Last night it snowed through a dense fog. I don't know how that was possible, the temperature must have been right at the freezing level, but we drove through it, so I know it was there. Do you know how else I know the fog was there last night? The trees this morning. I know I do a lot of posts on trees, but they were stunning everywhere I looked this morning. Please click on each picture if you would like to see them up close. This small size doesn't do them justice.
Look at these branches flowing down white like a waterfall.
I love these two. So dense with branches and frosty snow, valenciennes couldn't be more elaborate. Sometimes I wonder if lace was created to mimic what people saw outside in winter. A poor substitute for the real thing.
Do you remember the golden tree I highlighted in the fall? Here he is above and below in his majestic winter icing.
Look at this. I love how the evergreens contrast with the deciduous trees, and how you can barely see the mountains through the fog in the background. I just saw this on the side of the highway and had to pull over with my hazards on to take the picture.
You can really see the difference in a tree's character with the snow on the branches. The tree above is dense with crooked, finger-like branching making it look more cozy and motherly. I think it's a fruit tree. The one below is so much more architectural. Firm and stern and straight arrow. Not as comfortable a tree, but fascinating in its own right.
I've been asking myself (and everyone around me for that matter) the last few weeks WHY WHY WHY do we live here in this miserable cold? Well, OK. The frosty trees are one good reason to stay.
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Finished August's first catering job last night. This was a super hard one for me in one sense --being on this next-to-no carb diet (just small servings of really healthy ones like oatmeal with no milk ) and it was all desserts. That being said, you know what happened. I held out really well until the day of where things got crazy and I didn't eat, and yes I ate HALF OF THE LOAF of the Paula Deen zucchini bread my neighbor sent me when I got home. Yeah. Free meal for the week and I didn't get to have it on a date with Jeff. We were trying for Monday. Back to my story.
These turned out killer. Pecan turtle chocolate brownies. I contracted out the base (because I would have eaten 5 pounds of batter if they were done in my house), then made homemade caramel to drizzle, toasted pecans and chopped them on there, and chopped big pieces of chocolate on there. People were going through the line and would go "oh my gosh those look dangerous" so I said "that means you'd better take two". So they did usually. I'd bought some extra just in case --we had plenty.
Lemon vanilla phyllo shells. I've got to defend myself --fillo and phyllo are correct, I like the old spelling better. I think it's more romantic. 
See how the flower arrangement worked? It got a little wilty by the end, but not too bad. I was thinking it was going to be mostly neutrals, and they weren't using much blue, so I did all whites, silvers and greens. But it turned out they had a lot of blue. I wish I'd asked again about plans at the last minute ---I had access to a lot of blue. Oh well. I think it was OK. We had a few greenery sprigs to poke into my table to tie it in. 
Mini berry pavlovas with cream and chocolate sauce. That was my other screw-up in the car on the way home. The client took a jar of chocolate sauce, but we had another quart jar that wasn't used up, and well, it was chocolate and cream and sugar and sweetened condensed milk.....
THIS was our kitchen for the night. We were in a park-like historical apple orchard with a small historical landmark cabin which I don't think was open at all. This pine was taller by far than anything around and had a big tent-like area underneath that was pretty hidden from guests. 
Here's the opening and one of my helper girls for the night. There was also a squirrel living in the tree that kept chittering at us periodically, and at one point I think dropped a pine cone on my head. That, or the tree was mad. I had to use vaseline to get the pine sap out of my hair when I went home, but really it was pretty funny.
Here's our phyllo and brownie station.
Here's the pavlova station. The girls were great workers, but there was also a lady there named Debbie who was AMAZING. I was so grateful for her. She was also the only one who stuck around and helped me pack up at the end. I hope she gets free movie tickets or something from the family. I would have paid her about a hundred dollars if she were one of my girls. Seriously. 
Thought you'd like to see some of the other decor. This bridge is over a little creek that ran right through the back of our treehouse.
String quartet. 
Blue and white. See the artichoke finials? I brought almost their twins for my table. That was cool. And lucky.
