Saturday, February 25, 2012

Day 56/Feb 25: Sunset & glimpse of the moon

We went on a walk earlier today (the whole fam) and I decided to snap some awesome shots of the sun setting. Then, when we were about to head out to eat Japanese food, I snapped a couple of shots of this beautiful crescent moon. Couldn't choose just one shot. Hope you like them! Oh, and ZERO editing on the sunset shots. :0)




Friday, February 24, 2012

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Day 54/Feb 23: Beautiful Door

Across the street and a little bit over from our house is a nice little mom and pop Gasthaus Scholl (like an inn/restaurant). I absolutely LOVE this door! Such beautiful craftmanship.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Day 53/Feb 22: Cappuccino

Love our Mukka Cappuccino maker. Only problem... it makes 1 serving at a time and we have to wait for it to cool down, wash it, and make another one. Upside... TOTALLY worth it!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Day 52/Feb 21: Duke

Just another shot of Duke. :0) He was relaxing in his doggy bed. He's finally feeling a lot better (ear allergy and skin allergy issues). Trying to get it under control. Grrr.... LOL

Monday, February 20, 2012

Day 51/Feb 20: President's Day

Running out of ideas it was the end of the day, so what better way to say Happy President's Day? Took out my wallet and snapped some shots. I know, I know, I'm missing, the $10, $50, and $100 bills. It was the end of the day! LOL

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Day 50/Feb 19: Stacking

My son, mastering the art of stacking!! He had a blast with Daddy cheering him on. Then, he destroyed it. LOL And built it again. ;0)

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Day 49/Feb 18: Meet Twiga

I spelled it Twiga but it's pronounced Tweega. It is Swahili for giraffe. When my hubby and I first arrived to Germany, we met this really nice African couple at the Bx who bring handmade artifacts made from various villages in Africa. They are one of the many vendors who come through the Bx to bring the military community unique and colloquial arts and crafts. We fell in love with this giraffe and it came home with us that day. And let me tell you, I don't know how we managed to get it into my CRV, but we did! LOL So, I decided to snap a couple of shots of Twiga (she's approximately 6 feet tall). Isn't she beautiful?!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Day 48/Feb 17: Happy Snack

Well, uninspired today until it was my son's snack time. I got a bit creative with the cheese stick, crackers, raisins and cheerios. :0)

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Day 47/Feb 16: Hawk

There are quite a few hawks in the area we live and I've always wanted to get a picture of them. Well, that's a lot harder than it sounds. I actually saw this hawk flying around while I was driving and it perched on the top of the tree. I pulled over into one of the German farm road paths, got my camera ready, stepped out very quietly, and literally only had time to shoot this one picture because it flew away. I had to do a close up of the original, but not a bad shot (the ONLY shot) I got. LOL

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Day 46/Feb 15: My late V-day gift

So, my hubby placed an order for my V day gift, but hey tried delivering when were at dinner (6pm). So, they dropped it off the next day. I'm posting a few pics since I had fun playing around with editing them.




Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Day 45/Feb 14: Valentine's Day

So, hubby bought me a very nice gift for V day.... that arrived the next day. LOL I'll explain in tomorrow's blog. He received his gift, but I didn't take any pics of it. Instead, I snapped a shot of daddy giving our son a Valentine's Day bear and card. I would have posted the pic of him kissing the bear, but hubby's hand was in the way. LOL

Monday, February 13, 2012

Day 44/Feb 13: My Christmas Gift

I was finally able to use my Christmas gift from my hubby. I LOVE IT!!!! When I whipped the butter for the buttercream frosting I was sooooo amazed at how fluffy and creamy the butter got. And the cupcakes were incredibly moist!!!! YUMMY!! BTW I made mocha cupcakes... my hubby's favorite along with his fellow coworkers. I took a few pics and decided to post more than one of them. :0) I made 4 dozen cupcakes. I only photographed the ones that stayed home. LOL

I love my kitchen aid! It's so shiny!

I really like the reflection of the cupcakes on the stainless steel bowl.


Yummy mocha cupcakes!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Day 43/Feb 12: Neighbor's Balcony & Tree

Took some shots from the backyard and I really liked this picture of our neighbor's tree. I also like how you can see some of the village and hills in the background.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Day 42/Feb 11: Can you find the bird?

Well, I was trying to get a better close up of this little bird and ended up with this great silhouette picture. Try to find the bird! LOL

Friday, February 10, 2012

Day 41/Feb 10: Snowy Steps

So, while I was taking out the garbage at night I saw some really good photo ops. I chose this one due to the way that the snow was drifting off of the steps.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Day 40/Feb 9: Snowfall

There was soooo much snow falling, but I couldn't get the type of shot I wanted. I finally decided on this picture because you can actually see the snow, not just blurry flurries. LOL


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Day 39/Feb 8: Cactus

I was playing around with the different lighting, reflections, and silhouettes. This was my favorite one.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Day 38/Feb 7: Hole in the ground

So, next to the dumpster bin next door is a really big hole in the ground (looks like the cobblestones are starting cave in). I'm wondering when the landlord will take care of this (probably when we leave, LOL).

Day 37/Feb 6: Airbrushed Selfie

So, between my son and I being sick, I really haven't been feeling the photo vibe. I took a few selfies while wrapped in my blue thermal sweater thingy. I had fun with the airbrush editing. LOL



Monday, February 6, 2012

Day 36/Feb 5: Superbowl Sunday

So, hubby decided to make his Superbowl dip... Rotel, Velveeta Cheese, and ground spicy pork. It's very yummy, but add the homemade wings, homemade blue cheese dressing, and celery and carrots, and our tummies might not survive the night! LOL... Hence, the picture.

I was going to take pictures of the wings and veggies and dip, but we were soooo hungry I completely forgot! LOL They were yummy! I told him he has to make them again sometime soon so I can take pictures of it. LOL My hubby did a great job with the wings and dip (I only made the dressing and cut up the veggies; he did everything else!)

Now, let's hope we can stay awake for the whole Superbowl... it's not  on until 12:30am over here! Yikes!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Day 35/Feb 4: At the car wash

So, it's really cold and due to the salt on the roads it has made my car look like I ran it through white mud... LOL Needless to say it needed to be washed. While at the car wash, I snapped a few close-ups of the water drops. I chose the first picture because I like how there's actually 2 shadows of the water droplets. In the second picture, I really like the close-up of the water drops.


Friday, February 3, 2012

Day 34/Feb 3: Shadows

I wanted to get more of the shadows on the path, but these two pics will have to do. I played around with the second picture just because I wanted to. ;0)


Thursday, February 2, 2012

Day 33/Feb 2: Rays of light

Sorry I'm behind on posting, but I did take pictures each day. LOL I got some really nice shots of the sun shining through the woods. Hope you like them!



Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Day 32/Feb 1: Snow

So, I feel like I'm living in Siberia!!! It's ridiculously cold over here. It snowed the day before yesterday and yesterday as well (not a lot, but enough). :0) Now, it's been beautiful sunshine, windy and FREEZING! Brrrrr... I decided to take some pics of the snow on the railing from the back of our place. It's too freaking cold to snap shots for more than 5 minutes. Nothing special, but I wanted to get some close ups and the shot of the railing.




Close up of the snow

Day 31/Jan 31: Snoopy

Before my son was born, a friend of mine gave him the cutest Snoopy blanket as a gift. I had wanted to buy a backup blanket, because I knew he would end up loving this blanket like crazy (which he does) and it would get worn with time and use. 

With that said, I contacted Nancy who makes these blanket (you can look her up: lovems1 on etsy.com) and she was able to make a replica with some changes. My friend had given me the Snoopy blanket with red minky and satin, which we changed to turquoise minky and black satin. It looks sooooooo awesome!! It really pops! And the turquoise lettering is beautiful! (the other blanket had black lettering) Both blankets are beautiful (I may have to post a pic of the red one later on).

When it came in the mail, I literally ripped the box open in the car and showed my son, who proceeded to squeal (too cute!) and gave tons of hugs and kisses to his Snoopy. Needless to say, he has not let it go since. He drags it EVERYWHERE in the house. LOL It's too cute. :0) Thanks Nancy for your amazing work!!!



Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 30/Jan 30: Pan-roasted lemon chicken

So, I decided to make one of the recipes from pinterest. Here's the url in case you want to
try it. http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html

I made a few tweaks to the recipe and it tasted great. But I think I will do a few things differently next time; cover with aluminum foil for the first 35 minutes, then cook uncovered the remaining time, make sure ALL the green beans are underneath the potatoes and chicken so they don't get burned (had a few charred ends), add a little bit more adobo or some red crushed peppers for heat next time.

All-in-all it was very tasty and I love lemon so I really liked it. Oh, one more thing, make sure that it's served as soon as it's cooked since the chicken is so nice and juicy.




Tweaks I made:
I baked it at 425 for 45 minutes, took the chicken out, then returned the potatoes and beans in the oven for another 10 minutes
I used skinless and boneless chicken breasts
I used approx. 8 garlic cloves (I love garlic... the more, the better!)
I used 4 1/2 tbs olive oil (versus the 6 recommended)
I added a couple shakes of my badhia adobo
I added about an extra 1/2 tsp kosher salt
I did not use the lemon slices since everyone said the green beans were bitter
I only covered the chicken and the potatoes with the mixture (I covered the potates first and placed them in the pan, then I coated the chicken and left it in there for about 5- 10 minutes before placing it on top of the beans and potatoes)
I used the aluminum foil for easy clean up and sprayed it with pam
I made a quick mix of 1 tbs olive oil, 1/2tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp basil and mixed that together and tossed the green beans in that instead since I knew the lemon would overpower the beans.
I also sprinkled basil on the potatoes after I placed them in the pan

I know, lots of changes, but I'm the type of cook that has to add my personal flare to everything. I use recipes as a general guide and add my personal touches to it. :0) I always tweak recipes until I get it just right, then I write it down the way I made it and it's set! :0) I really love to cook. Just wish I wasn't so chunky from it. LOL

BTW you can drool... it was yummy! LOL

Day 29/Jan 29: TeChNoLoGy

So, as I was uploading other pictures and playing around, I figured I would snap a shot of the things that seem to surround us all the time. It's amazing how many gadgets everyone has nowadays. LOL I'm guilty of it! :0)