Paper Bird

Cooking on The Amalfi Coast

I'm certain in another life I was Italian!

Ok, maybe not, but I sure do have a love for Italy and Italian food.

Almost four years ago we traveled to this amazing country.  It was so incredibly beautiful and of course the food was delicious.  I'm sure I gained a good ten pounds while we were there!  The hotel Onda Verde where we spent our holiday on the Amalfi Coast offered a two hour hands-on cooking class with chef Nicola. 

 

 

He was quite the character! 

 

We discovered the art of creating Italian pasta's such as ravioli, tagliettelle and gnocchi.  It's actually very easy, it just takes a bit of time. 

 

 

  Delizioso 

 

 LOOK at my baby girl cooking Italian!  She was nine years old then.

 

 Chef Nick taught us step-by-step the art of making pasta fresca and savory simple sauces using fresh ingredients from their garden.

 

 My daughter-in-law Ally giving Nick a kiss on the cheek.  He was a wonderful chef and a big flirt!

 

It was a good day,

 

sweet memories were made.

 

This is one of my very favorite Italian recipes.  It is so good and simple to make.

BUON APPETITO

 

And because I can hardly stand how cute she was- one more image of  LuLu.

They grow up way too fast!

Do you have a favorite Italian dish?
 

 

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Wood Violets &Texture Tuesday

 

I found inspiration HERE today!  Lara from AirKiss posted some spring-time photographs of sweet Meadow Violets on her beautiful blog.  I love this old-fashioned flower.  I have a small patch of these pretty blossoms in my backyard. Each year they multiply and the patch becomes just a little bigger.  Their subtle fragrance is like a sweet kiss of spring.  Their occupation in my garden is just a short time. If you are distracted you could miss them completely!

I was so inspired by Lara's beautiful photographs that I thought I would photograph theses sweet buds of bloom for Kim's Texture Tuesday challenge!

 

The challenge was a prompt or theme of vintage and then sharing that prompt using one layer of Kim's textures...

For Kim's prompt I photographed my sweet wood Violets in vintage containers.

 

The texture used was Kims new freebie texture Pourvous.  The vintage goodness is a small metal container that I keep my sea-salt in.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The texture used in this image is Kim Klassens Pumpkin Grunge and an antique scrath from my collection.  The vintage item is a wonderful old garden shovel given to me by a sweet friend. 

 

 

 

 

The texture in this image is one I created from Kim's on-line class.  You can find it here at (Flickr) if you want to use it too! 

 

 These are just a few of the images I posted.  I may have gone a little overboard photographing these sweet spring blossoms!

You can see more HERE

Don't forget to stop by the Cafe' to see all the goodness shared!

 

Happy Texture Tuesday! 

 

 

(I don't know what is going on with typepad- but I guess they have their own idea of how the format of this post should be! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Chocolate Cake-EVER!

 Do you ever have those days when you crave something sweet?  It can't be any ole" sweet.  It has to be something absolutely wonderful that is worth falling of the sugar wagon for!  Today was one of those days for me.  I'm sure it's all part of the raging female hormones that are afflicting my body!  I made my favorite chocolate cake ever!  

Of course I'm sharing the goodness.

 

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

   Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. 

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean

 

My Frosting

1 1/2 cubes of butter

1- 8 ounce cream cheese

3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar 

2 tsp of vanilla

Kahula- 1/4 cup or more

Mix ingredients until smooth and creamy.  I don't soften my butter and cream cheese for very long.

Frost on cooled cake

ENJOY!

An Ocean Of Bliss

As I walked the sandy malibu beach this past weekend and looked out across the seemingly endless Pacific, a feeling of humility crashed into my heart just like the waves onto the sand.  I stood in awe and wonder at the infinite power and beauty of nature.  I watched as the gulls played on the sea breeze just accenting the beauty.  I listened to the waves as they rolled back and forth playing their siren song.  I inhaled the ocean breeze carrying the aroma of sweet spring flowers mixed with the salty air....it was

bliss!

 adjective  

 1. delightful, pleasing, satisfying, heavenly,  enjoyable, gratifying, pleasurable 

2. happy, joyful, satisfied, ecstatic, joyous, euphoric, rapturous

 All those above- Take a walk with me and see~ 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a bit of the scenery I witnessed when I was not painting with the Magical Katie and the lovely women who attended Artinfusio.  More about that later~

 

Have a beautiful weekend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tisket A Tasket

A pretty Easter basket!

Easter has come and gone but I wanted to share the sweet Easter basket I received from a swap I participated in.  I participated in a fun swap hosted by the lovely Cerri from Little Pink Studio.  My swap partner was Bryanna Lenen from the The Canary's Cupcake .  She sent me a beautiful Easter basket decorated with vintage millinery.  Bryanna tucked in an assortment of wonderful things all packaged and tied with pretty soldered tags she created.  Bryanna also gifted me a sweet bunny jar she crafted from paper clay.  I loved Easter as a little girl and I felt that same excitement when I received her wonderful Easter basket.  It was a fun swap and I felt to very lucky to have Bryanna as my swap partner.  Thank you Bryanna!  

As I type this I am in a hotel room overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The view is gorgeous!  Tomorrow I will be attending  Artinfusio to paint with the magical Katie Kendrick.  Two full days of painting with dear Katie by the sea- I think I need to pinch myself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a beautiful weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Cup Of Texture Love

 

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”

Ray Bradbury

 

Happy Texture Tuesday.  Have you been by the Cafe"?  It's filled to the brim with texture goodness.  

Our challenge for the week was to photograph a cup and add a Kim Klassen texture.

 

 

Tip it over girls 

 

let the beautiful

 

 

spill over! 

Thank you for the goodness that fills my cup~