7*1*11

It's July. Jeeez. Finally. Think we can get some decent weather already? Huh?

Well, happy July either way. Go download this amazing calendar of the month from Curiosity Group, a Portland creative company. It's making my cube about a 100 times funner. Awesome.

6*29*11

It's been the usual busy busy business in Verelle's world. And it's all good.

I've been looking for inspiration for the upcoming rebranding of myself and jump into the freelancing world. I really want to focus on wedding invitations and paper goods, as well as baby, and small business branding.

So I've been putting a lot of thought into how the Verelle brand needs to look in order to bring in more clients.

And so here's my smorgasbord of inspiration:

I'm loving light bright colors (although I'm having trouble narrowing just which ones... do I have to?). I'm drawn to fat, loopy fonts. And my branding must include personalization. I love this about my current business cards, and I want to continue it through in my future branding. I'm thinking stamped business cards, and fun folding promotional materials...

6*24*11

I found some gorgeous and massive flowers at New Seasons (our locally owned, over-priced, hippie-friendly grocery store). They were pretty captivating, but I didn't have the moolah to bring them home, so I took a photo. Happy Friday!

6*22*11

Do you ever find yourself thinking of something you saw online, maybe a month or two ago, and you just can't stop thinking about it, but now you just can't find it? This happens to me all the time! With all the blog browsing (and just general browsing :) I do, I am constantly finding neat things, but I'm often at a loss as to how to manage all the neat stuff. It can be so frustrating!

Well, not anymore! I was recently introduced by a client to Pinterest. It is such an amazingly useful and inspiring tool. Here's how it works:

*Find something on the internet that you love

*Click the 'Pin It' button on your bookmarks bar

*Choose a photo and category for your link

*The link will show up on your personal Pinterest pinboard

*See other people's pinboards, and share your own!

This is the most effective and way to save, organize, and share links that I like that I've ever seen. Come follow me at Pinterest!

6*20*11

Harmony and Javier got married this weekend! What a beautiful sight to see it all come together!

There was the paper flowers that several of the girls helped make at our craft nights.

There was VooDoo Doughnuts (Harmony loves doughnuts, and I love her for it).

There was really neat straws.

And then there was the buttons I designed (and programs, I'll show those later).

And, of course, the guests of honor themselves, looking quite dashing!

Congrats, sweet friends!!!

6*18*11

Happy (almost) Fathers Day!

Did you know that summer starts on Tuesday!?! Isn't that just crazy, considering the weather we've been having? Well, I'm being optimistic that things are going to start getting warmer. We've been making some investments in our backyard, so lets start thinking warm thoughts so we can start reaping the rewards.

The flora and fauna report:

Our backyard!

We strung some lights a couple weeks ago. I'm not done either. I just love lights in the backyard and I plan to continue the collection.

I feel like every time we go out there, something new is blooming. Whoever lived here before us sure did know whats what about backyard landscaping. Imagine how excited I was when I discovered these blooming peonies! They're so whimsical!

The garden is... coming along... barely. This lack of sun and gangs of slugs haven't done much for my plants, but I'm staying optimistic. My potatoes and peas are doing well! You can see the trellis I built out of bamboo and electrical wire in this photo.

So, you ready to come visit me and my backyard?

I'll make you a mojito! We've got plenty of mint! And after a few of them we might even be able to convince ourselves it's sunny!

6*17*11

I'm lovin Six Word Story Every Day: every day for a year, a six word story was written, then designed (or maybe sometimes designed, then written...?). The result is 365 beautiful short stories.

6*15*11

This weekend, after a long day of working, then a happy afternoon of celebrating my sisters graduation (yay!!!), followed by an evening of socializing with friends from out of town, we slept in really late. Like 8:00. That's really late for me.

I fried up some onions. That lets the people that are still in bed know that something really good is coming.

While onions fried, I grated parmesan and chopped green onions.

Omelets? Nope.

Muffins? Yes. But better.

Egg inside a savory muffin?!? Ohhh yeahhh!!!!

These things are absolutely incredible! I had never heard of them before, but I discovered them in an issue of Edible Seattle when I first visited the city about a year ago. I was intrigued and eager to make them ever since, but somehow it just never happened.

But now... now I'm obsessed! Holy guacamole. I can't stop dreaming up all the different things you could put in these babies! These ones were savory, with caramelized onions, green onions and parmesan cheese.

Other ideas for these muffins:

• broccoli + bleu cheese + caramelized onions
• carrots + maple syrup + pecans
• chard + corn + goat cheese
• What would you put in these?

Sunshine Muffins

adapted from Edible Seattle

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 onion, caramelized and cooled(original recipe calls for 1/2 lb crisp, cooked, chopped bacon)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 7 large eggs
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375.

Grease and flour 6 jumbo muffin cups.

Whisk flour salt, baking powder, and sugar together in a large bowl.

Stir in caramelized onions, green onions, and parmesan.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and 1 egg.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, then add the melted butter.

Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup.

Spread the batter up the sides of the muffin cups, leaving a well in the center.

Crack an egg into the center of each.

Divide the remaining batter among the cups, being sure to cover the yolks.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to remove the muffins, and serve hot.

6*13*11

My friend Michaelene and I made gnocchi the other night. We made both sweet potato and russet potato variations. They turned out absolutely devine, especially with the browned butter and sage. I'm beginning to think I may have been an Italian mother in my past life.

6*10*11

Bikes. I like bikes. And I'm so happy about Pedalpalooza 2011. I plan to partake in as many activities as my schedule will allow.

Food. I also love food. I wish I wasn't flat broke right now, or I'd be all over Portland Dining Month. Throughout the month of June, several of the cities nicest restaurants are offering a 3-course meal for only $25! It's a great way to check out the fancy restaurant that you've always wanted to try, but never had the large inheritance to blow on it.

Pedalpalooza. Portland Dining Month. I think June is my new favorite month.

6*7*11

And here is the AFTER!

We thought that one big, expensive trip to Home Depot would be all we'd need. We'd spend a couple weekends painting the walls, putting in the floors, hanging curtains... boy were we wrong. About 20 trips to home depot, an inch of glue behind the backsplash, several layers of flooring, 5 cans of wall texture spray, a new toilet seat, and 7 weekends later...

...we have a new bathroom!

It's almost done. All that's left is the trim and a new exhaust fan.

We love love love it! It feels like we're stepping into another house when we enter this room.

But I think it's going to be a while before we start on the next project.

6*6*11

Here is the BEFORE.

We have such a teeny tiny little bathroom. And all the smallness wasn't being helped by the large countertop.

We also weren't big fans of the window coverings...

...or the outdated flooring...

...or the giant mirror.

I was getting really frustrated with it all, so I started doing some daydreaming (online shopping). I found lots of cute bathroom stuff that I liked, and layed it all out together in a really rough InDesign page. Then I presented it to Cory.

Later that night we were at Home Depot, and then we went at it for a couple months. Tomorrow I will show you the results of all our hard work!

6*3*11

This is a bachelorette:

Isn't she pretty? I think so.

We threw this bachelorette a party. It had a wine theme. So I made wine cupcakes.

Chardonnay and pear cupcakes to be specific.

They were delicious and fun to make. Cause guess what? You only use about a quarter of that bottle for baking. The rest is for drinking. Win!

Lopsided cupcakes were sprinkled with gold glitter to make them extra glamorous.

Chardonnay Pear Cupcakes

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 cup chardonnay
• 1/2 pear, peeled and finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.

In a small bowl, mix baking powder, flour and nutmeg.

Add dry ingredients to wet.

Add white wine and pear and mix well.

Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 full of batter.

Bake 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Frosting

• 1/2 cup pear juice (I used juice from a can of pears)
• 1/4 cup chardonnay
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Mix the pear juice, chardonnay and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.

Simmer uncovered until the mixture is reduced to 1/4 cup, then set aside to cool.

In a mixing bowl cream tother butter and cream cheese.

Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat well.

Add syrup and beat until incorporated.

Add remaining sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.

Frost yo' cupcakes!

6*1*11

My bestie Scarlett wants to start a company doing office design for small, low-budget, start-ups. I think she's super creative and talented (and smart, and kind, and beautiful...) and would be super successful at pretty much anything, especially this.

So I thought I'd draw up a logo for her future company. This is what we've got so far...