Summer of Love

He was finishing his second contracted book, staying in a city he wasn't from and knew no one.

She was home from college for the summer.

Both were lonely and curious to see what would happen if they looked for love on Yahoo! Personals.

He wrote her. She liked what she saw. Artistic. Gorgeous, friendly eyes. A cool air to him. So, she gave him her phone number, and no one else.

She liked to sleep in, so when he called at noon, he woke her. They talked for a long time. Laughed. Hit it off. They were anxious to meet right away.

They went to the beach to walk and talk. Both didn't wear sunglasses, but somehow that made it more magical. Being bathed in light, their instant attraction grew as intense as the sun that blinded them.

She went to his vacation home where he had been writing and painting. A gorgeous painting he'd started looked eerily like her. She loved it and he promised she could have it. And he painted many more paintings of her that summer, their Summer of Love.

He captured her eyes best in this one.

Painting by Jason Augustus Newcomb

{How could I resist a man that worshipped me with his paintbrush?!}

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Porkin' Out!

I'm a major carnivore. I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact. I just loooove me some meat!

I tried going vegetarian after my friend enlightened me to the horrors of slaughterhouses. Just the word slaughterhouse invokes guilt in me.

After a couple days of eating soy-based foods, I got really sick. I had no energy and I felt like I was dying. It was the weirdest feeling, so I said flip-it, I'm a carnivore.

I'll blame my cravings, my NEED for meat, on my type-O blood. Ever read that book Eat Right for Your Type? Well, type-O is supposedly the oldest in the evolution of humans. Basically, cave men were type-O.

The newest type is AB, and they function well on a vegetarian diet. My friend who sent me the terrifying animal-killing videos is an AB. See where I'm going with this? ;-)

When I was growing up, I ate beef almost every day. Mmmm rib eyes are my absolute favorite! (I kinda loathe myself for loving it so much.)

Now that I'm head chef in my household ;-) I am cooking lots of interesting dishes, and lately, I've been really into pork tenderloin.

Pork is great with mustard. I never thought I'd like it on anything, but mustard in cooking is so different than on a hot dog or burger.

I'm also not a huge fan of rosemary, so I am hyper-conscious of not using too much, and my hubby thinks I'm a master spicer now...is that a word? It is now!

Here's one of my latest pork faves...my mostly vegetarian friend tried it (she's a funny bunny like that)...and she absolutely LOVED it...

This recipe is from All Recipes but I always change it because I'm cool like that. hahaha

Apple Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients



Pork Tenderloin (Any size, really)

1-2 tbsp mustard (depending on size)

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

6-8 minced garlic cloves (depending on size)

about 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary

salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F.

Place pork tenderloin in pan, sprinkle salt and pepper on it, and cook in over for an hour to lock in juices.

Mix mustard, apple sauce, garlic, and rosemary together in a bowl.

Thoroughly spread sauce mixture over pork.

Put back into oven until meat thermometer reads proper temp.

(I cook a 3-4lb tenderloin for about 40 minutes to an hour with the sauce on it.)

If you like pork, this is sure to become a favorite! SOOOooooo yummy! Makes my mouth water just typing the recipe out. :-)

Enjoy....

And because I have yet to take photos of my dishes before the fam (or I) devour them instantly, here's another one of the latest Newcomb carnivore (or maybe not, who knows?) ;-) Thanks for taking this, Grandma Leila!

These dimples make me melt!

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Learning to Shoot Manually

I dreaded learning it. I've always photographed in auto mode, and I knew if I wanted to learn photography, I had to go manual, baby! Guess what? It's not that difficult (adjusting the settings, that is). Phew! Of course I have a lot to learn about photography in general, but at least I'm not whining about my pictures being crappy. I like them anyway. :-) That's saying a lot, for me. GO ME! :-))

I've been shooting in manual mode for only a few days now (only shot in manual focus toward the end, though). It's actually a lot of fun! It's hard to believe anyone with a nice camera wouldn't shoot this way because you get such great photos in manual. I love the control. I love to play. I actually LOVE learning how to shoot manually. Who would've thought? Not I!

Here's a few of my first photos in manual mode...of course they're of my favorite models, Aurora and Elena...

Aurora and her favorite buddy, Juliet. <3

Juliet doesn't mind...she's a glutton for attention ;-)

I just L<3VE Aurora's Eyes in this one!!

My Sweet Girl :-)



Elena's eyes look just like Aurora's did at this age...so precious...



Look at that mouth! (Background's not so cute lol)

My smiley baby :-))

xo

jbnewcomb<3

My Humble Poetry, I

My Babies

Innocent, Curious Eyes

A Lovely, Sleepy Smile

Tiny, Strong Hands

Endless Possibilities

And Limitless Love

These are My Precious Gifts

The Luck I’ve Been Given

Twice.

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Thanks, Old Hollwood

There are not many movies for adults that children can enjoy too. Luckily, many movies from Old Hollywood are perfectly fine for me to watch with my five year old. Musicals are especially fun. She loves music and singing and dancing.

Compare adult themes in old movies to adult themes in modern movies, and it's like night and day. Kissing is so syrupy sweet in old movies and sex is rarely even mentioned. Of course not all movies from Hollywood's Golden Age are appropriate, but modern movies are pretty much completely inapropriate.

I love my DVR. I watch 75% of TV on my DVR for a half dozen reasons. And TCM is one of my favorite channels to record.

Recently, I recorded a bunch of Esther Williams films. If you don't know the name, she's the actress who played in all of those swimming and mermaid-type movies. What a beauty!

Because she prefers musicals, I was surprised that my daughter was hooked from the time I selected play for the first film. She let out a titter of excitment when I told her I'd recorded several Esther Williams films. "I really like this movie. I want to watch it everyday," she said with excitement for the 1945 movie Thrill of Romance with Van Johnson.

From the moment Esther Williams dove off of a high-dive board, Aurora was captivated. She'd obviously never seen that before, and technicolor movies are just so saturated with vibrant color.

Thanks, Old Hollywood, for producing films my daughter and I can enjoy together. :-)






My Tiny Dancer, Aurora :-)

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Get over it ALREADY!

I love photographs. There are thousands of pictures of my babies and they're only five years old and two months old. It's mind-boggling to think about how many billions, no trillions, no gazillions (lol) of photographs there probably are out in the world, all because of the digital revolution.

My first digital camera opened up a whole new world for me. I LOVED seeing the pictures I took in real-time without them being polaroids (another camera I was gaga for). I took thousands of pictures....a huge majority being of myself :P I was a teenager refining my look, and my digital camera was my mentor. Its biggest lesson: my ridiculously thin eyebrows didn't suit my face.

My husband still makes fun of me to this day when he finds on my camera phone pictures I took of myself after taking some of our children. But the truth is, if I didn't take pictures of myself, there wouldn't be very many of me at all because I am usually behind the camera. If I'm not behind the camera, then my children are still the main focus because they're so darn CUTE, so there really aren't many pictures of me besides the ones I take.

The first photograph I was truly proud of was that of a pelican on the jetty in Venice, FL. The composition was breathtaking. A large brown pelican peacefully sitting on these gigantic rocks, the beautiful Gulf of Mexico in the background. Ok, so the Gulf isn't the most beautiful body of water, but I'm a fan. And I still have that photo.

Until now, I've refused to tell people I was interested in photography as a career. Despite what people think when they meet me, I am pretty shy. I fake it well because I am friendly and like to make people laugh, but I protect my vulnerable side like a momma bird sits on her eggs.

Before I voice my passions, I like them to be mature so I can be confident enough. But confident enough for what? Even if all of the sudden I wanted to be a cheerleading instructor, my close friends and family wouldn't kill my dream with negativity despite me never being a cheerleader. But I still can't bare to let anyone know what I want or what I am capable of until I feel proud of it.

I loved art classes in high school, yet I couldn't STAND...I mean COULD NOT STAND drawing or painting or sculpting anything in a room full of my peers. There was no rational reason. It's not like people were staring at me (though I was paranoid they were).

I would barely get a thing done in class, so when I brought my finished works to class, people must have thought I was getting my big brother to do them or something. People were always impressed, and I won awards for every piece I produced.

I'm so mad at myself for not being more of a risk taker. I never get shot down, so why do I wait and wait and wait? Why do I torture myself?

It's time to be a risk taker and shout out to the world what I want.

I want to be a professional photographer! Most of all, A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER!

There. I said it. I'm soooo tempted to delete this, so before I do. PUBLISH.

I took this of myself....duh :-P

xo
jbnewcomb<3

I'd get Married 7 Times, but to the Same Guy

I've always been in love with L<3VE and all that hallmark gushiness celebrating it: love poems, romantic movies, gifts of chocolate, cards, and, of course, weddings.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of one-in-a-million romantic love, the Cinderella fantasy of meeting one’s true love and being betrothed from that very moment on.

My first crush was in pre-school, and though it changed every year, I loved with a passion so great that I convinced myself I would marry each one.

This went waaay beyond writing “Mrs. [crush’s last name]” like most girls. My mind was so preoccupied with my infatuations that in third grade, I secretly wrote “I love Scott” on the bottom of my friend’s shoe when we were all sitting on the floor watching something (of course I can’t remember what because my mind was only focused on love), and my friend later discovered it and told the teacher. Our teacher asked the mysterious vandal to confess, but I didn’t.

Ok, so you could call my obsession borderline crazy….90% of my thoughts were devoted to love. “I love so and so” or “does he love me?” were buzzing through my mind all day long. The only games I played with my Barbies were about getting married or having a family.

I can distinctly remember being six years old and receiving the most beautiful wedding-themed Barbie and Ken. Looking back, their attire was clearly expensive and they were most likely collectible; Barbie had an intricately laced ball gown complete with lingerie and white thigh high pantyhose.

Because I was an only child and didn’t have any siblings to whine at me about playing the same thing over and over, I played “wedding” for hours upon hours, particularly enacting the ceremony, the kiss, and the first dance. If I’d had more friends to play with on my street, maybe I would have given other games a chance, but probably not! hahaha

As I got a bit older, I obsessively fantasized about what my wedding would look like. I’m sure no one would be surprised when I say my Mom was concerned when I asked her to buy me wedding magazines in the checkout lane at the grocery store. Because I was eleven when inspired to begin this hobby, I did my best to convince her that I just loved weddings and wasn’t thinking of getting married anytime soon. (Though I sooo would have run away with any one of my crushes if they’d asked.) She gave in, and I couldn’t tell you how many dresses, bouquets and cakes I cut out and paste into an idea book.

This continued until I got married, and a couple years into my marriage, my husband caught me looking at wedding gowns on the internet. He kidded when he asked if I was going to marry someone else. To rationalize my hobby, I have since then decided we will have a recommitment ceremony on 7/7/2014, exactly seven years after our wedding on 7/7/2007 (seven corresponds with Venus and Venus is the planet that rules love). Yes, I am that crazy about love and crazy in love with my husband.

I’m very lucky in love, and I think it’s because I have given it a lot of thought! I found my perfect Ken and he thinks I look like Barbie. What a doll he is! Pun intended. :-P For our next wedding, I make collages on the computer. Thanks internet and Publisher…you’re a crazy-passionate girl’s best friend! :-)

The Dream Come True!

xo

jbnewcomb<3

If I were a...

My hubby was me asking a bunch of questions on states of consciousness at 1am one evening that I actually had to think about. Because we have two children, one an infant, my mind was barely able to think at that hour.

To "get him back", I asked him a bunch of questions in return. Turns out mine were too easy. ;-)

I thought it would be fun to ask myself these questions and post the answers here. Do they say a lot about me? Maybe. :-) For each, I wrote the first thought that came to my mind. If you want to have some light-hearted fun, ask your sweetheart to fill in the blanks...better yet, I'd love to see your answers in the comments.

If I were a...

milkshake, I'd be cookies and cream.
car, I'd be an Astin Martin V-12 Vanquish...vroOOM.
flower, I'd be a gardenia.
song, I'd be Magic's in the Make-up by No Doubt.
element, I'd be earth, of course {I'm a Taurus ;-)}
color, I'd be periwinkle.
shape, I'd be a circle.
fabric, I'd be lace.
season, I'd be Spring.
animal, I'd be a white Tiger.
part of a house, I'd be the master bedroom.
chakra, I'd be the throat chakra.
body part, I'd be the eyes.
painting, I'd be Botticelli's Venus {same as hubby :-)}
statue, I'd be Venus (remember, I loooove love!)
goddess, I'd be Venus, the goddess of love, of course!
metal, yellow gold.
drink, I'd be iced tea.
flavor, I'd be chocolate.
scent, I'd be freshly baked apple pie.

He asked me if there was a purpose to these questions. I smiled and said, "No, you were just asking me a bunch of questions, so I thought I would too."

My Darling Hubby :-)   

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Mole! Chocolate in Mexican Food

Only because of a Dora the Explorer episode did I know that chocolate was used in Mexican cooking. I love the way chocolate sounds in spanish: chaw-co-la-tay! Mmmmm...sounds even yummier!

I have an enormous amount of cocoa powder leftover from a Sam's shopping trip I made when I'd had the intentions of baking cookies for my whole family and closest friends. This was around the time I started getting serious about cooking, but still hadn't realized how much work it is to make 15 dozen cookies (and not eat them all).

My favorite recipes site is All Recipes because, among many reasons, you can search by ingredient(s). I searched "cocoa powder" in the main dish section, and came up with Mole sauce. Now another great thing about this site is that people rate and review recipes and always have some tips to offer to make the recipe even better. I always read these because 99 times out of 100, people rate the recipe based on what they did, and not what the recipe called for.

Mole sauce sounded fabulous! Chocolate on meat! I've died and gone to heaven! I changed the recipe according to the comments and because I am starting to better understand cooking in general, I added my own twist. ;-)




Mole Sauce:
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, minced
About 1 cup tomato sauce
1 10oz (maybe 10.75?) can of green chiles and diced tomatoes
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cinnamon (sounds like a lot, but it's perfect!)
2 teaspoons cumin

Directions
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion until tender, add garlic and cook for a minute or two, but don't let it brown. Mix in cocoa powder, cinnamon, and cumin. Stir in the tomato sauce and green chiles and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Transfer to a gravy boat or pour directly over food to serve.

I've been loving to cook chicken in a way I saw on the Barefoot Contessa, so I layered half the mole sauce on the bottom of a baking dish and placed boned chicken thighs (you can use boned breasts too) and cooked them at 400 degrees until the thermometer read the proper temperature. After the chicken was done, I served it with mole on top! BIG HIT in my house! Let me know if you tried it!

Cocoa pods...I wonder if these can grow in Florida!

xo
jbnewcomb<3

Chocolate is My Therapy of Choice

Ok, so I know it's not wise to use food as therapy, but it sure works wonders for me!

There's this precious lil angel in my house that just won't stop crying from 8pm 'til about 10:30pm (and sporadically throughout the day). She's my seven week old daughter, Elena. Most of the time, she makes me happier than chocolate. It's the side of her that screams out loud that makes me scream inside, and Chocolate helps to keep me from screaming (too much) on the outside.

So, tonight, the 53rd night of torture, was about to break me. Ok, it did break me, and I told my darling hubby that I needed "some chocolate therapy NOW". Knowing the Mommy Monster was rearing her ugly head, he promptly asked, "what kind?" to make sure he'd administer the right kind of therapy. ;-) "Chocolate on chocolate," I requested with a clearly desperate growl.

He bought me a box of Publix chocolate chip cookies and two bars of Ghirardelli chocolate, one this new flavor that is basically what heaven would taste like if it had a flavor....Sea Salt Soiree...the words melt off the tongue as well as the dark chocolate with sea salt and roasted almonds do...Mmmmm...Mommy is all better now.

When she's happy, she's better than chocolate. ;-)
xo
jbnewcomb<3