Green, Brown, and Champagne Wedding

I had a blast working with the couple for this wedding. The bride's easy-going nature made things less stressful. Compliments from the groom were an added bonus. I wish they would have another wedding as I work with them all over again :D

SparkleArts work - silk flower bouquets, boutonnieres, "Here comes the bride" sign, aisle runner monogram, guest book table decor, cake table decor, and high table decor.

Amazing pictures taken by Mason Summers. Check out his website to see his portfolio. 

SparkleArts Welcomes JJ

It's with great glee and pleasure to announce that my sister JJ has joined the SparkleArts team. 

Together we hope to expand SparkleArts and its clientele. 

In the mean time here is a sample of some of her work.

Thanks dad for modeling :D

Military Wedding

Who doesn't love anything military? I certainly love the military, navy, army, coast guard.. you name it. These men and women sacrifice their lives for our freedom and for that we are thankful! 

When the bride asked me to do her wedding bouquets, she wanted them to compliment her husband's uniform. I suggested having bright colored bouquets to contrast the blue bridesmaid dresses. So we settled on having yellow and white flowers for the bridesmaid to go along with the yellow stripe on the military uniform.

The bride wanted callalillies and some "bling" for her bouquet. This was a challenge as I was working with silk callalillies with hard as rock stems. A balanced touch of bling was achieved by adding some in the flowers and using glitter ribbon underneath the pearl bouquet wrap. 

Hake Fillet With Peach Salad

Last week I took on the challenge of cooking hake fillets. The challenge was cooking fish that I have never heard of. So Google to the rescue - Hake is a white fish that is the same as cod and haddock. In some parts of the East Coast it used to be called "trash fish" because few people wanted to eat it. TRASH FISH??? I don't like the sound of that!!!! 

Anyway, I wanted a unique recipe instead of the usual olive oil, lemon, bake combo. I found a recipe that I tweaked to accommodate what I had on hand - Hake with Hazelnuts and Capers.

I followed the recipe exactly but change a few things here and there. Scroll to the bottom for the peach salad recipe.

Preserving Herbs

Hello there foodie. I don't know about you but I get really frustrated during winter when I cannot get fresh, tasty, juicy fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Grocery store produce during that time tastes watery and bland to me. At the same time, trying to to eat healthy can be quite expensive especially when I add "organic" into the mix. So over the years I have been searching for alternatives without having to burn a hole in my pocket.  

Welcome farmer's markets and farm picking!!!!

Purchasing fresh vegetables from local farmer's markets has been such a joy and pleasure. This summer I also picked fresh fruits from several farms in the area.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like eating fresh fruit directly from the tree. It gives me a sense of awareness of what is going into body and I feel great!! (See why here Natural/Organic Fever). I feel like the grocery stores have been ripping me off and keeping me away from the sweet delicacies. 

At my last farmer's market haul, I went all crazy and bought quite a bit of fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, tarragon). I soaked the cilantro and dill with the other purchases in a vinegar/water solution.