Simply Chic

Butternut Squash Bisque

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:18:00 +0000

Tried this really easy recipe & it turned out great!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butternut-Squash-Bisque/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
4 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 cups vegetable stock
salt and ground black pepper to taste
ground nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)

Directions

Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil under tender.
Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.
In a blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture until smooth. Return to the pot, and stir in the heavy cream. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

Christmas card display

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:08:00 +0000

I found the cutest way to hang your holiday photo cards from iHeart Organizing!

It was very easy too -- just needed 2 ribbons, a bow, glue gun and some fun-tack.

Glued the ribbons and bow together and hung on a door.

Then just stuck the photos on. Viola!

New Photography Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:58:00 +0000

I've been working on a new blog this summer strictly for my photography.
Here it is!
http://www.nicolebaileyphotography.com/blog/

Nicole Bailey Photography on Facebook

Bad Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:50:00 +0000

So sorry I have been m.i.a. these past few months. Work, School and Life just got in the way...I've never been this busy in my entire life! Hopefully things will calm down toward the end of October, which means I will be posting pretty sporadically until then.

To say I'm sorry... Anyone* who joins RueLaLa.com before October 10, gets a $10 credit! Enoy!

*New members only

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:30:00 +0000

I also made a Photography page on Facebook

Nicole Bailey Photography on Facebook

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Ever watch Cake Boss? We love that show! My husband picked us up some
cannolis from there - they were Delicious!!

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Hi from Great Adventure

Summer Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:21:00 +0000

It's amazing I have the time to read with all that is going on at work. But nonetheless I've read 4 books since June 1st. You can check out my Goodreads list here.

Jodi really deals with hard issues in her books and her writing in fantastic. It moved really fast since it was told by different character's point of views. I have been dying to read this book for a while and now that is has become a movie, it gave me the push to read it. So glad I did. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie now but I doubt it will live up to the book. Great read!

Could. not. put. down.

I can't believe how much I liked this book! A friend lent it to me and I figured I would give it a try (enough though I wasn't a big Tori Spelling fan). I absolutely loved it! I couldn't put it down! Tori was a great story teller and she has a great sense of humor. I found her life incredibly interesting and I am now so excited to read her latest book Mommywood.

I also am now obsessed with Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood - Love it!

This was such a great book, really intense and powerful. I read the "Lovely Bones" years ago and I finally picked up Lucky, which is the author's memoir of her own rape. Sebold is a fantastic writer, she really pulls you into the story. Rape is a hard topic to write about but she does it by being straightforward and truthful. It was really good.

I liked this book, it was a nice change from the typical chick lit books I have read in the past. I enjoyed the different points of view and the writing was great. I heard good things about the book so I picked it up, I wasn't blown away but it was a nice light read.

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:58:00 +0000

With all the rain we've been having there was a double rainbow
right in front of our house the other day!

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:21:00 +0000

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:33:00 +0000

Here are some Family portraits I did with my family, by setting the self timer and bolting into the shot. Which filter do you like the best?

#1 - Soft Focus Color

#2 - Black & White

#3 - Half Colorized

Can. Not. Wait.

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Wildwood, NJ

This one has a Photoshop Filter

Which do you like better?

Bad Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:40:00 +0000

Eek, I've been a bad blogger lately! I thought once school ended I'd have so much extra time but unfortunately work has been kicking my butt. I've been in tons of meetings, traveling for work, attending wakes and going to the shore on weekends, there has been no time! Hopefully after my 12 hour day tomorrow things will slow down a little more.

I have been shooting more pictures recently and can't wait to share them. My next plan is to finally get the before & after photos of my house posted! YAY. As I type, the contractor is installing new windows, so I'll take some pics of those as well!

I've been swooning over Jessica's Vera Wang shoes from What I Wore. I found these cute similar shoes on piperlime.com but when I received them, they were a size 6 instead of a size 9. So disappointing. I attempted to try them on anyway and while I liked them, they were way to high a heel for me (about 3"). Sadly they were returned, no cute gladiator shoes for me.

Hello from the Shore

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:43:00 +0000

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:23:00 +0000

I took this picture at night of the Princeton Public Library - see that tree with the lights on it? I took an individual shot of it while I was moving the came, it came out really cool. So for my manipulated print for class I made a negative print of it. Which inverts the colors - everything black turns white and everything white turns black! Doesn't it look like a drawing now?

Rainbow Cake!

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:58:00 +0000

I made this for my husbands birthday last weekend, it was a big hit!

Rainbow Cake Recipe

2 boxes Betty Crocker SuperMoist White cake mix (follow recipe on back of box, 3 eggs, water & oil)
Betty Crocker Classic Colors Gel food coloring
1 jar of pre-made frosting
2 cake pans (I used the disposable kind)

Directions:

Mix the cake mix according to regular instructions on box.

Divide batter into 6 separate bowls. (Aleta recommends 1 cup + 2 tbsp per bowl)

Stir color into each bowl with its own spoon.

For the first pan, measure about 1 cup of your batter and pour into center of greased pan. If you’re doing rainbow order, the first pan should have red, orange, and yellow.

For the second pan, repeat above with purple, blue and green. Both pans should be roughly the same size and have about the same amount of batter.

Bake the cake for however long the box tells you to bake it. Then let cool.

Take cake out of first pan and put on a plate. Add a layer of icing to top.

Take cake out of second pan and place on top of iced first cake.

Add icing to entire cake!

Note: I used all the batter for my cake, in the disposable pans. Not a good idea - the cake expanded, the batter overflowed and ended up at the bottom of my oven. :( I had to cut a portion off the bottom layer to make it even and as you can see the top looks like a muffin shape. Oops! Next time I will use real cake pans and follow the measurements.

Idea courtesy of Omnomicon - she has the diet recipe on her blog.

Photo Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:48:00 +0000

School is done! (Just have one final left to take next week, woo)

Here are a few of my shots that I submitted for my final project.

For some reason they look darker when scanned, sorry!

Self Portrait

Night Photography
Group Portrait

Miscellaneous

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:46:00 +0000

Teaser!
Guess what I am doing?!?!

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:28:00 +0000

Pictures from my Film Class

Random Film Shots

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:32:00 +0000

As you can see at the time I printed these, I hadn't perfected my cropping skills.

Sometimes I like the black border, but in this case I just didn't move the enlarger high enough.

Whoops!

Busy Bee...

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:13:00 +0000

I've had a lot going on recently and I think its going to continue until School is over. Here is the low-down on what's going on in my life:

At Home - To Do/ In Progress:

Received quotes for new windows this summer
Received quotes for painting the house exterior in April
Now thinking about siding the house and getting new quotes for that
Attempting to garden, but the rain is really putting a damper on that
Moving the ground-up stump mulch to the gardens (any gardeners know if that is that OK?) If anyone knows a good gardening blog or website, please comment below! I need all the help I can get.
Moving the chopped wood from the middle of the yard to the side
Dave to build something to store the wood on
Dave measuring the Duct work to install central air this summer
I also have been meaning to post before/after shots of our house - hopefully after school ends

At Work:

Lots of Market Research happening, which means lots and lots of conference calls and/or all-day meetings
Legal Interrogation April 29
Market Research trip April 30
All other day-to-day activities

At School:

Submitted 1 photograph to Student Gallery, wish it was more, but ran out of time
Film Class Final Project: Self Portrait, Individual Portraits (inside & outside), Group Portraits, plus a few other new shots that are TBD **if anyone wants to be my models in the Trenton, NJ area or NE Philly area I'd be very grateful! nicole@nicolebaileyphotography.com
Shot some Low-Light Night Photography in Princeton on Sunday, I can't wait to develop the prints tomorrow and see how they turned out. I also have some nice shots from Easter to develop and some cows I photographed that are not too far from my house
History of Photography class: Quiz next week, Term Paper May 7, Final May 14
Registered for Fall Classes! Intermediate Photography (Medium & Large Format) & Studio Photography

Miscellaneous:

Spent Easter at Dave's family at his grandmothers
Attended The 144 Grand Gala on Saturday, they had a silent auction & dinner auction at the Teaneck Marriott. It was a lot of fun, I tried to win the Kate Spade Bag and Vera Bradley Beach Set with no luck. Dave attempted the Calloway Golf club set and Direct TV year of service. He won the Direct TV for less than half the value which is a great deal.
Spending the weekend with my closest U of S Girls
Celebrating Dave's birthday May 2nd and going to the Phillies Game!
Cannot wait for warm weather and many weekends down the shore!

Photo Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:16:00 +0000

My husband took this shot on Easter...its a Woodpecker.
I just did some post-processing in Photoshop :)

God of Carnage

noreply@blogger.com (Simply Chic) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Dave and I went to see God of Carnage on Friday night, it was so good. The show was about an hour and 45 minutes with no breaks - starring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. They were all fantastic. It was about two married couples who get together to discuss a playground fight between their children and they end up acting worse than their children! So funny.

After the show we waited outside to see the actors, here's a couple shots I got of them...