Rolling Pin Productions

It's no secret that I love cookies. I love cookies with tea, I love cookies not with tea. I love big cookies, little cookies. I love all the cookies. But, I especially love cookies as wedding favours. My Mom (I love my Mom!) and I baked over a thousand cookies for our wedding guests and they were very, very well received/gobbled up/munched on/stolen from other guests. I loved giving out home made favours but I'm certainly not against buying them. And certainly not from a wonderful and creative cookie artist like Rolling Pin Productions.

Adorable Ketchup

Who would ever describe a condiment as "cute"? Well, Heinz Ketchup is turning 130 years old and to mark the occasion they’re offering consumers the chance to customize their own labels. How cute would these be for a party favour!?! Is your groom a ketchup fanatic? Or perhaps you’re throwing a picnic or barbeque for your rehearsal dinner. There are so many possibilities. The characters are limited of course but you could add a tag that says, “Glad you were able to ketchup with us on our special day” or, “Spread the love”. So cheesy, so fun. Go to My Heinz.

A Perfect Proposal

The "Animated" Invitation

This has to be one of the most creative and ingenious invitations I've ever seen.

Props To Orange Girl

Orange Girl Photographs is an absolute visual and ingenious delight. Kirstie Tweed is a photographer living and working in and around Banff; I think her packages include Calgary, Kananaskis and Canmore too. Her photos are beautifully composed and really capture the emotion of her subjects. I’m thinking that her personality has a lot to do with bringing out the fun in people. When I read her blog and spilled over her artsy self portraiture it made me want to meet this woman – I can’t imagine that she’s anything but pure charm.

The thing that impressed me the most (besides her incredible talent) is the utter thoughtfulness she extends to her engagement shoots. In the pictures below you’ll see the use of props in her photos to bring to life the personality and individuality of her couples. She made the pink flower heart to accentuate a Valentine’s engagement shoot – she chose pink as it was the couples wedding colour. The beautiful chair on the dock was made by the groom – Kirstie noticed it in the couples home and asked them to bring it along for their Banff shoot. She even had the t-shirts made for “Trish and Mike” – she did, not them. Talk about going above and beyond. I don’t know the story behind the rest of the pictures but her use of props is fabulous. Props to you Kirstie. I’m hoping we’ll work together some day.

Check out her blog too: Orange Girl's Blog

Anniversary One

I'm a few days late but about one year ago, on Saturday, August 12th, Andy and I were married.

Planning our wedding and getting married made 2006 the best year of my life. Absolutely. I loved every minute of it. And, I’m still in a bit of a post-nuptial, non-crafty, creativity stunted depression. Which is one of the reasons I started this blog. As I wander around and visit all the wedding related blogs out there I could just kick myself for not blogging our wedding. If only I had known. Ah well… no regrets, moving on, moving forward…

But, I just might take a peek at the past now and then - it was so pretty after all...







{photos credited to the fabulous Anton Photo Group}

Happy Anniversary Babe.

Paper TearDrop

I just tripped over this stationary company based out of Toronto, TearDrop Weddings by Holly Hatam. Her custom work is imaginative and unique – adorably fantastic. I’m really impressed by her new and whimsical expressions of love on the invitations,... “we give each other butterflies”, “nuts for each other”, and my personal favourite, “we’re hot for each other”. So if you believe your wedding should have a side of sweet and contemporary, you may want to trip on over.

http://www.teardropweddings.com/

I Love :: Cookies ::

I made cookies today. Big fat, fluffy, chewy, choc-full-a-chocolate cookies. My Guy is enjoying a manly-man weekend as one of his Best Men ("Best Man Bob") is visiting from Montreal for the weekend. I decided that I needed to fill the house full of man-food and, well, the boys love their cookies.

I tried a new recipe, although, I'm not sure why as I have at least two other kick-ass chocolate chip cookie recipes, one of which is my Mom's. Why is it that even though we have the tried and true favourite recipe - we still endeavour to find something better? Why the search for something new when the traditional favourite is pretty much perfection. Hmmmm... anyway...

Here's the recipe I used, it's nice and simple, and I do like that it makes big cookies.

Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, almost melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk

2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1 large, rounded tablespoon at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted (definitely don’t overcook them or they won’t be chewy). Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Pour yourself a glass of really, really cold milk, put your feet up and enjoy. Mmmmm.....cookies.