The Culinary Master (ok not so much)

This week I've been thinking a lot about food and how to make EASY meals for my family on a budget. I scoured the Internet (and the oh-so-handy Epicurious app for my Kindle) and came across a real gem. Fiance is known for loving (seriously LOVING) hot wings but they are very messy to make and eat and the battering and frying of chicken parts isn't all that healthy. What I stumbled across was Buffalo Chicken meatballs. PERFECT for a packed work lunch, appetizer, or quick snack. Cook these puppies up and refrigerate (or freeze) until ready to eat then just pop them in the microwave. They smell pretty dang delicious but I'm not a fan of hot sauce. Fiance and Miss Priss give them an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up.



My next cooking experiment is dinner this week. I'm making Pork Carnitas. I got an extra large pork shoulder for this recipe so I can freeze the leftovers (assuming Fiance and Miss Priss don't go all out and devour the whole thing) to use as the stuffing for enchiladas later in the month. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone is a super time saver and I'm all about making things easier in the long run.

Moss Terrarium for $0

When baby sleeps, mama plays. I *should* be folding laundry and doing the dishes but housework is boring so I decided to make a little terrarium instead. A good friend of mine (Linky to her blog) bought Miss Priss a terrarium for Christmas this year and it seemed like a fun little project to undertake. I had left over potting soil in the garage from  planting our spring vegetable garden, there were a couple of jars sitting around collecting dust in my kitchen cabinet, I used rocks from our driveway, and the moss was growing under a shrub in the backyard. Oh and I have a ton of polymer clay to make little mushrooms to decorate with so this project literally cost me nothing...$0.

Mossy in my flower bed

So first things first: clean your jar(s). A little soap and water to knock all the dust off.
2. Go outside and put some rocks or gravel at the bottom of your jar. This will help with drainage and prevent mold from building up.
3. put some potting soil or dirt in your jar.
4. add moss and arrange so it looks pretty. At this point you can plant a tiny little shade plant in your terrarium if you want to. I just stuck with the moss.
5. put a little water in your jar and wait for it to soak in. You want your rocks in the bottom to be wet.
6. Add the details. I made some mushrooms out of polymer clay. They were super simple to make. I put a pin in the bottom before I baked them so I'd have a little spike to poke my mushroom down into the moss.

*NOTE*

do not fill your jar too full with soil. I totally failed on my first one. I had no room to add "stuff" because I filled my little jar too full. My second attempt was with a mason jar so it was bigger and the project was more successful.

When I pulled up the moss I left some of the bark
attached. It give it more character

You can also do this project with fake moss and dirt. Here a couple of examples.

The lull between projects

I've finished some projects this past week but I'm not ready to publish them yet so I thought I'd share with you one of my passions
painting.
One of my fondest memories growing up was going to my grandmas house and watching her paint. She paints with oils, draws with pencil, charcoal and pastels, and she even used to own a ceramic shop. She is a true artist. I remember walking with my sisters and cousins to her ceramic shop and collecting the broken or discarded pieces of clay and using them as chalk on the sidewalk outside her store. My sisters and I used to paint a ceramic ornament to put our school picture in each year for the Christmas tree (one day I'm hoping to steal these little treasures from my mother for my own tree).

When I was about 10yrs old or so my grandmother decided to give my little sister, my cousin, and I a few painting lessons and I believe it was at this moment my view on art changed drastically. I developed a whole new respect for grandma because being an artist was hard...
like REALLY hard.
I learned all things worth doing are difficult and the pride in the outcome is worth all the frustration and struggle.

This is my first painting...ever (notice the sloppy 4th grader cursive handwriting). I remember Grandma holding my hand in hers and guiding my brush strokes until I got it just right. She taught me how to hold a paint brush correctly and her voice still echos in my brain to this day when I pick up a brush: "stop holding it like a pencil Missy."

This is the second painting I did. I was 11 or 12 yrs old at the time (notice I gave up on the cursive). There are far less "examples" and far more of my own brush strokes by now and in just a few lessons my ability to paint leaves improved drastically. My cherries however, look like apples. Perspective...something I still struggle with to this day.

By the time I was 14 or 15 I was on my own. Grandma gave me the basic skills to do the job and it was all on me to use my creativity and knowledge to create a masterpiece. I chose a purple rose. This is the painting I am the most proud of. This is the first piece of art I did 100% on my own. Grandma was always there to offer some guidance but all brush strokes belonged to me. I entered this into the fair and won first place. It was a very happy moment.

I did one more painting when I was a teenager and then packed up my brushes, paint, and creativity to focus on high school and choir and family and life.

After a long hiatus I started up again when I was 22yrs old. After completing my first painting in what seemed like an eternity I realized I forgot to apply 90% of what grandma taught me. 

It was a horrible piece of artwork

Back to square one.

After re-teaching myself much of what I was taught 10 years prior (and a few "I don't know what I'm doing" pleas to Grandma) I finally got it down.

Please excuse the poor photo quality on some of these (please note these are NOT in chronological order):

Sunset

Midnight at the park

Fjord



Study

My first painting using acrylics

Hibiscus

coffee beans.

Brooklyn Bridge experiment
using Gesso

Summer Stream

Morning Sky

I've learned that there is beauty in everything...its all around us. Its hard to see at times because our view is shaddowed, darkened, and narrowed by lifes unexpected trials and tribulations. By opening our eyes and finding the right collor pallet, the beauty around us shines through even the darkest of times.

I stopped painting again when I got pregnant with Lil E. Apparently inhaling Oil paints and paint thinner is bad for fetal development (pout). Now that Lil E is here I have a list of painting projects that will last me for years. I better get started before I forget how to paint again :)

Mother's Day Photo collages

I wanted to do something special for the Mom's and Grandma's this year for mothers day. I saw this idea hanging up at our local Craft Warehouse (my most favorite store in the world) and it looked easy enough. Here is an example of what we are going to make today...sorta.

SUPPLIES

1. Canvas. Any size. Just make sure its big enough to fit all your minis onto it
2. Mini Canvas. I used 2 different sizes:  3x3 and  4x4
3. Paint and brushes
4. scrapbook paper (optional)
5. Scissors
6. Good strong glue. I used E-600
7. vinyl lettering, a poem, or a picture
8. Family photos
9. embellishments (optional)





INSTRUCTIONS

Paint and let dry completley.

Mixed yellow and white to make a pale yellow

This is silver. I had to use multiple coats for this color

Cut your craft or scrapbook paper to size
















Glue the scrapbook paper and embellishments onto the canvas

Cut photos to size and glue onto the mini canvas

Arrange mini canvas onto the larger canvas and glue into place

Follow the directions on the packaging for the vinyl lettering to transfer it to your canvas

AND THATS IT!

Here are a few others I made:

Update: Busy Crafting Week

This past week has been super busy with crafty things. Ive made Mother's Day gifts for my mom and grandma, and my fiances mom and grandma. The post for this is already created. I'm just waiting until after Sunday to hit "publish" so I don't ruin their surprise. On top of that I made a gift for a bridal shower coming up in the next few weeks and hand painted some glasses.

I may or may not have tested my glasses out already
with a wine cocktail...or two

Miss Priss and Lil E have both been challenging this past week mainly because we all have crazy stupid allergies. Miss Priss has been quietly (mostly...between the sniffles and nose blowing) playing her computer games this week and Lil E has been taking lots of naps, giving this mama some much needed time to get these little projects done. I thought this week would be much worse then it has been due to Fiance being out of town on business but honestly, the allergy season ripping through our household has been a blessing. Am I a bad mom for being glad the kids are drowsy and drugged up on allergy medicine?

I'm hoping everyone gets better before Sunday because this will be the first time (ever) we will host a holidy at our house. Mother's Day BBQ with 20 people in our little, cozy home.
It should be interesting to say the least.

DIY Painted Glassware

So last weekend I decided I wanted to do an art project.
Then I remembered I'm not very creative so I scoured the internet looking for ideas. I wanted to do something that seemed easy and was cheap as I didnt want to spend a ton of money on a complete failure of a project. I found a TON of websites about handpainting wine glasses. I thought to myself, "I'm artistic I can do this!" and "I oil paint on canvus, how much more difficult could this possibly be!?"
*SIGH*
I realized with my first brush stroke that I have unusually shakey hands and cannot draw a striaght line for the life of me. This is very bad for detail work and fine lines. The following is my not so handy work:

SUPPLIES:

I taped my picture to the inside of the glass and (tried to) trace the picture with the enamel paint. After cussing numorous times and wiping it clean to start over twice I finally (sort of) got to right. Once it dried I followed the directions on the paint bottle which was to put the glass in a COLD oven and heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 30 min and then let the glass cool off in the oven. These are now dishwasher safe :)







THE FINISHED PRODUCTS:

They are Flip Flops...Not my best artwork for sure