This weekend should be filled with lots of cleaning, designing, planning, and of course seeing close friends and family.  I hope it also involves a warm fireplace (it is freezing here today), staying in my pj’s, and some good hot cocoa.  To start off my day of designing, I perused my Flickr Favorites (something I should do more often).  It’s interesting to see the images as a whole, and this page is my favorite combination of other talented people’s photos:

What do you plan on doing this weekend?
- Colleen

After recently coming across letterpress studio Pancake & Franks, I’ve fallen in love with their The Sterling Sparrow Suite.  The letterpressed speckled egg and birds nest images are simply perfect.

{images shown belong to Pancake & Franks}

Some lovely brooches, hair pins, necklaces and more from London-based designer Anna Alicia.  Perfect Valentine’s Day gifts!

{images shown belong to A Alicia Handmade Accessories}

With yesterday full of dark grey skies and never-ending rain, these images from Bornay‘s blog are a welcome sight.  The textures are fabulous.

God, I can’t wait for spring.  (Found via Oh Joy!)

{images shown belong to Bornay}

Not sure if it’s the season for crows, but I’ve been seeing a lot of them lately.  One very early morning after dropping my husband off at work at 6:00 am, I was driving home and upon stopping at a red light I heard a very loud noise over my car heater and radio.  I shut off all the interior noise and rolled down my window, looked up at a tree in front of me and realized it was a huge flock of crows.  The tree was completely full, there must have been close to 200 of them.  The noise was literally deafening.  I sat there with my eyes and mouth wide open, wishing someone else could be in the car with me to experience this strange situation.  The image was so surreal with the sky still completely dark and the black silhouettes of the tree and crows against it.  This sound clip is similar, but honestly would have to be reproduced about 3-5 times to match the loudness of those crows.  I have also yet to find a photo that can match how many crows were in that tree.

Then, twice this past weekend we had flocks of crows in the backyard, sitting in the trees and again “cawwing” and squawking and making all sorts of noise.  I’m beginning to wonder why I keep seeing large groups of them, which by the way is called a “murder of crows.”  It’s making me slighty nervous.  I wonder if seeing large amounts of crows is an ominous sign for something…

{image shown belongs to MissusK}

Images from Pia Jane Bijkerk’s visit to the Vaucluse House in Sydney, Australia.  I am such a sucker for black and white diamond floors.  Someday I must have a hallway with them.  By the way, these photos totally remind me of Vermeer paintings.

{images belong to Pia Jane Bijkerk}

Check out this gorgeous valentine from Hello Handmade (found via 100 Layer Cake).  My favorite parts are the incredible calligraphy (by the very talented Betsy Dunlap) and the wax seal.  Definitely something I wouldn’t mind receiving this February 14th.

{images shown belong to Hello Handmade}

Upon checking out Flickr today, I happened to glance at their blog and noticed the incredible photos of libraries and bookstores from around the world.  I am totally in love with that staircase from the bookstore in Portugal in the first photo.

{images shown belong to delviking, FriskoDude, and Bert K respectively}

I love homemade chicken soup.  I could probably make it every week and still want more.  I always buy an entire rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and pull the entire thing apart for the soup, so there’s a mix of dark and white meat.  For years I would simply throw away the leftover bones immediately afterward, until I realized I was wasting the rest of the chicken.  For the last few months with every chicken that I buy, as soon as I’ve finished removing all the meat I use the remains to make chicken stock.  It’s so much better (and better for you) than the containers you’ll buy at the grocery store, and you’re getting every last penny out of what you purchased.  And best of all, you won’t be wasting the rest of the bird, and it feels good to know I’m using every part that I can.

The best advice I can give is make sure to throw in vegetables (onions, carrots, celery) and herbs (fresh parsley, bay leaves) when you make the stock, and always let it very gently simmer.  Also, don’t forget to skim often (and don’t throw that down the drain!  It can clog your pipes.)  I like to make the stock the day before I make the soup, so that it can sit overnight in the fridge, and the next day I can skim any remaining fat off the top.  If you don’t need the stock right away, it freezes well for several months.  Here’s the recipe that I use:

How to Make Chicken Stock (from Simply Recipes)

{image shown belongs to elana’s pantry}

Some images from my walk through our Audubon Sanctuary with my husband over the weekend.  Even in the middle of winter, there is still so much to see.

{for more of my snow images, check out my Flickr}