Karen Smallbone

Since Valentine’s day is this week, I thought I would show some great finds that say I love You.

Very cool. This is made from recycled records.

Too funny! Stickers made from vintage yearbook pictures. 

I love this one! Squirrels are so cute.

Hedgehog ring

Valentine’s day is just around the corner, time to bake up a batch of sugary goodness to send to school with the kids. This year I am going to make some chocolate and sugar cookie hearts and decorate them with Royal Icing. Yummy! I thought I would share the process with you throughout the week so you can see how they eventually turn out. So today I will share the recipes that I am using.

Here is some inspiration. I love this cookie. Mine will look nothing like this but this was too beautiful and fun not to show.

I’m using the recipes from MarthaStewart.com. I’ve used these a bunch of times and they always turn out well.

Chocolate Heart Cookies

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 16 large cookies.

• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and cinnamon. Set mixture aside.
2. Use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture; mix on low speed until thoroughly combined. Divide dough in half; wrap in plastic. Chill at least 1 hour.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until crisp but not darkened. Cool on wire racks; decorate as desired.

Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 16 large cookies or thirty 2 1/2-inch cookies.

• 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, or 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup fine sanding sugar, for decorating (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs.
3. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until thoroughly combined. Stir in vanilla or lemon juice and zest. Wrap dough in plastic; chill for about 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Remove from refrigerator, and decorate with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until edges just start to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks. May be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Royal Icing

INGREDIENTS

Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

• 1 pound confectioners’ sugar
• 5 tablespoons meringue powder
• 1/2 cup water, plus more as needed

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat ingredients with a mixer on low speed until smooth. If icing is too thick, add more water, a little at a time, beating to desired consistency. If icing is too thin, continue mixing 2 to 3 minutes more. Icing will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 1 week. (Stir with a rubber spatula before using.)

I will share some photos of my sugary creations as I go. If you are making anything yummy for Valentine’s day and want to share, I would love to see your pictures!

I was poking around on Offbeat bride the other day and came across a link to this incredibly talented woman who creates fascinators and veils. I just have to say WOW and where can I go where I can wear one of these??

If you are looking for an alternative to the traditional veil, you might want to consider one of these. I wish I saw these 12 years ago when I got hitched. So beautiful.

If you are looking for a unique gift to give your groom, look no further. Here are some interesting “groom” related items. Enjoy!

How awesome would one of these look on your groom and his guys? 

Mr T. Cufflinks! I pity the fool who doesn’t think these are too cool. 

Be sure to have a look for something your groom would love.

I thought I would share a few groups of art that we have in our house. The merchandiser in me always wants to arrange things and make them look neat. It’s pretty easy to create an interesting group of photos or art. We usually try to have a theme, like kids, animals or similar colours or textures. It looks better if you have an odd number of items in your group and I usually try to keep the frames all the same colour. First, I lay the elements out on the floor, until I’m happy with the arrangement, then I recreate it up on the wall. Hint: Sometimes I take a quick photo with the digital camera of my arrangement in case I get mixed up as I’m hanging them.

Here’s a grouping of photos of our crazy kids, my husband as a kid and some of our letter collection.

Here’s a grouping of elephants and an rhino. Rich took the elephant photo and did the rhino drawing.

This grouping is kid photos, a drawing Aidan did when he was little and a painting Rich did. This grouping used to have a painting Aidan did where the leaf painting is but it appears that Ronan was doing some rearranging.

Try it out. You can start small with just a few pieces or you can do a whole wall.

I LOVE cake. It is one of my favourite things. It’s hard to think of a cake that I wouldn’t want to eat. But after looking at the horrible decorating jobs on some of these cakes, it might be hard to imagine even taking one bite.

Cake Wrecks  is a hilarious blog about horribly decorated cakes. People can send in photos of cakes they have seen that are terrible. 

Have a look. It is well written and always good for a laugh.

Here are some photos of cakes people have ordered for their weddings and then the actual cake they got. I think I would be in tears. 

This is what they ordered.

This is what they got.

This is what they asked for.

Here is what they got.

This is what they ordered.

This is what they got. Wow it isn’t even the same shape.

There are tons more horrible cakes for every occasion. Be sure to check it out.

Happy Friday!

I thought today I would share some awesome wedding photos with you taken by my talented sister-in-law, Emma. Emma is the owner and creative visionary behind barebonephoto. If you want your wedding photos to tell the story of your day without being fake or posed, Emma is the photographer for you. She is always coming up with really cool places that you would never think of to take your photos. Emma also takes engagement photos, family portraits, and baby and belly shots. If you are thinking about having barebonephoto document your special day, be sure to contact Emma as far ahead as possible. Check out the barebonephoto blog for more great pictures.

These last two are my boys, Aidan and Ronan. Emma took these awesome pics at a junk yard.

Not everyone dreams of the white wedding dress. Not everyone looks good in white either. I thought I would show some photos of some cool not-white dresses. Being someone who doesn’t look so great in white, I wish I had thought of wearing a pink dress when I got married. Enjoy.

Beautiful black dress with blue accents. I love the shoes and the bouquet.

Gorgeous! I love the veil

I am so in LOVE with this dress and the red accents! I think I will try to make one like this for a wedding I have coming up in the summer.

 I am married to a Typeophile. He can identify almost any font, is a huge stickler for proper kerning and just loves letters. He even has our 8 year old son talking about kerning, serifs, san serifs, and points. Etsy is a perfect place to find things to do with letters. I had a quick look and came up with a ton of great stuff.  If your someone special is a typeophile or you are, check out these great finds.

In these tough economic times, you might be re-thinking your wedding budget. One way to keep your expenses in line and still have the things you’ve always dreamed of is to limit your guest list. An intimate wedding will allow you to splurge on that designer dress or any other element that is important to you. IntimateWeddings.com offers tons of great ideas for an intimate wedding. There are lots of articles and real weddings to inspire you. Christina Friedrichsen, owner of Intimate Weddings and author of Intimate Weddings: Planning a Small Wedding that Fits Your Budget and Style had a small wedding herself and wants to offer her expertise to other brides considering this option.

At IntimateWeddings.com, couples can find unique wedding venues available only to those with smaller guest lists. Quaint bed and breakfasts and inns, cozy restaurants and galleries and many other unique locations throughout North America can be found on the site.

Aside from a wedding venue finder which lists more than 1,300 wedding venues, the site also offers help with everything from creating a meaningful intimate ceremony, to how to tell guests they are not invited. It also offers moral support.

If you’ve decided to have an intimate wedding we would love to hear your plans! Good luck!