Macaron vs. Macaroon

You may ask, "Isn't it the same thing?". They are far from being the same! Though they both share the similarity of possibly being gluten free and using egg whites, they taste and even look different! I decided to do a post for my fellow macaron fans to help others understand the difference.

The French Macaron

Photographer: Manus Chau Photography

This recently popular treat made from egg whites, almond flour and powder sugar taste as good as it looks. The meringue makes these very light and fluffy. And if you think they look pretty easy to make, then you have been fooled! The process is a very delicate process that can make you want to hit your head against a wall because it may take you 2-3 times your first time to get them to look and taste right. Plenty of patience and care is needed to bake these macarons.
You can see my experience with making the French macaron here.

The Macaroon

photo source

The macaroon, usually made with coconut, is not as light as the macaron and take about 1/3 of the time to bake compared to the macaron. They are not as pretty as the macaron but if you love coconut you probably are a fan of these cookies. This is probably known as the "American" cookie while the macaron is probably known as the "French" cookie.

Until you have tried a macaron, macaroon and macaron is all the same to you. So if you haven't tried a French macaron yet, what are you waiting for!?! They have been so popular within the last year or so, I am sure you are bound to find a bakery that has one near you. Once you have tried them, you too will be a stickler to make the correction between macaroon and macaron.

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Pinhole Camera Postcard

Flutter In Pinhole is fun and creative way for people to take and share pictures while traveling. It works like a Polaroid camera and photographs are captured into a pre-drawn frame, which you can then add a message to and post.





Found on Dieline.

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Free Sketch-It-Yourself Printable Calendars

Thanks to Skip to my Lou for this fun and FREE printable calendar find from Lula Louise. Here's to an organized 2011!

 

 

Go to Skip to my Lou to see other free printable calendars they found!

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Foil Stamped Invitation

What a beautiful foil-stamped find by Andrew Townsend. The wedding invitation is so simple but the foil stamping gives it that wow factor. The silver on white looks amazing! Spotted on Head Vs. Heart.

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Photo Styling Clothes into Food

Love this photo styling by Katrin Schacke that turns your threads into food! Found on Benign Objects.

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Illustrated San Francisco Wedding Map

Love this illustrated wedding map from Julia Kuo (with designer Phyllis Sa) of The Nimbus Factory.

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Owl Ornament

I have a overwhelming collection of fabrics and felts that I wanted to use this holiday season. So I grabbed all my materials and came up with this very sweet handmade owl ornament. Next year I will be prepared to make this in masses because I had so many people asking for them!

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DIY Holiday Garland Round-Up

Looking for fun and festive ways to spice up your holiday? Check out these easy DIY holiday garland and decor ideas!

Paper ornament garlands made from recycled books and newspaper
from The Sweetest Occasion

Sewed paper garland from Mini-Eco

Circular ring paper garland from Craftstylish

Braided felt garland from PurlBee

Cupcake liner garland seen on Project Wedding

Vintage paper tissue paper garland from Annadroy

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A Vintage Travel-Themed Wedding

This past summer, I helped some good friends design their wedding invitations. The rules? They wanted it to be travel-themed (since they are both big globetrotters) and had to utilize the colors of their alumni, University of Washington which were gold and purple. The bride really wanted to do the invitation like a passport. Slightly hesitant because while her wedding was meant to be very romantic and vintage, those colors didn't really quite fit the palette and I've seen one too many cheesy passport invitations. We eventually came to an agreement that it didn't have to literally read like a passport but still come off as one. Hopefully that goal was accomplished.

The cover was foil stamped in silver onto Curious Touch lavender skin cover stock (which feels almost like leathery). I seriously was in love with that paper. It sat in a translucent gold envelope for delivery. All saddle stitched together with purple thread.

Instead of the traditional passport invite look of having the couple's photo and a form layout, we went for the traditional looking invitation inside to maintain the vintage feel. It was purple ink digitally printed onto cream cardstock.

Threw in some vintage drawings for good measure. The postcard RSVP was to mirror old-school telegram forms (as seen in next image). It was perfed for easy and convenient mailing.

I also really loved their wedding photos by Rock the Image. Check out the wonderful wedding below. You'll see below that the seating charts were all passports to different cities theyve visited tucked into a little passport holder. Each table was marked with a miniaturized version of special landmarks. Check out more fab photos on the photographer's blog.

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Crocheted Coral Reef

One of my husband's most beloved hobbies is fish. Fish tanks, plant tanks, saltwater and freshwater tanks. Before I met him, I knew nothing about fish. Now, I could easily name you all the proper names of all the fish and corals in Finding Nemo. He has set up and maintained many tanks and one of his best works was his 50gallon saltwater tank. This tank was more about the corals than it was about the fish and here's a photo of his tank before he sold it to give him some fish street cred :)

So why am I talking about coral reef tanks? I recently discovered this amazing project by Hybebolic Crochet Coral Reef. In an attempt to "preserve" the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, two sisters from Queenstown, Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring began a project to crochet a woolen reef. It has become a worldwide movement in cities all over. Check out some of the amazing work as well as featured exhibitions.

Pictures from Hybebolic Crochet Coral Reef.

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Veggie & Fruit Spread

While dessert tables ala Amy Atlas have been all the rage, this was a refreshing break from the norm and offered a healthy approach to gorging at a party. LA photographer Serena Grace shot these beautiful photos for a child's birthday party. The creative work was done by Esther of My Bride Story and Kristine of Kristine Shin Designs. See the rest here!

Photos from Serena Grace

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