Capturing a Moment

The best pictures don't just capture looks, they capture emotion. They don't just capture events, they capture moments. So thank goodness for blogs that feed my obsessive need to have pictures of everything, because sometimes, every once in awhile, I don't just get a picture, I get a moment.  

Love you always, Ben - even when I'm too tired to say it in the morning when you leave before I get up. 

linking up with Crowley Party

Indoor Picnics

Weather right now in Provo is gorgeous. Sunday, however, was a little cold but we didn't let that spoil our spring picnic plans. Since I made those vegan cupcakes I've wanted to try piping frosting again; turns out buttercream is way easier to frost than whatever that vegan stuff was. If only we'd had mint extract in our cupboard I'd have mint german chocolate cupcakes to share with you. 

Next time, when we go outside, we'll have to be a little more creative with food and ways to serve it. Do you have any suggestions for picnic eats? (Besides getting Outback Steakhouse or Noodles and Company takeout?) 

P.S. There is a giveaway going on for an ad space here on La Vita e Bella - go check it out :) 

P.P.S. This weekend we're going away on a little trip and I'm SO SO excited!

Last note: I am still recovering from Monday's sunburn - memorial day pictures to come (you can see some of them on instagram: elisabethgringeri) 

Friday Lunch Dates: Primary Colors

Shoes: Aerosoles// Pants: Gap// Jacket: JCrew// Bracelet: Gifted// Purse: Gap

First question, have you ever had a thai chicken pizza? It doesn't even have to be from Slab ( a fabulous little pizza place in provo), I've had them all over and the sultry combination of Thai spices on a thin Italian crust is perfect. 

Second question, primary colors, in an outfit? I've been loving these flats ever since I got them in New York in May and they often get paired with my basic blue skinnies. On a lunch date today with the darling Elizabeth I hadn't even noticed my primary color theme 'till we snapped a few pictures outside the restaurant. I'm liking the bold colors with the neutral top. What about you? 

Linking up with Savannah, Rae Gun Ramblings and The Pleated Poppy

Golf Clubs or Microphones?

Happy Memorial Day!

If I were back in New Hampshire we'd be camping up this weekend or at least having a bbq. But, I'm in Utah - and so we're headed off for a day of climbing - shocker, I know :) 

Last week we finally claimed our pass of all passes with our new favorite couple of the summer. Unlimited summer date nights? Get ready for three months of mini golfing, go cart riding, water sliding, and lazy rivering it up! 

Jacket and Necklace: Ralph Lauren// Shirt: J Crew// Jeans: Gap// Shoes: Aerosoles 

Like our super star poses? Yeah, we think we're funny :) 

This last picture makes me think of Disneyland - spur of the moment trip anyone? 

Have a great day off!

Love,

Elisabeth 

P.S. June Sponsors go up on the 31. Feature ad is sold through July but check out the other great ways to promote your blog on my sponsor page. I would love to work with you!

4 Things on Love

This morning I am speaking bright and early in front of my congregation at church. Last night was one of those "a million fun things came up at the last minute and I put off all the things I needed to get done till 11pm" kind of nights. And then at 1:10 when I finally called it a night, my computer died - along with the entirety of my unsaved talk. Turns out pages doesn't have autosave - And so I rewrote it, and collapsed into bed around 2am. But I wanted to share just a few highlights from what I'm saying this morning on love. 

1. Because love is the great commandment, it ought to be at the center of all and everything we do


2. “When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as disciples of Christ becomes more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden.”


3. "It is in the home that our behavior is most significant. It is the place where our actions have the greatest impact, for good or ill. 


4. Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

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Hope you're having a lovely Sunday! I'm excited for a little picnic outing, naps in the park, and experimenting with a new recipe. What are you up to today?

Summer Tips for Romance:

Love and attraction may be something that we romanticize over in movies, literature, and daydreams, but science is actually starting to explain a lot of it. The chemistry behind relationships focuses around hormones. They key to successful relationships, is the release of bonding hormones. So, looking for a summer romance? Here are some activities that release oxytocin and vasopressin, chemicals that cause bonding between a couple.

Do something new:

find a new recipe and cook together

visit a new museum/local spot

learn a new sport, take up knitting, or enroll in a ballroom class together

Do something scary/exhilarating:

go skydiving

go on a roller coaster

watch a scary movie

Have other ideas? As long as its something new or something exciting, it'll do just the trick :) If you think of other good ones leave them in the comment section and maybe I'll post a full list later!

“We were given: Two hands to hold. To legs to walk. Two eyes to see. Two ears to listen. But why only one heart? Because the other was given to someone else. For us to find.”

Have a romantic and fun summer all! 

Love,

Elisabeth 

P.S. If you emailed me yesterday about sponsorship, I've just found out from one awesome reader that it wasn't working, so PLEASE email emearnshaw@gmail.com - thanks!

P.P.S. Wanna sponsor but don't want to pay? Today I'm giving away a FREE ad spaced over at Alyssa's adorable blog so head over and check it out :)

This Picture

I got asked to speak in church on Sunday, 

something I actually don't mind doing. 

I think I secretly like it, but I don't realize that until after I'm done giving my talk.

(yeah, in mormon churches there is no paid clergy and the congregation rotates giving mini sermon like things and we call them "talks" - maybe i'll talk about church services in an "ask me i'm mormon post" - thoughts?) 

The topic: Love. 

Here's my love in a picture or two today: 

And so I'm spending the afternoon thinking and writing about my favorite subject. 

(more "God's Love" rather than romantic love but yeah :) 

Hope you're having a lovely Thursday.

Oh and if you want to grow your blog in June, check out my new sponsor options. 

9 Reasons

In June I am opening La Vita e Bella up for sponsorship. I finally have time I can dedicate to generating regular new content and promoting your talent as well. If you aren't fully committed yet, I've come up with eight "reasons" you should be so excited to sponsor: 

1. Because I was born in Japan
2. Because your button won’t just go up on my sidebar - you’ll be featured throughout the month with text links to my favorite posts and featured sponsored introductions with guest post and giveaway options. 
3. Because I make the best chocolate chip cookies ever. 
4. Because I have awesome readers (which you know because you’re reading this) and you want to meet them. 
5. Because this is my first month sponsoring some bigger blogs which means that as more people find my blog, they also find your little piece of the blogosphere. 
6. Because I just redesigned, reorganized, and am so excited for the awesome content coming in this month! 
7. Because Its spring, in utah - which means beautiful pictures in this wonderful place that I live. 
8. Because I also have the most attractive husband ever, who I photograph from time to time as well :P 
9. Because It’s spring which means I am also NOT in classes which means I have so much more time to do so much more fun (and that means more fun to blog about - which means more blogging which means more visitors which mean more people see you which means more of them find there way over to your awesome blogs).

To celebrate this opening of sponsorship I'm developed super low pricing options to give everyone a chance to advertise here on La Vita e Bella. Want to know what they are? Click here!

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And on a completely unrelated note: Did you know that the average woman uses her height in lipstick every FIVE years?? 

Do you use that much lipstick? Could that be true?

Rough Night

Today I was going to post about the delicious Indian food I made last night. I was going to rave about the fast curry packet I came across by chance in the ethnic aisle. I was also going to upload beautiful pictures of the fluffy crisped na’an and the deep orange chicken tika masala poured over perfectly cooked rice. 

I was going to leave out the fact that my husband was home for only 15 minutes between climbing and a softball game I didn’t know about and in that short time I managed to burn half the na’an and be short with Ben. I wasn’t going to mention the fact that I stayed home from his tournament game to finish the dinner for my old roommate who just got back from India who never showed up or that my camera died after only one picture and by the time it recharged I was too discouraged to photograph a dinner I didn’t want to eat by myself. 

But if I say I blog about life, then mess-ups and let downs are part of that too right? So yeah, I think my life is pretty great - pretty close to perfect actually. But there are times when I want to shut the world out, or curl up under a down comforter, or take an endless bubble bath and just escape from all of it. 

So last night was a little rough. But on the bright side Ben won BOTH the tournament games last night which means there will be more for me to go to. And that means I can post baseball pictures I took awhile ago. And Legally Blonde was on, talk about inspirational :) When I was 12 I may or may not have wanted to go by Elle but realized I couldn’t quite be a blonde who wanted to be a lawyer and be called Elle without getting my motives questioned. 

So here’s to making today better than yesterday. 

(and to finding people who will eat indian food with me) 

Wordle: A New Way to Entertain Yourself

This is from my journal from all of 2011. I think its fitting :) 

Have you ever heard of wordle?
Go check it out at wordle.net.
You can paste any kind of text, or link to a website, and it will make this cloud of the words you use most. What do you really write about?

P.S. What do you think of the new blog design? AND I'm reopening for sponsorship in June, I'll officially announce it later this week but you can check it out on the sponsor page.

Bear with me ...

Working on this redesign - everything should be done and up by tomorrow (hopefully..)....

but in the meantime
1. please bear with me
2. check out todays post on laundry drama

And don't worry - its still the same blog - I've just lost the above header and am going for a slightly cleaner look ...we'll see how that actually works out :) 

What I Should Have Said...(opinions?)

We had lots of laundry to do, and those jeans had been sitting in the only two washers not in use, unattended, for at least fifteen minutes.  So I did what I've been doing, and people have been doing to me, since I got to college; I moved the jeans to the top of the dryer.


Yes, that awkward moment when someone comes in after you've moved their clothes happened.
1. I hope she was having a terrible day that could explain her tone and manners (or lack thereof).
2. I hope her husband got over his blatant embarrassment marked by his sheepish silence.
3. I hope I have the chance to run into her again on better terms.

It was an "Um did you move these? Yeah, we don't do that here - don't touch our stuff." I apologized, explained we had waited but didn't know how long we should wait, and apologized again. I continued to try and get to know our new neighbors by asking where they were from, how long they'd been married, and where they went to school. I got one cut off with word answers and no smiles. Yikes.

Ben and I spent the rest of the night brainstorming possible responses:
Option 1: Well, what do you do here then when someone leaves their clothes sitting unattneded in an unused washer and you need to do laundry?

Option 2: Oh, if its in the middle of a cycle, or sitting in your apartment, I will never touch it. I don't particularly enjoy moving other peoples stuff, especially when its when clothes. But if its just sitting in a machine I need, and pay to use, then I'm sorry, but I will move it every time.

There were a few more we'd never really actually say. Maybe I'm a terrible person. Hopefully this girl and I can end up being friends. And hopefully, her day didn't end as terrible as it sounded.

What do you think? After how long is it appropriate to move someone's laundry if you share a communal apartment laundry space? Does it make a difference if its jeans or intimates? How would you have handled that situation?

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes: Vegan Style

Last week I told you guys about the splendid little vegan bbq I went to. I also promised to share the vegan cupcakes I made. When Olivia asked me to bring a dessert that had no real chocolate, butter, milk, or eggs in it, I will admit I was at a loss. For me, its not dessert unless it includes chocolate. But turns out being vegan doesn't mean you can't eat super yummy desserts too. And it also turns out, there is nothing real in oreos so it all works out. 

The cupcakes were a hit and who knows, maybe I'll even make them for a non vegan event sometime, but we'll see. 

We'll start with the cupcakes:

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

And now for the frosting: 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer
• 1/2 cup crushed oreo cookies
• half a sandwich cookie for each cookie

Instructions

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. 
2. Add the vanilla, cookies, and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy. 

For this, and more awesome recipes, visit http://www.chow.com/

Little Bloggers Lunch

In March I hosted this wonderful little bloggers meet up where I met so many of the beautiful women behind the blogs I love to read, and got to meet lots of new faces. One of those was Sierra; she is just about as bright, bubbly, and friendly as it gets. Since the meet up we've been meaning to get together and finally it happened. Brooke from Silver Lining came long too because no blogging event is quite complete without Brooke (I'm lucky enough to work with her and see that girl on a daily basis :).

We headed over to Olive Garden for lots of soup, salad, breadsticks, and talking. 

This seriously reminded me about why I love blogging so much. Its neat to be able to document my own life, but its the wonderful people that really make it so great. 

So lets be friends. 

P.S. We'll be doing this again soon so if you're up for a blogging date let me know :) 

BBQ: Vegan Style

When my cousin and her lovely roommate decided to go Vegan for three weeks I was shocked. They are not animal activists, or anti the use of eggs, but wanted a healthy initiative and a challenge. To celebrate their last day before gorging themselves on some quality cheese and then ice cream, they hosted a vegan bbq (turns out its not an oxymoron). Liv asked me to bring a vegan dessert and I'll share the cookies and cream cupcakes you see below soon so you can have a go to recipe the next time you're invited to a vegan get-together :)

Everything turned out simply delicious and it was fun to see the alternatives that people came up with! 

What are your thoughts on being vegan? Have you ever done it? Would you ever do it? 

The Way We Spend Our Spring

This is what happens when you marry a climber.

Rock climbing.

Lots of it. 

Ever been?

These are pictures from last week's excursion and now I'm off to work - have a wonderful Thursday!
Love,
Elisabeth 

Ask Me, I'm Mormon: Why My Sister Wasn't at My Wedding

 Why my little sister, and maid of honor, couldn’t be at my wedding.

I had a lot of people confused at what a mormon wedding was really going to be like. I had bridesmaids wondering what they were going to do if they didn’t walk down an isle. I had friends parents who wanted to know why I’d get married somewhere my sisters couldn’t be - but it all boiled down to what a temple wedding is, and why we chose to have one. For me, it was never even a question.

Why Temples

In our church, we believe in a God of ordinances. An ordinance is formal act performed by priesthood power to symbolize something to God. The first ordinance in baptism, something we learn is essential from the bible (“unless a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” John 3:5). Baptism by the spirit, or receiving the gift and constant companionship of the Holy Spirit, is another ordinance. Some ordinances, like those, can take place anywhere. Many are baptized in chapels, some in rivers, and I had a cousin get baptized in a horse trough one summer during a family reunion. However, some ordinances take place only in temples. Temples are different than church buildings, where anyone and everyone are welcome to attend regular Sunday meetings, early morning Bible study, and other activities. Temples however, are literally houses of God on earth. They are places we go to learn more of God and His plan, and make covenants (two way promises between us and God). Anyone who has been baptized by a worthy priesthood holder, and who is living up to the covenants they made at baptism, can enter the temple. The temple is not secret, but it is sacred. It is not exclusive, anyone can attend, but those people must be worthy and prepared.

After the ceremony. 

For Time and All Eternity

When you are married in the temple it is another important ordinance, like baptism. It is called the “marriage sealing ordinance” where you and your spouse are sealed as one before God. You make promises to each other and promises to the Lord. And in return, you are not just married “till death do us part” but for “time and all eternity.” We understand that families are eternal units. They are not man-made for convenience, but God-developed for our progression. Ben and I, because we were sealed in a temple, can be together for millenia after death if we live worthy of those promises we made that day. 

The Ceremony

It is simple. There is no long aisle or elaborate music. It was just the two of us, gazing at each other from across an altar, as the sealer pronounced the holy words. We were surrounded by some close family, those who had already been to the temple to make covenants with the Lord. My little sisters are too young to have made those covenants yet, so they waited with the bridesmaids and friends outside. I am grateful that when they are married in the temple I will be able to be there, but I know that they wouldn't have had me do it any other way. They would have loved to be there, but they recognize the importance and the blessings from being sealed in the temple. The wedding was not a celebration of our union, but the union itself. Don’t worry, it was followed by a large reception, but the wedding itself was small, simple, sacred, and perfect.

Boston Temple, August 6, 2011

Have other questions? I'd love to answer them.  Leave them in the comments or email me at emearnshaw@gmail.com

Read past "Ask Me I'm Mormon" posts:

Why I don't drink alcohol, ever. 

Wedding, Shoes, and Sneak peeks

Happy Monday guys!
I am starting a busy week here - 34 hours of work in just four days. I don't feel like such a slacker around here anymore :) 

Last weekend Ben and I stole away to Las Vegas for a friend's wedding. It was the first wedding we'd been to since our own last August and it was such a wonderful reminder. Being in the temple with Ben and being reminded of the blessing it is to be sealed together for time and all eternity was beautiful.  

It was also the perfect occasion to show off the new shoes I added to the wardrobe the week before. When you have a husband that owns twice as many pairs of shoes as you do, its okay to go shopping every once in awhile. What do you think? I love the red accent and how they'd dress up any black or white basic. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week - here's a few things to look forward to this week on La Vita e Bella:

1. Vegan BBQ - yupp, I won't be able to tell you anymore till I go

2. Ask Me, I'm Mormon: Why my sister wasn't at my wedding. 

3. Looking Great vs. Feeling Great 

13 Things I Learned From My Mother

1. There is a God of the universe, who is my Heavenly Father who loves me and knows me because I am His daughter.
2. I have a purpose, and a divine destiny, because I am a daughter of a King.
3. Happiness is a choice.
4. I am responsible for my own actions, regardless of what other people do or say, the final choice of how I respond  is always up to me.
5. Effort is more important than achievement. It is always better to try hard an fall short than to be lazy and succeed.
6. Hard work is the means by which the important things in life are accomplished.
7. Forgiveness is always possible, and expected.
8. We support church activities, and we are always home on Monday nights because our family is important..
9. Listening can be more powerful than talking, and when advice is given sparingly, some may be more likely to heed it.
10.People all always more important than things and serving them is a great use of time.
11. Discipline now leads to opportunities and freedom later. 
12. The proper amount of sleep fixes everything.
13. Teaching by example is the strongest testimony.

My Mom on her wedding day, and did you know, we were the same wedding dress?

I love you mom, for who you are, and for who you taught me to be.