winter

A Walk Through Cranbrook

Floral & Nature

Today was the first day of the rest of my life. 

Without being too cryptic, I’ll say that I did things today that were cathartic and healing and I received messages and support that I needed to hear and I am grateful and thankful for the people in my life that continue to lift me up and make me feel valued. 

That said, I gifted myself an early Christmas gift last month for Black Friday and bought Adobe Creative Cloud and thankfully have Photoshop back! I’ve been tinkering around in it (and Lightroom) but today I spent some time at Cranbrook and came home with a handful of great shots.

While I was there, a lady named Loretta walked up to me and started asking me questions about what I was taking a picture of and showed me some of her photography as well. We ended up spending well over an hour walking the grounds and I learned a lot of fascinating things about the architecture of the surrounding buildings. 

We exchanged  all kinds of stories and life experiences and funny enough, before I left the house I had stuck a few of my business cards in my pocket thinking “you never know who you’ll meet”. She was so interested in my creative pursuits, I ended up giving her one of my cards. Loretta, if you’re reading this, you are an incredible lady and I adore your vivaciousness and thirst for knowledge. 

That said, here are a couple of the photos I took today. The second photo is the last one I took before Loretta took me on a whirlwind tour of the grounds. 

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Christmas Burst Cookies

Viviana's Kitchen

Hey! It’s about that time when you’ll probably be seeing more food photography from me, since the family and I will be cooking up a storm in the coming weeks.

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite super easy cookie recipes that I discovered several years ago. It’s perfect if you’re lazy or need something quick – like I did. I’ve got a Christmas party this weekend, so I made burst cookies in advance today. I even frosted designs on them! Check out the recipe below.

Ingredients
– 1 box cake mix (your choice! I used funfetti and red velvet this time)
– 1 egg, beaten
– 1 8 oz package Cool Whip
– powdered sugar

Directions
1. Combine beaten egg with cake mix.
2. Add Cool Whip and mix well. Dough will be very sticky.
3. Scoop out dough (I used 2 spoons to ball it up) and roll around in powdered sugar, form into a ball.
4. Bake at 350F for 12 minutes.

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Follow me on Instagram @lovelikeangels for more photography. Cheers <3

 

First Snow

Miscellaneous

You know you’re in Michigan when one day you have sunny, relatively “warm” weather for late November (upper 50s!) and the next day THE WRATH OF THE SNOW GODS HAS FALLEN UPON YOU.

That’s what I woke up to this late morning, 15 minutes before I had to be at work (yay not setting alarms!) and left to in the late afternoon. I had a solid 3 inches of snow on my car and there’s a good 5 or 6 inches outside from the snow we got all day.

After putting up our Christmas tree, because this weather is clearly appropriate for it, I threw on my coat, boots, and earmuffs, and ran around outside trying to take pictures of the snow. A little difficult with not a lot of light to work with.

But I got a couple shots I liked. Here’s one of them!

Hoping to take some nice pics tomorrow during the day. I’ll also be at the Detroit Zoo for their first weekend of Wild Lights light exhibit, so I’m planning on working my magic there as well. Anyone else going?

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The Laugh Lines of Roses

Floral & Nature

Goooood morning Detroit!

Nothing gives me more pleasure than getting in the business of flowers. Like this one.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Sunday.

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Stars Shine Brightly

Miscellaneous

Yes, I did start this project a few days into the new year, but I’m ending it today.

It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve been thrilled (and exhausted) to share new and old photos with all of you every day for all of 2014. It was certainly a challenge at times – and yes I did fail to update a few times this year, but all in all, I think it was a successful project that pushed me to really learn my camera and use it.

This blog will definitely not be done, however. Photography is one of my main pillars of artistic release, and I will definitely continue updating with more new content and new adventures, so stay tuned.

Thank you to everyone who has kept up with me along this project, to all of my new followers, and old – I am grateful for your audience and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

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