAW too (usually I just shoot in JPEG).  I learned so much about what it takes to be a wedding photographer; how intensive it can be, how food deprived you can be, how rewarding it can be, and how to use my external flash for indoor receptions with dark lighting (thanks to the Seaglass Videography team)!

Here is a sneak peek at some photos taken with my Canon 50D and 17-55 F2.8 lens!

The bride’s TWO dresses were absolutely beautiful.

Here’s the view from boy’s getting ready hotel room, see the ceremony location at the bottom right?

Such a pretty ceremony setup, love the purple lanterns!

Kevin and Jenny during their First Look photo shoot, that blue backdrop is stunning!

I also played part-time videographer for the ceremony and snapped a photo of the video being recorded!  This is the photo I’ll be linking up to Sweet Shot Tuesdays (have you linked up yet)?

I loved their reception setup with the purple table clothes, white centerpieces, mood lighting, and gorgeous cake!  So happy that I learned how to use my external flash or else these photos probably would have looked drab.

Full wedding photo post(s) to come next week!

via weheartit

You guys seriously know how to make a girl blush!  Thanks to all of your wonderful blog comments and tweets, my27th birthday wouldn’t have been the same without you!  I just wanted to give a big WELCOME to all my new followers and friends and let you know that I am super excited to check out your blogs/shops as well, I truly am! 

Special thanks to Ilene, Holly, Ms. Megan, Shawni, and Blair for giving me a birthday shout out on your blog, so sweet!  (Hope I didn’t forget anyone!)  What a sweet present it was to open up these blogs on my birthday and see a little something special!

And in other present news, here are a few of the other things I received this year from family and friends!

I’ve pretty much been wanting this little baby for quite some time now!  It’s the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens to add to my growing collection of lenses, but this time its a wide angle, and boy does it go wide!  It’s perfect for starter Canon rebel and D series cropped cameras (since it is an EF-S lens) and I must say I’ve already used it and I LOVE IT!  Will show you some pictures taken with it in a later post!

Some of my friends bought me this baby over here on the right.  You know what that is?!  It’s a Presto Professional CoolDaddy Electric Deep Fryer, yup you read that correctly, it’s a DEEP FRYER friends!  Egg rolls, fries, chicken wings, coconut shrimp, chimichangas, ohhh tasty tasty breaded goodness!!   Can’t wait to get it all greasy!  And remember a few days ago I blogged about my Corn Dog Maker too?  Geez, we’re so lucky to be owners of such AWESOME kitchen appliances, don’t ya think?

My sister-in-law and brother recently took a trip out to Japan/Korea and came back with literally 27 presents for me on my 27th birthday!  Well, I didn’t count but it’s pretty darn close to 27!  I felt like I was on Oprah and literally winning all of her favorite things (or maybe since I went to see Oprah with my sister-in-law, it rubbed off on her)!    Every time they would give me a present, I’d say, there’s more, there’s more??  Are you kidding me?!  She gave me bags, a lens insert bag, ear muffs, shoes, socks, tons of cute tape, clothes a watch, food cutters, twine, headbands, face cream, fabric, cute tray, wrapping paper and more!!

My parents got me a really cute red handing accessory organizer with a damask print, where I can finally organize all the beautiful jewelry I receive from all those beautiful handmade shops out there, some cute t-shirts, and a handy travel briefcase from the Joy Mangano collection to use on my short business trips!  And some other friends got me cards, gift cards, deodorant, lotions, and a book guide to the “eat and drink of kansas city”!

I was totally overwhelmed with the response to my first birthday giveaway and the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the winner of my favorite things picked by random.org is…

Congrats to Lilian from Unstitched!  I will send you an email shortly asking for your mailing address so I can send you your box full of goodies!  Sorry if you didn’t win!  Remember, I will have 2 giveaways a week through the end of the year, so your chances to win something aren’t slim!

Lastly, I’ll leave you with some inspiring birthday images!

via weheartit, that’s how old i am now!

via weheartit, this grumpy kitty is too cute!

via weheartit, a cool camera red velvet cake (i’m guessing that’s the flavor, yum!)

via weheartit, this is how i felt during my birthday celebrations, in cloud 9!

Hi friends!!  I just wanted to interrupt your regular blog programming to make a few announcements!  I have recently been deemed the Giveaway Queen by a few sources, I’m flattered to have this title and just want to let you know that there will be at least one giveaway (maybe two) a week from now until Christmas!  But I also have tons of other posts full of recipes, baby pictures, wedding pictures, inspirations planned as well, so don’t you worry, I’m not turning into a giveaway blog, I just love free stuff and even more, I love sharing it with you all while helping to promote HANDMADE/BUSINESS OWNERS!

With that being said…  don’t forget to enter the $25 shop credit to junghwa by amy stewart giveaway and the $200 credit to a photography session by San Francisco based Bllew Photography giveaway!  And next week, I’ll have a fabulous GIVEAWAY TO CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY on Monday, can’t wait!!

Next up, if you have been following my twitter, you will know that yesterday I mentioned that Much Love, Illy and I have something BIG planned for you all!  While this is not quite the BIG REVEAL yet, here’s just a sneak peek at the fun swap we’re working on…

The details will be announced next Thursday, November 4, so make sure to check back!!

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And finally, it’s about time for another recipe don’t ya think?  Like that super LARGE pic haha?  This one I made for my coworkers and let me tell you, people came back for seconds and thirds and they were gone pretty quickly!  So I pretty much knew I wanted to make something with pumpkin (b/c it is pumpkin season after all and this post has me craving it) and I had an abundance of white chocolate chips in the house that my husband told me to use up, so put the two together… and you have a delectable cookie!  I searched my trusty recipe sites and found a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe on Food Network, only changes being that I used White Chocolate Chips instead of regular Chocolate Chips, I doubled the pumpkin, and doubled the spices~!

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies (adapted by me)

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups canned pumpkin puree
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 cups (12-ounce bag) white chocolate chips
• Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

Did you notice how I called them Cake Cookies?? Well I think doubling the pumpkin does make it more cake like, but it’s definitely a good thing!!  I think you shall give these a try if you’ve been craving something pumpkin lately!

What pumpkin desserts are you making??

This is where C+J’s LOVE story began, KC = Kansas City!

And 3.5 years and a move to Seattle later, we have their beautiful yellow inspired wedding!

A beautiful ceremony was held where their friend Mike was the officiant.

Place cards with clever sayings like “See you on the dance floor”, “Love that dress”, and “Get your stunner shades on” were awaiting the guests.

And tables with beautiful lemon and yellow flower centerpieces filled the Palace Ballroom.

Loved the simple and sweet polka design of the cake and the beautiful bride + her flowers which I’ll be linking up to Sweet Shot Tuesdays.

Some traditional Chinese elements were brought into the wedding like an umbrella and a hot red chi pao with awesome red heels!

And we spent a good part of the evening in the photobooth with these hand cut adorable moustache favors!

But of course I couldn’t do a wedding post without featuring some of the DELICIOUS food by Tom Douglas~!!

And the night ended with well said speeches…

More dancing and of course the bouquet and garter toss!

Congrats Cynthia and Jason!  Thanks for letting me be a part of your big day!  Love you two!

I have dreams of learning new things at work, growing this blog with possible sponsorship, starting an etsy shop with accessories and sewn goodies, improving in my photography, learning new recipes each month, finishing our basement, trying to eat healthy and workout while traveling, being the best wife/friend/daughter/sister-in-law/co-worker/blogger/stranger I can be, starting a family (eventually), all of this and trying to get enough sleep each night.  Those dreams are somewhere… somewhere over the rainbow right? 

This week’s flavors to follow idea, as well as some of the links, were actually sent to me by sweet Erin from Slipcover Your Life.  If you love cross-stitch, you must check out her shop!  I’ve been so busy dreaming that I’ve been scrambling for ideas for this feature lately, so I was so happy when Erin sent me an email with this wonderful idea.  I hope this colorful collage brings happiness to your weekend! 

1 spotted by slipcover your life, a delicious and freaking gorgeous M&M covered double rainbow malt cake by raspberri cupcakes
2 spotted by slipcover your life, a beautiful ceramic stripey mug all the way from the UK, seen on design*sponge
3 store your documents and pictures in style with this uber cute friends with you USB flash drive
4 lovely scrabble pieces spell i can see a rainbow in this vintage style print by lola’s room
5 polaroid land camera rainbow flare spotted on 74 lime lane
6 spotted by slipcover your life, an adorable butterfly wedding cake by martha stewart seen on the ritzy bee blog
7 spotted by slipcover your life, a community painting project in rio de janeiro spotted on oh joy!
8 lovely cabachon flower rainbow necklace by nest pretty things kids
9 celebrate a carnival themed birthday party with this beautiful bunting banner made by blue moon studios
10 these irregular choice chica shoes would match any outfit, yea?
11 seen on green wedding shoes, how perfect that a rainbow showed up for a beautiful backyard wedding, photographed by kamp photography

If you guys have any ideas of things you’d love to see in this friday feature, please don’t hesitate to let me know through comments, email, twitter, whatever!  It could be anything from puppies to the color turquoise to lace to stars!

Have a wonderful weekend lovelies!  See you next week from Canada, eh?

Lemon Layer Cake with Raspberry Buttercream Filling and Whipped Topping

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Yes, that is what I’m showing you how to make today.  Have I got your attention, folks??  Sorry it’s taken me so long to write this post, *sigh*, I’m a little behind on picture uploading/editing/writing posts, if you can’t tell.    But anyways, remember the birthday cake that me, my brother and SIL made for my husband and my friend Sam?  If you need a refresher, it was mentioned in this post.  So I’ve never made a layer cake before or my own buttercream, so there were many firsts for me here.  That, and the fact that it was late at night and I’m not so great at taking indoor pictures (so sorry for the poor picture quality in some of these here)!  But I knew, I just knew, that I wanted to blog about this cake and I wanted to impress you!    Oh yea, I definitely encountered a few hardships along the way and I’ll be sharing those with you!

1. First off, prepare your tools.  We have the ultimate cake caddy, cake leveler perfect for layered cakes, angled spatula, decorating bag, coupler and a tip.

2. Don’t slap me, but I used a boxed lemon cake.  Reason being, I wanted to focus on making the cake look pretty and I didn’t want to mess up the flavor of the cake, hope you understand!    My original plan was to bake two 9-inch rounds and make 4 layers.  So with one of the 9 inch rounds, you have to use the cake level to skim off the top, and then cut that round in half again.  However, as I was cutting that round in half, it started to break apart and I realized it wasn’t such a great plan.  So I called Marv and had him get me another box of lemon cake… long story short… I’d just get 2 boxes of cake and make three (layers) 9-inch rounds and level the tops.

3. As the cake is baking, you could actually start prepping your Raspberry Buttercream (Ingredients and Directions at bottom of post).

4. I cut out a cardboard box into a shape of a circle and wrapped foil around it to make my stand.

5. Place Layer #1 face down.

6. And here we go!  Spread the raspberry buttercream filling on top of Layer #1.

7. Place layer #2 on top and spread the raspberry buttercream filling on top of Layer #2.  See it finally forming into a layer cake?

8. Place Layer #3 on top (upside down again) and you’re DONE!

9.  Well almost.  Spread your Whipped Cream Icing (Ingredients and Directions at bottom of post) on top and sides of cake.  This is where your uber useful angled spatula comes into play!

10.  My favorite part.  Ask your sister-in-law, to use her Jenny-vitica font style handwriting and icing gel to write a message.  Hire your brother to pipe the Whipped Cream Icing along bottom and top of cake.  This is where you use your piping bag, coupler and tip. 

11.  Present your cake to the birthday boys, where they will simul-blow out the two candles, haha!

12. Lastly, cut the cake into slices and admire the pretty layers!

13. Oh, don’t forget to eat the cake too, but let the birthday boys have the first bite!

Lemon Cake – bought a boxed cake mix and followed the directions, easy peasy!

Raspberry Buttercream – I adapted this recipe from a cupcake that My Little Adventures made, I don’t remember my exact measurements though, any berry buttercream recipe should work for this!
Ingredients:
• 1 cup raspberries
• 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 stick unsalted butter; softened
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups powdered sugar; sifted
Directions:
1. Combine raspberries, granulate sugar and lemon juice in a sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir frequently until juices from berries boil. Let boil for 2 minutes to raspberry make sauce more dense.
2. Place the sauce in a strainer and push out the liquid, so that there aren’t any seeds in your sauce.  Cool in refrigerator.
3. Beat butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth.  Add the raspberry sauce to the mixer bowl, along with 3/4 cup of powdered sugar.

Whipped Cream Icing - taken from one of my favorite recipe websites, allrecipes.com.


Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (to make it hold better)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Chill mixing bowl and beaters for at least 15 minutes before using. Place water in a small microwave-safe bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over water and allow to soften 5 minutes.
2. Dissolve gelatin by microwaving for 3 minutes, stirring after every minute. Remove from microwave and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes; gelatin must be liquid but not warm when added to cream.
3. Remove bowl and beaters from refrigerator and pour in cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat together just until beater marks begin to show distinctly.
4. Add gelatin mixture to cream, pouring in a steady stream while beating constantly. Beat until stiff peaks form. Use immediately.

Hope I’ve inspired you to make own version of LAYER CAKE now!

Since I missed out on my Flavors to Follow feature (say that 5 times fast) last Friday because I was overdosing you with my wedding pictures, I’m bringing you an extra special huge dose of dreamy damask deliciousness!  I mean, who doesn’t love damask?  If I could decorate every room in my house with damask, I would.  But my husband did not agree to it, *sigh*.  Anyhow, I’ve scoured the web and bloggyland and here are my favorite finds.

swim: santa barbara halter on downeast basics
cuff: coffee cuff on oh sweet joy!
wall: amy butler wallpaper by graham & brown seen on design*sponge
decor: cabinet seen on the ardent sparrow
hold: zipper clutch by downtown girl designs
wear: black & white damask hot pink ruched camera strap by priddy creations
background: seahorse backdrop by drop it modern
wed: damask chandelier seen on lemon sweet life
sit: reupholstery project on remodelaholic
announce: woodland damask save the date on hello! lucky
eat: five tier damask cake seen on martha stewart
sleep: headboard project seen on made by girl

Aren’t they sooo dreamy?  What do you own that has a damask pattern?  Skirt, bag, pillow, wallpaper?  Come on, you’ve got to have something!  If not, then I’ve already done your shopping for you above!