Of Grafitti, Korean food, Date nights and Eggs.

The hubs and I have been doing our rounds around town lately~  

From downtown Chicago...
...to a Korean grocery store where we ate a late dinner of bibimbap...
...to a date at an Italian Restaurant over in North West Indiana with a gift certificate from a friend...
I also did a few re~edits of previously shot images.  

Last year I visited the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and the butterfly garden was incredible.  
And this was taken in our backyard last Spring. 
And lately I did a study in 3/4 lighting in my dining room right using window light. 
It might seem silly but I LOVE this image!  
What about you?  What have you been up to lately?
If you'd like to get updates from my facebook page please click HERE to follow and get notifications.  I'd love to hear from you here on the blog as well so please leave a comment!

Have a Lovely Day!!!

Happy Valentines Day!


Wishing you a wonderful Valentines Day spent with the ones you love.  

This morning I took out the tripod and some thrifted lace and played around with this sweet little Valentine motif on the floor of the living room.  You can tell I didn't pull out the iron.  ha! 

Love isn't the big things that people do... the hearts, the greeting cards or the chocolate.  It's the little things that go unnoticed day to day...the small favors and acts of kindness that make the day worthwhile and bring a smile to my face.  

Do all things in love!
If you'd like to get updates from my facebook page please click HERE to follow and get notifications.  I'd love to hear from you here on the blog as well so please leave a comment!

Have a Lovely Day!!!

Sharing with:
 Chic on a Shoestring Decorating~  but I can't find her button!  

The LONG Winter.

It's been a long winter here in Chicagoland and we are officially at the 3rd worst winter in history.  I think everyone is longing for spring thaw and warmer days!  

Getting out as frequently hasn't happened as much as I'd like it to and time has been spent mostly indoors finding ways to be creative with a daily shot or edit.   When you see things every day it's easy to not look at things with a creative eye so I've been trying to look at things a little differently to stir up my creative side.

We've had a bit of melting recently and have 6 foot icicles hanging off of the rain gutters.  The sun was shining through them one day from the front porch and I grabbed my camera. 
Someone was SO kind to give us a gift card for an Italian Restaurant over in Indiana recently so the hubs and I had an official date night.   
I've been taking an online course in photoshop and have been doing quite the bit of tweaking with contrast as you can see from the remainder of my images posted today in black and white.  

This one was taken in the corner of our living room where the light streams in wonderfully. 
This was from a trip to our local library, once again a study/edit in contrasts.  
And here's the before and after side by side.  
Those are some of the images I've taken recently!  

Hope you are staying warm in your part of the world 
Until next time!
If you'd like to get updates from my facebook page please click HERE to follow and get notifications.  I'd love to hear from you here on the blog as well so please leave a comment!

Have a Lovely Day!!!



No Knead Butter Rolls

Oh me oh my~  these are good.  Very good.  I can eat these for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  The dough can be mixed together and kept covered in the refrigerator, and pulled off as needed, let it sit to rise, and bake.  But that NEVER happens.  I usually make the entire recipe.  

A quick word about flour~ 
I've noticed that in the bag of flour that I am currently using I am using 6 cups of recipe for this recipe.  I think it depends on the brand, settling, etc.  

3 cups warm water 
2 Tbsp Yeast 
1/2 cups sugar 
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
2 tsp salt 
6-7 cups white flour 
1 stick butter 
Measure out water in a large mixing bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water.  Add the sugar and salt and whisk together.  Someone commented that I shouldn't add the salt at this time since it will affect the rising of the dough but I've never had a problem.  You can always add it later with the flour.  Let the dough sit for a few minutes to make sure yeast is activated.  Add enough flour till dough is moistened and incorporated.

  Dough will be sick and not dry like traditional bread doughs. 

Cover and let rise till double about an hour or so~  but I usually don't wait that long.   Melt the butter in microwave till barely melted.  If you melt it too long it will seperate.  Grease cookie sheet and hands (I use a muffin tin)  and pull of a piece of dough, dip it in butter and place on cookie sheet or in muffin tin.  This recipe makes about 26 rolls per recipe and are pretty large in size.  
Let rise for 20 minutes.  I tried cooking two trays at one time but the oven heat needs to be well circulated to cook them properly and so they don't get too brown on the bottom.  
If you make these on a cookie sheet they tend to spread out.  I really prefer the muffin tins.  
Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.  
You can't eat just one.  :)

If you'd like to get updates from my facebook page please click HERE to follow and get notifications.  I'd love to hear from you here on the blog as well so please leave a comment!

Have a Lovely Day!!!
Sharing with:
Frugally Sustainable