Monday, August 15, 2011

Sea Scallops

While we were on our boating holiday in the Gulf Islands we invited our lovely daughter to join us for a weekend.
Seafood reigns supreme onboard our Chris Craft and not to disappoint we kept the theme going and bought some sea scallops. There are many ways to serve these tasty morsels and I have tried numerous recipes and as we sat chatting about how we should prepare these...lovely daughter grabbed her IPhone.
(which is never far from her reach!)
She googled scallop recipes...she found this great one and while my BFF (whose boat was tied up next to ours) and I sipped our cocktails she prepped this delicious appetizer...
did I mention that I have a very clever daughter?


It could be a main course if served with a salad.


Don't they look delicious?
cooked and prepared in our teeny tiny galley
served on the aft deck in the sunshine.

If you'd like to make this dish
go here for the recipe.

Bon appetit!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Adventures in Fashion!

Independent Fashion Bloggers are a breed unto themselves.
They take the time to document what they are wearing with their OOTD posts and sharing their individual thoughts on trends and highlights. There are hundreds of Independent Fashion Bloggers and I follow several of them. Today I am highlighting and sharing one that I know and love...



These bloggers are creative, colourful, stylish risk takers who manage to look chic in thrifted vintage finds combined artfully with off the rack and haute couture.
Accessories are not to be underestimated, ever!


Never wearing head-to-toe all of one designers' line, but creatively mixing it up with a flair for fashion and pushing the envelope just enough to get keep us looking a wee bit longer, in appreciation of their personal style.
I find their images inspiring and exciting and I love that they link a lot of their clothes to the source so that we might peruse the stock and make a purchase if we are so inclined.



There is so much creative talent out there and so many of these women show us hip and savvy ensembles.
I know Vickie and she has been working hard on a project which she has just posted and I thought I'd like to share her work with you.
Please go and look at her portfolio that she is submitting to Elle magazine...
to become the next Style Correspondent!
Good luck Vickie, my fingers are crossed for you.

 Adventures in Fashion 

Pop by and cheer her on and please let her know I sent you...


Friday, August 12, 2011

Sweet peas + roses = painterly pursuits for Floral Friday.

An imperfect vintage glass vessel...
found in a thrift shop.




I bought this because of it's tilt.


Sweet Peas 


Jude The Obscure Roses


Inspiration


The most recent painting...
Happy Floral Friday!

Thank you for all your kind and wise words about yesterday's post on Mother.
I appreciate the support.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Craving Comfort Food.....a tonic for sleep deprivation.

Let me seek out comfort food without judgement......
let me feed my belly with something satiating.
I am in dire need of some "feel good sustenance"
sleeping sporadically...
listening to the neighbourhood sounds as most slumber....
thoughts running through my head refusing to be still.



Mother's health has become a factor, and it's affecting her daily routine and I am quite concerned.
She says that I am the worrier in the family...it's true.

She tires more often these days and it is difficult for me to accept that she is not as spry and energetic as she was even a few months ago. Changes that I see with our regular visits and shopping trips, lunches and teas.
I do not know why I am struggling except perhaps to come to grips with the fact that she will not be on this Earth forever.

She has also become very nostalgic and wants to talk of the past and has mentioned Father more and more in her conversations. She misses him so much.
It must be lonely living alone, the hours pass slowly and her voracious habit of reading must help fill the time and be of some comfort...but it's not the same as sharing a home with a spouse.

Happily she is surrounded by a lifetime of treasures and many family photos framed and hung on the walls remind her of happier times.
Her bright condo on the top floor of an older building has views to the ocean on one side and the treetops and roofs looking toward town on the other. It's a warm and spacious place which she loves and rarely does a day go by that she doesn't thank me for finding it. (The credit goes to the realtor that we hired but she thinks it was me)

Having Mother living so close makes it easy to see her often...she is just a hop skip and a jump away!
She is close in proximity and at home in my heart.

It's funny to think how far we've come.
From our struggles when I was a teenager wanting to stay out late, negotiating to wear to school what was then a new trend, "jeans" and our disagreements over the use of make up. Those days are long gone and they lasted only a few years and in the end Mother was right about being protective and her idea of proper attire does not go unheeded as she has set the bar very high.
Her "no make up look" has stood her in good stead and the skin care routines that she instilled upon me have influenced my regime to this day.
I owe her a lot...
Thanks MOM!


Sitting here somewhat sleep deprived, sipping on decaf tea...
(I have given up caffeine for health reasons)
I have thought enough and now I need to get on with things.

So I am succumbing to a little butter melted on apricot raisin bread.


a little indulgence is going a LONG way!


Let's have some fun and forget our troubles.....

"Keep Calm and Carry On"

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

"Views from the Sink" participating bloggers

Last Wednesday Views from the Kitchen Sink was an idea...and I hoped that a few other bloggers might share their images.


I am happy to share the links of those who have participated...


Thank you!



pondside
metscan
privilege
materfamilias
Faux Fuchsia
cupcake caramel
SydneyShopGirl
une femme d'un certain age
Judy Heinrich
restinginmotion
smallbutcharming
moonlightreflections
the gardener's cottage
lovelythings
a farmer's wife
Mummaducka's kaos
SewWest
breaking ground
My Yellow House
stepping my way to bliss
Blighty

if you have posted a view from your sink on your blog
please comment and I'll add your link here!


Remember to Moisturize
I love this oil
I love the scent
it's rose
so that's probably no surprise!

Olive oil is the only oil I use in cooking and salad dressing.

Mother used to give her hair an Olive Oil treatment
she would apply it to her hair
 wrap it in a towel for several hours and then several shampoos later
resulting in glossy healthy looking hair.


Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl. 
Tahar Ben Jelloun 

I appreciate the connections that I have made here on Blogger
your email and comments are very important to me.
I am in debt to you...
in gratitude.