all things bright and beautiful: September 2011

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Bonne Nuit

Time for bed. Better get there before they do or else you might not have a spot.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Official Google Blog: Remembering my dad, Jim Henson

I love Jim Henson and the enduring work he left behind for generations to come. His work and spirit always bring me joy.
One of my favorite quotes is one of Henson's:
"Life is meant to be fun, and joyous, and fulfilling. May each of yours be that - having each of you as a child of mine has certainly been one of the good things in my life. Know that I've always loved each of you with an eternal, bottomless love. A love that has nothing to do with each other, for I feel my love for each of you is total and all-encompassing. Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life, enjoy it."
~Jim Henson
1936-1990

His 75th birthday was Saturday and to commemorate this date his son, Brian, wrote an entry on the Google Blog.
Official Google Blog: Remembering my dad, Jim Henson: We’re thrilled to share this guest post by Brian Henson about his father—puppeteer, director and producer Jim Henson, best known as the crea...

Lazy Sunday~Kitty Style

Okay so I had to post this as soon as I finished. I've had Photoshop on my computer for a couple of years and I'm embarassed to say I've never used it. Too complicated. Aaaannd I don't like reading directions. So I've never figured it out. Well since I'm working more on my blog I've really been wanting to add more features like collages.
I'm inspired by other bloggers, just the other day I came across this one featuring the new SimplyPut paperie in Atlanta. Such cute pics and this blog is so cheery and adorable. Inspiration!

http://www.piewacketblog.com/journal/2011/9/16/simply-kawaii.html

Well big thanks to The Love Shack blog for teaching me how to make a collage. I'll be honest, I didn't follow the directions completely and I'm kinda slow so I've spent the last THREE hours figuring out how to do this. But they look super cute:) Not terrible for my first try.

Thackery Binx, AKA "Baby". Aged 5. Perpetually dapperly dressed fat baby.

Pumpkin. Aged 3. So cute you forget he can be majorly rotten.

Cookie Dough. Aged 9. My beautiful fluffy baby.

These pictures were all taken Sunday. I wanted to accessorize the boys for the season. Binx is named after one of my favorite movies, Hocus Pocus. So he and Pumpkin are our resident Halloweeny cats. Pumpkin ribbons were a must and they tolerated it pretty well actually.
I didn't take pictures of Willow. She stayed far away. She hates having her picture taken, literally runs away when she sees a camera. So hopefully I'll ambush her soon for her fall photo shoot. But for now, so she doesn't feel neglected, I'll share one of my favs. She is my angel baby:)

Willow Snow. Aged 9. Miracle kitty, major priss.
Well I must head to bed. But not before I find this cat and give her a good squeeze.

Have a bright night.
Bright girl

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dinner Inspiration

When I have the time I enjoy cooking and baking. I think it's the creative process of creating something different and delicious and you can instantly reap the rewards of a successful recipe. All the women in my family have been wonderful cooks and seem to be able to make something out of nothing in the blink of an eye with no recipe on hand. Just cook it based on all the past delicious meals. I definitely can't do that, recipes are required.
I usually don't have a lot of time to cook a meal for my family because, well, I've been in school or work full time for my entire life. Been working since 14. I've had some extra time on my hands lately so I'm going to start looking for dinnertime inspiration. Last week my aunt came to visit and we made Grandma Hazel's tacos. They were delicious of course. Homemade tacos! Yes please!

Then the other day I found a yummy recipe in Real Simple for Skirt steak with Corn Cakes and fresh veggies for garnish. I must say it was so good and really easy to make. Fresh and tasty!

Here is the link to the recipe on Real Simple's website:
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/skirt-steak-corn-cakes-00000000060217/index.html

I did use a marinade from Alton Brown, again really easy. I put the steak in the marinade mid day and pulled it out around 5 or six. It was perfect.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/skirt-steak-recipe/index.html

If you have any suggestions for recipes or websites to check out let me know. I'll keep my meal experiments coming!

Have a bright day!
Bright Girl

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Porch Happenings

I thought I'd take a short detour from Virginia to talk about this wonderful weather we've been having! I love fall. Everything about it. The cooler weather, the leaves falling, the colors in our landscape changing, pumpkins, hayrides, apple cider, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Wonderful all around.
Last week we were able to actually spend some time on the porch without dripping in sweat since it is no longer in the 90's and 100's. LOVE!
I thought I would share a few of the things we experienced on the porch. Rocking away.

Bennet was hanging out of course. He saw that his papa was coming home!

Our grapes are ripening up. So tasty and sweet!

We have had lots of hummingbirds taking hummer tea on the porch. One accidentally came into our house and was saved by maman. She named this baby Sugar and he let her hold him for a little while.

Sugar you are gorgeous!

Okay these are from the back porch. I just thought they were hilarious and really capture the spirit of my Pumpkin baby. He is a piece of work.

He hangs out on the roof a lot. Even when the window is open upstairs and when you're standing right there.

Oh hello! Can you get me down?

Literally 2 minutes later. He was in front of me rolling in dirt with his brother. Not so helpless.

Oh hello! Here I am!

Welcome Fall!!! I'm so glad you are here and am looking forward to enjoying you thoroughly!
Have a bright day!
b girl

Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Governor's Palace

Our second day in Williamsburg we first visited the Governor's Palace. There is a guided tour of the mansion which takes about thirty to forty minutes and then you are set free to explore the outbuildings and expansive gardens and property. It's best to visit this early in the day so you can take your time exploring, not to mention when we visited it was over 100 degrees every day.
To learn more about this property visit the Williamsburg website: http://www.history.org/almanack/places/hb/hbpal.cfm

A view from the garden

This reminded me so much of visiting Jane's house

Lovely Delft tile fireplace in the girls bedroom

Visiting the grande ballroom

Lovely manicured gardens

Going for a stroll

Part of the orchards

There are many pomegranate trees in Williamsburg

Entering the maze! Jane is so brave.

After conquering the maze we climbed a hill for a view

....then we headed downstairs to the cellars

Lots of beer and wine downstairs!!

At the end of our tour...heading back into daylight.

Stay tuned to see where we went from here!!!
Have a bright day!
b girl

Friday, September 16, 2011

Virginia!

Hello! So Virginia was wonderful and I'm so so glad I finally got to go. My college major was in American History so I've spent a lot of time studying our history and culture, my favorite period is Colonial leading to Revolutionary. I love the culture and fashion of the times. I'm going to be posting pictures over the next few days because, as usual, I took LOTS. Jane came along and we had lots of fun and took some great pictures. Luckily you can't feel the over 100 degree temps in these pictures. It was hot people. And since we were touring Williamsburg and historic properties, we were outside most of the time. But we had fun, saw some beautiful things, learned even more about history and culture, and became inspired.