Chattanooga through Hipstamatic

It's Monday again, why does the weekend always go by way TOO fast?!

My weekend was a ton of fun!  Two of my friends and I drove up to Chattanooga on Friday to visit another friend.  She's been in Chat-town for almost a year and this was the first time I have visited (I'm a bad friend).  We had so much fun checking out the city through good food, beautiful hikes, and yummy cocktails. 

Here's my weekend through Hipstamatic:



I highly recommend visiting Chattanooga if you have never been!  There is tons to do: Ruby Falls, Rock City, Aquarium, hiking, shopping on the North Shore, river cruises, great restaurants and much more. 

~Elizabeth

What I'm Loving Friday

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a terrific week! I'm little hazy this morning from a fun book/wine club last night.  I will definitely need some extra coffee to get me through the day ;-)

What I'm Loving this Friday.....

1.  Catching Fire

2.  freshly Highlighted hair - good bye roots!

3.  Essie's Cocktail Bling nail color

4.  Dream Vacations

6. Yummy recipes

7. Datenight with the BF

8.  Clever Ideas for Leftover Wine Bottles!

9.  MyPublisher Photo Books

10.  Cute Puppies!!

Have a great weekend!

~Elizabeth

New Look

We've been working on a new look for Southern Color - what do y'all think?  I love the new burlap header and all the turqoiuse colors.  I think it is so calm and soothing.  Hopefully it will help to inspire you with crafts, recipes, home decor, and bringing southern style into your life.

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Please let us know if you have any suggestions on how we can make our blog better and/or easier to navigate!

~Julia and Elizabeth

Stripes, Stripes, and More Stripes

I'm almost there...I've almost painted every single room in our house.  Seriously, the only rooms left are the ones with 18 foot ceilings and I think I'll leave those to the experts!

This past weekend I tackled our top floor landing/loft area.  I'm still not exactly sure what I want this area to be used for but I knew it needed to be painted.  The previous paint job wasn't the best and there were a few patches that needed to be repaired.  Unfortunately, we had no idea what paint color was used in the landing so the only way to repair the holes and damage to the walls was to repaint the entire thing. 

I've been dying to try out a new technique and decided this was the best place for it...huge horizontal stripes!  The project was pretty easy - only took half a day - and it turned out better than I expected!!

Step 1: Paint walls lighter color

Step 2: Tape out stripes

This is the most difficult part of the project - luckily my husband was able to help.  We used a level/laser pointer to determine the lines.  While he held the laser pointer in place I taped as fast as I could - football was on and he was dying to get back to the game.

Step 3: Paint lighter color/base color around edges of tape.
Step 4: Once lighter paint is dry paint darker color.

Step 3 is crucial - this insures that you will have clean lines with no bleeding.

Step 5:  Remove tape while paint is still damp - I waited 15 minutes after I finished painting before I pulled up the tape

Here's the finished product!

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For now I think this will be a yoga/exercise area but I'm sure that will change in a couple of months.  In the year and half we've lived in this house the loft has been an office with a desk and chair and then it was a tv room.  I can't seem to figure out what to use this space for - any suggestions?

~Julia



Homemade Sushi

I hope y'all had a great weekend!! We celebrated my friend Laura's birthday on Saturday by taking a Hip Hop dance class at Dance 101 and then going to brunch at Parish.  It was a great way to spend a rainy Saturday. 

Happy (official) Birthday Laura!

Because of the yucky weather, the BF and I decided to stay in that night and do dinner & a movie. He has literally been telling me for over a year how amazing his sushi is and he's right! We finally made sushi together!

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Super H Mart in Atlanta is a great Asian market.  We found seaweed wraps, short grain rice, rice vinegar, soy sauce and siracha.  You could probably find most of this stuff at a normal grocery store, but it was a fun experience. 

What you'll need:

Sashimi grade fish: we used tuna and smoked salmon

Seaweed wraps

Short grain white rice

Rice Vinegar

Sugar

Salt

Fresh Veggies (your choice)

Soy Sauce

Siracha Sauce

Bamboo mat to roll up the sushi

The longest thing to cook is the rice.  We used this recipe.

While the rice is cooling, prep all the veggies and fish. 

We used carrots, avocado, green apples, cucumbers and red peppers.  Cut the veggies in long, slender slices.  This will make it easier to roll.



For our fish, we used sashimi tuna and smoked salmon.

Rolling your Sushi:

Step 1: lay out the bamboo mat with the seaweed wrap.

Step 2: spread out a thin layer of rice.

Step 3: on the edge, lay out your choice of fish and veggies.



Step 4: begin rolling ~ try to make it as tight as you can.

Step 5: slice in one inch wide pieces and arrange on a plate.

Step 6: Enjoy!!

We used about 0.7 lbs of fish, 5 sheets of seaweed wraps and 2 cups of rice.  This portion was huge ~ it could easily serve 5 people.

I like to dip my sushi in a mixture of soy sauce and siracha sauce - yum!

After dinner we watched "Midnight in Paris" with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams.  It was a strange movie. It's about a writer visiting Paris for inspiration.  Each night as he walks the streets he is transported back to the 1920's where he meets Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso.  The movie just ends with him staying in Paris.  I'm not sure if I would recommend it.

However, we did enjoy delicious gingerbread ice cream sandwiches.  I used this recipe for the cookies and a vanilla caramel ice cream - yum!!

Happy Monday!

~ Elizabeth 

Photography 101

I have always enjoyed taking pictures so I was thrilled to unwrap my Christmas present to find the DSLR I've been wanting!!  Only problem...I've never had a DSLR camera before so I don't really know how to use it.

So I've signed up for a 10 week beginners digital photographer class at the university I work at.  Classes start next Wednesday and I can't wait to get started!!  The goal is to learn how to take amazing pictures by the time we have kids...hopefully 2 years will be long enough! 

Before class though  I need to find the perfect camera bag and I definitely don't want the boring black generic camera bag.  Here's what I'm thinking:

I love all of the storage in this bag made by Darby Mack ... just trying to justify the price

I love this bag at Ketti Handbag ... too bad it's sold out :(

In ten weeks I hope I'm taking pictures like this:

Picture from I Heart Faces

Love the pictures from Mom tog



The only thing left in order for me to become an amazing baby photographer....babies!  Yep, I guess an actual baby would help.  Any soon to be mommies out there willing to let me practice my new found skills in 10 weeks?  

~Julia