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Wool Pom Pom Bouquet | Cowl Neck Scarf | Owl Printed Tea Towel| Ampersand Print
I have a theory about figuring out what I want in life. There have been moments lately when I’ve thrown up my hands and declared to anyone who will listen that I just don’t know what I want to do. But, then it hit me. If I’m willing to stay up all night and do it. If I can’t think of anything else.
If I wake up excited. If the ideas are sometimes (not always) effortless. If it doesn’t seem, not at all, like work. Then I probably found it. And not at all surprising, it was there all along, patiently waiting for me to get on board.
Writing, baking, blogging, photographing, designing, creating, teaching and coming up with content is what I want to do. Lately it’s consuming my every waking minute. It’s making my life better and my days a little richer. I’ve dabbled before, afraid to get too deep, afraid I wasn’t good enough. And then I decided that I was good enough and worth the effort to learn and get better. Worth the effort to push harder. And it’s weird when something as simple as a chocolate chip cookie can inspire and ignite the spark. It’s there, it was just a little buried, becoming too jaded and cynical, but I never lost it. The missing link is that before I wasn’t doing it for myself and on my own terms.
Sometimes learning can be frustrating, especially when the process is public. And now I realize that I was never really trying. I don’t know what opportunities any of this will bring, if any at all, but I’m trusting myself and the process enough to do it better than I ever have.
These cookies take no time at all to put together. They fluff up a little, stay chewy and silky in the middle, and then fall down to create picturesque hills and valleys. The toffee is essential and next time, I will use more toffee and less chocolate. And because I know there will be a next time, I will also add toasted pecans instead of walnuts. Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from the Ghiardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe) Ingredients: 2.25 C. unbleached flour, 1 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, 2 sticks softened butter, 1/4 C. half and half (omit if using two eggs instead of one jumbo egg) .75 C. sugar, .75 C. brown sugar, 2 t. vanilla extract, 1 (jumbo egg, or two large eggs), 2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips, 2 C. toffee bits, 1 C. walnuts or pecans Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees In a stand mixer or by hand beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add vanilla, egg (s), and half and half until incorporated. Gradually add dry ingredients into the creamy mixture. Add chocolate chips, toffee bits and walnuts. Drop by tablespoons onto parchment paper or a non-stick oven mat. Bake for 9-11 minutes. About a year ago I used my friend Carly’s business as a model for a logo design workshop I was teaching. That logo eventually morphed into a real logo redesign for her business and I’m pleased how it turned out.  Intricately Cut Penny Earrings Working on her logo reminded me of why I love the design process. Every decision matters. Adding and substracting elements, and experimenting with type is why I enjoy my work. The process is very similar to working on a equation or piecing a puzzle together. The first logo I designed for Mountain Light Jewelry was a more literal concept.
The logo turned out to be very close to what she originally imagined for, but I couldn’t shake my feelings about it. It felt like it was for another business that is more rigid or traditional. Too words that don’t quite capture Carly or her work. And the redesign was born. I first heard of mandalas shortly after moving to Floyd. You can’t live here without knowing what an mandala is. My vision for Carly was something more earthy and clean. A logo that would translate well with her style. We worked together on a few drafts until we came to our final draft.
The final logo:
She’s started packaging her jewelry using her new logo and I think it looks fantastic! Click Here For The Mountain Light Jewelry Etsy Shop
I feel a little self-indulgent throwing my own 29th birthday party, but the truth is, I’m just looking for an excuse to dance, dress up and make miniature versions of my favorite foods. I’ve thrown my fair share of parties and think I’m slowly starting to get the planning process down to a science. I’ve found that the more I plan ahead the smoother things go the day of, which sounds really obvious, but it’s taken me awhile to get there. I like parties that aren’t stuffy or super planned out with lots of room for dancing and chit-chatting. Of course, I’m going to start with the food planning. I have about 15 people attending the party which means I will plan for six to eight varieties of finger foods with two to three servings each, two to three batches of a mixed drink like sangria, four bottles of wine, and two non-alcoholic beverages. Baked Brie Bites | Salted Caramel Apple Pies | Cheese Plate | Bunting Cake | Sangria
Have you used a Wacom Tablet? I love mine, but I’m not in the habit of digitally drawing with it. I see so much potential, especially when designing logos. These cow illustrations are my first attempt and I can’t help but want to turn them into logos. Maybe an ice cream shop?
 Click Photo For Source When we moved into our home (not quite) two years ago we knew that storage was going to be an issue. Our house has a few closets, but no real space for seasonal decorations, camping gear and some out of season clothing like coats and boots. All of this stuff has been pushed into one room of the house that we call the “rabbit room”. This room is home to our little Rex bunny, Oliver. But, I see more for this room. For starters, it’s a decent sized room that has lots of potential. It’s long and kind of narrow, but not overly so, and we use it to store our chest freezer and the rabbit cage, that’s about it. So what do we do?  Click Photo For Source I should also mention that this room is connected to a half-bath where we keep the litter box. It is also right next to the living room and dining room with an entry way that is covered with a curtain. There is a back door in the room that leads to the deck. Ideally, I’d like to open this space up for extra room when entertaining and also a sitting area for reading. I would also like to bring some of the light from the rabbit room into the living and dining room. I’d also like for the room to have a cozy feel to it, almost like a coffee shop.  Click Photo For Source We’ve hired a contractor to help with installing new doors, lights and for painting the room. Right now, I’m in the stage where I’m gathering ideas and inspiration. The first thing going up will be the french doors and then we will paint the room.  Click Photo For Source Layout of the rabbit room:
 Click Photo For Source  Click Photo For Source
There’s a very short list of things that Josh will get out of bed for and I count these pancakes as one of them. I purchased a bag of Bob’s Red Mill whole gain pancake mix a week ago knowing that some Sunday morning I could use them as get out of bed bribery.
My friend Ashley is what I would call a Jam Master. She even has a blog, United States of Jam for all of her jam making adventures. I like getting jam from Ashley for holidays and for no reason at all. This raspberry jam looks like a jar of melted rubies, if there could ever be such a thing. For me, raspberry jam needs to go with something lemony.
I mixed the pancaked batter according to Bob’s instruction and then added 1 T lemon zest and a little less than 1 T sugar.
I baked the pancakes in a cast iron skillet with a little butter and oil. When they were nice and fluffy with crisp edges I topped them with jam and little more butter and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
These pancakes are a nice motivator for all the planning and prepping I do on Sunday’s. Grocery shopping, menu planning, lots of laundry and organization. I love when productive days start off slow, at the table, with pancakes and a glass of milk.
I have a hard time passing up Buy One, Get One Free deals. Even for things that I shouldn’t eat, like Doritos or Lucky Charms. I usually don’t cave, but with potatoes I justified the purchase by telling myself I could make fries! and mashed potatoes! and gratin! I probably shouldn’t buy dirty dozen potatoes, but I did and then I made french fries. Not just any fries. These are baked with a healthy layer of grated Parmesan cheese. This recipe got in my head from a title I read, probably somewhere in the abyss that is Pinterest. I just couldn’t shake this idea or the new-to-me information floating around on that internet that the best fries are soaked first to remove excess starch. These were fan-freakin-tastic! Crunchy and cheesy on the outside. I enjoyed the tang from the Parmesan cheese.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the worst at writing recipes, mainly because I change my mind a million times and keeping track of those changes gets me flustered. I managed to put my neurosis aside to get this one down. Ingredients: 4 large russet potatoes 4 T olive oil (or vegetable oil) 1 C grated parmesan cheese, divided 1 t sea salt 1 t garlic powder Directions: 1.) Cut potatoes into strips (I keep mine on the thick side because they shrink.) 2.) Soak the potatoes in warm water for at least an hour 3.) Preheat oven to 450 degrees 4.) Drain and rinse potatoes 5.) Pat potatoes dry with a dish or paper towel (don’t forget this step like I did!) 6.) Toss potatoes in a large bowl with olive oil, salt, garlic and 1/2 C. parmesan cheese 7.) Arrange potatoes on a large cookie sheet in a single layer 8.) Bake for 15 minutes 9.) Remove potatoes from oven, turn over and cover with 1/2 C. parmesan cheese 10.) Crank oven to 500 degrees and bake potatoes for another 15 minutes Enjoy!
I’m finding it absolutely neccessary to bake all the recipes I’ve been hoarding in my bookmarks over the past year. These cookies from Brown Eyed Baker do not disappoint, but I’m biased because I will bake anything she tells me to. The peanut butter is not overwhelming in this recipe, which I like, especially when chocolate is present. I used my little cookie ball scoop which resulted in these nice rounded mounds that are a touch brown on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside. I used mini-chips because they were the only chips at the store without soy lecithin. Unfortunately, these cookies are all gone, no thanks to Josh who said they were calling to him and was forced to eat them while I slept soundly on the couch. |
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