Memorial Day Part One

The weather looked pretty decent until we got to the mountains. We met a little bit of hail and rain and I was glad we brought our raincoats. We didn't stay at Mesa Falls very long.

Human Foosball, Running, and the Last of the Small Pictures

Ansley's new favorite game!





















Bloomers made using Susan from Living with Punk's fantastic tutorial (and pattern!). I should be sewing another pair of these right now! Dress refashioned last summer from one of my unflattering shirts.

Cinnabon Style Cinnamon Rolls

Pre-frosting, obviously. Any tips for styling a shot with a 9x13 pan?



One of my friends pinned a Cinnabon recipe the other day and I was so excited to try it until I clicked on the link and the recipe required a bread maker. After a brief google search, I found a version that doesn't require a bread maker. Check out Grace from La Mia Vita Dolce's version (and gorgeous pictures and recipes). I didn't use bread flour b/c I didn't have any. I also didn't have the fancy cinnamon and the first time I made it I used dark brown sugar instead of light b/c the dark was already open. I used butter instead of margarine b/c I'm a snob. This is the BEST frosting ever. Oh and I mixed the butter and sugar and cinnamon together with my hands and estimated how to increase the filling by about 30% (I felt like I was a bit short the first time), kind of like the sugar and lemon zest in the lemon rolls.

Planting the Garden and Dancing

Just Playing Around with My Camera

(mental note- don't forget to switch back to large setting after taking boring pictures like this!!) (don't know what that is, don't really want to know. eew).



I took some decent (love how bright they are but clearly still need practice) pictures my first time in manual mode. Flowers from Mother's Day.

Lilacs!

I love the fragrance of lilacs!! I found this fabric at Joann's, with the plan to sew up my first oliver + s pattern but then I decided I really wanted a picture of a lilac dress by a lot of lilacs, before they all blow away, so I made a dress for Ansley using Simplicity 4927; except now I'm feeling kind of bad about making a dress for Ansley's friend b/c I don't love this pattern on Ansley. It sews up easy enough and it's easy to vary but it kind of looks like a nightgown. It probably doesn't help that Ansley was not cooperative at all the day we took pictures (Mother's Day)- you can see those tears in her eyes. The light was beautiful and perfect, the lilacs were gorgeous and she wouldn't look at the camera. I thought it was a bit strange that the background color of the fabric was black, until we shot some pictures when the sun was almost set. . . .



















Funny and creepy when you zoom in, no?