yummy stuff

I've been blogging a lot about food lately, eh? :) I've been thinking more about it since I have more time these days to prepare it!
This week we made these banana chocolate chip muffins and they were yumm-o. I went to the trouble of buying organic bananas and then they got slightly smushed on the way home so I couldn't put them to waste!

A great foodie site that I use is www.epicurious.com. Many/most of the recipes featured on the home page are somewhat above my skill level (smile) (it is based on Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines) but I always find what I'm looking for and the reviews listed with each recipe tell you whether it's a good one. The recipe we used for the muffins is HERE.

Another site I've been browsing this week is freezehappy.com after it was linked on this blog. This is a great concept for busy moms! I think I'll try the chocolate chip cookies tomorrow. :)

While I'm talking about food, I'll also mention Pioneer Woman Cooks which I usually check out every week. The entry for today, roasted ricotta tomatoes looks really good! I've also tried her olive cheese bread and would like to try these apple dumplings, she's gotten rave reviews about them.

Another great source is our friends Steve and Janna's blog! Steve could seriously be a chef. My favourites are his Cantonese Noodles with Pork (I make this!) and the Cashew Chicken stir fry (this too!).

Okay I guess that's all for now. Do you have favourite recipe sites? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to check them out.

BEACH DAY!

After last week's weather I was anxious to take advantage of a sunny day! I've been wanting to go to Sandbanks as a family because I knew the kids would just love the sand and the waves.

I had to capture a photo of this path ... as a kid I remember the paths over the hill to the beach are always your first sensation of sand between your toes, the trees and beach grass blowing in the breeze, and you eagerly climb to the top to catch your first glimpse of the blue water and white sand. So exciting!

The kids had a great time playing in the sand. What could be better than the largest sandbox you can imagine? :) Dav wasn't so sure about the waves at first but then had fun jumping around. Delaney loved sitting in the shallows and having the waves crash into her.

On the way home she asked "when can we go back?"

Soon!

summer fresh

I couldn't resist taking some photos of the local fruits and veggies we picked up yesterday. Such great colours! Fresh peaches are one of my favourite tastes of summer. Blueberries too! When I was little my grandma had a huge garden and I would go out with her and pick all different veggies - carrots, peas, radishes...

It's even more fun to share them with a certain cute kid. :)

a happy anniversary!

We decided that for our tenth anniversary we would go to Europe. But last year when I found an amazing deal on a European cruise, we decided to go a year early! So on our real tenth anniversary, we spent some time in another of my favourite places, Kingston. I went to Queen's and have always loved this city. While we were there I took some photos of some fun places that I like to visit.

anniversary photos

10 years

It's our tenth anniversary today!

rainy day artist's gallery

What a lot of rainy days this week! Yesterday we got out the paint and the kids had a little artist's show. We put up all of their work to show Daddy when he got home. (too bad Dav got stuck with the pink Dora painting smock :)

cottage photos

We had lots of rain at the cottage last weekend but at least one sunny day where the kids had a great time in the lake. Dav discovered he loves to swim! He floated around on his noodle.

circus fun

Last Tuesday we went to the circus with friends after Delaney's soccer game. It was Davin's first time at a circus and his feelings varied between completely petrified (clowns :) and really excited (elephants). I wanted him to see the elephant close up and he had a death grip on me the whole way from our seats to the main floor. Once he got there he was so excited! In the first picture he is attempting to yell to Stephen that he is looking at elephants. :)

He actually said he wanted to ride one but we didn't attempt that.

Delaney got to spend time with Cassie which was a real highlight for her! The other highlight was that the elephant peed and pooped.

more circus

I had a great time taking photos of the kids and their reactions to the different acts. Dav was really intrigued by the whole thing and was clapping and excited. He was especially excited about getting some popcorn.

photoshop actions - woo hoo!

I have been working on learning more in Photoshop about editing photos and creating other digital projects. Yesterday I downloaded photoshop actions from Pioneer Woman's blog (she is an amazing photographer) and have been trying them out.

Basically actions are a series of steps that you perform on an image. If I actually knew what I was doing in photoshop to edit photos (ha ha) I could create my own series of actions of how I like to make the photo black and white or brighter or whatever. Instead I can use actions created by someone else, I just have to load them and use them. Fantastic eh?

So here are some results of my playing around this afternoon. I took this picture of Delaney this morning:



















Here is what it looks like after running the "fresh and colourful" action. Isn't it great?



















Here is the "Boost" action. A little less colour added than the previous one.



















Here is the black and white action: (I love how it is so sharp and clear)



















This one is called vintage. With the right photo, this would look so amazing!



















I love this one, it's called "Lovely and Ethereal", and it seems to be a bit of a colour boost along with a softness.



















There are more but these are my favourites.
There is a full tutorial (which I used) on how to install and use actions here: Complete Guide to Using Photoshop Actions.