Happy Halloween!!

Fourth of July

You have to love patriotic desserts. Hope everyone had a fun and safe fourth. I made some square sugar cookies that I frosted altogether with a lemon cream cheese frosting and decorated with some patriotic fruit. Looked great. Tasted great!

Featured on Style me Pretty!!

This literally made my day! One of my best friends was married back in November, first of all I was so excited for her upcoming nuptials and to be a part of the wedding, and then to add to all that greatness she was so sweet to ask me to make desserts for the wedding. We always loved to bake together so it meant a lot to me to make treats for her wedding.  Things just seem to get better and better when I hear that this wedding was featured on Style me Pretty and that Kravings got a shout out!! Amy Jo the photographer took some gorgeous photos of the wedding and these are two with my desserts in them.

I made oreo sandwich cookies (with some gold sprinkles), banana sandwich cookies and snickerdoodles. It was so exciting to see people enjoying the treats that I made, I truly love this stuff!

Check the wedding out on Style me Pretty!

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2014/06/02/glittering-seaside-wedding-in-newport-beach/

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these back around the release of the second Hunger Games. I asked one of my friends what kind of cookies I should make for the midnight movie premier that we were going to. His reply was "Katniss Cookies." This is what I decided to make to be the Katniss Cookies.

Enjoy. 

And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Mix together:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, soft

1 1/4 cup  dark brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

Add:

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

1/4 t. cinnamon

Mix in after sifting together:

2 cup all-purpose flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

Add:

3 cups oatmeal (whole oats)

1/2 to 3/4 of pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

Optional- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Bake 350* for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

*This is the original recipe but I added another 1/4 t. of cinnamon, 1 cup less of oats, and added both semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. 

Tell me how it goes if your try the recipe!!

More than just Cookies

So my favorite things to bake are cookies and especially sandwich cookies. Someone asks and I will whip a whoopie cookie right up. However, over Thanksgiving weekend I wanted to make something new and different than the traditional pies that are commonly eaten over Holidays. I decided to make this Pear Cranberry Slab Pie from Martha Stewart. It was delicious! I plan on saving this recipe and hopefully one day soon making it into a more individual smaller pies.

http://www.marthastewart.com/1035237/pear-cranberry-slab-pie?center=0&gallery=1042732&slide=%3Fxsc%3Dsoc_pin_2013_11_20_Holiday_Thanksgiving_B&1035237&crlt.pid=camp.js9YduSGpAay

I luckily was able to share my creation with some of my family and friends, and it was a huge success. You should try it, or ask me to make it for you sometime, I don't think you'll regret it!

Pictures below..

And of course Martha's picture of the final project, mine got eaten up before I had a chance to snap a picture.

Man I wish I had a food stylist on hand. And a ladder. And a pro photographer. 

xoxo,

kravings

Introducing kravings!!

Daddy Kim turned the Big 6-0!!

Love my family, just some pictures to show how much I love them and what a great time we had!

banana coconut bread…mmmmm..

all i want to do is bake. i'm trying out new recipes and i am really happy with the way this one turned out. thought i would share this mmmmm sweet picture.

All love

I've been listening a lot to Ingrid Michaelson, all her matter of the heart songs. This one below is called All Love, the lyrics aren't anything special, but I love LOVE and this song is all love, it's all my stupid love.

When I push the sheets away

From your face and watch you sleep all day here

And when I push you away

And say you simply cannot stay here

It's all love, all love

It's all of my stupid love

When I say you take away

The most important parts of me with you

And when I've had the grayest day

You add more gray, that's just your way, it's true

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all of my stupid love

You can't be the one to kill the pain anymore

You let me in but then you slam my fingers in the door

I've had enough but I keep asking you to give me more

When I say that there's no way

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all of my stupid love

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all love, all love, oh

It's all of my stupid love

this is how i feel about politics.

Okay so this is not how I fully feel about politics but I do feel that with Obama winning this election I want to leave the country and just go travel. Mostly I want to travel. But I guess even though I am disappointed with this election and another four years of Obama, I still want to stay in my country and support America.

God bless America.

I think we'll really need it now.

rhett butler

i have never been so in love with a fictional character. that is before rhett butler. i don't think i've ever been in love with a character in a book. there are the twi hards that love edward or jacob and then there are even the classics like Mr. Darcy. but yeah those guys do nothing for me. i guess the love did start from a young age watching the Gone with the Wind movie, i mean who doesn't love clark gable! now i just recently finished reading the book, which was quite the challenge for me since one it is a marathon and then two when i've seen the movie it's hard for me to read the book since i feel that i already know what is going to happen. i just loved the book and i just love rhett butler and scarlett o'hara. especially at first scarlett,  she is such the heroine for me because of how strong she is and the things that she fights for. i loved how she would start to worry about things and then she would have to get it out of her head, "i can't think about that now, i'll think about that tomorrow." i guess in the book she did start to bother me because she became a very frustrating person to the ones that loved her, including myself. and by the ones that love her i mean rhett butler. these two just break my heart, that they just can't seem to work things out. why won't you two just talk to each other and tell each other how you really feel!!! anyways back to rhett… i guess i just love love! rhett loves scarlett, rhett loves bonnie. and nothing is more important than his love for them.

i don't think i'm much of a crier, ha maybe i am, but i was literally reading my book in the park and crying! i'm such a sap for this story, for scarlett, for melanie and oh my for rhett!

to rhett with much love.

i got you the best present because i love you the most.

I love my little nieces, they are the best, and they definitely deserve to be spoiled. It's pretty great to see the presents in use! June the girl who is obsessed with princesses right now just really deserved a tiara for her 2nd birthday! Kirsten tells me that she wears it at least once a day. It's the best to see her reaction when you tell her, "you look just like Cinderella!"

Bev is just the sweetest. And that picture of her cuddling the little present I got her is so so sweet! 

Love my little babies!

sweet mother teresa

My sweet mother teresa! How I love her so much! I don't think I appreciate this woman enough for all she has done for myself and my family. I gave a lesson today in church and I decided to give a Mother's Day reference by saying that my Mother has been a missionary to me. Even though she did not serve a church mission, she has set a wonderful example for me, she has taught me how to make good choices, how to trust in the Lord etc. She was a big part of my conversion to the gospel, and I am so grateful for her part in that.

I love my Mom and I feel so blessed to have her in my life in such a big and great way.

This song is from Peter Pan (silly I know but it came to my head this morning) Wendy sings it to the Lost Boys. After reading it, I fully agree my Mother is all this and more. I hope to be a mother like her when I have children of my own.


Well a mother, a real mother, is the most wonderful person in the world;
She's the angel voice that bids you goodnight
Kisses your cheek, whispers, "Sleep tight."

Your mother and mine
Your mother and mine

The helping hand that guides you along
Whether you're right, whether you're wrong

Your mother and mine
Your mother and mine

What makes mothers all that they are?
Might as well ask, "What makes a star?"
Ask your heart to tell you her worth
Your heart will say ,"Heaven on earth."
Another word for divine,
Your mother and mine.


My mother is the glue to my family, I love her oh so very very much.

sing song sing..

I love Ingrid Michaelson, and I am loving her new album Human Again. This album is great but I especially loved Ribbons, This is War, In the Sea, Black and Blue, End of the World and I could pretty much name the whole album ha. Also Madewell gave a playlist to their subscribers and I am so glad they did because I love the son On my Shoulders by The Do, I've probably listened to the song almost a hundred times. At first I thought it was weird and then I just fell in love. Why does that always seem to happen with some of my favorite songs? At first I find it a strange song and then it just sinks into my soul and I'm in love ha. Lets see I'm also liking Fun's newest album and a song that I picked up for an old Gossip Girl episode, Down by the Water by The Drums.

I think I listen to music too much… is that possible? I guess I should have more quite pondering time… but then that just turns in to nonsense thinking haha, music it is. Going to sing song sing all the day long lalalalalalalalalalala.

taylor and burton

So I just finished reading Furious Love, a book about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and their great love stories.

These two lived a crazy lifestyle, and they had many many up and downs but from this book it seemed like they really really loved each other.

I kind of have this obsession with love letters, and this book just amplified it. Richard Burton wrote many love letters to Elizabeth. He was quite the writer and the way he expressed himself and his love for Elizabeth is just so beautiful.

This is the last page of the book:
"But then again, Elizabeth knew something about love letters. She received her last one in Bel Air. Richard had mailed it on August 2, 1984, so it arrived a few days after his death. It was waiting for Elizabeth when she returned from London, after attending Richard's memorial service there. It was his final letter to her, the one he had slipped away to write in his study at Celigny, surrounded by his books. It was a love letter to Elizabeth, and in it he told her what he wanted. Home was where Elizabeth was, and he wanted to come home. She's kept that letter by her bedside ever since.


A love for love letters.

Oh also fun fact, the term paparazzi could possibly be because of these two. So these two scandalously fell in love in Rome while filming Cleopatra. The Italian photographers were around them constantly trying to get a photograph of the two, they were as if annoying insects following them everywhere. The Italian word paparazzo means oversized insect/mosquito… paparazzi.

quatre

wild wandering child. this girl right here. till the day i die.

beautiful baby bev

Baby Bev is here and she is the cutest! These are cute little pictures done by Aimee Westcott.

Her nicknames so far are little peanut and little piglet! Unofficially of course..

She likes to eat a lot but she is still pretty skinny aka I want her to be chubby. I love how she sticks her tongue out a lot.  I just love her! 

eames

"take your pleasures seriously" -charles eames

trois

i love furniture finds. one day. when i have a home of my own. (one day, hoping ha).  i can't wait to find unique pieces of furniture, or run down pieces that you can turn into a project. i really like this piece that you would think normally be, i don't know a tv stand, but they've painted yellow yet keeping its vintage feel and using it for linens and other extras for the bathroom. well here is to one day, and a future home of  design projects.

another sweet nothing of today is i am going to attempt to sew. one of my aunts is a great seamstress and she is kind enough to let me watch her sew as well as mentor me so that i can hopefully learn this fine art of sewing. 

wish me luck.

duex

O' how I love flowers. 

I know last time I shared a song from Of Monsters and Men, but please also check out Dirty Paws. Another pretty song.

My guilty pleasure song that I will freely admit is Selena Gomez Love you Like a Love Song Baby, thank you sisters.

She knew she had changed too, but not as they had changed, and it puzzled her. She sat and watched them and she felt herself an alien among them, as alien and lonely as if she had come from another world, speaking a language they did not understand and she did not understand theirs. Then she knew that this feeling was the same one she felt with Ashley, with him and with people of his kind and they made up most of her world she felt outside of something she could not understand. 

--Gone with the Win/d

O' and the best news of this post. Beverly Faulkner was born! She was born a beautiful, healthy and long baby on February 7, 2012. So happy to be so close to her!