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Signs Around Town

May 6, 2014 by Mariah 15 Comments

I’m back on board with the Creative Collective, for this week’s theme “Hunting For Photos”. This theme could not have come at a better time, as I’m trying to learn how to use my new camera. We had a gorgeous weekend here in NC, sunny, (so sunny) and warm! P and I were out and about for most of it. Saturday morning we went to Durham to visit the farmers market, I finally got to try Monuts (which made the 21 best donuts in the US list from the Huffington Post), had lunch, and then came home and took Sam to one of our neighborhood breweries. It was a great weekend!

I have a thing for signs…I’m just a sucker for a neat logo. So, I went hunting for signs/designs around town 🙂

Accessorize: Top 5 Camera Bag & Strap Picks

April 22, 2014 by Mariah 9 Comments

I mentioned Sunday, I got a grown-up, big girl, real blogging DSLR camera this past week (I might be a bit excited). I debated for quite a long time over what model to go with and finally settled on the Canon SL1. This is Canon’s lightest and most compact DSLR. My primary goal with getting the new camera is for better pictures while traveling. I wanted something that would not be a pain to take along with me…everywhere 🙂 If I really get into photography and find limitations in this model than I can always go with a bigger/badder DSLR, and I will still have the versatility of the smaller one for travel.

Now that I have the camera, I need the accessories to go with it, and no I’m not talking lens (yet!). I’m talking about safety and style. I’ve been scouring the internet all weekend to get my new toy travel ready and wanted to share with you. Here are my top five picks I found for camera straps and bags:

Camera Straps

1- RSVP Handcrafted~Leather Strap $40-45 ⋅ 2- Couch~Multi-color Cats $36 ⋅ 3- Fotostrap~Scarlet $85 ⋅ 4- Capturing Couture~Peruvian Garden $79 ⋅ 5- Mgcamerastraps~Navy, Sky Blue Webbing $39

Camera Bags

1- Capturing Couture~Penelope Pear Camera Bag $149 ⋅ 2-Epiphanie~Turquoise Ginger $165 ⋅ 3- Cheeky Lime~Ava Green $85 ⋅ 4-Ketti Handbags~Tulip Camera Bag $149 (reg $210) ⋅ 5- Porteengear~Leather Camera Bag with Blue Tartan $140

Stay tuned for a future post to see which ones I went with…I’ve already placed my orders 🙂

Here are a few other traveling with your camera posts I’ve seen recently:

Esther & Jacob have a post on choosing a travel backpack that does it all (camera & laptop)

Megan Joy Jaunts shared what she never travels without for her camera

Speaking of Megan Joy Jaunts, I won my first ever giveaway from Megan last week and I’m super excited to be hanging out on her sidebar as part of my prize! Make sure to check out the new ad design I’m trying out.

Design Side Note: It was f-ing hard to figuring out how to put these collages together…I spent way too much time on it.

Pinterest, Oh Pinterest

March 31, 2014 by Mariah 17 Comments

I’m slightly obsessed with Pinterest. As with, most social media I was a late adopter, but boy oh boy it did not take me long to fall in love. It jump started my journey into clean eating, cleaning up my beauty products, and starting this blog. I love that it provides a place to easily store all those recipes you might try, places you might go, and DIYs you might make. I’m a bit pin crazy. I’m going to let you in on a little secret…I have about 3,000 pins on my personal board. That is the main reason I started a separate account for the blog because: a. I have too many pins and don’t plan on stopping 😉 b. I don’t want to overwhelm my blog followers with random pins and it is a bit embarrassing. I pin while we watch TV, it is hard for me to just sit there and only watch tv…it gives me a little something to do that does not require too much brain activity.

At least half of my personal pins are food related. Most of the meals we cook are new recipes. Every Sunday I share on the blog the meals we have cooked that week. Since I started this blog, I’ve shared 82 pins on my Food Board, at least 70 of these are new meals for us, probably more. I use Pinterest exclusively to plan our meals. I have a secret board labeled “meals this week” and pin the meals we are planning for that week, then at the end of the week I delete those pins and start over. This makes it easy to find the meals we are cooking without having to scroll back through all the pins on various boards.

I’m planning on increasing the boards for Food, Booze, & Baggage by adding boards about blogging and photography. Currently, I have these on my personal account as secret, but I want to start sharing tutorials and articles I’ve found helpful with building this blog and learning photography. It is a bit silly not to share with you guys. You have been warned, I’m stepping up my pinning game!

Ok, so why am I babbling on about Pinterest? Well, to introduce the 6th prompt of the Nectar Collective (of course), “When Pinterest Comes to Life”-where Melyssa challenges us to make something we have pinned.

I chose to do something that is on my 101 in 1001 list: # 83~Make Peanut Butter. Ok, guys this is stupid simple….all you do is dump the peanuts in the food processor, hit on, and watch the magic happen. I have a particular purpose for my peanut butter so I did add sweetener but next time I’m trying some honey. Clean-up was easy enough and this gave me a reason to use my new green mason jar. I only used 2 cups of peanuts which gave me about half a pint sized jar, so 4 cups should give you close to a full pint. I like to read several recipes when attempting something new, and then decide which one sounds best. Below are the ones I read before making my peanut butter.

Confessions of a Bright-eyed Baker: DIY Peanut Butter

Serious Eats: DIY Simple Peanut Butter

Aggies Do It Better: Make Your Own Peanut Butter

Make sure to visit the Nectar Collective Wednesday to add more lovely pins to your DIY boards! Better step-up your pinning game, you don’t want me to be out pinning you. Competitive pinning it’s a thing right? Competing for Queen Pinner, Gold Medal in Pinning or what about this….

I wish I could claim credit for this, but no….found it on Pinterest 🙂

South Street G&T

March 17, 2014 by Mariah 10 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In celebration, I’m creating my own cocktail, the South Street G&T: Rosemary Grapefruit Gin & Tonic. It may not be green but it is still mighty tasty. So, pick up a drink and join me in this Irish toast:

2 oz Gin
1 tbsp Grapefruit Rosemary simple syrup
2 tbsp fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
1 tbsp Jack Rudy Tonic (or other tonic syrup-see note)
4 oz (8 tbsp) soda water or to fill glass
1 sprig rosemary

Grapefruit Rosemary Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Zest from 1 Grapefruit (preferably organic)
1 sprig of rosemary

Combine water and sugar, bring to boil and remove from heat
Add zest from one grapefruit, twisting zest before adding to release oils
Steep for about 20 minutes, add one sprig of rosemary for about 2 to 3 minutes
Remove sprig and zest
Pour syrup into container, let cool, and refrigerate any unused portion

Notes: The Jack Rudy Tonic is not the same as tonic water, it is not carbonated and is basically a concentrate. For alternatives look for tonic syrup. I used a vegetable peeler for the zest to make it easy to remove from the syrup, if you use a zester you will need to strain the syrup. The syrup should be fairly cool after steeping, but you may need to let it sit or put it in the refrigerator for another 20 minutes- you don’t want it to be too warm or you will melt all of your ice. I used Cardinal Gin, which is a North Carolina brand but Hendricks would be a good option too.

Fill a glass with ice, pour in above ingredients, stir, and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

This post is the 5th prompt for the Creative Collective, check out Melyssa’s page on Wednesday to find more deliciously creative concoctions.

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