I Love Bountiful Baskets!

John and I have been buying Bountiful Baskets the last few weeks, and we couldn't be happier! It's perfect for our vegan type diet. I love it for so many reasons:

#1: We eat a lot healthier when we have all these delicious fruits and veggies.
#2: We eat more exotic/creative meals. We look up recipes more often which means we are always trying new things.
#3: It's usually more local than what you will find at the grocery store.
#4: It saves money! All that food for only 15 dollars!
#5: It's such an exciting adventure not knowing exactly what we'll get each week.

The photo/design above features todays goods. Delicious! I loved it so much, I designed this cute "I Love Bountiful Baskets" design.

You like it?

Baby Ava at the Studio

Last week, I photographed an adorable baby at the studio. It was a little bit different than natural light settings, but it was a lot of fun! I'm pretty happy with the way the photos turned out, but I think I was so focused on the lighting/baby facial expressions, that I didn't use my creativity as much as I usually do.

I'll keep that in mind for the next one.

Here are some of the photos that I took of baby Ava:

So... Did I do well for my first studio sitting??

Life Is Good

I'm really loving this new grown up life. Sure, we could be making more money. John's out of state tuition is killing our budget right now, but we are making the best of it.

I love the work I'm doing, both in web design and photography. I work with awesome people, and I'm getting great real world experience. John enjoys his work at SUU, and he's just a smarty pants!

We are making new friends, and enjoying the bi-polar weather here.

Life is good.

Over the weekend we had a lot of fun. On Friday we had some friends over, and we made delicious homemade chocolate ice cream. We stayed up late just talking, and we had a great time.

On Saturday, we went to the matinee of the Hunger Games! And of course it did not disappoint. It was awesome. Later that night we went to the prom together... Ok, that's a little misleading. We were in separate rooms the whole night--John was taking money and selling photo packages, and I was photographing couples. Fun!

Here are some photos that I have taken recently:

Sunflowers!

Sometimes it's hard working with tough clients. When my client isn't happy, than I'm not happy. I had my first unhappy client today, and don't worry, it wasn't really my fault that they were upset. We hadn't even started the design yet, we were just looking for templates.

But the important thing is that they weren't very happy. I could tell because there was a lot of speed talking going on in our phone conversation this morning. And it was hard for me to get a word in edgewise... I think I handled it pretty well though. It just stressed me out as I began designing, because I don't want to disappoint. I really hope they like my mockup:

What do you think? Will they like it? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? I think they might want me to add more Native American ish touches. Any tips on how you think I could do that?

P.s. I used a template as my guide for this website. Templates are cheaper, and they take less time, but you have to really use your imagination. [This link will show you what the template looked like before I customized it for the client.]

Not the Best of Days

The last few days have been a little painful for me. I've woken up with splitting head aches, and jaw aches where I feel like my jaw is going to break into small pieces.

I have TMJ, and something about my new routine is making it worse than it has ever been. Before today, it was only my left jaw joint that was messed up, but this morning I woke up with both sides hurting. NOT GOOD! I can barely eat under these conditions.

Something else bad happened this past weekend to add to my misery. John and I went skiing.... The skiing part was a blast. But there is this thing that happens when you go skiing on a sunny day, and you don't put on sunscreen. You get a racoon eyed sun burn!

Yes, I was wearing goggles, because the sun was blinding if I didn't. Yes, there was a small line of skin showing in between the bottom of my hat and the top of my goggles. Yes,  the bottom half of my face was also exposed to the sun. And yes, my face got more sunburned than I think it has ever been before. And there is a random line of red on my forehead, and my lower cheeks are tomato red... Not to mention my sore red chin...

Painful and embarrassing.

On a happier note, John's momma is coming to visit. She is flying  in to Vegas this evening, so we are heading down after work. Party time!!

;] Don't worry, I'll be putting on my happy face for the rest of the day:

 I just had to vent a little. Hope you don't mind!

[p.s. These pictures were taken on Thursday, just before the sunburn incident. That's what my face use to look like!]

Books

In church yesterday, one of the things we talked about was good books. Books are around for our entertainment, yes, but also for our learning. There is so much that we can learn from the experiences of others, and reading is a way to do that.

I've always loved to read, but I sort of go in sprees. I won't read anything for a few months, and then all of the sudden I remember that I actually miss reading, so then I read a bunch. It goes in cycles.

I'm in the middle of an off cycle right now, and the lesson at church reminded me that I want to start reading again. My favorite is fiction thrillers, but during this upcoming reading spree, I think I'm going to lean towards some more educational books. Books that will help me to become a better person, a better wife, and a better designer.

Books on my reading spree list:
• "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug [pictured above] – I've skimmed through this once, but it's a great read. It's got some great information on web usability, which will be helpful for my web design projects.

• "Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage" by H Wallace Goddard. PhD – I skimmed this one too, but I need to study through it this time. It has tons of great advice on how to become a better marriage partner. Something I can definitely do! :]

• "Speak Like Churchill Stand Like Lincoln" by James C. Humes – I was supposed to read this for a persuasion class a few semesters back, but it was a busy semester and I never got to it. I'll get to it now! [Don't worry, I still got a good grade in the class.]

What are you currently reading??

Getting in Touch with Our Italian Roots

Okay, maybe John and I don't have Italian roots, but we sure love Italian food!

We made broccoli bacon pasta today for lunch. The cool thing is, this was one of the very first meals I ever cooked for John. It was probably the third or fourth month we'd been dating. It was college, I didn't usually have time to cook really good food, but we made the time one evening.

He was impressed with the deliciousness!

I got this recipe from my momma, and now I'm going to share it with you. Because it's really good. And semi healthy... sort of...

Broccoli Bacon Pasta

• 3 slices bacon [we used turkey bacon because it is a LOT healthier]
• However much broccoli you want
• Pasta for two [we used whole grain rotini]
• 2 garlic cloves, pealed & sliced
• However many pitted black olives you want, sliced in half
• A few shakes of crushed red pepper
• Some sliced mushrooms
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 Tablespoon parmesan cheese

Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Cool and crumble bacon. Rinse broccoli cut in 2 inch pieces. Put broccoli in pot of lightly salted boiling water for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon. Scoop out 1/8th cup of the water.

Return remaining water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Meanwhile, saute garlic, olives, crushed red pepper, and mushrooms in a little tiny bit of oil. Cook 3 minutes or until garlic is softened. Add reserved water, broccoli, and bacon. Cook 2 minutes. Toss with pasta, oil, and parmesan.

Also, we got a bountiful basket this morning, and I am loving it! $16.50 for heaven in a basket! The broccoli we used in the recipe was from the basket.

P.s. John is getting in touch with his house husband skills today. He just sewed up a hole in one of his pockets and now he's doing laundry.  I don't mind!

P.p.s. We are still on the vegan-ish diet. We only eat meat once or twice a week. And we love rice milk, almond milk, and coconut milk! We are still feeling good!

Awkward!

Isn't the spelling of awkward super awkward. I mean, it sounds awkward too. Say it a few times: Awkward, awkward, awkward. It's so.... fitting.

I had some awkward experiences this morning. See, I've decided to stop blow drying my hair. It's had a lot of static lately, and I always thought blow drying made it look thicker. But I skipped blow drying last week, and it actually sort of solved those problems.

So I have this turban towel thing, and I wear it after my shower for a while, because I don't like the feeling of cold wet hair on my back and shoulders [see photo below]. It's so much lighter than wearing a whole towel on my head–much easier on the neck.

This morning, a few minutes after I got out of the shower, John came in to tell me it was snowing and that he wouldn't mind if I gave him a ride to work. I said okay. I had no choice but to leave my turban on. My wet hair would have frozen otherwise!

I got some weird looks from people while I was driving. And we got to John's place of employment a little early. John decided he wanted to sit in the car for a while to give more people a chance to see me in my bright blue turban. Two guys walked past and did triple takes. I can only imagine what they were thinking: "What the heck, a small white girl in an indian turban!?" My face turned bright red and John just laughed.

And then on the way home, everyone stared! Good thing I'll most likely never see any of them again!