This is a picture of the Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse that we took and then altered with Photoshop. At the end of the post is the original.
A belated Happy New Year to everyone!
I haven't felt much like blogging lately mostly due to feeling pretty blah. Since Christmas I have been tossing my cookies so much that if it was an Olympic event I would definitely be a medal contender!
Can I just say that pregnancy is NOT "Super Fun". Aside from being sick to my stomach much of the time and having crushing headaches, I have been a little down. Our lives are undergoing a huge upheaval and there are lots of things to do and think about as a result. Needless to say it is all overwhelming!
On an upnote I love Southern California weather during this time of year! The sky is so blue and clear you can easily see the beauty of the Chaparral on the Foothills. It is the perfect temperature outside as well. Very conducive to taking walks, hiking and working in the garden! We did some puttering in our garden Sunday which felt so good! It was time to cut back some of our overgrown Bougainvillea and the roses as well. I also planted some pots with Pansies which I just adore. Each little pansy face looks like it was painted by an artists hand. Pansies make me very happy!
A new type of craving has come upon me. This week I absolutely had to have the smell of fresh baking bread in my house. Making homemade bread by hand, although I am sure can be quite rewarding, has a reputation for being difficult. D being the wonderful husband that he is (and a known lover of all things bread like) took me out and bought me a bread machine! I did hours of online research Friday, which did help distract me from how rotten I felt, to find the perfect one. We ended up with The Breadman Ultimate. The first loaf I made (from a mix) was Sundried tomato and Basil. It came out great and made the house smell wonderful (my craving was satisfied). On Sunday I tried my hand at making homemade cinnamon rolls. These didn't come out so good. Lesson one: when the recipe says let rise for 1hr and 30 min. do not leave them for 3 plus hours while you go out for lunch and shopping at the plant nursery! Well, they did smell good while baking and weren't totally inedible, but they weren't what you would exactly call good either. On my next attempt I will try to be more diligent about following the recipe closely. All in all I love my new bread machine and look forward to making more wonderful new breads and jams (yep you can make jams and jellies in it too- how cool is that?).
In fact Sunday, after some research, we bought a Blackberry plant and a Raspberry plant for the garden. Hopefully in a couple years I will be able to make some homemade jams to go with my breads that is if I don't kill the plants first. = )
Below is the original picture of the L.A. Harbor Light:
