The other day I was piddling around on Twitter and came across Mario Batali's tweet about a marinade. We had all the stuff we needed to make it, (partly thanks to the fact that we might have stocked up on some items in order to feed our obsession with my favorite Pinterest recipe so far: Honey Beer Bread) so we immediately whipped this up and marinated some steaks.

Since then, we've made another batch already and have used this marinade on beef, pork, and chicken. It is amazing and simple!

Just a tip - this makes a lot. You could probably half it!

Here's what you'll need!

The recipe is simple: 1/2 cup each of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, and then 1 cup each of beer, honey, and extra virgin olive oil. How simple is that!

Mario Batali is one of our favorite chefs on TV! Be sure to follow him too @mariobatali!

We love the marinade so much we've got some steaks going in it right now!

Who out there is a perfectionist? Who struggles with something not being exactly how they saw it in their head? Who pouts if something new doesn't turn out?

I (Luke) have to raise my hand for all three of those questions. I know this about myself and try to change my way of thinking, but if I try something and it doesn't work or come out as planned, my bottom lip starts to protrude from my face. Yes, I know the saying "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again!" (Which is my lifelong motto for correct punctuation)

Kelly Clarkson even said "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," but I still get frustrated. I want to be that person who can beat the last objective on Tiny Wings, I want to be the person who's souffles don't fall, but I just don't think that is in the cards for me.

It also is the same way with our photography business. I want our images to be perfect in-camera. I want to capture true emotion and genuine looks between two people in love. I want our couples to have fun and enjoy themselves and know that we care about them. I even want the grass to be green and the skies to be a lovely blue. But I can't control everything.

When I am editing images from a wedding, I play the game of "What if." What if I was in a crouching tiger, hidden dragon pose, hanging from a chandelier, would that have made that photo perfect in my opinion? What if I would have had one more cup of coffee, could I then have done the wobble in reverse to get more pictures from my favorite dance? The list goes on and on.

What I have realized is that I can beat myself up over minute details that no one expect me sees, not even Cat can see what I am seeing sometimes (and she is my biggest critic, in a good way :) or I can realize that nothing is perfect. All I can do is my absolute best, and that should be good enough for me.

Then I came across this quote. "Accept greatness, not perfection, because there is no perfect."

This was exactly what I needed to hear. It "spoke" to me and it was one of those quotes that has stuck with me.

So yesterday, I was playing around with a pencil and a piece of paper. I wrote down the quote and decided that I wanted to try and make a fun little illustration with it and use it as my computer desktop image. I drew the words on a sheet of paper and thought that I could just scan them in and go to town. This is what I started with.

After I scanned it, opened it in Illustrator and thought that I would be able to easily "trace" it and it would look just like I thought it would in my head. Well, it didn't. I struggled getting it to look right. I got frustrated when things didn't go my way. I kept working on it and playing around, but I had totally forgot what the quote actually said! When I realized that, I knew that I could only do so much, I am not a skilled graphic designer that can work magic in Illustrator, and I started to put the whole thing together. This is how it came together.

Now it is my desktop image and the screen image on my phone. I see it often and hopefully the next time I start to get critical of my lack of perfection, I will remember that there is no perfect.

This guy does! I (Luke) have an obsession with calligraphy and the extreme talent of the skilled calligraphers out there. I have spent hours on YouTube watching videos that make this art look effortless.

When we found our wedding invitation calligrapher, Jennifer Taylor, we were SO happy! We went to her house, looked over all of her jaw-dropping samples and in the end she created a style that was completely custom to us and matched our invitations to a tee! When we went to pick up our invitations I even asked Jennifer if she could write my name in calligraphy. She did and did it with ease. The only thing is that she wrote my name as Lucas Benjamin Williams! Williams was Cat's maiden name, so we got a good laugh out of that :)

After going through the process of selecting our wedding invitations calligraphy, we started to follow other calligraphers and I may have tried to do a little of it myself too. If anyone knows of a calligraphy school, let me know. I have read books, but I think that one-on-one instruction would be best! I have broken too many nibs and turned my fingers black too many times!

We just discovered a Los Angeles calligrapher, Molly Jacques, and spent a good hour yesterday looking at her amazing work! Who wishes this was their wedding invitation?

These little handwritten details are what can push your wedding over the top!

Also, if you are following along with our home renovations, you know that we are adding some French Doors where our bay windows used to be and building a deck off one side of our house. Then we are putting up a fence and making a side yard! We are so pumped about this!

(I should use the term "we" loosely because neither Cat nor I are doing any of the work, we just provide moral support for the guys taking an entire wall out of our house!)

Cat and I are already planning what we want out new space to look like and we fell in love with this "calligraphied" chalkboard we found!

There is still a lot to be done with the construction, but we will keep you updated as we progress through this excitement!