As I mentioned in a post a while ago, there is a fabulous cupcake shop that just opened down the street from me.  Wayyyyy to close for comfort for the sake of my hips.  😉  But a delicious and cute little store nonetheless.  It’s called the Cupcakerie and shares the spot with Jacks Snacks which is a dog bakery.  It is right on Broad Ave basically across from the William Hall Public Library.  We love it because not only does it sell delicious (and pretty!) cupcakes, but it sells VEGAN cupcakes!!!  With Nolan’s egg allergy, being able to buy him a cupcake is a huge deal!

I stopped in on Wednesday to pick up a few cupcakes for the purpose of devouring them after dinner photographing them for the blog.  Really, it was for the sake of the blog.  I swear.  But the real reason that I did it regardless of my stomach’s craving for them, was to have some photos of what you could have yourself!!  Because I have decided to give away for fun a $25 gift certificate to the store!  This gets you almost ten cupcakes!!  That’s enough for two or three weekend night treats for the family.  (I would never ever suggest that the winner save all of the cupcakes for themselves with perhaps a cup of coffee on a lunch break for a few weeks  No, not at all.)

To win, simply leave a comment below with your favorite flavor of cupcake (any cupcake, you don’t have to have been to their shop before)!  I’ll select a random winner on Sunday night so you have until then to enter.  A few of our favorites are below – from L-R – Elvis Velvet, Vegan and Chocolate Zinger (orange flavored)   Keep in mind that I am not a product photographer so the group photo is a bit soft 😉

*Please note, you should only enter if you are willing to drive to Cranston to get them 🙂  These are not mail-able!

Good luck!!

A while ago I started doing “Things I am Liking” for posts on here.  Then I got away from it for a long time.  Nowadays I have found a few different people and shops to highlight instead.  Today is a combination of the two 🙂  I have a new thing  that I looooove.  I cannot express my love for it enough.  And it comes from a wonderful shop on Etsy called “a la mode stuff.”  A la mode is run by the awesome Linda Demers and is based right here in Rhode Island.  (I met Linda at an event a month or two ago and she is incredibly sweet in real life as well!)  Her shop is a delicious mixture of fun things – from jewelry to custom (fun) switch plates to seat belt bags.  Seat belt bags you ask?  Yes.  Seat belt bags.  And that is where my love comes in full force.  For I own one of these delicious bags.  They are made from repurposed seatbelts.  Literally, these are seatbelts (she terms them “post-industrial scraps”) from cars that were destined for the trash / landfill but have been recycled into modern day beautiful products.

I have not carried a real purse in close to five years.  I fell into the trap of carrying a diaper bag everywhere.  About two years ago I finally invested in a cute small leather bag from Nine West that was on sale because if I ever went anywhere without a child I would undoubtedly panic about the fact that I did not HAVE a purse and would end up just carrying my wallet.  I was a sad, sad case of mommy.  And then I stumbled upon a la mode stuff.  And I found her bags.  And I fell in love.  I got the chocolate brown woven envelope clutch with a copper handle.  It has a magnetic snap closure and the cool part is that as I have the purse and as I carry it, the copper handle will naturally patina so the look will always change.

When I opened the package I immediately felt prettier and more stylish.  For the first time in a long time, I felt like an adult and not just a mommy.  And when we went out to dinner with friends a few nights later, I eagerly grabbed my bag (which by the way holds a full wallet, cell phone and lip gloss easily) and headed out the door.  It’s silly, possibly, to feel like a bag can make you better, but eh, maybe it’s something just a woman understands.  So go and check out her store.  There are a few more things I am also lusting over if anyone needs a gift for their favorite photographer 😉

You can find Linda’s work at:

http://www.alamodestuff.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/alamodestuff

http://www.facebook.com/alamodestuff

Today I decided to highlight one of my favorite products.  These are my 8×8 and 10×10 coffee table albums.  If you don’t want to go all the way with a flushmount album (similar to a wedding album) for your family photos, but want to show off the photos from your session in one place, the coffee table album is the way to go!   It is a leather cover in your choice of several different colors and the photos are printed right onto the pages themselves.  You can do a photo that takes an entire page (called a full bleed) or have a designed layout with text and photos.  A light texture is applied to the pages (you can see in the top right photo) which gives it a really nice finish.  This is also a lay flat album which means exactly what it says – it will lay flat on the table when opened.  This is a great product and a phenomenal way to have all of the photos from your session!!