She's Here!

Our first girl grandbaby has arrived! We have two wonderful grandsons, ages 12 and 11, so it's been a while since we've had a tiny one around. Her name is Cali, and she's gorgeous! She was born Wednesday, 5/16, at 9:22 pm, is 19" long, and weighs 7 lb. 1 oz. I feel the urge to make pink ruffly things coming on . . .

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all the mothers out there have a wonderful day. We celebrated with my mom earlier this week--she has the fortune/misfortune of having a birthday on May 9, so it frequently overlaps with Mother's Day. Today we took my partner's mother to lunch. Now the rest of the day is mine to play!

As usual, I've been too busy to blog, but here are a few of the things I've been working on. I used some of the painted fabric I talked about last time to make journals, and listed them on Etsy:

The rest of the time . . . well, who knows where it went! The creative ideas are flying so quickly through my head I can barely grab onto them, but I'm having a hard time executing on anything besides these small journals. I'm going to try to get into a better routine next week so I won't have excuses for not starting some of the bigger projects I want to work on.

The Blogging Dilemma

Where do people find time to take gorgeous pics of their work, post them on their blogs, and write blog posts? More and more frequently, I’m faced with a choice: talk about working on my blog, or do some actual work.

Of course, there’s a slight possibility that too much of my time is sucked up by Facebook.
At any rate, I’ve been happily tucked away in my studio painting fabric and paper. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it!

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Guess how much I love my leaves thermofax stencil?

Back to work now!

The Best Soup I’ve Ever Made!

Ok, I don’t usually post recipes on my blog, but I’m so proud of myself. I decided to make soup today, and somehow it turned out to be the best I’ve ever made—and maybe the best soup I’ve ever eaten. So, I thought I would post this for all my friends and cyber friends. Bon appétit!

Sausage, Chard & Bean Soup

2 T. oil (I used oil infused with cayenne pepper for a little bite)
2 small onions, chopped
2-4 carrots, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1-2 links sausage (probably 4-6 oz.) (I used smoked link sausage; the smoky flavor is REALLY nice in this, so if your sausage is not smoked, you might want to add a little liquid smoke)
2 t. dried Italian herbs
1/2 t. fennel seeds
pepper
4 c. stock (I used 2 c. vegetable & 2 c. chicken)
a big bunch of Swiss chard, stems removed and chopped
2 cans of navy beans, drained and rinsed

Saute the onions, carrots, bell pepper, and garlic in olive oil. Add the sausage and spices and continue to sauté until sausage is cooked and vegetables are soft. Add stock, Swiss chard, and beans, and simmer for about 30 minutes until the flavors are blended.

I served mine with cornbread, and we ate it for lunch AND dinner. YUUUMMMMY!

Me and Thou and A Can of Spray Paint

I don’t know why, but for some reason gorgeous Central Texas weather makes me want to haul out the spray paint. I’m almost out of canvas anyway, and since Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, I decided to go with that theme.

Sorry about the pics; the harsh light outside really bleached them out, and I had too much paint on my hands to mess with the camera much :-)



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A cold front is headed our way and it's supposed to be in the 20s in the morning, so it's back to indoor activities! At least I got a little Vitamin D :-)

Oh, and thanks so much for the comments on my poppy-seed heads piece! I'm definitely going to work on darkening those up a little, and maybe adding some shadows.

Opinions Please?

This is a piece that has just sort of come together a little at a time. I think I'm almost finished with it, except now I'm reevaluating whether I like the poppy-seed heads. I like the stitching for the stems, so I'm considering taking the heads off (these are made of wool) and just stitching the outlines of poppy-seed heads in their place. What do you think?

I guess I sort of think the current heads are a little cartoon-like. I would love to have your feedback!