*We are working behind the scenes on an updated version of our blog. Blog 2.0, if you will. Bear with us as posting will be light for the next week or two as we work to get everything transitioned and ready. We’ve been wanting to do this for a while and finally got the chance. The new blog will have lots of new features (including having Nate writing more!), a new look, and will make it easier for you to read along and comment. :)

In leu of Five Senses Friday, I thought I’d sing you the ABC’s instead….

A – Age: I’m 24. Nate is 26. I’ve decided that I’m going to have a big birthday party this year (quarterlife crisis and all). And rum cake. Definitely rum cake.
B – Bed size: Queen. One day I’d love to upgrade but right now buying a new mattress is low on the priority list. (Directly under file receipts and go to the dentist.)
C – Chore you hate: We both hate vacuuming. Which is handy since we just moved into a condo with zero carpet. Victory dance!
D – Dog’s name: Between the condo association’s rules and our busy schedule, we just can’t swing it right now.
E – Essential start your day item: Coffee with delicious creamer. My favorite is the Belgium Chocolate Tofee. Nate likes Vanilla.
F – Favorite color(s): Right now I’m loving jewel tones and neutral earthy colors. Nate loves royal blue.
G – Gold or Silver: Neither of us wear a lot of jewelry.
H – Height: I’m 5′3 and Nate is 6′2.
I – Instruments you play: Nate is an amazing drummer. Melt-your-face-off-amazing. Not even kidding.
J – Job title: CEO ;)
K – Kitchen wish list: A magnetic knife strip. Those are fancy.
L – Living arrangements: Currently in a small condo in downtown Orlando.
M – Moment you’ll never forget: Nate stealth-proposing on our cruise ;)
N – Nicknames: I just realized that I haven’t called Nate by his old nickname in about a year. What happened to that?
O – Overnight hospital stay: I’ve never been in the hospital *knock on wood like 15 times*
P – Pet Peeve(s): Double standards. Can’t even stand em. Oh and passive aggression, seriously just tell us what’s wrong.
Q – Quote: “When life hands you lemons, make grape juice. Then sit back and watch the world wonder how you did it.” That was my daily mantra for over a year! I still love it.
R – Right or left handed: Right.
S – Siblings: Me-None Nate- 1 sister
T – Time you wake up: Too early because Nate sets his alarm to go off every 15 minutes starting an hour and a half before he actually needs to be up. (See the coffee response listed above)
U – Underwear: Under there!
V – Vegetable you dislike: Okra. Nate hates green beans. Even though I make the most AMAZING green bean casserole, he refuses to eat it. Seriously people, it’s divine.
W – Workout style: Running, wii fit, yoga
X – X-rays you’ve had: Teeth? I don’t know about Nate. Does that make me a bad fiance?
Y – Yesterday’s best moment: Nate cleaned the kitchen (which was a war zone) and made us both the most delicious pasta dinner ever. There was a picture on twitter.
Z – Zoo favorite(s): We both love animal watching. And taking our cameras! Zoo date anyone?

Love and FRIDAYS,
Becka & Nate

Quality time ensued…

“Can I mix it now?”
“No you can’t mix it with all the flour in it. You have to use the wooden spoon.”
“Why?”
“Could you imagine what it would look like to put those spinning beaters in this bowl of flour? POOF! (I then begin miming an epic flour explosion with my hands and face.) Is this your first time baking?”
“No, I baked with my mom when I was little.”
“Was your favorite part mixing with the beaters?”
“No, she wouldn’t let me do it.”
“Why?”
“Because I always made a big mess.”
“Makes sense.”

“Did you like the ice cream and the cookies?” I asked.
“They were my second favorite.” He replied.
“Which one was your second favorite?”
“Both… My favorite part of the night was just spending time with you.”

We thought we’d share the ice cream recipe because it was really fantastic. It is from the show Everyday Italian by Cutie McCuteface, Giada De Laurentiis.

Ingredients:
2 c. whole milk
1 c. heavy cream
3/4 c. sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. Nutella

1. In a saucepan combine the milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar over medium heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves, (about 5 minutes).

2. In a medium bowl beat the egg yolks with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar using an electric mixer until the eggs have become thick and pale yellow (about 4 minutes).

3. Pour 1/2 cup of the warm milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture and stir. Add this mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, (about 7 to 10 minutes).

4. Place a strainer over a medium bowl and pour the warm custard mixture through the strainer. Stir in the vanilla and Nutella until it dissolves. Chill mixture completely before pouring into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions to freeze. (You cam make it without an ice cream maker. Just pour the mix into a container and freeze 6-8 hours, stirring every few hours.)

Love and desserts,
Becka & Nate

I squeeled with delight as soon as I saw the buttons of the darling packaging. Nate looked at me in confusion. “Those are Anthropologie buttons!” I squeeled again, “I’d know them anywhere!” (I imagine that I respond to Anthropologie buttons the same way most women respond to the infamous blue Tiffany’s box.) An engagement gift?! Bonnie and Steve, you melt my heart with your thoughtfulness!

stock image from anthropologie.com

How absolutely and utterly fantastic are these towels? There are three and they are embroidered with little birds falling in love, getting married, and then having little birdlets. I just love them. Related: Anthropologie revamped their website recently. It looks great. Check it out: Anthro.

Love and presents,
Becka & Nate

So when my dear new friend, Trisha Hay, the creative genius behind Trisha Hay Design and the author of Black White Bliss told me that she wanted to have a young professionals get together, I was all about the idea. As far as I knew, there wasn’t any sort of get together like this in town. Most the networking groups are filled with older, very established business owners and the entire meeting is solely for getting your name out there amongst the others. A vision developed for something less “What can you do for me?” and something more “We’re in this together”.

Anna Bond, of Rifle Design, hosted the first meeting at her soon-to-be open to the public studio in Winter Park. Nick of Mama’s Sauce print shop provided some amazing baked goods from Davis Bakery and gave us a tour of the Mama’s Sauce back of house, showing us all how intricate of a process letter press printing really is. And he ran a short run of these adorable little cards designed by Anna:

Other young professionals in attendance included:
Sarah and Lisa of Orange Blossom Ink
Fiona of Anavi Ink
Grace of Grace Edmands Calligraphy
Ashley of Ashley Brooke Designs
Monica of BoomBox Bindery

I was so excited to get to see some of my friends from the Blogging Bootcamp again. We’re becoming quite the little bunch :)

After the get together ended a few of us spent the next few hours chatting over Gurtzberry about business, life, and Robert Pattinson. I had such a fantastic time and I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten to know some of these young women better recently. It’s such a wonderful feeling to sit down with someone and have them completely understand what you’re going through. Starting a business is a crazy rollercoaster ride. And making new creative, business-savvy friends who understand it all is priceless.

There is something that we all share. An experience so organic that every human being can understand it because they have all felt it. It is that moment when you put yourself out there and wait…

As someone chasing her dreams down on a daily basis, I’m smacked in the face with this experience every few minutes, like sets of waves crashing in on me and never ceasing. I know I am not alone. As photographers, we wear our hearts on our sleeves (or blogs, or websites….) because we wear it through our art. And that is a good thing, because everyone needs an artist that is as emotionally invested in the process as they are. And that is something that, for someone as emotionally invested as I am, can be continually terrifying.

I wanted to share a song with you all that has become extremely dear to my soul. It’s by an amazing artist named Amy Seeley. I think that Amy’s lyrics speak beautifully to anyone that is pursuing a dream or a goal or is putting themselves out there for the world. Artists, dream-chasers, and everyone in between… know that everything that you dream is beloved. Have a wonderful weekend.

*lyrics by Amy Seeley

The living room was pretty much designed based on our curtains. You can’t see it really but they have a subtle graphic leaf design. It’s just an outline and we loved the simplicity of it. We carried it over into the rug, the lampshade, and the throw pillows which all have graphic designs with interesting line patterns. Since drumming is one of Nate’s passions we added his red jimbay for a bit of color and a vase filled with old drumsticks.

We both fell in love with a silver lamp that was way out of our budget. I found this little guy at Urban Outfitters on sale for nine dollars and we topped it off with a shade from Target. Voila!! I bought Nate those Scrabble coasters from an artist on Etsy because it is his favorite board game and he’s unimaginably good at it. And last but not least, my beloved Anthropologie candle. Best purchase ever!

A bubbly throw blanket from Ikea added the perfect bit of texture to the overall smooth feel of the furniture. Plus, it’s ridiculously comfortable. Thank God for Ikea!

Since Nate and I are big movie night fans, we wanted a way to display our collection that wasn’t cluttered or an afterthought. We found these Lerberg Shelves at Ikea and decided to turn our DVD collection into a makeshift art installation.

This is a photo that Nate took on our trip to New York City last March. Both of us had such an amazing time that I decided to have this image turned into a canvas as a surprise for him. We decided to hang it right over the TV so that it would be a focal piece in the room and always remind us of the fun we had.

Here is our little dining room. We hardly ever actually eat at the table so its more for show than anything else. (Or to use like a buffet when we entertain.) The faux-brick wall is one of our favorite things about this place. The bricks are actually hand carved into the wall and then hand painted. The painting in the corner is a piece by Emile Bellet called D’or et de Reve and the rug was another score from Urban Outfitters for twenty bucks!

Ikea wine racks decorate the left wall. And no, we aren’t huge Yellow Tail fans, they just happened to be on sale at the store the other day.

This plate is a tradition in Nate’s family. Every year he would get to eat off of it on his birthday and other special occasions. I got my first turn on the plate last year for my birthday. We found the matching mug this year and added it to the collection. Celebratory ice cream anyone? Yes, I think so.

You already saw the kitchen but I had to add this shot because Nate and I love to cook together! That cookbook on display is the absolute best baking cookbook out there! The writers tested every recipe for every dessert and then picked the best one and wrote about why it’s the best. It’s insane. And no, we’re not vegans, but I do like to bake vegan when I can. Keeps the goodies lower in calories anyway. ;)

A few months ago I found a photo of a purple bathroom online and told Nate that I really wanted a purple bathroom one day. Well that day has arrived!

I think our bathroom is Nate’s favorite room in the house. It’s the first thing he shows people when they visit. :)

Studio222 Photography headquarters. I love having an actual office to myself! I feel much more productive. And everything is so much more organized now than it’s ever been! Excuse our mass of hard drive cords. We have yet to organize them all. If anyone has a great system for that, please share it with us because it’s kind of crazy over there right now.

This art piece is on top of the bookshelf. I ordered it about a year ago from My Little Underground. I am still completely in love with it. It’s so creative! And it’s a happy reminder every day to aspire to greatness on our own accord. Plus, did I mention… we’re macs.

This is our little canvas. It’s 8×10 and it’s the one we bring to our client meetings so clients can see and feel how amazing these things are. If you are a client who hasn’t seen one of our canvases in person, you are more than welcome to stop by anytime! The little easel is from ikea. I love ikea.

This little guy sits on the corner of our desk to welcome visitors with some of our business cards. These are our old cards because we just got our new ones in yesterday and I haven’t taken any pictures of them yet. I’m a busy woman. ;)

Last but not least is our tiny little pepper garden on our patio. I surprised Nate with a baby habanero plant last year because he has a ridiculous tolerance for spicy food and loves to add habanero peppers to jars of pickles. Just this summer it started to produce little peppers. I’m not what you would call a “green thumb” so this is a huge accomplishment.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Thanks for all the sweet emails and comments everyone has sent us from the few snapshots
we posted during our move. Your kindness keeps me going on days when I’m about to fall over from exhaustion! What’s your favorite room in your house, and why? And what’s your favorite little design element you’ve added?