Crepes Crepes Crepes!

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, one of my favorite things in the entire world is CREPES!
But not just any crepe will do.
I am a crepe snob!

That's why I was STOKED to find a new crepe restaurant opened in Utah County!
It's called Roll Up Crepes.
Studio 5 asked if I would go check it out and take pictures for the show.
Best assignment ever!

This is the Nutella Strawberry Crepe. A staple of mine.
So delicious!

But they also have savory crepes like this one.
It's a turkey pesto crepe with cranberry drizzle.
Yeah, you might need to be adventurous to try it, but so worth it. I absolutely loved it!

The decor of this place also turns heads.
Like the fact there's a giant owl outside...

...Lots of owls inside...

...And a big tree in the middle of the restaurant!

Look closer at the tree and you'll see an engraving.
C&L stands for Curtis and Lexi.
The newlyweds that own Roll Up Crepes.
Guess how young they are!
Lexi is only 19 and her husband is 24.

Cutest couple ever!
They told me they started the business so they would never have to be apart.

Here's my friend Ashley showing off the chocolatey goodness.

And here's me licking chocolate off my knife.

And here's the menu now that you inevitably want to go there.
You'll find it at 1605 S State St, Orem, UT
And www.rollupmycrepe.com.

Other notes:
They have live music on Fridays and Saturdays.
All of their staff can sing (on top of their crepe-making skills).

They are open until 1 a.m. every night (closed Sundays.)

New Logo & My First Engagement Photos

Remember when I posted this picture on facebook a few weeks ago?

These are Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies and I made them for my good friend Dave.

(Not a real mustache)
Dave works in the graphics department at KSL.
I enlisted his talents to make me a new photography logo!

A pretty good trade if I do say so myself!
I already have business cards so Dave used the colors and fonts on the cards to match the logo.
And I've officially decided to go back to my original business name, Harker Studios.
Because I'm pretty sure one day I'll add video services (since that is what I do for a living at KSL.)

I even have a new facebook page to go with my new logo!
Just search for "Harker Studios". (I'll have a URL soon)
I'm working on a new blog too, because "The Harker Herald" was never supposed to be a photography blog. I want to keep this one about the Harkers!

But until then, you have to put up with my photography posts.

The first photos to get my new logo are from my first engagement photo shoot!

This is Ginny and Evan.
They are getting married next weekend and I will be there!
It will be my first time photographing a wedding!

These are my favorite pictures from the shoot.

I passed this field on my way home from work one day and was determined to shoot there.
Luckily Ginny and Evan were game to put on some boots and walk through 6-foot-tall weeds and mud for me.

I LOVE how these pictures turned out.
And they didn't even mind when I wanted to get a little artsy!

We also found this huge rusty pipe nearby. A photographers DREAM!
But I won't tell you what was spray-painted inside the pipe. That wasn't so dreamy. :S

My Talented Niece

I recently discovered one of my teenage nieces is a budding fashion designer!

This is me and my niece Jennifer about 4 and a half years ago.
Yeah, it's an old picture, but it's one of the only ones I have of us together.

Anyway, on her blog, Ginger Fashions, she shows off all the cool stuff she's made.
She's designed skirts, a swimsuit, a purse, and she modifies her clothes all the time.
She's crazy talented for a teenager!

In one blog post, she showed off what she can do with fabric markers.
I liked her design so much, I asked her to make me one!

This is my own original t-shirt designed by my own niece!

I LOVE it and one day it's going to be worth millions!

Thanks for the gorgeous shirt Jenn!
And keep up the great work!
You're inspiring!
Love you!

Celebrating 4 Years

Tom and I just celebrated out 4th anniversary!

We're on a tight budget so I told him we couldn't spend any money on gifts this year.
I know, I'm no fun.

But he's a rebel and still bought me these flowers.
I gave him grief about spending money, but secretly I was thrilled.
They are so gorgeous!
I smile every time I look at them.

I stuck to our zero dollar budget and made Tom a card with craft supplies I already had.
I'm not very creative, so I get a lot of inspiration from this blog.
If you click the link, you'll see the card I used as my starting place.
I don't have the man and woman stamps, so I drew them freehand and cut them out.

Turns out, I impress myself sometimes.
The chain was all my idea.
I knew Tom would love that.

This is what the inside looks like:

Again, made with supplies and a picture I already had.
(The picture was taken in Chicago on our honeymoon. That's why I look so skinny.)
I also blurred out my love note for Tom in this picture. No one wants to read that. *wink*

This is how you throw a Fondue Party.

Every month my three best Utah friends and I (with our husbands) get together for a dinner party!
I say "best Utah friends" because I don't want to offend my best friends back home and because these girls will give me crap if I don't give them the title they deserve.

This is our fourth dinner party, but my first time hosting.
The host gets to decide the "theme" of the party and then we all coordinate what to bring.

I decided to throw a FONDUE dinner party!

This is Gaby at the cheese fondue, our appetizer.
This was Ashley's contribution. She brought the fondue pot, the cheese fondue ingredients (we put it together at my house), and the stuff to dip in the cheese fondue.

Mallory at the cheese fondue.
I don't know if any of us had ever made or even eaten cheese fondue before, but it turned out great! It was so delicious I almost forgot to save room for everything else.

Then we had a fondue pot with peanut oil to cook steak and pork in.
This was what I was in charge of.

There's the meat frying in the fondue pot.
It smelled soooo good!

I also made five dips for the meat fondue.
I knew I wouldn't remember what was what, so I made a little flag for each one.

Mallory was in charge of dessert because she has a chocolate fountain!
Gaby helped bring some fruit and stuff for dipping.
We also had a little fondue pot that we used for white chocolate.

Before we even started eating, Mallory got some chocolate on herself.
Next time, I'm making bibs mandatory.

This is Ashley. She's hiding the chocolate stain on her shirt with her hair.

Mallory and me.
Yes, that's chocolate on her nose.

Mallory and Beck.
Beck's the only child allowed at our dinner parties.
That is, until my friends have more kids.

The husbands enjoying our hard work.
I like this picture because you can see all the fondue pots and the crazy mess we made in my kitchen.

And last, but not least.
A cute picture of Mallory and Beck.
It was too funny not to include.

Tulip Festival

Every year in Ottawa there's a huge tulip festival. There are tulips ALL over downtown.
Utah has a tulip festival too, but it's only at one location.

These are the pictures I took at Utah's Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point.
It was a fun date, but it made me kinda homesick.

We snuck Yoda into the tulip festival.

This is the first picture where I've experimented with a white vignette. I like it and think I'll be using it more often.

Below is the same picture without the vignette so you can compare.

This was a cool-looking structure.
But the coolest part about it is the pictures you can get when you shoot straight into to the sky.

I took this picture and turned it into two more while playing with it Photoshop.

The End.

Tell me which picture you like best.