New projects! Most of these have been in my portfolio for a while, but they have not been formally introduced/announced. Here ya go!

The first is for RG Photography who came and purchased a premade logo. I simply love initials.

Ragnazidnar is an Etsy shop that has some really awesome handmade journals. I love how their logo and Etsy set turned out!

Urban Farmhouse came to me looking for a chic, French vintage-inspired logo. I love how soft and clean this one turned out.

Lastly we have Fresh Interior Design and Consulting with a 5-page informational site. She had such lovely designs, as well as an existing logo, and we were able to pull off something modern and simple to highlight her work.

There are a few others that I've been working on but they're either not finished or not launched yet. As soon as they are they'll be up here too!

Yesterday David and I did something fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. We went to theHomemade Wine Showcase at Grapestompers in Laurel Springs, NC. Have I mentioned yet that it was fantastic?

David and I made our first batch of homemade wine several months ago. Though it didn't turn out so great, winemaking is definitely not something you give up on after one try. And talking to folks yesterday at the showcase gave us lots of pointers on how to potentially fix, and definitely avoid, ever having fizzy merlot ever again. The people were simply geniuses. I love them. Ha!

We were able to taste some 68 homemade wines, ports and meads. We started with the white wines, tasted through reds, got to check out some fruit wines, then went on to the ports then meads. I tasted some really good things yesterday! And not a single thing was spit-out worthy, which I honestly expected. I guess I projected my own not-so-fab wine expectations onto others, and boy did they prove me wrong.

I found a new second-favorite wine in Amarone, which is an Italian wine. I had never had any before (which was a little shocking considering David and I have had our fair share of wines plus some) and I totally loved it. There were actually several bottles there. Another fantastic one was lime wine. I know, it sounds odd, but it was sooooogood. And we had a white chocolate port which was to die for, and some really good meads. I never realized what the alcohol content was in meads before - as I'd never had one - but those buggers are no joke. Ha!

If you ever get the chance to go to a homemade wine showcase, definitely take the plunge. I was so shocked and relieved at how good all these wines were and will definitely be marking my calendar for next year. And David and I got our next wine kit. Eek! We'll start a batch of Pinot Gris this week, and I'll try my best to document the process.

And then of course here's Lily. She had a lot of fun yesterday, and is the boss at tossing bean bags. Love this kid!

Check out all of our photos from the Grapestompers Homemade Wine Showcase in it's Flickr set.

Ciao!

Recently I talked about how I have a black thumb. Not literally, but gardening-ly. I've killed a cactus. And for the umpteenth time I have started a container garden. The weather up here is much more conducive to growing things, as I'm away from the deadly Alabama heat and humidity.

I have been putting off posting this just in case everything flopped horribly, but the garden is going really well after about 4 weeks, so it looks like my gardening skills may be improving. Perhaps motherhood has taught me a thing or two. Haha!

I have several things a-growing in my garden. If this goes well, I plan to add a few more, but I'm not pushing my luck. :-D My garden consists of the herb essentials in our household, and I've already used some of all of them. Fresh herbs make a world of difference.

I'm growing basil, cilantro, sage, rosemary, chives, and a gorgeous dahlia. Aaaaand, every plant except for the flower and rosemary came from our farmer's market.

I'm so glad it's going well. I'll keep you updated!

MMmmmm... I love crème brûlée. The first time I ever had it was in Paris, some 7 years ago. That's when the affair started, and it continues.

A few months ago I was shopping in a fab kitchen supply store with David's mom when I ran across a crème brûlée set. My initial thought was "OOOooo! A new jewelry torch!" The included ramekins were just kind of a lucky add-on. We got to packing up our house and I forgot about my new "jewelry torch."

While unpacking, I found the box and decided that I didn't want a new jewelry torch. Iwanted needed a kitchen torch. So, that's it's new home. The kitchen.

I have never made crème brûlées before and honestly figured I'd blow it. I don't bake. I can, however, make a darn good crème brûlée apparently. These are FABULOUS. And since David doesn't like them too much (he hates the texture of custard), I get to keep them all to myself. :-D

Here is the recipe that came with the set. It's the one I used, and since I didn't keep the box and I just tore the recipe off the pamplet, I don't know where to give credit. Sorry. If this is your recipe, let me know and I will certainly give credit where it's due!

Crème Brûlée

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 T plus 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 extra large or jumbo egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300°F. Preheat some boiling water

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine cream and 1/3 cup sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally until small bubbles appear around edges of pan, 5-6 minutes. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla until smooth and light. pour hot cream mixture into egg yolks, a little at a time, beating continuously until well blended. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Divide misture among 4 4 oz ramekins.

Arrange ramekins in a baking pan and place on middle shelf of preheated oven. Fill pan with boiling water to halfway up sides of ramekins. Cover pan loosely with aluminum foil. Bake until custard is just set, about 25 minutes. Chill 2 or 3 hours.

Sprinkle remaining sugar evenly over top of cooled custards. With the Crème Brûlée torch, move the flame continuously over the surface of the ramekins, in a circular motion until sugar melts and becomes golden brown and bubbly. Serve immediately surrounded by fresh berries or cut up fruit or refrigerate for later use.

*Italicized ingredients are local and/or organic.

Enjoy!

Several weeks ago I posted some photos of our gorgeous view from out back porch. Well, yesterday we went to the top of that mountain. Mt. Jefferson.

We've been wanting to do this for a while, as we look out at that mountain everyday, and yesterday we finally did. We packed ourselves a yummy little picnic, climbed in the car and went for a short drive. The views were amazing.

And we saw our house from about 2000 feet above it. Pretty cool stuff.

The park area at the top was perfect. There were tons of picnic tables nestled away in the woods. And with it literally being in our back yard, I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll be spending a lot of time up there.

View all our photos from this adventure in it's Flickr set.

Don't worry. This is not what I look like now. Ha!

Today is a day of reminiscence. On this day 7 years ago David and I became David and I. Though we don't do anything to celebrate, it's still fun to look back. This is a photo that was taken actually about a year after we got together. That god-awful long stick straight hair and gum smacking. I swear. Teenagers. :-D I'm glad to see we've both grown up quite a bit.

On another note, I'm a little behind on work. Furniture came yesterday and I'm still swimming through a sea of Ikea boxes. I will hopefully have my workspace revived by the end of the day and can get some things finished before the weekend.

No, I'm not doing math - as if I would - but I'm thinking about my birthday. And not the one that's happening in a month and a half, but the one that's in a year + a month and a half. Don't think I'm going into a spill about how old I'm getting, yada yada, I just need a milepost and some tasks to do along the way. Therefore, 25 by 25.

I have a list of 25 things that I would like to complete/accomplish by my 25th birthday in July 2011. I will cross them out as they're accomplished.

1. Read 100 books.
2. Conquer standing-foward bend. Thank you, P90X.
3. Curly hair.
4. Lose 15 lbs.
5. Maintain my container garden.
6. Camp in the cold. Never going to happen.
7. Find a "house wine".
8. Volunteer/sponsor 3 local events.
9. Bake a cake from scratch.
10. Train for and run 3 5k races.
11. Go gem mining.
12. Bike the hill in front of our house with ease.
13. Visit every winery in a 100 mile radius. That's probably about 40+.
14. Completely organize my office/studio.
15. Buy more local food than grocery store food.
16. Rock climbing.
17. Minimum twice-weekly yoga. Better. P90X 6 days a week.
18. Find a signature drink that isn't wine or vodka.
19. Buy a bedroom suite.
20. Begin a serious European vacation fund.
21. Make a good wine.
22. Support a local artist with the purchase of a large and fabulous piece.
23. Mountain horseback riding.
24. Mat, frame and hang the watercolor Paris scenes I got from street artists in Paris... 7 years ago. It's time.
25. Kayaking.

Ok, now I feel like I have to justify some of these:

5. I have a black thumb. Black. I've killed a cactus. I have started my umpteenth container garden on the back porch and would really like to see it flourish. So far, so good.

9. I don't bake. I can't bake. I can cook all day long, but when it comes to putting something in the oven, especially something that requires the exactness of baking, it's not going to end well. But I will bake a cake. And it will taste good. Right?

12. That hill is killer. Currently I can barely walk it without begging for an inhaler. It's a serious one. I'm blaming it on the altitude.

16. I love rock climbing. Actually, I love the idea of rock climbing. David loves rock climbing in the actual doing-it sense. I have busted knees, and, having had a couple of surgeries, have little leg strength for hoisting myself up on a rock crack. I know; I've tried. And it wasn't all that pretty. But, I want to rock climb. And I will. Successfully.

21. David and I tried out hand at wine making recently with a kit a friend of mine got us for Christmas. Truth be told, it's not that great. David insists that "it's gotten better" but I just don't see it. We're going to try again soon, and we'll go until we get it right!

Let's see how this goes!

David and I are kind of foodies. We love food, and not just any food. We love goodfood. We don't eat fast food or from chain restaurants except on super rare occasions, and between us we've eaten some really crazy things.

Not only do we love to eat, but I love to cook. Cooking makes me happy, and the more complex the recipe and the fresher the ingredients, the happier I am.

One of our current favorite recipes is Cajun Crab and Corn Chowder. The original recipe was given to my from my besty La after I tried a batch her mother made several months ago. I've made it a couple of times since and have tweaked the recipe to suite my tastes. This is a good one.

Cajun Crab and Corn Chowder

• 3 T butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 1 cup white wine - I tend to use Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc, as that's usually what I'm sipping
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 cups corn kernals - frozen is fine
• pinch cayenne pepper - VERY IMPORTANT!
• 2 tsp dried mixed herbs - I usually just throw in some parsley, oregano and basil, but thyme is good to - just whatever you've got handy
• 1 1/2 cup heave whipping cream
• 3 T FRESH dill
• 8-16 oz crab meat - I tend to put almost the whole 16, but whatever you'd like
• salt and pepper

1. Melt butter in a large pot. Add onion, garlic, celery, and carrot. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until softened.
2. Increase heat to medium-high. Pour in the wine and cook for 2 minutes, until the alcohol has evaporated. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Add corn, cayenne, dill, and mixed herbs. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add the cream and simmer gently over low heat for 10-15 minutes. Do not let the soup boil.
4. Stir in the crab mean and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat gently for 3-4 minutes.

Serve this super yummy chowder with some good crusty bread. This recipe makes 6-8 bowls of tasty soup.

We took a much needed and long anticipated shopping trip to Charlotte. Though I love living in West Jefferson, there is a serious lack of non-tourist shopping around here. There's no Target or Hobby Lobby or any of those other places that make my world go 'round. So when it came to furnishing our new home, we had to leave town. This was perfectly fine with me, as it allowed us to see a bit of North Carolina. And it also meant I could forego Target and shop at Ikea. Yes!

Our first stop was the town of Hickory, NC. We stopped in their downtown district and went for a walk - as seen above - and ate some fantastic food - as seen below - in a really great pub. Olde Hickory Pub, to be exact. They had this killer spinach-artichoke dip. David and I love spinach-artichoke dip and have it every chance we get. This was by far my favorite ever. And to make it even better, instead of being served with heart-stopping chips, it came out with fresh veggies and pitas. Freaking amazing.

Then we went on to Charolette. Ikea. Need I say more?

Of course not, but I will anyway. In that one little trip yesterday almost completely furnished our house. We got a couch, bookshelves and (finally) a desk. Not to mention several fun kitchen items. I'm so excited about our new furniture I could pee. And I think the thing I'm excited about most is the bookshelves. Our dining room will have one wall that is completely shelves, which we will fill with our books (duh) and the fun things we and our friends have collected on our travels. I'm so glad we'll finally have a place to display these things!

Some of these include:

• Wooden frog collection from Costa Rica
• Stuffed turtle from Guatamala
• Abalone shell from San Francisco Bay
• Jade elephant statue from Malaysia
• Antique geography book and map of the world; both from the 19th century
• Oil paintings from France
• Our insanely extensive wine cork collection

I plan on doing some before and after photos, so keep a look-out!

See more photos from this trip in its Flickr set.