Stanley Park photo shoot!

Hey everyone! So for today's post I thought I'd post up some of the shots I took for a fun photo shoot I did with my friend Susan!  We headed off to Stanley Park in Vancouver because A, it has beautiful surroundings and natural backdrops and B, it wasn't so public haha.  

I managed to take a lot of amazing shots with my camera (considering I don't really know how to use it to its full potential- I somehow managed to make it work!). I shoot with a Nikon d5000 with your basic kit lens and a fix focused lens as we'll- maybe someday I'll get a better lens but for now it does it's job.

Plus with finally purchasing an IPad I put it to good use and edited all my photos (well the ones I like) on it.  I took close to about 250 shots and here are the top 30ish? (In my opinion) with a little help of iPhoto, so enjoy!

A couple Ap.PIE.tizing creations

Pie 1

Hey everyone!
So, I am a complete failure at this weekly blogging thing but with 2 jobs and everything else, I don't feel so bad! I've been pretty busy because I recently started a youtube channel where I try to do fun DIY stuff there. (Link at the end of post), I got a new restaurant job where I work 4 days a week as well as my 3 days at the coffee shop.  Plus I have so many projects in mind that I'm trying to get started.  I also really value my social life so whenever I get a chance, I try to reconnect with old friends or get to know new friends. But I hope whatever your doing, you're well and thanks for checking out my blog; I really appreciate it.

Pie 2

 Recently in the past few weeks, I've gotten into baking pies! I've never made them before, so I thought I'd try my hand at it and I might be slightly obsessed.  Now, normally I would want to try to make everything from scratch but obviously with my lack of time I had to resort to buying pre-made crusts, which surprisingly taste pretty good.  Now onto the important question; what kind of pie did I make?  Well, I've made a couple but here are 2 that I've made that I really enjoyed! 

DIY Letter Decoration

So it's time for DIY project my fellow enthusiasts.  This week I really wanted to put something on top of my giant entertainment unit where all my DVDs were.  I thought that installing a shelf for the DVDs would allow more room for decorative stuff to showcase me.   Now window shopping around furniture stores I always seem to find these really cool letter decorations that have the words 'love', 'faith' or other really lovely expressions to them.  Now as much as I liked these, I obviously couldn't afford any of them on my budget so I decided to go the crafty route and make my own DIY version!  *Plus it could be a lot more personal with whatever message I wanted it to say.

 So to do this, I first figured out wanted I wanted the expression to say, then off to my local craft store (Michaels for me here in Vancouver) and got all my supplies ready for this project!

Summer Dinner Party?

Hey everyone, my apologies on this whole lack of blogging thing, apparently I can't seem to commit to it as much I as I wanted too (not the only thing I have problems with committing too) but I'm back, and full of motivation as ever...hopefully.
 
As it is finally drawing near to the summer season (though the weather here in Vancouver begs to differ) I thought it would be perfect timing for a summer themed dinner party!  I've always loved hosting things and now that I am on my own, I figured why not? I am making it a goal of hosting at least one successful dinner party a month (seems do-able right?) So I wanted to start small (group of 4 friends) so in case it was a complete disaster I wouldn't have to clean up after so many people AND it would've been less embarrassing haha.  I started creating a menu a couple days prior to it with some ideas being thrown at me by my coworkers.  I wanted a simple, summer, picnic feel to the menu so I figured lemonade, and some sort of sandwich and pie would be perfect.

A Fondant Frenzy

I love to bake, anyone who really knows me, knows that baking for me is relaxing and creative all the while appeasing my sweet tooth.  I also love to see the reaction of my friends as they taste my creations. Now before I had moved out on my own, I had trouble baking things for my friends because of transport time of the baked goods, but now thanks to living on my own, I have the freedom to bake as much as I want.
The first thing I really wanted to dab into was making a fondant cake.  Luckily my Catherine was having a birthday soon so I had the perfect occasion to bake a cake.  I decided to make a 2 tier Victorian vanilla sponge cake with strawberry jam and buttercream frosting.  I never made it before so it was a little daunting but I knew I could make it.  Now the party was also on the night of the Academy Awards so I decided to decorate the cake with an Oscar theme in mind.  And with all that planning done, I was off to start the baking!

making the cake