sadie olive ~ le journal

My cup of tea...

My friend Bari started a flickr group today called "Creative Calling Cards". I quickly joined the group and got busy snapping some photos of my latest business card design. I wanted to share two of the photos with you since I thought they came out pretty neat!

   

This little teacup set up inspired another photo session for a fun postcard design... that I will soon share with you all.

 

And this picture was inspired by my nephew Brandon, who took a similar picture with one of my old business cards. I thought it was clever so I had to recreate the look with my new business cards, so I could show off my new design. (I did design them myself). :)

I didn't forget my blue today either... I am just a little late in the day posting about it.... today it was all about the books.... French blue books.

If you aren't using Flickr yet... come and join in the fun! It's free! 

A New Batch of Charms

Just wanted to mention that the second round of charms Cathy and I designed are here and have been added to the shop. We added some new images from the "I Saw Red" event as well as a few others. All the charms feature the vintage linen that I loved so much from the first batch. Head on over to the shop and take a peek. :)

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! :)   

Tiffany Blue

Well this week in our little group "Shades of Inspiration" it's on to the color blue.... I tend to lean toward the lighter shades of blue... such as Tiffany blue... and blue mason jars.... I find this particular shade very inspiring....

I especially love it when there is a hint of pink involved....

Or maybe some jewelry... :)    

Sunday Dinner

Well this never has been (and never will be) a recipe blog... as the sign in my kitchen reads..."The Queen Does Not Cook". (Mostly because I am lazy and not very good at it). But Josh, my husband, is a great cook and I am lucky enough to have him cook for me on occasion. Since his job has him traveling quite a bit, Sunday dinners around here seem to be our biggest and best meal of the week.

This particular meal has become somewhat of a Sunday tradition around here and I can't say that I am complaining. It could very well be one of my favorites.

Stay with me as I attempt to story tell with these photos and share some of Josh's secrets with those of you who do like cooking...

Tonight we are making whole BBQ chicken, lemon artichokes, and baked beans. :)

First.... cut off the tops of your artichokes (the prickly part of the leaves) so they have a flat top. Add them to boiling water in a large pot then cover with lid. Let them boil for 20 minutes. Once, the twenty minutes is up, take them out and cut them in half. Clean out the choke (the hairy part that hides the heart), and add them to a large bowl.

Add olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Allow artichokes to marinate for one hour (un-refrigerated).   

Now on to the chicken... start with a whole chicken.... clean out the inside and set on a cookie sheet. Season with sea salt, ground white pepper, garlic salt and any additional seasonings to taste (tonight Josh also added Southern Comfort Cajun BBQ Rub). Cut some lemons, limes, and onions and stuff center of chicken.

Add seasoned chicken to BBQ. (Josh uses a Weber charcoal grill). Cook with lid on for one and a half hours (or until you can wiggle the legs and they feel loose.)

Add the artichokes to the grill for the last twenty minutes. Cook open side down first for ten minutes... then flip over and put leaf side down for another ten minutes. You can add more lemon juice during this time.

Your finished artichokes will look similar to the above photo..... don't be afraid to use lots of lemon... it tastes wonderful with the olive oil and sea salt and you won't even need a dip for these tasty summer treats!

While you carve your chicken... you can heat up some canned baked beans to finish off this delicious meal. My personal favorite is Bush's Country Style baked beans with extra bacon and brown sugar. :)

   

Now doesn't that look pretty? I can assure you it tastes as good as it looked! Aren't I a lucky girl? Special thanks goes to my husband Josh, who reluctantly agreed to share some of his cooking secrets with the blog world. ;-)

I hope some of you make this and let me know what you think!

Shades of White

I am finally getting around to adding some photos for this weeks color, white.  I hate to admit it, but these are actually some photos I took a few weeks ago, but I don't think I have shown them before, so they are fair game. :)

I took these two photos the same day I took the photo of the clock faces on the postcard I sell in the shop. They are such fun muted pieces they make for some great shots.

The last two are just some fun goodies hanging around my office. The little book pages wrapped in ribbon are from my friend Kasey at Lola B Boutique.   

I hope you all are having fun with white this week. :)

Festivities

Hi all! I was on a roll with this whole blogging thing... and then life got crazy this last week. My niece Lauren graduated Kindergarten so we celebrated with a day at the park. Here she is looking gorgeous in her "princess grad" crown.

We also celebrated father's day at our house with a BBQ for my Dad. My sisters came with their families and my nephew, Brandon, was in charge of photos with my camera. (I think he went a little overboard as there were about 300 photos of random objects around my house). :) But some of his shots were pretty good! Here are a few I wanted to share....

My Dad and my older sister Denise. She has a new blog! It's Stars, Stripes and Salsa.

My sister Ginger. She's a dancer and is extremely talented!

My other two gorgeous nieces, Kiki and Hailey. We all matched and didn't even plan on it. :)

The girls at my piano.

We are still playing Shades of Inspiration. This week is shades of white and cream. I am behind on my photo taking, but this one my nephew took fits into the theme:

Hope you all had a great father's day weekend! We are going camping this Friday, so I am trying to wrap things up this week so I can get out of this HOT office. (Temecula will be hotter but at least there is a pool for us too cool off at Lake Skinner.)   

Yup, it's true...

I can hardly believe it myself. Not only have I been managing to post at least five times a week, but today I am adding a second post....lol.... I have been playing around with my blog and giving myself a fresh clean look for summer. (If you can't see my new banner and background try refreshing the page). And all that sprucing up made me stop and take a look around my home. I know most of you have seen pretty much all of my home in previous photos I have shared, but I was looking back at those photos thinking how much better they could be with the right lighting and my much improved photography skills. So, I grabbed my camera and started snapping away. I haven't changed much in the kitchen and dining room, but I decluttered and cleaned up a bit to share a new perspective on the space.

I took quite a few pictures, so I hope you don't mind scrolling through them all... Maybe I went a little overboard? :)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our kitchen and dining room. I'll see if I can spruce up some more rooms in our house for some updated photos. I know I always enjoy a peek inside other's homes.

FYI: The "PARIS" letters that people always ask me about I bought at a flower shop several years ago in Villa Park, CA. I'm sorry to say they no longer carry them and I'm not sure where you can find them now. :(         

My green eyed girl

This is Annabelle. She is my first baby. I got her just out of high school when I lived on my own for $13. This poor kitty has moved with me countless times, including a move to Oregon which was a 24 hour drive (pulling a trailer). We lived there for one month, when the boy we followed decided to break our hearts. And then we drove all the way back home to California with all of our possessions in tow.

She has given me company when I lived alone, a shoulder to cry on when I needed it, and even an ear for listening when I wanted to talk.  She and I have been through a lot in our 13 years together. We are kindred spirits and I wouldn't trade her for the world. (She celebrated her 13th birthday last month on May 13th).

Annabelle is by my side everyday. I have an ottoman right next to my desk chair that she sleeps on so she can be close to me. Her pretty green eyes are my green for Wednesday.

(I'm feeling like a bad mom since I have never mentioned my little boy Mason on this blog, so I editing this post to add his picture too.)

He's the wild man of the house. Always outside and catching some sort of scary creature to bring inside as a "present" for me. He looks a little like a jungle cat in this photo doesn't he? You can see the wild in his eyes. :) 

It's not easy being green.

Good morning my friends. Well, it's 10:30 here in California so it must be lunch time for most of you... but I'm just getting into my morning grove and I'm starving for breakfast (as usual). What I really want it a Starbucks decaf soy latte and a jalapeno bagel toasted with cream cheese... but I will settle for Eggo waffles and water because I don't want to get dressed or leave the house. :) I'm a lazy bum.

My day will consist of shipping orders, a postcard design, a blog design, hopefully some data entry in Quickbooks (if I don't procrastinate again) and then maybe take some new photos for green week, and do a little "Sadie Olive" catch up (process new inventory, website updates, and new postcard designs). My sister, Morgan and her hubby, Mike are coming over later to watch the Laker game with us and have some dinner. All in all... it's a pretty typical day for me.

It's time to share my green photos for the day:

I love these softer muted shades of green. Buddha has such a happy face doesn't he? It's funny I wanted this statue for over a year in one of my favorite shops down in San Juan Capistrano called "Regalo" but I never brought myself to buy him... then Josh bought him for me for Christmas one year. He just has such a fun look about him. I just love it.

I'm off to eat some breakfast and get some work done. I hope you all have a productive Tuesday! :)

   

Green Inspiration

Happy Monday everyone! I am slowing getting into the groove of my Monday morning..... ugh... I'm not really a morning person. I get a ton done in the mornings, but I prefer not speaking to anyone because I tend to be somewhat grouchy in the mornings. (I don't think blog posts count, because I don't seem to feel crabby while typing).   :)

This week our color inspiration is green, and I have been on the hunt for anything green worth sharing.... I have to admit that green is actually much harder for me than red, because I don't have very much of it around my home... But I suppose that is why this is called a challenge!

Here are my favorite green shots for Monday....

For those of you who aren't sure what I am talking about in this post.... I am participating in a photo challenge that assigns a new color each week to photograph and find inspiration in. You are welcome to join us anytime. You can read about "Shades of Inspiration" and get instructions to join our group here:  Shades of Inspiration