sophie. an update

sophie is now 17 weeks old and was 27 pounds at her vet visit last week. she can now handle the soccer ball with ease-she loves to run, play keep away, tug-0-war, and fetch. today she got her head stuck in the treat box i had thrown away, but she got it off her head before i could get a photo-it was hysterical!
Jan. 29

here's the picture i posted on dec. 9.  i couldn't come up with a sophism for this one-any suggestions?

saturday strolling. hello sunshine

new orleans-a review

i really enjoyed visiting new orleans-the food and continuous live music is something you don't find everywhere.  the weather was perfect for walking around. the accommodations, while not sumputous, were very spacious, close to everything, and in a quiet neighborhood in the french quarter.  i wish we had spent more time walking along esplanade avenue.  i highly recommend reading barbara hamby's books on new orleans-gives you a glimpse of the city back in the day.  the rest of the photos are here.
some of the things we did:
~visited the st louis cemetary 1-one of the most unusual cemetaries i've ever visited.
~we did a culinary walking tour where we toured and sampled food from different restaurants-our tour guide was very informative and the food was excellent.  not many people get to walk into the kitchen at antoine's i'm sure.
~on our own we ate at the crescent city brewhouse, eat (nola), melanege, and cafe du monde
~we bought regional cookbooks, rootbeer extract, and in-house blended spices, and a really cool wisk for making roux
~listened to live music in the french market and dueling pianos at the howl at the moon. music was everywhere
~i tried on a hat at this shop
~bought a dipping pen and writing paper at this shop
~people watched on bourbon street and at the french market
~walked along the mississippi river, and walked some more
~watched football (we were between mealtimes-and it was a compromise since i dragged hubby into some of "my" shops.
~visited 2 galleries featuring works by local artists
~and yes, at bourbon cowboy i rode the mechanical bull-shocking i know-dont' tell the kids.
we'll definitely be going back again.

10 things to do if it's too cold outside.

around here it's usually not too cold to go outside-we may be under several inches of ice making it impossible to go anywhere, so in case that happens here's what i'd do-of course i'll dove tail on mary's list-i'd do all 10 on her list provided we have power, and i'd only do laundry if i had nothing else left, and i'd definitely be wearing my loung-y clothes. so in addition i'd-
1. read
2. sew
3. take photos of the outside
4. entertain sophie
5. puruse pinterest
6. test the durability and value of my hunter boots
7. clean the house (if it's close to my usual house cleaning day)
8. tidy, organize and purge stuff
9. plan meals
10. bake bread

of course, i'd love to just spend the time knitting and watching tv, but unless we get another snow-cropolos i don't think it's going to be too cold to go outside this year-especially with the off and on warm weather we've had lately.

friday focus.

so i'm 2 for 2 so far. last week was about my ravelry queue which i have to say has NOT grown at all.  i also have not done much knitting this week, but plan to make up for it tomorrow when mary and karen and i get together. with a long weekend coming up i hope to focus on getting my 2011 photos edited and ready for uploading to blurb for photobooks. the photo shows a "contact" sheet of the photos from rosemary beach.  i had gotten started on cropping the photos, but somethign happened and i lost track of what i'd edited, so now i have to figure out my duplicates.  that's a project i hope to knock out this weekend.  i need to do the same with the photos from paris and my 2011 photos in general.  also on my "to do" list are printing certain photos, i have a photo printer so it needs to be used right?  i've moved my laptop back downstairs on my desk hoping that it'll force me to focus on the task at hand, so we'll see. 

10 favorite soups

this week's 10 on Tuesday is a list of one of my favorite "foods" in general, and my family really likes soup.

1. chicken noodle soup-with big chunks of carrot and celery (kept crunchy)

2. white chicken chili-lots of chicken and hearty broth.

3. kielbasa, spinach, white bean and tortelini-love that i can make this with turkey kielbasa and all the other stuff is healthy and good for you.

4. andrew's egg drop soup (photo above)-just a bit of egg and lots of broth and veggies. if i was making it i'd add a handful of spinach as well.

5. gumbo-yes please-found a super easy and tasty recipe in a southern living magazine last year.

6. zuppa de pesce-really any seafood added to a flavorful tomato base is a winner for me.

7. split pea soup-suprisingly everyone in our house loves this AND it's so easy to make.

8. wild rice and mushroom-i have a recipe from a cooks illustrated magazine which i LOVE, i substitute the bacon with just a bit of proscuitto, and nix the cream.

9. vegetable soup-tomato based with lots of carrots, corn, etc and sometimes beans added for some protein and fiber.

10. french onion soup-have started serving this with gruyere cheese "toasts" rather than adding the bread and cheese to the soup.

one of the great things about soups is that once you have the broth, you can add whatever you might have in the fridge or pantry. a great way to use up leftovers.

Today I

i thought it would be fun to take a photo at 1hour intervals starting at 5:30 am- 8:30 pm, here are a few and the rest are here.

a wet soggy drive into work (6:30)

doing a little work (9:30)


enjoying a cup of coffee in my newest mug (10:30)

a visit to the eye doctor (4:30) i sooo want a pair of tiffany and co frames (not the ones in the poster)

as the day began with tending to sophie, the last photo is of her-she was trying to catch her ice cube as it was tumbling down the steps. that was my monday- how was yours.

F=F+F+F(K+S)

for 2012 my "one little word" will be focus. i'm adopting this one from mary, and this year plan to join ali's class so that i'll have some guidance on documenting the journey. so i created the formula in the heading which is  Focus will be on Faith, Family and Friendship (knitting and sewing).  These are 3 areas that i want to give my attention to not just for 2012, but going forward.  i know based on past experiences that my friendships will be enriched through my knitting and sewing groups.  i know that these friendships will also help me meet my goals in improving my skills in both, as well as, other areas of my life (a win-win in my book).  i may try to do a focus friday update, but am not holding myself to anything just yet.  my first step in focusing on my knitting was to quell down my ravelry queue which grew to over 120 projects-yikes!

now it is to a more manageable 15

the thought behind this is that these are projects that i've either already have the yarn for, or are certainly doable over the next year (or 18 months!)-i want to keep my queue cleaner than i have in the past, and will probably begin to use my favorites for those dream projects.  i'll keep the 9 page print out so that i'll know what i had queued in case if i want to pull from those at some point.  i want to focus on quality knitting no quantity.  Also 2012 will be the year of cables, i'm pretty psyched about this one after working on baby cocktails-dark and stormy. there's just enough cabling to keep it interesting without overwhelming.

10 things for 2012

had to think a bit about this ten on tuesday-taking a few items from mary's list along with my list below:

1. exercise daily and establish and maintain an even more healthy diet
2. help andrew find a college that's the perfect fit.
3. blog more
4. focus- my 2012 word, so it'll take extra effort to stay on that path
5. read through all the books that i've borrowed or have been given to me-hopefully get to those i've bought and haven't touched yet.
6.  improve my sewing skills
7. teach sophie how to catch frisbees (this is more for steve-think it'll be fun anyway)
8. successfully grow tomatoes and cucumbers this summer
9. work on using up "stuff" and purging those things that i don't really need
10. try NOT to acquire more stuff in order to make #9 more doable.

am really looking foward to what 2012 has in store.