April/May

I always mean to post on here but never do. A quick statement to describe my predicament: "It feels like a summer night but I still have a twelve page paper due Tuesday." Whatever, the past month or so has involved slightly warmer weather and copious amounts of ice cream.

Does This Count as an Outfit Post?

It was too nice out last week not to try out a new shooting location. Not much to say here, I guess. I just really like this outfit. So maybe this counts as an outfit post?

~Wearing~

Shorts: Rewind Vintage (brand: Levi's)

Sweater: Forever21

Crop top: Pacsun (brand: Nollie)

New Orleans Part 2

 Never mind orchestra. We spent most of our time doing touristy stuff. Seriously. I held an alligator and ate fried green tomatoes.

New Orleans Architecture

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     At the end of March, my high school's top music groups went on a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. After a 24-hour bus ride among other things, we performed at a local high school and did a short clinic at Loyola University. Although I'm pretty sure the music part is really just an excuse to take a trip. (Which I have absolutely no problem with). I loved the city, especially how colorful it is. Partly because there were so many green things growing compared to in Minnesota, and partly because the buildings were painted so brightly. It was pouring rain during most of the trip but that only made the colors more vivid. A city full of color is a priority for me when it comes to figuring out where to live when I grow up.
 
      Being into photography, I'm also more partial to dilapidated, hurricane-battered buildings than your typical anybody. I saw a lot of super cool stuff out the bus windows. Turns out I had a good number of building photos, so here you go, a small sampling of buildings in New Orleans, from the French Quarter to downtown to a neighborhood I don't know the name of.

Spring Forest

Guess I haven't posted here much lately. Here's a set of two photos inspired by like half of my Pinterest boards. You can't tell in the photos but it's not actually a forest, it's three evergreen trees and a shrub in between a parking lot and a road. I'm rather proud of these. 

Blueberry Cupcakes

 I initially found this recipe on Pinterest about a year ago. 

  I was bored and home alone while my family was at my sister’s volleyball tournament, so I tried to find a recipe that I could make with what was in the house. I found this in a pin with thirty other recipes, and I was kind of thrilled I had what I needed to make these, since I’m a sucker for any blueberry-related desserts. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the site that originally posted it, but here is the pin. 

note: I've adapted the recipe a bit to work with what was in my pantry.

Blueberry Cupcakes with Maple Brown Butter Frosting Recipe
Yield- 12 cupcakes


Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 stick of butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk (The original recipe said 3/4 cup buttermilk and 1/4 cup regular milk, but we never have any buttermilk around).
• 1 cup blueberries (I've used frozen both times I've made these since it was winter, but I have no doubt they'd be even better with fresh berries!)

Frosting

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1 to 2 tbsp maple syrup

Instructions

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees.
2. Melt the butter and mix it with the egg. 
3. Add the milk (and buttermilk, if you chose to use it), to the egg mixture.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
5. Add the milk and egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
6. To prevent color from bleeding, especially with frozen blueberries, coat them in a tablespoon or so of flour and then add them to the batter.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:

1. Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat until golden brown. 
2. In a bowl, add butter to sugar.
3. Add milk and syrup and beat until smooth. 

*note: I cut the frosting recipe in half because I found the original one made far too much for 12 cupcakes. 

*other note: the frosting is supposed to be far less thin than in my photos because I accidentally used too much milk.

Seeing Stars

As absolutely none of my three or so readers probably know, I'm doing a project where I take a photo each day for a year. February 19, 2014 was day 50 of my project, and to celebrate I went all out and hung over 90 paper stars from my ceiling, which took almost three hours! The photos were quite magical, if I don't say so myself.

Oh, the Things you can Washi

I've seen a zillion things on Pinterest about what to do with washi tape, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally found some the other day and I'll admit I covered my phone charger with it before I even got home! I've used it for a few things, (phone charger, calculator, notebook), but there are probably more to come, unless this is another one of my short-lived passions. (I've had a lot of those). 

  xoxo, Zophia