Wedding Inspiration {Pink & Yellow}

We looked at pink and yellow interiors yesterday, and today, we're looking at this cheerful and feminine palette translated into an oh-so-perfect for spring wedding (while welcoming back the long absent inspiration board!)



Goldmeyer Hot Springs 2 Day Hike; Dinner Menu: Sour Cream Cheese Puffs, Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti and a Heath Bar Pound Cake

7 of us started hiking towards Goldmeyer Hot spring in Washington state this past Saturday for a 2 day hike. 1 of the hikers was only hiking part way for the day hike only. Our plan for the hike started out as 5 miles in, set up camp, soak in the natural hot springs, make dinner, play cards and talk, wake up the next morning, re-soak in the hot springs, pack up camp and hike back 5 miles to the vehicles.

Funny how life and nature have a way of their own!A 5 mile section of the road was closed due to road wash-outs just before the hiking trail began. We did not know this since the closure was not posted. Second, if following the closed road all the way to the Goldmeyer Hot springs site, the hike would have been an additional 5 miles. Well, this is a hike and we felt the road would not be as scenic as the trail. Come to find out, again not posted, the trail was about 10 miles long (alone) and washed out by previous ragging rivers from floods in the past! What was suppose to be a leisurely 5 hour hike turned into a 8 hour hike Saturday. The weather WAS perfect for hiking and our scenery provided by nature could not have been any more gorgeous but many of us were carrying a 40 to 45 pound backpack for the first time along with conquering boulders, fallen old growth trees and slippery rivers that had washed through the path. Some of us carried hiking poles; I did not and now know better!We all stayed in good humor and worked to keep each other's focus positive and happy. Our bodies were beyond fatigued but what we saw in our surroundings was awe-inspiring and memories I will keep with me forever! Some of the downed timbers we had to either climb over, under or around were gigantic monuments to nature. Even though we were all grumbling towards the end for each new tree we had to maneuver because of aching muscles, we never lost track of the beauty we were surrounded by.
Some of our bridges were chipped out of these old, amazing trees.When we finally "did" arrive towards the end of our 1st day of hiking (amazing how we all gained our third or fourth wind at this point) we had to scale 3 logs. Where each log ended, the next one began for us to balance on while crossing a river bed.By now, it is evening. We started driving towards our hike at 6:45 in the morning, arrived at a carpool junction by 7:45, started out as a combined group in several cars and arrived at our hiking destination by 9:30 and actually started hiking by 10 a.m. When we arrived at the hot springs, we were look at around 6:15 p.m. All of us pitched together and set up camp first. Then, after checking in, made the last 1/4 mile hike up a steep hillside to get to the hot springs. Without our backpacks, we must have flew up the hill because I honestly do not remember struggling to get to our destination: Sitting in pools of hot water to soak our sorry muscles. The pools were a little smaller then I thought they were going to be but all 3 pools were etched in the rock with one pool actually in a cave setting.The pools are hard to see here but I was getting to tired to take pictures, sorry. Below is the changing area.Next to where we were soaking, there was a steep river/waterfall with huge boulders along the river path and loud, rushing water. This picture is way at the top and to the side of the river. Back at camp on Sunday, we had endured rain overnight and all our belongings were wet. Carrying everything back meant another heavy load because of being soaked. We may have done this hike a little to early in the year.We were not allowed to have a campfire and the only way to cook was by propane heat. Needless to say, Sunday, all of us were pretty cold until we started out hike home. I would also like to add that none of the group had any problem hiking the road back to our vehicles. We still had a 5 hour hike in the pouring rain with our sore muscles lugging heavy backpacks but we knew we were headed HOME! The adventure was amazing and even though we learned what endurance truly was for each of us personally, I still believe we were all happy that we made this trip.
DINNER:
Dinner menus are what help me stay organized in the kitchen. I try to make my menus out the week ahead but leave myself open to try something else if the mood strikes. The mood strikes quite often, which is okay because I just keep my meals in the list and make them as I get to them.
Dinner:
Appetizers
~ Sour Cream Cheese Puffs
Main Course
~ Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti tossed in minced Garlic and Sweet,Fruity Olive Oil
Tomato and Onion Salad
French Garlic Bread
Dessert
~ Heath Bar Pound Cake
Sour Cream Cheese Puffs

1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese,softened
1 c sour cream
1/3 c finely chopped sweet red pepper
1/4 c finely chopped onion
2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tubes (12 oz.ea.) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/4 c minced fresh cilantro
Directions:
In a small bowl,beat cream cheese,sour cream,red pepper,onion,lemon juice,dill and pepper till blended.
Cut each biscuit in half horizontally;press into greased miniature muffin cups. Place rounded Tbs. of cream cheese mixture in each cup.
Bake at 375 for 14-16 mins. or till golden brown.Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve warm.
Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti tossed in minced Garlic and Sweet, Fruit Olive Oil
Spicy Shrimp:
2 pounds jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (a couple of handfuls)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
Coarse salt, about 1 teaspoon
2 tablespoons (a couple of generous drizzles) extra-virgin olive oil
Aglio Olio:
1/4 cup (4 turns around the pan in a light stream) extra-virgin olive oil
1 (2-ounce) tin anchovy fillets
6 to 8 large cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
Coarse salt
1 pound spaghetti, cooked to al dente
Directions:
Combine shrimp with next 6 ingredients and toss to coat shrimp evenly.
Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium high heat, then add half of the shrimp. Cook shrimp 3 minutes until pink and just firm. Remove shrimp to a warm platter and repeat process with remaining shrimp.
Return pan to heat and reduce heat to medium low. Add 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. Add anchovies, garlic, and pepper flakes to oil. Break up anchovies with a wooden spoon until they melt away into the oil and garlic mixture.
Toss spaghetti in the pan with parsley and the garlic oil, then season with a little coarse salt, to your taste. Top servings of garlic and oil spaghetti with spicy shrimp and serve with Tomato and Onion Salad and Crusty Bread.
Cook's Notes: Prepare the shrimp while the pasta is cooking.
Prep your garlic and parsley for aglio olio and set them, as well as drained pasta and remaining ingredients all within arm's reach of your stove top.
The aroma will be intense! Cooked anchovies have a salted-nutty (rather than fishy) taste that compliments the garlic as it sweetens and softens.

Tomato and Onion Salad
Ingredients:
5 medium plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, gently seeded, and thinly sliced
1 small white skinned onion, peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (a couple of handfuls)
A generous drizzle extra-virgin olive oil, about 2 tablespoons
Coarse salt and black pepper
Directions:
Toss the tomatoes and onions with the chopped parsley, oil, salt, and pepper. Let stand while you prepare dinner, about 20 minutes. Re-toss and serve salad with crusty bread for mopping up juices and oil.
Heath Bar Pound Cake
Note: This recipe is delicious but I forgot to take pictures and I feel just terrible about it. I will have to bake this again and come back to post the pictures =o)~!
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
4 oz. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 heath bar-ground in food processor or blender
¼ cup light brown sugar
Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix butter, cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla; stir together. Add flour; mix well. Combine ground heath bar with brown sugar. Grease glass loaf dish with butter; coat bottom and sides with sugar mixture. Pour batter into loaf dish; sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture. Bake in preheated 300 degree oven one hour to one hour and ten minutes until knife "just" comes out clean.

♥ Red Hair & FOTD ♥

♥
trying on my Red hair wig.
it's super long & wavy. loves itttt!! the red hair is soo bright but you probably can't really see it bcaz of the bad lightings. ~~
this posts will be about my randomness. lol. ^^
I don't really think this counts as FOTD though caz I don't really wear make up in this pics. lol~~ 
just some eyeliners & stand out circle lenses. hehee..




webcam timee^^


now, I gotta go do my assignments & memorize my lines for the debates & study for the oral exam I will be having next week.
pls wish me a very good luck!!^^ :]

love.love ♥♥

♥ Award & I won both Giveaway from Ruby Rouge Jewelry & Chewlry Jewelry ♥

♥
such a beautiful great day for me.
first of all I'd like to say HUGEEE thanks for all of you that have been reading my posts & actually show some love by giving comments!
it means a lot to mee^^ so thanks!


also HUGEE thanks too all of my followers. new & old one, you guys are the coolest!^^
thankss so much for sharing some love!
as for the new followers, I'm sorry if I didn't followed you back yet but I promise I'll get around to it asap.
as like, seconds after I post this blog^^


I also would like to share some good great news!!
I have been notified that I won 2 f the great great fab giveaways!!


first, is from the Ruby Rouge Jewelry Giveaway 
I won this fabb 'Birdy On The Branch Necklace' piece..
pls check out her Etsy shop to see more of her fabb jewelry design! >> Link.


so this is my gift~~^^ cuteee huh?! heck yeah it is!! 


here are some more of her other fab design~~
loving this Alice in Wonderland inspire key necklace. it says 'drink me' too! how pretty!!

this one is my absolute fav, the 'Gold Tree Necklace with Pink Rose'

thanks again to Sarah (the owner)^^ looking forward for the necklace to arrives!! soo excitedd!!

----

second giveaway that I won is from the Chewlry Jewelry Giveaway
the giveaway was arranged on Fire and Ice blog. go check out this blog too if you haven't already they're bunchss of giveaways there!!^^
I won the Chain Gang Necklace which are, like.. one of the coolest necklace ever~~
pls go check her Etsy shop to see moree design of the pretty jewelries~~ >> Link.

soo, this is what I won. such a cool necklace huhhh! of course^^

& here are some of the other pretty things from her Etsy shop~
 the 'Simplement Paris Necklace'.. ohh so chic & fabs of the Eiffel Tower charm!

 now, this one is my fav.. the 'Belly Up Necklace'. soo cutee, look at the skulls!^^

I'd like to say huge thanks for Chewlry & Fire and Ice that makes this possible. soo happy^^ will be waiting till they arrives~

----
then, still good news, I got 2 award!!

first, is from the pretty Vanessa~
thanks soo muchhh yyahh~~ you're soo sweet for tagging me this..
it's the 'Sweet Blog Award'. aww we're all sweet afteral!!^^


The Meaning :
Sweet Blog Award is an award for blog or web which you think so friendly and make you enjoy to visit it often.
Homework for Dearest Friends :
Make a post about this award, the picture, the one who gave you, including his or her link. Send this award to 10 of your friends. Don't forget to visit them and tell them about this award. Copy this post from 'start copy from here' until 'end here'.


okk, so I'm definetely tagging this 10 sweet blogs~ hehee.. & anybody else who wants to take it-- pls take it!! you know you deserve it..

1. Makeupgeisha (lani)
10.  Joanna
----
then the 2nd award would be the 2nd time I got it too~~ but anyway I'm still excited to have been tagged for it. hehee~
it's from Makeup by Kaylena.
she's soo pretty, check out her blog to see beauty tips^^ thanks for tagging me this, Kaylena!~~




it's the I ♥ Your Blog Award. I'm tagging this to anybody who think they deserve itt~~ go aheadd it's youu!! ^^


soo that's it updates for today. thanks for readingg^^

love.love ♥♥

Dish With Trish

Flood Watch:

It's so weird how things happen sometimes...I am having my hardwood floors refinished at my house which is very exciting. We recently decided that we had to have the ceilings done because they were all peeling and then we thought maybe we should paint the walls too and then it became obvious that while we had already cleared all the furniture we should just go ahead and do the floors too. Awesome.

So while they do the floors and then they dry we had to be out of the house for the week. We went to stay for the week at the Marriott in Warwick near the airport, glamorous -no, functional -yes! Meanwhile the rain continued all day yesterday and things were flooding like crazy.

We looked out the hotel window last night and realized that they had closed the road to the airport and route 95! it was so quiet! and actually really creepy. My husband referenced the book The World Without Us and some Armageddon type things, not comforting.

When we woke up this morning we realized that 95 was still closed going both ways and that all of the traffic traveling south was being diverted right through where we were staying and that it was going to take forever to get up to Providence and that getting back to the hotel in the evening was going to be near impossible...turns out that we were basically staying in the hardest hit area, so now we are booked at the Hampton Inn far from the major flooding! But I know that there are so many people who have had to evacuate their homes and have lost so much, so I feel very fortunate that I only had this crazy story to tell...

This is the view from the parking lot right outside our room, well maybe it is a little glamorous...This is what they call the airport connector, this road goes to and from the airport and exits off route 95! You can see a little bit of the guard rail sticking out, this is on the side of the road, there is another set of guard rails in the center of the road too and they are completely under water! I wonder how long this will take to drain out???

A reporter said on the news last night "history is happening now" which I thought was hysterical and I will say it as much as possible from now on. But it inspired me to make this little vintage panorama to depict the 'history' of the flood of 2010, worse than any other flood in over 100 years, maybe more.

This is another view from the other side of the hotel that shows route 95 totally under water as well. Both north and south lanes travel under the little bridge shown here. In front of the geese is an on ramp and beyond them in the 95 south lanes, then you see the jersey barrier and the north lanes are under the sign. Nuts!!!

(BTW photos are from my point and shoot camera, and this is exactly the reason I always have a little camera in my purse, you never know! now I don't have to wish I got a shot of the highway that time it was flooded and I was there to see it...)

Oooh, so pretty

I just saw this lovely photo over at the image is found blog. The shoot was done at Joshua Tree National Park and was styled by the amazing Angel at Love and Splendor. It highlights the 5 different looks Angel created for the photographers and number 1 and 5 are wearing Twigs & Honey headbands. Yay! The fifth headband was also featured in the current Portland Bride & Groom Magazine. Here is a link to the full size picture HERE.



Close-up




photo credits: the image is found
styling: Angel at Love and Splendor

Sneak Peek of a new Wags n' Whiskers release!!!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Hope you're having a fabulous week! Today is day #1 for sneak peeks of the new Wags n' Whiskers release! The stamps will be available for puchase on Friday and we're having a fun blog hop to showcase all the new images. The new release contains eight fun sports themed stamps from our fabulous artist Cris de Lara!! Today I used this adorable little guy called Slam Dunk! Isn't he just too cute? He's colored with Copic markers. The large circle mat and the stars were cut with my Cricut and the papers are from Nitwits. Please visit my Diva sisters to see their sneak peeks for today! They are all so talented and you are in for a real treat!! See you tomorrow with sneak peek #2!!

Nikki, Lacey, Chris, Michele, Karen, Tina, Christa, Bree, and Debbie

Dorm Room



As much as I do love the look of a gorgeous bunk room, I have found that bunk beds really are such a pain to make. Lately I have been preferring the look of a large dorm room with rows of single beds like the picture above. I love the lidded basket placed at the end of each bed - perfect for storing each person's clothes in. I personally would be much happier making these beds instead of numerous bunk beds.


image - cote maison via aged & gilded

I have no idea what to call this, but I like it . . . Works For Me Wednesday

I'm thinking of just re-titling this..."Longest Blog Post Title in History."

Anyhoo...I wanted to show you guys this handy-dandy measuring cup that works for me.


{Photo Credit: pamperedchef.com}

Why? Fill one end and it's perfect for liquids. Flip it and the other side is perfect for measuring solid, semi-solid and sticky stuff.


You know that stuff that is hard to measure....shortening, peanut butter, honey. Just fill it to the amount you need and just push it right out. Voila!

See...


Mine is from Pampered Chef...no, I don't sell PC, but I have seen them other places. Sur La Table carries a mini version! I still really don't know what to call it. A flip-able, measuring cup pusher-outer thingy. There...that's it.


{On a side note, any recipe that has both butter AND Crisco is good in my book. I'll share this with you later.}

Go on and check out the other Works For Me Wednesday tips at We Are THAT Family.

You can find Bake at 350's WFMW archives here. Next week's edition is "greatest hits."
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