Tea is Best

My friend Rachel gave me a wonderful set of tea cups and tea at my bridal shower. This weekend I decided to spend some time, photographing them. I had a great time playing around with the styling and even more fun using Capt. Mouffette's Photoshop Actions. . These actions are great and make even the most boring photo even more fun. I highly recommend getting these from Kim. She's quite talented.

Only 10 more days until the wedding and I'm getting very excited. I can't wait to be married to my Smooshy and I am anxious to be in Paris and Amsterdam on our honeymoon.

Wurmy Cowl

This past Friday, I finished my Wurm Cowl in Malabrigo Twist. I was excited to finish the cowl and wore it right away but since it was the one thing keeping me sane as we edge closer to the wedding, I was sad to be finished.



Of course as knitting goes, I ran out of yarn a HALF A ROW from the end. Now I could have tinked back but instead I decided to purchase more Malabrigo Twist. Then I decided to wind it in the store. Well the yarn decided it hated me and after 35 careful minutes of winding and de-twisting, I was able to get the skein wound up and my cowl finished.

I love this massive cowl and am now wishing for cooler weather so I can wear it everywhere.


Ravelry Details

Pinwheels

I've been following P.S. I Quilt's tutorial on the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt.

Rachel's posted tutorials for six blocks and the idea is that you make two of each. I am a little behind and I'm only making one of each for now.



I've already learned so much about pinwheel blocks after only four blocks. I'm looking forward to finding a few spare moments to catch up but I suspect it won't happen until after my wedding and honeymoon, which is only 13 days away!

Wurms!

Last week, I saw that CatReading on Ravelry had made a Wurm Cowl based on the fantastic Wurm Hat. I had to have one of my own and dashed down to The Fiber Gallery to procure some yarn.

CatReading used Malabrigo Worsted but I loved this warm amber color in Malabrigo Twist. I'm also enjoying the softness of Twist.



I cast on last week and while spending many hours in coffee shops this past weekend with Scott due to open houses and condo showings, I got a lot of knitting on this cowl completed. I'm knitting faster and faster so I can wear this cowl as soon as possible.

I'm using three skeins of the Malabrigo Twist and while I plan to use all of the yarn, it really depends on how wide the cowl gets. I am currently about halfway through my second skein of Twist so I suspect that we'll have a finished project shortly.



Rav Details Here

Food Styling with Sweet Tartlette

Earlier this week, I took a Food Styling class from Helen of My Tartelette, graciously hosted by Viv of Bon Vivant. Viv hosted the workshop in her home and it was a lovely setting. Her building has a nice large common area which was full of light.

There was also a macaron workshop in the afternoon but due to work, I missed it. LuuvuH however captured it beautifully in this video: http://vimeo.com/10083926

He promises one on the Food Styling workshop and a detailed one on the macaron workshop soon, so watch for those on his site.

I learned a lot from Helen but the most important thing I learned is to tell a story with your photos.



The first photo is my attempt to food style some Girl Scout cookies. Helen came along and stuck a notebook and a small milk jug in the photo which created a more compelling story. I immediately hated my first photo and loved the second Helen-designed one.

I learned that I tend to take away too many things and that I need to leave some props in the photo and to also leave them a bit messy as clean is boring.



Helen took my neighbor's cake setting which I thought was wonderful and really amp'd it up. Helen took the clean cake and left crumbs on the slate plate. She also suggested spreading the jam around but my neighbor left it in a little glob because that was more true to how her family would consume the bread. I liked both ideas.

I realized after the class that I just need to devote more time to food photography in order to advance my skills. I have the knowledge, I just need to put that knowledge into play. And really as soon as life settles down a bit, I will put that knowledge into action. I just need life to calm down a bit first.

Getting Hitched

This past month has been full to bursting with so much activity. We decided to get our condo ready to sell and on Friday it goes on the market. It's been A LOT of work but I know that it will be worth it in the end. *Fingers Crossed* that it sells quickly.



While in the midst of getting the condo decluttered, painted and spruced up, we've been working on the wedding. Our lovely invitations were completed and sent out. We used Clarie Yam for the wedding invitation set and I couldn't be happier. These are the invitations I imagined when we set out on the invite road.



And while I anxiously await RSVPs, we've assembled the favor boxes and filled them with Jelly Bellies, wrapped the attendant gifts and then took everything to my parent's house for storage.



At this point, we're almost done with the wedding planning. There are a few more details to finalize along with a few more checks to write but we're feeling good about the wedding. Now if only the condo sells quickly so we can buy a house!