I live for finding stuff like this in his backpack

(my favorite? "lactose and tolerant" ha!)

31 Things Week 4

Yup...way behind on sharing these but *still* staying caught up with prompts. I'm really thrilled that this is what I'll leave in your mind after reading this post. /sarcasm

KIT

Week 4 ready to download as well. Grab it here. (How's it going, anyway?)

Today was the kind of day in which Much Attention Was Required. I'm embracing these days though because just four short months from now, I'll have three kids sharing the same elementary building for 7 hours each day.

We made cookies (rescuing the empty honey bear for a future project before it hit the recycling bin) and planted some flower seeds in a lovely little pot I picked up on Mother's Day. We played some frisbee in the front yard and drug the picnic table up to the top deck so she could draw family portraits (LOTS of family portraits...daily) in the sunshine. We counted her freckles (she calls them "nickels") and made each other shrinky dink bracelets (so that we would always know the other was thinking of us when we're apart. For that 2.5 hours of preschool every other day.)

Our best use of time was this little portrait though.

A long, long time ago, I did an online class for BHG all about doing hybrid projects with digital supplies. One of the projects included tissue paper printed and adhered to canvas with Mod Podge. At the time, I thought I was a genius. I hadn't seen it done before but have since seen it all over the place done much better than I managed. If you're interested in my primitive process though it's a little like this.

Start with your photo. I took this one laying in the grass the other day with Izzy (when she told me I'm her best friend for ALWAYS.) Zap it through PicTapGo quickly to get an easy black and white version (how amazing is that app?)

This canvas is 8x10" so I sized the photo to fill the sheet and centered it on a letter sized canvas. I reduced the opacity just a bit (I think to 75%.)

Then, the tricky part. I cut the tissue paper to just under 8.5 x 11" and then smoothed it as much as possible over a sheet of cardstock taping each edge with a couple of strips of plain tape (three strips along the edge that gets pulled into the printer!)

Next, print. This can be finicky and irritating (or, you'll get lucky and it will suck through cleanly on the first shot) Be prepared to clean wadded tissue paper out of your printer though...just in case. I guide the sheet into the printer at first but once it's started cleanly, it should be fine to finish.

After carefully removing the tissue from your backer, coat your canvas in a thin layer of Mod Podge (this is matte...I think the gloss version would make the paint not stick/dry well but I don't really know for sure.) Starting at one edge, line up the tissue and smooth it over the canvas slowly trying to avoid air bubbles (there will be some in my experience and that's fine...just try to minimize them.)

Let it dry (and yes, I *do* need a real canvas of this photo!)

Then paint. I gave her watercolors so that the original photo would show through. I told her to go crazy and use any colors she wanted...no need to match what she was wearing or even make her skin/features the "right" color.

So she gave herself red hair and a ronald mcdonald mouth and added a big shiny sun in the sky.

I do believe she likes it.

can cookies be life-changing?

These, holy cow, these are amazing.

I needed something sweet. And I needed it pronto. Enter vanilla walnut "shortbread" cookies. I saved this recipe a few weeks ago as I had a giant bag of walnuts and being of fine British stock, I obviously love shortbread. Izzy and I tossed everything in the food processor and 30 minutes later, we had cookies. These cookies are raw and dairy free and only FIVE ingredients (one of which is salt so that hardly counts...though it does make them that much more delicious!

These would be amazing as-is but as I eyed my cabinet trying to locate the vanilla, I spied the lemon curd I had purchased for these lemon and basil icebox cakes. The basil was all used up in a mammoth batch of pesto though. And the ginger cookies, well, they went the way of the dinosaur once the kids discovered them. I'll come back to that recipe for sure though. I adore a good icebox cake and lemon  + basil + ginger sounds just about perfect (that sounds like a mighty fine cocktail too...that must exist, right?)

So, a spoonful smeared atop the cookie became the best little sweet bite of food I've had in awhile. I've never had lemon curd. WHY have I never had lemon curd? The perfect addition to the sweet, salty cookies. So, make that SIX ingredient cookies ready in just over 30 minutes. If you have some walnuts in your pantry, you should go make these. Now.

(And oh crap, they make lime curd too?? Where in the world have I been?)

tried this week

My "on the menu soon" pinterest board gets a lot of action. We love trying new recipes (probably 2-3 dinners a week on average are something new to us - often variations on something we know we like but still, new.) A few things that are almost sure to get repinned...anything with black beans, corn, avocado, sweet potatoes, or any variation on a taco.

Consequently, the "tried and loved" board is heavily frequented as well. It kind of blows my mind to see that currently, I have 122 recipes that I've made from my board (not to mention all the recipes I've made that didn't make the cut and were simply deleted!) Crazy. I'm so glad that their are so many talented and creative people willing to share themselves and their creations. I'm amazed at the range of blogs dedicated to food and cooking. Lots of vegetarian specific (this one is a new fave - probably not for you if you're profanity-averse. Which I'm not.) But really, I just love pretty picture of food...even if they aren't necessarily a good fit for our diet.

Dinner last night was this recipe for chow mein noodles. A great fast and easy meal that is incredibly versatile - so many vegetable options that could be added! I went with the recipe as written this time, just adding a few pieces of tofu. Next time, I think snap peas are a must as well as a few flakes of red pepper in the sauce. Also, instead of thin spaghetti, I think I'll just grab a couple of packages of ramen and toss the seasoning. Cheaper and more fun for this recipe!

31 Things Week 3

Two more done since yesterday...slooooowly catching up in documenting each prompt.

KIT

KIT

And I have week 3 prompts ready for you to download if you're so inclined. Grab them here! See Jennifer's progress and the original post that prompted this project here.

31 things update

Two more pages done (so, I'm officially, totally caught up with week one. Week two prompts are completed - just no spreads yet.)

I'll have week 3 prompts ready to share tomorrow! How are you coming along?

kit from PAISLEE PRESS

kit from YELLOW BUTTERFLY