My daughter's spouse was just announced as a semifinalist in the James Beard annual Food and Media Awards, often referred to as the “Oscars of Food.” Since Harana Market, which they own, is right down the road from my other daughter and her family, they all rushed over for lunch. The James-Beard-Nominated-Chef shouted out loud that Elliott was their favorite customer. We'll know if Chris advances to the next round in April. Fingers seriously crossed, but even the nomination is an awesome honor. (And yes, Elliott is sporting a hand-knit-by-me scrappy jacket.)

This Enigma template layout took on a bit of a life of its own in terms of colors and textures. As I always do, I tweaked the template somewhat, making the photos as large as possible since I print at 8x8. I turned off all the artistry layers and then placed the WordART Cluster and then wrote my journaling, jiggling it to fit with the cluster. I also had to sub out the top frame because the rounded corners didn't work with the close crop on the nomination announcement. Once this was all done, I added a solid background from Enigma, and proceeded to turn on the template layers one at a time, choosing what to keep, alter, or discard. And then I added the purple brushes--a circle stain to the list of nominees and a recipe card to define the doorway.