lynn lost in love

Lynn in Love - Now on Tumblr!

2010-12-28T18:38:00.006-06:00

Hey lovely folks - I've had to step away from personal blogging for quite some time now as to focus on my photography business/blogging. However I've missed it quite a bit! I've heard that tumbler makes it easier to blog little snips at a time - so I'm going to give it a go over there for a while! Would love for you guys to join me! I'm at lynninlove.tumblr.com! See you there!

lynn in love with new little nephews!

2010-07-08T23:05:00.006-05:00

Long time no talk, dear ones! If you want to know a few things I've been up to, head over to the photoblog at lynn in love photo!

Meanwhile, one of the exciting news I have, is that I'm going to have a new little nephew soon! We are all so excited. My lovely big sister is going to have another little boy in a short 3 months! Yesterday we went for a 3D US viewing of the little one! It's so fun to see him hanging and floating around in my sister's belly. Unfortunately, he was very sleepy and simply did not want to be disturbed. We were only able to get one good shot of his face, otherwise he was all curled up in a ball. Still it was so adorable to see him grasping his feet with his little hands, tucking himself in the little ball. Such a miracle is life! Here are some of the pictures!

It's a little hard to make out, but can you see his foot, and him holding his foot? His face? The last picture he has his foot to his face!!

Thaden love his little brother this much!!

lynn in love with birthday parties

2010-06-06T15:22:00.002-05:00

ahh... I have to admit that I LOVE birthday parties... I love being silly and extravagant and wear whatever I want. My husband always teases that I like to drag out my birthday as long as possible :)

This year is no different, and I had such a blast! I threw an old-fashioned birthday party for my dirty 30, complete with streamers, balloons, cake, a photobooth, and a pinata! I loved seeing old and new friends come together. I got to wear a red frou-frou dress with a red tulle petticoat that I would have never been able to wear anywhere else. We ate a finger-food spread and the yummy Berry Chantilly cake from Whole Foods. We played my favorite games Taboo and Cranium and just laughed ourselves silly. Lastly we brought out the cupcake pinata. Man, that sucker was sturdy! It took alot of pounding to finally break it open. All in all, a great time, and I am so thankful to have such great friends to celebrate my birthday with!

lynn in love with birthdays

2010-06-04T13:41:00.004-05:00

Hi darlings... remember little old me? I know I've abandoned this little blog of mine for a while... and while I wish I could come up with great excuse to make it all right, I don't have one.... except that life is going really well and that I'm really happy and busy.

....and I turned THIRTY today! Yup it's my birthday and it's a big one. Honestly, it really pains me to think that I'm this old. I was really caught with lots of anxiety the last past few weeks thinking of things I haven't yet accomplished yet after living the thirty years that God has given me. I think that I don't have a family yet, that I live in an undecorated apartment the same way I did 10 years ago, that I don't have a big name yet in either one of my jobs.

...but then I remembered, so how blessed I really am, just how much I've changed and made huge steps even in this past year. Honestly, I feel more comfortable in my own skin today than I ever have! (isn't that SO cliche?? isn't that what every celebrity says in the magazine when talking about their age? but it's true, it's true!).

and while I still says things like "when I grow up... i'll do this or that..." , I have to remember that I have grown up!

Just a few things that I'm grateful today that I'm accomplished in 30 years.

1. I found and married the love of my life. We have a wonderful marriage and I cannot even fathom how I deserve this.

2. I finished medical school and my internal medicine residency

3. I made life decisions that were hard but was based on what was most important in life, but were against the social norms and meant less income

4. I was able to find a solution to doing both medicine and starting a business that I'm passionate about.

5. I'm still very close to my family

6. I've kept up the faith

7. I've stood up for my principles

8. I have created a life for myself that is full of love and friendship

I cannot wait for the next thirty years!!

Here's a sneak peek of what I have cooking up for my dirty 30 birthday party this weekend!

lynn in love with my mama

2010-05-09T12:13:00.003-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to the best woman I know!

You amaze me everyday.

lynn in love with gold penny

2010-04-27T15:33:00.006-05:00

Okay!! Just one more post that's bicycle related... for now :)

But I just got these beauties in the mail and I'm in love!!

Seriously how darling are these old time Penny bicycle earrings from Polli?! Super cute jewelry store from Australia... lots of delicate earrings and necklaces to choose from. I like perfectly quirky these earrings are!

-- Post From My iPhone

lynn in love with bikes II

2010-04-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

Meanwhile, as I search for my perfect cruiser bike,

I found all these cute bike prints and accessories!!

IN LOVE!!

First off this adorable letterpress print found via ThatWifeBlog made by MaJoie Press!

I ended up buying this one, because it was just perfect for us! In our aqua wedding color with a tandem bike? The actual print is beautiful and I can't wait to display it with our wedding pictures.

picture by Jenna Cole

Next up is this adorable Kate Spade Bike Picnic basket!! Seriously how adorable?? Wouldn't exactly go with my aqua bike. But I don't think I'd care if somebody gifted me with this! :)

Found via You are My Fave,

I found this cute T-shirts and Bike Totes at BMinus.etsy.com

What about these Pantone bikes? Love, but only in Canada in the W. Hemisphere.

Have y'all found any cute bike accessories??

lynn in love with bikes!

2010-04-21T11:25:00.009-05:00

Oh, I've had bikes on the brain for a while now.

I've been obsessed with finding the perfect aqua cruiser forever... for some reason I can't seem to make a decision. Every time, I find a bike I like, I find a reason to be doubtful ("what are those funky hawaiian flower decals on the side?" ,"hmm.. i really wanted a brown leather seat")

Haha... I've taken finding "THE bike" as seriously as finding my wedding dress!

But really, ever since my husband surprised us with a tandem bike getaway on our wedding night, I've been in love with bikes since!

Here are some photographic evidence:

Our wedding night! I'm kinda in love with this picture from Heather Essian.

Yes I don't look like I know what I'm doing. Yes, I am wearing my reception dress and Valentino Heels. Yes I totally bit it 20 seconds after this picture is taken and had a huge bruise on my leg the entirety of our honeymoon!

During our trip to San Franscisco and we biked across to the GG bridge to Sausalito.

and then we rented some sweet red cruisers to bike all around South Congress in Austin

We actually have an awesome bike store in Dallas: http://fleetwoodskitkat.com/ that makes custom Villy custom bikes! Pretty awesome, you can get everything customized down to the rims of your wheels! I would have totally jumped on this option, however, they didn't have the color aqua I wanted. The closest they got is a mint color, which is pretty, but now what I want.

Actually this is the exact bike (except for the rims) that I want! I posted it when back when when I found it via Hilltop glossy

Anybody can help a girl out and help me find this bike in this awesome color??

lynn in love with photos

2010-04-20T19:23:00.002-05:00

Hi y'all!

We had a blast in Disney World! My face got a little too much sun, but we had amazing weather, fun rides and wonderful memories with the family. If you're going to DW, April is definitely the time to visit!

I've been on the go since I've been back, with work and photoshoots and workshops.

But I finally got a new header and have been blogging over at my photo blog-site!

If you want to see what I've been up to, head over there! Lynn in Love Photo

lynn in love with disney world: day 1

2010-04-13T22:37:00.001-05:00

Loveys, Disney World IS the happiest place in the world.

Having a blast with the family day 1 at Magic Kingdom.

-- Post From My iPhone

lynn in love with Florida vacation

2010-04-11T22:04:00.001-05:00

In Orlando, Florida dears! On vacay with the family.

Day 1 - soaking up some gorgeous Florida weather by the pool. Getting rested before Magic Kingdom tomorrow!

-- Post From My iPhone

lynn in love with march madness

2010-04-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

I confess, I don't know much about basketball, much less college basketball... but I do really enjoy March Madness and all the friendly competition it brings. I love it when people root for something!

This year was particularly fun, as the Huz's alma mater Cornell made it into the playoffs! He was so proudthat he got us all t-shirts to wear. Although we didn't go all the way, it was fun to cheer for the Big Red as they made it to the sweet sixteen!

lynn in love with the biscotti

2010-04-07T16:31:00.002-05:00

Yes, peeps. I've been a bad, BAD blogger. I'm sorry... I truly am. It's not that I don't anything to say, cuz I do! It's just LIFE has gotten in the way. In a good way... with starting a business, looking for a new job, hosting friends at our place, living and LOVING life is just a a priority right now!

Anyways... meanwhile I have a second here, while I wait for my couple for an engagement session, to post a couple pictures and recipes for the next week!

Love you guys, and hope you're enjoying spring and all the goodness it brings!

First up: I found a lovely new baking blog, http://www.joythebaker.com/

Seriously, it is all kinds of yum!

The first thing I made was Cinnamon and Sugar Biscotti!

It was quick and easy and all kinds of tasty. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee, or stuck in a mound of ice cream!

Ingredient: 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup granulated sugar, 6 TBSP (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp vanilla

For Topping: 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 beaten egg (for brushing biscotti before baking)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and arrange two baking racks in the upper portion of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Also whisk together the cinnamon and sugar for the topping and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Scrape down the down and beat in the egg followed by the egg yolk. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter all at once. With the mixer or just with a spatula, bring all of the ingredients together until a somewhat stiff dough is formed.

Divide the dough in two on the two making sheets. Shape each half of dough into a 9-inch long and 1 1/2-inch wide log. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle very generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake the two sheets on two different racks in the oven for 20 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheets for even baking and bake for 20-25 more minutes until golden and firm to the touch.

Remove from the oven but keep the oven on. Let biscotti cool until able to handle. Using a serrated knife, cut logs into 1/2-inch wide diagonal slices. Place biscotti cut side down on baking sheet and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar. Bake again until pale golden, about 10-15 minutes.

Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

lynn in love with the photography parlour

2010-04-01T11:22:00.002-05:00

Hey Dolls!

I'm so excited! My photography business is finally official!

Lynn in Love Photo, LLC is legit and I couldn't be more proud. I've got lots of lovely spring shoots ahead of me and I've upgraded my gear to the most awesome Canon 5DMII and 50mm 1.2 lens and I can't wait to rock it out!

You can check out my work over at www.lynninlovephoto.com

Meanwhile, in February, I got to attend a little Dallas Photography Shootout and I wrote it up at a new photography site called the Photography Parlour. It's a fantastic site featuring new and old photographers and their work. For you photogs out there, I think it's lovely new place to build community.

Check out my feature on the Dallas Photog Shootout and be sure to peruse the site!

Loves!

lynn in love with epiphanie bags

2010-03-29T15:00:00.001-05:00

Hello lovelies!

Remember when I blogged about some HOT camera bags here: http://lynnlostinlove.blogspot.com/2010/01/lynn-in-love-with-camera-bags-and.html

Well, the Epiphanie bags just got COOLER, as the company is also giving a Canon 5DMII, only one of the best cameras out there! Read all about it here: http://www.haveanepiphanie.com/home/2010/2/28/epiphanie-give-away.html

You only have a few more days to enter, so hop on it!!

lynn in love with the huz

2010-03-28T22:14:00.002-05:00

One year ago, I married my soulmate, my love, my best friend.
We've had one heck of a first year and I can't believe I get the spend the rest of them with this man.

Husband, I love you!

One year ago today. Picture by my fabulous wedding photographer, Heather Essian.

Take yesterday, by my lovely new photographer friend, Catie Ronquillo.

lynn in love with vacation 3: Holga

2010-03-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've kinda obsessed with my new little film cameras! I never really got to experiment much with my Diana (may she R.I.P), but I was so excited when my sister gifted me with a new Diana and my husband got me a Holga! These following pics are from my first two rolls from the Holga in Vegas... and I have to admit... I'm smitten!!

It's SO different to lose control when I'm shooting with these little toy film cameras, but I think that's part of the fun. Just compose, click the button, and see what comes out when you develop the film. I need rethink my composition and subject matter for my future adventures with Mr. Holga... but still loving these :)

lynn in love with vacation 2: polas

2010-03-24T18:07:00.002-05:00

OK, OK, so I was cheating a little bit with my iphone "analog" pictures from the hipstamatic app on the previous post... but really, don't they make such nice cheery pictures??

Next two posts are the real deal though. First up are my polas! The Bellagio at Las Vegas has a lovely little atrium/garden/conservatory that is decorated with these amazing flower sculptures! A perfect place for the polaroid and the Holga!

It was a little Alice in Wonderland, which we just watched in 3D and L-O-V-E-D!

I don't really know what happen to our film here, but it still looks cool :)

Haha... we asked this sweet old man to take our picture here b/c he had a fancy dSLR and I assumed he'd know what he was doing... and this is what we got!!

...and with my Holga!

lynn in love with vacation

2010-03-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

Hello my little lambs!! Long time no see! The Huz and I have been vacationing it up and having so much fun, it's going to be hard to get back to the grind today!

However it also means I have a tons of pictures and adventure to share... so hold on tight, lynn in love is totally going to be ON this week!

We started off the first of the week in Vegas for a short 3 days stay. Vegas will always be a surreal experience to me...it's so weird that somebody decide to make this adult playground in the middle of the desert that has no basis of reality. 3 days was just enough time to eat, shop and play my heart out! It's been a while since I've been in Vegas, but nobody warned me about how much WALKING there would be. Since we were trekking for miles, I decided to ditch my large dSLR camera and document the trip purely in "analog", meaning iphone with hipstamatic app (my fav!) and my new sweet little film camera, a TRL Holga!

I'm picking up my Holga film from the lab this afternoon, but here are my iphone pics of the trip!

We stayed at the Bellagio, which was so sa-WEET! Lovely rooms, lovely pool, yummy buffet, classy clean casino, gorgeous fresh flowers everywhere. We got a great deal on travelocity, and now I don't know if I can stay at any other hotel again.

I ate myself silly the entire trip, but maybe my favorite meal was this yummy hotdog at Pink's!

The pool at the Bellagio was pretty incredible and we were so glad that it got just warm enough in Vegas to spend every afternoon relaxing by the pool.

Don't believe me? This was the view at the pool!

Perhaps my favorite picture of the trip! Here I am with my lovely sweet new Holga and the poppies I was a little obsessed with, they were so gorgeous!

More to come tomorrow!!

lynn in love with this sprite caravan

2010-03-12T16:18:00.004-06:00

Oh hello pretty. When I spied this over at http://loveobsessinspire.typepad.com, I just about died. I have a thing for trailers and airstreams, but this 1957 Sprite Caravan is to die for. It's amazing! I would be be in heaven if I ever own my own!

Unfortunately this sprite lives in the UK.... go over to this flickr photostream to go drool over this lovely little thing with me! If you're lucky and live in the UK, you can rent it! http://www.snailtrail.co.uk/retro_rentals.htm#Caravan

lynn in love with sister's birthday and lime meringue!

2010-03-10T00:54:00.000-06:00

Last week with celebrated my beautiful big sister's birthday! I offered to make a birthday dinner for her. I obviously didn't what I was getting myself into, since my sister is pregnant and super nauseated! My mother to the rescue however, who brought crab which surprisingly didn't make my sister nauseated at all! The baby is truly part of our family :) We all had a great time celebrated with my sweet sissy.

One thing I did successfully make however where these Lime Meringue Cupcakes! Oh my, the moment I made that lime curd, I just about died and went to heaven!! So good... the recipe is down below after the pics!

My dad using a torch to help brown the Meringue!

Using the torch to light the candles.

My nephew blows out all the candles in this family!

My sister's beautiful family!

Lime Meringue Cupcakes (by Shelly Kaldunski, from a book my cousin gave my for Christmas)
I actually did not care much for the actual vanilla cupcakes themselves. Next time when I make this recipe, I'm gonna stick to my favorite standard cupcake recipe. Try it, but I suggest you do the same!

Vanilla Cupcakes:
Ingredients: 1 1/4 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup sugar, 6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature, 1 large egg plus 1 large egg white at room temperature, 1tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 cup whole milk,

Cupcakes: 1. Preheat Oven to 350 2.Lightly spray a cupcake pan with nonstick cooking spray. 3. In a bowl, whisk together four, baking powder, and salt. 4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. 5. Add egg and egg white one at a time beating well on low speed after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. 6. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating the milk in 2 additions, beating on low speed until just combined. 7. Beat on medium-high speed just until no traces of flour remain, about 30 seconds, do not overbeat 8. Divide the cupcake batter evenly into the muffin cups. 9. Bake about 18-20 minutes until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 10. Let cupcakes cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. 11. While the cupcake are cooking, make the lime curd, below. 11. Using a paring knife, halve each cupcake horizontally. 12. Spread 2 tsps lime curd on each cupcake bottom, then replace the tops. Spread each cupcake top with about 2 teaspoons lime curd. 13. Make Meringue Frosting as below. 14. Frost top of cupcakes with Meringue frosting. Using a kitchen torch, lightly brown the meringue.

Lime Curd: Ing: 6 tbsp fresh lime juice, 1/2 cup sugar, 4 large egg yolks, Pinch salt, 4tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, 2 tsp finely grated lime zest.

1. In a heavy-bottom non-reactive saucepan, whisk together the lime juice, sugar, egg yolks, and salt. 2. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat whisking constantly and scarping the sides of the pan, until curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5-8 minutes; do not let the curd boil or it will be lumpy. 3. Remove the saucepan from the heat. 4. Whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, until smooth. 5. Strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. 6. Stir in the lime zest and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. 7. Refrigerate until chilled and set, at least 1hr or for up to 3 days.

Meringue Frosting: 3 large egg whites, 3/4 cup sugar, 2tbsp water, 1tbsp light corn syrup, 1 tsp vanilla extract.

1. In a large, clean heatproof bowl, combine egg whites, sugar, water, and corn syrup. 2. Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch (160 degrees) about 2 minutes. 3. Remove the bowl from the saucepan. 4. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the mixture until glossy and voluminous, about 5 minutes. 5. Beat in the vanilla. Use right away.

lynn in love with cupcake photos

2010-03-09T00:06:00.004-06:00

Ahh... you know I love cupcakes, and I love taking pictures of those cupcakes!

There was a recent contest on photographer Lauren McConnel's blog on this very subject! Of course I had to submit a picture. Although I didn't win (or deserve to as I simply sent in a picture I already had), it's so fun to see all the cupcake pictures that were submitted!

Go take a looksee here! http://laurelmcconnell.com/blog/2010/03/04/and-the-winner-is/

You've already seen the picture I sent here on this blog, but if you care to see again, at the bottom of the post, it's the 5th pictures on the 2nd row!

Happy cupcake eye feasting! And speaking of, another cupcake recipe on the blog tomorrow!!

lynn in love with week in iphone pics

2010-03-05T23:47:00.002-06:00

A glimpse of my week in iphone pics! Since my p&s has long since died, my iphone has since become my go-to everday camera.... It's so handy to have since it's always on me!

Monday: All you can eat stonecrab claws at Trulucks with the Huz! I died. The claws were so yummy, and the all you can eat sides pretty amazing, too! All thanks to a sweet client who sent me a gift certificate! I was well fed before going in for a shift....

Tuesday: I have SO many iphone camera apps, but I gave in and finally downloaded the Hipstamatic, it's the iphone version of my lovely toy analog cameras. I had nothing to photograph, so you get random piles. But the hipstamatic even makes piles cool!

Wednesday: I spent the day preparing for my big sister's birthday feast! She is all kinds of pregos and nauseated so it was difficult to find a menu that she could tolerate. We had lots of fun celebrating though! Big Happy Birthday to my awesome big sissy!!

My cousin, Minh, and her awesome chef boyfriend, Wolfie.

Thursday: Eh. Worked a shift... nothing for you there.

Friday: spent in bed recovering from Thursday's shift. We have two beds in our apt that we actually take turns sleeping in. This is the view from the "guest bed". The Huz's desk... and the only stuff animal he lets me keep around. I called her Snowie, the Snow Princess. He calls him, Boogie, the Booger Owl. The poor thing has an identity crisis.

Working ALL weekend, but grateful to be alive, in love, able to work, and to have big dreams.

Happy Weekend, y'all!!

lynn in love with this song

2010-03-04T13:56:00.001-06:00

A little video to brighten your day!

lynn in love with the busy life

2010-03-01T15:44:00.002-06:00

Hi Friends!
You all probably think I've abandoned this blog! Not so... I know I haven't been keeping up as much as usual, but it only means that life is beautiful and busy and that I'm busy making new friends and enjoying the good life. Very soon enough, I'll be back on track will this blog, which is seriously like my little baby. I adore all you sweet readers and I hope you hang on tight a little longer!

Love,
Lynn~

lynn in love with coconut shrimp!

2010-02-24T23:38:00.003-06:00

Hello lovers!
Another Recipe Wednesday! I've started getting Cooking Light magazine which is chock full of yummy healthy recipes.

I made a REALLY healthy version of coconut shrimp and I think the Huz would agree we have a winner here!

We like our food light and tasty, but if that doesn't float your boat you can up the taste/grease factor by tons of factors (deep frying them, butter, a super decadent sauce). These are baked and perfect to us!

Coconut Shrimp (Adapted minimally from Cooking Light)

Ingredients: 1lb shrimp, 1/3 cup cornstarch, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (i used cayenne, and added alot for an extra kick!), 3 large egg whites (I only used two and it was more than enough), 1 1/2 cups of flaked sweetened coconut (I accidently got unsweetened from the bulk section and it worked out just fine). I also added a cup of breadcrumbs to my coconut!

1. Preheat oven to 400. Prepare a baking sheet with some cooking spray
2. Prepare your shrimp, peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the tail intact. Rinse with cold water and set on paper towel to drain and dry
3. Combine cornstarch, red pepper, and salt with a whisk in a shallow dish.
4. Beat egg whites in a medium bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium high speed until frothy. (I used beat it with a whisk a few times, no big deal)
5. Place coconut in a shallow dish. (I added a cup of breadcrumbs as well)
6. Then working with one shrimp at a time, dredge in cornstarch mixture, then dip in egg white. Dredge in the coconut on all sides, pressing gently with fingers. Place shrimp on baking sheet. Repeat with all shrimp.
7. Lightly coat shrimp with cooking spray and bake at 400.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, turning at 10 minutes

Yummy! This turned out so light and crispy! I loved how there was very minimal oils, salt, sugar. Simple ingredients and great taste.
Serve on top of rice, or coconut rice.

The recipe also has a fab sounding salsa as well, but I didn't have to make it, but if you do, let me know how it turns out!

For the pineapple salsa: combine 1c finely chopped fresh pineapple, 1/3c finely chopped red onion, 1/4 c finely chopped fresh cilantro, 1/4c pineapple preserves, 1TBS finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper, 1 1/2 TBS fresh lime juice, 1/4 tsp black pepper

lynn in love with maternity pictures

2010-02-22T07:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Monday y'all! I'm so excited to show you these pictures!
Last week, I had the opportunity to photograph Jenna Cole, my dear photography friend's maternity pictures. She had already arranged for the very sweet Bethany Jackman to take her pictures, but asked if I wanted to come along. And of course I jumped at the chance! It was a super cold and windy winter day, but Jenna had so many ideas it made for a wonderful shoot!

All you mamas out there, this is a lovely way to document your pregnancy. While there is a place for the typical maternity pictures with naked bellies and flowy fabric, there are other options as well!

You can see the rest of the pictures at the photoblog http://lynninlovephoto.com/

lynn in love with questions

2010-02-19T15:43:00.002-06:00

I've been steadily answering questions over at formspring!

Here are just a few questions and answers: If you have anymore questions... ask away at this link: http://www.formspring.me/lynnwynnkym

Are you planning to start a family soon? How many children would you like to have?
Sure! I say 3, the Huz says 2 :) I think it's because I was 1 of 3, and he was 1 of 2. Right now I think we are more focused on getting a puppy. Because PUPPIES! love them."

What kind of camera do you use to take your pictures? They're beautiful!
Thank you so much! I have actually been using the same camera since 2004 (that's ancient in digital camera years), the Nikon D70. Currently I shoot exclusively with a prime lens, the 50mm f1.4 lens. Very soon, I hope to upgrade to a Canon 5D Mark II and a 50mm 1.2 L series lens. Prime lens produce wonderful portraits, but require you to move quite a bit since there is no zoom!"

What kind of puppy you think you're gonna get?
oooh that's a hard one! We really want a rescue dog! We kinda want a mutt that sweet, cute, smart. Smallish. Hypoallergenic. Maybe a labradoodle :)"

I love your pics of your wedding dress in the snow! Weren't you freezing your butt in that dress that day?
haha... well it seems that every time I put on that dress, I am frozen so nothing new. For my outdoor bridals it was in the 30's and for my spring outdoor wedding, we had a freak cold front which again put me in my dress in the 30's.... so I just continued the trend! Haha... it's was a bit a cold, especially when I took my jacket off. Fortunately I was about 20 feet from my apt and only shot literally for a few minutes before I ran back in again!! I'm in the 'anything for the shot' camp!

Thaden's Surgery

2010-02-18T11:50:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, my nephew, our little Thaden Bean had his first surgery! We all noticed that Thaden has been a little hard of hearing and that his snoring can rival anybody. A little trip to the ENT showed humongous tonsils and adenoids with a lot of fluid behind his ear drums causing some hearing loss! He was scheduled for his tonsillectomy and ear tubes yesterday.

The little booger was such a great little patient we were so proud of him. He knew the surgery would help him hear and breath better and he was not scared at all going into surgery. He came out of his anesthesia as sweet as can be and charmed all the nurses!

He didn't complain much about pain, but I think the two chocolate ice creams helped a bit!

I only have shoddy Iphone pics, but the whole family was there and we had fun supporting our little fella!

lynn in love with snow day 3: snowy wedding dress

2010-02-15T13:18:00.002-06:00

Monday, monday... I've only been awake a few hours and it's already an icky day. Feeling awkward about something going on at work, and so I'm going to indulge myself and post one more set of pictures from our snowday, because well, they make me laugh and happy.

Of course...after my silly red pictures in the snow, what was the most natural thing to do next?? Put on my wedding dress of course!! ha! I had been wanting to do a "trash the dress" session since my wedding, and just haven't had the time to do so yet. I had just seen this fun wedding snow shoot on stylemepretty. Definitely inspired, but with very little time left to shoot, I jumped into my wedding dress, threw on a scarf and went at it! I only wish I had the huz there to take pictures with me!

The Huz laughs and laughs when he sees these pictures because he thinks I'm COMPLETELY ridiculous to have been outside in the snow in my wedding dress in FRONT OF OUR APT where everyone was undoubtedly making fun of me. But whatev, I don't care.. I kinda love them!

lynn in love with snow day 2: snow gif!

2010-02-12T16:21:00.005-06:00

I'm awake! So I was wrong it was a whomping 12.5 inches of snow!!! When I was driving home this morning from work, it was so quiet and beautiful, every tree, every building was just covered with untouched snow!

oh my, I just looked at this pictures again, and I'm so silly! Look! I learned how to make an animated GIF! (BTW the GIF only loops 3 times, so if it's not working, just refresh your page, and take another look)

I'm just loving my tripod and my remote! If you want to do self-portraits with an SLR on manual, the remote is the best! Just set up your camera on your tripod. Focus on something you will be standing by, for example I focused on that bush. Set your camera on timer with remote function. Then pose on the same focal distance as what you focused on. Hit your remote, and b/c you also put it on a timer, you'll have a couple of seconds to set up! Fun!!

Only wish I was with my family or my husband on a snow day, so I can't take picturs with everyone!!

lynn in love with snow days

2010-02-12T07:18:00.002-06:00

oh my gosh... i couldn't believe it, miracles upon miracles, I woke up yesterday to find a WINTER WONDERLAND outside my window. Now you peeps on the East Coast are probably all 'whatever, it aint no thing' but for us Texans, this was huge. It's not our usual every 2 years, sleet and ice number, this was the real deal... giant beautiful snowflakes falling from the sky and landing softly everywhere! and it stuck! I'd never seen anything so beyewtiful!

In fact, yesterday we beat the record breaking snowfall EVER in Dallas! 8 inches!

I was so sad I woke up too late to really enjoy it and had to leave for work at 5:30pm. After running a few errands in some slippy slidey roads, I came back home and had about 20 minutes to break out my camera! (hehe...and I was happy to finally get to wear my silly fake red uggs with rhinestones that I normally would be too ashamed to wear in sunny, warm Dallas!)

I just got back home a night shift, so I can only post these two pictures... but maybe when I'm awake, I'll be able to post more. Hope you guys are warm and safe!!

lynn in love with quotes

2010-02-11T08:00:00.001-06:00

Just a couple of pictures and quote I came across and liked :) Keeping things mushy until V-day!

lynn in love with lucky and lovely!

2010-02-10T16:02:00.004-06:00

Hi Darlings!

Our valentine's shoot is being featured over at the Lucky and Lovely blog! Melanie is a wonderful designer and her blog is a delight! Check us and her blog out!!

Remember you can see the rest of the photos on my photoblog: www.lynninlovephoto.com

lynn in love with austin: a vintage valentine's shoot!

2010-02-09T14:00:00.004-06:00

Happy Tuesday, dearies!

I just wanted to end my Austin recaps with a sweet Vintage Valentine Shoot of my husband and I! I've posted the rest of pictures over at my photoblog if you want to look at them there as well! :)

I was so delighted to find a 1949 Cadillac in the backyard at Verdecamp, our lodging in Austin. Despite the fact that it was 30 degrees outside, we knew we had to bust out the camera to do a little photoshoot! I've been wanting to make Valentine's Day cards ala Julia Child and this was the perfect opportunity.

You have seen Julia Child's Valentine's Card haven't you or least the remakes from the movie? :) Here are a few... Seriously, Julia and Paul were the cutest couple!!

It was so fun to be able to take some sweet little photos of ourselves. If you want to do your own shoot, all you need to do is set up your camera on a tripod, set up your scene and either using the timer or a remote, shoot your pictures!

For those of you with dSLR and who always shoot on Manual like I do, self portraits are always a little tricky. However, it's always easier when you are shooting self portraits with another person! Set up your scene. Then either using your manual focus or your automatic focus, focus on your partner. If you're using AF, then change your focus to manual, and your focus is set. Set your timer or remote. And that's it!

I would love to see your own Vintage Valentine's!

lynn in love with austin: the polas

2010-02-05T08:00:00.002-06:00

... and of course my loves, we shant forget the austin polas!
Only 3 more boxes of hoarded expired polaroid film left :) ... and then I can only hope that they will be making more film by then or maybe move on to the Fuji Mini Instax.

I love my little polas... have NO idea why some turn out red, and then the others blue :)

lynn in love with austin: the smorgasbord

2010-02-04T07:00:00.001-06:00

Dude. Can we talk about the food in Austin? Seriously, best stuff ever! After I got some excellent recs from my pals on facebook, I was excited to know that almost all the best places were in South Congress!

Here are the highlights!
Vespaio - This was our one fancy meal of the weekend. Yummy Italian food! The atmosphere was cozy and the food was so yum!
We had the tuna tar tare, the freshly made mozzarella and a fantastic pizza with prosciutto, truffle oil and two sunny side up eggs!

Fliphappy - oh my gosh. So apparently trailer food is all the rage in Austin right now. Austin digs the trailer and we are totally in love with them. Fliphappy is a little crepe trailer and was so incredibly good! It was a little delicious meal wrapped up in a doughy goodness. We had chicken and mushroom and a nutella banana strawberry one day, and came back the next for a grilled chicken gouda and a spinich feta. All were amazing!

I apparently am very flip happy :)

Torchy's Taco - also out of a trailer. Little Gourmet tacos - Had the Baja shrimp and fried avocado. My tummy was very happy!

Okay and don't forget dessert! We cupcaked ourselves out!

Sugar Mama's Bakeshop - a cute old fashioned bakery with great little cupcakes! We had the Southern Belle, Strawberry Love, and the Hemingway. My favorite was the Hemingway which was vanilla with lemon curd and a little biscotti!

Hey Cupcake! - I probably loved the trailer more than the actual cupcake which which a little generic. But look how cute their trailer is!

I don't think I will ever recover from all the yumminess!!

lynn in love with questions

2010-02-03T15:54:00.002-06:00

hello lovers!
No worries, my reviews and more photos of austin will continue on. I just woke up though from another night shift and gotta rub the boogies out of my eyes first. Give me a sec, K?

Meanwhile lots of my twitter buddies been doing this formspring thing and it's been interesting to read the questions and answers. So here we go!

Ask me anything! Go to this link, and I'll do my best to answer as honestly as possible. I'll post my favorite questions here! :)

http://www.formspring.me/lynnwynnkym

Also... I need a february banner. I have in mind something all Valentined out... but I'm losing some creative mojo. Anybody wanna whip something up for me?

Love! Lynninlove~

lynn in love with austin: cruiser bikes

2010-02-02T09:00:00.004-06:00

I've got bikes on my mind! Which is kinda strange actually. I was a very late bloomer in terms of biking. For some reason as a kid, I just couldn't get it.... how to stay upright and pedal... and stay upright. For the most part of childhood, I always remembered either being on the backseat of my older sister's bike hanging on for dear life and sitting on the handlebars. And then I remembered that one time in high school, that my family had this great idea on our family trip to Hawaii to bike around the island. I remember thinking I would rather be left on the side of the road in a ditch, then go on with this horrible activity called biking. BIKING...

But then on our trip to SF this past fall, the Huz and I decided to bike around the city... and I fell in love! It was sooo much fun going down the hills and feeling the breeze in my face. It was a great way to exercise and have fun at the same time. Since parking is such an issue on South Congress, we decided to rent some bikes for the weekend in Austin to get around our cute little neighborhood.

I came across a new bike rental shop on the internet that was near our lodgings at the Verdecamp, the Barton Springs Bike Rental. Their customer service was phenemonal and it was a great experience working them, so I just have to share to support their business. When we arrived in Austin Friday night, we were cold and cranky and didn't want to go venture out to the bike shop to pick up the bikes. We called Mike, the owner, who said he would drop off the bikes at our house! Sweet! Even sweeter was when he arrived in his shuttle bus and pulled out this adorable red beach cruiser (and a black one for the Huz). IN LOVE.

The bikes were brand new and just perfect for going around the city. We rarely used our cars at all as we biked to all meals and to explore the area. I just hitched my camera bag to the rack in the back and off we went! On Saturday, the cold must have loosened up the screws in the bike as Jon's handlebar slipped out of the post. We called Mike, who within 20 minutes arrived with tools and fixed his bike on the spot! The next morning, he arrived right on time to pick up the bikes. Mike runs a great business and was so friendly and helpful, I can't speak more praises.

I'm now in the market for a bike of my own :) Can't wait!

lynn in love with austin: verdecamp

2010-02-01T12:15:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, sweet readers!
How was your weekend? The Huz and I just returned from a wonderful little weekend trip to Austin. He has been working hard at work for a while now, and it was time to whisk him away for a little fun. We only had the weekend, so we made a fast getaway to Austin on Friday night to hang out in South Congress. Despite the fact that it was 30 degrees, it was such a fun weekend full of amazing food, lots of biking, and tons of photos that I can't wait to show you this week! In fact, I have so many pictures and reviews, that I'm going to dedicate this week's blogpost on South congress! Today I'm starting on our lodging.

We've always driven through Austin on our way to something or another and spend an hour or two walking down South Congress to look at the shops. South Congress is supposed to be the hippiest part of city, with tons of vintage shops and great eats. We always said we'd come back for a longer period of time and so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity. We initially wanted to stay at the San Jose hotel, a stylish little hotel right on S. Congress, but it was booked and we balked at the prices a little.

After much research, we ended up at Verdecamp and I'm so glad we stayed here! Verdecamp is a little collection of sweet little houses from the 1930's that the owners have converted into eco-friendly guest houses. There are five 1-bedroom houses and a one 2-bedroom house with the most darling bomber in the back. We stayed in the Sunrise house. It was so nice to have a private little bungelow fully furnished with a queen size bed, kitchen, and living room. I loved the eco-friendly and minimalist vibe. We shared the back yard with such cute little areas that I fully took advantage of for photos. The neighborhood is super friendly and was perfect for biking which we did all day on Saturday.

Anyways, we loved it and we would recommend staying there for anyone who was visiting South Congress.

Here's are a few pictures of our little home away from home:

I loved all the little red accents... I added my red TOMS :)

(I forget to take a picture of the couch/TV - took this one off the site)

Found this SWEET vintage car... more pics of it later!

Anyways, it was such a cozy little experience! If you are ever in Austin, check out
Verdecamp!

lynn in love with julia gulia wednesdays: onion soup!

2010-01-27T16:00:00.002-06:00

Hey Dolls!
I still trying to truck through Julia Child, one yummy recipe at a time! Since my face has gotten noticably rounder, I decided to keep my french love me some butter cooking to once a week.

The first week was the boeuf bourguignon, last week was onion soup.

Oh this soup is SO soooo good. It's all deep onion flavor goodness and if you go the extra mile to gratinee or top the soup with some french bread croutons and cheese and put it under the broiler...divine!

Soupe a L'Oignon [onion soup] Time for cooking: 2-2.5 hrs

Ingredients for 6-8 servings:
1 1/2 lbs or about 5 cups of thinly sliced onions (food processor, baby)
3Tb butter, 1 Tb oil
a heave-bottomed, 4 quart covered saucepan.
1tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
3Tb flour
2 quarts of boiling brown stock
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth
Salt and pepper to taste
3 Tb cognac (I ommitted this since I didn't have any)
Rounds of hard toasted French bread and 1/2 cups grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese

1. Cook the onions slowly with the butter and oil in covered saucepan for 15 minutes
2. Uncover, raise heat to moderate, and stir in salt & sugar.
3. Cook for 30-40 minutes stirring frequently until the onions to turn an even, deep golden brown.
4. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 3 minutes.
5. Off heat, blend in the boiling broth. Add the wine, and season to taste.
6. Simmer partially covered for 30-40 minutes skimming occasionally. Correct seasoning.
7. Just before serving, stir in the cognac. Pour into a soup tureen or soup cups over the rounds of bread and pass the cheese seperatly.
---
to Gratinee with Cheese:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Pour boiling soup into tureen or soup pots.
3. Stir in some grated cheese and 1TB grated raw onion.
4. Flat rouds of toast on top of soup and spread grated cheese over it.
5. Sprinkle with butter or oil.
6. Bake for 20 m inutes in the oven, and then set for a minute or two under a preheated broiler to brown the top slightly. Serve immediately.

It's easy guys, and worth it... make it tonight! Bon Appetit!

lynn in love with target

2010-01-25T18:00:00.003-06:00

Or remember when we all called it Tar-jay? Happy Monday, y'all!!
The huz and I love shopping together...and while the mall is always a first choice, we actually enjoy just going to Target together! I mean it has everything, and if you look carefully there are a ton of stylish choices in the clothes department!

We went over the weekend and happy to come away with some goodies!

I got a couple of dresses that are super cute and inexpensive!

I got a dress that is similar to this Anthropologie dress, but the skirt is white/navy stripes. It has pockets and looks great with red accessories! And only $20 bucks!

I also got this dress, which looks horrid on this model, but fits me really well! It's short, but not crazy short like on this model.

I didn't get this dress, which is part of the Rodarte for Target collection. I spied it on a recent photoshoot and it looked darling on the girl. (I wish I can find the picture!)

The Huz got what is he always gets and what he will always get... LEGOS!
What can I say, my boy like cartoons and toys!

These are the green military guys from Toy Story! He liked this one b/c it has a medic :)

Where are your favorite place for cute and economical fun?

lynn in love with bethanny!

2010-01-22T16:45:00.001-06:00

I think I'm the only person who's never had a "celebrity sighting". I don't think living in Dallas really offers that many opportunities.

haHa! No more! Now I can say I have met Bethenny Frankel from the Real Housewives of New York City! Do y'all know who Bethenny is? She's my favorite from the show, all no nonsense, hilarious, and is a promoter of a subject dear to my heart: healthy eating.

I heard she was coming to Dallas for a book signing and I dragged my poor husband to go meet her. I was super late, and she was about to get up and leave, but she graciously took a picture with me (on my iphone no less) and signed my book "dear lynn, better late than never."

Here's her second book: The Skinnygirl Dish, Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life.

I'll let you know how I like the book, when I'm done with it!

lynn in love with julia and boeuf bourguignon

2010-01-21T16:50:00.001-06:00

I had so many wonderful Christmas gifts this year! But I'll admit that my favorite were those involved with cooking... and I forgot to tell you my all time favorite present! Remembered how much I loved the movie Julie & Julia?

Well I was so excited when the Huz gifted me with the two volume boxed set of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

First off, isn't this book just beautiful to look at? I love the simple pattern and bright colors of the two books (the 2nd volume is turquoise) and they look wonderful in my home/kitchen from just the aesthetic point of view.

But the real treasure is inside. I have been poring myself over the books since I got them. These book are not just a collection of recipes but a true guide to cooking. Julia totally appeals to my desire for details as she guides us on exactly HOW to cook, not just what to cook! She tells you what are the cookware and why... she details the best kinds of meats, how to know when you cooking oil/butter is hot enough, how to hold the pan, how to cook the onions, how you know when the meat is perfectly medium rare, everything!

I'll be honest, these recipes are NOT for the faint of heart. For a girl who usual cooks most of her meals in 30 minutes or less, I'll tell you it's a real committment to cook Julia's recipes as many require you to have at least 2-3 hours set aside for cooking. I've only made two recipes so far... but I'll tell you they are simply worth it. Her ingredients are fairly simple and the recipes are not hard... but I do believe it is the attention to time and techniques that makes her food SO good!

For my first recipe, I thought I would tackle the oh so famous Boeuf Bourguignon! This is the first recipe that Julia demonstrated on her PBS show "The French Chef," it's the dish that Judith Jones, the editor first tried that convinced her to publish the book, it's the dish that Julie prepared for the the editor in the movie.

Boeuf Bourguignon is basically a beef stew. It's hearty and warm and basically gets better and better each day that it sits and lets the flavors all meld. This recipe is amazing and I ate it for 4 days straight. And boys and girls, it took 2.5 hours of actively cooking and prepping... and then another 2.5 hours to actually stew!

I'm not going to post the recipe here, but I'll send you to a link where you can find the recipe for the stew, plus onions and mushrooms... which you can find HERE.

If you decide to make it, follow the recipe to a T. Also don't skip out on the braised onions. 50 minutes to make, but probably the most amazing part of the whole recipe.

Also, don't be like me and not cook the meat long enough. Make sure the meat you buy is not completely lean because it will not become tender. If after cooking for 2.5 hours, the meat is still tough, keep cooking it until the meat is very tender. At some point, the collagen will break down... wait for that magic moment.

This recipe required real committment, but I'm so happy I made it. It tought me some wonderful techniques along the way. I decided I'm going to attempt one recipe a week! So come along for the ride!

Bon Appetit!

lynn in love with PUPPIES!

2010-01-20T15:30:00.000-06:00

Meet Haru.

oh my goodness. Is he not the cutest?? I wish I could say he is mine, but is actually belongs to my little rother.

I've been on a puppy craze for a while now, but have seriously wondered if it would be the best choice right now with my busy schedule. But it hasn't stopped me from looking. We actually have been visiting Operation Kindness (a wonderful no-kill shelter in Addison, TX) looking for a puppy and just haven't found "the one" yet.

Well the next best thing happened last week when I got a phone call from my little brother that he just adopted a wonderful new puppy dachsund! And dearies I love this puppy to death. This is a wonderful solution where I can love and play with the puppy all I want, but won't be neglecting it due to my work schedule.

Haru is tiny and sweet and completely lovable! He supposedly a full Dachsund, but I think he might end up being a mini since he is so small... or he might have a little chihauhau in him.

PUPPY PUPPY... and yes... I baby talk the PUPPY!

lynn in love with a new week

2010-01-18T15:28:00.001-06:00

Darlings!
Did you miss me? That was the longest blog break I've taken since the beginning of lynn lost in love! This past week was all kinds of crazy busy with both the worst downs and as well as some great ups. Probably when this blog post comes up, I'll still be sleeping the day away after a night shift at the hospital. There are A LOT of sick people in the hospital after the holidays!

All in all however, I'm just happy it's over, and now I have a week off to recuperate and patch up my little worn out soul.

No fear, sprinkled in between my night shifts, I got to do some less stressful things including lots of photo shoots (with a lovely wedding!), making a highly anticipated recipe from my new cookbook, and spending time with a new friend. Hopefully I'll get to document it all here in the next week! Get ready!

I'm gonna leave you with a little snippet of what my night looks like when I'm at work at the hospital. haha... I'm such a dork.

Much love,
lynn in love~

lynn in love with camera bags and wicked stitch designs

2010-01-11T17:49:00.005-06:00

Good afternoon everybody!
I'm half done with my craziest, busiest week of the year, but I wanted to pop in and say hi and show off my new arrival! My lovely Wicked Stitch Camera Bag! Isn't she a beaut?

So I've been on a search for a great camera bag forever. At first, I was just using the huz's grey messenger bag to lug all my gear in. I really loved this bag as it was just big enough to hold all my stuff, and just small enough to travel everywhere with it. I went to Vietnam, SF, Atlanta, NY with this thing. However as it wasn't padded, my Diana died in it and I'm pretty sure my SLR was damaged in the process.

So I've started carrying my gear in my Kate Spade tote that has been heavily padded with scarves and sweaters. Not optimal.

Meanwhile, looking for the perfect bag has been hard! I knew I couldn't just get any bag, it had to have all the following qualities: 1. Be durable and have enough padding to protect my gear 2. Large enough to carry all my cameras (my dslr, polaroid, point and shoot) and other small travel items. 3. Be small enough so that I can actual carry it everywhere when I travel! 4. Has to be stylish, but will work in a number of situations: Travel, in-town, shoots. I don't want a standard fugly camera bag.

Here were some of the options I have found:
1. Of course the shootsac - probably the most popular bag carried by wedding photographers. There are interchangeable covers and it's very easy to wear. However it's really intended to carry extra lenses and not the camera body. I really need a bag that will hold my camera body and since I only shoot with one lens at this time, it really doesn't make sense. Once I upgrade my equipment and expend my lens collection, this will probably be a must have on shoots.

2. Emera Bag - This is really new cute camera bag that comes in blue, red, and a print. It looks very well made and doesn't look like a camera bag at all! It's large, but not bulky. However, it definitely is a "city bag" and I can't really see myself traveling with it, or really on a shoot. I'd like to have a shoulder strap option.

3. The Kelly Moore Bag - this bag is just out and ready for pre-order! I really like the shape and the black option. It's stylish and very wearable. It has interchangeable dividers inside. You can carry your body, but the lens has to be off of it. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Plus the price is a bit much for what I would like in a camera bag.

4. Epiphane - This is the newest bag that I have come across since after purchasing my bag. I'm a little obsessed with it. Made of beautiful synthetic materia, great size, and interchangable compartments on the inside, they are both stylish and versatile! And it's a pretty fair price! I'm a little undecided about the colors right now and can't wait to see what new bags they will come up with. Plus with leather, I wonder how travel-friendly it is. This will probably be the next bag I will get! Fabulous!!

5. Wicked Stitch Designs - so what do I usually do when I can't find something I love?? I go to Etsy!! There are so many custom dSLR bags available on Etsy, and I really like the designs of Wicked Stitch. I ended up getting the Maia bag which I thought was everything I was looking for in bag. Basically you choose one of the designs she offers, then go choose whatever fabric you want to make the bag completely your own!

Things I like about the bag:
1) It's very durable. It's made of Codura fabric which is high performance fabric for baggage and luggage. 2) It's custumized to you! You get to pick out the cotton flap fabric to match your style and personality. I wanted to pick a neutral Black/Gray color so that I can stay professional when I go on shoots, but with a stylish pattern that I can use the bag when I travel. This Black and Gray Damask pattern is perfect! I feel like I can take this bag anywhere, shoots, rugged travel, and city travel.

3) I like the Maia bag because it is very sturdy, lined everywhere with 1/2 high density foam, and the bottom has a chipboard. With my track record of killing cameras this was high priority.

4) There are adjustable dividers inside so you can customize your organization. I'll probably always put my SLR in the middle, but the sides can hold either my lens/flash or Poloroid and other travel necessities.

5) My flap is removable, and I can easily order a new flap when I get tired of the damask to change up my look!
6) I also got the cute little Julia pouch in the matching fabric. It's perfect to hold my extra batteries and memory cards. It's also on a key clip, so I can clip it to my belt for easy access.

7) It has a zipper front pocket and two easy to access back pockets that I can stick my cell in.

7)For a custom bag that is one of a kind, the price can't be beat!

All in all, I'm in love with my bag! I took it out for its first shoot yesterday, and it was perfect and comfortable! Love it and highly recommend it!!

If you are going to order from her, I suggest you look at her flickr site first, to see what some of the fabric might turn out like on the bag. It's a little hard to know how large or bright the print will turn out so it's nice to get a little preview. Love how my damask turned out!! :)

*Edit* Oh! If you happen to be interested in this bag, it appears that this is the last week to get the discounted price for the Maia for $76.50! Here's the link again: http://www.wickedstitchdesigns.com/maia_waterproof_cb.htm

lynn in love with kenny & patricia's loveshoot!

2010-01-08T16:17:00.003-06:00

Happy Friday Darlings!
Do you have exciting plans for this cold weekend?
I'm resting up for probably the busiest week I've had in 7 months!
I have 4 night shifts at the hospital and 3 shoots including 2nd shooting a wedding with Jenna Cole. It's a crazy schedule, but I'm thankful to be able to use both my head, my hands, and heart to do what I love!

Meanwhile... I just posted a special photoshoot on lynninlovephoto, so please check it out.
I just did my precious friend's winter love shoot and I'm in love with the images. Kenny, my husband, and I went to medical school together and Kenny was huz's roommate for 6 years until he became mine! Kenny and Patricia are a fun and loving couple that pretty much started all the ideas to start lynninlovephoto. They rocked their super cold session so go on over there and give them some comment love!!

lynn in love with the community of prayer

2010-01-07T17:10:00.002-06:00

I usually try to keep the content of this blog light and airy... it's about being in love after all. However sometimes I like to get just a little more personal.

I've just been thinking about some things lately. First off, I've really been touched by a few people near me or in my community. Being the season, people tend to get sick more often. One of my college friends recently reached out via facebook and email about prayer for her mother who suddenly came down with a bad case of pneumonia and was in the ICU. Since her mother was in a Dallas hospital, I was able to come visit for a little bit. I'll have to be honest, and say it was a little bit odd to be on the other side in that waiting room. I will always remember being in a circle with her and her family as we prayed out loud and earnestly for her mother. And honestly, I did feel God's presence in that room listening and I felt the power of the community of our prayers together.

Unfortunately, my friend's mother passed away a few days ago which is very sad news. However, I still feel the spirit of the community of prayers that surrounded this event.

And then again, a outpour of prayer requests have been filling my twitter and facebook page for Natalie Norton, wedding photographer in Hawaii, and her 8 week old son, who suddenly developed RSV pneumonia and pertussis and was fighting for his young life. Again, this community of prayer felt so real to me as everyone reached out to provide a sense of comfort and support. Unfortunately, Gavin passed away this morning. You can read about it here.

It's funny. As an internal medicine doctor who works in the hospital, I pretty much deal with death almost every day. Either inevitable death (for those with cancer, or terminal infectious diseases), or on the verge (critical patients). Over the years during training and work, I learned to build up a wall around my own sensitivity. You have to in this line of work. While a sense of empathy and compassion in paramount; objectivity, competency, and calmness is vital to be an effective clinician. You have to access and evaluate facts and data as quickly as possible to make good swift decisions. You have to provide the same data to patients and their family objectively to help them arrive to good decisions. No matter how tragic a situation, you cannot let that show when you're with a family. You're the doctor; you are supposed to be the support and you have to instill confidence in them. After a while, I'll admit you do become de-sensitized. You have to be or you'll be overwhelmed and burnt-out with your job.

I have noticed that I've changed quite a bit since I started medical school. Now, I'm still a big girl in my personal life, I cry at movies and when I hurt. I do pretty gory things at work, but I won't kill a bug. However, if something medical comes up ever, I immediately feel a big wall come up. When I hear stories about so-so with this and that, I think "well that's unfortunate." and I immediately think about their risks for morbidity and mortality, what complications can arise, what are the chances of survival, what is the best treatments proven be research evidence. I'm very clinical and I wonder if that is a good thing or not?

It's funny. I believe strongly in the power of prayer and yet, I cannot remember the last time I prayed for a particular patient of mine or prayed for God to give me the wisdom and the skills to treat a case. When did I seperate God from my very work? This was only one of the things that I was just really touched by as I prayed this week for these two people and prayed for their doctors. And I wondered how many prayers have been prayed upon me the last years as I worked on numerous patients. And I wondered if and what may change if I prayed for myself and my work.

I am still praying for my friend and for natalie norton as they grieve for their lost ones. And I thankful for how they reached out to their communities and how that affected me and helped me reevaluate my faith a little and my humanity.

Lastly, I strengthened by their own faith even in the midst of their heartbreak.
Directly from Natalie's blog:

"God is real

God is good

Because of the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

We will all live again."

lynn in love with turkey chili

2010-01-05T17:03:00.006-06:00

Brrr... it's cold outside! Perfect for a large bowl of chili and cornbread.

As a Texan, I love me some chili! But, I hate how fatty and heavy it can be sometimes. So when my friend Mandy introduced me to a healthier turkey version, I've be hooked ever since!

I wish I had a picture of mine to show you what it looks like, but I gobbled it all up before I even had a chance to pull out the camera. This is really similar to what it looks like though!

My version of the healthier chili!:

Turkey, Corn, and Black Bean Chili

Ingredients: 1 medium sized onion chopped, a couple cloves of garlic chopped, 1 package of high quality lean white ground turkey, 1 package of frozen or 1 can of whole kernel corn, 1 can of black beans, 2 cups of chicken stock, 1/2 bottle of beer, 1 can of tomatoes (crushed, or diced, or stewed), 1 can of tomato paste, chili powder, cumin powder.

1. In a large pot, cooked chopped onion and garlic in oil until golden and soft.
2. Add lean ground turkey and smooshing into small pieces with your spoon. Cook until turkey is browned and cooked.
3. Add corn, beans, tomatoes, tomato paste,
4. Add chicken stock and the 1/2 bottle of beer (this is optional, some people don't like beer in their chili)
5. Add cumin powder and chili powder to taste - I use about 3 tablespoons of each.
6. Cook and simmer for about 20 minutes as it thickens and the flavors all incorporates.

While the chili is cooking, make some cornbread (I still love me some Jiffy). To add a little something something, fold in some corn that used in the chili into the batter before pouring it in the pan. It makes for some yummy chunky cornbread.

Serve with a large bowl of hot chili.
Optional to add a dollap of lowfat sour cream in the chili!

Enjoy! This recipe is great as it has a lot of give, and you can add or substitute ingredients as you have on hand. Just flavor to your taste. It's a wonderful chunky and flavorful warm meal that's healthy too!

Mmmmm.. I'm gonna have another bowl right now!

lynn in love with 2010 goals

2010-01-04T02:22:00.004-06:00

Hello dear blog readers!
Holidays are over and it's the first real work week of 2010.

After all the ruckus of the holidays, it's time to set some goals for this year.
Although I never been a big fan or believer in New Year Resolutions,
I think it is really important to articulate one's goals!

2009 was a crazy year of new beginnings and endeavors and
I really want 2010 to be a year of really fleshing out my jump-started dreams
and provide some real substance to my plans.

I really believe in this blog community and have made some fantastic people and friends through this venue and I hope by writing these goals here, that you will help me keep accountable and on track! Throughout the year, I hope to keep you updated on these goals to see how I'm doing.

MY CAREER GOALS
1. Making lynninlovephoto legit! Now, that it seems that my lovely photography business might actually work, I'm excited to make it legit. I won a little scholarship to Stacy Reeves "Mind Your Business" and pumped to learn more about this business side of things
2. Shooting my first solo wedding. It looks like I'm getting my first opportunity in May 2010!
3. Finding a job in medicine that really caters to my talents. Not that my current job is a bad one, but I really want to find a job that I really love, more in the outpatient clinic setting than a hospital setting, and hopefully working with obese patients.

PERSONAL GOALS
1. Pray more - This year was not absent of hard times, and time and time again, my prayers have been answered. I want to be committed to prayer more consistently and to pray with intention for others.
2. Time Management - I've really struggled this year with this and really need to strive to do better. Even though my real paying job doesn't require that many hours, my life is incredibly busy with juggling quality to people I love and starting a new business. I also require quite a bit of personal time to feel grounded and often feel torn with feelings that I neglect the people who need me including myself, husband, family and friends. My soul often feels worn out with the struggle. I need to feel content with the time I have and how I alot it for others.
3. Exercise consistently - I was exercising regularly doing my time off and it felt great! But now that's I'm working again, I've left my motivation for exercise on the side of the road. It's time to work off the "fat face" & my little "food belly"!
4. Clean, clean, clean - my lifelove goal :)

What are your goals for 2010?

And speaking of keeping things legit! Haha... this is my girl Connie and I at a wedding this weekend :) Because we are soooooo gangster!

lynn in love with a new year's celebration

2010-01-02T00:18:00.002-06:00

We decided to celebrate in this year. Since the Huz was working (again!), I invited my girls to come over to ring in the new year with me! We had a fantastic time noshing on our crazy amazing potluck buffet, wines, izze sodas, and playing games and counting down together.

I'm so absolutely bummed because my compact flash card crashed on me, losing all our super cute pictures from the night. I was so sad, I quickly took some pictures of the aftermath and shot some new pics with the remaining 2 girls (Sorry Reli!). Also thank goodness for polaroids pictures...since they came through when technology let me down.

Thanks girls for welcoming the new decade with me!!

I love these pics. If the coloring is weird to you, I'm trying out a new Photoshop Action set... this one is called Retro Lollipop. I think it's cute :)

I scanned in my beloved Polaroids just for you guys!

and lastly, a photobooth strip for ya off my iphone :)

lynn in love with 2009 in pictures

2010-01-01T02:43:00.002-06:00

I'm a little late with this post, but I knew I had to review this amazing, crazy, wonderful, dramatic year that was 2009. This was a year of new beginnings, real hardships, family drama, growing pains, and answered prayers. I think I am 100% a better person from this year and I want to always remember it.

Here were the highlight of my year in pictures!

1. january - I rang the new year on my "engage-versary" with my friends in Victory Park. I donned my new cowboy hat and two-stepped in style.

2. february - one month left of singleness and was buried in last minute wedding planning. I took some cold cold bridal portraits in a field with the wonderful Heather Essian.

3. march - this was the month I married my best friend, the love of my life. I cried and laughed, and was surrounded by my family and best friends. It was amazing. We had a 4 day wedding extravaganza that I will never forget!

4. april - i spent a wonderful honeymoon with my husband in Playa Mujeres, Mexico. We had such a lovely relaxing time!

5. may - we travelled to Buffalo, New York and Niagra Falls to attend a good friend's japanese/peruvian/lebanonese/hungarian wedding and had a fantastic time.

6. june - I finished my internal medicine residency! After 11 years of training, I finally was done with school and training! I celebrated with all my fine colleagues. I also started this blog!

7. july - i spent a month travelling to my parents' home country of Vietnam for the very first time. It was one of the most amazing and eye opening experiences of my life!!

8. august - august was a crazy hard month for various reasons, but it also made us closer to God who answered prayers and comforted our souls. We also got celebrated husband's birthday and I started my first month as a stay at home wife. We noshed and cleaned and exercised and enjoyed ourselves immensely in these acts. Our wedding also got published in D Weddings magazine!

9. september - was a busy month for us! We celebrated my father's birthday, became grape stomping champions, and had a smashing time in San Franscisco!

10. october - we went to the fair, I second shot my first wedding, celebrated my mother's birthday, and got to spend time with some old friends in Atlanta. I got to accompany my husband on his reproductive endocrine and infertility conference.

11. november - i started my new job at the hospital as a nocturnist. I also took a big leap and started lynninlovephoto, my portrait photography business. Husband matched into his fellowship programing in REI which means we'll be in Dallas at least 3 more years. We also went to wedding galore! and go camping alone for the first time.

\

12. december - sweet december, we built gingerbread houses, and celebrated my nephews birthday, and rejoiced in Jesus's birthday.

Lovely wonderful 2009... we can't wait for our new adventures in 2010!!

lynn in love with wine and cheese

2009-12-29T09:00:00.003-06:00

Now I don't know much about wine, all the different nuances and tones and tastes and such... I just know that I either like it or I don't!

So it was great when my good friend Mandy threw a holiday wine and cheese party! Mandy is our friendly expert in all things wine and usually makes our dinner wine choices. I have no idea what I'm going to do when she goes off to Colorado next year to start her pulmonary fellowship! I guess go back to drinking bad wine! ha!

She gave us little cards to take notes on her pairings, and since I remember things better when I write things down, I'll tell you my recs!

Mandy's spread was A-mazing!

Our lovely host.

And the guests enjoying their libations!

----ok, so here are my notes on the pairings!----
1. Domaine Sainte Claire - Saint-Bris Sauvignon Blanc - 2007 - France
paired with French Chevre (Goat Cheese)

-the wine was very good, had a nice crisp peppery taste
-Mandy says it goes well with lots of food including sushi and mexican.

2. Rustenberg Stellenbosch Chardonnay - 2007 - South Africa
paired with Camembert from Nomandy France

-wine was buttery, with an oaky taste
-much smoother than the Sauvignon Blanc
-everybody kept saying it was a "manly" wine

3. Duckhorn Vineyards Merlot - 2006 - Napa Valley
paired with Aged Cheddar

- I don't like many red wines, but this was so good!
- the cheese was quite mild, probably too mild for most people's taste, but I loved it, and it paired really well with the wine.

4. Syrah by Rudi Schultz - 2006 - South Africa
paired with 5 year old aged Gouda

-this was liked by many people, but I really didn't enjoy this wine.
-the Gouda however, was very good!

4. Warre's Optima 10 Port - Portugal
Imagery Petite Sirah Port - Paso Robles
paired with Roquefort blue cheese
and El Rey Milk Chocolate and Dagoba Milk Chocolate

-Optima 10 port - it was very sweet, very raison type taste
-I preferred the Imagery's port better
-The Roquefort was amazing! I could eat the cheese forever!
-The El Rey was quite mild, but I loved the Dagoba chocolate.
-Did you know that the fungus in the Roquefort is penicillium roqueforti? That is my little bit of nerd fact for you!

lynn in love with thaden's birthday

2009-12-28T09:00:00.002-06:00

Did y'all miss me? Hope you all had wonderful wondeful holidays! I did, and now that I've partied, and celebrated, and familied, I can start posting again!! I am too excited to finally get to post this one today!

Two weeks ago, we threw a super fab birthday party for my darling little nephew. If you remember from the invites I posted a few weeks ago, Thaden has a little obsession with bones. He is also at times fascinated with my father's mustache and so the idea of "Bones & 'Stache" party was born!

The party was so much fun, with all the great "bone" games that my sister came up with for the kids. As you know, I am a big fan of the photobooth, so we set up one with bones and staches galore! I had so many pictures if was difficult to know what to post. Here are many of my favorites!

Thaden helping us decorate

My dad with the orginial "stache"

bone figure making = fail, but bone jewelry = success!!

Thaden loves bones and his mama!!

Bone Candy scavenger hunt

Time to blow out the candles

The End from Thaden "Bones"!

check back later for my tutorial on DIY mustaches!! :)

lynn in love with christmas

2009-12-25T13:20:00.004-06:00

Signing in to tell you about our Christmas Miracle! After spending Christmas Eve Eve in t-shirt and 70 degree weather.... it snowed on Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

May the miracle and joy of His birth bless you today!

lynn in love with the holidays

2009-12-21T15:22:00.003-06:00

I really do love everything about the holidays: the family, the celebrating, the music...
the magic of holiday making, parties, and celebration of Jesus's birth.
It's all aglow...

This year is a bit of bummer because the husband is scheduled to work every day of the holidays including Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the New Year's, but it's okay, we're going to make the most of it!

Dear readers, I wish all of you the best holidays ever, full of families and friends and christmas sweets and laughter and love. You guys have made this blogging experience worth it with your lovely comments and friendship.

In order to spend all the quality time I can get with the Huz and family, I'm going to have to bid this little blog adieu for just a bit, I hope you understand... but I'll see you next week on the other side! Can't wait to read about how your holidays have gone!

Much love, lynnlostinlove

lynn in love with hanging out with the fam

2009-12-18T01:51:00.004-06:00

Ah... I was all snuggled in bed... but really couldn't sleep, so I decided to slip in my daily post before I went to sleep.

One of the fantastic perks of living in Dallas is being close to my family...and getting to stop on by when I'm tired of cooking and eat some delish grub. My tummy was a grumbling today, so I scooted on home to hang out with these usual suspects:

(Um, yeah Dad is obviously the only bonafide 'stache is this household!)

And got some yummy in my tummy from my brother whose a great cook! Seriously, girls, watch out, he's a real catch! :)

Then my brother and I sat in front of the computer sharing our favorite youtube videos from the week:

His offering:

My offering:

Afterwards, my mama and I laid in bed in my dad's blue snuggie watching Korean Soap Operas dubbed in Vietnamese. Korean soaps are my mom's favs. The story always revolves around a triple love triangle and an evil mother-in-law and they are oh so funny, and dramatic, and rather addicting.

It's was 12:30am before I left and drove the long drive home to my place... I told my mama I would call her as soon as I got home, but it was only after I got home, brushed my teeth, and dilly dallied in putting on my PJ's that I remembered to pick up my phone which was still on vibrate. Of course there were 8 frantic messages on my phone already.

Even though I'm almost 30, a mother always worries :) Oops! Sorry Mom! Love you!!

Have you hung out with your family lately? What do y'all do when you're at home?

lynn in love with julie/julia

2009-12-17T01:54:00.005-06:00

Dear ones,

It's 2PM right about now, and all is good in the world. Nope I don't have my usual insomnia, but since I have a night job now, my sleep schedule is pretty much all turned upside down. On my nights off, I still go to bed really late and pretty much sleep til noon! This month kinda rocks though, because the huz is working nights too, which means our schedules are perfectly aligned! In years past, when he's had to work nights, I'd never see him, we'd just be passing each other in the dark as I drove to work and he would be driving back home. We just spent two days off together and it was really splendid :)

hmm.. my dad mentioned this weekend that I talk about my husband too much on my blog :) I probably do, but I'm very much okay with that, because this blog is about what I'm in love with. And the huz and I? We're very much in love!

We still had a couple more hours of awake time left, so we rented Julie & Julia from the Redbox (we love the Redbox) and popped it in at midnight. I absolutely loved it. Wonderful Meryl Streep was perfect as Julia, and the entire movie was funny, sweet, and perfectly darling. A very nice feel good movie that made me terribly hungry and inspired to pick up my own cute little turquoise Le Creuset pot and start cooking. In a blind moment, I even asked the husband to get me "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child for Christmas. Which I hope he does...

Lastly, it's not a post for me unless I have a picture included (unlike the original Julie/Julia Project blog) so here's one from today! So excited to have downloaded the MPhotobooth App on my iphone today.... so fun! Here's my test strip!

lynn in love with family love shoots

2009-12-16T11:11:00.004-06:00

I've had sooo much fun photographing family love shoots! Each family has such different personalities and it's so great to capture their love. LOVE this job!

Here's are the love shoots I've done recently:

http://lynninlovephoto.blogspot.com/search/label/familyloveshoot

lynn in love with weekends

2009-12-14T13:10:00.004-06:00

Happy Monday Y'all!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend! :)

I'm fairly exhausted from a super busy, but super fun weekend.

Lots of shooting this weekend, so if I'm quiet this days, it's because I'm working

on this:

{Chen Family Love Shoot}

and this! Full blog post coming up on

{Thaden's superfab 4th "bones & 'stache" birthday party!}

lynn in love with "no boys allowed"

2009-12-11T09:00:00.001-06:00

Oh! I just spoted this shoot for the best bacholerette party here.

A girls's weekend at Joshua Tree National Park....

doesn't this look like SO much fun??

My girlfriends...we need to plan a fantastic weekend like this soon :)

lynn in love with gingerbread villages!

2009-12-10T09:00:00.001-06:00

It's starting to feel like Christmas! :) So the other day, the huz and I made a trip to Target and made out with Gingerbread Village Kit. We thought oh how fun and reminisced on our childhood when we used to make these. But now that we're all old with awesome fine motor skills, we were all prepared to make a kickbutt village, all designer and posh. Seriously, this was going to be the Beverly Hills of Gingerbread Villages! I mean how hard could it be??

Yeah...not so much. Apparently building with crackers and icing is not really one of our true talents. One hour later when our kitchen table, clothes, and fingers were covered with all kinds of colored sugar bits, we managed to create a village filled with dilapidated and run down homes...um... no Beverly Hills here, more like Gingerbread Ghetto!

Huz refused to let me get discouraged and we tried again and covered all the cracks and original decorations with as much sugar goodness as we could... and you know what? it ended up pretty cute! I placed all our little buildings on various little cake holders and we got our first little Christmas decoration :)

It started out all fine and dandy!

It was when we busted out the icing, when things started to fall apart... literally!

Aw... our poor little church!

Our completed Village!! Not too bad huh?

These two are our favorites!

They look cute by candlelight :)

A few more in the daylight :)

L for Lynn in Love!

It's pretty fun, y'all... get your own kit at Target for $8 :)

lynn in love with a & m's wedding

2009-12-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, sorry for the absence from the blog... if you were wondering what I was doing... head over here!
{lynninlovephoto}
Where I was busying posting pictures from my husband's best friend's wedding!

It was an awesome time really... I'm not going to put much on here, since I detailed everything pretty much on my photoblog... so head over there, I think it's worth it! :)

I'll just put a couple of personal pictures here, and some highlights!

lynn in love with tres paris!

2009-12-05T09:00:00.001-06:00

Seeing that I'm getting kinda old (no seriously, I am... 6 months to 30), I probably shouldn't be looking at teeny-bopper stores anymore. But I can't really help myself, when the clothes are 1. cute 2. affordable 3. disposable... all 3 are important to me if I give-in to trendy clothes that I know won't last more than a season.

Apparently forever 21 is doing these weekly limited collections {resource} ! and I have to admit, I really love this colleciton. http://www.forever21.com/twist/#

Seriously, aren't these pretty cute??

well... I may or may not at least indulge of some the accessories... I'll have to think it over the weekend.

Here is something I definitely couldn't resist getting was this sweet little Kate Spade iphone cover! My iphone goes with me EVERYWHERE and is probably my most used accessory. Kate Spade is also my signature handbag designer. I love her style and her style is totally me. My current pink cover is completely beat-up and when I saw this cover this past Friday, I knew it had to be mine. On the inside of the cover it says "have courage."

C'est tres adorable, n'est pas?

lynn in love with the sister's family

2009-12-04T12:26:00.006-06:00

Eee...I totally forgot to change my header for December, so I just whipped this one up. Not really in love with it, so we'll see how long it lasts :) Our mild Texas November has finally turned into cold December days! It's even supposed to snow today! I'll make y'all a Texas snowman if that actually happens and the snow sticks.

Finished up two night shifts in a row, and so I'm back into my editing mode...

Here is a sweet family session with my Sister! Check it!

{Sister Family Love Shoot!}

Have a great weekend, y'all!!

lynn in love with 'stache' and bones invites

2009-12-02T09:00:00.005-06:00

My little nephew is turning 4 in a couple of weeks! He's a such a smart little cutie and he's super excited about becoming a "big boy".

My sister (his mom) and I were brainstorming on ideas for his birthday... and we decided on a "Mustache and Bones" party. Yeah, not really cohesive, but I think it's going to be great. My father has a mustache, which TJ loves, and he is always trying to give everyone a mustache. Inspired by all the little mustaches that circulating the wedding market right now, I thought it would be super adorable to see all the youngsters sporting 'staches' at the party. TJ is also obsessed with bones at the moment, so that had to be part of the theme as well!

Anyways, I just finished the invites and I think they are pretty cute! All I did was purchase some $1 red and white foam sheets as well as some brown felt sheets from Michaels. I used the red foam sheet as the backing of the invite, and free-cut the mustaches and bones from the brown and white sheets. I had a lot of fun thinking of ways to cut out all kinds of different mustaches so that each invite is one of a kind.

Can't wait to show you pic of the actually party in a couple of weeks!

lynn in love with camping II

2009-12-01T08:29:00.007-06:00

Dears... I am a busy bee, editing like a mad woman for lynninlovephoto, making invites for my nephew's birthday, designing christmas cards, and preparing my first december shift tonight! Although I just want to crawl into my bed with a book on this cold december 1st day, it does feel good to be a productive woman :)

Today, I'm just going to leave you with few polaroids from our camping trip, as well as an old xanga post from 3 years ago on the huz and my first camping trip together 3.5 years ago. It was our first year anniversary of dating... :) That's one of the reason I love blogging....it's so fun to look back at the memories. The now husband still has the same qualities I loved in him since the first: patient, protector, provider, and partner. Check it out at the link below!

{lynninlove's first camping trip}

hmm.. I scanned these all in at one time, I don't know why they are all different sizes, and colors...oh well!

lynn in love with camping

2009-11-30T08:15:00.000-06:00

Did you guys have a lovely week?... whether it was spent with family, or with friends, or just with good food, I hope it was a good time. Ours was beautifully busy with all of it! I was out of town for most of the week, so I apologize if I haven't been commenting on your blogs!

Well I'm just going to jump into my recaps and reviews, because this post is going to be long and full of pictures! We started off the week by going camping. Now, the husband and I are by no means "roughing it" kind of people, but we really wanted to get away for a night and spend it in fresh air and God's beautiful country. So we loaded it up the car and headed out to Tyler State Park! We've never been there before and from recs on facebook, we made it our destination. Only 90 minutes from Dallas, it was perfect for an overnight camping adventure.

Once we got there, we found a lovely camping site. Look at our view! We were surrounded by beautiful colored fall trees, and the serene lake. Site 124 will always be our site if we ever come again.

I was so thankful for my sister in law who lent us all her awesome camping gear. We were surprised to find the tent easy to assemble.

After we set up camp, we went off on a hike around the lake, finding little delightful things in the forest carpet of fallen leaves.

I'm so proud of the huz for finally learning how to use my camera, so I can get some SLR action :)

Maybe he can be my second shooter one day!

After the hike, we came back to the site to take care of the real business...our dinner! We built a fire and set out our sweet potaters and corn out to roast! Sometimes, there is nothing better then a real wood fire ablazing to warm our bodies.

The Huz manning the fire.

:) We take our camping food seriously in the lynninlove household! Dinner Menu: Ribeye steaks, veggie kabobs, roasted sweet potatoes, and corn!

I don't why fire cooked food tastes sooo good... but seriously, this food was perfection.

There was hungry wild thing in the forest!

After dinner, we sat by the lake watching the sunset and making our mark with the rest of the lovers on the bench.

The night set in with cold crisp air and so we bundled up into our tent and slipped into sleeping bags cocoons. I have to say... I was a little freaked out! I kept hearing all these noises. We peaked out to see what all the ruckus was about, and found this little racoon family coming to check us out!

Oh, the dawn light coming in through our tent was so so beautiful! We woke up and went on another short hike. Love this light!

That's it folks!!

So our final review of Tyler State Park? 4 1/2 stars! It's a bit small for the more experienced camper/hiker, but for folks like us who wanted a short excursion, it's a wonderful place to spend a night or weekend! Beside camping and hiking, they offer mountain bike trails, fishing, as well as canoes and paddle boats which we hope to check out next time! The camp sites are clean, beautifully placed around the lake and offer fire pits and a water pump. Loved it and definitely recommend it!

lynn in love with blessings

2009-11-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

this year I am thankful for:

-8 months of marriage to a wonderful man

-finishing residency

-times of rest

-health of my family

-blessings from the lord

-a bright future to look forward to.

-husband matching into his fellowship

-rekindling friendships

-special times with my family

-a generous sister

-a sweet brother

-supportive parents

-peace in prayers

-exploring new places

-contentment in having in having less material possessions.

-exciting new career paths

-joy in my work.

lynn in love with thanksgiving week

2009-11-23T23:59:00.004-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

This year has been AMAZING. I have so so much to be thankful for and glad to have a whole week off to celebrate. We have a busy week ahead chocked full of fun stuff that I'll tell you all about next week. I *may* have a blog or two up this week, but if I don't make it up here, I wish all you sweet, dear readers a lovely holiday full of friends and family!

I'll just leave you with a picture from an awesome family photo session I did yesterday for lynninlovephoto. The Lin's were so much fun, and I was glad to spend time with them.

*Edit* Ahh... I finished the post on the Lin's! Go check them out at

lynninlovephoto.blogspot.com!!

lynn in love with wedding dress

2009-11-21T15:00:00.004-06:00

Speaking of wedding...huh! imagine my surprise when I was stalking Jasmine Star's photography blog yesterday, and I saw the model in her most recent workshop wearing.... my wedding dress!!

you guys... I LOVED my wedding dress... it was everything that I was looking for: simple, flowy, comfortable, pretty and flattering on my petite body... without making me feel like a giant snowball which was how I felt on every dress I tried on prior to mine. And I got a fantastic deal for it which made it all so perfect (b/c I love a great deal). Seriously, I got this lovely Vera Wang number for $550... crazy huh?

As all brides do, after I got my dress... I stalked and googled my heart out of my dress to look for inspiration and so forth... and NEVER once saw my dress online. Nary a silk or chiffon angle to be found. It saddened me a little, but I did sort of loved that I was wearing an original. :)

Until today, when I saw this Jasmine Star post... and here's my dress on the model! It fits me a little differently then on her, but it still evokes all the same feelings that I had for the dress: lovely, elegant, flowy, and just a little different! and I absolutely adore the way she styled the dress! That necklace, the headpiece, those shoes! This is great inspiration for when I finally do my trash the dress session on our anniversary!

As I still waiting for my pics, I pulled this one off my photog's website of my dress and shoes...

and even though it's not a good view of my dress I just wanted to post this pic that I just downloaded from huz's cuz, becuase I love it so.. :)

Happy Saturday!

lynn in love with bicycles

2009-11-20T12:28:00.006-06:00

mmm....kay... so I'm following this new blog Hilltop glossy. It's sort of a Sartorialist for Dallas, and she shoots the people and kids around SMU,

today she posted these bikes and I'm in love.

I leave near the SMU area and I've never seen anybody on bikes this cute, or for that fact bike at all.

But I've been wanting to.... and would love a sweet cruiser like this: The turquoise? the basket? (and the tory burch tote) In. Love. Where can I find one?

lynn in love with wedding snippets

2009-11-19T15:59:00.004-06:00

Aw, you guys rock, totally my people :) Thanks for all the comment love, big hugs to all of you sweet readers!

Work is getting better, it's nice to get my medicine back, and I kinda love my patients. Even the smelly snarly ones. I kinda feel they just need a little love.

My husband just downloaded some pictures and videos that his cousin from Korean took at our wedding. In all the craziness that was our 4 day wedding extravaganza, I still love love loved our wedding. I'm still waiting for my fabulous pictures from my photographer, heather essian before doing recaps...

but here is a small 1 second video snippet our wedding! (sorry, I really do hate myself on video...this is all I'm giving you!) Makes me smile down to my soul!

lynn in love with naked cupcakes!

2009-11-18T11:54:00.004-06:00

lookie me! posting everyday despite my new crazy schedule. Working night shifts giving my body a run for its money. Post-shift, I pretty much sleep all day the next day until 5pm... and leaving me feeling all sorts of discombobulated.

Anyhoo... late last night I was craving... CRAVING some cakey goodness. I was still all woozy, and as awesome as my husband is, he refused to get out of bed to go get me some cake. I guess it was 11pm.

well, I looked into my empty refrigerator and thought I had just enough ingredients to make my favorite cupcakes. I remembered I also had a tub of store bought icing in the pantry to dress them up since I didn't have enough ingredients to make frosting as well . (poor us, literally just 1 stick of butter and 2 eggs left in the fridge).

I made my favorite cupcakes which are so quick and easy and when I left them on the wire racks to cool, I searched for my icing... and it's nowhere to be found. I go wake up the husband. "where is my frosting??" ... in which he replied "oh, i threw it away, it had expired."

grrrr.... no frosting, no icing.... and no ingredients to make some. I was perturbed at midnight.

But honestly... the cupcakes are SO so good even without them! Sure the icing give them that extra oomph... but seeing that I ate 4 of them on the spot, I'm pretty sure they can stand alone :)

Love me some naked cupcakes!! Especially those in cute cherry liners from Vietnam!

(yay, the camera shop just called and said my 50mm f1.4 lens is fixed). I pulled out my ol' kit lens for this picture. Not so bad, I do declare. (my southern accent via michael scott)

Cupcakes (from here)

Ingredients: 1 stick+1tbsp of soft butter, 1/2 cup+1tbsp sugar, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup flour,

1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 3 tbsp milk

1. Take all ingredient and leave out to room temperature. Line your cupcake tins, and preheat the oven to 400 F

2. Put all ingredients into mixing bowl, and mix until smooth. Add milk until smooth dropping consistency.

3. Divide the mixture into the cupcake tins and make in the oven. The recipe says 15-20 minutes, but that's too long in my oven. I usually put the timer on 10 minutes, and watch them every 2 minutes, until pale golden brown on top.

4. Let them cool a little in their tins on a rack, then take them out carefully and cool them completely on a wire rack.

5. Then frost/ice with whatever.... or not!

See! Easy peasy! Go make some now!

lynn in love with trent and le's wedding!

2009-11-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

Trent and Le had a beautiful and fun wedding reception at the Kim Son Ballroom in Downtown Houston. The food was yummy, the bride and groom were gorgeous, and it was so much fun to hang out with old friends from medical school and residency.

Sometime during the reception was when my camera was dropped and I didn't realize that the autofocus was busted meaning I only have a handful of pictures that weren't blurry. Doh! Still we have our memories of a great night!

Congratulations Trent & Le!! Here's to a beautiful start to a wonderful marriage!!

The boys and one of the pretty centerpieces

The bride and groom were swarmed by family and cameras all night, this is the only shot I got of them by themselves! They had a cute picture mat for their sign-in.

The boys again. There were about 5 cameras pointing at them at this point.

Their wedding cake was gorgeous! & one of the best wedding cakes I have ever tasted!

Haha... one of the Vietnamese traditions is for the bride & groom to greet tables and receive their gift envelopes. However at the young tables, they are usually required to do something before getting their envelopes. This usually means a shot of alcohol or playing a risque game. We made Le thread this lemon up one pant leg and down the other!

Le changed into this beautiful feathered reception gown for the cake cutting/dancing!

Trent's best man, Alan, made a sweet and funny speech. He was in our wedding too!

The girls!

Haha: Houston humidity+dancing = hair disasters!

Tonia & Thayer

We had the after party at lucky strike and "upscale" bowling alley in downtown. A great night!!

lynn in love with weekends

2009-11-16T08:04:00.003-06:00

(I, my darlings, am a complete idiot.

At a wedding this weekend, my dslr got dropped and now the autofocus doesn't work.

Grr. this does not bode well for my track record. At least it's a two-fer for the repair shop)

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Ok, Happy Monday, y'all!

Did you have a good weekend? Hope so! Husband and took a MUCH needed break from Dallas and work, and hopped into our car on Friday and drove down to Houston for a friend's wedding. It was a lovely wedding and a fabulous weekend filled with old friends. We're tired from all the fun but refreshed for a new week ahead of us!

We got a great deal and stayed at Aloft Galleria. I love the W hotels, and was pleasantly suprised to find that Aloft was a little sister version of the W hotels. It was chic, modern, clean and comfortable with fun details that we appreciated! I wish I had more pictures to share from the weekend, but between my point and shoot being dead, and my dslr autofocus busted I only have a few to show.

Friday we rolled in exhausted from the drive in the dark and long days at work. Our friends were asleep, but we wanted to have a little fun so we went down to the hotel bar to hang out. They had fun furniture, table games, and a pool table, so husband and I entertained each other.

We had some yummy drinks at the bar and some chicken taquitos.

There were oh so many games of pool this weekend. All of them of which we played very poorly. oh so poorly.

I love finding new ways to do ring shots! Aren't these adorable? :)

And while I was doing these ring shots, I turn around to find the husband setting up our initials in the connect 4 slots. I do adore me some cheesy love!!

Okay, tomorrow a few shots that I was able to get at the wedding...

**Update**

My canon point and shoot's repair would be half of what I payed for it! No way.... guess I have to wait til Christmas to replace it.

My 50mm f1.4 lens is at the shop (Garland Camera and Repair). Hopefully the autofocus will be fixed by the time my first paying shoot comes up this Sunday!!

lynn in love with the canon sx200 IS-may she rest in peace.

2009-11-12T13:32:00.003-06:00

Sigh. I appear to be a serial killer....of cameras.

First it was my diana

And now it's my sweet little Canon.

As you know, I love taking pictures: Right now I consistently shoot with 4 cameras: my dslr Nikon D70, my polaroid camera, my iphone camera, and my Canon Powershot Sx200 IS.

I loved my canon. For a point and shoot it is very powerful. It rocks 12 megapixels, HD video, and semi-full manual controls. It produces clear and crisp images. For any time I'm too lazy to lug my dslr around, it alway stands in as my go-to camera.

Sigh...now its in camera heaven with diana, since I totally killed it while shooting and rollerskating at the same time.

The evidence:

My friend Connie and I went skating around a lake on Saturday. The camera give me clear brilliant colors.

For some reason, I think I can skate and take pictures at the same time.

And then I drop it. On the gravel. Where it bounced several times on that gravel.

I picked it up in horror....took a picture. And this is what I see.

Sigh, its little messed up sensor likes psychedelic colors. Not good, not good at all.

I am so bummed about this as I can't afford to replace it right now. And I loved this camera. I'm going to take it to a repair shop, but don't know how much they are going to charge or if it's even fixable.

For now... let's have a moment of silence for my canon.....

lynn in love with prizes

2009-11-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

Gosh, you readers have been fabulous! Thanks for all the comment love and the support over my first week of work. Things are already better and looking up!

I dropped a little package in the mail today... and so I wanted to give you a peak of what I sent the lovely BusyBeeLauren for winning my giveaway last week!

This was so much fun, and I hope I get to do more giveaways in the future!

I sent a few of my prints from the travels I've done in the past few months.

As well as this darling vintage cupcake stand that was part of my own wedding!

A pair of rosette earrings and a pin from one of my favorite etsy store, oh hello friend,

as well as a few boxes of my beloved zipper pulls.

And last but certainly not least, this darling red vintage "loveinmanylanguages" apron from my bestie's etsy shop, courtneylangvintage.

I hope you enjoy your prizes, Lauren!

lynn in love with love session... with mom & dad!

2009-11-09T09:31:00.003-06:00

Happy Monday, my friends! I hope you all had a spectacular weekend! I sure did. It was filled with skating, and dates, and pictures, and beautiful weather.

Well I had a couple of shoots scheduled this weekend and bummed when they got cancelled last minute and I couldn't take advantage of the perfect weather and light we've been having. So when my parents called me up and asked to have some portraits taken, I jumped at the chance. We had so much fun taking the pictures and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Mom & Dad, you guys were amazing and I hope you love the pictures.

Here are just a few, but you can see the whole set at my photoblog at lynninlovephoto

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Don't be jealous guys, but these are my genes! Isn't my mom stunning? and my dad, so handsome!

Don't forget check out the full blogpost at lynninlovephoto.blogspot.com!

Dallas/Ft. Worth peeps, my November portrait dates are filling up, so if you want to take advantage of my deeply discounted November and December rates, please contact me soon at lynninlove{at}gmail.com

lynn in love with texture

2009-11-05T15:36:00.003-06:00

I just purchased a set of textures! I've never worked with them before... but I love how these first two turned out. Of course I adored the pictures before processing them, but I feel the texture made the overall images much more punchy! Definitely something to expect when you get a Fine Art Edit from me over at lynn in love photo!

Have you ever worked with textures before? What are some good tips in using them?

lynn in love with risotto

2009-11-05T09:14:00.003-06:00

Hey guys, so I had my first shift of my new job on Tuesday and the next one tonight. I had to say it was really really hard to go back to work. It was also really hard to be responsible for that many patients at one given time. And it was even harder to try to get adjusted to the new computer system the hospital was using. I finished up yesterday morning walking out trying not to freak out that I signed up to do this for the rest of the year.

BUT it was just the first shift after 4 months of not working, and I knew it was going to hard. And so I'm just going to be hopeful that it's gonna get better. That being said... as much as I want to keep up with blogging and post every weekday, I have to warn you that my posting will likely be a little spotty as I get adjusted to my new schedule.

The husband is a complete sweetheart. Knowing how tough it was going to be for me that night, he came back to the hospital after a long day of work just to keep me company and to give me computer support. He even packed me a little baggie of dinner and all sorts of sustenance that really helped me get through the night. Yesterday, I just felt reminded how blessed I am and how happy that God found me the best and most thoughtful husband ever!

So... after waking up yesterday evening, I felt that he deserved to have a warm hot dinner when he got home. We already had some Italian sausage in the fridge and so I found a recipe for Italian sausage risotto online and went on to make it. I've never made risotto before and found it to be super easy! It turned out pretty good and I'm excited to have a new recipe in my arsenal.

Next time, I think I will try making a truffle risotto... Doesn't that sound like yum?

Anyways here's the recipe I used if you want to try it as well:

Italian Sausage Recipe (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients: 1 medium onion, 1 Tbs of chopped garlic. 1 Tbs sage, 1 or 2 Tbs of butter, 3/4 lbs of Italian sausage, 1 cup of sliced baby bella mushrooms, 2 cups of Arborio rice, 1 glass dry white wine, 4 cups of hot beef broth, Parmesan cheese.

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the butter and 1 Tbs of olive oil until golden.

2. Stir in sage, and add the italian sausage, squishing the meat into small bite size pieces. Sitr until the meat is cooked thoroughly on medium-high heat.

3. Add the wine, and turn the heat up a bit and cook down until most of the wine has disappeared.

4. Add the rice and turn the heat back down to simmer and stir a few minutes until the rice turns translucent.

5. Add your first ladle of broth and stir until the broth is absorbed and add another. Continue adding the broth like this for the next twenty minutes or so, until the rice is cooked but still has a bit of bite in it.

6. Serve with freshly ground pepper and a generous grating of fresh Parmesan cheese!

Bon Appetit! This makes enough for at least 4 servings, but trust me, any leftovers the next day will taste amazing!

lynn in love with giveaway winners!

2009-11-03T15:00:00.000-06:00

yay! it's time to announce the giveaway winner from last week!

I actually had a videoblog post with me picking out the winner... but alas it was again confirmed that I do not do well on video. Alot of awkward long pauses, awkward blinking, awkward wording... not good not good.

So here's a picture of the winning comment! All I did was print off my comment page, cut the individual comments up, put them in a nifty halloween bag.... and randomly picked a winner!!

Yay! The winner is Lauren from BusyBeeLauren! She's a cutie who loves vintage, vampires, and her husband! Congratulations!

And thank to all of you who entered, commented, and followed. It was great to meet some of my readers...

The fab prizes of my giveaway are still coming in the mail, but I'll show you what Lauren won in a few days!

lynn in love with vintage dwellings

2009-11-03T10:13:00.003-06:00

My sister in law and her fiancée invited us over for dinner on Halloween night. They had just moved into an adorable dublex in a great little neighborhood and it was the first time we have visited it. My sister in law has impeccable taste and style and I just ooh'ed and aah'ed over her decor. It was very warm and inviting and the joining of her and fiancee's furniture was pefection. Scattered about the room were very large paintings by my mother in law (who is very talented painter) as well as great vintage finds. Love it! Here are just a few of my favorite details of their place.

SIL strung the crystals on the dinner room chandelier to perk it up

Winner of last week's giveaway will be announced this afternoon!

lynn in love with tonia's birthday!

2009-11-02T18:52:00.003-06:00

Happy Happy Birthday to one of my besties, Tonia!

i love this girl to bits! She's funny and spunky and so much fun to be around!

We lived together for 2 years and had such a blast.

Love you girl. Here's the best last year of our twenties!

lynn in love with a roller derby halloween

2009-11-01T14:21:00.002-06:00

haha... you guessed it! We were roller derby girls! Ever since Connie and I saw Whip It at a free screening, we knew we were gonna be Derby Girls for Halloween! Did you see the movie? We loved it. I love these hardcore girls and the motto "be your own hero." After gathering a few things from around the house (arm bands and tennis skirt) and going to Salvation Army to acquire a helmet, I was only missing the skates. After searching high and lo for them, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to complete our costumes. I should have known to look at Academy Sports first (one of my favorite stores eva), cuz there I found some super cute and cheap official Roller Derby skates! Mandy joined us last minute, and all of a sudden, we had a team!

Every year, the UTSW Ortho residents throw a huge halloween party, and I've been going since med school. After being MIA for the last 4 months, it was great to skate around and catch up with some old friends and residents.

The Archstone Angels!

Our names: miss demeanor, punky bruiser, and bloody mary!

met our devilish tonia at the Ortho Party

husband's official costume was my spotter and keep me from biting it!

We're totally ready to join TXRD!

We may have tied lightsticks to our skates!

goodnight!

lynn in love with dressing up II

2009-11-01T10:59:00.003-06:00

Oh we had such a blast last night! I haven't uploaded the pictures from the Halloween party yet (later this afternoon). I think probably the most fun was getting the costume together and then dressing up part! Good guesses from my last commenters...but no dice.

Here are some more clues! I had basically only 24 hours to get my costume together. But when I had all the components I clapped with glee because of all the cuteness! Of course, I had to do a little impromptu photo shoot with my star players.

Now you know what I was?? :)

lynn in love with dressing up

2009-10-31T17:40:00.004-05:00

Here's a sneak peak for my halloween costume for tonight...

any guesses of what I'm gonna be?

some hints: I'm fast, hardcore and like to smash, block, and jam...!

lynn in love with pumpkins!

2009-10-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

We never really celebrated Halloween when we were younger... so now that I'm older I find it a blast to dress up! We started the festivities early by carving our first pumpkin with the nephew bean! We had a lot of fun getting all the goop out and carving out our scary little pumpkin!

lynn in love photo! portrait photography business launch!

2009-10-30T09:40:00.003-05:00

Dear Readers! I am so so excited to tell you the big news. We're going into business! As you can tell from this little blog of mine, I love photography and with the time I had on my hands the last few months, I've been able to develop my skills. I've done quite a few shoots for my friends and family and had so much fun doing so. I thought it was time to take it to the next level!

soo.... I introduce you to....

You can check out my new website:

http://lynninlovephoto.showitsite.com/

and my new photoblog here for more of my portfolio:

http://lynninlovephoto.blogspot.com/

I'm so excited about this new endeavor!

Right now, I'm going to focus on natural light portraits. For the month of November, I am going to offer a deeply discounted rate for services. $30 flat rate for any type of shoot, with a 5x7 fine art print. For an additional $25, you can receive a disc of all your high resoluation images as well as at least ten fine art edits enhanced in Photoshop by me.

This deal will ONLY be for the month of November in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and as I have a day job, bookings will be limited. So if you are interested, please email me at lynninlove@gmail.com for inquiries.

This will be perfect for those of you who don't have your Christmas Card photo yet! :) But of course, I am available for outdoor engagement, families, seniors, bridals and just because pictures as well.

Come and look over some of my work, and if it's your style, I'd love to work with you!

See you over at lynninlovephoto!

lynn in love with the future: Match Day!!

2009-10-28T09:50:00.004-05:00

Yay! Big News! Yesterday was match day for the OB/GYN residents, and husband has matched into his fellowship! He is officially going to be a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist! I know that is a mouthful, that's why we shorten it to REI. I am so so proud of him. It's been a tough four years, but his perseverance totally paid off. This was a highly competitive fellowship and he achieved it through very hard work, spending hours doing basic science research during a really intense residency. He's a great surgeon and a great doctor and we are so very blessed with this news.

So where did we match? It looks like another 3 years in Dallas! After much deliberation, we really knew that Dallas would be the best place for us at this time. Husband has great mentors at UTSW and both of our families are here. We are so very excited!

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Don't forget dear friends, about my giveaway here: please comment on that blogpost to enter, and if you have become a blog follower in the last few days, be sure to comment on that blogpost that you have followed for another entry. Entries ends tomorrow (Oct. 30) at midnight! And check back tomorrow... I'm announcing another big news :)

lynn in love with staying at home, blogging, and GIVEAWAYS!

2009-10-25T22:04:00.006-05:00

Hello friends!

So this is it... it's finally here. It's officially my last week of a glorious 4 month adventure as a stay at home wife. I've taken on a job working at the university hospital as a nocturnist (admitting patients to the hospital at night) and it all starts next week.

I will have to say that I will miss this life. After 11 years of education/training and finishing up with a intensive internal medicine residency, it was pretty amazing to take a breather these past few months. So many people have asked what I've been doing, if I was bored with this new lifestyle... and I have to say not even for ONE second. I certainly was not idle, but instead I filled my days focusing on doing things I never had time to do before and spending time with my loved ones. For the first time I was really able to focus on just me, and I enjoyed every moment. I loved having this little blog to document the good times and I thank all of you readers for having been there experiencing it with me.

Just a few things I've been doing the past 4 months:

*Travelling - I went to Vietam for a month with my family as seen here, here, and here

- I travelled with my husband (SF and Atlanta) as seen here, here, here.

*Spending time with my family and my little 3 year old nephew as seen here, here, here, here, and here

*Loving on my husband as seen here, here and here.

*Becoming a Grapestomping champion as seen here.

*Getting board certified in Internal Medicine as seen here.

*Cooking and baking as seen here, here, here, and here.

*Getting fit and exercising regularly

*Getting back to my love of photography as seen here, here, here, and here. (exciting news to come about this!)

*Going to church more regularly

*Being available for my friends and family when they were in need.

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Dear friends and dear readers (according to my google analytics, I have had 2300 visits from 53 countries since August), I want to celebrate this time and to celebrate you with a little giveaway!

For a lucky commentor, I will be giving away a package of some of my favorite things from the last 4 months. It will include

*few prints/postcards from my trip to Vietnam

*this lovely apron from my bestie's etsy shop

*a vintage cupcake stand

*and a whole bunch of other lovely suprises that you'll just have to wait to see! :)

Trust me, it'll be good :)

To enter:

1. For one entry, leave a comment on this post with your name (can't be anonymous), by Friday, October 30th at midnight

2. For another entry, be a follower (leave another comment that says you have followed)

3. For an additional entry, you can either blog about this giveaway or post a link to my blog (leave another comment)

I'll pick a random winner this weekend and post the goodies/winner on Monday.

This is your chance, especially if you've haven't before, to leave a comment!

Thank you, dear readers, for experiencing this ride with me!

lynn in love with shabby apple!

2009-10-23T08:00:00.003-05:00

Yay! I won my first giveaway! One of my favorite bloggers Darling Dexter posted a giveaway a few weeks ago, and I won a Shabby Apple dress!

The dress is the 90 words a minute dress from Shabby Apple.

I just got it in the mail...and it's really quite cute!

As some of you may know, I live in dresses! Probably 70% of my wardrobe are dresses. I find nothing so easy, pretty, and comfortable then a good dress. I love the idea behind Shabby Apple which is to provide easy one piece dresses that are both high on style and modesty! No modesty tanks or cardigans necessary. This dress is no exception. FYI if you are planning to get this dress, as the website implies, the dress is generous, meaning even after getting a XXS, the dress is a smidge loose on me. Still I love it. The color is just right and it's feminine without being form fitting. I paired it with some brown patterned tights/heels for a breezy falltime lunchdate with a friend.

Anyways... a big thanks to Darling Dextor and Shabby Apple for a new staple to my wardrobe!

oh, and thanks to Allis for snapping these photos for me :)

lynn in love with atlanta: part IV last bits

2009-10-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

That's all folks!

Just a few last pictures from my iphone.

During one of the downtimes when I was bored and stuck in the hotel waiting for Jon to come home, I discovered another totally awesome iphone app: TiltShiftGen, which again turns my iphone into one of my beloved old school toy cameras! Just like ShakeItUp app, you can take new pics or choose from your album and turn your photo into a dreamy, vintage infused pictures. I love that you can control all the effects. It's a dollar and very much worth the download.

i love this picture: We brought an Agatha Christie mystery book on the trip to read, and we passed this Agatha murder mystery dinner restaurant!

i read the book on the way home. Creepy.

too happy to get home to Dallas!

lynn in love with atlanta: part III Coca-Cola Museum

2009-10-22T15:00:00.001-05:00

On Monday, I met up with Jon during one of the break times of the conference and we headed to the Coca-Cola Museum across the street with some of his friends.

The Coca-Cola Museum houses lots of coke paraphernalia as well as a tasting area where you get to try all 64 coca-cola flavors from all around the world! We trucked through and tried pretty much each of the flavors! Honestly, we felt pretty diabetic in the end with all the sugar running through our bloodstream, but it was fun to try them all out. South Africa flavors were the most interesting, Europe the most bland... but honestly, I love the good home flavors of the USA the best.

All the photos were taken by my iphone with the ShakeItUp app.

the Texas bottle was the most ghetto :(

grr...the lady obviously didn't know how to use my iphone and cuts the guys head off.

lynn in love with atlanta: part II Little 5 Points Halloween Parade

2009-10-22T12:00:00.000-05:00

On my first day in Atlanta, Bonnie and Jasper took me to the Atlanta neighborhood Little 5 Points for their annual Halloween Parade. Little 5 Points was incredibly cute and quaint and the parade was fun. All the neighborhood kids came dressed to the nines to watch the hour long parade. I got to bust out my dslr and practice taking moving subjects. I just love what Fall light and colorful costumes do for pictures.

lynn in love with atlanta: hanging out with old friends!

2009-10-22T07:46:00.008-05:00

I'm gonna try and post all my Atlanta pics in 1 day. Check for new posts at 12, 3, and 6 PM today.

Early Saturday morning we started on our trip to Atlanta.

I donned my new favorite travelling outfit: sweater dress, fun tights, and slouchy boots. Totally comfy without looking slobby.

And then we arrived in a chilly (but gloriously not rainy) Atlanta. Probably the highlight of the trip was getting to hang out with my long lost college buddies, Bonnie and Jasper. Since graduating from Rice University over 7 years ago, we haven't been able to spend good quality time together and it felt soooooo great to catch up and hang out with them.

Since Jon had to be in conference meetings all day, Bonnie and Jasper graciously hosted me around Atlanta whenever they could. They drove me ALL around Atlanta and fed me! My 4 only real polas of the trip were with them.

The cutie couple themselves

At the Little 5 Points Halloween parade

BonBon and I fobbing it out!

In downtown Decatur

I love hanging out with my college friends, it's just so so comfortable :). We can totally be goofy and ourselves with each other.

next up: the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade!

lynn in love with cokes, caps, and board certification!

2009-10-21T18:17:00.006-05:00

"I went to Atlanta for the ASRM conference and all I got was a sperm hat and a bottle of coke!"

howdy, friends. We just flew back from Atlanta this evening! Husband is applying for a reproductive endocrine and infertility fellowship and I decided to accompany him to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine conference this year. We just spent the last 5 days in Hotlanta. I heard there was fun swag at these conferences, so I went to check out the vendors. However as there has been a crackdown on pharmaceutical company endorsements the past few years, I only made out with this lovely baseball cap with stylish sperm swimming on the side of the brim from one of the cryo sperm banks. I don't know what I'd say if I actually saw someone wearing these in public. The bottle of coke was a souvenir from the world famous Coca-Cola Museum.

Recaps on our trip begins tomorrow!

In other medical news... I got the results of my board exams, and I am now officially board certified in Internal Medicine! Whoopie! I don't have to take that sucker for another 10 years :)

lynn in love with sexy

2009-10-20T06:00:00.001-05:00

Another blogging break, dear friends. Meanwhile I have, again, a few old posts that never made it up to the blog that I now have scheduled. See ya in a couple of days!

One day, my browlady Pearl and I came upon a discussion of what we found sexy while she was doing my brows. It's funny how all of the attributes we came up with where not physical by any nature. Girls and guys really do not think alike :)

things we found sexy:

commitment
confidence
strength
bravery
selflessness
faith
humbleness
grace

what do you find sexy?

lynn in love with macarons

2009-10-19T06:00:00.003-05:00

Lovers, this weekend at Central Market, I discovered these macarons... and dears... I swooned...I swooned! over them. They were so precious in all their pastel beauty, I just had to take a few home.

Macarons are a French pastry made of egg whites, almond powder, sugar and sugar icing. I was little worried about how they would exactly taste as I know many do not prefer them. Oh, but they were as delightful to eat as they were to look at! They melt oh so sugary sweet in your mouth. Yum! I sampled the raspberry, lemon, coffee, and pistachio... I think I found a new addiction!

These pictures will be some of the few pics you will see on this blog that are straight out of the camera, no photoshop, no nothing. I couldn't bear to change their natural colors. My light source is a side kitchen window that provides non-direct sunlight.

I thought my new candy colored manicure matched, so I threw my digits in!

i need a macro lens to get a good ring shot, but I thought these were cute nonetheless!