how i spent this wednesday afternoon...

some how i've managed to make wednesday my at home, free, to-dolist accomplishing, somewhat loungey day to myself. today was a bit different...

i spent this afternoon baking 12 dozen cupcakes.. 144 CUPCAKES... i want you to think about that number for a minute.... here.. i'll help create an image in your head..

....what beauties, eh? i think so. why 12 dozen cupcakes you ask?

my mom runs a great ministry out of her churchs doors on friday nights called "got soup?" her and her team of selfless volunteers devote their time, energy, money, and greater parts of friday morning/afternoon/evening to preparing meals for the homeless in their community.

this friday will be a picnic to celebrate the fourth of july. on the menu this week will be bbq chicken, macaroni salad (i'm enjoying a little bowl as i type this out!), watermelon, and red, white & blue cupcakes. i forgot to take a final photo of the decorated ones but after 3 hours of measuring, mixing, beating, spooning, baking, testing, tasting, cooling and icing, it's ok by me.

enjoy your wednesday evening, i will be putting my feet up and though i dont have that refreshing feeling of things crossed of my infamous, daunting to-do list, i do have some sort of peace knowing that i did something for someone else, something for a community larger than myself.. ..must be how my mom feels every week.

love you mom, thanks for letting me show off my cupcake decorating skills!

i forgot about the "spice"....

i've spent so much time on here talking about to-do lists and paintings i've forgotten the spice & sand portion of my little blog.. to get back to my roots here's a summer must-try recipe...

i tried it last night and it was a big hit with both me & the hub. definitely more refreshing than your regular coleslaw and the lime can't help but make it a summer recipe.

enjoy & bon appetit.

pottery barn obsession

because i have three thousand other things on my to do list and all of those three thousand items will take at least an hour to complete, and that sounds really boring.. i decided to browse for new dishes for my/our kitchen. something way funner that spending the rest of my life checking things off my to do list..

i really shouldn't be allowed to visit pottery barn or their website without supervision. my heart starts to race, i get goosebumps and short of breath. it really is a visceral reaction. i think i need someone to guard my credit cards as i browse and another to monitor my blood pressure.

this is what truely gets my heart racing...

well.. now onward to my horrid to do list.. happy wednesday. cheers :)

make a wish..

ta-da & good morning, how much do you love mornings when everything goes right; mornings where it feels like your the main character in nicholas sparks novel, mornings that make ending those sweet dreams and rubbing the sleepies out of your eyes all worth it .. for me it doesn't even have to be breakfast brought to me in bed, sunny & gorgeous outside nor a latte awaiting me, (although, hubster, if you're reading this.. it couldn't hurt...) i adore mornings like this one... a dreary, wet, raindroppy seattle day where i wake up to a little monster laying on my stomach (ilsa) and to the smell of super strong "man coffee" the husband had just started in the kitchen. i love days like this. but even more than the monster & aroma of coffee beans brewing, i like nights like last night... ..nights spent painting.

i like how this one turned out. the overall colors were simple but there's enough variety in shades and hues it didn't get boring. i finished it about 11 oclock last night so the photos i took are horrible.. (i'd much rather photograph paintings/anything in the day time with natural light..) i'll take better photos this afternoon and post more then.

well adios, i'm off. i'll post more photos later.

UPDATE: more photos: (actually colors... above photo was taken so late at night it looks much darker..)