You Capture: Pretty

Happy Tuesday! I thought a great way to start out this short week would be to share with you my You Capture photos! This week's theme was "Pretty".  I am a lucky girl.  My parents own a greenhouse. That means, I get to experiment with new plants every year....for free! I spent Memorial Day weekend planting some of my gardens. I snapped a few shots along the way.

I hope you enjoyed my photos for this week's challenge.  I plan to share more of my gardening adventures. I am a newbie to the gardening world, but I'm loving it so far!

A Harley Davidson Birthday

A coworker of mine loves his Harley and was celebrating a birthday, so I made him these.

 Red Velvet cake with chocolate cream cheese icing....yuuuuuummmmmm!

I made one special topper just for Scott!

Now if only the weather would agree with us so the Harley could actually get out of the garage!

Divas: Girls Night Out

Today I would like to share with you a fun layout from my 30th birthday party.  My girlfriends and I had a great night out.  This is one of my favorite photos!

I used Tim Holtz stencils to ink the flourishes.  The rest of this layout was done entirely with Teresa Collins products.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my layout!

Real Parties: Paris, Pink and Poodle Skirts!

Check out this adorable Paris in Pink party from reader, Amie!  Amie's daughter Audrey celebrated her 2nd birthday with this beautiful Paris inspired dessert table.

 Amie made almost all of the treats for this table.  Check out how great her cake pops turned out! I don't know about you, but I still haven't been able to master those!

 I love the pink sixlets in the martini glass! How fun is that?!  The red velvet whoopie pies sound delicious!

 Audrey and her cousins partied away in their poodle skirts and tops.

 And of course, in true "Its my party and I'll cry if I want to" fashion, Audrey expressed herself.  When Amie shared this photo with me I couldn't help but laugh.  Oh the life of a 2 year old!

The tears didn't last too long. Back to fun, treats, and celebrating for this birthday girl!

Thanks so much for sharing with us Amie!

My New Obsession

Its official. I'm addicted......to mini donuts.

 This weekend I bought a Babycakes Mini Donut Maker. I love it! Its so fun!!  Right away I tried out the sour cream donut recipe that comes in the book. Delicious! Tasted like pancakes, and was amazing in my coffee!

You can expect lots more donut posts!!

I'm thinking cupcakes with donuts on top! A donut tasting bar! Donut party! The possibilities are endless!!

Lets hear it for mini donuts! Hip hip hooray!

Strawberry Pie with Chocolate Drizzle

My boyfriend David is not a big fan of my desserts.  He is more of a pie guy.  I don't make a lot of pies.  Not for any particular reason, I just usually make cakes, cupcakes, stuff like that. I came across this strawberry pie recipe, and my mouth watered!  Its a perfect summer dessert!

 Strawberry Pie with Chocolate Drizzle 

(Recipe from Our Best Bites)

Ingredients:

1 quart, fresh strawberries

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1, 9" graham cracker crust

1-2 ounces chocolate

Directions:

Beat cream cheese, brown sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. 

In a separate bowl, beat heavy cream and powdered sugar until soft peaks form.

Add approximately 1 cup of heavy cream mixture to cream cheese mixture.  Beat until smooth.  Slowly add the remaining cream mixture.  Mix until combined.

Spread mixture into graham cracker crust.  Place in refrigerator.

Prepare your strawberries.  I chose to quarter mine, but you could cut off the stems and place them cut side down, or half them, or whatever makes you smile.

Once your strawberries are prepared, take the pie out of fridge and arrange strawberries on top.

Place your chocolate in a ziplock bag.  I used chocolate chips. If you use a chocolate bar, make sure to break it into pieces.

Microwave chocolate in zip lock for about 1 minute.  Continue at 20 second intervals until the chocolate is melted.

Snip off the end of the ziplock and drizzle over pie.

Refrigerate pie for at least 3 hours.

This pie should serve 8, but don't be surprised if you devour it all by yourself!

Heading to the Lone Star State!

Just wanted to let you know, there wont be posts from me this week, I am heading to Texas!

Don't get too excited, its a work trip. I'll be back next week with some more fun posts!

Enjoy your week!