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The rules are simple:
- Anyone can participate.
- You’re encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge. Creativity is also encouraged!
- If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I’m not too strict about it – I do my best to take fresh shots).
- Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) – you can use the button above.
- Leave comments for at least five entries around yours (with so many new participants each week, it’s the only way I know to be inclusive
- Have fun!
1. Enjoy a Pumpkin Drink
On Wednesday, I had a long client call. Rather than try to take the call with Felicity playing in the background, I decided to let her play with her best friend, Maddie! Of course, my friend, Michelle was the one who really saved the day…since she was the one actually watching Felicity while I was on the call. Anyways…on our way out to Michelle and Maddie’s house, Felicity fell asleep and I thought I could sneak through the Starbucks’ drive thru for a PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE. She woke up as soon as I placed my order, but I did get my favorite first. I wait for pumpkin spice lattes all year long. I’m sure I could create my own version at home, but there’s something special about ordering it.
Anyways, I quickly drank my pumpkin spice latte before jumping on the call…but I did save my cup to photograph on Thursday morning just as the sun was coming up. I should probably get another one just for good measure. Now, I just need to get my hands on some pumpkin pancakes. YUM!
2. Read a Book
Felicity is still very much in an “eat books” frame of mind. She sees a book and gets excited to taste the spine…and then rip it off. I used to think when I saw my own baby books, that I must have really enjoyed reading them because they looked as though they were falling apart – now I know that I always was a fan of eating my books. Either way, I do try to read to Felicity as much as she’ll allow. We also go to the library twice a week for story time. I don’t know about her, but it’s one of my favorite activities to do each week.
3. Bake (or eat) Something Sweet
Over the past few months, I’ve decided to get domestic. It seems only appropriate since I no longer work outside of the home (minus my photography work). I have found a number of good recipes on Facebook and my latest experiment occurred this week: Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake. It was delicious so give it a try. Here’s the recipe:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a standard tube pan or you can use a bundt pan.
Cake Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup sugar 1 cup sour cream 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder
Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in sour cream. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and add to the wet mix. Beat until just combined.
Streusel Topping: 1/4 cup flour 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/3 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
Make the streusel topping by mixing together the flour, sugars, spices, pecans and melted butter. Mix the streusel ingredients well and set aside.
Sprinkle 1/4 of the streusel mix in the bottom of your pan (When you invert the cake after baking, this will make for a beautiful topping – I didn’t realize this until after I baked mine). Spread half of the cake batter into a greased and floured pan. Sprinkle 3/4 of the streusel mix over the batter and then pour the rest of the batter into the pan. Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Place on cooling rack and then when cool, invert onto plate.
Drizzle (This is optional – I did not include with my cake): 2 tbs unsalted butter 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted or whisked milk (to use as needed)
In a small bowl sift the powdered sugar. Make the drizzle by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and stirring until it just starts to go golden brown. Take off the heat and pour into the powdered sugar. Whisk in the milk a tablespoon at a time until it’s thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over cooled cake.
4. Animal
Last Sunday, I met up with my friend Jenn to capture photos of her…and her fur baby, Jasmine. I posted a few photos of the two on Friday, so be sure to go back and see how our session went. In the meantime, here’s one of my favorite “formal” shots. So beautiful.
5. Artsy
I don’t have many opportunities to get artsy with my editing these days. In fact, I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to tackle this prompt. Then, I spotted a moth on the back of our door wreath thingie. I was bored with the original shot, so I played around with it. I think it looks pretty artsy.
So, what were your interpretations of the items this week? Be sure to load your pictures on your blog (or your Flickr photostream) and link up at the bottom of this post. Feel free to grab a button to display on your blog along with your scavenger hunt items. The linky will be open until Tuesday night at midnight (EST). If you didn’t participate this week, but want to participate next week, here’s your list.
- Something You Wore
- Reflection
- Inside Your Fridge
- Daily Routine
- Morning
If you’d like to contribute items to the list, just send me an email with your suggestions (I can better keep track of them this way). Each week, I will select one reader’s prompt list and give the selected reader a shout out on my blog during Scavenger Hunt Sunday.
