Leona Lane

Project Life Friday

Happy Friday! As you may have noticed, in the past couple of months we have not been doing our usual "Photo Friday" feature that we did all last year. We did not mention it, but we felt like we needed a bit of a change for 2014. So instead, we've decided to devote our Fridays to Project Life! This subject will be broadly covered (as we don't all do Project Life all the time), but will focus on documenting daily life. It may be sharing a Project Life spread, or giving organizational advice, or we could be sharing a photo prompt, similar to our Photo Fridays of last year. Hopefully this will keep all of us on track with our own life documentation! (Take a look at our Previous posts from this year: Project Life Essentials, Project Life | Wrapping up and Starting Over, Project Life | Two Colors, Project Life | January )

Today I thought I would share my past couple of weeks. I ended up adding lots of extra inserts, as you will see! I started out with one week on one side of the two-page spread. Then the next week I had so much going on that I could have used a two-page spread and more. I solved this problem by adding a couple of inserts.

Week Five was Superbowl week! I took lots of photos on Superbowl Sunday, and then very few the rest of the week. So most of this spread is devoted to that day. It was an awesome day, as our team won. The celebration lasted all week in Seattle, so it's really appropriate to include so much Seahawks stuff here. On the insert to the right I added a star transparancy to mute the bright colors and the Russell Wilson head that was from our party. It was fun to keep, but doesn't really match the rest of the book. I also added an extra 3x4 card to journal about the excitement and the parade.

 Week Six was challenging because I had so many photos and stories to share and only one side of the 2-page spread available because I had used the opposite side for the previous week. I added a 6x12 protector with six extra photos. Three are from Lucy's first snow day, and three more on the back of some random photos of Lucy doing tummy time.

There are two more inserts here; one of them is an invitation to a baby shower, and the other holds my small collection of valentines from the week. One of them I custom made by cutting down an 8.5 x 11 protector and sealing the side with washi tape.

There was lots going on this week! My brother came to town and Lucy and Jaela (my neice) got to hang out together. My cousin had a baby shower, and we went to a first birthday party for a friend's kid. There was also Valentine's Day of course, which was full of chocolate ganache and red roses. I did not add every single photo from the week, but I did get several in here. I'm so glad I have these events documented. That's what this project is all about. :)

RECIPE | CURRIED SQUASH SOUP

This winter I've been wanting to eat soup non-stop. I decided to try and recreate one of my favorites - it's a curried squash soup. The squash, carrot and red pepper is a nice combo and the curry adds just the right amount of kick. Perfect for all these blustery, rainy days we've been having here in the Northwest. Enjoy with a nice slice of toast and a cup of tea!

Ingredients

  1 Acorn Squash
  2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
  1/2 cup Chopped Onion
  1 chopped Red Pepper
  4 Carrots
  2 cloves of Garlic
  2 tsp Curry Powder
  2 Tablespoons Butter
  2 cups Chicken Broth
  2/3 cup Half & Half
  1/2 tsp Nutmeg

  Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

Cut squash in half. Lay on sheet pan cut side up. Rub squash and carrots with olive oil. Drop 1 clove of garlic in the center of each squash half. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until almost tender, about 35-40 minutes.

While squash & carrots are baking, saute onion, red pepper and curry powder in butter until soft. Set aside.

Remove squash from the oven. Let sit at room temperature until cool enough to handle. Scoop out squash, add to pot. Chop carrots and add to the pot as well. Gradually add chicken broth. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until all the vegetables are very tender. Allow to cool slightly.

In a food processor or blender, process soup mixture until smooth. Do in batches as needed, and make sure to leave blender lid loose to allow heat to escape. (If you have an immersion blender, that is preferable). Return to the pot. Stir in the cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until heated through, do not boil. 

Enjoy! 

Click here for Printable Version of Curried Squash Soup Recipe

Some Gallery Wall (Free!!) Printables

I've been working (slowly) on a gallery wall to switch out the big canvas photo in our living room. Today I was trying to find some quotes and phrases that I loved, and I made a few printables. I thought I'd share some of them here; since they're great even as 4x6's to post on a fridge or in a little frame somewhere! Hope you enjoy!

(just right click on the photo and save to your computer!)

As you can see, my color scheme is grey and teal! I still can't decide between the 'It was always you' or the 'it's always been you'... what do you guys think??

Five Months

Today Lucy turns five months old! It is so hard to believe that almost half a year has flown by since this little gal made her appearance in our lives.

This past month has been a little tough since we have gone through so many transitions. Lucy's bedtime has gotten progressively earlier, which is nice except that it makes it hard to do anything fun in the evenings. She has also been waking at night much more often which seems to coincide with her being sick the past couple of weeks.

Her favorite past time lately has been grabbing her socks, removing them, playing with her toes and sometimes putting them in her mouth. It's very cute and hilarious!

Lucy is so very close to rolling over! She has rolled from tummy to back a couple of times, but it seems like it keeps happening on accident because she doesn't seem to be able to repeat it on any regular basis. She is working very hard on rolling from back to tummy, at least toward the right. When I lay her on her side, she goes right to her tummy and stays there for quite a while.

These photo shoots have been a fun monthly project! As Lucy gets more and more active, it will be quite the challenge, but I'm excited! Thanks for letting me share her progress each month!

UNPLUG | Take A Bath

This month's "UNPLUG" prompt is pretty simple - Take a Bath. Or really, just take a minute to do something for yourself for a moment. ...only caveat - it can't involve a screen. So go paint your toenails, take a bath, make a cup of tea, whatever. Spend a moment to take a deep breath and realize the virtual world is just that - virtual . And that, of course you can exist without it. But conversely, that your virtual world can't exist without you. Give yourself permission to take a break.

And on that note, hope you all have a lovely Friday!