The One With the Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a happy girl. I found a recipe that combines 3 of my favorite things in the baking world: toffee, chocolate chip cookies and almond flavoring.
Maria over at Two Peas and Their Pod made this delicious recipe for Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies... and boy, is it awesome!

I am an especially big fan of the almond flavoring. I didn't have any almond paste on hand so I substituted 1 tsp. of almond extract and it does the trick.
I think my new baking resolution should be to use almond flavoring in everything I make. It's that good.


Josh and Maria are my new kitchen icons! Why? Because under the recipes tab of their site they have 94 cookie recipes. Yep, 94! That's twice as many cookie recipes as main dish recipes... which, in my opinion, is the only way to go. If I could subsist on desert and never cook a main dish again in my life, I would. Also, they have a whole bunch of breakfast recipes I can't wait to try. Did I mention their my new kitchen icons? Because they really are.

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is. Fortunately for me, I still have some of these in the kitchen, so I just might go snag one.

The One With All the Eye Boosting

Well looking over my favorite pictures these last few days I have realized something: as much as I love taking pictures, I really need to improve my photo editing skills. Especially because I'm such a rookie at photography, editing skills might come in handy.

So I turned to one of my favorite bloggers, Katie from Bower Power. She has put up a few tutorials that are very helpful for little aspiring photographers like me. She is leaps and bounds ahead of me, of course, but her helpful hints are just what I was looking for. I started out with her tutorial "Eye Boost" and will be tackling the others in my spare time in the weeks ahead. I'd like to be as prepared as possible to take great newborn pictures of the new baby.

I started out by downloading the Photoshop actions for Adobe CS provided by the wonderful Pioneer Woman. They are a great little set to get anyone started.

I mostly used the "Bring On they Eyes" and "Sharpen This" actions according to the directions provided by Katie in the "Eye Boost" tutorial. After using these actions, I decreased the layer opacity - sometimes significantly - in order to make sure the eyes didn't look too creepy. That would be sad.
All of the before and after shots I provided for this post had been previously edited with coloring, etc. So, this is mostly just showing the eye enhancement.

Scrunch nose before:
And after: Just a little bit of sharpening and her eyes really pop!
Valentine's baby before:
And after:
Baby Cyril before:
And after:
Tutu cute before:
And after:
Flower girl before:
And after:
Valerie before:
And after:
And again:
And after:
Although I love this picture, I realize that the over-exposure is unfortunate. But in some ways, I don't mind the uber glow... I just wish Ellie wasn't quite so washed out.

But a little sharpening and voila! Her sparkly eyes are more defined and that sort of makes up for the extra glow.

The difference is subtle but impressive. I'm so excited I learned how to do this! I have always been wondering how people get little baby eyes to look so striking.

It's little steps towards improving my photography skills, but it's fun!

P.S. If you're using Photoshop Elements, the actions above will not work. Download the actions for Elements here.

The One With the Year in Review (2010)

Well, it is officially January 22nd. Does that make it too late for a Year in Review post? Probably. But I didn't get to it sooner, so... better late than never, right?
Looking over my favorite pictures from 2010 I pulled about a hundred that I just loved. But I tried to pare them down to my absolute favorites. This year I got my Canon EOS Xsi and have loved it! I'm not great at photography, but I do enjoy capturing these moments, especially as Ellie is growing up. So, here are a few of my most treasured photographs from 2010.

Before I had my own Canon, I borrowed one and went a little crazy. I love Ellie's expression in this picture, back when she was only 4 months old. Look at how bald she is! (Not that she's got a whole lot more hair now.)
Her baby blues again. I just can't get enough of them.
My sisters and mom came to visit for my birthday in February.
At the park on a sunny day. (Five months old.)
I love the cherry blossom trees at the University of Portland and will miss them every spring.
Ellie became much more photogenic when she could sit up.
We took a beach trip to Newport, Oregon, in March.
Ellie at Easter. (7 months old.)
Pub crawl 2010. Finishing our senior year at the University of Portland with celebration and sadness - Cara and Kaycie headed off to distant lands after graduation. Well, Texas and Louisiana aren't that far away.
We graduated!
Ellie and her great-grandmother Ellie.
Kaycie and Erich got married in June! It was a lovely wedding. Congrats, Metzelaars! Read more about that here.
I was matron of honor and Ellie was the flower girl. Who had to be carried by Steve down the aisle.
Ellie and I went to visit Mallory's neice, Addison. They had some fun in the pool. Here, Ellie is giving Addie some love.
One of my favorite favorites. I will always loves this picture.
Ellie's infamous scrunch nose phase lasted for a few months.
Family portrait.
Ellie in the bath. More of those big beautiful eyes.
Steve and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary with drinks at a rooftop bar in downtown Portland. It was beautiful.
Ellie turned a whole year old in September. We celebrated with a lot of cake and presents. Read more about that here.
Ellie's grandma came to visit for her birthday!
Birthday girls!
We went to the Pumpkin Patch.

Ellie was a bumble bee for Halloween.
Ellie's autumn portraits were so much fun. See them all here.
Ellie screaming with excitement because she just loves life so much.
My family came to visit for Thanksgiving.
Ellie had her first romp in the snow. She loved it!
Ellie loves our new house! She especially loves the window overlooking the street where she can observe the neighbors passing by.
And that's that. 2010 was a wonderful year full of amazing memories. It will certainly be a year I'll never forget.

A special thanks to Allison Able for letting me borrow her camera before I got mine, and also to Steve W, Mallory P, Joanna C, Tammy F, Erich M and Valerie P for taking the pictures I'm in. <3 you all!

The One With the Pretty Things (2)

I've been going crazy on Etsy.com lately, just favorite-ing pretty much everything. Here are a few of my favorite favorites.

1. I love this Les petites douceurs print. I want it for my kitchen.
   
2. Wouldn't this Rosewater print be so sweet in one of those lovely laundry rooms you see on home decor blogs all the time?
   
3. Both this Joy and Land of Ampersand prints are beautiful. Can you tell that I secretly wish I was an artist?
   
4. I would feel so very chic carrying around this White and black toile hobo bag. Although who knows if I'm actually cool enough to pull it off.
5. On a slightly more practical note, this Paisley Dream hobo bag would be perfect as a super cute alternative to a diaper bag. The most important feature: the long adjustable strap so that I can put it over one shoulder.
6. And not that I would have any use for this cake topper anytime soon, but it was on the front page of Etsy and thought it was pretty cool.
7. And I am just in love with hair flowers of all kinds. These are some of my faves: The Lucy Bobby Pin Set . I want this Turquoise Flower Headband for the new baby - they would be so cute for her newborn pictures.