Pinterest Inspiration // 9

1. we the people 2. Unknown 3. ZARA 4. Weekday Carnival 5. Unknown 6. Fossil 7. Rag And Bone

1. I really love this. I wish I would have done something like this while I was still bleaching my hair...
2. I've been really into illustrations of pineapples lately, I have no idea why, I just think that it can look so modern and no matter how distorted you draw it, you still know it's a pineapple.
3. I have been eyeing-up this jacket from ZARA for a while now. I always think that you have to have a certain style to pull off a black leather jacket -- which I do not have! This jacket is different though, it's slightly more feminine and definitely more wearable with my wardrobe.
4. This free calendar download is just perfect. I love it's simplicity, and I am definitely going to print it out for my room.
5. After I wrote, "if you're bolder than the darkness", I found this pin and felt like this fit in with part of what I was trying to saying. 
6. I buy cheap watches from the drugstore, at least every six months when the batteries finally die or something goes glitchy. I never found it worth it to buy an "expensive" watch but after my last one died and I was out a watch for a week -- feeling quite lost I must say -- I took a look at some of what Fossil had to offer. Let me just say women's watches can be the most ugly, decked out, bedazzled, mess of metal and diamontes, I literally scrolled through over 80% of their watches with a disgusted look on my face. This watch caught my eye because of the simplicity (sensing a theme here?) of the face, metal, strap and everything! It looks really chic, would go with just about everything and has a good sized watch face. Win!
7. Now I have been looking for a black felt hat, that wasn't so huge and floppy and conspicuous as what everything seems to be that I find, for just about a year now I'm sure! This hat would be perfect if it wasn't sold out and a ridiculous price anyway -- I'm so cheap lol. So alas the search continues.

The Terrible Two's

This is the second anniversary of my blog, I wrote my very first post on this very same day in 2012.

In someways it feels like I have been blogging for at least 4 yrs and in others it feels like I just started. I remember mulling over having my blog, what I would name it, what content would be on it, how it would look like etc. months before I actually had the courage to ask if I could make one.

It seems so silly now, I was somehow afraid to ask for this little space on the internet, despite the fact that my mom had had a blog for a couple years before this. When I finally did, we took care to make this as permanent a space as we could. Having my URL be my first and middle name respectively took into account that I may not have the name "BLUSH by a Lady" forever -- it left room to grow and change. Also not including my last name might have been wishful thinking, that I might continue this until I am married or simply that I may ever get married! 

I know I had a list of words that I liked the sound of and reflected my personality at that time, including, Peony, Blush, Petal and by a Lady. The first three I just thought of and the fourth I came across as I was flipping through the pages of Pride and Prejudice -- as you do -- and kind-of rediscovered the fact that she wrote under the pseudonym, By a Lady. It struck a cord with me and I decided to pair Blush with the sort-of-subtitle by a Lady added to it. 

This space has given me a place to somehow share and put into words what I am feeling, doing or making. It's definitely given me a chance to exercise my writing "muscles" and keep me on-top-of-my-game so to speak. 

It's also given me a chance to explore new avenues that I might never have picked up, like photography or videography. 

I've discovered so many amazing writers and fashionistas and DIYers through my journey on this blog. I started out by bookmarking perhaps five or so blogs, including people webs, and Anne Catherine Frey, to following dozens of bloggers that inspire me creatively as well as in life. 

I know I will forever hold a debt to this place that I call my own, it's helped my grow into the person that I am today and given me a chance to express myself because I never was good at expressing myself verbally. 

On another note, I made shortbread the other day. I love shortbread. It is the perfect cookie, both subtly sweet and buttery, melting-in-your-mouth delicious. Sometimes you just get a craving for the simplicity of a good English Shortbread and a cup of tea. The cookie cutter used to make these diamond shaped lovelies was my great-grandma's on my mother's side -- Nanny. 

I used the recipe found in my Butter recipe book given to me by my Auntie Amy. It really is the cutest little book and the most fairytale-esque story of the beginnings of a very humble and homemade independent bakery in Vancouver. 

***

I hope that this next year for my blog I will reach new heights in my writing, I will grow and it will grow with me, and I will stay true to myself and perhaps most of all that it won't be quite so terrible ;) Here's to another year!

Happy 2nd Birthday BLUSH by a Lady! xoxo

It's somebody's Birthday somewhere...

"I just don't want to look back and think, 'I could've eaten that'."

Last Saturday I made a cake and had the Grandparents over Sunday afternoon for some tea.
I used a cake recipe from Gesine Bullock-Prado's "Sugar Baby" cookbook and an espresso icing recipe from Call me Cupcake's Linda.

The small cake pan my mom got from one of our visits to The Duchess Bake shop in Edmonton. It is the perfect size for this cake plate that a friend gave us years ago. We've used the pair a couple of times now and it is the perfect size for a little family when you don't want days and days of leftovers.

***

Lately I have been thinking a lot about school and what I want from that experience. And I am rather surprised to say that I'm not looking for a degree or diploma, but just enhancing my knowledge in subject areas that interest me. 

It's weird because I always strived for the best in every aspect and subject in school -- I had pretty steady grades that hovered between 85-95% in every class. I think this might have made my decision that much harder because, though I knew what I loved more, I had a love of knowledge that made some part of every subject enjoyable.

I know now, and perhaps always, that I love English. I love to read. I love to write. I love analyzing and interpreting text. And I want to build my knowledge more in this area and improve.

I also want to know more about photography, web design, the pastry arts, and small business. Consequently, I have come to the decision at this time to apply to Bachelor of Arts and pick and choose the courses I want to take -- but not have the overbearing thought of finishing the degree in four years -- or at all ultimately. Taking some extra courses by open studies. And  then perhaps after a couple of years I will go to NAIT or overseas for a pastry art course...the possibilities are endless. 

And a sort of peace has come over me knowing that I can do whatever I want. 

That thought used to be the reason the future scared me.

E i g h t e e n

Last week was my eighteenth birthday.

It's weird, everyone asking how it feels like being legal now and everything, and I just think, not that different actually, I've been working my way and growing into eighteen since the day I turned seventeen. 

It's gradual. 

It's not like suddenly when you wake up on the morning of your birthday your a year older. Anyway it was quite quiet I suppose for an eighteenth birthday party, just some family gathered to eat cake and have tea. 

I've never been one to like birthday parties. An introvert at heart, birthday's are just a whole lot of unordinary attention. 

Other than that I must confess the view from where I sit has been rather grey. Work has occupied my days and catching up on my social media has taken up my evenings! It's been rather sad no doubt! 

I can't wait for this stage in my life to be over and yet I dread moving on. I long for all the freedom and experiences of travel and building my own life, but I'm scared. 

I hope this year I can regroup and really focus on my intentions, for after all nothing worth having comes easily, at some point you just need to take a leap of faith.

When I started High School my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see it for miles. 

Now there is a bend in it. 

I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does.

One of those moods...

I've been going through quite the slump...graduation took up most of my thinking in August, we went to Edmonton and dropped off Blythe and Christian at university a week or more ago -- definitely shopped till I dropped -- but hey it was needed stuff like work clothes and...basics, mostly ;) 

Then after that little holiday it was back to work, Calder was back to school, all of my friends were off at Uni and I seemed to be just...left behind if you will. 

It's definitely an adjustment just having me and Calder at home but on top of that I just felt kind of mopey. 

I missed school, and writing, and my friends and the teachers, and my brother and sister. It was quite the shock, plus work can be pretty boring sometimes. 

I've been thinking of blogging a lot, and taking photos and maybe even incorporating some videos into whatever this is, but I just did not have the effort or what seemed to be the time.

My room is a mess, I haven't really been looking at blogs for a couple of months by now, reading a book is just out of the question. The only thing I seem to do everyday is go to work, go on Pinterest, instagram, Facebook, eat supper, go on youtube, perhaps go for a bike ride, make my lunch and go to bed. 

The days are getting shorter and shorter as well!! It's dark now at 9 o'clock and it's going to get worse! 

I'm also in one of those midseason slumps, where I want to be able to wear pants and sweaters and scarves etc. but it's been really hot lately! I just get in these moods I guess. 

And now I am rambling...it has been quite the weird day today as well, but I don't feel ready to share that quite yet.

One of the things I forgot to mention, I went to the Duchess Bakeshop and Provision Shop in Edmonton!! Wow, I felt like I was in a proper patisserie -- it was soooo....nice!

I bought Anna Olsen's "Back to Baking" book and I have been really in the mood to bake, but not really wanting all of this baking around -- I think it is a sickness and I caught it at the cafe in Edm! 

Anyway, I hope to do some more of these posts, I always feel like I can't do a blog post without proper pictures so I put off posts I want to write until I get pictures, and that doesn't always happen and/or I have the pictures but need to edit them! Either way I hope to be doing more of these.

A Birthday Cake

I saw this cake on Pinterest a while back and have always wanted to recreate it and I finally did on Mother's Day. It turned out amazingly and was such a light summery cake that when my mom's birthday came along we decided to make it again. I assembled the cake at my grandmas house on Mother's Day and forgot my camera and iPod so I wasn't able to take a picture of it, but this time I made sure to take get some good shots. I remember reading the recipe and getting the gyst of what was required for it and took it from there.
First you will need a really good/trusty sponge cake, the recipe I used was a double batch of the Lazy Daisy cake found in the Company's coming Cake recipe book. Poured into a 13" spring form pan and cut into three layers, I brushed each layer with a generous amount of simple syrup (equal parts sugar to water warmed up for a couple minutes in the microwave). I learned in my Sugar Baby recipe book by Gesine Bullock-Prado that bakeries brush simple syrup on all their cakes to help keep them moist! I would suggest letting that sit for a couple of hours (or overnight properly sealed up) so that it gets a chance to soak right through. The end result of the cake ends up being layers that consist of cake --fresh raspberry jam (for its tartness -- store bought black currant would be a good alternative) --whipped cream -- chopped pistachios -- blackberries (placed strategically around the edge so you can see them peeking through) -- and repeat for all three layers. For the top and around the edges I even sprinkled some purple rose petals on the one I made for Mother's Day.

I've also found that if you let the cake settle for a couple of hours before you cut it, it is much much easier -- this one was assembled before supper and eaten right after and it was quite the mess trying to get the pieces onto plates, the one we had for Mother's Day however was a breeze to cut but, it was sitting for awhile before we ate it.

This past week went by so fast I can't even believe it! I received my iPad mini on Monday which got me very excited to be able to be back on Instagram and twitter again - my iPod crapped out on me (it had gone through so much in the nearly 3 years I had it that it just had enough)! Anyways so that's one reason I kind of went MIA on the Internet the other is pure laziness I guess.
We have had quite the summer here, a mix of really warm muggy days and a generous amount of rain! I keep thinking I need to take a picture of the beautiful canola fields that surround our acreage before they are done flowering. They have been especially brilliant the past couple weeks it's been sunny with a few dark rain clouds so everything looks sort of gloomy but the sun shining on the fields makes the canola look as if it is glowing neon yellow -- quite the contrast to the dark grey sky! Perhaps that will be in my next post...
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and let me know if you try out the cake!

P.S. The blackberry-pistachio cupcakes I featured on here a couple of weeks ago was the cupcake version inspired by this cake!

Beach Days

Better late than never I guess! These are some pics from the Canada Day long weekend. We spent Sunday and Monday lounging on the beach, and thank goodness we did because was it ever hot!

 

These two rascals came out of the bush on Sunday just as we were packing up to go back home and ofcourse that created quite the sensation with these youngsters! The deer at Shaw's Point are pretty tame until they don't want to be anymore so you should be pretty careful (as someone warned them after I snapped this shot).

Some of our extended family joined us on Canada Day and we got to enjoy some ice cream sandwiches that I made! They were pretty tasty!  I got the recipe from Martha Stewart and they were really easy to make actually. My favourite was the vanilla ice cream, coated with candied almonds, the one above is just mint chocolate chip.

What a busy couple weeks it has been! I just started my full-time job at the cooperators on the 2nd so a lot of my time and energy has been devoted to that. It was quite the shock information wise!! I came home my first day with a splitting headache and a dread to go back to work, because how was I possibly supposed to remember all of that! Well I'm just starting my second week and it has already gotten a lot better, I am still being "trained" but I am finding my way around.

From now on I'm counting down the days till the weekend...that will be my life :P On the plus side I'm making money and can look forward to a possible Europe trip in the spring(!?)

The end of the beginning...

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." 

~ Winston Churchill

As of now I have one more exam left and then my High School career is officially over, it's definitely a bitter sweet moment. I have always loved school, learning, solving problems, writing etc. it's challenged me and I did my best to compete and reach my highest potential. I'm going to miss that I think -- the pressure and incentives that pushed me to reach new levels. In the real world you aren't necessarily measured on the same criteria as you are in school, you aren't "graded"per se. 

Right now, facing a gap year to work and perhaps travel, I know the thing I will miss most though is the social aspect of school. A typical day at school for me this semester was probably, 40% learning/working, 60% socializing/goofing around! Our teacher's are really cool, most of them anyway haha, I'd say about 30% of that goofing around was initiated by our teachers! It helped that our class was really small and chill, the teachers liked the break from the large and obnoxious freshman/sophomore classes!

I am uncertain about what will happen after this year is over. University has always been something I've wanted to do…I am also toying with the idea of Pastry school…a semester abroad…the possibilities are endless, and quite daunting I must say.

On another note the sun is finally out! We have had constant rain and overcast days for probably over 2 weeks -- it was starting to feel like winter on the west coast! The boys planted a vegetable garden a couple of weeks ago and Christian has been keeping it in pretty good condition so far! It will be interesting to see what comes out of it this summer. 

The past two weeks I've been baking on a more summery theme -- light and fresh -- it also looks like blackberries have played a role in executing that as well ;)

And this is a candid shot of Calder and Christian, messing around with my camera when I was in the grocery store! I think I just got the last laugh…haha

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week,

Bronté xo

It's a time of celebration...

The celebration of my brother's birthday that we had last week

The celebration of summer (I think we skipped spring)

The celebration of Cinço de Mayo

Last week was my brother's 22nd birthday! My mom made the cake and I iced the rosettes, we celebrated with our cousins, grandparents and aunt, meanwhile the wind was howling and snow was covering the recently uncovered brown grass!

Our cousin-in-law from England asked if I was surprised about the weather (because it was promising to be spring before this unfortunate event!), impulsively I said, "Yeah!" and then I thought for a second, "Actually, no…I'm not…haha" -- or we shouldn't be anyway, sad as it is. 

If you don't like the weather -- wait 5 minutes. 

And if that wasn't shocking enough a week later (Sun-Mon) we had +30 weather! You definitely don't get used to the strange weather in Alberta's fall/spring but you can't say that your ever surprised at the fluctuating temperatures. 

Sunday was Cinço de Mayo, did anyone celebrate? We always make a point to have some sort of Mexican food for the holiday every year. It's sort of a tradition I guess…

I am recently obsessed with the band Bastille! It's crazy how good his voice is and the style of the music is definitely right down my alley. These are my favourite songs Pompeii (this live version is awesome) and Flaws.

My dad showed me this commercial for Travel Alberta, it makes me feel proud of the country/province that I live in! It is seriously a beautiful place and if you ever wish to see more of North America, Alberta should be part of your itinerary!

Have a wonderful rest of the week

xo Bronté

A new position…and Spring Break!

Guinness Chocolate Cake

Peanut Butter Bars

White Chocolate Almond Biscotti

A couple of weeks ago I got a job as a baker in one of our local café's! It's been a lot of fun! I've been meaning to post some of the pictures I took for their Facebook page on here as well, but have been caught up with all of the busyness prior to spring break. We have 10 days off and it's going to be a welcome break from the semester! 

The senior high travel at my school is going to do a tour of the Canadian Battlefields in Europe during the break and it has gotten me excited for my own trip to Europe this summer (if all goes well)!! 

Christian has made his way up from the city for Easter and we've been enjoying the warm weather outside (it's a muddy/slushy/wet mess out there but it's definitely better then more snow and thirty below!) Amy, my cousin's wife, has come west from Ontario to spend a couple months here before her baby is born! She is originally from England so her accent and warm personality is refreshing and we are so looking forward to having a baby around -- it's been a long time!

I have spent the afternoon making Hasty Tasty Hot Cross Buns and I am looking forward to spending the day tomorrow at my Auntie's house for Easter dinner with all of the family!

In the meantime enjoy the season and the warm weather it brings, but most of all I hope you enjoy a happy Easter with friends and family celebrating the life of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made for us!

One Year Today :)

It's been quite the week (or two), I was sick and missed a week of school (fun times!) and have been trying to catch up since then. But guess what? If you haven't already guessed by the GIF above (I'm really proud of that GIF by the way) a year ago today I wrote my first post for a blog I had been thinking about and creating in my mind for awhile prior to that day and I've never looked back! I had been following various blogs before I started this journey but it has since grown and I feel happy to be apart of this community. It feels good to be able to do something creative with my free time that I know people can enjoy at the same time. This blog has expanded my knowledge of photography and helped me keep up with and improve my writing. It's exciting to think of the coming years and the things I will learn and the people I will meet :)

So lets just feast on this cocunut cupcake to celebrate!!

Once Upon a Macaron

“You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.” ~ Julia Child

I'm pretty proud of these sweet little things. For Christmas I received Gesine Bullock-Prado's book Sugar Baby, I've watched her video on how to make Parisian Macaron's and after my first failed attempt at making them, I was excited to finally try her recipe which looked much easier. There was a couple hiccups mainly just figuring out how to work with our oven and knowing how to adjust the way I was baking them due to the results I was getting. My first pan was really good, the feet were a little lopsided but I read that it was due to uneven temperature in your oven --- nothing much I could do there, I did read that using the fan for the confection setting didn't always work well so I adjusted my settings to bake, I don't think that made much of a difference.

 I only had one pan that I was confident in using for these delicate little pastries so for my second batch I made the mistake of not letting the pan cool off, resulting in cracked shells. I remedied this, however, by sticking the pan in the snow outside of the kitchen door for a couple of minutes! After that most of my pans came out amazingly!

I kept the flavour pretty simple, vanilla Italian meringue buttercream for the filling and I kept the shells plain (the almond flour does add some flavour to the batter) adding just some violet food colouring. I'll be a bit more adventurous next time I make these!

I put some away in the freezer so when my brother comes home for reading week, he can try them too. I don't know how that will turn out...the recipe said you could freeze them tightly sealed for up to two weeks, but we'll see how things go.

***

I am back to school today after having 6 days off for Teacher's Convention, it's hard to get back into the groove of waking up and attempting to actually learn things so early in the morning, it helps though that the days have been getting longer and it was actually light outside as we drove to school at eight this morning! I can't wait for spring, we have so much snow outside though that it probably will be a couple months before we can see the grass, albeit brown.

We went ski-dooing before supper a.k.a. shoveling/stomping the snow around the ski-doo trying to get it unstuck, and the snow was more than half way up my thigh in some places! It was such a relief to get back into our yard, we probably got stuck at least 10 times --- so tiring...I guess we got some exercise! It's warming up so hopefully a bunch of snow melts before we get some more.

Anyway what can you expect, we live in Canada, eh? ;)

Sweet Madeleine

It feels like quite a long time ago since I've had a post up! I recieved a Madeleine pan for Christmas and so I made the Orange Madeleine recipe that they gave on the back of the packaging. I've never tried a Madeleine before so I wasn't sure what to expect, after reading some recipes online I found out I should have left the batter to sit overnight and then each cookie would be more fluffy and full/round (if that makes sense). My next attempt at making them will have to be a recipe I pinned awhile ago, which are Date Madeleine's with a sort of toffee sauce to dip them in. Now I could say that I made these sweet little Orange Madeleine's the other day but truth be told I made them during Christmas Break!  I also made these little oatmeal cakes for my Dad's Birthday on the 2nd with my mini bundt pan, I didn't get a good picture of them on the cake stand sprinkled with icing sugar because it was all ready dark by the time they were all done up, but I do have picture of them on my Instagram if you want to check that out.

Time just caught up with me I guess, January has been a fast month for me, we've been studying and reviewing in our classes, writing finals and Diploma's (provincial tests), so it's been pretty crazy I must say. Exam week officially starts today, which is quite ironic because out of the 6 tests I had to take I only have one left! Oh well, that just means a longer break for me before my next semester starts.

Saturday I packed up my things and moved to my Great Grandma's house for a couple weeks whilst my Grandparents are out. Up until this point I must say it was rather dreary and lonely. I had to get used to the sounds of her dog's and the general traffic sounds that you can here in town, so with some sleepless nights under my belt it was a pretty emotional day yesterday. I knew it wasn't that bad, but I wasn't sure if I could make it the two weeks. After a good night sleep last night and school to take up most of the day, I'm feeling a lot better now.

Last night the Edmonton Oilers played their first game, since the lockout, against Vancouver so I watched that. Tuesday night I'm going to go home for the evening and watch their first home game with my family, they usually make a big deal about the season starting just on an ordinary year but with the lockout lasting for about 130 days they've been anxious to get on the ice and we've been anxious to start watching them :) So that will give me something to look forward to.

I don't have to go to school in the mornings until Friday which is my last exam, then I'm off until next Thursday, when our semester starts (pretty random if you ask me). Anyways so I'll have some time to keep up with my blog. I took some frosty pictures the other day and I figure I haven't done a Pinterest Inspiration post lately so you now know what to expect in the next couple of days! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week :)

Seventeen

"It was November  -- the month of crimson sunsets parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great wind blow the fogs out of her soul."

~ L.M. Montgomery

It was my Seventeenth Birthday yesterday and besides being sick it was really nice :)

I went to school despite feeling terrible but I didn't last long, I left soon after 12 and had a long nap at my Grandparents house! Not really what I expected to do on my Birthday but all in all it was wonderful day. I actually have the pleasure of having the same birthday as my Auntie Jaye who spent hers in Maui (so jealous)!! The temperature dropped to minus 30 the other day which was quite the shock and then proceeded to be plus 4-6 this weekend -- that's Canadian weather for you.

For supper I had my grandparents and my cousin Bretley as well as her husband Martin come over and after a dinner of turkey, salads and french bread we had the amazing chocolate cake! It's taken from one of the recipes in Jan Karon's Mitford series, Lew Boyd's Chocolate Cake and it is seriously CHOCOLATE. I think my mom said there is something like a pound of dark chocolate in the icing alone! Apparently my mom had made it before when we were younger but it was too much for us then -- I think our taste buds have matured a bit since then!

I was lucky enough to get a FujiFilm instant camera 210 from my parents as a gift! I can't wait to experiment with a film camera! I also got a spritz cookie press and a stainless steel pastry bag with assorted tips from my grandparents -- first thing I'm going to make, french macaroons, they've been on my top baking to do list for a long time. I also got some lovely cards from a variety of friends and family. Thank you to all of you who got me something for my Birthday :) it did not go unappreciated.

Tonight my friend Jadin is hosting a Halloween party slash Birthday party for me with some of our girlfriends at school. I'm expecting there will be a lot of giggling and movie watching!

Anyway, I hope you have an amazing rest of the weekend :)

Thanksgiving

 This was the first year we had Thanksgiving at our house, me and mom were in charge of the desserts which included pumpkin pie (of course), pecan tarts and pumpkin magic bars. There was about 20 of us including Christian who was able to come up this weekend bringing our family number back to 6. All in all it was a fun weekend full of family and food :)

Sadly the frost has turned to snow! We were warned this week via the weather network that we were going to have a dreary week full of rain and flurries and then this morning we woke up to a couple of centimetres of snow and the trees covered in hoar frost. It's not expected to stay but it was quite the shock nonetheless and it doesn't give us solace to know that 6 or 7 months of this is ahead!

Anyway I hope all you Canadians had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am grateful for my family, my saviour and the beautiful country we live in :)

P.S. I was planning on taking more pictures of the upstairs in our house but I didn't seem to get around to it - plus my siblings room's looked like a bomb had gone off in them…not really picture material!