Photo Fun

 In the past I would post photos here all the time.  Now I can't even meet my own "photo a day" challenge even when I changed it to "photo a week".  Slacker.  That's what I am!  Okay, so not really.  Well, sometimes.  Like when I don't feel like folding clothes so I turn the dryer back on for awhile. They didnt' feel all the way DRY. Yeah, that's what happened!  I'm going to make up for lost photo a week time with a bunch of photos! 


Sorry but you may have to put on your pity party hat here for a moment...As I've mentioned before, I am no longer shooting "professionally" because of the chronic pain I am in from failed back syndrome. I've had 4 spinal surgeries (2 fusions and a fusion revision), 1 cervical (neck) and 3 lumbar.  Because of this I have not done anything for whimages in several years.  I of course still LOVE photography!  I want to share a few photos of my children and the children of friends that I have taken over the past year or so. Some of these are total snapshots but I like them!  I hope you enjoy! (this is also my sneaky way to be able to get photos onto my "photos" board over on pinterest! Peyton is dying for me to put her Halloween costume photos up! )

Callie in an abandoned chicken coop!  There is often FABULOUS light in unexpected places!

My sweet niece and nephew. AGAIN in the chicken coop!

Sneaking a bite of a peach while we were picking them!

Peyton with peaches!

My other "daughter" Bethany...she lives across the street.

I've always loved the color of Callie's eyes!

just a snapshot of my kids..very little cooperation when they are all together!

I love this photo!

A vintage finished photo of Peyton.

Peyton and I put this Halloween costume together with bits and pieces of things we already had and a few feathers from the craft store! Easy and so cute!

My friend's sweet little man

I just ADORE his little toes!

Cosmo's paw

I hope you liked them!

sticky buns and cupcakes, oh my!

So obviously I'm not all that good at this Photo A Day thing. Sorry! Forgive me please.  I'll give you a virtual sticky bun...here you go!  Or would you rather have a gingerbread latte cupcake?  Both of these are ULTRA yummy.  The sticky bun is a slight alteration of a recipe I found on Pinterest. (BTW, it's probably Pinterest and that super sweet guy Ben's fault I can't blog more often.  I'm stuck over on Pinterest!) Here's the original, mine is basically double the sticky stuff!  She has more photos too. Please forgive my very POOR photos, it was cold and rainy out so I had to use the dreaded flash!


First, let me tell you about this incredible, SUPER, sticky bun recipe. I think I've made this about 5-6 time since Christmas. It's truly DELISH!   It uses Grands biscuits.  I love shortcuts like that especially when you can't tell it's a shortcut!

Here's what you do


2 lg.    tubes of Grands LAYERED biscuits
6T.     melted butter
1 C.    pancake syrup
2/3 C. packed brown sugar
1tsp.   cinnamon
nuts or raisins are optional


Preheat Oven to 350
Mix the Syrup and butter till smooth and incorporated. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar and other optional ingredients.  Pour half of the syrup mixture into a BUNDT pan and spread around.  Layer the biscuits in the pan overlaping to form a circle. Pour remaining syrup mixture and then sprinkle the brown sugar mixture.  Bake for about 40 minutes

My daughter Callie is on her school dance team (MARYLAND STATE CHAMPS!) and right before Christmas they had a little Holiday Soiree.  The party seemed to call for something extra special.  If you have teenagers in your home, then you KNOW they love everything about Starbucks.  So when I came across a recipe for Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes, I knew they would be party perfect!  I made some changes to the original recipe for the frosting.  Here's what I did...

Gingerbread Cupcake:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 large egg, beaten lightly
• 1/2 cup strong, very hot coffee
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• To make the cupcakes:
  1. Add flour, the ground ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves, the allspice, and the salt in a bowl and sifc.
  2. Add 1/2 stick of the butter and granulated sugar in bowl and beat until mixture is pale and fluffy. Add molasses and egg beat until the mixture is smooth. In a measuring cup combine the baking soda with 1/2 cup very hot strong coffee water and stir until baking soda is dissolved. Stir the baking soda mixture into the molasses mixture (the mixture will appear curdled) and the combined molasses and baking soda mixture into the flour mixture, stir until ingredients are well combined.
  3. Fill cupcake liners halfway. Bake the cupcakes on the middle rack of a 350 degree °F. oven for about 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. (Cupcakes will be flat on top.) Transfer the cupcakes to a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

     * 8oz        cream cheese softened

     *1/2 C      butter softened

     *1-16oz   package of powdered sugar, sifted

     * 1 tsp      vanilla extract

Combine cream cheese and butter, beating till very smooth.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla: beat until VERY light and fluffy

Stabilized Cinnamon Whipped Cream

• 2 T room temp milk
• 2 T instant vanilla pudding
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions 

If using a stand mixer, use whisk attachment

1. Chill mixing bowl and beaters or whisk for at least 15 minutes before using. Put the milk and the pudding powder in a small bowl and mix till smooth.
2. Remove bowl and beaters from refrigerator and pour in cream, sugar, pudding and vanilla extract. 
3. Beat on high till stiff peaks form but no longer (you'll end up with butter)
4. Use immediately

When the cupcakes are completely cool, frost them with a relatively thin layer of cream cheese frosting.  I broke up a bunch of the Pepperidge Farm Gingerbread Men and smashed them into crumbs.  Roll the sides of the cream cheese frosted cupcake in the crumbs.  Then using a pastry bag with only a cupler, make large swirl only in the center of the cupcake.  Sprinkle with nutmeg. Top with a gingerbread man right before serving. (otherwise his legs will fall off, no kidding!)

...not all bubblegum and unicorns!

So much for my photo a day, huh? I lost it two days into the year! Let's just say that my January hasn't started off so great in the Whimages household.  I've had kids sick with weird mysterious illnesses (totally not kidding, but every one's okay now) and appliances going haywire like crazy!  I only have a minute to blog this but I promise I'll be back later today to "really" blog!  Until then here's a photo to chew on.  (AHA!) It's from my niece, Grace's birthday party at Sass Cupcakes...more photo's to follow.

photo of the day 2

Photo number 2. Nothing much exciting other than I got these sparkle sneaks at American Eagle for $11.94!  Liked them so much and little Ms. Peyton's feet are so big, I was able to snag her a sparkly black pair for $11.94 too!  Thank God for good sales and big footed children. Or children with big feet. Whatever. 

New Year, New Molding, New Photo Of The Day and other New Aspirations

I don't need to tell you that I've been neglecting my blog. You probably know that. But that ends today.  You know just like how my diet starts tomorrow, right?   Okay, on to something more interesting.

We've got these twin 15 year olds who have a lot of 15-17 year old friends.  We want them to hang at our house.  Yeah, maybe we are a bit on the crazy side. BUT...you KNOW where your kids are when you hear them cackling like fools in the other room or see random kids getting junk food out of your pantry or even when a few kids come in asking if they can use some of your russet potatoes and aluminum foil to cook on the fire that they made in your fire pit.  (oh, BTW, NOT not having run on sentences is not one of my new year resolutions) (I'm famous in my own mind for them, actually)  Problem with having all these teens in our house is that we do NOT have a basement we can lock them in.  Which is probably a good idea because I'm not really sure I want all those 15-17 year olds deep down in a basement behind closed doors where we might forget they are there.  So, we have decided to make our living room a bit more teen friendly but NOT look like a college dorm room. Plus we already have some furniture that is more on the formal side and it is not really in the budget to add new furniture to the budget and as usual, we have to do this on a teeny tiny little ol' budget but we have gotten used to that.  Plus that's what a Home Depot credit card is for. Right?  First things first...I need to give you some background info on our home.

We have one of those cookie cutter houses that a big portion of middle America has from what I hear.  You know, the kind where sometimes family members occasionally pull into the house 4 houses down because it looks just like your house. (We HAVE fixed that to some degree, thank GOODNESS!  We now have a pretty little portico and the only carriage-style garage doors on the block!)  That cookie cutter-ness used to flow right inside too.  Our home came with itty bitty baseboards and no window trim other than a slim little window sill.  We have slowly been changing that over the years.  Admittedly we are molding addicted and get giddy over the oodles of molding in older homes. The living room and the study are the last two rooms on our first floor that do not have the windows trimmed out.  But, that's a-changing my friends!  Matt has already put up the crown molding and he's put in lovely large window sills too.  He is now working on the window surrounds and the pediments!  I'm so excited about how they're looking!  Ignore the current wall color, it never was correct.  When they "color-matched" it to the paint chip from our foyer I think their computer had color blindness or the flu.  I've already picked out the color for the walls but I'm going to keep that a secret a bit longer.  I have to keep you coming back now that I'm BACK on the blogging train!

One other little tidbit.  I'm going to TRY really really hard to do a photo a day.  I've always admired the people who do that.  It sounds like a cool way to chronicle your year or something like that.  It's not always going to be a artsy photo that I took time to compose and light and stuff. I just hope to actually get it done and posted. Let's start with that, 'kay?  Today's photo is a sweet little pic of Cosmo's paw.  He's laying on the little bench in my reading nook as I'm typing this.  My camera is sitting right here, so that's what you get today!  You can see a little bit of the bench in the photo of the family room window. (OHHH, and do you see that fabulous antique hay wagon there in the corner?  My Dad got me that for Christmas as a surprise!) If you want to see the entire nook where I blog, it's over there on the right under the most popular posts.  It's one of Cosmo's absolutely favorite places to sleep. :-)

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

My oldest daughter Callie, is on the competition dance team at her high school. Every year the team gets together at someones home and celebrates Thanksgiving.  This team of 11 sweet girls is very much like a family so it's only fitting that they celebrate together and share what they are thankful for.  Each girl brings a dish and the hosting family makes the turkey, stuffing and gravy.  My sweet friend Regina hosted this year and did a fabulous job.  Callie brought mini pumpkin cheesecakes with cinnamon whipped cream topping.  I sent some in to work today with my husband, because we all know what will happen if there are cute little cheesecakes sitting in the fridge.  Every doggone time I open the fridge the little suckers seductively call my name.  So...they had to go bye, bye! A few people have asked for the recipe today so I thought it would be just as fast to share it here.  It's a combination of a few different recipes that I've altered.  Enjoy!

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
Yields 18  (I doubled this recipe because, well...why not?!)

Ingredients

18 paper cupcake liners
18 oreo cookies  (you can use gingersnaps too! YUM! or make your own graham cracker crust which is probably my favorite but the oreos are a pleasant surprise)
12 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

(OR just eyeball a teaspoon or so of "pumpkin pie spice" instead of those spices)
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup canned, puréed pumpkin
1/3 cup light corn syrup

1. Line 18 muffin wells with papers. Place one oreo cookie, into the bottom of each. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 325˚F.

3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, corn starch and pumpkin pie spice with an electric mixer. Add eggs and mix well. Add pumpkin and corn syrup; beat 1 minute.

4. Pour filling into liners, dividing evenly. I use the large scoop from Pampered Chef, perfect size! Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until just set.  If you have a convection oven only cook them about 18 minutes.  As when making most cheesecakes, I put an ovenproof bowl of water in the oven with the cakes while they are baking.  This adds humidity to the baking and will keep the cheesecakes more moist and sometimes prevents cracking.

5. Chill for 1 hour. Garnish as desired. (I used stabilized cinnamon whipped cream).

ENJOY!!!

Stabilized Whipped Cream

This makes a LOT but it's so yummy in coffee too!  You can easily half it and use a pint of cream.

1 Quart of Heavy Whipping Cream

2 T Vanilla Instant Pudding

1 T Vanilla Extract

2/3 Cup Powdered Sugar

On low, beat all ingredients until mixed. Scrape bowl. Mix on high until nice and stiff but don't over beat.         

Use immediately if possible but will stay stiff for a while.  Can be used as a frosting as well.  I added about 1/4 t of cinnamon to the batch for the cheesecakes and then garnished with a sprinkling of nutmeg.

wedding cake cupcakes, OH MY!!!

The post about Wegmans and the little tutorial is going to have to wait because my slacker self hasn't gotten around to actually making the fab little thingy that I was going to tutorial about. So. There.   ;-)

Just like seemingly most every other estrogen enhanced human out there, I have become a total PINTEREST slave.  This Ben guy (not sure who he is but he sends me happy little emails telling me when people have pinned my pin) is an absolute genius! I love this man with my whole heart, well not as much as my husband but you know what I mean.


One day while desperately trying to pry my pin-addicted fingers off of Pinterest, I came across these pretty white cupcakes called White Wedding Cake Cupcakes from Recipe Girl.  They were described as the BEST, MOST YUMMY MOIST CAKE, so I had to move away from the computer to try them.  The fun thing is that it starts with a box cake. Yeah, I know you are thinking one of two things: A. "Thank GOD", or B." They can't be that good then."  They are easy enough if you are from the A. train of thought and you add enough extras that you are happy if you are from the B. train of thought.  Most importantly, they are so DELICIOUSLY YUMMISCRUMPTIOUS that you will just be tickled to your toes that you made them!  They make a big batch too, which I absolutely love. Plus, they were so good that I had to make an actual cake to see how that turned out and it was perfection! Dense and moist, full of flavor and with a spongy yet pound-cakey crumb.  


Hmmm, I wonder how many words I actually made up in that paragraph above?  ...it happens all the time!

I put this antique fork in the cake for the photo thinking it would look all vintage and stuff.  Sorry that it actually just looks like a dirty fork. 

Here is the fabulous recipe directly from the Recipe Girl site, because I'm sure you are going to want to give this a try!

white wedding cake cupcakes

Yield: 36 cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 18 min

I'm not usually one to use a boxed cake mix and doctor it up. I'm more accustomed to using entirely homemade recipes, but this one caught my eye and looked good. These turn out delicious, moist and fluffy cupcakes- perfect for holding buttercream frosting.

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups water
2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
4 large egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (you'll need approx. 36).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Add remaining ingredients and beat with hand mixer for 2 minutes, or until well blended.

3. Use ice cream scoop to fill prepared cupcake tins- fill about 3/4 full. Bake about 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Tips:

*Recommend: Duncan Hines "Moist" White Cake mix for this recipe.
*You can use either regular or light sour cream for this recipe, but heck... since it's a wedding cupcake and you want it to be as delicious and moist as possible, I recommend going for the full-fat kind.
*Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract (in addition to the vanilla) if you wish to have a different flavor.
*Using an ice cream scoop is perfect for getting the batter into the cupcake tins without spilling.
*You can also use this mix to make cake. Pour into greased and floured cake pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Wegmans...WOW! And a little DIY idea!

It finally happened. In my town we were finally blessed with a WEGMANS!  It's definitely farther than where I typically food shop but to think of going to Wegmans as lowly ole food shopping is just about blasphemous! This store is a little slice, well huge slice of food/kitchen supplies, flowers, cheese, bakery and produce Heaven.  Yes, I like it that much!  I've been 3 times now in the week and a half they've been open.  Wegmans is totally an experience, it's a shop, use and repeat kind of store.  


Tomorrow, I'll post an example of how awesome their flower shop is.  I bought a field mix on our first trip there and 7 days later, it's still lovely!  The sweet florist told me that the flowers come directly from the grower, no middleman, that's why they last so long.  A big BIG bunch is 12.99 and is worth every penny.  If you have a Wegmans nearby and haven't been there. Go. Grab your grocery list and RUN WOMAN RUN!


Just like how behind I've gotten with this blog, I'm behind in a bunch of aspects of my life.  One of the things that I've been late catching up  to the bandwagon is PINTEREST.  I think the first time I checked it out, I was overwhelmed and I just didn't feel like putting the effort into figuring it out PLUS I couldn't get that CUTE little push pin to go into my bookmarks bar.  By the way, I still CAN'T.  Although it hasn't stopped me from falling head over LOUBOUTINS in LOVE/LUST.  Oh, um, yeah...about the Louboutins, I have not one pair nor do I realistically envision  having in my little walk-in closet.  Although, if I had the $$$ they sure would be a fun spluge!  Geez,, now I've gone off topic. And I NEVER do that. (liar, liar, pants on fire)


Anyway, while sipping my morning coffee, I came upon these gorgeous silver glass pumpkins. Oh to die for them!

That very same day, little Ms. Peyton and I ran into Marshalls (OHH and did I tell you that they are building a HOMEGOODS and a DSW shoe warehouse directly ACROSS from my new Nirvana, aka: Wegmans).  In the seasonal goodies we came across similar FABULOUS glass pumpkins.  They were just perfect but I was afraid they were just a tad too fragile.  On the way home I was thinking about several different DIY's I had recently seen on the other Nirvana that is Pinterest.  So tomorrow, I'm going to combine 2 different DIY's and make it one new special DIY and I'll let you know how it goes!  I promise I will post it in the next couple days and if it turns out like the visions in my big ole head, I think you are going to WANT to hop back by!

I'm BACK from Bloggy hiatus! Hey Y'all!...

I don't know where to begin about my hiatus. Nothing exciting really happened to cause it.  But I'm back and I've realiezed I've wasted so much time worrying about trying to play catchup and that's stopping me from posting!  So I'm going to pretend that I never left. Okay? LOL


A while back, I was contacted by this awesome company called Novica. It's parent company is National Geographic and what they do in a nutshell (I'll never do the company justice if I try to explain it all) is go into distant villages where local artisans are making incredible products and offer those products to the world.  This in turn helps the village and the artisans financially and we, the consumer, benefit by getting our hot little shopping hands on incredible artisan goods that would not normally be available to us unless we traveled the world!


In order to test out the company, we were able to choose a couple products. Callie chose these incredibly lovely silver rings.  They even came with actual thank you notes written by the artist! Perfect! I love that I can purchase something so lovely from a company that is FREE TRADE and is actually benefiting the needy! So cool!

They have awesome corporate gifts here .  There are also gorgeous eco-friendly gifts here .  Plus if you are anything like me, I LOVE giving a gorgeous UNIQUE gift that suits the recipient perfectly and isn't just like everyone else's!  If you love unique items, check this out!


OK, friends I'll be back with a fun post in a day or so!  OHHH and wait till you see what my son, Cole got me as an early B-day present!