Sugar Plum Honey Buns

This post is sponsored by eos, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

“Sugar plum honey buns” (sorry in advance for getting that classic song stuck in your head!) Now that it’s finally starting to feel like fall, I’m craving all the fall flavors! From apple cider, to pumpkin spice, to crisp cranberry, there’s no shortage of seasonal flavors out there to celebrate with, but today I was inspired by – what I’d argue is – the most whimsical fall flavor of all: sugar plum! It’s also one of eos’s holiday lip balm flavors, featuring notes of warm vanilla, maple, and steamed sugar.

As an homage to this decadent dessert-inspired eos flavor, I whipped up some Sugar Plum Honey Buns; a classic cinnamon bun spiced up with a plum-colored glaze. They’re sparkling, sweet, and you’ll never guess what organic veggie gives these their deep plum purple color: CARROTS! Purple carrots, to be more specific! If you’re skeptical about the carrot taste, purple carrots are actually much sweeter than your typical orange carrot! In this recipe the juice just adds bit of earthy sweetness and makes a great fall flavor complement to the cinnamon! Plus it’s a natural way to add the punchy purple color, just like how eos only adds natural flavors to their signature spheres.

For the glaze you’ll need:

• Powdered confectioners sugar

• Granulated cane sugar

• Purple carrot juice (usually found at your local organic market)

• Honey

• Cinnamon buns (you can make them from scratch, or use an organic ready-to-bake can like I did)

For the leaf decoration:

• Green cardstock (I used a fun shimmery kind!)

• Toothpicks

• Scissors

• Hot glue

1. Since I’m not much of a baker, I decided to use ready-bake cinnamon rolls. Plus this gives you more time to decorate if you’re in a hurry to bring these to a fall brunch! While the rolls are baking you can create the glaze.

2. For the glaze whisk together 3 cups of powdered sugar, 5 tablespoons of purple carrot juice, and a tablespoon of honey until all the ingredients are blended and there are no sugar clumps.

3. With the cinnamon side facing down, dunk the rolls one by one into the glaze mix and twirl as you lift up to let the excess drip off.

4. Place the glazed rolls on a cooling rack with parchment paper underneath (to protect your counter from delicious drips!) and gently sprinkle the sugar crystals on top (about half a tablespoon per roll) to create the sparkly sugar plum finish.

5. Allow the glaze to set and harden for about 30 minutes before serving.

6. While the glaze is setting, fold your green paper in half and cut out small leaf shapes.

7. Sandwich a toothpick in between two paper leaves and add a dab of hot glue before you gently squeeze them all together.

8. Serve each sugar plum roll with a leaf or two!

Don’t forget to apply a swipe of eos when you’re done licking your lips after this treat! Shop the Sugar Plum flavor here: http://bit.ly/2JgiI2F .

Introducing "Punemployed"! My First Book with Blurb Books

This post is sponsored by Blurb Books, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”... unless that cover is really stinkin’ cute and screams “put me on your bookshelf!” I’ve lived by this (slightly modified) saying since I was little, collecting bright and boldly covered books, stacking rainbow arrangements with them in my room and admiring the illustrations and color palettes. Of course as I grew older I learned to appreciate the content just as much as the pleasing packaging, but I never lost that desire to impulse-buy a book dressed in a jazzy jacket. And in the back of my mind I always thought it would be fun to design my own book that someday might catch someone’s eye in the same way.

Lucky for me, Blurb Books approached me to turn that design dream into a reality. I immediately knew I wanted to round up some of my favorite pun photos I’ve taken and create a book dedicated to the love of puns. They have quite a few different sizes available, but since the very nature of puns are so light-hearted and whimsical I thought a large coffee table book size might be too serious, so I chose Blurb’s 7” x 7” photo book size. The smaller size makes a fun gift size and the photos are still large enough to appreciate the detail and sharp image quality.

While making a book from start to finish might seem intimidating, Blurb is there every step of the way to ensure the whole process is as easy-peasy as possible, and they have lots of helpful tools to choose from. I chose to use Blurb’s Adobe InDesign Plug-In since I feel most comfortable with InDesign and because it let me have total creative control over my layout. The plug-in takes care of just about everything so there’s no math or measuring involved (which I’m oh-so thankful for!). I just plugged in my book size and number of pages and it took care of all the rest so I could focus on the actual aesthetics!

After I uploaded my book via the plug-in and placed an order, my actual book arrived at my doorstep in less than a week (which was awesome since I couldn’t WAIT to see it in person!). Holding the physical copy in my hands and flipping through the pages was such a thrill, especially since prior to my work solely existed on-screen. This is the first time I’ve printed the majority of these photos, and I’m glad I opted for the Premium Paper lustre finish (you can order a swatch kit to select your paper before you commit to anything), it really gives the whole book a high quality feel and gives a great sheen and highlight to the images. I’m so happy with how it turned out, and the wheels are already turning for what other photo series I can turn into a book! 

Have you ever thought about creating a book of your work? It’s such a fun way to share your art and ideas with friends and family, and it makes such a wonderful keepsake.

Check out some of my favorite spreads below!