sideoats + scribbles

I went with both!  Had to share this little scene from this morning — sometimes colors aren’t planned, but they still look good together.  That’s peacock, sea mist, and chartreuse Fiesta, Texas peaches, blueberries, shredded wheat and a napkin I made a while back.  And vanilla nut teeccino. I’ve been alternating between vanilla nut, hazelnut, and chocolate — YUM.

Wanted to let ya know that I’ve been busy busy busy working on something BIG for Hero Arts — well, lotsa big things actually!  All I can say for now is that you’ll want to visit the Hero blog for sneaks of what’s coming. Oh and mark your calenders for July 15th!

And! I haven’t forgotten about the Scribble This! Challenges — hope to have some highlights up from the Sharp as a Tack challenge up soon, plus another tutorial.  And I’ve got TONS of  stamping deas running around in my brain — can’t wait to get a minute to play!

Update: It’s raining!  YEAH, we really need it!  Sounds so nice on the new metal roof, which is almost done — double YEAH!

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend!  J and I had a fun one, bumming around together, cleaning, watching a movie, and making soup.  Soup, you ask?  Why yes!  I picked up some zucchinis at a farmer’s stand and put together this soup inspired by one I had a few weeks ago at Whole Foods.  We ended up eating the whole pot in one day!  (J is a very satisfying person to cook for.)  He convinced me to make another pot and share it on my blog, so here goes!

Ingredients:

• 3 small zucchini, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 small onion
• 1 chilie pequin (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cups water
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of Israeli cous-cous (this is the BIG cous-cous)

What to do:

1. Add zucchini, carrots, garlic, onion, olive oil and chilie pequin to a soup pot and saute for 7 minutes or so.  Just until things are starting to get tender.  The whole house will smell good!  Oh and!  A chilie pequin is a small Texas native chilie pepper, about the size of a green pea.  Don’t let their size fool you tho, these little guys pack a punch!  We grow them in our garden.  If you don’t have chilie pequins, you can substitute a chilie pepper of your choice, or just leave it out.

2. Add water, crushed tomatoes, and all the spices except for the salt.

3. Bring to a boil, then partially cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add cous-cous and cook for another 10 minutes.  Then stir in the salt.

5. Serve + enjoy!  I sprinkled grated parmesean cheese on top and served with with polenta on the side.  I had a green salad for lunch, or I’d have served one with this too.

Let me know if you try it!  And!  That napkin is one I made a while back — I think it is Amy Butler fabric, but not sure.

Guess what, this photo is going to be published by Texas Parks and Wildlife!  I’ll keep ya posted as to when!

I took it in May of 2007 at Quebe Prairie with my point + shoot camera — it was nice and cool out and felt like spring.  So different from the 100+ degree temps we’ve been having the last few days, yikes!

I was trying to capture the feeling of being *in* a prairie — there’s always so much going on — so many layers of plants, grasses and the big sky overhead.  Ahhhhh….

Hope you’re having a great weekend, I’ve been cleaning, cooking, and relaxing.  Made a big pot of soup yesterday so I wouldn’t have to cook today, but we liked it so well that between lunch and dinner we ate the whole pot.  Gonna make another batch today, will share the recipe!

Hope you have a relaxing + peaceful weekend.  I’ll be thinking about this Spanish moss, sparkling in the setting sun.  I took it last weekend near the headquarters of Brazos Bend State Park while J was checking in to get our campsite.  Still have to go through the rest of the pictures, can’t wait to see how they came out!

And!  There’s still time to play in this Scribble This! challenge — more here. I’ll be posting a new tutorial soon, it will be on tips for focusing your camera — sort of a followup to this week’s Look Sharp theme.

Love this magazine, the photography is stunning and the projects are super great!  If you’ve never read it, you’re in for a real treat!  It’s the June/July issue — more here.  I know you can also find it at Archiver’s + Michael’s.  They have a yummy blog here, too.

Oh and!  Someone asked if I made those favors for our wedding — and the answer is, nope.  But, if I had, I would have made them just like this.  I used our color — turquoise.  And the hearts are made of brown felt.  You know how I have a thing for felt!

I was thinking about our wedding while I made it — we had a small one at Jason’s parent’s house.  The day started off with a bang — a thunderstorm — but then the sun came out and there was a beautiful rainbow.  So special.  Can’t believe we’ll be married twelve years this August 15th.  Love you J!

Hi everyone!  It took me a while to go through all of the entries for the Scribble This! Week #2 Challenge — but I loved seeing each and every one.  Wow, what a difference the levels adjustment makes!

So, without further ado, here are ten to share!  On the left is the original grey, gloomy photo, and on the right is the edited one — click on the card to go to the post about it:

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the challenge!  If you missed the tutorial, you can still read it here.

And!  There’s still time to enter the Scribble This! #3 Challenge– more here!

Photo taken yesterday afternoon on some property in West Columbia, TX.  It was hot! Ironically enough, the plant is called Snow-on-the-Prairie, ha!