Latest Art, Clay Inspiration, and Soup

As you may already know- I have 2 shows coming up!!!!  Exciting- YES! slightly nerve wracking- yes indeed!

So- in turn, I've been painting a lot- which is always wonderful...I keep thinking to myself..."if I can make a career out this- how amazing would that be???"  this is something I've been doing for years- but to be able to do it, and make a living out of it- now that would be unbelievable.  I'll keep you posted on that front!

Here are some work shots from the past week

These first two are painted on clayboard- a hard- smooth substrate that I've used when I took the encaustics workshop- I thought I'd give it a try.  Although I like the paintings- I think the absorbency and texture of canvas fits this series better.

I also bought 1 of these quick wooden frame kits (they come in all sorts of sizes, are real wood, and a snap to assemble!) to try out on the board painting, I think it finishes it off nicely!  I have 4 of these board paintings completed, (6" x  6") for the upcoming shows.

and recent inspiration

this brings me to this amazing gift I received from Shug yesterday...

this pottery is SO beautiful.  We had pieces of it around the house growing up- and now I have my own piece:)  It's from a place in Dartmouth MA- called Salt Marsh Pottery.  check out their site!

#1- I LOVE salt marshes:)
#2- I really love clay and pottery
#3- particularly, their pieces and process inspire me beyond belief- (something I didn't even make the connection to until I received this little bowl the other day is that the process they use for their pottery- is similar to my current painting/printing process- so cool!

Look at this adorable sea horse bowl

and this goregous trivet! (both pictures from their website!)

Thank you Mom!


I'd like to end this post with a delicious picture of today's lunch (and yesterday's dinner)- as I was gobbling it up I was thinking to myself -"jeez- I should have taken process pics to do a post on this recipe because it's SOOO good"- so my sister stopped for lunch and said- just post the recipe (it is pretty simple and self explanatory- so- here it is!

Creamy Vegan Potato, Corn, Kale Chowder

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion (diced)
2 Tbsp flour
2 medium potatoes (cubed)- sweets would be good too!
11/2 cups fresh, frozen, or canned corn (in order of preference)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
4 cups veggie broth
salt and pepper
3 cups finely chopped kale

Finely chop onion- add to pan with EVOO- saute until transparent- sprinkle flour on top of cooking onions, stir to combine- cook medium high 1 min. Add cubed potatoes, corn, minced garlic and salt and pepper- cook 5 min- until potatoes start to brown. Add broth- bring to a boil- boil 6 minutes- turn down to simmer- simmer until potatoes are to desired tenderness- remove from heat- add chopped kale- stir to combine, cover until ready to eat!

I served it last night with the delicious sweet potato biscuits posted here,  and today at lunch with toasted garlic cheesy naan (a staple purchase in the Trader Joe's frozen food isle:)

Enjoy!

Christmas Recap

Ohhhh it was a good Christmas this year!

It was relaxing, fun, tasty, not-too-fast, not-too-slow, magical, wintry- and.... just nice.

Here is my photo recap- I will be back later in the week with some AMAZING recipes for y'all!  The food this year was some of the best!!!

We started celebrating last weekend with D's family.  We decided a few years back to simplify things and we go to his family on Thanksgiving- and mine on Christmas (and we do Christmas with his family the week before).

At Grammy's we visited with family and friends, and attended the children's Christmas service at her church after feasting on some delicious food!  We i.e- Moses almost lasted the whole service;)

For this week's Christmas celebration- we started the weekend off having a leisurely Christmas Eve day at my parents house out in the country.  It was the most relaxed Christmas we've had since becoming parents...hands down.

I know I've talked about my mothers decorating in previous posts- but I thought I'd share a few of my childhood favs-  country Christmas decorations...perfect for their old farm house.

While we cooked and baked and nibbled on sweet goodies- Z chilled in front of Rudolf with Daddy (first time watching it- she was scared of the snow monster:(

and the little man wandered the house- getting into just about everything he possibly could.  Here he is looking at the birds out in the back yard (while smashing his half eaten apple into the window....sorry Mom)

After Mosie's nap and opening some gifts we headed over to my Aunt and Uncles for our anual Christmas Eve celebration (with Mom's side of the family).

Here's my Grandma Phyllis, holding cousin Melinda's sweet, sweet angelbaby Benjamin (only 5 days old!)

Here, there was more delicious food- lots of silly business...

           

and, of course- SANTA!!! 

Now- if you know me- you know that I have been battling with the whole Santa-thing as my children get older and aware- but the look in little Z's eyes in the picture says it all- pure magic:)

Then- we went home and put the babes to bed- and prepared for Christmas morning....

My little gadget guy had a hay day with the kids digital camera

(I will post some of his pictures another day...I promise:)

Zella made us this lovely ornament at school...so sweet!

She also made these amazing snowmen for various family members-

I have a thing for children's art- being a former art teacher- but these are just too cute right?!  Here's my favorite, check out the ridiculous little nose...

Sorry for the tangent- back to Christmas...

and if you are still reading- BLESS YOUR HEART

This is why I was so frazzled the other day- Christmas around here is a 2 week marathon ...

After Christmas morning at our house we went back to Mom and Dad's neck of the woods to spend Christmas day with Dad's side of the family- where we had- hands down- the best meal of the YEAR- that's right- all of 2010.

Oh- was it good!!!! (like I said- I will do a followup post with recipes- but I must say- the yellowish portion at the top right of my plate was this INSANE corn casserole that Mom tried this year for the first time and it was unreal- like, I've been dreaming about it;)

Here's my other Grandma- Grandma Jennie. 

I feel so grateful and blessed to have been able to celebrate Christmas this year with both of my grandmothers. They are such strong, special woman- and they have both had some health issues this year- so it made it an extra sweet Christmas all around!

Here's the hostess with the mostess:)  Mom- YOU ROCK!

Zella was in RARE-FORM.  Here she is about halfway through her 35 min. set- performing her rendition of The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

After much merriment (and entertainment) along with a fabulous dinner- we moved onto dessert.  And in my family- when it comes to dessert- we DO NOT PLAY!

Celebration of  family, new life, health, togetherness, magic, spirituality, giving and living.

It was indeed a very merry Christmas this year!

How To Make: a quick personalized photo album cover

I am in full Christmas crafting, wrapping, painting, cooking madness over here!

I had this last minute gift idea for the angelbabies.  We have a little photo album that was Zella's as a baby that has a bunch of pics of her, and pics of family members in it.  She loved it when she was younger- and still enjoys looking through it- but most of all Moses loves it!  It's sad to say- but it holds true-that the 2nd does get slighted a little bit- so Moses has not had his own photo album to look at- and Zella's is getting a little ratty.

I decided to buy 2 inexpensive photo albums- (that seemed pretty sturdy) from our local drug store. They were 6$ a piece.  I bought them- despite the cheesy (in my humble, picky opinion) writing on the front,  and decided to whip up a quick, personalized collage on the front of each of them to cover up the less-than-favorable writing.

Here it is as it was when I bought it:

Here are the materials I used- various pens, scissors, craft glue, and Mod-Podge (gloss luster finish- shiny is always better;) If you haven't used it- it's a fabulous multi-purpose glue/glaze/sealer for decoupage (technically)- and it's fabulous!  It's what I used as a top coat on my custom drawer pulls on the kids dressers.  All this stuff is available at your local Walmart or arts and craft supply store.

Then I rummaged through my jam-packed scrap paper box in my studio.  In it- there are years worth of scraps- all sorts of papers.  The most exciting thing I save and use frequently for quick homemade cards (I rarely buy a card), gift tags, invitations, etc. is old calenders and book covers.

You see- one day, as Moses was ripping another book cover off of our extensive collection of hardcover children's books- I realized- "hey- I should be saving these and using them for collages"- so, ever since then I have been.  They give a great splash of color in a collaged card!

Below is the calendar page I used for Zella's album cover- it's from our 2009 calendar- which I've used  for at least 10 projects!

It was a Wolf Kaan calendar- love the vibrant colors in his paintings- so beautiful!

Here are the finished products! (they were still a little wet when I shot the photos- but the Mod-Podge dries to a clear finish)

I stuck a collection of their favorite photos in the the first 10 pages or so- and there's room for me to add more photos over time.  I still need to add a little picture of each of them in the front window...

Cute right?