Cupcakes – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Personal June 15, 2015

Week in Review

Remember how last week, I alluded to perhaps resting this week post-party? Well, that did not happen, and isn’t going to happen this week, as I head to Oklahoma City today to visit one of my bestest best friends and her daughter, Lillian, then come back to a few meetings and an exciting photoshoot with Sugar & Cloth that I’ll share details about later. I am bursting at the seams with excitement over our short ‘second generation of bestie’ trip, as I don’t get to see them enough and love them to pieces (Brett too, of course). Lillian is getting her first birthday photos taken on Tuesday, and we’re sneaking in for some bestie shots too! I cannot wait for this!

The past week was wonderful, as we got to celebrate Sasha’s birthday and spend lots of quality family and friend time. A few highlights from the week include:

Isla got new sunglasses in the mail from Blue Bison Designs – a friend from high school’s new Etsy monogramming business. I adore them! And she was cracking me up trying to put them on upside down. That girl!
Swimming every single day of the week, either at my parent’s house, in swim class, in our wading pool or in our next door neighbor’s pool. Isla is a total fish!
Meeting some of my favorite Houston mamas (all Instagram friends-turned-real-friends) at the Ervan Chew splash pad. Isla loved it (see fish comment above). See this photo’s tag for everyone included!
Getting fun packages from Cuteheads Kids and Willow Crowns – incredible businesses owned by two of the mamas I met at the splash pad! I first met both Esther and Megan when we were on Great Day Houston the same day, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. Love them both!
Attending a floral crown workshop hosted by Meredith of Cake & Confetti at Baanou (Houston’s coolest boutique!). More details and photos to come from the Get Crafty Workshop later this week (some pictures below).
Since we skipped Isla’s normal The Little Gym class in order to go to the splash pad, we went on Saturday morning as a family and loved it. Having Sasha there to flip Isla and walk her along the beam was so nice! She had a great time with Tata too.
Going to The Monogram Shop to pick out a cute little dress and bloomers for Isla to wear in an upcoming picnic shoot (details to come soon!). She was all over the place (walking is insane!), but I adore that store and it will always be a highlight to go and visit.
Celebrating Sasha’s birthday with TCBY and vegan cupcakes from both Crave and Sprinkles. Needless to say, my BBG workout/diet started on Thursday! Lots of time spent at Lifetime Fitness this week!
My dad’s retirement started a few weeks ago, and although he seems to be keeping busy with Board of Directors work, we have loved seeing him throughout the week. He dropped by quickly on Monday just to say ‘Hi’ (and to help pick Sasha’s gifts – whoops!) – it’s so nice to see him more often already!
Taking Isla to the doctor for her one year check-up, which she passed with flying colors. We ran into baby Pierce and his sweet parents as we were leaving (the day after I took his newborn photos!).
Finally going to get my eyes checked by my friend, Ashley (ahem, Dr. Bagwell) of West Houston Eye. She looked like a million bucks with the cutest Kate Spade/Anthropologie-esque outfit on – I wanted to snatch it right off her! I am in trouble for wearing my contacts too much and not letting my eyes rest, so I’m working on getting my 20/20 vision back. What a bad patient I am!
Spending time during the weekend with my sister-in-law, Ivana, who lives in San Francisco, but is in Texas right now for work (coolest job ever at Google – so jealous!).
Sipping tasty drinks at Julep for Cocktails with Creatives (an AIGA event) – I met my friends, Meredith and Brittany, and finally got to meet Ryann, the creative whiz behind Nine Zero Nine Creative.
Getting two of the most gorgeous paintings from my mother-in-law and her husband, Nenad, who is an incredible artist. I am dying to show photos of the two paintings soon! They’re perfect.
Meeting an old co-worker, Catherine, and her mom at Rienzi to take head shots for their new non-profit organization which will be empowering young women in Houston by matching them with female mentors. I’m so excited to share details and be a part of this!
Celebrating my friend, Judy, and her fiancé, Josh, at a stock-the-bar shower on Saturday night! They’re getting married in August, and I can’t wait for the wedding.
Getting trained before church to be a Sunday School volunteer in our children’s ministry (ideally the little babies!). Bayou City Fellowship has been so wonderful to us, and we’ve enjoyed having Isla watched while we worship, so it’s about time we gave back!

How was your week? What were your highlights? Please excuse the insane amount of photos below, but I couldn’t help but to overshare!

Baby April 14, 2014

Pretty Floral Tea Party for Isla

I was totally spoiled by my sister and best friend this weekend – they threw me the most gorgeous tea party shower for little Miss Isla. It was held at our house, as many of our closest friends still had never seen the house since we re-did it last year (pictures here, here and here). I had such a great time talking to everyone – I love parties! McKenzie and Karine did such an incredible job planning and executing on their plans – how pretty is this floral tea party? The flowers are seriously to-die for. I want them to be in our house at all times!

Our dining room table transformed into a gorgeous feast

Pretty macaroons from Sweet

A proper English tea time (and of course, some champagne!)

Homemade tea goodies

McKenzie, Brittany and Karine – these ladies are too good to me

Spoiling little Miss Isla

Gorgeous desserts

Contest to see who could draw the best baby on-top of their head – so funny!

The aftermath of flowers – I hope these never die!

Little onesie notes for Isla (cut out by McKenzie!)

All cleaned up!

Belle was very excited when her dad got home from class!

Gorgeous flowers by Jess Hamilton

Cupcakes, truffles and macaroons from Sweet

Vegan cupcakes from Crave

Isla banner from Etsy

My dress from Hatch Collection

Decorations by McKenzie, Karine and my Mum

Décor February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sasha opened his little Valentine’s treats this morning, and we’re going out for dinner tonight – he won’t tell me where though! The suspense is killing me.

For some Valentine’s inspiration and to brighten your day, go to Style Me Pretty to see their gorgeous Love Notes shoot! None of the cards are quite as pretty as the beautiful one that my best friend, McKenzie, sent me!

Sasha’s little surprise: Customized M&Ms (ASPB Team – our family nickname due to us having the same initials ASP and our nickname for the dog – PB, Volim Te Puno – I love you lots in Serbian, and two pictures of us and Belle), banana Crave cupcake, personalized collar stays, ‘You Make My Heart Skip a Beet’ card, two Chocolove bars (have you tried these? You must), and of course, a single rose (ha, I had to).

Food January 29, 2014

Vegan Chocolate Beet Muffins

I think that everyone needs their signature baked good. Unfortunately for me, I’ve never had one, and as a health-focused vegan, it has been hard to find recipes that fit the bill for nutrition while tasting delicious. That is, until I came across Minimalist Baker. This blog is my everything! I found two chocolate beet muffin/cupcake recipes and have fallen in love (as has Sasha, my toughest vegan critic!). I slightly adapted this one – replacing the all purpose flour with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free flour, using Stevia vs. sugar, canned beets, and adding Attune bar chocolate crumbles. Sasha gave them two big thumbs up. I highly recommend you give this recipe a try! If you do, please let me know what you think.

Ingredients

3/4 can of beets (pureed)
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
 3/4 cup baking Stevia (or coconut sugar)
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 heaping Tbsp gluten-free flour (or regular all-purpose if you don’t want them GF)
scant 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
3 vegan Attune bars (found at Central Market or Whole Foods next to probiotic yogurts)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F
Open can of beets and puree them until they are in liquid form. Measure out 1/2 cup and set aside.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the Stevia, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup beets and beat until foamy.
Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a sifter and slowly sift it into the wet ingredients while mixing with a hand-held or standing mixer. Beat until no large lumps remain.
Put vegan Attune bars (amazing chocolate filled with antioxidants!) into Ziplock bag and break into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Pour small chocolate crumbles into the mix.
Pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Do not try and unwrap them or they’ll stick to the wrapper.
Once cooled, store in an airtight container to keep fresh. Optional: Dust with cocoa powder.

Recipe adapted from The Minimalist Baker (obsessed with her recipes!), and pictures are from here and here. If you try them, please let me know what you think!

ASP Wedding September 16, 2013

Our Wedding Stationery: Papellerie

As I’ve mentioned many times before, we worked with Papellerie on our entire stationery suite (save the dates, invitations, programs, custom napkins, etc.). I loved working with Riley and Amy so much – they were incredibly good at understanding exactly what we (probably more I) wanted. Every single piece of our stationery was better than I could have ever imagined. The only missing photos were all of the goodies they made for our guest boxes! I’m upset that I didn’t think to have Ryan to take any pictures of the final product (my very unprofessional iPhone pictures below). The only faux-pas we had was that our seating assignment board – a corkboard with pins and personalized wine tags for guest’s glass with their name and table number – was setup vertically instead of horizontally (as planned), which made the tags fall kind of… off? You’ll see below. It’s definitely not a big deal though. As an FYI, the calligrapher that Papellerie uses is Meant To Be Calligraphy and the map artist was Katie Gastley. Everyone was amazing.

Our Save-the-Dates

Our Invitation Set

Our Programs

Our Placemats and Menus

Our Table Numbers

Our Reserved Signs

Our Table Assignments – a slight deviation from plan, as it was set up vertically instead of horizontally so the personalized wine tags don’t hang quite right! You win some, you lose some!