Kaden & Cooper

This past week I had the opportunity to build my portfolio even more and add some experience under my belt. My friend from work, Melanie wanted some pictures of her handsome boys for Christmas cards and I jumped at the opportunity. Her boys were so nice to photograph and her little one, Cooper, was just a big ball of smiles the whole time. I just wanted to show you a couple of my favorite shots from the day. These two are my favorite because of the lighting, it was literally perfect and it made me not only happy, but it also made it extremely easy to get a great shot. The second has to be my number one favorite out of the whole shoot. <3

Ladies of the sidebar

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to reintroduce myself. I'm Kelly and I'm the author of this blog. I've been away for a while because I've been banging my head on my desk for the last few weeks due to school. It has consumed my life and I don't have a single minute to even think about an idea for a blog post. So forgive me and it's nice to meet you all again. I am waiting for finals to be over and to have winter break be here. I am in great need of a break right now. 

I'm going to keep it short and sweet right today, because I want to introduce some gorgeous ladies and I would hate to take the spotlight away from them. Also, like I said I'm fully out of anything to say. So without further ado, here they are! 

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Hi there! I"m Erin and I live on the internet over at Hooley with a "z". In the real world, I live in Minnesota, a.k.a. the tundra. My blog is a place where I can squawk about my life, where I share both my the everyday silly and the not so silly stuff. I am a big fan of my husband ( I call him Mister Man), baking delicious things and using proper capitalization. I'm so happy to meet you all, and hope you stop by and say "hello!"
My Thanksgiving favorite: sweet potatoes! Not the kind with marshmallows on top, that's too sweet for me, just plain old mashed sweet potatoes with butter and salt. There is something about the orange color maybe? All I know is that somehow half my plate gets filled up with that particular dish.

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Hi! I'm Zia! I'm a college student and blogger from Indonesia who has a passion to travel the world.  Ispent a year in Minnestoa when  I was 17 as an exchange student and right now I go to a university in Germany. I'm passionate about technology and business and aspiring to have a career that combines these two aspects. On my blog, I write about my life here in Breman, occasional culture shocks, random silly things that happen around me, my dreams, things that interest me, and my musings of life. I hope you stop by and stay a whole! 

I've only experiences Thanksgiving once in my life, at my host dad's family. I remember that we had a lot of food and  I really liked the turkey! The most memorable experience though. Before we ate, we formed a cirlce and everyone took a turn saying what they were most thankful about for the year, and it's really nice to feel the gratitude atmosphere in the room! 

today is a celebration

 

Happy 24th birthday to this handsome devil. 

Love you

<3

Recipe // Caramel Apples

I wanted to share these caramel apples I made a couple weekends ago. My wonderful step mother sent me a surprise gift that was a whole caramel apple kit. It came with a bag of caramels, bags of toppings, skewers, and six perfectly packaged apples. I almost died, the package was so cute. I made them straight away the next day because I was just too excited to wait. As always the caramel and toppings all fell to the bottom, I don't know why I have this problem every time I make caramel apples. Any tips for preventing that? 

The recipe to these apples is pretty simple. Melt your caramels, dunk your apples, throw your favorite topping at them and done. In the box, I was given m&ms, nuts, and sprinkles which I ended up using all three. I've also been the only one to eat these apples since I made them. I have one left. Well, they always say, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I'm not sure how the doc feels if the apple is covered in caramel and sprinkle though... 

Check out my caramel apples I made last year here, with three different ways to make them!

And thank you to Jenni for gifting me this amazing gift! It made my Halloween 1000x better. :)

<3

Recipe // Dark Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

What a mess that drink looks like right? Well it's a delicious mess and I will be making this over and over during the winter season. It is the richest and the creamiest hot chocolate drink I have ever had. I really wanted to share to all you dark chocolate lovers, so enjoy!

Ingredients
2 c almond milk (or preferred milk)
1/4 c pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 TBL unsweetened cocoa
dash of vanilla
marshmallows and chocolate syrup for topping

1. On the stove in a saucepan, whisk together milk, puree, cocoa, and spices. Heat over medium heat and heat just until its about to boil.

2. Remove from heat, add a dash of vanilla and top off with marshmallows and chocolate syrup. Serve immediately.

Just a quick tip, if you have pumpkin pie spice in your spice cupboard, use 3/4 tsp of that instead of adding all the individual spices. I just didn't have any pumpkin pie spice, so I used what it was made off. Also, add more or less cocoa powder to your liking. With 3 tablespoons, it makes the drink quite a dark chocolaty flavor, which I didn't mind.

<3