Why am I telling you this? Well, it had a big part in inspiring today’s recipe! They say “In Vino veritas” (In wine, truth). Yeah, well… In Codeine, Inspiration!

As you may or may not know, my husband has been enthusiastically enjoying his newest hobby, homebrewing. He got right into it this year, going so far as to grow his own hops! He loves his beer like he loves his chocolate – bitter as all hell, with intense flavor. I decided to use his home grown hops to flavor chocolate. Check out our blog tomorrow or Thursday for our Hop Truffles recipe! By the time he got home from work, I had started making a second idea that sort of mutated off the idea of Hop truffles. You see, our Jalapeno Beer Brittle is proving to be an insanely popular recipe from our recently released cookbook, “The Spirited Baker: Intoxicating Desserts & Potent Potables“. What if I bastardized that recipe, added hops to flavor it even more, and made lollipops out of it? LolliHOPS!!

&nbsp

Well, I made, I saw, I conquered – and my husband is a very, very happy man! These were incredibly easy to make, anyone can make them at home!

Hop Flavored Beer Lollipops recipe – LolliHOPS!

Small amount of butter
1/2 cup beer of choice (We used an IPA)
6 dried hop cones (we used Centennial)*
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
Lollipop sticks

Use butter to generously grease the back of 1 or 2 baking sheets, set aside.

Heat beer to a light simmer. Break up hop cones into leaves, add to warm beer. Remove from heat, allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Strain beer into a measuring glass, measuring only 1/3 cup. (The 1/2 cup measurement is to allow for some evaporation / hop leaf absorption). In a heavy saucepan (2 quart), mix together sugar, corn syrup, and strained 1/3 cup of beer.

Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then attach candy thermometer to saucepan. Stir often until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees Celcius). KEEP A VERY CLOSE EYE ON IT after about 280 degrees, as the temp has a tendancy to race up at that point. If you turn your back, you could burn it!

At 300 degrees, remove the pan from heat. Allow to cool & thicken slightly, stirring constantly – about 1 minute.

Working quickly, drop small amounts of the hot sugar mixture onto the greased baking sheets – about 1-3 tsp(s) per, depending on the desired size of your lollihops. Lay a lollipop stick into each circle, so that the tip is near the center of the lollipop, and flat against the surface. (ie, you want it parallel to the baking sheet, not perpendicular to it!). Carefully give each stick a bit of a twirl, so that the candy coats around the stick to hold it in place.

Cool completely, carefully remove from baking sheets. Wrap with plastic, waxed paper, parchment paper, or whatever. Enjoy!

* Hops can vary wildly in size and flavor. Be sure to taste as you go – you may not want to use the whole 10 minute steeping time. If you don’t have access to whole dried hope cones, you can use 1/4 tsp – 1/2 tsp of hop pellets! It doesn’t take much, so your next batch of homebrew won’t miss it!

Scratch that, if you follow my blog, you likely don’t read the blogs I’m talking about

Anyway, the idea is to post a photo, extract a few colors from it, and use it as an inspirational color board. “Inspirational”, in that a bride may see this board and decide to base her wedding florals, decor, and theme around it.

Well! As you may be aware, I have many, many years of design experience behind me… and I figure it’s about time I take a crack at designing color palettes. I present my first attempt, “Cool as Ice” after the jump…

I think that this would make a sunny and unique spring color palette…

I just saw a blog entry that Ariela at RBK Creations just posted. Fell in love, had to share!

You may recall RBK Creations from our blog entry, “Far-flung Awesomeness of the Floral & Photography Varieties“. If not, here’s the basic scoop: Met her on Twitter, she’s located in Texas, and she makes the most ridiculously awesome fabric and button wedding florals. Love them! (No, this is not a paid ad or anything!) Of all the bouquet styles she does, my favorites are the felt ones, especially when there are bright colors involved. I’m a sucker for teal & purple… so when I saw those two colors, in my favorite style.. WITH LEGOS.. I had to post! Isn’t it awesome? Here’s some contact info if you want to revel in her awesomeness more closely – like with your own set! Website: www.rbkcreations.com Twitter: @RBKCreations Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/reallybadkitty Facebook: www.facebook.com/RBKCreations

My photographer friends are gonna kill me for saying this, but wedding photography is an area that can really suffer from that sentiment. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when wedding photography started leaning towards the photojournalistic, and away from the stiff, posed, and painfully staged-looking photography that was so popular when I first entered the wedding business. I loved to see photographers and couples relaxing a bit, having fun with it, and taking more chances!

Engagement sessions, however, seem to have a bit of a hard time breaking out of the mold. While I’ve seen some great, warm, personal sessions, I still think that the vast majority of engagement sessions look more like senior portraits, or Sears/Walmart style family pictures. Very formulaic, take the couple to a park, kiss, hold hands, lay in the grass, whatever.

I have photographer friends. My husband did wedding photography before really settling into his niche of food & product photography, so I know how it is. I know that many brides feel that getting that style of photos is what they’re “supposed” to do in this grand ritual of getting married… and sometimes it can be hard to coax a couple out of that thinking. (The same applies to white cake, inside and out.. and cake toppers! LOL!)

HOWEVER… the other day I saw what may just be the most amazing engagement photoshoot ever. I would almost put money on a certain one of my photog friends either crying or squealing when she saw/sees this particular shoot. Anyway, the photographer is Chelsea Gray, and she’s based in Montreal, Canada. Chelsea felt inspired by a blog entry she’d seen – which had featured an engagement session themed around the movie “Up” – and suggested a fun shoot to Cindy and Jean-Nicola. They jumped on the idea, and suggested The Notebook as inspiration. The rest, apparently, is history. Check out that *completely* epic engagement shoot HERE. Amazing! Anyway, after seeing that shoot, I had to see her other work, and immediately fell in love. I LOVE her style, her eye.. and how she works with her environment to create visually stunning images. Whether incorporating the lighting at a “Cosmic Bowl” session at a bowling alley, natural light streaming through colored glass windows, or just natural light outside, she has a wonderful talent for making great use of that lighting.

Anyway, I was so blown away by her images, I thought that a blog entry on her work would be a great idea! Though she IS available to travel to far-flung weddings.. but at the very least, these photos should serve as great inspiration! Be sure to check out her blog for a ton more engagement sessions! All of the photos on this entry are courtesy of Chelsea and her team at Blushing Bride Studios!

Additionally, I love how so many of these photos are NOT of the couple alone in a field somewhere, but actually have other people, random passers-by, also pictured. I think it gives a lot of movement, a dynamic feeling to those photos. I absolutely love it! “At Blushing Bride Studio we’re always trying to push the button stylistically, creating one-of-a-kind images for our clients. We are based in Montreal and available to shoot worldwide.” For more information, contact Chelsea at: Web: www.blushingbridestudio.com Email: chelsea@blushingbridestudio.com Phone: 514.502.3494 Know a vendor, event, product, or service that you think I’d flip out over? Contact Me to let me know about it. My blog entries are of subjects that I love, and are not paid advertisements.

]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/08/12/completely-epic-engagement-photography/feed/ 0 http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/08/11/cake-toppers-they-dont-have-to-be-as-horrible-as-you-think/ http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/08/11/cake-toppers-they-dont-have-to-be-as-horrible-as-you-think/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:24:34 +0000 admin http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/?p=502 This blog entry is going to be a unique one for me – a positive blog entry about something I normally hate!

Yes, I am vehemently, rabidly anti-cake toppers. 99% of the time, I find toppers to look cheesy, cheap, and TOTALLY out of place on a cake. Most of the readily-available toppers in stores all look the same as they did 20 years ago, and they all sort of look the same. Yawn. They go completely against my belief that a wedding should be personalized, and truly reflect the couple.

Aside from the stand-alone cheese factor, the other thing that gets me is that they’re very rarely used in a way that complements the design of the cake. I’ve got almost 20 years of old school design experience, so things like jarring breaks in form, line, color.. it just gets to me.

I prefer toppers to be an extension of the cake design itself, usually made from the same materials. Sugar flowers that are also used throughout the cake design, not just plunked on top, for instance. An unbroken, balanced continuation of the design, seamlessly executed. If such a continuation isn’t possible – for whatever reason – I much prefer to have NO topper, whatsoever.

It IS, however, possible to incorporate a topper into the cake without it being cheesy OR jarring! It takes a little creativity, planning, and a talented cake designer.. but it can definitely work. Here are the two key points to remember:

1. It must be a nice topper, ideally custom – and preferably unique. There is absolutely no way to make an off-the-shelf Wilton topper uncheesy. Ironic, maybe.. but not uncheesy. Sorry. I’m blunt, but I speak the truth! Do you really want your great aunt Bertha beaming at the memory of seeing that same topper atop her own cake?

2. Contrary to the normal order of things.. you really need to choose such a topper first, and DESIGN THE CAKE AROUND IT. Do NOT try and plop a custom topper on top of any wedding cake design, it won’t work. Incorporate the colors, themes, and general feel of your topper into the cake, and it will be much more coherent, pleasing to the eye, and YOU.

Where to find such a topper? WELL! I went on a “cute topper finding mission” this morning, and I have a load of inspiration and contacts for you, dear readers. Some are quite epic!

Let me say this… when it comes to finding talented artists to create truly unique toppers, Etsy.com is a GOLDMINE! The vast majority of the toppers below are from Etsy. Let’s get started, shall we?

First up, we have “Fliepsiebieps”, from The Hague, Netherlands. I love how adorable these custom polymer clay toppers are, and – as a cake artist – would love the opportunity to design an adorable cake around these. I love the use of color, and the lines that this artist uses. I think these toppers would be an adorable keepsake on a bookshelf, mantle, or whatever for years to come – but then, that sentiment really applies to any well done, custom topper! Fliepsiebieps has several means of contact listed: Etsy: “Fliepsiebieps” Twitter: http://twitter.com/fliepsiebieps Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fliepsiebieps Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/esthertaal

This next artist. “buildersstudio”, just completely blows me away.. and I’m not even in to Steampunk! I can’t get over the insane amount of detail that goes into these “robot” steampunk wedding cake toppers. Sick. Amazing! Love it! I don’t even know what else to say. Etsy: Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/buildersstudio

The interesting thing about this next artist, “splendorlocity”, is that they mess with those awful premade toppers… and manages to make them about as acceptable as they’re gonna get! Check them out on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/splendorlocity

The artist who makes these ADORABLE toppers, “kikuike”, is based in Japan. So cute! I think a cake based around any of these would be adorable, and completely memorable! Check them out on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/kikuike Check them out on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/etsy_kikuike

Lets go from adorable, to COMPLETELY BIZARRE. I honestly have no idea what to say about these. Definitely memorable, at the very least! As with many of the custom toppers I’m featuring.. it would be great for the right couple, and the right cake design! These toppers are made by pouring liquid casting clay into multiple molds, chopping them up, and then rearranging body parts before glazing & firing them. It’s like… “The Cake Toppers of Dr Moreau”. Awesome!

Megan Bogonovich’s work has been featured on Martha Stewart Weddings, Design Sponge, as well as Style Me Pretty

Check them out on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/melabo

Check out artist’s website: http://www.meganbogonovich.com

I think that’s enough for one blog entry. Stay tuned for a part 2!

Now, there have been a good handful of couples – at LEAST – who have attempted their own versions of Judson’s act as part of their receptions. This morning, I watched what may just be the BEST version done yet!

Check out the video from Jackie and Nick’s July 30th wedding, via Fine Line Weddings in Pennsylvania:

Doing the running man, to “Ice Ice Baby” – IN A WEDDING GOWN – FTW!

My only criticism? No Cotton Eyed Joe. Seriously. The world needs more Cotton Eyed Joe!

Congrats, Jackie & Nick! You guys were awesome, and you look like you’ll have a fun life together!

Enough about me, my crazy schedule, and excuses for shirking my blog responsibilities. I have something to post about! It’s geeky, wedding related, AND pretty – that’s pretty much the trifecta of awesomeness around these parts, right? Oh, also reasonably priced and FUN – a quintrifecta? I dunno.

Either way, it’s Twitter that’s responsible for the subject matter of this blog. FSM, how I love Twitter! Always hear about the coolest stuff there, probably because I follow – and am followed by – some of the coolest people ever. Love it!

This is Surly Amy… who is a geektacular artist located in Hollywood, California. You see what she’s about to pack in that gift box? Custom jewelry! Not any of that boring, fairly nondescript beaded jewelry that you see pretty much everywhere these days (which, I admit, can be fun to make… I do it myself from time to time!)… NO! It’s custom sculpted/cut/carved/painted ceramic jewelry! Awesome! Unique is ALWAYS cool in my books.. but when it’s technically well done, artistic, AND with a nerdy bent? Just awesome. Amy’s business, Surly-ramics, is a purveyor of all of that.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing friends post pics of Amy’s work – she’s obviously a gifted artist – but I REALLY fell in love when someone linked to her Trilobite pendant. Seriously. Is this not the coolest thing a girl could ever wear around her neck, or what? Well, I certainly think so, anyway!

“Wedding related?”, you may ask… well, yes. I totally would have worn this at my own wedding (We got married at the Science Museum!), and it would have been the perfect accessory. Knowing my bridesmaids, I know that they would have flipped out if I’d given Surlies as bridesmaid gifts.

Because the jewelry is all highly customized, Surly Amy can do any design, in any color/colors (wedding colors!), even add a wedding date etched into the back of each piece! Seriously.Amy, consider yourself added to my “If my husband ever agrees to do the WHOLE THING over again” file!

Here are some more photos of a wedding set that Amy designed – the wedding theme was “Black Eyed Susans”. I love that not only did this design fit SO well with the wedding look (and photography style!), but they could be worn with formal (wedding!) or casual outfits.. and SO freaking cute!

Aside from wedding party gifts / accessories, or even bridal jewelry (again, I would have been ALL over that, had I known about her at the time!).. I think these would make great shower gifts, be a neat favor for bachelorette parties… and apparently Amy’s even done a wedding where ALL of the guests got Surlies as favors! Take THAT, Jordan Almonds! Wanna get some Surlies of your own? Here’s how to get ahold of Amy: Main website: http://surlyramics.com Etsy website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/surly Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1653711616 Surly Amy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SurlyAmy

From time to time, I blog about stuff that I find cool. It may be what someone did for their Save the Date, it may be a cool product, or an awesomely talented artist. I don’t get asked for those blog entries, I don’t get paid for them. I just blog it because I find it cool, and – assuming you find *me* interesting enough to read my blog – I figure you’ll find it cool too! “Birds of a Feather” and all…

Alex, the ridiculously gifted artist behind The Pumpkin Geek is one of those insanely talented people I tend to “meet” on Twitter. I can’t remember how I came to follow him, but once I saw his work, I was an immediate fan! If you haven’t seen what he does, be sure to peruse his site – he carves the most intricate, geeky Jack o’Lanterns ever! They’re all from fake pumpkins, so you can treasure the art indefinitely!

Where I’m usually lucky to receive a “hey, thanks!” email (which I totally appreciate!), Alex shocked the SHIT out of me by mailing me a custom carved mini pumpkin – featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine – to thank me for the blog!

If you know me at all, you know that I shrieked like a little girl when I found out. I have a big crazy thing for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Not so much a crush as.. hrm. I don’t know. I find the character oddly relatable in some ways, and inspiring in other ways. That, and seriously.. I’d kill for Hugh Jackman’s delts. I have a BIG poster of him downstairs in my gym for exactly that reason!

Alex asked for my mailing address, to send me postcards and business cards. Given how much I fangirlled out about his work, I didn’t think anything of it. He wasn’t able to keep up the ruse for long, though, and ended up spilling the beans – he’d carved me a mini, 5″ pumpkin, and needed my mailing address for THAT reason.

Well, I don’t think I’ve been so excited to go to the post office in my life.

I make my morning mail runs about an hour before the “we will have all of the mail sorted to the boxes” time. When there was nothing in my box the day I THOUGHT it would be in, I went ahead and took my parcels to the counter to ship, feeling a bit disappointed. Asked if I could bug them to check if there were any parcels back there for me. Here’s how that went down:

USPS Guy: “Oh, are you expecting for something in the mail?”
Me: “YES!!”
USPS guy smiles, goes to the back, comes out with a box
Me: Shrieked, clasped my hands over my mouth, literally did a happy dance, and generally looked like a goof.
USPS guy, looking at the box as he hands it to me
“WHO is “The Pumpkin Geek”?”
Me: “OMG LET ME SHOW YOU!!”

So he got out a box cutter and was nice enough to open the box for me, while I was giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. He passed the box to me, and I gingerly dug out the packing peanuts, etc, fishing out my cute little mini pumpkin.

USPS Guy: “What is THAT?”
Me: “OMG it’s Hugh Jackman!!! As WOLVERINE!!!! AWESOME!!!”

To be fair, looking at the unlit pumpkin, you really can’t tell WHAT it is. I knew exactly what the picture had looked like, and even I was having a hard time seeing it. Alex carves the pumpkins at multiple levels of depth, so while I was seeing “uncut” solid color (textured), and space.. it didn’t look like much.

So, we had to plug it in. I love my USPS guys, they’re always so nice and accommodating. This one offered to find an outlet to check this out.

There was one on the wall behind the counter, so he plugged it in, and OMG. It was awesome. We all – the USPS guys, me, and a few other customers – had to stand back and ooh and ahh over it a bit. The lighting (supplied with the pumpkin), REALLY brought the whole thing to life. Here is my carve, lit up:

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?

The thing that gets me… and this is coming from someone completely incapable of carving a decent looking Halloween pumpkin (triangle eyes and crooked zig zag smiles all the way!)… is HOW does he do it? I mean, when you’re carving a normal pumpkin, carving all the way through, you see what’s happening as you go. Just look at a close up of the detail in this:

I mean, seeing the lit up pumpkin is awe inspiring enough as it is… but then you realize he’s got to be pretty much flying blind as he carves it! I know my ability to visualize things is more developed than most, but this just blows me away. Completely. Absolutely sick amount of talent, this guy has!

The other day, he put out a request for pics of fans with their carves. As you may know, I *hate* getting my pic taken. I’ve turned down interview requests over it, I pretty much only trust my husband and Katrina from Studio Laguna Photography with it, and even then, I pretty much only allow a camera in my face.. maybe 3-4x per year. Yeah.

Well, I’m so thrilled with the unexpected gift, I did the honorable thing, sucked up my pride, and let my husband photograph my ugly mug with the pumpkin. Least I could do, this was awesome. Completely awesome. Never seen anything like this in my life, and I have it prominently displayed in my office now.

But I couldn’t resist photoshopping in some claws.

If you’re looking for a custom carved Pumpkin, Alex can do *anything*, and offers them at a much lower price than I would have imagined possible – they start at $100! I know he has a special going for the next couple weeks, be sure to get ahold of him if you’re interested!

You know, I try to keep these blogs at least tangentially related to weddings, so…

These would make AWESOME wedding gifts for your favorite geeky couple. If they’re not as camera phobic as I am, maybe have their engagement portrait carved for them? Otherwise, an “Enterprise” pumpkin, their favorite sci fi characters – he’s even done a carve of House! – would definitely be a stand out gift. I’d almost guarantee that a custom pumpkin carve would pretty much be re-gift proof!

A few months ago, I started a collaboration with one of my twitter buds, @RBKCreations, who makes the most amazing bouquets out of felt, fabric, and buttons! I’m a huge fan of incorporating fun, unique touches in weddings, really personalizing them – and these bouquets really speak to me. Well, more like scream “WANT!!!” to me . Absolutely adore her work.

The fruits of that venture will be blogged about in the next month or two. Her bouquets are such a unique art, I can’t resist giving you guys a sneak peek!

Of course, as we haven’t had our photo shoot yet, that means using someone else’s photos. What a happy coincidence – one of my favorite industry friends, @awesomebrandi, is a Texas based photographer that has worked with RBKCreations! All of the photos on this blog entry are courtesy of Brandi Thompson Photography.

Ariela (the bouquet art goddess!) and Brandi are both hilarious, intelligent, and wickedly talented. They’re definitely a couple of my tweeps that have made me curse distance, I’d love the chance to work with them in person! This will have to do for now, though.

Aren’t they amazing? I’ve never seen anything like them, and LOVE it! For the right bride / wedding, I think they’d make an amazing statement! Also love the permanence of them, always great to be able to cherish your wedding bouquet forever!

Ariela ships her bouquets pretty much anywhere. I’ve received two, and they arrived beautifully! In addition to following her on Twitter, you can also check out her site, Here, and shop online at her Etsy store, Here.

Brandi is based in Plano Texas. In addition to her Twitter feed, you can follow her work on her blog, Here, or check out her website Here. Be forewarned: One of her most recent blog entries was about a photo shoot at a kitten rescue, and it’ll almost certainly give you “baby” fever! So freaking adorable!

SO much talent, the both of them!

]]> http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2010/05/04/far-flung-awesomeness-of-the-floral-photography-varieties/feed/ 2