HOMEABOUT CONTACTLINKLOVE

Thursday, August 30, 2012

My Friday's Fancies (Labor Day)


In anticipation of the 3 day weekend (woo hoooooo!!)
I thought it would be fun to link up an outfit today for...
august 31st - labor day









Labor day is kind of a bittersweet holiday, when I get to thinking about it...
While I LOVE having a day off work, I don't love the end of summer.   
Not that much really changes for me during the summer, now that I'm old and working, instead of in school.  
No summer vacation, no back to school shopping, no anticipation for a new school year.  But still, the summer is a special time.  And I will miss it.  

I've put together a light, fun summer outfit to bid farewell to the season.  
I love the colors, and the accessories are all things I would totally buy.  
I especially love the bracelets and the shoes.  :-)    

Happy Labor Day everyone!! 



t shirt!


Little Bits of Happiness...


I am VERY happy that it's Thursday and almost Friday...

I am happy the weather has been warm (hot? yes, for San Diego) enough for the tomatoes to keep making progress!


I am super happy that it's a 3 day weekend coming up!!

I am happy that we may have the whole 3 days to ourselves (no mother-in-law) even though it's not 100% confirmed yet. 

I am happy that I downloaded Julie & Julia for my Kindle today.  (Loved the movie!)

I am happy brainstorming ideas of things to do this weekend with my boyfriend. (Wine tasting? Drive in? Hike/Walk?

What's making you guys happy today?


It doesn't look like Stephanie is doing the link up today (or any more maybe?)... but here's the pretty and  inspirational button anyways!  :-) 

Mrs Stephanie T

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Oh, How Pinteresting... And (semi-) Wordless Wednesday!

(long enough post title??) 

It's been a few weeks since I've linked up with the lovely Michelle, 
over at The Vintage Apple...

So this week, I'm back again for....


You can follow me on Pinterest here:     Follow Me on Pinterest


**Before I get to my pins, I noticed today (when adding/transferring even MORE blogs from my work "favorites" to my Blogger reader), I am following about 200 blogs.  Is that normal?  Low, high, average, insane...?   
Just curious...


On to the lovely things! 
Seven pins that caught my eye this week.... 



 Love, love, love this outdoor couch...World Market, of course.  



Source: piccsy.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

 One of my favorite places in the whole wide world. 





These frozen fruit pops look so yummy and refreshing. 



What can I say... true.




Love the green...


Source: vat19.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

I want these!!  Soup and cracker mugs. 



This is the same kind of snake we have, a green tree python.  His name is Pretzel.  :-)

And that's all I've got for today!

It's been a busy week at work, looking forward to an extra day off next week!  
Until then... Happy Hump Day!!  Half way there... (There being "the weekend"!) 



A few other parties I'm linking up with....


http://liveandloveoutloud.com/



http://thepapermama.com/














Monday, August 27, 2012

Life Lately...

Hello, friends!  I hope everyone has had a great summer.  I've been slacking on blogging but I have quite a few ideas brewing and plenty of drafts to work on.  

In early August, I spent a long weekend in Yellowstone (and The Grand Tetons) with my mom, and some extended family. It was some good family time, and lots of natural beauty.  At every turn in the road, the views were AMAZING...

Me in front of the Tetons (hazy day)

We saw soooooo many buffalo, and I'll tell ya...it never got old.




On the home front...

It finally got HOT enough for our tomato plant to flourish!!  We had a big, beautiful green tomato sitting on this plant for about a month.  We had a nice hot spell a couple weeks ago and it FINALLY started changing to yellow and then red, within about 2 days!  (We had been wondering for a while what was going on, but didn't realize they loved the heat so much.)  Since then it's been pretty warm and we have 5 new tomatoes growing, the second one was just picked today! 

Tomato #1 from our front yard tomato plant (that we did not, consciously, plant).  
My boyfriend, ceremoniously picking it.
I had to take a picture of the momentous occasion.  :-)


We had some chocolate (and assorted topping) covered strawberries.  
Just cuz he loves me.  :-)   
(I forgot to use my real camera so just have a crappy Instagram pic.)




And now for the Grilling All The Things portion of this post!

As I mentioned, it's been warm and the grill has been calling our names.  A few weekends ago our friend invited us over to help him eat a bunch of abalone he had gone diving for.  He did a few preparations of it, and it was delicious!  I was kind of expecting it to be somewhat rubbery, but it really wasn't.  We had small pieces wrapped in bacon, larger "fillets" straight on the grill, and ceviche.  To contribute to the feast, we brought artichokes and strawberries. 
The grilled artichokes were inspired by a booth at the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market, where we had purchased a grilled artichoke a month or so ago, and fell in love.  I looked online for a recipe, and it was as simple as I thought it would be.  You boil them first, for about 20min or so.  (I did that before we went to the BBQ.)  Then cut them in half (from top to bottom) and spoon out the fuzzy stuff.  Then drizzle olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and I also sprinkled some shredded roman cheese on top and (mostly, so it wouldn't all fall off in the grill) between the leaves.  Throw them on the grill and do each side for maybe 5-10mins?  Depends on the grill's heat.  You just want it to get a little char and melt the cheese.  They were a big hit!!  We just ate them plain, no dipping sauces required. 


Not a great phone pic but these grilled strawberries.  O.M.G.  Seriously amazeballs.  (And amazeballs is not a term I use lightly!) Grilled strawberries are my new favorite thing.   Balsamic and brown sugar grilled strawberries, to be precise.
Rinse and cut the tops off (or leave them on, doesn't matter) of the strawberries.  I had 2 baskets because there were 7 or 8 people coming to the BBQ.  Then put them in a bowl and pour on some balsamic, just enough to coat them all but not so much that they are swimming in it. Give it 5-10 mins to soak in.  Then pour some brown sugar out on a plate and roll the strawberries in it. Let them sit another 5-10 mins to soak in the sugar, otherwise it will all fall/cook off on the grill.  Pile them up on your skewers (soaked for 20+mins in water so they don't burn!) and grill them for 10 mins, rotating often to avoid burning! 
The flavor is ridiculously good, and they are all hot and juicy.  We ate them with vanilla ice cream.  We will be doing this again, soon, and often


Today we harvested our second tomato!  Talking about how to eat it, we decided on kabobs.  So I grabbed some stew meat (beef), bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and more tomatoes (cherry).  We marinated the meat in a teriyaki sauce from our fridge, and then skewered everything together.  Open a bottle of wine, and ta-da!!  Easy and delicious Sunday night dinner. 



So, that's what has been going on with me lately.
I just (this weekend) got caught up on blog reading after being out in the beautiful wilds of Yellowstone for 5 days (like 2 weeks ago).
I've been reading lots of food and, especially, travel blogs lately.  Another vacation already seems in order.   Hope everyone has been having a great summer! 


Most of this stuff (and many more delicious recipes) 
can be found on my Pinterest Food Board.  

Linking up with the Weekend Update ladies!