Back on the farm

Better know as the Yorke Family Residence. Jon's Uncle A, and his family were so kind to let us stay at their house for a week while they were away. It's a good thing too because we were able to keep an eye on those adorable chippies (chipmunks) and entertaining ducks. I now understand what it means to have your ducks in a row, because these ducks always walked in a row!!! I kid you not, did you know that ducks when herded actually walk one if front of the other.... It was so much fun to let them out in the garden for the day and then herd them back into their pen in the afternoon.

I was the official duck feeder, and garden waterer, and I loved every minute of it. Jon and I both had duck eggs for the first time. They are delicious so creamy and have a wonderful flavor. I highly recommend having duck eggs if you ever get the chance. Of course they probably won't be as fresh as the ones we had, some mornings they were still warm when I pulled the eggs out of their little nest in the corner. Kinda gross I know.... but fresher than that you can't get~

 Maybe someday Jon and I will live on a farm.... for now we have to content ourselves with the occasional house sitting.

Isle of Wight holidays Freshwater Bay & Compton Bay

Freshwater bay is a beautiful pebbly beach. I collected a bunch of the prettiest and most original pebbles. I even found one in the shape of a heart, well it kind of looks like a heart.

Compton Bay is a gorgeous long sandy stretch of beach. Would be great if we had more beaches like that on the Big Island. Sand is such a rare commodity on my island.  I think the chalk cliffs in the background are incredible. They are a typical South English coast sight, I find them so dramatic, you can actually write with the chalk pebbles that you find. We collected a few of those as well.  Maybe I'll write some letter with the chalk pebbles.

Isle of Wight Holidays-The Needles Old Battery Park

The day after our UK reception we headed out for a 6 day holiday on the Isle of Wight.... What a gorgeous little island. I feel so at home here, must be because it's an island and I am an island girl!

Heading out toward the Needles old battery. The walk is just gorgeous and we had such a dramatic sky that day. The light was gorgeous, plus I was using a 5D mark 2, my next birthday present, (I wish)! I kind of think the Needles look like camels. They are these amazing chalk formations that jut out of the sea, like the backbone of some prehistoric animal. They actually have lots of dinosaur prints and fossils on the Isle of Wight.

More Isle of Wight pictures to follow....
 

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English Party

Jon and I both decided that we needed to have a wedding reception in the UK for  all of his family and friends that couldn't make it to Hawaii for our wedding. We picked a lovely little country pub called the Cart and Horses.
It was the perfect location for a good old hog roast. Jon's sister had the great idea of making the dessert ourselves, one, it keeps down the cost and two, you have total control over it!  We barely had control over it, the night before was a baking extravaganza. I have NEVER seen that much cake batter, we tripled the recipe, it was from last months BBC Good Food. the batter was incredible, there was SO much of it! Total team effort. It fully needed three of us to make it. For the Icing or as we say in America frosting I used a really old school butter cream recipe from my lovely cake maker in Hawaii, Dani! It turned out very yummy. Not the prettiest cake, although I tried to hide all the imperfections with some ribbon and jazz it up with some flowers. We also had 4 or 5 different kind of cupcakes, they were so delicious. I'll include the butter cream recipe in this post so you can try it yourself!

This decorator’s staple remains an old reliable when all else fails. It even performs well in warm weather.

Ingredients:
2 cups (454 gr) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (230 gr) vegetable shortening or hi-ratio shortening
1 1/2 tsp , vanilla extract
1.36 kg 10X confectioner’s sugar( 3 boxes)
1/2 + 1 Tbsp ( 135 ml) water,
3 Tbsp meringue powder ( tehy have it at Walmart)
1 tsp salt

Method:
1. Cream shortening & butter with mixer. Add flavouring and salt. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time. Add meringue powder. ( The mixture will appear dry)
2. Add liquid of choice and beat until light and fluffy ( approximately 5 to 8 minutes). Keep teh bowl covered with damp cloth or plastic wrap.

Additional Info:
Storage: Store the icing in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.

Wedding invitations DIY

I have been meaning to do a post on my wedding invites for a while now but just finally got all my ducks in a row. I wanted them to be happy and bright not your typical white and silver invites. The colors for my wedding were yellow, apple green, orange, and gray. I had an address stamp made with the same fonts I used on the invite. Birds were  a theme at the wedding so I used them in the invite as well.
I printed them all on my moms printer, I used a Bazzil cardstock for the underlay on the invites,  for the white paper that I printed the invitations on I found some linen heavy weight at our local office supply store. The gray large envelopes were from paper source but bought from an on-line vendor, and the green envelopes were A2 Euro flap from the Wausau astro brights line, in gemini green, I almost went with Gama green and am so glad I didn't it was a little darker.  It is really hard to find nice colored envelopes with the euro flap in the US that don't cost an arm and a leg. I spent many hours researching online to find the cheapest envelope supplier. I ended up going with paper-papers.com They were great. I got my envelopes quickly, plus I got a shipping incentive discount! Gotta love that!

I had a ton of help putting my invitations together, it took me a good week to get them all assembled and posted. My mom was the paper cutter operator, and general doer of little things, Nance and Lianne were stampers extraordinaire and I was like a zombie. I wouldn't have done it any other way it was So much fun to create and put together these invitations, special thanks goes out to Noe, who drove me around for weeks in LA to all different paper shops to find just the right shade of yellow. 

Bazzill Basics yellow 12x12 cardstock with a burlap texture

for more pictures go to......http://blog.brookelynphotography.com/?p=423

My very own English Man

Since moving to Ireland I've had a bit of time on my hands, believe me when I say I've actually kept very busy. One of my on-going projects is going through my photos. I came across this one and just had to post it. Flat cap and all I have my very own English man, and this picture proves it.

We were on a walk last year down at the English coast, near Ramsgate where my husbands parents live. It was a gorgeous cool Christmas day. With enough sun to make the walk really beautiful.

Sweet

Couldn't resist posting these pictures. Ben and Emily have almost the exact same color eyes. No, they aren't related.

Dreaming of summer

These are a few oldies but goodies. The "summer" if you can call it that in Dublin, is rather cold. I think I am dreaming of the heat and warmth of sunny places. Probably missing home a bit as well... Enjoy the sun in these photos. These were taken in Tulum Mexico we spent one night at this amazing place  Cabana la Luna right on the beach. It was off the grid and powered by wind. Our hut was called the
Christopher Columbus Cabana, try saying that three times fast.....
We had a gorgeous nights stay there, listening to the rustle of palm fronds and the crash of waves on sand.

looking forward to the slow days ahead

I was looking at my calendar today and noticed that it's a LOT emptier now than it was a few months ago.
Check out the differences, I'm pretty free these days so if you fancy a trip to Dublin City, where the girls are pretty! Now is the time to do it!

I guess it gives me lots more time to create things, and work on projects.

Annies' birthday invitation

Even though I am so far away, the internet helps me feel connected to friends and family that are at home in Hawaii. For example a few weeks ago it was my friend Annie's 30th, I was So bummed to miss it. 3O is kind of a big deal! I wanted to be involved in some way, and since I couldn't actually be there I wanted to help with the schedule and planning of the event, I also created some invitations.
I heard it was a really fun day, I can't wait to see some pictures, ladies... hint, hint!