slightly elegant

 Thomas and Conor left for Quebec yesterday; they will be gone for more than a month to immerse themselves in French culture. We spent nearly the entire week having festivities to celebrate our friends' departure, because the next time we'll be seeing them is when school starts. By then we will be burying our noses in academia. Daniels apartment has been littered with dishes reminiscing of good food we ate and laughter we shared.

Being an art minor means I've got creative friends in all the right places. It's great! Our friend,  Brena , did our engagement photos as a wedding present. Here are a few of the photos! She did a marvelous job, didn't she! Don't forget to stop by her blog . Ashley

Daniel has allowed me to help him decorate the bachelor's pad he and his school chum will be sharing for the next two years of their college careers.  Truth be told, he (and I!) doesn't like the idea of giving off a "bare college kid apartment" kind of feel. He was it to be a place of studious work and a place of gathering for friends and family. I absolutely obliged to his request for coziness. I am on a mission to help make his new home as home-y as it can possibly be. Ashley

  Is there anything better than a lazy Sunday morning? Ashley came over to my apartment this morning after church, and we made blueberry muffins for breakfast, washed down with piping hot coffee. While we ate, we listened to one of our favorite radio shows- NPR's "Says You".  Ashley and I are both very fond of listening to public radio, and we tune in frequently to our local station, WPLN in Nashville, TN. Daniel

Do you remember the crepes  I made that had the strawberry toppings on them from my last post? I thought it would be better to do the topping as it's own recipe because this topping is great on more than just crepes. So here's how you make it!  Ingredients: 2 cups of fresh strawberries, sliced 1/3 cup of white sugar 1 teaspoon of vanilla 1. Combine strawberries, sugar, and vanilla in saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. (You will hear the ingredients sizzle at first, that's perfectly alright.) Using a wooden spoon mash the strawberries to help create the juice. Cook for 15 minutes. 2. (Optional): You can puree your strawberry topping for a more smooth looking topping. I prefer mine with the chunks of strawberries. This is also great on angel food cake! If you are interested in sponsoring Slight Elegant, I am offering 75% off Large, 3 month ads. Use the code  SUMMER13.

I love, love, love crepes. Especially with Nutella in them. So here's a recipe to use when you want to serve a sweet, tasty breakfast or even a dessert! Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 1/2 water 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons butter, melted Nutella 1. Whisk flour, eggs, milk, and water. Add salt and butter, beat until smooth. 2. Heat oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Pour scoop of batter into griddle, making circular motions until the frying pan is cover in thin layer of batter. (How much you use per scoop depends on how big your frying pan is, and how think you desire your crepes.) 3. Cook crepe until lightly brown on botton side, flip and cook other side until lightly brown. Be careful not to overcook one or both sides because crepe may become crunchy and useless for filling. 4. Spread Nutella over the flat crepe, and roll. Top with strawberries, powdered suger, or eat them just the way they are! Yummo! Let me know how if...

  I start summer classes Monday that go through August. While I'm going to miss the laziness of being out of school, I'm also excited to finally start my upper division classes for my major. The means classes that are called "system and design analysis" and "database administration." Scary sounding and intimidating, I know. But, I also get to take really excited classes like "web development" and multimedia tools and techniques," which is editing and creating images for the web. Oh, I don't know if I've told you or not, but I'm an art AND math minor now. Yep, I said it. MATH. There are so many uses for upper level maths in not only computer science that can be so useful to know, but also is art. I want to be able to create beautiful content for the internet and web, and math just has so many uses for it. I suppose it's a good thing I'm way better in math than I ever was in English or Foreign Languages.  I took Fren...