My new year's resolutions:

Happy New Year everyone!!! Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous start to 2013!!!!

Bloggers Illustrated pt. 1

Aimee Song and Charcoal of "Song of Style"




Tosha Eason of Bambi's Armoire




Nicole Warne of Gary Pepper Vintage

(copyright Marisa Scott for CitizenLMS)



Here are the finished Illustrations for my "Blogger's Illustrated" series!!! Happy Saturday guys! :D

M's Macarons

Hey guys!!! I hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season with your family and friends, I got a break from traveling, working, and visiting family so I thought I would test out this macaroon recipe I came across on inspiringtheeveryday.com


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Lavender French Macaron Recipe
from http://inspiringtheeveryday.com

1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons almond meal, sifted



3 large eggs, room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

6 Tablespoons granular sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract



1/16 teaspoon purple food color paste



First off I like to have a template ready as a guide for uniform cookies. Take a piece of cardboard and trace out twenty-four circles about 1 ¾ inches in diameter. This is a good amount for a standard half sheet pan. The cardboard template should fit right inside the pan. The macarons will be piped onto parchment paper which allows the template to show through. [Preheat oven to 375ºF]

Sift the confectioner’s sugar and almond meal together. This helps remove lumps and large pieces of almonds in the meal. I prefer to sift these ingredients separately and then measure out what is needed in the recipe. Set this aside while you prepare the egg whites.

Separate the eggs, setting asides the yolks for another recipe. A good rule of thumb is to leave the eggs at room temperature overnight to cure the egg whites. The meringue behaves better this way.

Beat the egg whites until frothy, add in the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form.

Add sugar gradually and continue to whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Just before you reach this point, add the vanilla extract and colorant. You will have a little ‘whipping’ room to adjust the color before the egg white are stiff.

Fold in confectioner’s sugar and almond meal mixture into egg whites in two parts. Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated continue to fold until the batter flows like magma when you lift the spatula. I feel that this is important, due to the fact that you want the macaron cookies to smooth out once they are piped onto the parchment.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a quarter inch round tip with batter. To pipe a nicely shaped disk, start with the pastry bag vertical to the parchment, tip side down. The tip of the bag should be a half inch from the paper. Squeeze the batter onto the center of the circle drawing and the batter will flow towards the edge. Just as the batter reaches this point stop squeezing the bag and drag the tip in a circular motion towards the edge of the disk. This will help eliminate the peak of batter in the middle of the cookie. Repeat with the remaining circles. A word of caution, since we folded the batter to flow like magma, the batter will start flowing out of the pastry bag as soon as you turn the bag tip side down. So work quickly and with precision. It will take a few tries to be confident in this step.

To help the batter smooth out, just tap the bottom of the template. Now slide to parchment onto the sheet pan. Allow the meringue to rest for fifteen to twenty minutes. This will allow a skin to form on the macaron which will give you that signature French macaron skirt we are going for.

Reduce the temperature of the oven to 325ºF and bake the macarons for 10 minutes. Allow the macarons to cool for a few minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack. Raise the heat of the oven back to 375ºF. Once the oven is back up to temp, repeat with the reaming cookies. Remember to drop the oven temperature to 325ºF each time you bake more macarons.



Lavender Buttercream Recipe

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

6 Tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon lavender flowers, ground

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat together butter and shortening until smooth. Beat in confectioner’s sugar.

Add the remaining ingredients and place in a pastry bag with a small round tip.

Pipe a teaspoon of the buttercream on half of the macarons and gently press together with the other halves. This recipe will make two dozen macarons. Hopefully this long recipe won’t stop you from experimenting with meringue. After a few tries the process is rather enjoyable.


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I altered my recipe slightly, instead of using lavender, I flavored half of my macaroon base with almond and vanilla extract and the other half with strawberry extract.













Hope you all enjoyed the baking post! I'm off to eat more macaroons lol ;D
xoxo
M

Long time no speak

Hi guys!! Sorry for the long absence but its been pretty insane around here with traveling, working, and freelancing. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and are scoring some major deals as you shop this Black Friday :D. Earlier this week I posted a photo on Instagram of a Tupac Sweatshirt that I hand painted and wore yesterday (OOTD post coming this weekend) and you guys seemed to love it Soooooooooo.....I'll begin taking orders for that shirt and two other designs on Wednesday Dec. 5th. so stay tuned for more info and details!

here's a peak at the process shots of my shirt:



xoxo
M

M's Most Wanted: Fall Cravings

CitizenLMS on StyleSaint

CitizenLMS is now on StyleSaint! Stop by and give my StyleBook: "Small Town Girl. Big City Style." a Like or leave a comment!!

Sneak Peek: Blogger's Illustrated Progress Shots

(©Marisa Scott for CitizenLMS 2012)

CitizenLMS at IFB Con

Happy Monday guys!! I'm so stoked to let you know that I will be apart of the 8 bloggers who won the IFB + Uncommon Project #61 Contest. I just got the news this morning and I wanted to share so if you're going to be there please let me know I would love to meet ya and gab about all of the awesome panels/speakers who will be at the conference.




I'm beyond excited to soak up everything that I can possibly learn from the panel and I wont even get into how amazing it will be to listen to Iman.... my mind is totally blown...lol

Insta-M pt. 2

Happy Friday guys, I hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend!!
Follow me on Instagram: @CitizenLMS

IFB Project: Get Inspired

I put together this fall 2012 mood/inspiration board for an IFB contest. The objective was to come up with a few images that inspire your favorite fall trend of 2012. The trend I chose was the Gothic Baroque trend that's pretty popular now but I mixed that with a few photos that had a softer and more fluid feel to them. I also paired my Inspiration photos with my "Romantic Utility" illustration because I'm totally in love with the collection and its a spot on representation of everything that I would love to wear this fall!

Hope you guys enjoyed this quickie inspiration post and hopefully I'll get to be one of the finalist!

OOTD {Dark lips, a long vest, and peek-a-boo lace}

(photo: Me)

BCBG racer back essential tank dress
Double Zero high low vest
Asos rosary
grandmother's amber necklace
gifted bracelets
Steve Madden platform sandals


Happy Friday everyone! I thought I would do another OOTD post since I had a break in projects. I'm hanging with the bestie and accompanying her to a bridal shop to help her pick out her wedding dress...exciting!!!...So here are a few shots of the outfit I'm wearing, I wanted to be comfortable so a BCBG essential tank dress was a no brainer, I added the Double Zero vest and belt to complete the look. Anywhoo I'm off to wedding dress wonderland! Happy TGIF guys!

ps. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram (@CitizenLMS)

Zara August Lookbook

(photos: Zara)


If this lookbook doesn't get you excited for fall I don't know what will!
Happy Tuesday lovelies!

Monday Inspiration: "Beyond The Black Rainbow"

I came across today's cinematography inspiration from one of my old professors at SCAD, ever since I decided to get back to animating I've been trying to get my hands on any and every visually stimulating thing I can. I'm still in the early stages but this will be a great film to add to my collection (comes out on dvd on Sept. 11) and Its perfect for my research.

CitizenLMS for Geniuz Ink

Mountains in my hair. Rain Dance on my chest. Shop Geniuz Ink

Rain Dance in the studio

photo: Marisa Scott for CitizenLMS


"Rain Dance" tee by Geniuz Ink
2020 Ave Jeans
Steve Madden pumps
Vintage arm swag

I'm in the studio today showing some "Rain Dance" love to my Geniuz Ink family!! I was so geeked to get my tshirt a couple weekends ago but I had been in meetings the past few weeks so it was great to finally get to wear it while I work in the studio today. I'm finally getting back to work on my Valley of The Queen series (process shots here) and I'm starting prelim work on a fashion editorial animated short film too!! Stay tuned for deets and pics on the CitizenLMS Facebook Page!

Rachel Zoe + Neiman Marcus Jewelry Promo video

Such a cool stop-motion animation video for the Rachel Zoe Jewelry line. I love videos like this because they always give me tons of inspiration on how to merge my love of graphic design + fashion + animation! Hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did ;D

Wear What When: Plum for Fall

The Jocelyn dress in plum by Damsel in a dress
Carolee Double Drop Plum Pudding Earrings
IRO Anabela Asymmetric Leather Biker Jacket
Reed Krakoff Bag
Stella McCartney Cat Eye Sunnies
Utzon Plum Leather Leggings
Alexander McQueen Two Tone Plum Skirt
Sephora Collection Rouge Cream Lipstick

Sunday Fashion Fix: Lina Zhang & Satoshi Toda in Vogue China, August 2012

To view the full editorial check out the CitizenLMS Facebook page

CitizenLMS + RubyReddCheeks Boutique "Merriment" Giveaway

The lovely people from RubyReddCheeks are feeling generous and are giving away one “Merriment” accessories set to a lucky CitizenLMS reader! RubyReddCheeks Boutique was featured a few weeks ago in an M’s Most Wanted post and they are known for their one of a kind vintage finds and accessories. This time they want to share the love and they’ve teamed up with me to do our first giveaway!!


Dress, Tank, Shirt by TopShop

To enter you simply need to be a follower of this blog either through google or bloglovin and you need to follow RubyReddCheeks Boutique on Facebook.

Next just leave a comment on this post with you First and Last Name and your email address (please don't forget your email address so we can contact you!)! A winner will be chosen at random from the comments section! The deadline for entries is August 6, 2012 at 12 midnight EST!

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. The winner will be announced as soon as we have contacted the winner!! Thank you all so much for your participation and a HUGE thank you to Ruby Redd Cheeks Boutique for sponsoring the Giveway!

Work with me

For Graphic Design Inquiries: info@M-ClassCreative.com
For Collaborations: CitizenLMSblog@gmail.com