basil hummus

My four little basil plants are growing like crazy! I recently found a recipe for basil hummus, which sounded great, so this evening I cut a bunch of basil and mixed up a batch for dinner. My mouth was watering just looking at the ingredients.

I chopped up the basil and garbanzo beans in the food processor…

…then added the rest of the ingredients (plus three cloves of garlic!) and kept processing it ’til it was thick and creamy. I spread the hummus on a small slice of homemade Italian bread, and of course it tasted just as delicious as it smelled. Next time I wouldn’t use quite as much garlic, as it almost overpowered the basil.

I served the hummus and bread for supper with homemade broccoli cheese soup (slightly modified from this recipe). It was a perfect meal for a rainy summer evening.

Do you have any great recipes that feature fresh basil? (Besides the obvious pesto, which I’ve actually never made.) I’d love to hear your suggestions!

The Creative Habit

During our vacation in Chincoteague last week, I finished reading a book that I started a month ago. “The Creative Habit” was highly recommended by a creative blogger who inspires me, but I didn’t think it was all that great. Still, I gleaned some interesting quotes from the book that I wanted to share with you.

“Skill gives you the wherewithal to execute whatever occurs to you. Without it, you are just a font of unfulfilled ideas. Skill is how you close the gap between what you can see in your mind’s eye and what you can produce.”

“Too many people practice what they’re already good at and neglect the skills that need more work.”

“I cannot overstate how much a generous spirit contributes to good luck. Look at the luckiest people around you, the ones you envy, the ones who seem to have destiny falling habitually into their laps. What are they doing that singles them out? It isn’t dumb luck if it happens repeatedly. If they’re anything like the fortunate people I know, they’re prepared, they’re always working at their craft, they’re alert, they involve their friends in their work, and they tend to make others feel lucky to be around them.”

“A rut is the consequence of sticking to tried and tested methods that don’t take into account how you or the world has changed.”

“We get into ruts when we run with the first idea that pops into our head, not the last one.”

{all quotes are from “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life” by Twyla Tharp}

while I was gone

Hi everyone — I’m back! Yesterday we returned home from a wonderful week of vacation… and I found some happy little surprises waiting for me. Look what happened in our backyard while we were at the beach:

A few little cherry tomatoes finally turned red! And this regular tomato plant is now growing a little green tomato. Fresh tomatoes are my favorite vegetable, but it’s been three years since I’ve had a garden, so I’m pretty excited about these.

I can’t wait to tell you more about our vacation. It was great in every way.

my Bamboo tablet

I’m not sure what I’m most excited about: my new graphics tablet, the fact that I bought it for 75% off the list price, or the glorious reality that I have a day off work today to play with it. Happy Fourth, friends!

Saturday snapshots

The room where I captured these Saturday snapshots has a variety of functions. We usually call it the office, but I prefer to think of it as my studio, since it houses not only a desk, but also the piano, my sewing machine, and most of my creative supplies. Whatever you call it, here are a few snapshots from the time I spent there today.

// a notebook I picked up yesterday for pocket change after a 40% discount plus Staples Rewards — my first Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery purchase // lovely gray pen from LePen

// apparently my chalkboard is where I give myself pep talks

// I agreed to sew twenty prayer pockets for next week’s Summer Bible School at our church.

// my washi tape stash

// I don’t really even know what prayer pockets are, but my twenty are complete.

// a creamy cantaloupe smoothie was my afternoon treat

Instagramming summer

I’m thoroughly enjoying my summer goal of posting more photos on Instagram. Here are a few summer memories I’ve captured and shared recently.

top row: when I was a kid, my grandma often served ice cream and strawberries for dessert in this dish // Splash & Bash at the local pool // UNO!
bottom row: heart-shaped cornbread isn’t just for Valentine’s Day // what I’m reading now // it was 90 degrees at the ballpark

finding our basil

Gardening with a five-year-old is fun.

Last evening Hayden helped me plant some hostas that we brought back with us from Maryland on Sunday. He wanted to use the “little shovel” (otherwise known as a trowel!) while I used the big shovel, but mostly he just had fun finding lots of worms.

Afterwards, while I was filling up the watering can so we could water the basil and tomato plants, he told me, “I’m gonna go see if there are any tomatoes or basil.” Oh man. I didn’t think basil was something we had to look and hope for! But to remove all doubt about whether there’s any basil, I’ve now added a little chalkboard garden stake that the kids gave me for Mother’s Day.

The basil is good, but I can’t wait until Hayden checks for tomatoes… and finds some!

summer kickoff party 2012

The first day of summer is just around the corner, so we were delighted to have a bunch of friends join us on the patio last evening for our now-annual summer kickoff party.

Let’s take a closer look at those toppings on the ice cream sundae bar, shall we?

We served just one kind of ice cream (vanilla) with ten topping options: sprinkles, mini marshmallows, gummi bears, peanuts, mini M&Ms, crushed Oreos, peanut butter chips, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. I’m not sad that we have leftovers.

The kids outnumbered the adults 15 to 11, and they entertained themselves with five beach balls, one stomp rocket, and loads of glow bracelets. Michaels sells glow bracelets in tubes of 15 for $1, so I love to hand them out generously at parties like this.

The first official day of summer isn’t until tomorrow, but it feels like it’s already here. Welcome to summer!

mini bunting birthday party invitation

Yesterday we mailed out a stack of invitations to a birthday party for a girl who will soon be nine years old. (Didn’t she just turn eight?)

Washi tape and an old-school Dymo label are my envelope embellishments of choice these days, but this was the first time the label has instructed the recipient to PARTY! Inside the envelope, each girl will find a mini party — or at least a sneak preview of the birthday party they’re being invited to.

The birthday party invitation is a simple white card with a mini paper flag bunting on the front and party details printed inside. I punched two tiny holes near each of the upper corners and tied on a piece of white crochet cotton. Then I hung the folded pennant flags over the string and glued them together, trying to avoid gluing them to the string.

The tiny flags were cut from sheets of 12×12″ textured cardstock that I bought for 47 cents each. So for less than $2.50, I’ve made six birthday party invitations and about 40 feet of flag bunting to hang at the party (which you’ve actually already seen in progress and in our happy announcement).

I love how the bunting looks when it’s literally tied to the card, but if you have either less time or less patience, stitching the flags to the card would also work just fine.

our happy news

I’m delighted to share the news with you that we are expecting a little one in December!