So this is what it feels like to actually have a life again..

It has been 3 weeks since I started school, and where has the time gone? Just a few years ago I was working full time, going to school full time, still had social life and was starting a whirlwind romance with the man who would become my husband..and I still managed to  maintain some sort of sanity. Yet at the ripe old age of 25, I feel like I need a nap every 4 hours. I'm glad I decided to ease back into school with only 2 classes, because anymore right now might have killed me. Ok, enough complaining. We had our first assignment due in our photo class today. We had to shoot using the composition techniques we learned last week, then choose 3-4 of our favorites as our final one to print..and our professor went over each of them with us to decide which was best. And this was the one we chose. The compositional technique I used was a repeating pattern, which was actually one we hadn't even covered yet and she seemed pretty impressed (even though I really didn't know what I was doing, I just liked the way it looked!haha)
This is the other photo that she liked a lot, which I do as well..I just wish the sky would have had more colors or even clouds that night.. And this last one is the one I really wanted to print. While she really liked it, and said that she really liked what I was doing, as far as taking interesting objects and arranging them in different ways, she just thought it wasn't right for the certain assignment, which I can understand. So in class we lined up all of our photos, and just discussed them as a whole, mine was the only photo she picked up and passed around to the whole class so they could see the different colors in it. It felt really good to know that someone who is an actual photographer and a professor likes my work enough to talk about it more than the rest of the class. At the same time, I did feel like a total teacher's pet haha and I'm pretty sure the rest of the class hates me now, but whatever I'm not there to make friends. Our next assignment is a black and white photo, I'm excited because I looooove Black & White photos! I just need to find the right subject. This time she wants us to really think about what we are shooting and why, to find something that tells a story.. There is an old abandoned book store across the street from us that is really awesome, and I plan on shooting it this weekend, hopefully they come out good!

Other than school I have been [kinda] busy in the kitchen, and have whipped up some pretty delicious dishes.. I wanted to try out the new pizza stone I got at Target for $11 so I made this amazing buffalo chicken pizza, buffalo wings & pizza?! How could you go wrong?? You really can't, it was some serious good eats! I got the recipe here http://www.crumblycookie.net/2009/11/08/buffalo-chicken-pizza/

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I did make a few changes.. I cheated and used shredded rotisserie chicken, and Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce (it's so good that I didn't think I could make something comparable to it) I also used fresh whole wheat pizza dough from Whole Foods, which was delicious! I substituted Veganaise for mayo for the hubby's sake (He is a mayo hater, but can tolerate veganaise, go figure) And used gorgonzola instead of plain ol' blue cheese, I like the taste better. I know it sounds like an overload of flavors, and it kind of is, but they all work so beautifully together. Nothing was too overpowering or stood out too much,  but every flavor had a purpose and you could taste them all, it was just great. And I will never cook a pizza on anything but a pizza stone again! The crust came out perfect! Crispy all along the outside but still soft and fluffy on the inside, yum!Needless to say it was a real winner, and I can't wait to make it again.
I also made a recipe that I have made a few times before, but I actually grilled it this time and now I will never just cook it on the stove again. This is one of Bobby Flay's recipes http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/salmon-with-olive-vinaigrette-recipe/index.html

Grilled Salmon & Asparagus

We totally lucked out at Whole Foods this week and got Wild Caught King Salmon on sale for $11/lb (It's normally around $23!) I used to think I hated salmon, but I think I just had a bad experience with smoked salmon long, long ago and it just turned me off from it. It's one of hubby's favorite fishes so I finally gave it and decided to try it a few months ago, and this was the first recipe I used, but like I said I never grilled it before. Let me just say it really makes a world of difference in flavor. The only thing I change in this recipe is, I use canned green olives because I don't like the flavor of nicoise or kalamata or any of the "fancy" olives..haha I just like my plain ol' canned ones, I'm easy to please. Back to the grill, I had always been afraid of grilling fish especially because sometimes it just falls apart in my pans at home. But salmon is a really good fish to grill because it's so meaty. It gave it such a nice smoky flavor, much different then just sauteing it, and the marinade just makes this dish just wonderful. It's very savory, mostly due to the olives, the flavors are just spot on..such a great compliment to the salmon.
I have another busy weekend/week ahead of me, so maybe I'll have more to say in a few days..

                 "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
                                                                            -Thomas Merton

The beginning of the end..of my sanity

Hiiiiii. For those few who may not know me I'm Nikki, I'm 25 and happily married to my husband Matt who is 31. We met in 2004 dated briefly, and reconnected in late 2005, started dating again in January 2006, Married in February 2009..and the rest is history.
If you hadn't already guessed by my title, yes I am a stay at home wife, housewife, homemaker, domestic engineer/goddess/diva, maid, slave...whatever you would like to call it.. It can be hard work at times, but it's the best job I've had. I actually enjoy taking care of my husband, and he likes to be taken care of. I don't mind cleaning or doing the dishes or laundry or paying the bills, he hates it all.  I love to cook and he loves to eat, a match made in culinary heaven. I think you get the point.

I love cooking, baking, crafting, photography, music, books, laughing, friends, family(some of them), and of course my amazing husband. I wanted to start this blog as a sort of creative outlet. Somewhere I can post about things I love, or hate..if I'm in that kind of mood.

So enough about that. I just decided to return to community college after an almost 3 year hiatus. I thought I'd get myself out of the house for a few days a week and take classes I would actually enjoy. So I enrolled in Digital Photography and a Theater Costume Craft class. I started classes on Tuesday so I thought I'd finally start this thing too now that I might actually have something to talk about.. So far I'm enjoying both classes. I had already taken classes with my theater professor and she remembered me, so that was a plus. It looks like there will be a lot of sewing going on, which I am excited and nervous about.. I know how to sew, just not the greatest but this will give me a chance to learn and improve so I'm excited about that. My photography professor is a younger working photographer, which I really like! I was totally afraid that we would get stuck with an old fuddyduddy haha. I am really looking forward to learning more about photography as I love to take photos, but really have no clue how to get the full potential out of my camera just yet. I have a Nikon D3000 DSLR that I got for Christmas last year, and it does take amazing photos, I just know they can be so much better once I figure out what I am actually doing with it.
So we haven't had any assignments yet but I started playing around with the manual functions on the camera. Since I was early to meet a friend in Huntington Beach I stopped along PCH to try out some photos in the manual settings..These were my favorites. Enjoy!

                                

*The only edits I made to this 

one was iPhoto's Effect Boost 

Color.