A Summer Vacation to the South

Hi everyone, hope all of you are enjoying your summer! Sorry for not posting again, it's just that summer is a super busy time, from vacations, day trips, and all the like. Anyways, I would have posted last week except I was on vacation since last Wednesday and came back yesterday. I had great photo opportunities, and got lots of inspiration for new recipes!

My family and I started our nine-day trip at 4:30 am, Wednesday morning. We got the car all packed and settled in for a 6-hour ride to Charlottesville, Virginia. Before going to our hotel, we drove through Shenandoah National Park. It was our first view of the Appalachian Mountains on our trip but definitely not our last!

When we finally arrived, everyone was so excited to be at our hotel, and to be out of our car. Our first stop was the Jefferson Mansion - Monticello. I don't have any pictures, but it was amazing. I definitely got some inspiration and ideas for my room and future house (I've been dreaming of decorating my own home since I learned how to read HGTV magazine).

Jefferson designed and decorated the entire house, inside and out.  He placed all the beds into a small alcove, and used windows and sky lights to bring in as much light as he could. There were mirrors across from any window to reflect natural light throughout the room, and designed his home to be practical and stunning. My favorite room was the entrance hall, filled with an assortment of native american weapons and arrows mounted on the wall. There was a clock Jefferson designed that could tell the time and the day, one very sophisticated for its time. He also had a room in the shape octagon, which I don't think I'll be able to find when looking for a home in the future.

After we left the mansion, we went for dinner at a restaurant in our hotel. We stayed one night in Virginia, then headed off to Gatlinburg, TN -- a totally different scene! There was one big street full of restaurants and many different shops. Then drive five minutes away and you're right in the middle of the Great Smoky Mountains! We took many trips through the Mountains and saw many deer and black bear while we were there!

We took a 1.3 mile hike to breathtaking waterfall; Laurel Falls. Even though it took about 30 minutes to get there in the humid Tennessee weather, it was definitely worth it!

The Smokies had many rivers, including the one below that we drove along side of to roughly an hour. At the end was an old mill and barn (Ely's Mill - nearly 100 years old) that was converted into a little shop with antiques, homemade yarn, and lots of other little crafts.

We stayed 4 nights in Gatlinburg, then went to Cherokee, NC to the native american reservation. It was one of my favorite places we visited. I love the Native America culture and got a dream catcher while there!  I went to three different shops before finding the perfect one, made with tan leather and an abundance of brown and tan feathers. We only stayed in Cherokee one night there, then left in the morning for our last stop on our vacation: Asheville, NC. It's home to Biltmore Estate, owned by the famous Vanderbilts. There is an Inn that's part of the estate, where we stayed for two nights. The Estate was beautiful, even prettier than the Jefferson.There was no stone unturned in that place, they had the best of everything!

There's a downtown part of Asheville, which was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. They had an abundance of vintage thrift shops with the cutest clothes I've ever seen. Art gallerys, antique stores, and my favorite of them all, L.O.F.T of Asheville, a store full of the funniest, coolest, rarest things ever! I got a sweet smelling little candle and a princess crown ring that are totally rad.

I didn't want to leave, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. The trip was amazing and I learned so much, and got so much inspiration, from baking to decorating, and everything in between.

I should have one or two more posts by the end of next week, including Italian pignoli cookies and caramel pretzel brownies! Keep the requests coming!

Happy Summer!

Hi everyone! I'm so glad to be back. I'm so sorry for not posting in so long, I've been busy with so much stuff. Here's a little explanation about what's been going on lately:

In the beginning of March, I auditioned for my school play, Annie. A few weeks after I found out I got the part of Annie! We started rehearsals in the beginning of April and they lasted until the end of May. We usually had 3 or 4 rehearsals a week for 3 hours after school. Hell week was the worst of all, with some rehearsals running from 2:30 after school to 6:30, and then going too help build the set until 9:30. But all of the work definitely payed off. We had three shows, one on May 30th and two on May 31st. I had such an amazing time working with all my friends and our amazing director Lauren!

After that I had a week of just regular school, without any major events. The week after I had to study for finals, and then take finals. Ugh, glad that's over. I finished school on June 20th. I then enjoyed a whole week relaxing in the sun, swimming, and just doing whatever I wanted. My birthday was June 28th, and I got some really cool stuff:

A Polaroid camera from Anthropology, film and all; and a super rad ouija board shirt from a cool shop called Gypsy Warrior,

A new tapestry from urban outfitters,

And Lorde's Pure Heroine album that I can use on my Crosely record player that I got for the play.

Even though I haven't posted in a while, I still have been baking some new things. I should have a lot more recipes coming soon, including whoopie pies, cookies, and a few savory dishes as well!

Hope everyone is having a great summer, and I can't wait to start posting regularly!

Decking the Halls

My family is always ahead on the holidays. My Great Aunts make and freeze the food a couple weeks prior to Thanksgiving and my mom and my aunt have their Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. So, being ahead of everything and all, over the weekend, my family, my aunt's family, and my grandpa took a trip up to Maple Row Tree Farm in Easton, CT.

When we got there, we couldn't believe the abundance of trees lined up on the hills! We went straight to work, grabbing our saws and keeping an eye out for the perfect tree. We walked through rows and rows of them. After a while, they all looked the same to me, and that made it even harder to pick one out. Finally, after wandering through evergreen after evergreen tree, we narrowed it down to 3 trees. Then to 2. And then 1. I was starting to worry that we would be there until the farm closed, but surprisingly we decided. My grandpa cut ours down in one and a half minutes, record time! My cousin Sam picked their tree, and her brother Joe cut it down. We wrapped up our trees, threw 'em on the roofs of our cars, and headed back home. 

My grandpa cutting down our tree (left)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Our tree's stump (right)

Now, my mom has a very specific way of decorating our tree. I mean, Bible. First, of course, we put the tree in the stand. Next, we put the star on top as usual. Then go the lights. My mom took them off and put them back on about three times. See? Very specific. She then puts on ribbon and bows. She owned a gift basket store for 13 years, so she makes a lot of bows, no exaggeration. Then she adds picks. This year it was green poinsettias and sparkly twigs. Finally, we got to add on the ornaments. On the right side of the tree, we have all of the ornaments we made in school, such as my brother's "cookies and milk on a plate" or my sister's "glittery toothpick snowflake." On the rest of the tree we put up decorative eggs. You know, think Waterford, loaded with sparkles and glittery designs. At least 3 dozen of them get put up. They look beautiful, especially with the Christmas lights!

As you can see... I'm a little bit obsessed with blurred lights.

Maybe a lot.

These are my favorite ornaments on my Christmas tree. I love the sparkliest, brightest, most colorful ones. My brother got the ornament on the bottom left-hand corner so he could make sure Santa comes to our house. How cute is he?

My mom also decorates our mantel with loads of flowers, lights, and glittery stuff. We hang Santa hats instead of stockings too.

Even our front window is decorated with mini trees and lights.

My brother loved decorating the tree. He arranged each ornament perfectly and 

made sure they looked good!

It's a little blurry, but this is my favorite ornament in our entire "collection." Yes, we have a "collection."

The tree looked pretty good after all of that work! On a side note, hopefully I'll have some more holiday posts up soon. But for now, happy holidays to everyone!

Project Cupcake

 Last week, my friend Emma and I were assigned to do a project together. The assignment was to find a "How-To Book", read it, and create a presentation teaching the class on that subject.

So of course, I had to choose a cupcake book. We decided to do our project on The Cupcake Diaries by Katherine and Sophie Kallinis, the owners Georgetown Cupcakes in DC. After flipping through dozens of recipes, we agreed on Caramel Apple Cupcakes, just in time for fall. We made the cupcakes, frosting, and caramel the night before and brought them into class the following day. Then we taught them how to frost a cupcake, drizzle the caramel on top, and eventually we passed them out to the class. For our visual, we made a short video on how we made the cupcakes. It came out really nice and for once I wasn't ashamed of watching myself on camera!

Falling into Autumn

Fall is one of my favorite seasons. The crisp cool air, the warm sweaters, and  the beautiful foliage are the perfect remedy to the goodbyes of summer. 

One of my favorite Autumn pass-times is apple picking. I love the feeling of being able to harvest your own foods, and enjoy them too. My favorites are Gala apples, along with Cortland and Jona-Gold for baking pies! We sometimes always manage to come back with more apples than needed, but we put them to good use; in pies, in lunches, or as a nice centerpiece in the middle of our kitchen.

So on Sunday, my mom, my brother, my sister, my aunt, and I all traveled up to Bethel, CT to Blue-Jay orchards to go pick apples. The drive was beautiful, with cute cottage houses and trees just beginning to change color. 

When we arrived, we were greeted by a little country shop with orchards on either side. We bought two bags and walked up to the rows of trees bearing the shiny, sweet fruit. After a few rows of apples, we finally found the Macouns and the Jona-Gold and grabbed just enough to cover the bottoms of our bags. Then it was more walking, picking, tasting, and hunting until I found my beloved gala apples and some Cortland for 

those pies. 

After filling our bag to the point of balancing apple upon apple, we lugged them back to our cars and headed across the street to have a look at the store. Inside was almost every kind of jam, jelly, and apple products you could ever find. We bought apple cider of course and some yummy caramel dip. My little brother insisted on buying a pumpkin so we had to get one of those too. 

All of this carrying was making me tired and I was surprised I made it to the car without my arms going numb. When we arrived home from our trip, I had to make some form of apple pie. So the some of the apple got cut up, tossed with some brown sugar, spices, and flour, and pored them into a Pyrex baking pan. A buttery strudel was added on top and then it was of to the oven to get nice and crispy.

You can't have apple pie without a little warm caramel, so I made a quick batch if Mel's Divine Caramel Sauce. This is the best caramel that I have ever tasted in my entire life. I don't know what I would do without it! 

The dessert came out great, along with a little whipped cream and caramel sauce. I definitely have to make a recipe for it so that should be coming up soon!

Happy Fall everyone!

"To Be or Not to Be"

Be Silly:

Never be too serious in life. Always add a little humor into any work you do, and it won't feel like work. 

Be Honest:

Don't lie. Honesty is something people look for in a good person, so tell the truth.

Be Kind:

Being kind is probably the most important thing in life. Not only can you make other people feel good, but it makes you feel good too!

So:

Always be silly, remember to be honest, and be kind to everyone.

You'll be glad you did!!

Block Island

My love of photography has spread over a course of a couple years. I just love the feeling of getting a good shot of something, whether it's the ocean or the sunset, it really makes me smile.

Over the summer my family and our good friends took a trip to Block Island. If you aren't familiar with Block Island, i;s a beautiful island off of RI. It has massive waves, great restaurants, and beautiful sights you can  only see to believe.

Brightly colored buoys greeted us as we arrived on Block Island

While on the island, we visited this place call the Bluffs. You begin by walking down steps on the side of the cliff. After less then a minute walk down the stairs, you hike down the rest of the rocks to a wonderful beach. The sand is soft and warm, and the cesious water crashes onto the shore, making the sound of a mother quieting her child; hushhhh. I literally wished I could stay there forever.

Photo credits to my mom, she refused to give me her camera because she was afraid I would drop it...

After a day of ice cream and sun, we hopped on the ferry to take us home. Once we docked, we drove from New London, the place where the ferry returned, to Hammonasset to have a relaxing dinner on the beach. We got two boxes of pizza and drove over to the beach. We had a magnificent view of the sunset, and I got some great pictures of the ocean.

Summer '14 please hurry!!