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Free Desktop calendar – August

It’s that time again! Continuing with the free desktop calendar downloads for August (seriously – how is it almost August already?!). This month I’m sharing another favorite quote done in three different colorways.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture but it was late afternoon and the lighting was just not on my side. My desk got it’s monthly scrub down though so that’s good.

These are all rendered in 1920 x 1080. To save the image click on the link and the image will open in a new tab. Right click on the image and select “Save image as…” and save to your computer.

I’m not sure how to update a background on a Mac but on a PC you right click on your desktop background and select “Personalize.” You can then browse to the file location of the picture you want as your background.

Pink/Blue desktop calendar

White/Lavender desktop calendar

Peach/Aqua desktop calendar

I hope you enjoy!

Friday

Untitled, 2. Beneath the Sheltering Boughs of Green Shade, 3. Spring Garden, 4. Buildings: Camouflage

Happy Friday!

I made it through an entire week of work! And survived. Spoiler alert – I loved it! Of course there is the usual overwhelming amount of information to absorb (coming at you from a fire hose) but I can already tell I am going to love working here. I love instructional design. Oh sure I can deliver training with the best of them but I am happiest when I am creating training materials for either other trainers to deliver or when I am developing web based training. My first project will be a web-based training and I might even get to go up in a helicopter as part of my research!!

This week has been a flurry of onboarding activities. The team I am joining is seriously short-staffed at the moment so they are delighted to have extra help coming on board. I’m not the only newbie either – there are four others starting with me and we have been relying on each other for support. Lot’s of “did you catch that?” type of back and forth.

I have discovered that my work wardrobe is seriously lacking. In my previous job I could wear nice jeans (black or dark wash) and that made up the majority of my work appropriate attire. Here there is no jean wearing. Still business casual but no jeans. I have four pairs of pants that aren’t jeans and most of them are various iterations of black pants. I need a serious wardrobe update.

I literally just walked into my darkened bedroom and said “Why hello kitty…” to a pair of pants that I threw on to my bed when I got home from work. As soon as I get home I cannot wait to take off my work clothes and put on my comfies. I need to find comfortable, fashionable, business casual appropriate clothes to wear so if you have any favorite stores let me know.

We have a bbq to go to on Saturday but other than that our weekend will be spent resting and recuperating. Rick has had an especially bad bout of kidney stones this week. I don’t think he’s ever had an attack that was this prolonged. Why couldn’t it have happened last week when I was still not working?! So he’ll be recovering from that and I’ll just be trying to catch a breath.

So so happy to gainfully employed again!

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Elevating your envelope game

Decorative envelope liners

I have a love for envelope art and enjoy sending over the top decorated envelopes when I write letters or send packages. You can revisit this post to see some examples of letters and packages I have sent out.

I don’t always have the time or inspiration to come up with a unique design but I still want the whole experience to be special for the recipient. Adding a decorative liner to the envelope is easy and very pretty.

I make my own envelopes but you could easily add a liner to an existing envelope. In the past I used a scoring board when making envelopes but just discovered the envelope punch board by We R Memory Keepers and it is so much easier. I especially appreciate the built in paper punches for the corners.

Envelope punch board

They have the measurements for various sizes of envelopes. I tend to make my cards and envelopes A6 in size so I cut my paper to 8 7/8″ and follow the directions for the score lines. For the liner I cut a 5″ square of decorative paper and used the punch on the envelope maker to round the corners. You really only need to round one corner as the two side ones are trimmed off and the bottom one is hidden.

Attach the decorative liner before gluing or taping the flaps down. I also like to trim the bottom flap even with the side flaps.

I’ve seen liners done with vintage wallpaper which is very pretty. I use scrap booking paper for mine. You could even use pretty wrapping paper. I find that thinner papers are better since they don’t add additional bulk to the envelope.

Ten points to the first person that can identify (without googling…) the fictional name and address I’ve used on my envelope.

Easy Roasted Tomato Tart

This has to be the easiest and tastiest dish I have made all Summer. And I should know since I’ve made it three times in a week!

Okay the first time was an experiment (wildly successful experiment, I might add) so I decided to recreate it for a blog post and a Sunday dinner only I got caught up in dinner preparations at my Dad’s house and completely forgot to take glamour shots of it when it came out of the oven.

So I made it again for our dinner this past Saturday. It is the perfect accompaniment to a light salad. Just the type of dinner you want on a warm Summer evening. Other than the prep work of roasting the tomatoes, this dish comes together easily and quickly.

Luckily the roasting part can be done ahead of time so the actual assembly comes together quite quickly. I use Roma tomatoes because of their firmness and shape but any tomatoes will do. And the roasting process brings out a sweetness and depth of flavor that is sorely lacking in our store bought tomatoes.

I slice the tomatoes at least 1/4″ thick and let them sit on a paper towel for about 15 minutes before placing on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper and drizzle on some olive oil before roasting at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes. We’ll only be using the nice, round slices but go ahead and roast the ends that you cut off because they are great to snack on while you are assembling the tart.

Honestly I could eat an entire pan of roasted tomatoes.

There aren’t a lot of ingredient to this tart – puff pastry, roasted tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, salt, pepper and olive oil. You can throw on a bit of Italian seasoning if you are feeling extra. Oh – and an egg wash for the edges of the puff pastry.

Slight segue….is there a basil shortage at the moment? I have come up empty every single time I’ve looked for fresh basil at the market for going on three weeks now. What is up with that? Bad timing on my part or some larger basil availability issue? I ended up having to buy a basil PLANT in order to make this dish.

This dish is great straight out of the oven but to be honest I think it is even better if you let it rest for a while and serve it room temperature. Which makes it a perfect dish to make when company is coming. You can make it before they get there and then just cut and serve when you are ready to eat.

Roasted Tomato Tart

Print Recipe

Ingredients Notes

Ingredients

4 Roma tomatoes Sliced into 1/4" slices
1 Sheet Puff Pastry Thawed
16 oz. Sliced fresh mozzarella
Olive oil
1 egg beaten (to use as a wash)
Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste
Fresh Basil torn or chiffonade

Notes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a baking pan with parchment paper. Slice tomatoes to at least 1/4" thick slices. Let drain on paper towels for 15 minutes or so. Place on baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes, rotating pan mid-way through.

After removing from oven reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Roll out thawed puff pastry sheet slightly, maintaining a square shape. Score 1/2" from edge (be careful not to cut all the way through).

Layer slices of roasted tomato with layers of sliced mozzarella inside the score lines. I used 16 slices of tomato and 12 slices of mozzarella.

Brush edges of pastry with beaten egg.

Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating mid-way through. If it puffs up alarmingly during baking just poke at it with a sharp knife and it will calm down.

Cool for 10-15 minutes then slice into sixteen pieces and garnish with fresh basil.

I hope you try this out and enjoy it as much as we do. I have another super easy tomato recipe that I’ll share in the next couple of weeks. I have been on a tomato kick lately. To me it is the perfect Summery side dish.

Friday

Gray ◊ Making of red currant juice ◊ Imagining a life lived.. under a parasol ◊ Peek-a-boo….I see you

Happy Friday!

I just got back from doing a test drive of my new morning commute. It wasn’t bad at all. I’ve been checking the drive times all week around 7:30am and it is consistently 27-28 minutes. There are several different routes I can take in case traffic is problematic. It might seem a bit much, to do a test drive, but I do like to be prepared.

We have no plans at all for the weekend, by design. I want to just relax at home and enjoy my last few days off. I know I keep apologizing for the lack if scintillating content around these parts but the preparation for the new job and just the generally lazy pace of summer just hasn’t been fodder for the blog. I do plan on getting a few posts scheduled this weekend so I don’t have to think about posting during the week. Thank you for patience as I get used to my new normal.

I do hope you have a lovely, relaxing weekend!

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