Photo Friday: Beauty in the Breakdown

Yesterday I was outside pruning the dying blooms off of our tiny little hydrangea bush and I couldn't help but stop and marvel at how beautiful they were...even in their withered state. One of my favorite things about hydrangea flowers is the way they gradually change color as they die? Such a lovely way to go, don't you think?

Have a gorgeous and relaxing weekend friends. xo Ez

Photo Friday: For You

Wednesday was a bit of a mess. Things got off to a rocky start and then the day was further muddied when my computer suddenly ran out of file space. It couldn't even keep one program running. Ugh! What followed was hours upon hours of feverish file deletion...and a lot of stress.

I don't know about you, but as soon as I get all comfortable and think it's safe to delete something...suddenly that file becomes vitally important. Anyone? Clearly this has kept me from deleting enough files to allow my computer to function (and yes I do have an additional external hard drive...also completely full). Anyway (long rambly bit complete), I discovered this photo (taken for this DIY project) while plowing through and ruthlessly trashing my files, and I thought the image seemed appropriate for the upcoming school year.

Speaking of which, in just a couple of weeks my daughter will be starting a new school and we are filled with nervous excitement (or if I'm being completely honest, hopeful but nauseous anticipation). My daughter has a long history of being targeted by bullies in her past schools, and so I'm wondering friends, do you have any advice that you want to pass on to my daughter or me (heaven knows at least I need it)? Maybe you had a personal experience with bullying, or just something helpful from your past years as a teenager (or raising one) that you want to share. Humorous, anecdotal...we'd love to hear it all. xo Ez

My Weekend in Photos: August 3-5

Hi friends! How was your weekend?

It's still as hot as the surface of the sun in this fine state, so what else could I do for mine but camp out in front of the stove and cook delicious things (makes no sense...but it was worth it)! Here's a little look at that and a few of the other ways that I spent the last few days (as shared over on Instagram). If you want to find me and more of my pics, my username is "creaturecomforts". I hope to see you on there!

1. It's so nice having fresh flowers in the house and somehow they always motivate me to keep everything just a bit tidier than usual. Does that happen to you too?
2. One of the two recipes that I linked to last Friday was this amazing Roasted Corn Soup with Tomato from Sussman Brother's: This is a Cookbook, shared by Williams-Sonoma. It was quite a bit of work, but oh my word was it ever worth it! I'm keeping the recipe in my "need to impress company" file for sure. Tip: if you're not a fan of super spicy things I recommend reducing the amount of Chipotle Flakes from 1 tsp. to 1/2 or even 1/4 (I used 1/2 and it was a tad too spicy for me).
3. On Saturday I took my daughter back-to-school shopping. Unbeknownst to me it was also a tax-free holiday (I didn't even know there was such a thing) and the mall was crazier than Black Friday! Fortunately we found a lot of great things, so it was worth the insane Disneyland-long lines in the end.
4. That night I decided to try out the second recipe link that I shared last Friday: Summer Corn Cakes with Chopped Tomato and Avacado Salsa from Ezra Pound Cake. I skipped the salsa (I'm not a fan of raw tomatoes) and served them with a Simple Aioli instead...and they were amazing!
5. Old things that I have laying around my studio are so much more interesting...
6. ...now that I have my new $15 Easy Macro Lens Band from Photojojo. This little gem makes ordinary things extraordinary. My daughter even figured out a way to attach it to her little point-and-shoot camera so that she can snap macro shots with it! So cool!
7. And on Sunday afternoon I used up the clay left over from my DIY Nursery Mobile and made myself a little Hanging Gem Art Piece for my office. It was super simple (basically just using the same steps as in the other tutorial...only it's easier). If anyone would be interested in a quick tutorial, let me know and I can probably post one for you.

I'm so glad you all stopped by today! xo Ez

My Weekend in Photos: July 27-29

Hi friends! How was your weekend? It has been hot as blazes here in Oklahoma, and seems to be getting hotter still (109 and sunny is the forecast for this whole week - yuck). Despite the heat, we managed to enjoy ourselves (indoors). Here are a few photos I snapped and shared over on Instagram. You can see more snippets of my weekend over there if you'd like. Wishing you all a fabulous week and a great end to the month of July (August is here on Wednesday, eep). xo Ez

1. I had a carton of whipping cream sitting around in my fridge, so I decided that there was no better way to use it than to cook up some tasty homemade caramel sauce of course. The sauce it so good (and pretty easy to make) and is tasty on ice cream and apple slices...or just by the spoonful sprinkled with a pinch of fleur de sel. Yummy! 

2. Making crepes (usually stuffed with strawberries) has become a weekend tradition for my daughter and me, but this time around we mixed things up and filled them with a dollop of Nutella. Holy-moley are they ever delicious! They were so good in fact that we had them again for breakfast yesterday...this time adding strawberries in along with the Nutella. OMG! Thank goodness we're starting up at the gym again today!!!

3. Along with all the boring chores that we not interesting enough to photograph (laundry, ugh) I decided to tackle the much over-due cleaning and organization of my office.

4. It's always so satisfying to see it come together in the end. Now I just need to keep it that way!

5. While cleaning up I found some old jelly molds and thought they'd make sweet little tea light votives. I just used battery operated candles in them, but under close supervision they would be beautiful with traditional candles lit inside!

6. And finally I started working on a DIY that I've been wanting to create for several months now. I have half of the photographs taken and will be wrapping up the rest of them today so that I can share the project with you all later this week!

If you missed them, you can see my past weekend photo wrap-ups here or follow me over on Instagram (username: creaturecomforts).

Photo Friday: The Great Wide Open

This image is a mash-up of two photos that I took a couple weekends ago while out at my parent's house. One second I was looking up snapping pictures of a blue sky filled with white rolling clouds, and only moments later everything in my viewfinder darkened into an stormy grey. Exciting! Unfortunately it was all just a tease, since not a single raindrop fell during the remainder of that sun-scorched day. Give me a thunderous storm over 105 degree weather any day, and I'll be a happy camper!

P.S. my photo treatment here was inspired in part by this, this, and this.