weekly wrap-up: Easter

This week has been full of Easter-y things like dyeing eggs, eating chocolate, and getting together with family.  It's been fun, but for our family it's been important to remember the reason for this holiday.  Easter is a reminder of love and redemption, and reminds us of the incredible sacrifice Jesus made by dying so we could live.  I am so thankful for this every day!

We've also been so blessed to have such incredibly amazing weather this past week!  I spent part of this afternoon outside in the sunshine, and it even hit 23 degrees!  Soooo happy!

Oh, and we got chicks.  Just in time for Easter! haha.  They are just the cutest things.  And this little guy was a little unsure of being picked up, until I set him on my shirt....then he was as happy as could be, and didn't want to move!  Just another perk of living on a farm!

Happy Easter to you all!  I hope you're enjoying a wonderful long weekend, and are able to spend time with family and friends!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

outfit post: monsieur moustache

You may remember the epic moustache themed party I threw for my birthday!  Well this shirt was one of the amazing gifts I received.  Kelsey noticed that it went perfectly with my red pants, so that is how this outfit was born.

Kelsey was kind enough to do my hair for me, since I completely lack any kind of hair doing skills.

moustache shirt: pac-sun (I think!)  // red pants: Sirens // converse: hand me down

The dog in the photo was adorable!  I wish I could have taken it home with me :)

I feel like this outfit represents my personality perfectly!!  It shows off my love for novelty items and bright pops of colour, and is balanced with a classic pair of chucks.  

p.s. ♥ jordyn

diy: marbleized Easter eggs

I've moved over to a new blog!  Head over to The Farmer's Daughter for the full post!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

diy : dried flower deco

Today's DIY comes in the form of one of my favourite ways of decorating - dried flowers. Seriously, when you live in a place like Edmonton, where we STILL have a foot of snow on the ground and no sign of spring flowers, you learn to improvise, and dried flowers are an awesome way to add a vintage, romantic touch without spending tons of money.

Drying flowers is the easiest thing to do - truly, take a bouquet or even just a single flower, flip it upside down, and hang it for a couple days until the flower is completely dried out. To make sure your dried flowers still look pretty though, make sure you begin drying out your flowers while they've still got a nice colour and aren't turning brown at the tips. You don't get to enjoy your fresh flowers for quite as long if you're planning on drying, but you'll have gorgeous dried flowers to decorate your place with!

*friendly tip: if you're drying a bouquet of flowers, wrap a piece of lace around the elastic that's holding your flowers together!

After your flowers are dried, don't feel like they have stay hanging! Add fun touches like putting them in vintage teacups, old milk glasses, mason jars, glass soda bottles, or in unique vases.  

Aren't these lovely?! And yes, I'm a little obsessed with drying flowers, pressing flower petals, etc. They are literally all over our apartment :) As much as I absolutely love (and prefer) having fresh, living flowers, dried flowers are just so romantic and have the added benefit of decorating your space for a very small cost, lasting forever, and keeping you sane through those long winter....and spring months ;) haha!

p.s. ♥ clara

tasty tuesday: Easter egg bird's nest cupcakes (with toasted coconut nests!)

Is it just me?  Or is Easter supremely early this year?

I can't believe it's just around the corner!  And that means that school is done for me....potentially forever!  Which is both scary and exciting!

Back to the food.  I was inspired by Martha Stewart's version of bird nest cupcakes...and put my own spin on it.  There's cake, toasted coconut, and chocolate.  'Nuff said.

Easter Egg Bird's Nest Cupcakes

Materials:
-cupcakes (doesn't matter what kind....chocolate, mocha, vanilla, brown sugar, etc.)
-icing (again, it doesn't matter! whatever suits your fancy. here's the recipe for our classic buttercream) *your icing should also be pretty soft so that the coconut will stick!
-shredded coconut
-mini eggs

Directions:
Bake your cupcakes and let them cool completely.  Also get your icing ready to go!
Then, place your shredded coconut onto a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes (or until nice and golden!).  While your coconut is cooling, ice your cupcakes and top them with your mini eggs.  Finally, sprinkle/press the toasted coconut onto the remaining icing, forming the nest.

{next time I'll probably pipe a small amount of icing in a circle around the mini eggs in order to build up the "nest" around them...but either way looks great!}

I also chose to make a few of these cupcakes without the coconut since I know that not everyone's a fan, and they still look cute!

 For me Easter means much more than the Easter bunny and chocolate eggs, but it's still fun to participate in a bit of the frivolity of the season!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

weekly wrap-up: fish, friends, and moustache shoes

These are a pair of the wonderful moustache shoes that I received for my birthday from my good friend Ashley.  I figured they were perfect for my adventure to Ninja Sushi this week!

Unfortunately my summer book club was not able to continue (not) reading books in fall and winter, and we hadn't all been together for about 6 months!  But this weekend the stars aligned and we were all free on the same night.  So we decided to celebrate by stuffing our faces with delicious Japanese food.

As you can see, we are a very mature group of young adults.

This was my food, as you see, I probably ate the equivalent of an entire fish.  Though it was tuna, and I don't think I ate an entire tuna.  But I may have also "helped" other people finish their sashimi...

I have missed this group of people so much!  Things like this picture kept happening right as our waitress would walk by, so I am positive we made some kind of impression.  Some kind.

I hope that book club will be able to meet again soon, we were definitely long overdue for a night of hilarity!

p.s. ♥ jordyn

outfit post : dreaming of spring

Today's outfit post comes from me dreaming of spring.... which will be a long long time away for us poor souls here in Edmonton because we just got a FOOT of SNOW two days ago!  =(  I know. Way to ring in the spring! Anyways, here it is, lovely butterfly prints, bring colours of mint & purple, and representing Alberta with some leather cowboy boots! 

Top:  Garage   |    Jeans: Winner   |   Belt: Banana Republic   |    Ring: Aldo   |   Cowboy Boots: Spring

p.s. ♥ clara

happy world water day!

Happy World Water Day friends! 

As a political science student, specializing in International Relations and Peace & Conflict Studies, and as a wife to a civil engineer who specialized in water, I have a keen interest in global issues - one of which is our diminishing water supply. So here's 10 facts from the UN's World Water Day website that you should know about water to keep you thinking about one of the most precious resources in the world and what our role is in being responsible stewards with it!

1.  World Water Day has been celebrated since March 22, 1993

2.  85% of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet.

3.  783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.

4.  6 to 8 million people die annually from the consequences of disasters and water-related diseases.

5. Various estimates indicate that, based on business as usual, ~3.5 planets Earth would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of the average European or North American.

6. Pollution knows no borders either. Up to 90% of wastewater in developing countries flows untreated into rivers, lakes and highly productive coastal zones, threatening health, food security and access to safe drinking and bathing water 

7. Over 80% of used water worldwide is not collected or treated.

8. Water availability is expected to decrease in many regions. Yet future global agricultural water consumption alone is estimated to increase by ~19% by 2050, and will be even greater in the absence of any technological progress or policy intervention.

9. Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources. Agriculture accounts for ~70% of global freshwater withdrawals (up to 90% in some fast-growing economies).

10. About 66% of Africa is arid or semi-arid and more than 300 of the 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live in a water-scarce environment – meaning that they have less than 1,000 m3 per capita.

p.s. ♥ clara

inspired by: youtube

A few years ago I was really involved with the Youtube community.  And when I say really involved, I mean sat in my bedroom alone watching youtube videos, or making them.

I wasn't obsessed with cute cat videos, or people injuring themselves, I loved watching vloggers (or video bloggers).  I wanted to be a famous vlogger myself, but eventually stopped striving for fame and gathered a quirky following of about 500.

I haven't been making videos as much in the past couple of years, but it is something I really want to get back into.  When creating original content and posting it on the internet, especially on a site like youtube, it is easy to get discouraged.  Everybody wants something different from you, and you can lose sight of why you started making stuff in the first place.

Equipment and time limit the quality of work you put out, and often things don't turn out quite how you  had intended.  Comments like "SOOOO MUCH FAIL!" and "This was horrible I would have rather been Rick-Rolled." tend to make you cautious of what you put out, but eventually you learn to deal with the bad, because often, there are ten times more comments like "You guys are artists and amazing." and "In a word BRILLIANT!!" and "i really LOVE your videos ! i have probably watched this video over like 20 times and it still makes me laugh :)".  

 Lately due to time constraints, and the busyness that is life, I have moved away from making videos for fun, and focused mostly on contracted wedding videos.  However, I think I am ready to get back in the game.  I recently been watching videos that have inspired me in the past, and I am getting the filming itch again.

I have about a month left of school, but once I am out I am positive that I will pick up my camera and get back in the video making game.  I wanted to share with you guys some of the videos that have inspired me so much

Nanalew - one of my favourite youtubers:

This awesome music video:

Levi Beamish's Portrait:

p.s. ♥ jordyn

tasty tuesday: salted caramel pretzel cookies

Are you ready for a recipe that will change your life?
I think I made these cookies about 3 times the very first week I discovered/created this recipe!

The pretzels are what really make these cookies special.  

The salty sweet combination of pretzels and chocolate makes me want to do the happy dance!

Throw in some toffee bits, and I am 100% sold.

So you may be saying "But Jordyn, pretzels in my cookies?  I thought pretzels were just for munching on while drinking beer, or even better, diet Dr. Pepper!"

(Was anyone else thinking that, or just me?  I'm pretty sure Dr. Pepper and pretzels is the superior pretzel/carbonated beverage combo!)

If you are a little hesitant to put pretzels in your cookies, you are not alone.  But I must ask you to trust me on this one.  I promise you will not be sorry.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Cookies

inspired by this recipe on Sugar Cooking

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/4 tsp. of baking soda
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips*

1/2 cup SKOR toffee bits

1/2 cup broken up pretzel piece (plus extra for the top)

Preztel Salt or Sea Salt

*you may be able to tell that in the photos I used regular sized chocolate chip, and I used a whole cup.  I found that this made the cookies have trouble sticking together, there were too many goodies, and not enough dough.  So the next time I made them I substituted the whole cup of chocolate chips for 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips, it worked like a charm!

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, mix together the butter and both sugars.
2) Add in your eggs and vanilla, and mix until nice and fluffy.
3) Mix in the salt and baking soda.
4) Add in the flour.
5) Stir in the chocolate chips, toffee bits, and pretzels
6) Scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet (using a silpat on your cookie sheet is best!).
7) Press more pretzel pieces onto the tops of your cookies if you so desire.
8) Sprinkle pretzel salt or grind sea salt on top of the cookies as well.
9) Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Toffee bits always make an awesome addition to chocolate chip cookies.  There is just something about the way they caramelize that adds something special.

In this case the combination of toffee, chocolate, and pretzel create a little piece of cookie heaven!

Adding extra pieces of pretzels on top of the cookie really lets your taste tester (cough cough, or you know, you) know what they are getting into.  It screams "I'm a pretzel cookies, and you should probably eat the heck out of me!!!"
  It is the perfect way to complete these cookies, and guarantees that everybody will get a piece of crunchy pretzel in their cookie!

Please, if you like the salty/sweet combination you MUST try these cookies.  Everyone around you will thank you.  They are definitely my new go to cookie recipe.  I even have friends from school requesting them before class!

Also big thanks to Kelsey who took all these amazing photos!!

p.s. ♥ jordyn