Donald Duck Painting

ANOTHER crazy snow storm here in Western KY less than two weeks from the first one! This time we got somewhere between 17-20" of snow. I decided to pull out the acrylic paints instead of quilting.

I purchased a big honkin' canvas last week with no idea what to do with it. My brother suggested a Disney themed painting and I was all over that! I thought I'd try Mickey or maybe one of the Disney Dogs...I love them all. But Donald is my most favorite Disney character and I knew I had to pay homage to my favorite fella with a portrait. I did some searching online and found a some nice line drawings of Donald. Once I decided on a happy version of Donald, I got that on the canvas and started playing around with the background.

I wanted Donald to really stand out, so I went with a dark, more subtle background. It ended up much lighter in the finished piece. Honestly, I spent as much time working on the background as I did Donald!

After two days and hours of work, Donald if finally done! And I'm in love. I'm not braggin' I'm just saying this painting makes me very happy. It's awaiting a final coate of matte varnish and then it's going on my living room wall.

KY Snow Apocalypse = Bursts of Creativity!

I live in Western Kentucky, where the weather has multiple personalities. A couple weeks ago we had a major snowstorm and I was lucky enough forced to miss several days of work. During that time, I decided to fire up Katie Kenmore and did some quilting...well, quilt top making to be honest.

First, I used a Central Park charm pack and some neutral solids from my stash and made this easy cheesy baby quilt top. I have no idea which of the five babies I know who have recently entered or will soon be entering the world is going to get this, if any. I have another stack of these charms, I will definitely pair it up with white the next time. 

Next, I pulled out a stack of 10" blue squares and got busy on another quilt top. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. Pinwheels? Simple four patch? So I started snooping around online and was inspired by a really cool yellow/gray star quilt and ultimately ended up with this. 

In the midst of this quilt top, I killed my iron. Again. My husband was nice enough to get me out of the house once the roads were somewhat less treacherous, take me to WalMart, and buy a new iron. He's a keeper, ladies! However, as is evidenced in the photo below, where I'm posing with an iron,  I WAS at the point of stir crazy, so he probably did it for his own sanity as well as mine. 

Quilted!

Years ago I started this quilt...like five years ago. I'm pretty sure it's the seconds quilt top I made. This wast he first time I'd tried free motion quilting in quite a while, and I struggled with it. A lot. 

I did try my hand at FMQ some paisley's, they turned out OK! Wow...I need better lighting!

Once it went through the washer and dryer, the mistakes that were so blatant before magically disappeared like they always do! 

It felt great to finally finish a quilt! This one will be donated to a needy kiddo at the school were I work. 

The Dark Lord...Quilted!

So, my brother is a phenomenal artist. He did some Star Wars art a while back and had asked me if I'd like to collaborate and quilt one of his pieces. This is just a test print, and my first time to attempt something like this. I free motion quilted the entire thing. When I try again, I am going to use a combination of free motion/walking foot quilting.  Despite a few flub ups, I absolutely LOVE it! More(and even better) versions of this to come!

New Year, New Blog Post

On Painting...
So waaay back in the Summer(How I miss the Summer) I got brave and entered two paintings in a local art show. I wasn't expecting to win anything so I wasn't surprised when I didn't. However, I wasn't expecting to SELL a painting either so I was totally surprised and overly excited when I went to pick up my paintings and instead of two paintings, I picked up a check and one painting!

This was the first time I'd sold a painting to someone whom I did not know personally and it felt GREAT! :)

The painting that sold, Fox's Forest, is pictured here.

There was a mix up at the gallery so my painting titled "Mama and Owlets" was listed as "Not for Sale",  but I l think if they had marked it with my asking price, it would have sold too. That's what I like to tell myself anyway. It's currently hanging on my living room wall.

I'm currently working on teaching myself to use watercolors and I'm having so much fun with it! I love how quickly I can finish a painting and how they look pretty good, even though I don't really have the techniques down yet. Here are a couple samples.:

From an online tutorial

Tiger Lily from Disney's Peter Pan...and that's my version of Ariel in the background. 

On Cooking...
I'm currently obsessed with this recipe from Plain Chicken. I've made it three times already and I just finished up a steaming bowl of this chicken chili concoction. It's so delicious and perfect for this ridiculously cold January in Kentucky.  Seriously, grab your crock pot and make a batch!

On Quilting...
I'm quilting again! YAAAAY! It's been forever, but I  pulled out a quilt top I started maybe 6 years ago(?) and I'm using it to practice free motion quilting. My stippling is still a hot mess, but by the time I got to the fourth block, my paisleys looked all right. If you are looking to learn FMQ, I highly recommend Leah Day's courses on Craftsy.com.

Whew, that was a lot! But it feels good to blog after so long an absence. I just may do it again soon!

And She's Arsty-Fartsy!

One of the things I started doing in my bloggy absence was painting. I've always been kind of artsy-fartsy. I had never put paint to canvas, though, not even in high school Art class a jillion years ago. Last Fall, as a way to help cope with stress and to try and force myself to be more creative, I bought a nice set of acrylic paints, some canvases and jumped right in.

And I fell in love.

This was my first acrylic painting.

Pam's Flamingo

I think I've improved since that first painting, but I still don't know exactly what I'm doing a lot of the time and I'm still coming into my own style wise.  For the most part, I just try to relax and enjoy myself and the process. I've been fortunate that friends and family have enjoyed my paintings and I've actually sold a few and done some commission work.

Last week I was at my local Fine Arts Center buying tickets for Lyle Lovett & His Large Band tickets(if he ever comes to your town GO, trust me on this) when I came across a flyer for a Juried Art Exhibit. I decided to do something really scary and enter a couple of paintings. It's one thing sharing pictures of my paintings on Facebook with friends and family, but having experts scrutinize my artwork...terrifying!

This morning at exactly 9am(I knew I'd back out if I didn't do it right away) I headed into the Fine Arts Center to leave my paintings. I was a nervous wreck walking in with them, and nearly chickened out when I saw the other entries that were being lined up along the walls. I mean, these people are real artists, I still see myself mostly as an artist at heart. I realized I was out of my league was when I saw the prices of the other works for sale compared to mine. I'm like the Dollar General Store of the Art Exhibit. Sigh.

But I kept my nerve up and left my paintings to be judged anyway. I've sold what I think are better paintings, but these two are the most "me" of anything I've done.

Mama and Owlets

Fox's Forest

I don't expect to win an award, but I am extremely proud of of myself for working up the courage to enter them in the exhibit. I'm  also pretty excited that my paintings will be hanging in an actual gallery!

Seriously Simple Chicken Caesar Wraps

In addition to rebooting this blog, I've also recently begun to reboot my own health. Attempting to steer clear of fast food when I needed a quick meal recently, I thought back to my very first go on Weight Watchers and remembered making chicken caesar wraps fairly often.

This is as close to actual cooking as I have been in quite some time. I'm slightly embarrassed by the simplicity of it, but hey, at least it's a move in the right direction! Here's what I did...

Grilled up some chicken tenders on the stovetop and assembled a Caesar Salad using:

Dole's Classic Romaine Mix
Ken's Creamy Caesar dressing (I've since realized they make a light version which is just as delicious).
Italian blend cheese
Bacon bits

Plopped everything onto an Italian Flat Out

And rolled.

Quick, Easy, and Tasty! I had forgotten how good these are...especially when that warm chicken is combined with the cold salad. Mmmm Mmm!  In case you're wondering, the seven chicken tenders and bag of salad made 3 nice sized wraps and one smaller wrap on a tortilla.

And BAM...just like that, I'm cooking again(sorta)! 

hellooooooo....

I have been noticeably absent for quite some time.

But I'm planning a comeback.

Of some sort.

Sometime.

 In the future.

In the meantime, here's a picture of my dog, Mya, hanging out in the library.

Coco-Pineapple Sticks

I'm a fan of both pineapple and coconut, so I couldn't wait to try this simple little snack from the July/August issue of WW Magazine!

As it turns out, it was not only simple but scrumptious in a frosty-frozen-pineapple-y way! And, according to the mag, it'll only cost you 2PointsPlus.



Start with a cored pineapple, coconut, some skewers, a bowl for dipping and a plate or baking sheet for the freezer.

Cut the pineapple into 1"x 3"(ish) chunks and add skewer. Sample some of that fresh, pretty, sweet pineapple. Not because you can't help yourself...just to make sure it tastes OK of course. 

Toast up some coconut, about 1 cup. Try not to eat it all before you dip the pineapple.

Roll the pineapple in the coconut. Or do what I did...smush the pineapple into the coconut because rolling wasn't getting it coconut-y enough! The magazine suggests that you dip the pineapple into pineapple juice before rolling in the coconut. My pineapple was pretty darn juicy to begin with and I didn't have any pineapple juice on hand, so I skipped that step. Don't think it affected the outcome much.

Take a couple of gratuitous pineapple/coconut shots before sticking your plate of goodness into the freezer.

In approximately 2 hours, your coco-pineapple sticks will be frozen to perfection! Enjoy them on their own or with a slab of angel food cake...my preferred way!

Fabric Scraps Wrangled. Sewing Closet Situation Averted.

Those among you who sew or quilt will appreciate this. The rest of you may think I have lost my mind for posting about and taking photos of a closet.

I don't know a single person who sews and/or quilts who doesn't have at least a small fabric stash that includes some scraps. My stash, I would guess, is on the smallish side, but I do have a lot of scraps from various projects and they got completely out of hand.

Y'all know how that can get away from you. One minute you have a couple ziplock bags of scraps piled into a tote and the next thing you know it looks like this: 

The Pile...my scrap fabric nightmare.  How in the world do you find something in the midst of that mess? You don't! You dig through The Pile in search of the perfect shade of blue for a project. You know it's there. You put it there yourself. But The Pile has eaten it, never to be seen or heard from again. So you completely give up, frustrated, hot, and grouchy without ever starting on the project at hand. And then you actually consider tossing every single scrap since all they do is make you mad.

At least that's been my experience. 

Not too long after one of my rounds with The Pile, I  came across the book Sunday Morning Quilts by Amada Jean Nybergh and Cheryl Arkison. I quickly snagged a copy!

Finally! A book that shows not only how to use scraps in a quilt, but gives you practical tips on storing and organizing them as well! Cue angels singing. You can currently pick up a copy of Sunday Morning Quilts for a great price at Connectingthreads.com. I love that shop!

                                     

After reading the book and wiping the drool off the photos of these amazingly gorgeous scrappy quilts (seriously, I want to make them all), I got busy. I was inspired not only to make my scrap pile useful, but to organize my sewing closet as well. I don't have photos, but trust me, finding fabric in my stash wasn't much easier than digging through those scraps. 

My budget for organizing my scraps and the sewing closet in general was  about 15 bucks. I'm not kidding. SO I drug home a plastic shelf from my parent's garage, headed to my local Kmart and picked up some clear plastic shoebox sized totes and got busy sorting.

When I was finished, THE PILE had become this...

So. Much. Better.  I was so happy with my little shoeboxes of color that I decided not to shut them up in the closet, but to leave the out in the open on a bookshelf in the sewing/computer room!

Once I had the scraps tackled, I was motivated to finish up the rest of the closet. My mother saw it and said "I don't think you need to buy anymore fabric".   She's right, of course.

I know it's plastic shelving and nothing fancy, but this makes me soo happy. I know I can walk into the closet now and find anything I need within minutes with no cussin' or cryin'! 

Even room for a little art on the walls. And yes, a Kona card qualifies as art! 

FQs, mostly sorted by colors. 

More FQs...my most favorites, so they're out in t he open for me to drool on look at.

...and more fun stuff...

All this organizing and I'm ready to tackle a new project!

Cupcakery

A couple of trips to GiGi's Cupcakes absolutely did me in. I mean, I liked cupcakes before, but GiGi's Cupcakes? Lord. Have. Mercy. These are wedding & chocolate varieties. So good.

I don't have a photo of it but the Lemon Poppyseed with Cream Cheese Frosting...Heavenly.

But after plopping down nearly four dollars per cupcake(numerous times) I eventually got to the "I can make an entire batch of cupcakes for four dollars" place.

And so began my cupcake obsession. I picked up the easy-cheesy cupcake decorating kit at Walmart.

My first batch of cupcakes were from scratch. SCRATCH. With buttercream icing.

I realize they aren't that pretty but Holy Moly, these were some dang tasy cakes! The flavor was not unlike that a sugar cookie! Yummy! The recipe for the cake can be found here. The icing was equally delicious and that recipe is right here. 

Next up, cupcakes for my friends at work. These are mini sized and made from a  box-mix (with some mayo added to make them extra moist) and topped with yummy Oreo Decorator Icing. Oh, they were good and being bite sized was perfect for the amount of sweetness.

 

I joined a local chapter of Free Cakes for Kids and my first assignment was, you guessed it, cupcakes! The little girl I baked for was turning seven and requested white cupcakes with pink icing. My kind of gal! 

Again, just a plain ole' box cake, but the icing makes it sooo good. This was my best attempt at icing yet...I was eating the stuff by the spoonful! I made a decorator icing using 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of Crisco(creamed together). I mixed in a bag of powdered sugar(a little at a time), whole milk, and a teaspoon or so of vanilla. Just kinda kept adding sugar and milk until it tasted right. I haven't made one as tasty since. I got word that the birthday girl was "tickled pink"with her cupcakes!

Speaking of birthday cupcakes, my brother requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing for his birthday. I was thrilled to finally get to use the vintage clown pics I snatched at a flea market a while back. Again, I used the mayo + chocolate box cake trick. These have a chocolate buttercream icing. I was not a fan(I prefer white cake, white icing), but my brother and the rest of the family loved them. 

Granted, they aren't GiGi's and yes, I realize all my cupcakes are decorated with that same ole' swirl. I have yet to branch out into flavors like lemon or red velvet, but I'll get there! Also, I've made several more batches that aren't pictured...they were either too ugly for documentation or were eaten before documentation could occur.

Soooo, does anyone else suddenly crave a giant glass of ice cold milk?