Lingering Over E-Pics

It's been over three months since I got married.  Over 11 months since I got engaged.  So why am I lingering over engagement photo sessions?  The answer is simple. I never really did one.  We were on a tight schedule to get wedding things done since after we got engaged Eric had to leave for school a month later.  That gave us a month, 4 weekends, to get the cake chosen, meet with photographers, and check out venues.  That's not a lot of time.  Hence why we decided to skip out on an engagement session.  We did, however, get my mom to take pictures of us up at their 8 acres of land.  The pictures came out beautiful and served the purpose we needed them for - giving us a good picture for the STD's (save the dates...for you non-bridal people).  

I swoon over the artistic, lovey dovey e-pics.  I love the fun poses, fancy clothes, cute props, and interesting locations.  I love that the pictures take the couple and put them in a different light. The sessions I love the most are ones where the couple look like they were put in a movie and the photos are stills.  The pictures make the couple look so interesting, like people that you really want to get to know.  I love how these photo sessions can add a story to the couple, give them a background that each viewer can interpret for themselves.  Do you not know what I mean?  Well here are some pictures that make me drool.

I could keep posting pictures, but I am sure that eventually you would lose interest if my post became just a photo album.  Or maybe you wouldn't, but I won't risk it.  I love photos that have action, a story behind them, props, basically anything out of the ordinary.  Not to mention that a professional photographer also brings one thing you can't get at home, amazing quality photos.


I know that I can do a session anytime I want. I could technically schedule a photo session just because. However, I feel like photo sessions need to have a reason behind them. They need to be something that represent an important moment in time.  Wedding, engagement, anniversary, etc.  So since I yearn for an artistic, meaningful photo session, I have decided I know when I will do it.  I'm going to get my dream photo session when I am pregnant.  Problem solved.  It will be a time in my life that I will always want to remember, and I can do a really fun session since it won't matter if I ruin my clothes since I won't be wearing them a majority of my life anyway.  Rip a maternity dress? Meh who cares. You only wear it for about four months anyway, no harm.  


Here are some pictures that have influenced me and have proven to me that a maternity photo shoot can be just as artistic and maybe even more loving than an e-pic session.

Oh yes...those are amazing.  I need to be realistic though and realize I'll probably be bigger than all those women combined.  So instead of doing a photo shoot at 7 months, I'll go ahead and do it at five months. Problem solved.  I love those pictures so much. The hard part will be finding a photographer who has great ideas and knows the angles that I would have to be at while I am at the heaviest I'll be in my entire life. But I think it will be totally worth it.  So maybe I should stop swooning over e-pics and focus on one that I will actually be able to have someday, a maternity shoot.  I missed my window for the e-pics, but I'll be sure not to miss my maternity shoot window when it happens.  I cannot wait to someday frame these types of pictures of me, in a nursery perhaps.

LEMONS!

I am obsessed with Lemon.  I never really noticed it until lately.  Lemon drinks, lemon cakes, lemon candy...I just love lemon.  Would I consider it my favorite fruit?  No, that title still goes to pineapple.  However, my new realization that I am obsessed with lemon has made me take up baking.  No matter how often I go to The Cupcakery, I can't seem to get enough lemon pastries in my life.


Here are some recipes I have come across lately that I plan on making over the course of the next few months.  And if I notice I am craving lemon deliciousness more often than every couple weeks, I may end up trying all these recipes over the course of a month.  I'm already drooling...


Pink Lemonade Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Luckily at the same site I can actually access ANOTHER lemon recipe:
Lemonade cookies with Lemonade Icing

Thank you Pen And Paper Flowers for giving me two recipes for my lemon obsession.


Do you like muddy buddies? Well here are 
Lemon Chex Buddies

9 cups Rice Chex cereal 

1 1/4 cup white vanilla baking chips 

1/4 cup butter or margarine 

4 tsp grated lemon peel 

2 Tbsp lemon juice 

2 cups powdered sugar

This is going to be my go-to recipe when I am really craving lemon but don't have the time to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. It's my emergency lemon recipe.  I mean seriously, how easy is that?

Lemon Velvet Cupcakes

I love red velvet, so lemon velvet seems like it was destined to be in my belly.  I got the recipe from Anne Strawberry who happens to have a TON of amazing recipes on her blog.


Two Ingredient Lemon Bars

Recipe

The name says it all, two ingredients.  Technically it's three though if I want it to look pretty like the picture. I'll need powdered sugar to sprinkle on top.  However, judging by my strong desire to shove all things lemon directly down my throat, I doubt I'll take the time to sprinkle powdered sugar.  I doubt I'll even take the time to let these suckers set before shoving them in my mouth.


Lemon Cupcakes with Fresh Raspberry Frosting

These cupcakes from The Family Kitchen make me want to pass out. They look amazing.  The lemon cake, the fluffy frosting, UGH! NOM NOM NOM! I seriously want to make these right now, then show people how amazing they are, then eat them all in one sitting without sharing a single one.  I know mine won't look as lovely as those do, but they will still taste the same and that's what counts in my lemon obsession.  Man o man, nothing makes me happier than that cupcake right about now.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

WOWWWWWWWWWWWW! It's like Let's Dish Recipes knows all my favorite things in life. Lemon cake AND cream cheese frosting? YES PLEASE! 


Lemonade Cake

Recipe

Simple, sweet, not a gorgeous picture, but GET IN MUH BELLAYYYYYYYYY!  There is not an abundance of icing, not ooey gooey lemony goodness, yet this cake makes my mouth drool and my stomach gurgle.  


Lemon Thyme Soda

Recipe

Oh, I could make this with my lemon cake and my lemon bars and have some lemon cookies.  That sounds lemony refreshing!


Lemon Pudding

I don't even like pudding...but I want this.  Thanks Galley Gourmet.


Lemon Gelato

Oh...muh...gawd.  Taste of Home knows how to make a girl happy.


Lemon Macaron

Recipe

I don't know if I like macarons, but I am pretty sure that I will like these.


So there you have it. Recipes that make me swoon.  I have never wanted to go home and bake so badly in my life. Those recipes look like they would make me the happiest girl in the world.  I believe my next quest will be to try each one of these recipes and create a post for each one describing my experience making the recipe and then comparing my outcome to the picture on the actual recipe's site.  That should be entertaining...but superbly delicious.