Recipe: Amber's Pasta Salad

Happy Labor Day! I hope you have fun plans to celebrate. My family is heading over to a friend's house for a BBQ. It is pot-luck style, so I signed up to bring a yummy pasta salad.

Pasta salad is so easy to make and there are a million different recipes out there. Today I'm going to share my own personal recipe. It's fast, easy and we usually have all the ingredients on hand at our house to whip up this tasty colorful salad. Hope you like it!

Amber's Pasta Salad

1 lb. Mini-Farfalle (Bowtie) Pasta (You can also use colorful rotini, small shells or mini penne)
1 cup of Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing (I use Newman's Own Light Balsamic)
1 Cucumber chopped
2 Large Bell Peppers (1 yellow and 1 orange) chopped
2 Stalks of Celery chopped
1 Cup of Tomatoes chopped (I use cherry or any small tomatoes)
4 oz. of Feta Cheese

Boil pasta as directed and drain. In a large bowl mix pasta and vinaigrette dressing. Put in refrigerator to cool. Once cooled add cucumber, bell pepper, celery and tomato. Toss salad together until evenly mixed. Add feta cheese and toss lightly. Cover and chill for 30 minutes before serving.

Serve and enjoy!

P.S.-This is a great recipe to make ahead of time (even the day before). My only recommendation if making ahead is to not add the tomatoes (they will get mushy), and stir the feta in right before serving (or you can serve the feta to the side as a topping).

Commercial Fun!

You've heard me say this before, but if you haven't joined some sort of local moms group, you really should! I have the joy of being a part of the leadership "steering" team of my local MOPS group this year, and it is an absolute blast! I have met so many amazing women who encourage my heart on a daily basis. New friendships are blooming, older friendships are becoming stronger, and I am becoming a better woman by having these incredible ladies in my life!

My role this year in MOPS is Publicity. Basically, my job is to get the word out marketing our group and keep up our communication through Facebook pages and our monthly newsletter.

My first project was creating a promo commercial for our church to attract new moms to our MOPS group. This was SO MUCH FUN! My husband happens to be the Director of Communications at our church, so he has the much needed skills we used to film and edit the video. I wrote and directed the piece, and my husband worked his magic to bring us the finished product. We filmed all of the video on my handy dandy camera that I mentioned in my previous blog post. I know...it does video too!!! So cool! I have always had an interest in film (yet another creative outlet for me!), so this is something I am planning to learn a lot more about. My husband is up to the challenge of teaching me his mad skills, so we have decided to start working on more projects together. It's been fun sharing something that we both have a love for, and it turns out that we make a great team!

I also have to point out that the super great music on this commercial was written and produced by T.J. Hill of Future of Forestry who is by far the most talented musician I have ever met! Check out his blog/music here.

Here is the commercial that we produced. Hope you like it!

Finally, Photography!

First off, OH MY GOODNESS! Did I seriously let a whole month go by without blogging?! So sorry for my absence. Between my son starting kindergarten and me taking on the role of Room Rep, my responsibilities as Publicity girl for my local MOPS group, and of course, the daily grind of raising three crazy little boys, I guess I got a little busy!

The good news is I am SO excited about life right now! I finally saved up enough money to buy my camera, a Canon Rebel T1i. Wu-hoo! I absolutely love it and have been practicing on anyone I can get my lens on.

I have an engagement session, some family/kid sessions and a wedding (as a second shooter) coming up, so I will be sure to post things as I go. There is so much information out there to learn, and I am a sponge right now trying to suck it all up.

I recently was able to go along on a family session with my very talented photographer friend, Stephanie Morgan, who has been teaching me so many amazing tricks and tips. Thanks Steph! This is one of the sweetest families I know. These little kiddos also go to one of the schools I substitute teach at, so I get to see their fun little faces fairly often. Here are some of my favorites from the session...

I still have a long way to go, but if there is one thing I've learned so far in photography it's that lighting is everything!!! I love working with kids because they are so fun and exciting, and let's be honest, they are just plain CUTE! I also love vibrant colors which I'm learning is part of my personality coming through in my photos.

I hope you like these! I am still in learning mode and am looking for people to practice on, so if you live in the Bay Area and are interested in being in front of the lens just let me know!