EUROPE // Part 3

Now that it's around 2 years since I got back from Europe, I'm going to finish my last post about Europe. 

This is the post where I throw in a few more "real camera" pictures, but after that I will share the pictures that show more of the moments and the people I hope to never forget. They aren't the best quality, but they captured the realness rawness of our trip to Europe.


So hang with me for a bit longer while I share these last few pictures.

We did get to tour the inside of Neuschwanstien. Let me tell you, that castle was a DREAM!
I would tell you all the crazy details and all of that, but then you might not want to go yourselves, so I will refrain from spilling the juicy details, so that you want to go yourself.

"Little townnnn, it's a quiet villaaaage."

That's what these two pictures remind me of... Beauty and the Beast.  There is something about the narrow cobbled streets, the vines climbing up the Hotel Reichskuchenmesiter - it just seeps disney princess town. 

The End.

Not actually though!

Now I'll let you all see the behind the scenes phone pictures! Some of these ended up being my favorites, just because of all the memories.

^^ This is us singing in Holland. 

That was a day with many lasts in it. The last concert in Europe. The last time the program would ever be sung. The last "goodbye's", "I love you's, and "I will miss you" to new friends. One last "see you someday," because who knows.... Maybe I will get to see more of these people again on earth. I have already gotten to see one sweet lady who came to visit the United States, and that was such a sweet reunion. 

These scene below is one that happened over and over. These are just a few of the people who welcomed us with open arms, took care of us, and loved us, and then sent us on our way with many prayers. I know the likelihood of me ever seeing them again is so low, but I still exchange emails with many of them!

<3

These girls.

Thankfully, speaking the same language isn't required to be friends. Sometimes, friendship comes from tickling, laughter, being around the same hight, and laughing at trying to speak each other's language and failing... But that's okay! Through many different words and actions, they managed to tell me that they would miss me, and the feeling is extremely mutual.

I still email back and forth with them and when a friend recently went to Germany, they sent back a card for me. I keep it in my Bible, and every time I see it, I pray for them.

My trip to Europe was incredible. And now that I've actually finished posting about it, I will have to start working on a post about my trip to Africa. 

But that trip is still too close to my heart and describing just how much Africa changed me is impossible, so it will have to wait. 

xoxo,

Anna Rose

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Cranberry Pound Cake

PINTEREST HAS DONE IT AGAIN, FOLKS!

I know I'm not the only one who has used Pinterest as a last resort.... okay, let's be honest, it's usually the first resort. 

Let me tell you, this recipe is delicious! It does take a while to put together and I would probably measure more carefully the next time I make this... But for the first try, it was definitely a winner!

This is the perfect combo of cakiness, tart cranberry, with hints of cream cheese and white chocolate. Who can beat that?! Anyways... I'll quite rambling and give you the recipe. :) 

For the Cake:

187 grams cake flour-sifted (it’s about 1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tablespoons flour but you better measure it on kitchen scale because the cake could be dense or dry if you overdo it with the flour )

1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

1cup cranberries (fresh or thawed)

5 oz. white chocolate chunk

1/2 cup unsalted butter ( room temperature)

300 grams sugar ( 11/2 cups)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons browned butter

For Frosting: 

1/4 cup butter(softened)

4 oz.cream cheese

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or more to make it thick enough to spread on top of the cake)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Garnish:

handful dried cranberries

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup white chocolate chips 

Now to be completely honest, I did alter this recipe slightly when I made it.... I took things out and added other things, so mine might be a little different than yours.

Instructions

• Preheat the convection air oven to 325 F (if you don’t have convection air oven raise the temperature to 350 F and you will have to rotate the pan half way through the baking time)
• Butter and flour 8.5x4.5x3 inches loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
• Combine cake flour, baking powder and salt and sift it three times, set aside.
• In a small sauce pan over medium heat brown 2.5 tablespoon butter until it’s nice amber color, remove the foam and set aside to cool.
• Whisk the egg with vanilla extract and set aside.
• Mix the butter on medium speed until it’s creamy, slowly add sugar and continue beating until it’s creamy.
• Add heavy cream and mascarpone, and beat on medium speed.
• Turn mixer on low speed and gradually add dry ingredients alternately with eggs.
• Add handful flour in chocolate chunks and toss them to cover evenly. Toss cranberries with a handful flour to cover them completely.
• Add chocolate chunks in the batter and stir well, then gently stir in cranberries
• Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan, smooth the top and gently tap the pan on working surface to remove the air bubbles.
• With a butter knife draw a line down the center of the pound cake and pour browned butter into the line.
• Bake until the top of the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean (about 55 to 65 minutes). Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool on the rack.
• When the cake is completely cooled prepare the glaze.
• With a mixer, cream together softened butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar and beat until smooth, mix in vanilla extract. Spread on top of the cake.Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is set.
• When the frosting is set melt 1/2 cup white chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a small sauce pan over low heat until it’s smooth( cool if it’s too thin)
• Sprinkle the cake with dried cranberries and drizzle with chocolate. (You can drizzle the chocolate with a spoon or transfer it into small zip-lock bag, cut off the corner and pipe the chocolate over the cake).

Now I should probably go burn off some extra calories I may have obtained from snitching broken pieces of this cake. 

xoxo,

Anna Rose

Iowa Bridges and Frostbite

 "But it's freezing outside!" Laura looked at me like I was crazy.

I didn't worry too much. Crazy was a word I was familiar with. 

I could have cared less that it was less than 10 degrees outside.

"It'll be quick, promise!"

And so we went. "Take me anywhere that's pretty," I told her and she did a smashing job, I would say.

We drove to the creek and poked around for a few minutes before we decided that the numbness in our hands meant that we should move on to the next spot before frostbite set in. 

We made sure to stop by the hay bale snowman standing outside of the grain bins. Desperate times call for desperate measures and the lack of snow had driven one farm boy to bring some Christmas cheer to the world in this simple way.  

Our next stop was the bridge. Ever since the first time I saw this bridge I knew it was destined to be the subject in some of my pictures. 

And this was certainly the perfect day for it too! The sun was shining and the sky was blue.... By this time I couldn't feel my fingers, but I wasn't about to turn around!

The ice in the river had frozen in beautiful circles, proving to how cold it really was- don't let all that sunshine and blue sky fool you!

Finally realizing that there was no way I could work the dials on my camera anymore we decided that heading back to warm up was probably the best plan of action, and so we did just that. 

It seems crazy that this happened just this week... and now I'm 1,420 miles away from this beautiful, COLD state, in an equally beautiful and slightly less cold state. 

But I'm still just as thankful for the warm house and wood stove today as I was on Tuesday. 

And now, I'm off to watch The Nativity Story with my family. 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

xoxo,

Anna Rose

Jacob { Class of 2017}

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!” 
― Dr. Suess

     

When did this crazy cousin get this tall, this handsome, 

and since when is he allowed to graduate?!

Just kidding. I'm proud of you, kid!

xoxo

-Anna Rose

{Mason + Hannah} Engagement Sneak Peek

"And some things will never end.
The thrill of our magic ride.
The love that I feel inside for you."

SOME THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE >> LITTLE WOMEN

xoxo,

Anna Rose

The Editing Process >> For Photographers >> In which I get outside my comfort zone

I decided to leap outside of my comfort zone and show ya'll these unedited, partially edited and then finally, fully edited pictures. Before I show you the pictures though, I want you to understand something.

My goal with editing pictures is to make each image look as close to real life as possible, a camera, no matter how good, cannot capture exactly what it looked like, so my goal is to recreate the real setting, and make it look real again. 

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to start with this picture. It's a favorite from a recent engagement session. 

To start out with the composition... I love the rule of thirds, but I also believe that it should be broken. 

I also love using depth of field, which is why I left the tree in the foreground. I could have easily taken a step to the right and taken it out of the image, but it adds a certain amount of interest, and it breaks up the picture a little bit.

Okay, so the original. 

Then I added my favorite homemade preset, which basically just pops the exposure, clarity and contrast. This is almost always the first preset I go to when editing. It's my fav. :) 

Okay, now you'll notice that in her flannel and in the trees, there's a little bit of purple, that's actually not there in real life and the purplish color clashes with his red flannel, so I removed the slight chromatic aberration and that fixed it right away!

Okay, now that those steps are taken care of, I simply do a little bit of dodging and burning, and brush on a little bit of graininess into his beard, so it stands out and I'm done!

Even though I love this tree, I think it's a little bit distracting, so I stuck it in black and white and that took care of it right away!

And that's it! Super easy, simple and doesn't take much time at all!

Have fun editing!

xoxo,

Anna Rose

{Throwback to Summerness } IRBC 2015

Summer is long gone, but it doesn't mean that every now and then I don't go back and look through my photos on Facebook or my computer. 

It was during one such reminisce that I realizes I had not yet shared these pictures with you all. They aren't much, just a few snapshots here and there to show some of the highlights  of my summer. 

Probably my favorite memory from the entire summer was a camping trip with all of the staff at the camp I was working. It was a great time and a beautiful view.

Compared to the beautiful brown colors I had grown used to in Washington, this place was so green!

For His glory,

Anna Rose