my first love marries my second love.

As some of you know, the reason I started this blog years ago was to show off some of the jewelry I was making.  Of course, when my daughter was born, (was it really almost 4 years ago now? Really?) I had little time for it, and found myself learning photography to fill that creative need.  I discovered an awesome tutorial on how to make photo pendants by Brigitte, and I just had to give it a try.

I think I may even open my Etsy store again!
:)

 I am definitely in need of some practice, but I absolutely love wearing them.  Here are my favorite two:

oh!  and one last thing....I made lasagna this week with homemade sauce from my sister-in-law's recipe.  Talk about Jersey Italian food.  YUM!!!!  Just check out this cheese, and inhale:

right?  yummmm.  Have a great weekend!

Shrinky Dinks and Sunday Love

They are on my mind today, and I think I'm going to need to take a trip to the local craft store and see if I can find some.  I'm thinking of making my own nameplate necklace and maybe a pumpkin or something for Lilly. 
My hubby is parked in front of the television for the remainder of the day, so he won't miss me at all. 
So, onto the things I'm looking at this week.  I think you may find that I seem to gravitate toward the same type of blog over and over again.  I love photography, jewelry, food, and crafting! 
So first:  Have you seen this coupon for Michaels? check this out.  Nice, right? Good for some shrinky dinks maybe?
I also spotted this mini tutorial on Clicknmom's website about taking portraits of kids.  I use a lot of those same methods, and I also tend to tell really corny jokes. 

It's my favorite time of year, Autumn.  The photo above was taken in New Jersey.  Unfortunately, here in Southern California, if you want to see color like this, you need to drive up to the mountains.  Fall means apple picking for our family, because I love making apple pie from scratch.  I never would have guessed it, but I have grown to love baking.  So, this is the recipe I use for my crust:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/crunch-top-apple-pie-recipe2/index.htm .  I need to tell you that this crust will have you making crust constantly.  Although I adore the crust in the above recipe, I really like my apple pie to be a subtle flavor.  I use this recipe with Winesap apples for the pie filling: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Apple-Pie/Detail.aspx .  Deeeeeeeeeelightful. 
Have a fabulous Sunday!
xoxo
Kristen

Modern Baby Portraits

So, in case you didn't know, I have a twin sister.  Yep.  We're fraternal, but as close as people can get, especially considering we live 3,000 miles apart.  We're so close, in fact, that she had her baby boy exactly one year to the date after I had my baby boy.  Just call us the Wonder Twins.  Mmmhmm.  We answer to that.
So when she had her baby boy, I flew out to New Jersey so I could meet the little man.  Did I mention that I flew by myself with two little ones?  See? Wonder Twin.  (If you don't count the escalator incident.  Which we won't mention.)

I love this family.  I seriously feel like the luckiest girl ever.