Duffy.

{A bunch of thirty-somethings doing donuts in a rented electric boat in the back bays of Long Beach, California.}

To celebrate her birthday, a dear friend invited a fun and gorgeous group of ladies (i fall on the side of fun..) to hop onto a Duffy Electric boat for a sunset cruise.

Hilarity ensued.

Three captains later (the first two couldn't steer us straight and we were getting pretty sea sick!), we were finally on the straight and narrow, getting right in the way of the Crew teams, totally blocking in the sailing classes, and waving at the Blue Coats.

For her birthday, I made her a special two piece cake topper and a set of party picks.

Happy Birthday, Jolie! 

She really is a sexy girl.

"Breakfast At Tiffany's" Cupcake Toppers

What a great way to spend a Wednesday Night!

Capture.

{weekly check-in}

Well, I went ahead and scrapped one of those daily photo lists. It was all about fitness. You may have noticed that there are no fitness related goings-ons around here. Not by me anyway. But that's for another day.

All of my hobbies are project driven, I've noticed. I like having the idea, making it happen, and seeing completion. Things like throwing a party, making a wreath, baking a pie... They give me that satisfaction of something being finished. Maybe it's my short attention span. So these photo challenges are really right up my alley. It's short-sighted, I can spend a few minutes on it and see a result. I also really enjoy communicating through pictures. More a feeling than a story. I must say, I'm a hard sell on photography. I don't really fall for much. A dear old friend of mine takes pictures I always seem to fall for, however. You should pay him a visit: Chris Bowden

Anyway back to me. Here are some of the Instagram images from the past few days:

They are pretty good, although I have a hard time keeping the images really straight. And if I import an image into Instagram from my photo album it ends up being off center, such as the "Doce." shot. I'll figure it all out. It's a big change holding an iPhone to take a photo, coming from a 35 year old Canon.

Happy Birthday Bluebird.

Goodnight Moon.

Ping Pong.

Doce.

Hobby.

{Just lookin for a way to express myself.}


I have been gone awhile. I've been putzing about, hanging around. I have a home to clean and have fun with.

I have recently found a fun hobby though. Instagram.

Back in the day (you know.... The Day...) I loved photography. I had my dad's 35mm Canon and would hit the town and take a lot of pictures.

Well fast forward 15 years and now my phone takes a better photo than I can with a camera. This is largely because my children dart about so quickly I could never focus quickly enough. (how did my Dad get any pictures of me?)

Here are some favorite photos.

If you are on Instagram please join me... @BlueSaylorRose

Imbue.

{happily reporting full success with a slow cooker.}

Remember how I was gushing about the Farmer's Market? We had such beautiful vegetables in our company, we were excited to put them to use.

We found a yummy recipe in our Vegetarian Slow Cooker Cookbook for Lentil Shepards Pie. It was a softly misty day and ooooh it sounded so good. That was on a Sunday.

The reason these recipes are uncontrollably delicious is because there's a bit of prep work. Mostly just some simple sauteing. It's well worth it.

Once these fresh from the farmers market veggies were tender and scrumptious, you just combine them with uncooked lentils, a can of tomatoes and the juice, some herbs, some spices, some love of course, and then top with mashed potatoes mixed with bread crumbs. Cook on High for 5 hours, give or take.  Shredded cheddar cheese is optional.

But I can't say no to a place of cheese.


When a recipe indicates a dish is ready to enjoy by being hot and bubbly, that's usually an indication you will experience tremendous joy upon eating said dish.

This was no exception!

We had some rice and grains along-side the Shepard's Pie.

This was cooked and devoured on a Tuesday. The irony is, it turned out to be 75 degrees and sunny that day. The one down-fall of planning the menu for the entire week.

Esmé, however, was not impressed by the mashed potatoes.

Do you have any favorite slow cooker recipes? Any vegetarian ones, perhaps? Please share!

Yielding.

{story in pictures: The Farmers Market.}

One of my goals is to learn about eating in season. And to actually do it. I figured a sure-fire way to learn about what is in season is to go to a Farmer's Market. We are lucky enough to have quite a few great Famer's Markets in Long Beach, but I decided to take the troops up to Redondo Beach for a fun day out.

And what a fun day out it was!  The kids had so much fun tasting fruits and veggies, helping me choose our "harvest".

we were mesmerized by the colors in this fresh broccoli. So different than the shrink-wrapped shrunken head at the mega-mart, no?

 admiring some exotic blooms,

photo courtesy Elliette, age 4 1/2.

and then a trip to the play-ground to round out the excursion.

I gave Emmett the camera for awhile. These were the first results.

Then after some coaching from his big sister, he cranked out some good images. Kind of artsy-fartsy, but that fits in around here.

we don't know this guy.

 Then we had a real treat. Whales! There was water spouting up from the sea and it was from real-life Humpback Whales migrating!!! And then to top it off, I saw a whale come out of the water, I'm not even kidding. I was elated. So excited. I'm still pretty happy about it. The kids, however, didn't get to see, because it's really hard to spot the small spout of water rising out of the sea that is just standing before you, endless, with no referance point. 

 

The best we got was Emmett's photo of my shadow, pointing to where the whales were. 

 

At least it's documented.

Well, we also got a good bounty of fresh fruit, honey and vegetables. Which included the very sweetest and most adorable strawberries I have ever experienced, short of my back yard in Ohio at the age of 7. I love being at the open-air market, and I love involving the kids. When we shop at the Super Market they just chatter their teeth through the frigid produce section. This really is a much better way to go.

Also, have you tried the Honey Crisp apple? Have you tried one from a local grower, freshly picked and warm from the sun? Delightful.