Series Continued - Love

2.5 x 7 inches, mixed media

Still on the road and having fun!! Hope you are all doing well! I sure miss checking in with you on a daily basis...

Series Continued - Care

2.5 x 7 inches, mixed media

Thank you so much for visiting. I am on the road at the moment, so I will answer any questions you may have and visit your blogs whenever I get a chance (make that Internet connection) or after we get back.

New Series - Joy

This is the first image in a new series I've been working on, which has been quite fun and very meditative to paint. A little cuter than is my "normal" style, but it was really enjoyable for a change.

All images are 2.5 x 7 inches small and painted with mixed media on 140 lb cold-pressed watercolor paper.

I hope you enjoy them!

P.S. Thank you so much for visiting. I am on the road at the moment, so I will answer any questions you may have and visit your blogs whenever I get a chance (make that Internet connection) or after we get back.

Three Times...

... a mushroom!

I don't know what it is about finding mushrooms in our yard,
but it always makes me think that all is well, sort of a little good luck charm.
When I was a young girl, my parents had a mushroom guide, a green book, that I read from cover to cover. We often went mushroom hunting and I think the danger of it all fascinated me. You really had to know what you were looking for... Do you know what these are? I don't...

We are on the road - camping in the Smoky Mountains, which is why I'm not checking in with you. Tomorrow, I've scheduled some art for you!! A new series I am painting...

Friday Food - Grilled Chicken with Pickled Tomato Salsa

Here, another delicious recipe from the Sunset Best Recipes 2010 Magazine - Grilled Cilantro Chicken with Pickled Tomato and Avocado Salsa. This one was a little more involved, but preparing it was a delight for the senses.

Especially when quickly frying the mixture below (garlic, ginger, cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric, cayenne, salt and pepper) in some olive oil before pouring it over the tomatoes.
Not only did this dish look beautiful, but it was unusual and delicious as well!
Find the recipe here. Guten Appetit!!

Keeping Watch

When we leave on our road trip, we've left him in charge of the back yard to make sure that

these furry friends
don't eat too much bird food away from our feathered families,
that our our pretty flowers
keep blooming
and growing ...
even the most bizarre looking voodoo lily!
While we are gone, I have scheduled some posts for you of this and that - quite a bit of art, some garden pictures and some recipes. I am sure I will check in whenever I can find an Internet connection, but for part of the trip, we'll be out in the Appalachian mountains camping and away from everything...

I cannot wait to share some of our travel photos with you!! And, of course, to find out what you all have been up to! Until soon!

Wordless Wednesday - As Above, So Below

The Perfect German Bread!

Some time ago, my good friend Verena shared this super fast spelt bread recipe with me and I've now made it so often, that I thought I'd share the link with you all. Click here for the recipe in German and here for the recipe in English. It's wonderful! Thank you, Verena!!
It requires no rising time and is perfectly moist with a very crunchy crust every time. But it is like the breads I grew up with - very dense! Plus, it contains flax seeds, pumpkin seeds (for some reason, the English version does not include pumpkin seeds), sunflower seeds and sesame seeds - yum!!

Enjoy!!

P.S. The British recipe calls for linseed, which here in the US are usually called flaxseed, and carried by most grocery stores. As to the temperature, I bake mine at about 390 F.

Coffee Break

Whenever we have time and are in town, we love to go to Gallery Espresso to hang out for a little while. Last week, on the way there, we walked through Madison Square and took yet another photo as I am always struck by how beautiful it is.
At the cafe, we sat outside and watched this patient bicycle taxi driver wait for customers,
and this one giving his passengers a little bit of information about Savannah.
Several tour buses came by with very attentive tourists on board.
And all of that while we were enjoying an excellent cup of coffee
and sharing a most delicious brownie!
It was a happy coffee break!
Daniel and I are leaving on a road trip this Friday, so I am going to spend my week getting our gear together (we'll be camping part of the time), getting our house ready for our house sitter, who will stay with Winslow and Ramses, and being creative in my spare time! It'll be a busy week!

I hope your week is off to a good start and look forward to visiting your blogs! Thank you for continuing to visit mine!!

This Week I Made...

this...

and this! For some reason, knitting these pretty scarves on purple needles made me very happy.
Both can be found in my Etsy shop...

Happy creating!!

A New Painting

A little while ago, we decided to move my computer cabinet upstairs into my little studio, which was one of two guest rooms before I moved in. It's a room that still needs to be painted, but for now it's cozy (love all the books around the built-in bed) and serves me well.

However, I hadn't gotten around to organizing the computer cabinet and slowly but surely clutter took over, making my creative space seem smaller and smaller.
So, this week, I took one morning and organized. I am proud to say that I didn't merely close the doors to the cabinet (I have to admit that I was tempted...), but that I organized and filed every piece of paper. Yeah!! Done!

I also cleaned my little art space,

all the while being supervised by one very lazy kitty.

After that I finally felt like painting again, and she was the result!

Those Eyes

4 x 6 inch acrylic painting on Strathmore Acrylic Paper

She's bold, she's colorful, she's heavily textured (molding paste) and she's thoughtful. I love her blue-green eyes and the general energy of the piece. You can find her in my little Etsy shop.

It seems from all your comments on my last decluttering post that I am not alone in my need to organize outwardly in order to feel at peace inwardly. This time, too, it helped. I feel much calmer than I did last week AND I've started painting again. I like that. A lot.

Friday Food and Flowers

The other day, I dropped Daniel off at a bookstore for him to just run in quickly to look for an art magazine he needed. He found it, but he also came out with this magazine for me - well, really for us, since he'll be enjoying the food I make... When we lived in California and even in New Mexico, I subscribed to Sunset Magazine and always enjoyed it. So, after I read it cover to cover, I thought I'd try some of the recipes and share them with you if we liked them.

This was a very easy dish called Spicy Turkey Sausage with Black-Eyed Peas and Spinach. It was fast, it was easy and it was delicious! Instead of serving it on rice, I served it with quinoa that I cooked in broth. Yummy!! You can find the recipe here.
And then I just had to share these flowers with you! One day this week, I noticed that one of our amaryllis stalks had been knocked over in a rain storm, so I just had to bring it inside as well as a few of our stunning hydrangeas.
So pretty!! They make me smile every time I walk past.
Good food and flowers - what more could I want? I hope you are all having a delicious Friday!!

Surprise from Germany...

Yesterday, I received a note card in the mail. When I opened it, this little kitty in the bread pan made me laugh, and I thought: "How appropriate for me. I wonder who sent it?"

Then I opened it up and couldn't believe it! There I was staring not just at the cutest picture of my nephew, Julian, but at a piece of his most excellent artwork! He drew this for me after I had sent him this link to a live web cam of an eagle's nest.
Is he a gifted budding artist or what?! Not only that, but he's writing and not even in first grade yet! And do I sound like a proud aunt? Well, I am!!

Danke, Julian!! Ich schreibe auch ganz bald zurueck!

This inspired me to pick up my paintbrush again and paint. Tomorrow, I have a recipe to share with you, but on Saturday, it'll be more of my art!

In the meantime, thank you all for you continued visits, your inspiring comments, (your patience with the temporary word verification), and for making me smile and often even laugh out loud! You all are the best!!

Comment Moderation

Hi all! I've just been the recipient of a tidal wave of spam from Taiwan, which is just so annoying! Until that subsides, I've turned on comment moderation. As soon as this person (or computer program) moves on, I will turn off moderation again. Do you know if there is any way to report this to Blogger?

Please don't let that deter you from commenting away freely - your comments are my favorite part of blogging!!

P.S. I did report it, so we'll see... For now, it has stopped. If there is no more after tomorrow, I'll turn moderation off again.

Wordless Wednesday - Hippety Hop, a Bunny I'm Not!

Of Decluttering, Knitting & Crocheting

What do you do when your mind feels overwhelmed with all there is to do and to think of? I make lists, I declutter, and I knit and crochet. That's what I did on Sunday and yesterday.

After making lists of what I was going to cook this week, scheduling a couple of blog posts, and coming up with a general to do list, I started in on the kitchen. It wasn't bad at all, just enough to make me feel I didn't have enough clear space.

Here is the counter above the sink before

and after (so much better!),
the area next to the sink,

the main kitchen counter that tends to become a catchall for anything and everything,

and the top of the microwave (please ignore fingerprints...).

It's not so much about the outward clarity but about the process of physically putting things away, organizing, regrouping and cleaning that somehow allows me to do the same mentally. Do you experience that, too?

Knitting and crocheting does the same for me. The rhythm of moving the needles allows me to think and process. So, with all the mental organizing I was doing, I got into knitting dish cloths (something I hadn't heard of before) and

finished another pair of very sunny potholders.

These red and turquoise beauties had been done for awhile, but I decided to add a dishcloth to them as well. You can find all of them in my Etsy shop.
I still haven't made it back into my studio, but that's alright. I'll get there when I have the peace of mind to sit down and create. In the meantime, I am working on two scarves, yet another dishcloth and am continuing to organize around the house. All in all, a pretty good couple of days!