Design Studio

I posted previously about my new website. Well, at the time it was only half done. Now I’ve added links to my photography and added a design portion to the site. I’d wanted to actually make the design portion a separate domain, however, I didn’t realize that with the account I have with Mac (now Mobile Me) it only allows one personal domain. I’d have to spend about $50 for another one. Too bad I didn’t realize that before, and for now I don’t want to spend the money, so I’m sticking to what I have. So, let me know what you think! Click on the image above to go to the site. It seems to be working fine except for the contact page. Here’s an assignment, should you choose to accept: try emailing me from the site and tell me what it does. From my computer, it opens my default mail, which I don’t actually use for email. The whole point of the contact page is to not let that happen! I can’t get it to stop doing that, despite looking up the html online and coding it multiple times. Anyone who know html want to take a look at the code on that page and help me out with that? I don’t know what’s going on!

On a different note, here’s a shameless plug. I know there’s a lot of pregnant mamas out there reading this. If you’d like to do a photo shoot with your little one when he/she arrives, let me know! I can do a photo shoot/announcement package so you can send an announcement with a photo and all the important details to your family and friends when your little bundle of joy arrives!

Loss

It is often that I wonder how I’d respond if one of my sons or my husband was taken from me in death. Call me morbid but it’s true. Would I be strong enough to still find hope and enjoy life? Would I curse God? Would I be thankful for the time shared and love experienced? Or, would I wish I’d never known it so that I wouldn’t now be experiencing such pain?

The Geesaman family are family friends that I’ve known for a long time. I can’t remember how long it is that I’ve known them. Although they’ve moved far from us some years ago, we still get the annual Christmas letters, and since they still have family in the area, we often see them once a year. Their daughter, Ellen, was the flower girl at my wedding and I remember how she practiced throwing the rose petals. They actually came to visit just a few weeks ago and met with my mom and siblings, although I was unable to see them.

So, it was with unbelievable sadness, shock, and tears I found out yesterday that their only son, 15-year-old Curtis, died Tuesday evening from an injury he received while at a summer youth camp. He suffered a brain hemorrhage and swelling that caused him to pass out and not regain consciousness before dying. They letter they sent out states:

We are in shock and disbelief and overwhelmed with grief. Our sorrow is equal to the joy he brought to our lives. We covet your prayers for comfort, peace and mercy. We’re comforted to know that he’s in God’s arms now, but our arms and hearts feel so empty without him with us.

Curtis, Natalie, Troy, Ellen, Kim

Although I know most of my readers will have no personal connection to them, please take a moment and pray for this dear, sweet family.

Blueberry Bliss

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

We had a great holiday! We spent the evening of July 3rd with our friends Libby and Miguel who had a cookout and then went to the New Freedom carnival afterwards. Then, for dinner on July 4th we went to Josh’s mom’s home.

On Wednesday I went to Shaw Orchard Farm Market to pick blueberries. This orchard is just minutes from my mom’s house and has long been my favorite orchard. We love their apple cider in the fall! My mom fed the boys lunch and played with them while my sister and I went blueberry picking. I got a huge basket of blueberries and the boys have been eating them with almost every meal while I’ve been throwing them in yogurt with Grape-Nuts sprinkled on top.

For dessert to take to my mother-in-law’s, I made a Blueberry Pie I got from Michelle’s blog. I made it once last summer as well. Boy, is it fabulous! Had to share . . .

Blueberry Pie

Ingredients Needed:
- 1 package of graham crackers, crumbed
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 3.4oz package lemon instant pudding mix
- 2 tsp grated lemon rind
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 pint blueberries
- 2 tbs blueberry preserves
- 1 cup whipping cream

1. Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter.

2. Press evenly in bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake pie crust at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

3. Beat cheese, milk, and powdered sugar until creamy.

4. Add pudding mix, rind, and juice. Beat until blended.

5. Spread half of mixture into crust.

6. Stir together blueberries and preserves, spread evenly over lemon mixture.

7. Spread remaining lemon mixture over blueberry mixture. Cover and chill 2 hours.

8. Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form and spread around out edge of pie forming a decorative border.

Since I was short on time I bought pre-made graham cracker crusts, baked them, and then made the filling. So easy and a great pie to make on a summer day since you don’t have to bake the pie and you serve it cold.

The Flavor of Summer

If there’s one herb that says “summer” to me, it’s Basil. I love to use it for cooking. On Saturday I went to the Bel Air Farmers’ Market. I found some beautiful Basil and gorgeously plump red tomatoes. Last night we ate some of the tomatoes sliced with basil and fresh mozzarella. Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper, it melted in our your mouth! Now I’m going to use the rest of the Basil to make pesto!

Pesto is one of my favorite things to make in the summer. I plan on freezing some this year in ice cubes and then store in freezer bags. It’s easy to use pesto in place of tomato sauce on pizzas topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, and red onions, or mix with whole grain pasta with grilled chicken or shrimp. Here’s the recipe I use for Pesto:

2 loosely packed cups fresh basil leaves, stems discarded, rinsed, and dried

Salt to taste (I prefer sea salt)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet (I use walnuts)

1/2 C. extra-virgin olive oil, or more

1. Combine the basil, salt, garlic, nuts, and about half of the oil in a food processor or blender.

2. Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container occasionally, and adding the rest of the oil gradually. Add additional oil if you prefer a thinner mixture

From Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

Do you have some favorite recipes featuring Basil?

Capture

The babble of serious little voices. The soft staccato patter of little feet. The serious little face: wide eyed, soft cheeked, rosy lipped.  A chubby hand grabs my leg. Somehow, I give them comfort, my boys, yet I must seem so large and powerful to them. Still, their trust in me is simple and matter-of-fact.

It’s the thirteenth month of their lives in this world and they find all things of interest. Mulch must be tasted. Stairs must be climbed. Paper must be torn apart. I have a first-hand view of young minds trying to fathom the world.

I try to capture these moments. To really etch into memory their voices, their feel, their eyes. It’s so fleeting. I’m already forgetting what they were like just months ago. Why is that? I pull out pictures to remember and am startled by the changes since then. I try to remember because when I’m old they’ll come to visit me, grown and tall men, living on their own. I’ll look into their eyes–the very same ones I look into now–and will search for the boys they used to be. And when they leave I’ll try to remember the days I’m living now.

Projects

We’ve been busy over the past few months with various projects. They are all more fun than gutting the kitchen, like we did last year. After the boys’ birthday we got in a vegetable garden. A little late in the season, but better than never. At least we’ll have some homegrown veggies for late summer.

Some of you may remember the groundhog problem the last time we attempted vegetable gardening. This year Josh put up a fence that is sunk into the ground. So far, so good!

I’ve also been planting flowers and shrubs. I’ve planted two white azaleas near the deck, moved the old-fashioned climbing rose to near the deck so it can climb on the railings. Along the side of the house I’ve transplanted hostas from my mom’s, divided irises, and put in a border white impatiens. It’s kind of hard to see in the picture below, but before this it was just a nasty strip of grass. It was especially pretty when the irises were in bloom. Now it’s just green and white, but soon the hostas will bloom. This side of the house doesn’t get much sun, late afternoon/evening.

I’ve experimented with iron-on transfers for the first time and had so much fun. I decorated totes for my mom and sister for their birthdays. Now that it’s dawned on me that I can design my own iron-on transfers, who knows what fun I’ll have. I’m already brainstorming Christmas gift ideas . . .

I have these big pillows covered in brown sweater-like material that’s not summer-friendly. So I found this great fabric and my mom made pillow covers for me that go great with the pillows I already had. The cover we made is the large pillow on the far right. The back is just a solid blue. A easy way to create a new, fresh look without blowing the budget.

This week we’re redoing our bedroom. Josh is trimming out the windows, repairing the walls, and then we’ll repaint. Pictures soon to come. What projects have you accomplished this summer or want to accomplish? Big or small, doesn’t matter.

Good-bye, Tasha Tudor

I just found out that Tasha Tudor died on June 18th at the age of 92. Tasha Tudor is one of my favorite illustrators. When I was growing up, her delicate and detailed watercolors captured my imagination and I’d spend hours copying her work. Going back over my many sketchbooks, her influence is everywhere.

My favorite books that she illustrated are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, A Time to Keep and A Brighter Garden. They are definitely keepsakes in my library and highly recommend them. If you’re interested, a wonderful biography written by her daughter is Drawn From New England: Tasha Tudor. For a brief biography you can visit her memorial website. Or check out her official website.

Good-bye, Tasha Tudor.

Polo

And I don’t mean Ralph Lauren.

We went to a polo match in Fallston, Maryland with some friends. It was so much fun! I don’t really know the rules of Polo, but it basically seemed like soccer on horseback. The match basically seemed like a backdrop for people to picnic. I didn’t hear much cheering and hooting for a favorite team. That’s probably because polo seems like a rather “polite” sport.

An interesting little tradition is to have the spectators to “stomp the divots”. This is where everyone goes out onto the field and stomps down the ground that has been torn up by the horses’ hooves. It costs $15 a carload to park and then you’re free to watch the game. We got in free this time, due to our friend’s invite. I’d definitely love to go back one summer evening and experience the game of polo again! If you’re local, give it a try!

For more info, check out the official U.S. Polo website.

Into the Wild

Josh loved Jon Krakaur’s book, Into the Wild and so he was excited to discover it was being made into a film, directed by Sean Penn. I knew the story only from Josh’s retelling of it, and I too was intrigued.

We watched the movie last night and it was amazing. I was curious as to how this true-life story could be successfully told in an engaging way through the medium of film. The story is about a gifted and affluent young man, Chris McCandless, who has just graduated from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992. Seemingly motivated by a hatred for the sick aspects of society and an idealized world view, he gives all his money to charity and starts a journey to discover truth. He meets some interesting characters along the way and ends up in Alaska to live off the land and be one with nature in a Thoreau-like way. We also discover he’s running from something deeper and darker in his past. The reason he searches for truth seems to stem from the destruction that was caused by lies his father has told him. He runs because he is bitter and is unable to forgive. He turns his back on all he knows and who he was, most clearly signified by the changing of his name.

Sean Penn’s adaptation is spectacular. Slow moving, this film is to be savored like a good read. Penn uses techniques that force the viewer to stop and savor the moment with Chris. Penn attempts to show us what Chris sees, how he feels. The exuberance of the ocean, the feeling of a clean shower. It’s like poetry in visual form.

The heartbreaking and ironic ending is a reminder to us all that earthly happiness is meaningless unless shared with others. Also, that how we treat and interact with our children has lasting effects. Chris’ sister makes an insightful statement that while her parents protected and cherished their crystal, they failed to realize that their children were just as fragile.

The film is rated R for a smattering of bad language and images of nudists in a couple scenes.

If you’ve seen this film, I’d love to know what you thought . . .

Grilled Delights

I love to grill! Everything just tastes so much better when grilled. Meats, vegetables, and fruits all have flavors you’ve never dreamed of when cooked on a grill. So I thought I’d share some recent recipes with you that we’ve used to create some sumptuous meals.

First up, Rachael Ray’s Honey-and-Lemon Marinade. This deliciously easy and all-purpose marinade tastes great on chicken, salmon, and pork chops. Last week we used it on salmon and it was to die for!

Last night I made ribs for the first time. I’ve been craving ribs ever since our neighbor has been grilling them and decided I must try them out. I put a rub on the ribs, which I got from here, and let it sit overnight. I was a little nervous about the whole deal. First of all, Josh usually mans our charcoal grill and the last time I tried my hand at it I couldn’t get it started. However, this time I got it up and running with ease.

However, when I put the meat on it caught on fire!! Yes, flames were hungrily lapping at the meat and I quickly pulled it off. It was slightly charred, but thankfully it was the bone side, not the meat side that was facing the flame. Tried again, but caught on fire. I didn’t think the coals were too high to the rack, so wasn’t sure what to do. Ran over to our neighbor, who is now home because he’s been laid off from his construction job. He’s the grill master of all grill masters. He came over and helped me set up the grill in a different way so that the meat got indirect heat (the recipe did not explain all of this!). So, we put the meat on and this time, no flames! It grilled for about three hours and then I basted it with a recipe I found here.

Ohmygoodness! So good! Let me tell you we tore into those ribs like you wouldn’t believe. Eaten with a side of fresh sweet corn and cantaloupe with blueberries, it was a perfect summer dinner!

What are your favorite grill recipes? Want to share? Fill up my comment box!

Image from www.dominomag.com