living artfully

august eats

It's full-on summer in all its glory. And maybe it's the heat, but I'm feeling sluggish and disappointed. Bummed that I haven't been soaking up my favorite parts of the season: great local produce, farmers markets, and sunny breezy days.

So I'm changing things up for August. Here are my three ground rules:

1. Less meat
2. Less alcohol
3. Walking 30 minutes a day

 
zucchini carpaccio salad

The emphasis will be whole foods, fresh produce, and feeling good. I won't be eating strictly vegetarian, but close to it. This is the kind of food that makes me sustainably happy (a lot more so than the junk I think I'll enjoy).

We have some old favorites and some new recipes on the horizon this week...
- zucchini carpaccio salad
- crema de guacamole
- fettuccine with asparagus puree
- pesto couscous
- spaghetti squash with fresh tomatoes and parmesan
- quinoa black bean salad

In my search for new recipe ideas, I'm now hopelessly addicted to a ton more food blogs. Occassionaly great recipe blogs make me lose my mind and think I should start one, too! Maybe you wouldn't mind too much if I share a food photo or recipe from time to time? :)

hugs, sharyn

week in the life :: monday

With "Week in the Life" underway, I'm mostly focused on taking photos and writing notes to pull the album together. But I did take the time to put together Monday's pages in the album to get a sense of how the album is going to come together.

 

Last year's album was suuuuper time consuming to pull together. Lesson learned = if I make things too complicated, it may not get done. So as you may recall, the plan is for all hipstamatic pictures taken with my iPhone. For journaling, I'm doing a recap of each day, plus a spot for headline news. That's it!

 

 

My husband and I are NPR geeks; one of my favorite parts of last year's album is actually the news headlines so headlines are going on the back of the opening page for each day.

 

So far I haven't been gathering much paper memorabilia. A result of being at a cabin for two of the three days so far? Maybe? There are also more photos per day making their way into the album. So I guess this is the year of photos rather than memorabilia. I'm definitely okay with that.

Once the album is put together, I may go back and add some spray ink or more embellishment. But even if it stays as is, I do love how the photos and papers look together. So glad I decided to play along!

How is your week in the life project going?

hugs, sharyn

still lifting

Last week I mentioned that scraplifting helped get me back into the swing of making 12x12 layouts. Well I have a few more lifts to share with you! As I spend time catching up on my 2010 album, these scraplifts are helping me make quick pages, but still with designs that I love.

 
inspiration layout by Lisa Dickinson

 
inspiration layout by Nicole Harper

 
inspiration layout by Lisa Truesdell

The "28 Years" layout about my husband's birthday is seriously one of my most favorite layouts ever. I just love the colors and patterns in real life.

My scraplifting marathon has ended and I'm now in a stretch of layouts loosely inspired by sketches or dreamt up on my own. Gosh does it feel great to finally have some more layouts in my 2010 album!  Scraplifting has been good to me lately. I think I'll keep it in mind again for catching up on layouts!

PS - Today is the first day of Ali's Week in the Life. It's free to join and never too late to start documenting. So if you're thinking of playing along, you should! I've got my iPhone close by for lots of hipstamatic pictures and am excited to get started.

hugs, sharyn

s'mores cupcakes

One of my favorite summertime-only treats is a s'more. They are gooey, marshmallowey, chocolatey perfection. But not really office or party appropriate. Enter the cupcake version of a s'more!

 

I'm not gonna lie, these are crazy delicious. And dangerously fun to make. This recipe comes from the fabulous Annie's Eats, with just a few tweaks. The cupcake has a graham cracker crust, then chocolate cake topped with homemade marshmallow frosting. I've tried other s'mores cupcake recipes before, and this is my favorite way to incorporate the graham cracker.

*Note: you will need a thermometer to make the frosting. Don't let this stop you! I picked one up especially for this recipe and faced my fears of cooked frosting. It was definitely worth it.

 
Makes approximately 24 cupcakes

for the crust
1-1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
5-1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

for the cupcakes
2 cups and 2 tablespoons sugar
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup hot, strong-brewed coffee

for the frosting
8 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon, cream of tartar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 
to make the cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line 24 cupcake cups with liners.
2. In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Mix well with a fork.
3. Drop approximately 1 tablespoon of graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each cupcake. Press to create a firm crust that evenly lines the bottom of the cupcake liner.
4. Sprinkle a small amount of chopped chocolate on top of the graham cracker crusts.
5. Bake for 5 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and set aside. Maintain the oven temperature.
7. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; mix on low speed just to combine.
8. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract; whisk together.
9. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the stand mixer; mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
10. Add the hot coffee and stir just to combine. Note, the batter will be very thin.
11. Fill the cupcake liners with the graham cracker crust, filling about 3/4 of the way full. 
12. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through baking. Take care not to overbake and remove from oven as soon as a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

to make the frosting
1. Combine egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in the top of a double boiler on medium high heat. Alternatively, create your own double boiler by placing a mixing boil over a pot of boiling water.
2. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently until it reaches 160°F with an instant read thermometer.
3. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
4. Whisk starting at low speed, gradually increasing to medium high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form. (If this is your first time, be patient; it can take quite a while!)
5. Fold in the vanilla, just to combine.
6. Frost cupcakes as desired.
7. If desired, brown frosting with a kitchen torch, taking care not to brown the cupcake liners. Garnish with graham cracker and chocolate pieces.

 

hugs, sharyn

do you lift?

It seems that scraplifting is a love/hate thing. Some swear by it; and for others it's just not their cup of tea. I usually fall into the latter half, but I find that sketches and scraplifting are a great way to jump back into scrapping and get out of a rut.

It's also a great way to get a tone of pages done fast. To get myself back into the swing of things, I've been on one long scraplifting marathon. And you know what? I love these layouts because of the memories. I'm glad to have these recorded and am not wasting time worrying that I wasn't creative enough.

 
inspiration layout by Kelly Purkey

 
inspiration layout by Geralyn Sy

 
inspiration layout by Celine Navarro

If you check out the originals, you'll see that I followed the inspiration layouts very closely. If I'm inspired by another layout, it's usually to try a technique or photo placement... not to all out scraplift it. This was an interesting change of pace for me. Just the jumpstart I needed!

What's your take on scraplifting? Love it or hate it?

hugs, sharyn