We've Moved!

(Source)

Come visit us at our new home! Just go directly to our blog and you will be automatically redirected. Hope to see you there.

It's a Penguin Life

I've been working on a new blog URL and potentially a new name for quite awhile now. I know, I haven't even started the wedding recaps and I'm already onto another blog (#6, holy what?!?!?). When I started this one, I had hoped to keep it for the rest of eternity, documenting our lives and such. The current name and URL makes total sense. But, I didn't thinking that people outside our friends and family circles would be drawn to it for various things. Hi, blog friends. Please stay!

Anyways, I have become increasing uncomfortable with our last name being in the URL of the blog. It's one thing to sprinkle our first names about, but to include full names just doesn't sit well with me. That's my paranoia shining through. I would link up some examples of other bloggers who have come to the same realization, but I'll refrain for privacy reasons =)

Without further ado, I give you our future blog name...drum roll...It's a Penguin Life. Why? Well, Jake LOVES penguins. And I am an enabler. We Jake has a growing collection of stuffed penguins and they have a tendency to find their way into trouble around the apartment. I have come home to things like this:

please excuse the crappy phone picture.

Yes, that is a penguin holding 17 mylar balloons with a shell lei on it's head. This is only the beginning of how crazy we actually are. So in addition to the regular blog posts, I'll also include some penguin escapades. The new site isn't up yet. I'll keep you posted on when the switch over will happen.  

What do you think of the new name?

Expensive tools need not apply

Forget the tripod I've been hemming and hawing about for well over a year now. I hardly use the one I borrowed from a friend anyways. I should save myself some money and learn to use diffusers and reflectors properly like Aran showed in her food styling course. Check out Taylor in the photo below, what tripod?

via Taylor Takes a Taste 

86 days until my sabbatical. But, I'm not counting.

May 2012

Bah! I meant to have this posted on May 31st, but I totally failed at that didn't I? Well at least it's technically the first full week in June.

My friends and their families have been keeping me busy with cupcake orders the last couple of weeks. I kicked started May with a bridal shower order for 5 dozen cupcakes.

Follow me on Instagram @hungc.

We attended our first wedding of 2012 (we were invited to 4 - at least for now). I don't know about Jake, but I got a huge kick out of seeing the props from the photobooth at our wedding reused.


Congratulations to the newlyweds!



Steampunk Festival 2012! Every year, our town hosts a steampunk festival. I remember wanting to check it out last year, but we must have been out of town or doing something wedding related. It was small, but there was a lot to see. A full day of people watching if you will. There was also an abundance of tiny top hats and goggles! I had to restrain myself from buying a tiny hat that I'll never wear.

Blimp!

I had my first photoshoot! Our friends asked if I would be willing to take 6 month photos of their darling baby girl. Um, YES OF COURSE! I'm still blown away and humbled that they trusted something so precious to me. After spending half a day together, I ended up with 606 photos! We had to stop because I ran out of space on my memory cards. 

The money shot, taken either during a diaper or clothing change (right).

Cross eyed babe! (left)

Baby M and I hanging out during her playtime.

Such a beautiful family! We <3 you!



For the last month, I had been frantically working on a baby blanket that I can FINALLY talk about. Let's start with the inspirations first. This colorful combination used for wedding ceremony decor caught my eye. It was pretty perfect since the mom-to-be was trying to decide between either a grey/yellow or a grey/red scheme for the nursery. The aqua-teal color added a nice punch and was gender neutral enough that I felt it would be safe to run with.



Ceremony decor via Style Me Pretty.

Following mom-to-be on Pinterest was also helpful. I was able to see that she was gravitating towards chevron patterns. So I started looking for a chevron baby blanket pattern and came across this beautiful blanket by Good Knits:

Chevron Baby Blanket by GoodKnits


Put the two together and TA-DA!

Baby Y's blanket! Guess I didn't take any shots of the whole blanket.
Red Heart Soft (red, grey, and aqua) and Vanna's Choice Baby (yellow) resulted in a super soft blanket.

Everything but the Cow:30 day DF and GF challenge

My tummy troubles flared up recently. In other words, I look 5 month preggers and feel like my stomach needs a release valve. I'm not sure if it was brought on by all the French food I ate on our honeymoon or one of the [many] times I slipped up and didn't take my Lactaid or maybe it's something else.

I was inspired by two amazing women and their self control. Amanda went completely grain free for 30 days, never cheating once. Aran works with constantly with food and doesn't even bat an eyelash when it comes to passing up food that contains gluten. It probably helps that her health is dependent on it.

After seeing the two of them in action, I knew that I could do better for my own sake and decided to challenge myself two fold:

• First, I am going completely and absolutely dairy free (DF) for 30 days. I cheat and eat yogurt (yogurts with natural cultures have minimal to no lactose present) or pop a handful of Lactaid and call it good. After 30 days, I will try introducing raw cow milk into my diet. I read somewhere that lactose intolerant individuals have done well with raw milk.
• Secondly, I am going gluten free (GF) also for 30 days. I haven't read Wheat Belly yet, but I think the jist of it is that consumption of today's massed produced grains leads to inflammation. Hmmm, could this be the root cause behind my bloated belly?

Wish me luck.

April 2012

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry for being away so long. I can't thank you enough for your patience!

Whew, what a whirlwind April was:

We finally went on our honeymoon! We spent a week in Bora Bora (Tahiti). It was GLORIOUS. I will have to do an ultra long blog post to tell you all about our adventures getting there, being there, and the trip back. Let's just say, there was never a dull moment.

Rainbow after a rainstorm.

Three days after getting home from our honeymoon, I was back on a plane and headed for Boulder, CO. I spent three days in Boulder at a crafting retreat called The Makerie. Much like Bora Bora, I will have to do a separate posts to tell you all about how it changed my life and introduce you to some new friends I made.

Crafting books galore!

Are you exhausted after reading the previous two paragraphs? Things didn't stop there. After the retreat, I came home and made cupcakes for a baby shower and then jetted off to VT for a surprise bridal shower.

The bride was very surprised.

**All photos by me**

Everything but the Cow:Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Head over to my baking blog, Delightful Cakery, for full details on this super simple and tasty treat.

 Instagram: @hungc

March 2012

It's funny. Looking back, we didn't do much in March, but yet it completely flew by. Advanced apologies for the photos, they're mostly crappy phone pictures.

We got our TV's fixed for FREE. Thank you class action settlement. Turns out our TVs had faulty capacitors. Yes, TV(S). Both of them. Guess that's what you get when you purchase your TVs at the same time. 

First went the 40" (October 2011).

Then the 46" started to go (January 2012).

My friends from back home came to visit. They were actually the first friends to visit and stay in our guest room. (My family doesn't count.) K and I met in college and have been close friends since. K wasn't able to make it to Vegas, and neither her or her husband were able to make it out for the wedding. That and they knew that we'd be super busy and wouldn't be able to spend quality time with them. 

K and D exploring our wedding venue.

The visit was a great way to celebrate K's birthday and give a nod to their 8th wedding anniversary (holy 8 years!). I was able to give them a pretty good New England experience between the Summer Shack and candlepin bowling.

Jake hosted game day for his friends. They busted out a new board game, Twilight Imperium. They lovingly call it "space lions" because there is a lion on the cover. In reality, lions have nothing to do with the game.

Space Lions took up our entire dinner table, with the leaf in place.
Photo shamelessly ripped from our friend A's FB page.

I opted not to participate in "space lions", but decided that I should start on our thnk you cards. I've been procrastinating on them. But I realize the longer I wait, the harder it will be to make myself sit down and work on them. I think my creative juices have moved on from paper products. 

This is how I should enjoyed all that wedding crafting.

Lastly, our honeymoon was in reach! Like, really within reach. Almost exactly a month before we were to board the plane for isolated awesomeness, the travel agency we booked with sent us a package with our itenerary, identification card, and luggage tags.

Yes, I know it's sideways. Yes, I'm too lazy to fix it.

*All photos personal unless noted*

What happened in Vegas, never happened

We have all heard the saying "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." But, a wise cabbie told me, "What happens in Vegas, never happened." So I guess I have nothing to share with you. KIDDING. In fact, there are a couple of mini adventures that I experienced during my epic bachelorette weekend last June that I want to share with you.





My friend C and I went out a day early. Being that we are a) on East coast time and b) early risers, we though thtat an extra day would help get us acclimated before the rest of the girls (mostly West coasters) joined us. [Random side story - the b-party was originally planned for early May to coincide with celebrating not only my 30th, but my maid of honors 30th as well.] Jake made good use of the timing and schemed to arrange my surprise birthday present.

Jake mentioned that he had gotten me a birthday present, but that I could not have it until I was in Vegas. I had no idea what it was. In fact, so much time had passed that I had completely forgotten about it. I had more exciting things in the forefront of my brain, like my first trip to Las Vegas!

Working in cahoots with C and our hotel (Aria), they schemed and kept it all under wraps. C even tried to keep it completely secret until we arrived at our destination.

We were picked up in a limo. Both of us were oddly confused and caught off guard by it. So much so that I did not even notice the sign on the front windshield. The driver mentioned that we had 2 stops to make first. I still had no idea what we were doing...until a few minutes later. We pulled up to another hotel and scooched over to another part of the limo. That's when I caught the sign in the window, "Sundance Helicopters."

WHOOOHOOO we are getting a helicopter ride! Not just any helicopter ride, a ride at sunset over the strip.

You haven't seen Vegas until......you have seen it from a helicopter!

A second adventure I want to share with you is of when I decided to take a photo walk of the strip...at 5 or 6AM! I was amped up after dancing all night and into the early morning. After getting back to the hotel, I decided it would be more fun to take pictures than to sleep. This is probably not one of my brightest moments (especially since I was sick the entire week after), but I have great pictures to show for it.

Sunrise over the strip...look how quiet it is.

Random dude that jumped into my shot. His name was David Nakamura.

Drunk guys who wanted me to chest bump one of them.
I declined, but offered to take pictures of them doing it.
I never did send them the stop motion video of the drunken chest bump.

My try at street photography. I later ran into this guy on the other side
of the strip and we proceeded to talk cameras for a good 15-20 minutes.



Deserted...everyone must be sleeping.



This was my first trip to Vegas. I had a fantastic time and will always treasure the memories and antics we had.


We stayed at:

 • Aria Resort and Casino

Bubbles wall display - Aria

We ate at:

 • Jean Philippe Patisserie - Aria
 • Strip Burger

 • Café Vettro - Aria

 • Social House - CityCenter (O.M.G. incredible sushi)

 • Mon Ami Gabi

 • Wicked Spoon - The Cosmopolitan

 • The Buffet Restaurant - Wynn

Opera Cake - Jean Philippe Patisserie

Red Champagne (hibiscus flower) - Social House

Blueberry French Toast - Mon Ami Gabi

We partied at:

 • Haze Nighclub (eh, not so great, but the girls saw one of the Celtics players while we were there)

 • XS Nighclub (AWESOME, go there. You can dance while standing ankle deep in the pool.)
 • Unmentioned - ask privately and I will tell you ☺

We saw:
 • Sundance Helicopter Tours
 • Hoover Dam


*All photos are personal photos*
**Note to self, post pictures to FB with captions and blog about those photos later**

7 month Anniversary

We've never been anniversary people. What I mean is that we don't celebrate with gifts or even big dinners. It's simply just another day. At least this was true for our dating anniversaries. But I doubt that we will stray far from the past.

Last month was a bit special. David Choi made a stop in Boston on on his 2012 Forever and Ever US/Canada tour. Who's David Choi? He's the genius behind our first dance song. (Sorry, I haven't done our wedding recaps so I haven't talked about it yet.) Here, take a listen:

Our first dance song By My Side; we had our dj slow the tempo down a tad for us.

When I found out that David was coming to Boston, I almost pee'd my pants. No, seriously. I told Jake that he was coming and Jake's response was, "Do I need to buy us tickets?" To which I violently shook my head up and down. I also told Jake that we would be staying late to grab his autograph and maybe a photo. How freaken cool would it be to meet the artist behind your first dance?!?!

March 28th, 2012 was here before we knew it. The concert was at Cafe 939 in Boston. The venue is small, I think they sold out at 200 tickets. Standing room mostly. There are a few couches pushed up against the walls.

Jeff LeBlanc opened for David. Jeff closed his act with Augustana's Boston. Fitting since he was playing in Boston. Random fact: This song was my theme song from 2006-2007.

Headliner Jeff LeBlanc checking the photo he took of the crowd.
(He might have actually been tweeting the photo)

It sucks being short and not being able to see over tall people or people with big hair. Yes, a person with big hair stood in front of me and moved to block my vision each time I moved. Luckily we were standing next to one of the couches and when David came up on stage, I was able to stand on the back of it and lean against the wall for support. Poor Jake didn't have much of a view, but he was content. As he put it, "I'm not a groupie like you."

David Choi playing This and That is Life for his opening song.

I not so secretly hoped that David would play our song. (Ha, I can finally say that we have a song!) I thought it might be a long shot since he was promoting his most recent album, but you never know right? I even posted this on my Facebook wall:

He didn't disappoint. I'm pretty sure that he just closed all his concerts on this tour with By My Side. Either way I'll take it!

David and us!

We stood in line after the concert to meet David along with everyone else. As Jake put it, I was starstruck. I had no idea what to say to David. I swear I threw my CD at him and had him sign it, asked for a photo and then practically ran for the hills. It probably didn't help that I had no idea how to use the camera app on the iPhone. The people in front of us had me take a picture and it took me 3 tries to take a single picture! How freaken embarrassing!! Luckily, Jake was quick on his feet and told David about our first dance so it wasn't too awkward. Just awkward enough.

How's that for excitement?


*All photos taken with point-and-shoot*

It's a ...

Yeah, no. Sorry to dissappoint, but this is not a baby announcement for us. However, it is kind of a baby announcement for our friends over at Young(s) and in Love.

I have been blessed and honored by many firsts with this couple. They allowed me to cultivate my inner Martha Stewart and put their utmost faith in my novice camera skills. Most recently, they asked me to be a part of HUGE moment in their lives.

I can't even begin to tell you how I felt when they asked if I would make gender reveal cupcakes for them and their family!!! I was so excited I almost pee'd my pants. I probably went home like an excited kid telling Jake about it all at a rate of 20 words a second.

So what do you think? Is it a boy or is it a girl?

It's a BOY!!!

Congratulations V and M!!! Thank you for sharing this wonderful moment with me!

You can read all about how I made them here.

February 2012

Top row: 1, 2a, 2b. Middle: 3, 4a, 4b. Bottom: 5a, 5b, 5c.

1. Potluck dinner party. I needed a) an excuse to see our friend D and M so that I could deliver a secret Valentine's Day cupcake order from D's mom, and b) guinea pigs to taste test my latest cupcake recipes. So I had our group of friends over for a last minute potluck dinner. The potluck idea was well received. Think I might try doing ressurecting a dinner club. I tried a once monthly dinner club with Jake's college friends a couple of years, but that fell apart quickly. Pictured: twinkie cupcakes with candy heart.

2. Pompeii exhibit at the Museum of Science. I became obsessed with Pompeii when I was in the second grade. While going through the exhibit, I was in awe at how well preserved some of the artifacts were. My yearning to go to Pompeii and now Herculaneum has only been strengthened. Also, I had forgotten how awesome my point-and-shoot camera does in low light! (flash photography was not allowed). Pictured: preserved fresco and resin cast skeletons.

3. Date night: sushi dinner at Oga's. Pictured: pork belly bun.

4. Pig party! Our friend P threw a pig themed party. He smoked a pork shoulder and 3 types of ribs. Guests were asked to bring sides with extra points for dishes containing some form of pig. I had left my lactaid at home and decided to throw caution to the wind. How much dairy could there be at a pig party? Well, our friend D brought bacon mac n' cheese! I couldn't help myself and just had to eat some. It was amazing; possibly the best mac n' cheese from scratch I've had. But I felt like I had been punch in the stomach over and over the days following. Remind me to NEVER do that to myself again. Pictured: piggy cake (made by another guest) and bacon mac n' cheese.

5. After handing off a very special cupcake order, we explored the main drag in Concord, MA. We had lunch at Main Streets Market and Cafe and then checked out the shops nearby. Pictured: gender reveal cupcakes, chili with butternut squash, and gravestones.

January 2012

I'm going to try something different this year. Instead of blogging in nauseating detail everything we do, I'm going to try and capture the memorable highlights for each month. I got the idea after seeing Liz over at Paisley Press share her Project Life albums. As stated on the website, "project life is a back to basics approach to memory-keeping." Basically, it is scrapbooking without all the frills and embellishments. It's getting back to the photo albums I remember from my childhood, but with more verbiage or journaling as they call it. Anyways, we will give it a try and see how things go. Hopefully, this will train me to build albums quickly in the future.



Clockwise from top left: 1, 3, 4, 5.



1. I took Jake to Vicky Lee's for brunch. If you are in the Belmont, MA area, I highly recommend this cafe. They have an extensive coffee and tea list

2. Our friends C and A surprised me by asking me to be a member of their wedding party (not pictured). We can't wait until July for their nuptials. The festivities will take place in a restored barn near their home town in Vermont. Rustic vintage, sounds gorgeous!

3. Jake jetted off to Florida for his annual golf trip with the guys while I nested by making no sew placemats.

4. We celebrated our cousin's second birthday at a petting zoo.

5. Chinese New Year celebration in Boston's Chinatown. Our friend Natalie, gets all her friends together for dim sum every year. After lunch, we walk around Chinatown following the lions as they bless each of the store fronts.

Everything but the Cow:Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Posting a dairy free recipe today, rather than on a Monday...watch out, who knows what crazy thing I'll do next!

This weeks recipe comes from Ali over at Gimme Some Oven. I think I stumbled upon her delicious recipe for Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Roasted Brussel Sprouts via Pinterest.

gimme some oven

  

Aside from prepping the brussel sprouts, this dish comes together super quick. On top of that, Jake loved it (minus a few sprouts).

Click on the link or photo above for the recipe.

My edits:

• Chicken-apple sausages found at Costco. I was actually looking for the chicken-mango-jalapeno one's, but they didn't have them, boo.
• Forgot the garlic
• Medium shell pasta
• Used Stonewall Kitchen's Basil pesto
• Omitted the parmesan

Fab Friday Finds

Sorry everyone, it's been pretty busy around here the last couple of weeks. I have so much to tell you in addition to getting with those wedding recaps. Oye. I was thinking it would be nice to have them done before we go on our honeymoon, but let's be realistic and aim for our one year anniversary.

Here are the random finds for this week:



Marko Pavlovic

I thought this was adult puzzle toy until I read the description. It was actually designed for preschooler development. I would still play with it.

 

Uncommon Goods

What do you think this shiny thing is? I'll give you a hint, it's NOT a faucet. It's a lamp! A touch lamp at that. How freaken cool is that?

1, 2, 3

At first I thought these were rings. They are bracelets with memorable movie quotes etched on them. A couple of my faves: 

• Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. - Gone With the Wind. I read this book from cover to cover when I was 12 or 13. The thing weighed like 10 lbs!
• You can agree with me or be wrong. - I have no clue what this is from, but I like it.
• Nobody puts Baby in a corner. - Like I even have to type it out, Dirty Dancing!

Laura Berrutti on Etsy

LOVE! WANT! I wished I would have seen it before I bought my necklace. I never thought that I would miss the rain. I even swore off the rain when I moved. But truth be told, I get the warm and fuzzies when it rains. It reminds me of home, even if the rain smells different here.