{life} New Job

I've been out of work for a while now... not too incredibly long, but enough for a really good break. I'd been trying to decide where to go next. I didn't want to just move on to another job just to pay the bills. I've worked really hard to get to a place where all of my debt is paid off (except student loans of course.. they will be with me for the rest of my life I'm afraid) so I could find a job that I really enjoy. Well, I have found it. Actually, my fiance has helped me find my place.

For a while now, we have been wanting to get a print shop going. He's always done freelance designs and printing from our home, but we wanted to make it something more concrete. Something that hopefully will turn into a good income for our family... so we opened Olde Soul Print Shop.

Since we we started the shop, my fiance has been helping me get more involved in the business. I've always been interested in art, and I have studied for years towards a degree in visual art focusing on ceramics, but I was a little apprehensive about this. Getting into an actual design business is pretty intimidating to me. First of all, I never feel very confident about my design ability. Also, I've never been involved in the business end of anything. I've worked in small businesses several times. I love the grassroots idea and love supporting local and small business. He thought this would be a really great thing for me. And he was right. I am LOVING it.

I've wanted to stay home and be able to get things done around here. I love being here. On the weekends, whenever I think about Monday coming around, I never get that tied-in-a-knot feeling that I use to get when I'd think about having to "go" to work. I get to stay home!!

I thought I'd make an official "shop open" post on here so you can understand why I'm posting things from Olde Soul Print Shop. I hope you enjoy our work. And please pass along our sites and designs to people you think may be interested.

Our blog

Our Etsy

Our Storefront

Here is our latest t-shirt...

{life} Family Slide Show Night

In my journey of becoming a Landrum, I have found that the family in which I grew up, and the family in which my fiance grew up, have one great thing in common: We have a very strong connection to, and desire to learn about and uphold, our heritage. In my post about a cake recipe I touched a little upon my connection with my family and our closeness. Well, Sunday night I had the honor of getting a glimpse into the past of my future family, the Landrums.

We had my fiance's mother's side of the family over to our house to watch a collection of slides that was recently found. I was able to sit and listen to my future mother-in-law go back and forth with her brothers about what they remembered of their family when they were growing up.

It was a military family. They traveled a lot, and saw/lived in many different places.  My fiance's Grandfather's plane was shot down in Vietnam. They are very proud of where they have come from.

It was an amazing evening filled with lots of great food, laughing, love, and reminiscing. I thought I would share a few shots (or a lot) of our evening together.

Introducing Olde Soul Print Shop

You need to head over to Olde Soul Print Shop's blog and grab up a shirt while they're still around!!!

{life, food} Grocery Shopping and a Couple Great Website s

So this morning I'm putting together my grocery list for shopping later today. I try to be organized when I go to the grocery store, otherwise I end up with a cart full of potato chips, ice cream, and Velveeta shells and cheese. Not good.

Now, I've been using Pinterest lately and, I must add, it is very addicting. There are all sorts of ideas for inspiration in pretty much any category that you can think of. It allows you to set up boards on which you "pin" images that are attached to links. If there is something you are interested in you can pin it to your board to keep track of your ideas, and then just click on the photo and it will link you to the website containing instructions, recipe, DIY ideas, etc. Among others I have a "Crafty" board, a "For the Home" board, and "Recipes I want to try" board.

a portion of my Pinterest

While I was gathering my list for groceries this morning I decided to check my exhaustive collection of recipes I've found on the internet. I have a folder on my desktop full of links to recipes, a tab on my toolbar with links to recipe sites, and of course my Pinterest board. While searching I stumbled upon an amazing website! I wanted to share. 

FoodGawker.com is a site that lets you see various recipes in a photo gallery format, then leads you to the site where the recipe is held. They feature food bloggers from all over the world. We are talking hundreds and hundreds of recipes, folks! 

Here are a couple of the recipes I intend to try:

Now, I'm not sure most of these recipes are considered "healthy", but I can make changes in order to help them fit into our dietary restrictions or concerns. 

I hope that you will find this website as helpful as I have. I no longer have "writter's block" when I sit down to write my grocery list. I actually find that I'm needing to cut back on the recipes I want to try in order to stay in my budget!

Happy cooking!