Project update.

276.

I baked my first batch of cookies for the season today--oatmeal-pumpkin-chocolate chip. They're delicious. I won't tell you how much butter or sugar goes into these guys...and I reduce the amount called for.

275.

Yard-sale-ing-running-Gap shift-painting for four hours.

Exhaustion happens.

Pictures don't.

I was going to take a picture of the ridiculous amount of white paint all over my hands from painting the baseboards, but I fell asleep. Sitting straight up.

274.

In keeping with looking to other blogs for inspiration, there are some blogs that I follow where people document and talk about their outfit everyday. I was going to take a picture of myself, but that would have been me with my camera in hand in front of the bathroom mirror. The girls on those other blogs have a daily photo shoot done by their significant other. I chose instead to highlight a detail on my outfit. I really like this top. I didn't enjoy how long it took to steam each layer of those ruffles though.

273.

My friend Sarah taught a class about how to coupon tonight. I learned a lot, and have already signed up for a lot of freebies and coupons.

272.

So, on food blogs that I follow, there are always amazing pics of food to go along with the recipes. Back in the day (aka, a few months ago) I tried to get these sort of pictures with my former camera and failed horribly. Enter new camera. Hello, new pictures.

Below I highlighted how I make vegetable soup. I got a few ingredients wrong, but hey! That's the beauty of vegetable soup (or any soup, for that matter). Just make it with what you got on hand...

From L-R clockwise...

1. Browning the ground sirloin (thanks, Publix super-sale!), garlic, onion, and drizzle of olive oil. Have to have LOTS of onion. And LOTS of garlic. Seriously. Or maybe I'm just addicted...
2. Dicing up the potatoes.
3. Secret ingredient. Or not so secret anymore. Real Simple featured this like two years ago and I've been hooked ever since. In a world where I had more time and funds I'd love to make my own vegetable stock, but this does great.
4. Pepper. Necessary. Very necessary. But I may have had a slightly heavy hand with it in this batch. Oops.

1. Cumin. It makes soups and stews so much better.
2. Vegetable ingredients...diced tomatoes, carrots, french-style green beans (I HATE them in any other way), corn, and peas (I meant to grab lima beans or butter beans, but I was in a hurry). Barley should also be in this picture, but again, I was in a hurry and forgot to pick some up. I really like barley. You?
3. - 4. The finished product. Tasty? Yes.

271.

One of the stained windows at work. I love the lines in this picture.

270.

I get home from work & running and I don't have a lot of time to get my pic. I decide I want to try to get some light shots. 40 shots later this is what I got. Lesson learned...I need a lighter, a sparkler...basically a better flame. A quick burning match didn't really cut it. I also need a tripod. I did learn a lot from this though, which is one of the purposes of this project.

The awesome matches I used.