Around Here Lately

Hello friends! It’s been a while!

Wow, it’s been quite the ride around here for the last few weeks!

So, I thought I’d give you the nutshell low-down of some of the things that have been happening around here lately!

1. There was a lot of this! My husbands family came to visit in March, which was closely followed by my folks visiting from Germany to celebrate my father’s 70th birthday with us!

{Please ignore my sinusitis induced swollen face!}

 

 

 

And this is the portrait I painted for him as a birthday gift.

 

2. Both my daughter and my husband are currently rehearsing for plays at the local community theater. Two different plays.  Which means rehearsals every night and all weekends between the two of them!

 

{Anna during the performance of her last play!}

 

3. While we got through the winter with very little sickness, it seemed to have caught up with us now. First I went down with some icky sinusitis (right in the middle of my folks visiting!) then the kids went down with something too, even though not nearly as bad. They had the good sense to wait with the real icky stuff until my folks left and Max is still down with it right now, having been home for 4 days, sick!

 

4. I have also had a bit of a redecorating bug, as I have already mentioned, and in addition to being busy sewing a bunch of stuff for the redecorated bedroom (curtains, pillow cases, duvet covers, etc.) I ended up making a few decorative pieces for various spots throughout the house, too.

 

 

 

I’m not quite done yet. I think the living room is next in terms of a redo, which will require quite a bit of DIYing on my part as well. I’m planning on using some of our existing Billy system, but as they don’t make our color anymore, I will most likely have to paint the lot to make it uniform with the extension pieces I am planning on adding and making into a custom “built-in.” However, that is a whole different story and will probably be one of those  “I do a little when I can” kind of projects, as well as a “now that I have this down, let’s paint all the walls while we can and have a minor renovation” type of project.

For now I have, yet again, given my little IKEA drawers another make-over. I think this is the third décor/color change they have been through over the years. I wish IKEA still sold those! They are so much fun to alter!

 

 

4. And while looking for something else I came across the instructions for these little beauties and I just adore them! I’ve made two so far but I think I have a few more in me! Aren’t they so cute?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9qmKE9wN4

 

My idea at the time was to make a paper mache mannequin stuck on a candle holder with a chicken wire skirt for my earrings, but then I cake across these sewn ones and I just had to try them!

One as a pin cushion:

 

 

By the way, for this one, I used a “candle holder” that I made this way from dollar store items.

 

The other is for my earrings:

 

 

I used drawer pulls for the top of the mannequins.

 

5. Of course, there is also always the garden. Lots to do there! Planting, harvesting, processing ... weeding!

 

 

    

 

 

And Mr./Mrs. Squirrel is back too, which would explain the disappearing strawberries!

 

{We caught him/her in the act this morning!}

 

6. Even though I’ve been doing a lot less of the painting kind of art these last few weeks, I have still kept up with  it somewhat. I’ve been working on several faces with the pastel/watercolor/gesso method. Totally new experience for me and really a different style, but I’m loving it!

 

 

7. I am currently really into expressing myself through things other than just paintings, so I am also working on my first art doll!  Totally still a work in progress at this point:

 

 

8. The other thing that’s been rocking my world:

 

 

I love, love, love this pot! It’s amazing! And I’m sure it will be the subject of many a blog post and recipe to come!

For now, let’s just say I haven’t cooked a day without it since I got it!

What is it?

InstantPot is an electric, programmable pressure cooker!

My favorites so far: Perfectly soft boiled eggs in 3 minutes, a full pot of potatoes in 10 minutes, beautiful, rich bone broths/stock in 1 hour (!!!), fluffy brown rice in 20 minutes, whole chicken, incredibly moist and tender in 25 minutes! Oh, and it makes yogurt too (dairy and non-dairy) .... and I get to make it in mason jars!! Oh and dairy-free cheese cake - yep, in the pressure cooker! In 20 minutes!

Basically, it has taken over the function of a pressure cooker, the crock pot, the rice cooker, the yogurt maker and so much more! And the insert is stainless steel, so no issue with non-stick coatings and such!

And non of the scary parts of pressure cooking are involved with this little machine! It has a bunch of built in safety features and  clean-up is so easy!

Anyway, as you can see, I am totally in love with the thing!

If you are interested in knowing more, there’s a nice little video in the amazon listing I linked you to.

And no, I am not affiliated with InstantPot, I just love the pot!

 

9. I’ve been working on quite a few blog posts recently. But they seem to evolve. So, they started out one way and while writing, they turn another way! As a result, I have quite a few blog posts in my draft folder, none ready to post and all in progress. I will get them all to you at some point. I hope!

 

10. There has also been a fair bit of this.

 

Gelli printing is so much fun!