sunhsine, shrimp, royal lenses & a new e-course giveaway

last night as i was preparing to serve dinner ( which i made the night before while cooking the “night before’s dinner- it was a culinary feat for me) ( oh. edie’s cheese tortellini soup which does indeed taste fabulous the next day) the sun actually came out. as in it was sunny enough to cast shadows & the brightness was like a slap in the face.

it’s been rainy & soupy every single day since i returned from guatemala. and. since it rained the last day we were there, i haven’t seen the sun in 9 days. true story.

after dinner i took caroline to cheer practice. since a few moms have been a distraction ( don’t worry. they’re not like Dance Moms) at practice, the rest of us have been politely dismissed from watching practice temporarily. i explained to caroline, it’s like when a couple kids on the team are late & the entire team has to run laps for punishment, well yeah. that’s what’s going down here.

i sat out in the car & without the interruption of the internet was able to pump out some work on the images i took while we traveled. all joking aside, it’s been a treat to have the cloudy rainy weather. it’s help me hunker down at home and do the nesting i talked about the other day and try to work through the 1121 images from the guatemala trip alone. i need to wrap it up by friday because this weekend begins a mighty full fall photo session season.

speaking of photosessions, i just rented a fabulous lens to play with for a couple weeks. i explained to dan there’s like two royal lenses in the lens family ( this is in my dreamland. this is not an all inclusive professional lens survey) . the william-which would be ( in my humble opinion) the 70-200 2.8 and then there’s the kate. kate is the 85 1.2. she’s headed my way and i can hardly stand it. as for baby prince george, maybe the 24-70? or the 50?

so speaking of photos, i have a load of work ahead of me. i have not even finished going through our vacation photos. ya’ll i’m a detail organized person who likes to live- life- in- the- order- in -which- it -was- received kinda girl. i’m trying not to use words like overwhelmed and think words instead like blessed but busy.

so i’m working through images & still processing the life changer that was last week and my newly kindled passion to share Noonday collection with everyone!  it’ll take me a while.

i have however tried out two new yummy simple recipes compliments of my rockstar buddy and fellow noonday ambassador corrie.

take you corn on the cob & cut all the corn into a skillet. milk the cob by running your knife up & down the  cob. add some salt & pepper and dice up some fresh basil, a tad of butter and cook on medium, stirring regularly until done. made it the other night & my family wondered why has it been until 2013 that i rocked some corn.

shrimp. buy frozen uncooked shrimp ( 1-2 bags of large depending on the size of your family and if everyone likes shrimp). thaw in cold water . marinate it in a little italian dressing. place into 9×11 baking dish, add a couple pats of butter, s&P , bake at 350 or until shrimp turns pink. don’t overcook. maybe 10-12 minutes. serve over rice and prepare yourself for the love that’s heading your way.

finally. i’m tickled to share with you that jeanne has created an e-course for the holiday seaon that’s going to be a winner, with an awesome line up. Creatively Made Home { home for the holidays}  the early registration is $48 and will go up to the regular price of $58 on 8.26

but lucky for you, my friend & contributor to the course, Cathy Penton, has offered to give one of you a seat on the course! just leave a comment with your email address.

i love cathy’s decorating style! & i know you will too.  cathy is one of the contributors & i’m so tickled to see what she has to share. her style is clean, fresh & so creative…and she loves white as much as i do! head over to her site where she will explain all the scoop! i think this course is going to be delightful. you may already recognize some of the homes featured!you may also still join the fashion ecourse i wrote earlier this summer. purchasing your “seat” on the course will allow you to view the course at your leisure for up to six months. $10 and hopefully full of priceless tips on effortless classic style!

ps. here’s my buddy corrie & her adorable girls, sosi & conley. eat ’em up!