Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

My brown sugar was really giving me sass the other day.

I had decided to make Martha Stewart's chewy chocolate chip cookies with white and semisweet chocolate chips.

But lo and behold, my brown sugar was a brick. Seriously, I could break windows with that brown sugar. I could build homes with that sugar. It was ridiculous.

I googled all the tricks for softening brown sugar and found this one to work (sort of; the sugar still clumped like crazy):

1. Place sugar (still in bag) in the microwave alongside a cup of water.

2. Heat for 3 minutes.

Sugar should be softer after that.

The sugar hardens because of lost moisture; anyone have a storage tip for brown sugar to avoid this?

Anyways, I added the sugar to a stick of butter and granulated sugar. Then I beat it until it got "fluffy." I put fluffy in quote marks because if anything, the clumpy brown sugar just got clumpier until it looked like I was making a breakfast cereal. But whatever; you know me, I just steamroll ahead.

Added the vanilla and eggs, then beat it into oblivion.

Oooh pretty.

I slowly added the flour/baking soda mixture.

Which eventually turns the batter into this thick mass.

I folded the white and chocolate chips into the batter, dropped it in clumps on my cookie sheets and voila:

COOKIES!

About these cookies: They were good, they tasted like cookies, they looked like cookies. But they were way cakier than they should have been; I'm figuring this has something to do with the butter temperature (it got very soft while I was wrestling with the brown sugar brick) and maybe the brown sugar?

I'm starting to realize I might have to actually learn what different ingredients do to achieve different consistencies. LOL. I'm sure you all just read that and said, "ABOUT TIME!"

Have a great weekend you guys! I think I'm going to try pizza again.

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Hello Again!

Hello Again!

Hi lovelies! I'm back from my retreat, and I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it was to have an entire week without any internet or cell phones. I highly recommend it to everyone.

In addition to just saying, "Hi, I'm back!" I also wanted to check in with all of you. The personal voice of this blog seems to have gone missing in the past several months, and now that I've had some time away, I feel like I'm in a good place to do some sharing about what has been going on over on this side of Snippet & Ink. Though I've debated whether or not to "go there" on this blog, I've found that keeping things open and honest is always a better option than closing things off, so here we go.


{by Kari Herer}

For some time now, I have been struggling with depression, and only in the last couple of months have I started to actively address it. My honey and I have decided to put wedding plans on hold for the time being, while I make this a priority. Things with us are good, and I'm still wearing my engagement ring - it's just going to be a longer engagement than we had originally planned.

Another part of my life that has been affected is this blog. Growing pains are a natural part of the readership growth and changing blog world that Snippet & Ink has seen in the last two years, and whenever a creative hobby becomes a business, the dynamics of it change. But more than that, so much of the joy I took in blogging went away, my creativity has felt sapped, and I've lost focus on what I love about this blog.

All of this is to say that, while things here on Snippet & Ink may be a bit bumpy for awhile, there are some great things and exciting changes in store in the next year. I am working on re-focusing and bringing back the joy and creativity that make this blog such a fun place for me - and I hope for you. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for the incredible readers that I have, the wonderful comments that you leave, and the kind words that you send in emails. My hope is that, through it all, Snippet & Ink continues to be a source of daily inspiration for you.

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WEDDING BOOK GIVEAWAY: And the Winner is...

WEDDING BOOK GIVEAWAY: And the Winner is...



There were some great worst case scenarios but the winner is....















...Couture Bowl. Congratulations! Your worst case scenario took the cake. There really isn't a good way to recover from that happening. Please email your contact information to bridalwishlist@gmail.com and I will send the book right out to you.

email your questions to: bridalwishlist@gmail.com & visit our sister site, the capitol fashionista (http://thecapitolfashionista.blogspot.com)

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Title: Photoshop Tutorial: Creative Wedding Album Design by Mark Chen

"Soft Brush Technique" is demonstrated in this introduction to the book "Creative Wedding Album Design with Adobe Photoshop". Visit author's website at www.MarkChenPhotography.com

Title: Coffee Table Wedding Book

A quick look at a demo wedding book from cover to cover.
I don't go through every single page as the aim here is to show you the build quality of the book and quality of the image print.
This book measures 13"x11".
For more info on the books, complete digital versions that can be browsed cover to cover and the various wedding packages I can offer you please visit my website at
www.davidmcclelland-photography.com

Thanks,
Dave

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Introductions

Introductions
Hello, my name is Sarah...and I've been a bad blogger. For those of you who follow me on twitter, you know that I a) have bronchitis b) just started a new job and c) am in the process of purchasing a house. Needless to say, things have been a little crazy over at Chez SE these last couple weeks. I try and keep up with everybody's blogs and tweets during the day, but I'm not able to post on my own.

So the posts will continue to be less frequent than before (ie 4 posts a day), but I'll try to post more now that I'm starting to get over the bronchitis. This is how my past three weeks have gone: 5:30 get home from work; 7:00 eat dinner; 9:00 go to bed; 6:00 am get up and do it all over again.

Mr. SE and I have been dealing with some complications on the wedding front, along with an ever decreasing budget. I'll be sure to fill you in on the details once things calm down. Please stay around- I promise I'll be back for some extremely fabulous posts next week. (ps- I lost a follower this week! Sad day!). In the meantime, here's some dresses I'm interested in. But wait- Miss SE, why are you posting dresses from DB? I thought you were going to hit up a fab salon where they served champagne and gushed over how beautiful you are. Yes, my friends, I was. That was before Mr. SE and I had a heart to heart about the budget and what is really important: our love, and honoring the friends and family that mean everything to us.

This weekend we're attending a wedding for the Goddaughter of Mom and Dad SE in Virginia. Mama SE is doing a reading in the ceremony- I'll try and take a picture. Before the wedding, mom and I are going to try on my FIRST wedding dress. I wanted to hit up DB first just to get a feel for the style that I wanted. While browsing their paper and online catalogue, I found some surprisingly lovely styles that I'm really looking forward to trying on. Here's some styles I like...

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J. Lingnau Jewelry

I am in LOVE with J.Lingnau's jewelry. Whimsical, but simple, with great craftsmanship.

I like that her work is symbolic, but not too cute. Really gorgeous. The top necklace costs more than $1000 (eek!) but the bottom necklace of crossed fingers costs a more manageable $339.

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Luscious Yellow & Blue

Luscious Yellow & Blue

Ariella Chezar and Meg Smith have one last gorgeous shoot to share with us, and I've saved it for last because the bouquet is one of my favorite floral designs ever. It may seem familiar to you, either from Ariella's portfolio, or because I've included it in so many inspiration boards - it's irresistible! And the rest of these details are just as lovely...




The "bride" wears J.Crew's Sophia dress and yellow cymbidium orchids in her hair. The "ring bearer" wears a crown of muscari.










The bouquet includes cattleya orchids, garden roses, yellow abutilon and bear claw fern foliage, and is adorned with dramatically long yellow and blue ribbons.

Sigh. I want to live inside these photo shoots... I don't think I can convey how delightful it has been to share so much gorgeous inspiration from two of my very favorite wedding artists - and they truly are artists. It has been such an honor and a treat for me to share their work with you, and I hope you've found as much inspiration from these images as I have. Thank you so much to Ariella Chezar and Meg Smith - maybe they'll stop by again in the future!

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On the Wings of Love: Bachelor Recap

On the Wings of Love: Bachelor Recap

Great girl- not a good fit for Jake

Nooo! Ugh.

Pick Tenley! Pick Tenley!

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