My Newest Obsession. . .

I have only two words. Iced. Mocha. Oh man. I love coffee, but I especially love mochas. Now that I’ve learned how to make them at home… oh man. My waistline is going to be very, very sorry. My tastebuds, on the other hand, are throwing a party and planning a parade in my honor as we speak (type? read??).

I went to my local Starbucks and picked up a 1 lb bag of ground coffee. I brought it home, dumped the whole thing into a large, 1 gallon pitcher and filled it up the rest of the way with hot water from the tap. I gave it a stir for good measure, covered it with a towel and let it sit on the counter overnight for about 12-14 hours. I needed some way to strain it, but all I really had was a tiny little strainer or a big flour sifter. I used the flour sifter. :P So anyway, I strained it into another pitcher of the same size, covered it with a lid, and put it in the fridge.

When I get ready to make the Iced Mocha…

I put ice in the bottom of a glass…

Fill it up about 1/4 – 1/3 of the way with the cold coffee… Depending on how much of a coffee flavor you like. I prefer just a hint myself.

Fill it the rest of the way with milk (2% for me).

Give a *good* squeeze of chocolate syrup… Maybe 1-2 tablespoons? If you don’t add enough you won’t really be able to taste it.

If you’re feeling naughty, go on and add a little sugar too. When I’m too lazy to get a big bag of sugar out, I just skip this step and it’s still good. :D

Now give it a good stir. And if you’re feeling really, REALLY naughty… Top it with some whipped creme and more chocolate. :D :D :D

If I could only drink one thing for the rest of my life- this would be it. :D

Sorry about the spilled milk. I really think I need to go make another one and redo this photoshoot. What do ya’ll think? ;)

Oh! And before I forget! We have some WINNERS!!! :)

The winner of the January kit is # 2 – Brittany!! Congratulations Brittany!!!

The winner of the February kit is #55 – Becky S!! Congratulations Becky!!!

The winner of the March kit is #87 – Kay!! Congratulations Kay!!!

Email me to claim your prize! :) There is also a winner for the April kit so head on over to Crystal’s blog to see if you won!! :)

Thanks for looking- keep your eye out for the next one! ;)

Filed Under: Favorite Recipes, Photography • 35 Comments

New pics! New Recipe!

Hey, just wanted to share a new pic from this weekend. :) I feel like I just haven’t been taking a whole lot of pics of us lately, so I’ve been trying to take one on Sunday afternoons before night church recently. Yes, I know, you probably recognize this background from the last pic. ;) But it’s the only room in the house that has even remotely decent lighting.. :p

{ new recipe! } red beans & rice

I also wanted to share a new recipe!! This is my newest go-to meal when I need something quick, easy, filling and delicious. Red beans & rice is the definition of comfort food to me, because the first time I had it, my bestie friend Stewy made it for me when we stayed with him in Atlanta after having Lasik. The surgery was pretty rough for me, so here’s what my day was like: Didn’t eat anything all day, had the surgery, went back to Stewy’s house, pitched an ever-loving FIT because I did not want to put my eye drops in (stung too bad to open my eyes), took this amazingly wonderful sleeping pill that knocked me out, slept for 6 hours, woke up at 11 pm and ate 2 huge helpings of red beans & rice. That was in December. I’ve probably made it once a week since then.

This is Stewy. He made me red beans & rice. It was goooood. Stewy got the recipe from his friend who made it for him when he was visiting him in New Orleans. It’s authentic. He was down there cheering for Auburn in the 2004 season Sugar Bowl. BTW, if you guys don’t hear from me in a while it’s because Stewy has killed me for calling him Stewy in public.

:D

So! Did ya’ll like last week’s giveaway?? Are you ready for another one?? :) Who here has heard of Project 365? (raise your hand) Who here likes to digital scrapbook? (raise your hand) Who here would LOVE to win a *gorgeous* digital scrapbooking kit made by the lovely and talented Crystal Wilkerson – famous designer at twopeasinabucket.com?? (raise your hand!!! :D) Even if you haven’t really started digital scrapbooking yet, Crystal’s kits make it *super* easy. I think these are great kits for beginners, because she includes templates and all you have to do is drag in your pictures, add your journaling, add a few of her beautiful embellishments and POOF! You have your FIRST digital scrapbooking page ever!! :)

These are Crystal’s January, February and March kits. { Click to enlarge } You may recognize some of the elements from Crystal’s March kit from my blog! Seriously, her March kit is one of *the* most versatile digital scrapbooking kits I have *ever* seen. I think it is a must-have for anyone- whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting to be curious about digital scrapbooking! And that’s why I want you to have it! I’m teaming up with Crystal and we’re going to be giving away one kit from her Project 365 collection once a month here at kevinandamanda.com! Since it’s already March, we’re going to play catch up and have THREE winners this time!! One will win January’s kit, one will win February’s kit, and one will win March’s kit! To be entered to win one of Crystal’s Project 365 Digital Scrapbooking kits, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. One entry per person, please! The winners will be chosen by their comment numbers, which will be picked by Random.org’s number generator. Contest will run until 11:59 pm CST on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009. But that’s not all! Want to win April’s kit?? Head on over to Crystal’s new blog and leave a comment to win the April 2009 Project 365 kit! April’s kit won’t be given away over here so don’t be shy! Go on over there and introduce yourself to Crystal. ;) And stay tuned! May’s kit will be next! ;)

Thanks for looking!!!

Filed Under: Favorite Recipes, Giveaways, Photography • 117 Comments

new fonts are here!

Guess what! We have new fonts!! :) As promised, the last 14 fonts of February are finally here!! And I  made one extra just this afternoon, so there are 15 new fonts to download. Head on over to the Fonts for Peas blog and check ‘em out! Download til your heart’s content. ;)

29 fonts in a little over a month! I think that’s a new record. ;) With all this font cuteness on the brain, I have been doodling like crazy lately. And somewhere in the mess of all that chicken scratch I came up two fonts of my own to share with ya’ll! So while you’re over there, sneak a peek at my two fonts: kevinandamanda & kevinandamanda funky!

Another new font this time is Pea Stacy Tunibug, a super cute alpha from the same gal who drew the awesome Pea Stacy’s Doodle fonts (The font is named after her puppy, Tunibug!)

And in case you’ve been wondering about (or drooling over :D) the font in my sidebar titles, I am happy to reveal it as Pea Heather’s Handwriting font! In addition to her totally hip alpha, she also has this doodle phrases font that is to die for!

There are so many more that wouldn’t fit in the picture! There are days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and lots of holiday greetings!!

In other news, I gave the main fonts page a bit of a makeover… I noticed through my webpage stats that it’s the most viewed page on my entire site. It gets more hits than even my blog! I had originally redesigned the new page to look like this:

Actually, you can still see a live version of this design here. I liked the design, but I didn’t know if it was obvious that you could click on the screenshots to go to the Fonts for Peas and Free Scrapbook Fonts site. With all the new traffic lately, if people landed on that page looking for the Fonts for Peas, I didn’t want them to be confused. So I redesigned it like this:

See the live version here. This design makes it much more obvious I think. ;) But what do ya’ll think? Do you like the new one (brown background)? The old one (blue background)? Do I use way too many graphics on this site?? (Wait, don’t answer that.) It’s really hard to be objective about your own site. *Ü*

And that’s all in font news, BUT! There’s still one more thing to post!! :D We have a winner from the first ever kevinandamanda.com blog giveaway!!! :D

The winner of the custom illustration from April Shower’s Blog Design is #33 – Rebecca!!

Congrats Rebecca! I can’t wait to see the new digital version of you! ;) Or whatever you decide to have illustrated.. Just be sure and post it on your super cute blog! ;)

Thanks so much for playing everyone and I hope you like the new fonts!!

Filed Under: Free Fonts! • 14 Comments