{My experience with} The Portrait Studio of Asheville + A GIVEAWAY!

We recently celebrated my little boys' 9th birthday and I was in shock of how fast time flies. Aren't we all? I cannot believe he is going to be a 4th grader in the fall. I just want time to stop and stand still for just a little while so I can soak up the sweetness that is this 9 year old boy.

I was so excited to get an invitation to visit The Portrait Studio of Asheville (know now as Portrait Innovations) and have a mother and son photo shoot! The studio is brand spanking new and it is really nice. I like the layout. There are two camera rooms or mini studios if you will. There is also a small dressing room available for clients that would like to change into different outfits for their shoot. We took them up on that offer!

One of the camera rooms

I loved all of their backdrops. There are so many to chose from!

Bethany was our photographer for the day and she was AWESOME!

She gave us so many options and really knew how to capture my son and me in the best, most natural poses. She told me to bring a few outfits so we could change and get some different looks.

This was my favorite back drop. It went so well with the laid back jeans and tee shirt look I was going for.

I did a "jeans and a tee shirt" theme, a sports theme and a dressy theme. Here's the sporty look. I LOVED this one! She got one of us doing push ups! Too cute. My son loved it.

I was really pleased at how Bethany styled us for the more dressier theme.

She got some SUPER ADORABLE ones of my son!

When we were done shooting Bethany met us at the viewing station and we started the hard part...choosing our favorites!

While we were choosing, they made a cd for us that holds ALL the photos from the day. The photos you choose to print will usually be ready for pick up in about a week. You will sign up online for an online account and you will be able to see your photos there as well. There is really so much access to your photos. Don't panic that you will miss any of them. Online is also where you can order some more personalized items (mugs, calendars, etc).

Look at all the photos I got! The quality is excellent and the package options let you get a lot of poses.

You can also get a hardcover or softcover book of the portraits you chose to go in the book.

Honestly, they have so many awesome specials and bonus offers that are going on I can't even list them all! Depending on what special they have going on you can get a ton of extra add on's.

They are open on the weekends too! Perfect for busy families.

The studio is located at 
1833 Hendersonville Road, Unit 170
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 277-0994
Wednesday - Sunday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.



AND NOW THE FUN PART!!!

The Portrait Studio of Asheville (now known as Portrait Innovations) would like to offer my readers a chance to win a FREE SESSION OF YOUR OWN! You will get a photo session with a partner, your family or solo! You will get all your photos on a cd and get to chose which ones you want them to print! This giveaway is only good for the ASHEVILLE NC location! You are more than welcome to enter but you will have to come to Asheville NC location!

Enter HERE:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*This prize pack is valued at in a range between $100 - $200 depending on photo choices. After the giveaway closes I will reach out to you via email. If I do not hear back from you within 48 hours, I will re-choose a winner. After I receive confirmation and you give me your name and contact info,  I will inform the studio of your information. It will be your responsibility to contact the studio and make an appointment.

*Disclosure: I received a complimentary session for review. All opinions and words are my own. I would not recommend a place to my audience without it being something that I would do/support myself!

DIY - The Easiest (Fondant Free) Minecraft Cake Ever

My son loves Minecraft and he asked for a Minecraft kind of cake for his birthday. I thought I would make a Creeper cake but I decided to just make the actual Minecraft Cake itself! I looked on Pinterest for inspiration OF COURSE and then ended up kind of winging it on my own.

I am NOT A BAKER! So this cake is very very simple and uncomplicated! I do not work with fondant. I mean, I would love to, but I really didn't have the time to get into fondant for this cake. He already had one birthday party with all of his friends so this was just a little family get together. We did a big Steve Diamond Sword cupcake cake for his birthday.

My cousin made it and it was awesome and so so so tasty. My little cake was just a runner up filler kind of cake if you know what I mean.

Anyway, if you do want to make this cake you will probably do a much better job than me so don't be discouraged!

Since it was so simple on the outside I decided to make it fun on the inside!

I followed the directions and it was easy!

I needed to make a square cake and I did NOT have square pans. So I used two circle cake pans and just trimmed the edges after they were baked and cooled.

I divided the batter up so I could make six colors. The fun part!

Snapchatted the whole thing of course. Follow me at jessicawnc1

You start by pouring in some red, then orange on top of that red, then yellow on top of the orange and so on and so on. It will spread to corners on it's own.

The second pan I went backwards and started with the last color first.

After they baked and cooled I trimmed the circles into squares.

I frosted the bottom layer with a brown colored icing. My son doesn't like chocolate icing or I could've just used chocolate. Instead, I used food coloring to get it as close to brown as I could. See. Told ya! You can probably do a lot better than me!

Then I added the top white icing layer.

I used red gel icing that comes in a tube to make the squares. I didn't get them as sharp edged as I wanted to, but that's where fondant would've helped me. :(

I whipped up some green frosting and put it into a sandwich bag and piped it around the bottom just to make it look a little prettier.

I could've left it just like that but I thought it needed just a little something else. I piped out some squares for grass.

I added some of the Minecraft figurines that my son collects.

All in all I think it turned out pretty cute! I definitely could've had sharper lines on the "cherry" squares and the white icing meeting the brown icing for sure.

Ta da! This is where it sat and waited on him to get home from school. He really liked it and the cake was pretty tasty!

SO in case you are looking for a super easy, quick and non-fondant cake to make your kids - or whoever - on their birthday don't sweat it. If I can make this then you can definitely make it!

Adidas Girl

I am IN LOVE with these tennies!!! I just feel so ME when I'm wearing them. I love that they are a little loud and a little wild! When I've got my ear buds in and I'm listening to some old school hip hop I get a little jump in my step if ya know what I mean :)

I'm so glad the hubs decided I needed these for an anniversary present. YES!

Outfit details:

Tee: Kohls

Faux Leather Leggings: Kohls

Tennis Shoes: Finish Line 

Something Tasty {Two Ingredient Carrot Cake Bites}

I ran across a two ingredient spice cake recipe from Hungry Girl and I loved the idea of making something to satisfy my sweet tooth but making it more of a bite size treat instead of a whole cake. 

I decided to just see how many muffins I could get out of the recipe. Turns out I got 12 muffins and 6 donuts.

I used a carrot cake mix instead of spice cake because spring is the season for carrot cake and I had been seeing it everywhere!

I'm calling them carrot cake bites because there are so many options ways that you could make these. Muffins, donuts, small cake squares, cake pops, whatever!

The ingredients you will need are:

*Carrot Cake Mix (or any boxed cake mix!) 15 oz - 18.25 oz (mine was 20 actually)

*Can of Pumpkin (not pie filling, just pumpkin) 15 oz

The box of cake mix I picked up happened to be around 20 ounces but it still worked fine for this recipe. 

First, just add the pumpkin puree to the cake mix 

Mix well

Be prepared for your batter to look like dog poo. But it tastes great! Never tasted dog poo so I can't say it tastes better but just take my word on it :)

Since I had so much more batter (since I had a bigger box of cake mix) I was able to get 6 donuts piped out. I also didn't fill up the muffin tins as much as I could have. I didn't know if they would rise. They do not rise.

 Now donuts look like little mounds of dog poo FOR SURE! HA! If you will just use a knife to smooth them out, then they will lose that "piped" look. 

EXCUSE my terrible ugly muffin pan!!! It's well loved I guess.

I baked the muffins at 350 for about 25 minutes. I checked the batter with a toothpick and it came out clean at that point. For the donuts, I started out just letting them bake at 350 for 5 minutes, did a toothpick check, and then another 5 minutes. They were done at that point.

The donuts really were the best, in my opinion. I believe next time I will just make several batches of donuts. You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top if you want a little pizzazz!

I used My Fitness Pal to see what the calories were and I came up with 134 calories each. Not bad! 

They are very moist and dense like a pumpkin bread or banana bread is. Very good! We've been having one...or two each night after dinner! I put them all in the freezer and we just take a few out each day to thaw. This has kept me from eating more than I should in one day. 

You can do the same thing with a devils food cake mix. That's next up on my list!

Marvelous Mother's Day Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

for winning the first prize pack and 

Also, congratulations to

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

for winning the manicure and pedicure prize pack!

THANKS EVERYONE FOR ENTERING! 

I will have another giveaway starting in a few days where you can win your own photo session with The Portrait Studio of Asheville! Stay tuned!