Sopa de Lima

One of our favorite parts of our honeymoon was the delicious food. Everything was really fresh and something I wanted to eat over and over. At the top of my list was a Lime Chicken Tortilla Soup. I ate this soup with my meal most every night and fell in love. I have been searching for a recipe off and on since we got back and finally found one last night that is pretty comparable. Except for almost having a kitchen fire while frying the tortilla strips, everything turned out great! It is a pretty light soup, but I ate a bowl and a half for dinner and was full, so considering I like to eat a lot of food, I'd say it is pretty filling. I don't know if it is because it really was that good or because I like imagining we are in Zihuatanejo again, but I can't wait to eat more tonight, and I'm normally not a fan of the same food two nights in a row.


If you do make it, while you are eating it, imagine you are here...

And that this is your view...

All together, it's like a piece of heaven.


Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/sopa-de-lima-yucatan-lime-soup-recipe/index.html

Mini Me

It's not a secret that I have an obsession with things that are miniature. For some reason, miniature versions of "regular" sized items makes me really excited. For my 21st birthday, Mary Cox, aware of my obsession, gave me a basket full of all things miniature and I was in heaven. When I see miniature things in stores, I freak out. Baby tennis shoes, uggs, boots, etc.- that look exactly like adult versions make me want to find a baby to buy them for immediately. Lucky for me, I have found two new cute miniatures that I had to share. Both fall in the food category- go figure.

I was in Target picking up a couple of things when I saw these miniature bananas. I put my finger in the picture so that you could see exactly how small they were. 1st- I actually took a picture of bananas in the grocery store, and 2nd- I took the picture a couple of times so that I could make sure anyone that got to see this picture could see just how cool this was!

My second new fun miniature is an oatmeal raisin cookie from Pepperidge Farm's 100 calorie pack. It is beside a quarter- and pretty much the exact same size. How fun is that?! I can't say that these cookies are the best that I have ever had, but they sure are fun to look at.

Do yall have any other good miniatures for me to know about? Miniature Pringles make me really happy too, but I couldn't find a good picture of them...

Hints of fall

Last week, I spent some time getting the house in the fall mood...


Gourds, pumkpins, moss and pinecones...

Random, but I wanted the little birdie to feel a part :)

And the hydrangeas in the yard even graced us with lovely fall hues...

But best of all, this little man came to visit...

And what is better than someone so precious taking a bath in the kitchen sink?!

If I Were a Boy...

I would get my food at Firehouse Subs without having to chase down (literally- out onto the sidewalk) the employee because he had no clue Tyler was actually a girl. Response when I told him the sandwich was mine "Oh, that's YOU?!"

People wouldn't have to wonder if Will was gay when hearing he was dating and marrying a Tyler.

The mail would actually be addressed correctly to me when sent to a Mr.

People wouldn't have to look as confused when I actually told them my name.

People calling me at the office wouldn't think they were talking to the wrong person.

I would be able to find a cheesy personalized item (card with bible verse, outdoor scene, and name on it, etc.) in the right sex's "color", and having my name mean "builder of tile" wouldn't seem so odd.


If having a "boys" name has taught me anything, it is to not question anyone else's name that might seem different. I used to want to change my name legally when I was little, but now I can appreciate the fun that confusing people brings :)

Pretty Paint

I finally uploaded some pictures, and wanted to show you the newest addition to the house. Will has a best friend, that has become one of my good friends also and is a very talented artist. For a wedding gift, he offered to paint us whatever we wanted. Having seen a lot of his work, I was thrilled when he told us this- I just needed to come up with the subject of the painting.

I thought for a while about it all. I wanted it to relate to the wedding and be a constant reminder of God's faithfulness- you know, something that might look "normal" to most people but that we know has special meaning. So, I came up with a tree.

The tree comes from our wedding verse of Jeremiah 17:7-8 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

I had the idea of the tree being abstract, soft colors, etc. but really just told Aaron to do whatever since I knew he would know what to do. Well, he delivered the painting this week and Will and I are both so excited!!!

Instead of one tree, as you can see, he did three- symbolizing the three crosses. You can't tell in the pictures, but there are barely there soft white crosses in the trunks of each tree as well. The painting has hints of pinks, blues, purples, and yellows adding the the greens that add the perfect sense of depth. I wish I could get better pictures so you could really see all of the details, but it completes the room so well.

I am so thankful for this sweet gift!

And just in case anyone would like to talk to him about a painting for your house, he does contracted paintings- and really can do just about anything you ask. If you saw this post when I talked about the Rendered artists group, he is a part of that as well. You can see some of his work on the website. If you want his information, just let me know!


So, to continue this really long post... I want to show you the wall opposite the painting. Here are a few BEFORE- old owner's things.

While the brick fireplace is nice, it just made the room way too dark and outdated.

So, I decided to paint it...

And here are the AFTER shots...

Painting it made the room seem 3 times bigger, and makes me smile now when I walk into the room instead of grit my teeth. Not that there is anything wrong with a natural brick fireplace, but it didn't work in this room.

I had originally planned to just paint it slightly darker than the wall. After priming it for 3 hours, I applied the first coat of paint, and because the grout is so deep, the paint only picked up on the bricks. I didn't want to not fully paint it, but the different color in the grout added depth and dimension to it that I really liked. So I left it that way for a day, and though I liked it, I felt like it needed just a little more dimension to the actual brick- something to bring continuity to the whole thing... so, I wiped a cream paint with a washcloth across the whole thing, and wah lah! It feels like a whole new room now. I need to finish a couple more things in this room before I show it all, but we are having a party at our house soon that is giving me motivation to finish it so hopefully it will be done soon!

Flood

Picture of flood damage at Six Flags

Have you seen pictures of the "Great Flood of 2009" as they call it? Will and I have been watching the news, stunned at all of the images coming up of the flooding around Atlanta. We are not located close to any body of water, and are very thankful the damage to our house is minimal. We were frustrated that we had water all in the basement- all over the carpet in two of the finished rooms, however, when I look at these pictures, the frustration goes away, and I am thankful to have a basement that I can actually clean and walk in. You hear stories of people losing their homes and businesses completely- with no flood insurance, a grocery store with all of its merchandise floating, people being swept away in their cars and dying and it puts everything into perspective. I get sad everytime I see news of floods on tv, but this time seems so different being that it is my city. The link below is a collection of aerial images taken of the flood by AJC. They all really just blow my mind.

http://projects.ajc.com.coxnewsweb.com/gallery/view/metro/atlanta/atlanta-flood-aerial-0922/

It's An Addiction...

My favorite things in my closet for fall and winter are boots.

This weekend, I cleaned out/organized our closets and counted 12 pairs to organize- and that was after getting rid of 2 pairs.

I don't have a place to store 12 pairs of boots so that they are neat and easily accessible.

Some of them I have had for several years, and some of them are newer.

But they really do all serve a different purpose :)


*Just in case anyone thought these were all my boots- they are not. I cannot claim the first two pairs, although I gladly would. They were just part of my "research" in finding pictures of good boot examples.