Happening Around Here Lately

1.) Storing paint.

The other day I had one of those forehead-smacking, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that kind of moments when I read somebody’s tip to storing acrylic paint!

Up until then, I would paint a little dot of the color in the bottle on top of the lid, so I could easily find my colors. The problem is, that it required me to open all the bottles, had to wait for the dot to dry before I could store them and quite often, depending on what light I had in the studio, the dots wouldn’t show the subtle color differences clearly enough!

Well, turns out there’s a much easier way!

Store them upside down!! No-brainer, right?

Not only does it make color recognition much easier, it also helps with easily dispensing the paint in the bottles that are less than all the way full. And, it also stops the paint from drying out if the cap happens to be on less than perfectly closed.

2.) A quote for today. This has been so true for me lately. Well, it’s true all the time, let’s say it has been more relevant lately!

“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith!”

-Margaret Shepard

 

3.) Inexpensive Light Box.

I used to have a lovely light box for tracing, embossing and pretty much anything I needed to have illuminated from behind. The last time I pulled it out of the cupboard to use, I saw that the D batteries had dumped all their not so lovely content all inside the light box and essentially irreparably ruined it.

When I went to look for a replacement, I remembered just HOW expensive these thing were. And honestly, I don’t really need anything terribly sophisticated - I just need something that doesn’t take up too much space and shines a reasonably bright light through various thicknesses of paper!

I came across this Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad and I thought I’d give it a try. It was less than half of what others cost, and with two young kids in the house, even if it didn’t work for me, it would get used plenty!

Well, let me tell you! I LOVE this thing!

It’s thin, it’s light, it stores away easily, it gives me what I need light-wise and I’ve used it a LOT for quite a few weeks now and I still love it!

What do I use it for? I find I use it for many things, but one of my main uses for a while was sketch transfer.

Well, when I first started doing faces, I realized that I was really holding back because I didn’t want to “ruin” the expensive paper with too much erasing. Yet, I found that if I sketched on cheap paper, I was more willing to experiment and go with the flow. If it didn’t work out, nothing much was lost!

And as a beginner sketcher, you HAVE to practice and have to be willing to make mistakes and “loosen” your wrist and all that. And every once in a while, even while just playing around, you’d manage to create something you actually liked and then how do you get it to your good paper?

So, once I had it sketched onto the cheap paper and to my satisfaction, I would then use the light box to trace it onto my hot-press watercolor paper. Double the work? Yes. But it’s worth it to me!

And as I grew/grow more confident, the less I need to do the double sketching.

4.) The big 20/20 event is starting on March 1st! I you haven’t heard yet, I have gotten together with some really talented ladies and we put together 'The Big 20/20 Event'.

The event itself is all about creativity, ideas, instructions and all things inspirational. we have got a whole host of gorgeous contributors on our team, and they have some fantastic tutorials to share with you.

Here is a sneak peak of what I will be giving one of my tutorials on.  Yep, I’m doing two!

5.) Yum!

These are grain-free/paleo Spaetzle! So easy to make, so yummy!

I slightly modified this recipe for Paleo Pasta and prepared it in the traditional “Spaetzle way” with the most delicious result. And much less work than pasta!

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The Dust Of Every Day Life ...

1.) Garden Time.

Things have really been heating up around here lately. I mean literally! We’ve suddenly gone to the 90s, just like that! That’s a bit warm for this time of year, even for Phoenix. However, it also meant that I really had to get my planting going in the garden.

So, I spent some glorious hours out there, getting the beds ready, fertilizing with the “stinky fish stuff,” as my kids call it, and  which always causes our cat to lick his way through the garden, walls and all! And then I planted my seedlings.
I tried a new method this year, as I just didn’t want to have all the window sills full of seedlings. It never ends well, with the kids and the cat and soil everywhere. And remembering to water them. It’s odd, I’m ok about remembering to water outside, but inside, unless it’s already part of my routine - not so much!

So, this time around I started everything back in December and outside - but in tea jugs! Apparently this even works for places with real cold and deep snow!

It certainly worked for me. And what’s even better, it was one of those “set it and forget it” kind of things. No watering, no cleaning up spilled soil - just rows of tea jugs on my patio!

 

 

All you need is:

• a clear (mostly) plastic jug of some kind (water, milk, tea, etc.) and even some of the larger plastic juice bottles would work.
• Duct tape or some other well sealing, weather resistant kind of tape.
• Your soil of choice. I like to use the little jiffy pellets that you expand in water. The seedlings never get transplant shock with those and they hold water close to the root longer which is important when you plant in the desert. If you use those, have them soaked and ready to go.
• Seeds of choice.
• A sharp knife, utility knife or pair of scissors (for the thinner type of jug - won’t work with scissors on these thick plastic kind of jugs)

All you do, is to cut the jugs from the right side of the handle (about 2 inches from the bottom of the jug)  toward the front of the jug (opposite of the handle) and around back to about an inch before the handle. So basically you have cut 3 sides of the jug, leaving the handle side of the jug uncut.

You can cut it all the way, but I found that it’s easier to tape everything back together when the jug is still holding all it’s parts together by itself.

 

Bend back the upper part of the jug so you can access the bottom part. Fill with soil or your soaked pellets, and sow your seeds.

Water thoroughly, but not so that everything swims. Just give it a good soak.

Bend back the top part and make sure you write, with a waterproof/fade resistant marker what you put inside!

Now, tape everything up really well along the seam. We want this to be air tight. Replace lid, set outside in a sunny spot and basically don’t touch it until you are ready to plant.

Really, don’t open them to peek. Every time you do, the moisture and heat escapes. And that’s NOT good for your seedlings!

 

So I had a row of mini tea-jug-greenhouses on my patio. I had one for melons, one for squash, one for tomatoes, one for herbs, one for peppers and a couple of other ones I don’t remember now!  Again, make sure you use fade resistant markers! I thought I was being all cute by using different colored sharpies to mark my jugs!  Turns out that the purple sharpies are not nearly as permanent as the other colors!!

Since we have to plant as early as possible to hopefully get a half-way decent crop before the blistering heat sets in again, everything went in over the last few days for me!

 

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Another garden related thing. My 2 new favorites to switch things up in the garden: purple potatoes (just planted) and orange cauliflower (just harvested!) So pretty, so yummy and so good for you!!

 

 

My children are still a tad freaked out about the purple potatoes, however. They say it’s too halloween-y! Who knew there was such a thing!

Hopefully, they will get over it!

 

2.) A quote for today.

 

 

Art continues to be the thing in my life right now, even though this week has been so very busy and I’ve been torn in so many directions, that it’s been hard to finish something.

However, I have learned that there will be times like this. There are times when things seem to be out of balance, either because of too many other, even though necessary, distractions, or because there is a creative dry spell, or, or, or.

I used to worry about those and sometimes I still do. What if it doesn’t pick up again? What if I stay out of balance and out of this delicious flow of creativity, that I have come to treasure,  forever more?

What if I don’t find that good balance between family and work and art and garden and home and my needs and and and again?

But, experience has shown that it often goes in peaks and valleys and that I tend to prolong the more uncomfortable periods by resisting them.

What we resist truly persists, so my goal this week has been to step out of my own way as much as possible, listen to the whispers, to my body and let much of the intensity, I’m experiencing, wash over me and through me.

For me, this week has been a lot about leaning into discomfort and vulnerability, being with it, rather than running or protecting myself from it. It has been about being gentle with myself and  about snatching the little soul dustings of art when I can!

 

3.) Things to come to this blog in March.

As of March 1st, I’ll be taking part in a fabulous event, called “The Big 20/20 Event”.  For twenty days, twenty (more or less) bloggers will be posting twenty different tutorials on their blogs. Every day will be a different tutorial, from a different person, including yours truly!

You won’t have to blog-hop, unless you want to go and check out cool new people and bloggers, everything will be happening right here on my blog - and simultaneously on all the other 20 blogger’s sites! Cool, right?

So, here’s what’s coming:  20 days, 20 terrific tutorials - time to be totally inspired!!!

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5 “must try soon” things I recently found in the blogasphere

1) Faux Canvas Print @ Infarrantly Creative

This is so clever! One of those “why haven’t I thought of that before” things!

 

I love canvas prints and I have a few that I got on very steep sales etc, but for me the problem is that I like to change things up and I just can’t justify paying what canvas prints cost and then wanting to change it out a few months later!

THIS might be my solution, especially for some smaller items hear or there!

 

2) Ribbon Organizer @ Spunky Junky

I have everything already on hand, including a TON of ribbons which are currently organized, but not easily accessible, so I think this might just be the solution for me!

 

 

3) Heart cupcakes with a regular muffin tin!

And this is another one of those clever things! So simple, so effective!! And not just on Valentine’s day, I think this could be an every day trick to get a little more out of your muffin tin!

 

4) Hot Chocolate on a Stick @ Whipperberry

This one is just such a yummy and cute thing to do! I’m thinking hostess gift! I definitely want to try my hand at homemade marshmallows though! I’ve had that on my list for quite a while!

 

 

5) Super cute Ladybug Cupcakes @ The Stories of A2Z

I think those would be the perfect treat for my guys on Valentines day!

 

And here is one that I don’t think I will end up making (again,) but it’s been on my favorites list for a while now and I just LOVE looking at it!

The Valentine’s Day Gift Box of Cake by Bakerella

 

 

What have you found recently that inspired you?

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Randoms

 

1.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas .. well almost! I’m currently getting prepared for the big decoration onslaught!

{Want to guess our color scheme this year? lol}

I will break with tradition this year and put the tree up quite early. Having grown up in Germany, we never had the tree up before the 24th! In fact when we were little we had quite the tradition. My father, my younger brother and me would go to a Matinee (Disney type of movies usually) while Mom would trim the tree and deck the halls!

The revealing of the tree on Christmas Eve evening was always so breathtaking!

However, my  American husband thought that was a little late, as did my children, so they have been wearing me down over the years and the tree has gone up earlier and earlier.

So this year will probably be the earliest I’ve ever put up the decorations.

But the first of Advent has passed, so I think we’re ok :)

 

2. I really wish that makers of flameless candles didn’t feel the need to make the flames look orange!! What’s up with that? They call it a realistic flicker but I have to be honest, none of my candles ever look Halloween orange when they burn!

 

3. The first stop of the SBG Blog Train has been posted! Keep updated on the various stops with the master list on the SBG Blog!

4. There’s the most wonderful smell in this house! I just pulled out my first experiment with gluten-free pumpkin bread (an adaptation of a Bobby Flay recipe) and if it tastes only half as good as it smells, it will be awesome! It needs to cool first though!

Recipe to follow if it’s good

 

5. I’m still waiting on my mantle shelf. I’ve been waiting and waiting to decorate it . Since we don’t have a fireplace and really don’t need one, we also don’t have a mantle. But I really really want to decorate a mangle for the holidays but none of the regularly available ones fit in the space I had in mind.  So I found an etsy seller that makes them to meassure!

Can’t wait to finally get it! It should arrive sometime this week!

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Great Black Friday Offers

I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families yesterday!

So, I thought I’d list a few great Black Friday deals I have come across today!

 

1. Get FREE MP3 Downloads on Amazon!

 

2. Get a free 8”x 10” canvas! Or if you already did but need another canvas, check out their Black Friday Sale which gives 50% off ANY canvas and FREE Shipping!

 

3. There’s also a lot going on over at Snapfish.com

• Check out their Deal of the Day!  They have 60 % off a bunch of items, including photo magnets, ornaments, skins, blankets, posters and address labels!  Use code THANKS1126 (offer good until Nov 26th)
• They also have 35% off photos books and cards! Use code BFSALE35 (offer good until Nov 26th)
• Get 2 FREE PHOTO MUGS when you order holiday cards! Make sure you put the mugs in your cart with the cards you are ordering and use code BFCRD2FR (offer good until Nov 28th)

 

4. And of course, Amazon.com has been having their Black Friday Deals and Gold Box Deals for a few days now! They have been having some great discounts going on!

I got a Flip MinoHD Video Camera - Brushed Metal, 8 GB, 2 Hours and it arrived the next day, which meant we were able to make little Thanksgiving videos! It’s so much fun, so small, so handy! I’ve been eyeing one of those up for quite some time and figured now was the time to go for it!

 

I will continue to update this list as I find things, so stay tuned!

If you have found any great deals in cyberland, please let us know in the comment section too!

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5 “As Seen On TV” Products that actually work

… and I still use them!

Over the years most of us have probably seen one thing or another on late night TV that made us want to jump up and BUY it NOW, because really it promises to do what we SO need it to do. And then you either go and read the reviews and it’s just not good or you actually buy it and end up disappointed, feeling like you totally wasted your money!

 

There are however some things that I found to have really been useful to me and stood the test of time.

1) Magic Bullet.

I put that thing through it’s paces so much, I can’t even tell you. I got it just when my husband and I moved in together (2 person cooking) and it saw us through many a soup, sauce, smoothie and shake.

Then the twins came along and I made sooo much baby food in that little thing. I was making all my own baby food from the word go and the magic bullet was totally instrumental in this.

After 3 years of more than daily use, the cups started to develop cracks from so much dishwashing and since our baby food use had diminished at that point and we were a larger family now, I didn’t replace it. But for a 2 person household or a baby household – invaluable!

To me it had two drawbacks, even though minor.

1) the juicer really doesn’t work very well, you might as well not bother with it. So don’t buy it for the juicer function!

2) With dry-ish grinding of something, or something that is more pulpy than liquid, you sometimes need to either shake it in between or stop and stir to get an even and smooth distribution.

 

2) Cyber Clean.

This is a more recent discovery of mine and I love it. It’s like silly putty for adults and it sure does an awesome job of cleaning keyboards, remotes, phones etc Even my camera gets the once over with this around the dials etc. It’s great and I would totally recommend it!

 

3) Oxy Clean. It’s a staple in our laundry! What can I say

 

4) Pillow Pets.

In daily use by our children for a year now. They love them. They play with their pillow pets, they sleep with them, they travel with them. These were really not a passing fad for our children!

 

5) The Wow containers.

We use them pretty much every day. They really are the most versatile storage containers I’ve ever had. No more hunting for lids, no more half full containers because I had to fit one more spoon full in and had to go a size up. Every lid is also a container, every container can also serve as a lid. The stack neatly inside each other when not in use (read: more cupboard space.) They totally serve our every container need and we pretty much dispensed with all others now!

 

 

So, what are your “As seen on TV” buys that have stood the test of time? Or total disasters? Curious minds want to know!

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Of Clay Bakers And A Strange Piece Of Furniture

So the other day I went to Goodwill. I don’t tend to find much in this particular one usually since it’s 90 % (questionable) clothing  and the rest is more often than not really poor quality/broken things that are highly overpriced for a thrift store.

Except for when whoever is doing the pricing doesn’t really know what they have there – then you can really get a bargain! Like an almost new Roemertopf (german clay baker) for $7.99 (ususally $50 + for this size) Now I have one for my chicken and one for the bread :)

There are smaller ones available for arounf $30. I saw that IKEA carries them too now!

If you are not familiar with them - clay bakers are really awesome!

Clay pot cookery can be traced back thousands of years, when food in an earthenware pot was put in the glowing ashes of an open fire.

They are unglazed semi porous  clay vessels that have an almost equally sized top and bottom.

You soak the clay baker in water prior to cooking and it makes the most succulent, juicy roast chicken! And it cooks about 1/2 hr faster than in a regular oven too! Or you can use it in the microwave! If you do, I would still crisp it in the oven though – unless you like to “skinless” then you’re good to go!

Soaking the pot makes the clay absorb moisture that changes into steam in the oven keeping the food juicy throughout the cooking.

Dinner is as easy as this: Layer some potato chunks in the bottom, a whole (seasoned) chicken on top. Surround it with some veggies. I usually stuff some lemon and/or onion and herbs in the chicken cavity too, for extra flavor!

Then let it do it’s thing in the oven for 45 minutes . You start with a COLD oven for this baker!

For the last 10-15 minutes, take off the lid, pour off the juices (to make separate gravy if you so desire) and let the chicken crisp and you’re done with dinner. BTW it also cooks pot roasts, lamb, stews, glazed ham, casseroles etc.

AND I use it for my bread baking! I generally make the no-knead sourdough bread, that rises for an initial 18 hrs or so, then after forming the loaf for another 2 hrs before it gets dropped into the preheated Roemertopf. It gives a great oven spring and the size of the Roemertopf allows for larger loaves than my cloche baker!  You can also use a cold oven to bake your bread – works just as well. I just use pre-heated as it works better with the cloche baker and I generally do two loaves per batch  

So, as you can see, I do love clay bakers! I am always surprised that these aren’t better known and used ALL the time :)

 

But I digress! At Goodwill I was in search of things I could use for decorating, a plate or two I could apply some vinyl cut-outs to and some kind of console or bench or low cupboard to go in my office.

It’s meant to house my craft cutter and my ever growing vinyl supply.

I have this brand new office with glorious amount of storage and organization … and then I take up the whole vinyl cutting thing and have no designated space for it Well at least not close enough to the desk! Can’t have USB extension cords running through the room!

 

I found this curious little thing there. I have no idea what it was meant to be originally.

 

 

But I liked the basic shape, it was a little dusty but otherwise in good condition and I had a vision of what it would look like once I was done with it! The table top looked like it would happily accommodate my craft cutter (it does)  and the 12 inches it needed on either side for the sheets to feed through.

And … the top is solid old marble! Yep. It weighs about 3 times as much as the rest of the table does. And they wanted $9 for the whole thing

So, since I am vaguely better today, I have to do some catching up on all I missed around the house and with designing the last couple of days and then I’ll get to work on this strange piece of furniture!

Have a lovely day everyone!

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5 random products

(… that are far from life changing, but still rock my world)

You know how every once in while you come across something that is really quite unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but you still love it so. I don’t mean the big stuff, like a new appliance you couldn’t live without anymore, or a software program that rocks your work flow.

Just little stuff. Stuff that makes your heart happy, your danish pastry taste better, your chocolate melt slower, your eyes brighter or your waste line more forgiving. Actually I think that last one would have to go into the “big stuff” category for me lol

Anyway, here we go. Completely random. In no particular order.

And please note that I’m not affiliated with any of the sites or manufacturers mentioned … I just love them for one reason or another :)

1) Since I now have this awesome new soaker tub, I needed some good soaking suds of course! Well it’s not that there’s a shortage of bath bubbles out there but there are various levels of good. For me, some of the best I’ve found are the Deep Steep Bubble Baths.

A little goes a long way on these, the bubbles stay until the end of the bath, even after you shampoo your hair etc They smell really good too! The ingredients are all natural … and … no bathtub ring!

My two particular favorites are the Lavender Chamomile (very relaxing) and the Melon Tangerine!

I’ve seen them on a number of online places, but the best price I’ve found on Vitacost.

We’ve been getting our supplements from Vitacost for years and the flat shipping rate makes getting the heavier stuff really cost effective, including bubble bath :D

 

2) This stuff.

It’s really not much but the subtle combination of butter, vanilla and a little bit of citrus just gives many sweet things that certain extra something!

3) Now this one may fall into the category of TMI. lol

I know I want to take fish oil supplements regularly. I know they are good for me. I hate fish oil supplements. They keep on coming back on me. I have tried so many different kinds, ways and manufacturers. Even the ones that said they won’t “return” – but alas they did. And who wants everything all day long taste of fish oil??? Not me, that’s who.

Then I found these … and now I am a happy, take-my-fish-oil-twice-daily kind of gal!

Yes, they make me happy. NOTHING returns on me with them. I only taste fish now when it’s actually for dinner! Yay!

 

4) This cream has seen me through so much, I don’t even know where to start.  I have been using it long before I had children, but once the twins came along we really got into it!

We never really had diaper rashes with either kids just by using this stuff regularly and Max’s “acid butt” as we called his allergic reaction to certain foods (within a short period of time his butt would look like somebody had spilled acid on it after certain fruits and veggies) would be gone in no time flat.

We still use it all the time for all sorts of things. The kids always ask me to “put cream on it to make it feel better” whenever there is something going on skin wise. I use it for particularly dry patches too. And when we all have streaming colds … just a little prevents that bright red sore nose! So yes, we love “ the cream” around here!

5) This one is a mixed blessing! It’s my all time favorite chocolate. It makes me very happy! My hips, not so happy!

Until recently I would only get it when I had it shipped in from Germany or when actually being in Germany.

Now we have a  store that carries it almost around the corner. Very dangerous! Fortunately it is however nicely portioned into little bars of only 70 calories, so portion control is a little easier :)

I know it’s supposed to be a children’s chocolate! But I will chose it over the Lindor chocolate! *shock horror* Don’t judge me! lolSo, here are my 5 small random products!

What about yours?

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