The Costs of Crafting & Creamy-Garlic Seafood Soup

If anyone has ever given you a home-made gift, chances are they didn't do it because they're cheap. Unless the gift was a couple popsicle sticks with googly eyes pasted on them - the person made you a gift because they really, really, really, really like you.

Trust me.  Crafting is expensive and takes a LOT of time.  Especially if you're a perfectionist like myself and my fellow crafters (I'm thinking specifically of Lis and Leigh). 

For her collages, Lis buys beautiful artisan papers from a speciality shop and it takes hours (in a scrunched up position) of cutting and gluing to complete one.  Leigh is constantly sourcing new ingrediants for her bath bombs (shea butter, walnut oil, and vitamin e oils are not cheap) and any bomb that's not a perfect sphere never gets seen by her adoring fans (there must be the equivelent of the "Island of Misfit Toys" for craft projects gone wrong, right?).

My Lovely Owl Collage from Lis

Anyhoo - one of my New Year's resolutions is to think twice before I pull the trigger on crafting supplies.  I already have a closet full of stuff, probably worth the monetary equivalent of a quick jaunt (or two) to Europe.

On to the food (yay!).  The other night Ed made a delicious creamy-garlic seafood soup from the Jan 2010 edition of Cooking Light magazine.  Not only was the soup delicious and good for us, it was also light on the pocket book since he substituted cod for the snapper - and we bought the spices from the bulk section in the spice aisle.  You def. should check this recipe out!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1949686