A last minute, but still lovely Valentine's Day!

Hey guys!!! What is up? Obviously, today is Valentine's day - I know there are lovers and haters of this holiday, but I am definitely on the love side. Of any holiday actually. Why not celebrate? I'll take any holiday as an excuse to make a cake! Valentine's day, 4th of July, World Nutella Day, Pi day, you know, the usual holidays.

Anyway, I thought I would pop in today with some super last minute gifts that are awesome. All are homemade or semi-homemade and really easy. Here we go!
(counter clock-wise)

1) Marshmallow pops. Ridiculously easy. Here are the instructions: Get marshmallows. Put a stick in them. Dip in some melted chocolate. Add accoutrements. Let dry and package cute. Sophie made 3/4 of ours herself!  They taste so, so good too.

2) Make a sandwich heart. Does this need any more directions? (heart pancakes are a good idea too!)

3) Brownie bites. Again, totally easy. Either make brownies from-scratch, or from a box. Let them cool. Roll into balls. See #1. Super easy.

4) homemade valentines! I fell in love with these (you can get the template here!) b/c Sophie loves bugs and she is in preschool, so it was perfect for us. Again, totally easy.

5) Red velvet cake batter cookies. Recipe here - easy and quick and an awesome end to dinner!

6) the DIY bouquet. Get flowers from the grocery store (double points if you are near a trader joe's or whole foods) - ok, not the ugly ones, but some nice ones - two bunches. Take them home, open them, ditch the plastic, put the flowers together, cut the bottoms the same length. Now, this is key - wrap them in paper. Not PLASTIC. Either wax paper, or parchment paper, or kraft paper, or even solid wrapping paper if you must, but not PLASTIC. Tie somewhere with a twine (think the twine from the bakery box, or some rustic cord from the garage, or ribbon - not the curling kind). This bouquet will get you way farther than that original one in plastic (hopefully the price was not still attached!).

And, just in case those gifts don't work...

Monday Updates!

Hey guys!  So happy to be here today!  It feels like I've been playing catch-up since the holidays and I'm happy to be posting on a regular basis now.  So what's up with you?  All good I hope!

I have a mash-up of things to post today, but I'm starting with something to make you hungry.  Superbowl snacks.  We kept it low key around here, but that didn't stop me from making some snacks for us!  I've been wanting to try out a few pinterest things (more on that soon!), so here is what I ended up with...

All were awesome and easy and now, definitely in the 'go-to' pile.  The sandwiches are ridiculous - you won't believe how ham and cheese gets transformed, I swear - it seems like magic.

Speaking of good food, our photo was featured on the WeddingWire blog!  So neat. You can check out the article on food trends here.  Our photo (bottom left) features appetizers by Lola's Catering from Samara + Brian's wedding last year.  Love Lola's!

 

Sophie's 3rd birthday was this past weekend.  Unbelieveable that she is three.  I'm going to put together a longer post for that too, but I had to show you this cake that I made.  It was awesome and a little..tedious..to make, but came out good in the end and totally worth it.  Sophie asked for a rainbow theme and I think this delivered!

And, here is the birthday girl, after she woke up :)

We also went to Florida last week for a little break - the warm weather was wonderful.


Love this shot that Tim took of us.

And, last but definitely not least - I shot a wintery engagement session last week too!  These guys were so awesome and didn't even complain - it was freezing and it took about an hour for my fingers to come back to life!  #fingerlessglovesdontwork

This is one of my favorites!


And, some interesting links for you today (some serious and some not :)

• So, I recently found out that kids pajamas contain flame retardants.  Am I really the last person to know about this?  The same chemicals that can cause/influence/lead to cancer and hormone issues?  Just my opinion, but I'm much more worried about influencing my child's chemical environment with products (especially during sleep, which is half your life!), than her leg accidentally touching a candle (which is under my control). We dumped all of our pj's that have the chemicals and will only buy snug-fitting cotton or other chemical-free alternatives.  Hundreds of dollars and all of those fleece pj's I love so much wasted.  I can't believe this hasn't hit the mainstream media hard.  Just an FYI, chemicals also heavily present in carpet, furniture and other baby items.  This kind of stuff really gets to me.  Why should Tim even work towards solving the mysteries of cancer when day to day life keeps infecting us without us knowing.  Ugh.  Don't get me started.
• On to lighter topics, I know a lot of you guys are runners. You need this hat.
• I love this poster.
• Merry Meri posted this article and it is pretty hilarious.
• Awesome DIY cleaning recipes from Cuddles and Chaos
• Love this photo set - super cool.
• My 2013 mantra.

Monday Updates!

Hey, look! It's Monday again.  Are you ready to ruuuummmble???  I had to say that in the hopes that maybe it would qualify me to run for office in CT (sorry, I had to [and obviously, I'm exaggerating] - her signs are everywhere around here, and it just makes me laugh because I'm an 80's kid and definitely remember Jake the Snake).  Not getting political on this blog, especially on a Monday! (ps. even though I started it, please no political comments, we love everyone here!). 

I'm in a bit of a tired haze today, so I apologize for posting this so late.  This past weekend was chock full of really fun clients and even better events, but I am just a little tired today (I did drag myself to the gym this morning, which is either adding to the tiredness, or giving me energy to write this post?).  Hope you guys had a great weekend - the weather was just amazing.  Fall is the best.

On Friday, I had the pleasure of photographing Liz and Jason's wedding - so much fun, especially because I knew almost half the wedding guests!  We photographed Liz's twin sister Gina's wedding two years ago. I love when that happens!  Love this pic of the three of us.


And here is one of my favorite pics from the day - we were lucky enough to shoot in the Capitol Building.  So beautiful. 

 

On our way home, we were a little hungry so, we stopped for ice cream :).  And I took this awful photo that I'm sharing today.  Wow.  It is that bad.

And then, we got to hang out with Nicole and Drake!  Love them and the Hudson Valley - one of my favorites.  That is a serious view!


And, to wrap up an awesome weekend - I spent some time with Kelly and Tom yesterday.  Who doesn't love a tree swing?


Because all work and no play isn't that fun - look, I actually did something that I pinned on Pinterest!  (I've been pretty bad at that since my busy season really kicked in, hoping to start up again soon..).  But this was super easy, really practical and cute too.  Love it.


See you later!

Monday Updates!

Oh yeah, its Monday!  I'm trying to get myself psyched up for Monday today, - I had a really awesome weekend and its hard to get back in the groove.  I usually love Mondays (my get-lots-of-stuff done day) though, so maybe this post will turn things around for me.  This post is mostly going to be about my weekend, with a few other bits of random thrown in. 

First things first.  The other night, I was editing some photos and thought I should pass on this pic.  Editing photos + eating ice cream at 1am is just perfect.


And, I thought I should mention that this pin did not work (I know a few of you guys pinned it).  I tried it and it failed.  I think I should submit it to Pinterest Fail.  Anyone else try anything lately?  I've done a few things - I'll try and get a pinterest post together soon :).

Exactly 1 year ago today, I was shooting Jen + Jason's wedding!!  A year really goes so fast.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from their wedding :).

And a real one too! Happy Anniversary guys!


And speaking of anniversaries....It was our 5-year wedding anniversary this weekend!  I know I already wrote a mushy post here (I know you all loved Tim's afro), but we took the weekend off and I thought I would show you what we were up to...


We got married!!  Again. Crazy, right?  So funny.  The weekend was sort of crazy, I won't go in to total detail, but Tim planned for us to renew our vows.  We ended up finding a Justice of the Peace and getting remarried on one of our favorite beaches.  Each year, we like to buy each other the traditional gifts - for 5 years, it was wood.  So, Tim found some driftwood for us to get married in front of - he's pretty clever like that.  It was really amazing and special, and fun!  I even made a bouquet from some grocery store flowers in about 60 seconds (while we were on our way to the beach).  Ha!


We were our own photographers :) (fyi, not so easy! 2nd pic is my fav)

Afterwards, we went to dinner and made sure to have some dessert so we could use our new forks!  I have been dying to buy these forever (especially b/c we didn't buy a cake cutter/server for our wedding).  . 


And yesterday, before coming home, we decided to go on a 'honeymoon' on the ocean...:).  My arms are a little tired today - I'm not sure a 5-mile kayak qualifies as relaxing!  And, yes, I finally had the courage to bring my real cameras out on the kayak...



Back with lots of posts and shoots this week and headed to Boston for a wedding this weekend!  Have a great week everyone!  And thanks for the anniversary love!

Monday Updates!

This weekend gave me hope for a bunch of sunny days, but...its raining again!  I have three engagement sessions this week and it better clear up!  Rant over.  So, how was your weekend? 

Mine was wonderful!  You should know that I love all holidays and of course, that includes Mother's Day.  We have a few special Moms in our life and they do so much for us, so we always try to show them a good time.  This year Tim planned an awesome day for all of us - a cruise down the Hudson River.  With the gorgeous weather, it was perfect - the moms loved it, I loved it and Soph loved it too :). I hope all the moms out there had a great day, because seriously, where would the world be without moms (both literally and figuratively!) 





Love love love this one.

Last week was insane. Last minute, we got asked to be a part of an event run by the Events & Catering at the New York Zoos and Aquarium - the event was to show off their new (and wonderful!) event space at the Prospect Park Zoo as part of a larger NYC & Co staff event. We shot some photographs and had a table and it was a flurry of insanity to get it all ready (found out 2 days prior!). We met a lot of great folks and had a great time. I love the spaces that they have too - can't wait to shoot another wedding there (check out Meri & Eric's wedding @ the Bronx Zoo)!

Oops, forgot to show you my mom's day gift from Sophie! Love that kid :)

Now, here is a call for help - two areas...here is the first:

Not exactly looking pinterest-worthy, huh? I know some of you guys must be spray paint experts - help!!! I bought this awesome rusty metal basket thing at an antique shop a few weeks back and I bought some flourescent paint. I thought I just had to spray it (thin coats a la Young House Love - any fans???). I feel like I read enough about spray painting things and it looks so easy, but mine looks like crap. Obviously, I wasn't going to stop as it looks in the photo - it needed more paint...but here is where it started to get worse. I did another coat and it started to bead up and got ruffled-looking and then sort-of rolled off?! Do I need to sand this puppy or something before painting? Someone please help :).

And then, landscaping. Another expert is needed :). I love to plant outside, but we have 1) deer and 2) groundhogs. And they.eat.everything. So, I went to the nursery and got some non-deer-loving plants (they said the furry and smelly ones were the most deer-resistant), but I don't know what to do about the groundhogs. Any advice before I make Tim trap them and drive them to New Hampshire or New Jersey?! Another caveat is that I really prefer natural-ish remedies (meaning, I don't want to poison them, or shoot them, or anything similar). Here are my current plants, and, in case any of you guys have deer issues, I'll keep you updated!

Off to a meeting! I'd love to hear what you were up to this weekend!

ps. I am planning on doing a blog series showing off what people have done with their wedding/engagement/family photos (whether its wall hangings, albums, or something else creative) - send me some photos and I'd love to include them!!

Monday Updates!

So, I'm still working on a better name for this weekly post - thinking about, "Uplifting Mondays" (thanks Simon!!), but worried that it might sound somewhat religious in an internet search? Nothing wrong with that, but not exactly what this blog is about :). Anyways, still working on that - suggestions welcome!

This week was a bit of a blur of beautiful weather, getting Tim ready for his trip, and still recovering from the week before. Wedding season is coming up fast and I'm working on preparing for that and the debut of our new website (!!!) - so excited about that! Following that, some blog changes will also be on the horizon (including, [yes!], a better way to comment!).

So, Tim was in the Bahamas last week - he is planning to do a whole post on it (he has some amazing photos), but I thought I would sneak one of his photos in here. Check it out! How is it that I'm in Connecticut while he is in the Bahamas? Right? You can also follow his travels (or, tweets?) on twitter - if you are into that :).


I discovered instagram this week - where have I been? Obviously, I love it. I try to carry my 'real' camera everywhere, but sometimes, even I get tired of that. Instagram is an awesome alternative for fun-in the moment-whoa, I saw something cool-type photos. Here are a few from my life this week:


You can check out my feed if you like, @upliftjade, I think you just need to send me a request because I have mine set to private (just due to the sheer amount of sophie photos).

I'm thinking about making this pallet garden from Pinterest (follow me if you are there too!). What do you think? We have a serious animal presence at our house and they.eat.everything. I love all the wildlife (we have tons of deer, woodchucks, and raccoons, fox and even saw a coyote!), but it is really annoying when they eat all your herbs, flowers and vegetables. What if I put this on a table? I saw some pallets on the side of the road just down the street...

I'm looking for a few new blog reads - any suggestions? I like artsy, controversial, interesting, quirky, fun links, DIY, decor-related, etc. In exchange for the info, I have one for you guys - check out Seek to be Merry - quick reads on interesting topics with lots of fun links (my fav, another web troller :).

Today, I'll leave you with a sweet photo from a small winter wedding that I shot a few weeks ago (I think it was the only day of snow this winter!)


Happy Monday guys! I'm trying to make it a good one over here!

ps. two bits that I've been loving this week (here and here)

Integrating Pinterest into my (and your) life...

So, the last thing I need is another website to follow, item to check, thing to do...but then there is Pinterest. All signs lead to it being perfect for procrastination and never actually using it - but, I love it. I love the instant inspiration and ability to categorize and I love that people are pinning Uplift photos to their wedding inspiration boards, so awesome. I think of it like one giant online magazine, where you can rip out the pages you want to keep and throw away the ads and other pages that just clutter up your house. But, if I am going to keep spending time there, I want to make sure that I'm actually using it! So today, I'm going to post a few of things that I have made, or bought, or been inspired by, through pinterest (mostly iphone pics, so don't judge :)! I'd love to see/hear what you guys have made too!! If anyone has photos of any projects/recipes, I would love to do a post about it - send me some photos (Mercedes, you know I'm looking at you!)

So, this necklace is one of the first things I pinned -- I was in love with it, went out and bought the supplies right away and then let it sit through the holiday rush. Well, I finally made it for my friend (for our holiday gift exchange) and she loved it! It was pretty easy and I think it came out really nice. The hardest part was braiding the separate strands and getting it to stay at the right angle.

I took inspiration from this Halloween costume for Sophie's costume! I love the way it came out, not exactly the same, but you can see the feather pieces underneath her 'wings'.


I have made a few pinterest-inspired recipes. The first one isn't inspired, I just copied it :). Perfect for Valentine's day and so, so easy. The second was modified from this recipe for red velvet cookies (I made mine with nutella and they.were.awesome). I made these for Valentine's day and for Soph's birthday party.


The last two things are ones that I bought! Love this lovely-chevron,-but-on-the-cheap side rug to liven up my upstairs office - adds a bit of trend to the room at a not-so-high price point. Please don't look at the oddly painted-and-wallpaper walls from the previous owner :). And, I now couldn't live without this ipad cabinet mount for the kitchen. It is awesome. Tim got it for me for Valentine's day and it makes cooking in the kitchen (using internet recipes) so easy (sorry for the ugly photo - we haven't gotten to the kitchen yet!!). Thanks pinterest!!


If you are on pinterest or facebook, follow me here and here :). I'd love to follow you back! Hopefully our new website (hint, hint) will have social media integration and it will be super easy to find us and share ideas.

Pinterest

So, pinterest is my new obsession. New procrastination tool. New favorite website. New source of inspiration. I love it! Is anyone else having a mini-love affair with it? If you are someone that surfs the web a lot (like me) - I read a ton of blogs, look at photos, fashion, art, shop, read recipes, etc. - and collects sources/photos/inspiration/etc., pinterest is definitely for you. Essentially, you create categories and then you 'pin' what you find on the web to your categories (called boards) so you share it with your 'followers' and archive the ideas for later. The archiving in one place is the best part, since I currently have folders of pics from the web on my desktop. My 'things to make' folder and list is ridiculously long...anyway, pinterest lets me keep all the things I think I'm going to make, organized :).

The point of this extended description is to tell you guys to a) check out pinterest for yourself, or b) follow me on pinterest if you are on there and I'll follow you back, and c) if you don't want to be in pinterest, you can see some of my pins here on the blog! Yay! For the start of this, I'm going to post a random assortment of my favorites, but probably from now on, I'll focus my pins on a certain category (say, weddings, baby stuff, style, etc.). Also, to keep credit where credit is due, I will list the person that originally pinned the item as well as the original source, as available.

I'm also apologizing in advance for the stream of consciousness type discussion below. My mind seriously works like this with ideas, so you'll have to live with that!



I pin a ton of things for my house! Getting the style that we want is super hard and I love all the ideas and inspiration I've been finding. I'm loving all things gray right now and Tim, if you are reading this, I would love it if you could make that apple crate bookshelf thing for whatever the next holiday is :). Thanks. I think I prefer it horizontal though.

[sources: apple-crate bookshelf, pinned: Sherryl Galt, sourced: cgi.ebay.com.au; nail head chair, pinned: Sarah Roberts, sourced: marthastewart.com; gray room, pinned: joni tyrrell, sourced: youpaidmorethanme.blogspot.com; gray kitchen, pinned: papermoon, sourced: westerbroek.nl]



Ok, some DIY projects. Love the quilt. Let's keep in mind that I have a sewing machine, and it is still in the box....since my bridal shower. But, I have good intentions. I love LOVE the wood plank on the table - definitely doing that for Thanksgiving. Love the hairstyle too - would be awesome for a wedding. Also, love the homemade sleeping bag/pad (again, need the sewing machine). The fabric embriodery hoops behind the baby are genius - super cheap, easy and you can use up all that awesome fabric you've been hoarding (or drooling over online).

[sources: tree quilt, pinned: Kaye Prince, sourced: flickr; word canvas, pinned: Paige Rennekamp, sourced: notonthehighstreet.com; sleeping bag, pinned: Toni Child, sourced: gltc.co.uk; hair, pinned: Rachel Passmore, sourced: style-hair-magazine.blogspot.com; baby room, pinned: Beth Saxton, sourced: aedriel.blogspot.com; table, pinned: Maryellen Quarles, sourced: louboosandshoes.blogspot.com]



I already bought the supplies to make the necklace! Oh yeah. Will update if it comes out nice. Love the square rings (been really into gold and stones lately). Cake is amazing - I haven't come across many specialized bakers in the area that make cakes of this caliber. And the recipes are there because they look so good! Planning on making one of them this week (I've been making a concerted effort to cook more during the week - super secret: I used to a cooking blog too!)

[sources: zucchini salad, pinned: Ekuni Mai, sourced: prouditaliancook.blogspot.com; necklace, pinned: Nicole Kathryn, sourced: ecabonline.com; cake, pinned: me, sourced: weddingbee.com; ring, pinned: T Lynn Williams, sourced: lilacbijoux.com; grilled corn salad, pinned: Mahtab Rezai, sourced: authenticsuburbancook.blogspot.com]