{this moment} - a Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment i want to pause, savor and remember ~ Amanda Soule.

Seeing Red on Friday

I’m not usually an angry person. And today i’m not angry either. This blog entry really has nothing to do with anger. It has to do with those juicy sweet red morsels we pick from our gardens at this time of the year. (Unless you’re us and you buy or pick them locally because your yard is too small to host a strawberry garden---no wait, i recently saw someone growing strawberries out of a hanging planter. something to try.)

 

We’ve been eating them a lot around here.
 

 

With granola, in pies, in short cake (coming soon) but mostly on their own. I haven’t really gotten into the jam making thing. Recipes tend to have sooo much sugar in them, and i think i’d rather freeze them and use them in smoothies.

And there’s something else red i want to introduce you to:
 

I present to you fresh-from-the-garden, Manitoba grown tomatoes in the guise of bruschetta. Made with fresh basil i am proud to call my own. (tomatoes were bought--mine are still mostly in flower stage). Bruschetta is one of those flavours you only encounter in summer. Fresh chopped tomatoes, with a bit of crushed garlic (fresh), a splash of red wine vinegar and of olive oil, and some minced fresh basil.  Perhaps a bit of salt to taste. I really don’t use a recipe for it. I usually spread some butter on slices of bread and toast them in the oven a bit before i scoop a healthy dose of the bruschetta mix on top (sometimes with grated cheese on top) and then stick it back in the oven on broil until things are hot and melty. Delish!

Hope you're seeing red today too!

D.I.Y.

When we moved into our house this spring, it was like starting from scratch in many ways. It's an older house, and a lot of things needed (or still need) replacing. But one of the things i didn't expect was how all of our furniture didn't seem to fit into our new space even though it was a bigger house. We sold a few pieces on kijiji, and have had (or will have) to find other things to help us be a little more organized.

One of the spaces that needed help was our entrance. (We actually have one now!) We had nothing to hang a jacket on. I was at my mom's house one day flipping through a magazine where Ana White was featured, along with the perfect piece for our entryway (which she had built herself, and provided materials and measurements for!) Her website is actually filled with many many FREE furniture projects for DIY-ers. Including furniture you can make out of old pallets! I planted the seed in G's ear, and he came from work one day with this piece of furniture all assembled and ready to be painted. yay!

Here it is all primed up and ready to go:

 

(If you look closely, you'll notice G. got some of the measurements a little wrong--oops!) 

And here is the mostly finished product (it still needs some more hooks):

 

So there we have it! I'm also getting excited about building the Lydia day bed on Ana's website for O. Now if i could just settle on a paint color for the walls in the entrance...

Colors in the kitchen: round two

Today's featured colors are: Green and Yellow.

I can't help it with the color combos. I'm such a visual person. I see a certain color combo and get really inspired to paint or to photograph. Sometimes color combinations seem to follow me around during the day. Today was one of those days.

Here's what came out of today's kitchen:

and then i made this Beet and Avacado Salad recipe from this website. I used yellow beets instead of red ones (i know, the red would have been a little punchier, but i only had yellow) and voila!

and last but not least...

Okay, so it's not from the kitchen. O. is descending the stairs from up in my studio. I've already changed the color of that far wall three times. and now i'm liking it. I'll give you a tour sometime.

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule