Candied Walnuts and Coconut Caramel Corn

I always love it when I work with my lovely friends over at Pie Drunk.  While Allison and Liz are good friends of mine which it make it fun, they are also a bit better cooks than I am.  Sometimes on days like the one a few weekends ago, it is more relaxed for me when someone else does the cooking and I can focus on the photography and styling.  Typically this is how it is on a studio shoot, with a food stylist, and the photographer working in conjunction to make a really wonderful photo.

These two recipes are fun, don't take too long, and OMG so delicious. Allison made the candied walnuts, and can be made in about 30 minutes.  This is delicious as a snack, or to top on a salad.  Feel free to add some of your favorite herbs to this recipe, like some Rosemary, Lavender, or Thyme.   Here is a link to the recipe she used Dawn's Candied Walnuts.

Liz made the "crack"  coconut almond caramel corn which takes about an hour.  Here is the link for this recipe Coconut Almond Caramel Corn.  As with the previous recipe, feel free to add some fresh herb of your liking. Both are wonderful to make and give as gifts. You can package some up canning jars, which you can find at your local supermarket, and tie off with a little twine.  And a cute little gift you have! 

In other news, I am dying to show the new cover I shot for Sip Northwest which should be out any day now.  I love working with these ladies.  Always so much fun.  I also am very much looking forward to getting out of town soon with some of my favorite people and heading to Missoula, Montana.  Of course I am excited about taking photos out there and just having a much needed change of scenery.  Woohooo! Maybe driving out to some hot springs, going on a hike, or just watching a movie.  I definitely have a travel bug, and it's been too long since my last vacation, in September! ;)

 

A Day with Flowers: Bouquets and Boutonnieres

Last weekend I had such a great time photographing flowers with my friend Rachael.  She has been working in the floral industry and doing flora design for 20 plus years and so I was very excited at the prospect of photographing some pretty wintery bouquets.  She had the fantastic idea of adding some little woodsy boutonnieres to the bunch too.  All of the flowers are from Young Flowers and I thought they turned out really beautiful!  I have included a list of the flowers used below.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Loose Bouquet on aqua and white background:

pink peonies

lavender roses

green dianthus

orange pin cushion protea

blue thistle

calla lilies

pussy willow

fern curls

pink anemones

Boutonnieres:

crespedia
thistle

pussy willow

air plant

mosses

wood chips

berry from Amy's front yard

fern curls

escargot begonia leaves

Bouquet in vase:

pink peonies

roses

green dianthus

calla lilies

pink anemones

escargot begonia leaves

Happy New Year!

Well I haven't posted anything in a few weeks.  Usually I try at least every other week.  It has been a little bit slower for me, as the kind of photography I do is over the holidays, and I definitely started moving into the slower pace of things.  I went to just outside of Shelton, WA a few times to go visit and stay with my parents.  They moved there from my hometown Issaquah, some odd years back and built a house there on the water.  It certainly is a change of pace from living right in the city, being 2 hours away from Seattle.  I also spent a lot of time with friends and family over the past few weeks with the holidays.  I got exercise, I went snowshoeing, running, yoga, to the boxing gym.  I looked at lights, watched Christmas movies, ATE, ate a lot, played with animals.  I slept in, rested.  I enjoyed the time off.

Now it's the start of 2014, and over the past week it's getting/gotten busier again for me, which is really good! I think I do a lot better when I am really busy actually.  I had some shoots this past week, which I am excited to share soon.  And I have a couple blog shoots on the horizon too, this upcoming weekend.  Which will be really fun and  I am looking forward to spending some time with some lovely creative ladies. 

In 2013 I graduated from photography school, started my own business, lost some very loved people, sadly, gained some others with new friendships, enriched existing ones and time will only tell what 2014 has in store.  The types of resolutions I make are like this:  I want to experiment more in photography, I want to travel more, and I want to see more live music, get a storage unit for my props!!! Doable, and enriching.

So I hope you all had a fantastic 2013, and hoping you have an even better 2014! 

Here are some pictures I took over the past month on my way to stay at my folks and back.

Enjoy!

Amy