i ♥ faces Giveaway

Okay, I definitely have a blog crush on i ♥ faces! The photography on there is amazing. There are some really talented photographers and I can spend all day looking at pictures! They are having a giveaway and wait for it, wait for it...

They are giving away Tamron 18-270mm VC zoom lens. This lens totally blows all of my lenses out of the water. It is crazy sweet and I would LOVE to win!

You all can enter the giveaway here.

Vote for Me!

If you have some time, I would appreciate it if you would go vote for my photo in the Cat's Corner photography contest. Here is the link: http://amazoncat.blogspot.com/2009/08/competition-entries-time-to-vote.html.

My photo is #1.

Thank you!

Hidden

I am entering in another Photo Contest at Cat's Corner. This time the theme is "Hidden". When I was browsing through my photos on my computer I came across this one and thought that it fit the theme perfectly!

This picture was taken October of last year at the Rocky Creek Corn Maze. There hadn't been much rain for the corn to grow, but it was still tall enough to where you couldn't really see over the top. This is my sister a few rows across from me, jumping up for the shot!

So head on over to Cat's Corner to enter your photo too! Submissions will close at midnight (GMT) Sunday July 19th; she will then open a poll to choose a winner.

Vote for Me!

Please head over to Cat's Corner to vote for my photograph in the photography challenge! All of the entries are truly beautiful; it is going to be a tough challenge!

Mine is Photo #4.

Here's the link: http://amazoncat.blogspot.com/2009/06/let-voting-begin.html

Thank you!

Chocolate Bread Pudding Recipe Step-By-Step

I had never eaten bread pudding before, but I have always wanted to try it. Whenever I buy a loaf of french bread to go with dinner, we can never finish the whole loaf and it ends up getting thrown away, which bothers me to no end!

I had a loaf of french bread that I bought to go with our chicken tetrazzini, and I decided that I would search for a tasty chocolate bread pudding recipe to try. Here's where I got the recipe from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Bread-Pudding-107889. It turned out to be really good! And guess what...I took pictures of the process!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 4 ounces French bread with crust, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 4 cups)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Bring cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk to simmer in heavy medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.

Add 1 cup chocolate chips and whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk egg and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot chocolate mixture. Cool chocolate custard 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add bread cubes and remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips to custard and toss to coat.

Transfer to 1 1/2-quart-capacity shallow oval baking dish. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over mixture. Bake until custard thickens and center is just set, about 50 minutes. Serve warm.

Photography Challenge

I have always been amazed by photography. I love when you can capture a spectacular image with one shot! We got our Canon Rebel XSI last October and I absolutely love it! I have been trying to learn all of the camera lingo and still much of it confuses me, but I guess I will will learn with time. AmazonCat over at Cat's Corner is having her very own photography challenge! I have never entered a photography challenge before, but I thought it might be fun - and I still consider myself a novice! Her theme is "On the Other Hand". Here is the photo that I am entering in the challenge.

This was taken at my husband's cousin's wedding in May 2009. This little boy whom I don't know came up to me and showed me a June-bug and wanted me to take a picture of it. He would not back up far enough for me to get his face in the picture and this is the shot I got. Then he ran off and I never got another picture of him - he was so cute!

** I only used "Auto Level" in Photoshop to get the colors right, but I did not alter this picture in any other way.

My Weekend

This past weekend we travelled to my husband's hometown of Port O'Connor, Texas for his cousin's wedding.

They had hired violinists to play all of the beautiful wedding and mass music.

This is my husband and I outside of the church.

One of my husband's cousins and her family.

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law - aren't they cute (she totally doesn't know I took this picture - it was a quick candid shot!)

Another one of my husband's cousin's two kids - so cute with their blond hair and blue eyes!

The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was held in a massive white tent on the beach. In the forecast was rain, but miraculously the rain passed just north of us leaving nothing but cool, perfect weather for an outdoor wedding.

As we approached the tent, tiki-torches lined the way to the entrance. The cake was a four tier creamy white masterpiece complete golden sand dollars. The grooms cake was in the shape of a crab - so cute!

The table arrangements were stunning, consisting of orchids, hydrangea and bells of Ireland, to name a few of the flowers. The caterers had prepared roast beef, shrimp, couscous, a green bean and squash medley, and a baby spinach and strawberry salad.

After dinner, we all danced the night away! The band was amazing - SkyRocket from Austin, Texas.

And finally to see the bride and groom off, we stood outside the tent with glowing sparklers! It was by far one of the best weddings I have attended!

***By the way, I just figured out how to link to view larger pictures - okay so my husband figured it out and told me what to do.  So you can click on each picture for a larger view!

Birthday Party Pictures

I finally have pictures of my birthday party.  My parents actually had a joint birthday party for my sister and I on Saturday (her birthday was on May 7th).  It was a lot of fun.  They barbecued steaks and we had baked potatoes, pinto beans and a salad!  My Mom also made two angel pies which were delicious!  The food was great and the company was even better!  We sat outside visiting and I got to snap some great shots with my camera - have I told you that I love it!

My brother and his fiancee.

The awesome steaks!

My sister and her boyfriend.

My sweet husband!

Black Forest Cake Recipe

My husband and I love this cake. The combination of chocolate and cherries is divine and it looks so fancy (like you spent the whole day making it), but in reality it is pretty easy to make!

Here's my recipe:

Black Forest Cake

2-20 oz. cans cherry pie filling
2-9 inch chocolate cake layers, baked and cooled
3 cups Cool Whip
1 can vanilla frosting

Split each cake layer in half, so you end up with four layers. Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread with 1 cup of the Cool Whip; top with ¾ cup of the cherry topping. Top with second cake layer, 1 cup Cool Whip and ¾ cup of cherry topping; top with third cake layer. Frost cake sides with the vanilla frosting; with the remaining frosting, place into a pastry bag fitted with a star pipe. Pipe around top and bottom edges of the cake. Spoon the remaining cherry topping over the top of the cake. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Getting the Big Picture

Is it just me, or do other people like seeing products on a model? I would rather seeing clothes, jewelry, hair accessories, etc. that I am going to potentially buy, on actual people. Even if the dimensions are listed, it still doesn't beat having that visual image proportion-wise. You can see the big picture and imagine how it will look on you as well.

Most of my hair accessories are pictured by themselves because I don't want to wait until my sister comes into town, or have to transport them anywhere to have a "photo shoot" just to list them. I want to get them listed as soon as I can. During the week, whenever my husband comes home from work, he is usually exhausted and I know the last thing he wants to do is play "photographer".

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24012458

http://www.southerngirlflorals.etsy.com/

Well today we didn't have anything planned, so I asked in my sweetest voice possible if he would mind snapping a few shots - he agreed! I pulled my hair up and grabbed a couple of my floral combs. Now my husband is wonderful when it comes to the camera, but nothing is ever right when it comes to my obsessive-compulsive need for perfect pictures. I felt so bad for him (and kept apologizing) when he ended up snapping over 50 pictures! He really did a great job and I am so thankful that he put up with me! Here are the shots that I added to two of my current listings. I didn't want to subject him to any further torture - we'll save the other floral accessories for another day!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23763803

http://www.southerngirlflorals.etsy.com/

Air Show

Last weekend was so much fun! Okay, I know that it is already Friday of the next week, but I have been busy. We had the local air show (which is nothing exciting, in fact I did not even know that our small town even had an air show until this year, so it is not like the "Blue Angels" flyovers or anything like that). My uncle is a pilot and this year he was aksed to fly his plane to our little air show, and he let my family take a private tour!! He was so excited to be able to show us his plane.

This is my uncle and my aunt standing near the plane (I don't know the other pilot or that other guy in the baseball cap.)

This is my Mom and I.

This is my husband and I on the plane.

From left to right this is my brother, my sister and my sister's boyfriend.

Manual Mode

I have had my camera since October 2008. It is a Canon Rebel XSI and I love it! I am just starting to really get the hang of it now though. I have ventured outside of the automatic settings and have started using some manual features. There is still so much that I have yet to learn, but what I have picked up so far has been very fun! I was practicing with some of my new designs. So here you go:

To see more of these designs visit http://www.SouthernGirlFlorals.etsy.com

Even Nature Thinks They're Real

My wreaths are so realistic that even nature thinks they are real flowers! I was trying to re-take some pictures of one of my wreaths and this wasp landed right on the wreath. I hate bees and wasps and I have been stung a couple of times before - not fun! I wanted to get the thing off so I could finish taking the pictures. I was not going to swat at it because I knew that would just make it mad. I kind of shook the wreath and it flew at me and then landed on the wreath again! My dog was on the other side of the fence and she had just realized that I was outside at this point. She started freaking out, digging and barking because I was freaking out. I shook the wreath again. The wasp flew right at me and I ran, but luckily it just decided to fly off without stinging me - whew! After that I backed into the grapevines behind me and thought that something was stinging me and freaked out again! Hopefully my neighbors weren't outside watching this fiasco. It turns out the pictures didn't even come out that great. It is too bright right now, so I will probably wait a while before I try that again!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Signs of Spring

We were outside yesterday evening watering the lawn and hoping that it would rain soon. I honestly do not remember the last time it rained, but that is beside the point. I still have yet to clean up our flower beds, and they look pretty horrendous. I was scoping out my flower beds and trying to decide what I was going to be adding this year and I noticed a single Gerbera daisy poking up from the weeds and mulch around it.

Gerbera daisies are my favorite flowers; they are just so cheerful and bright! I ran inside the house, grabbed the camera, and I snapped these shots before the sun went down!