Dessert for Lunch

I was able to enjoy the warm sunny morning by going for a walk with my neighbor-who also happens to be a college friend from Minnesota- and our dogs. After our walk, I was surveying the progress of her garden and saw that her rhubarb was growing well. I asked if I could take some home and she told me to cut it all, she didn’t like it. I cut several stalks, saying I’d be back for more later.

Once I was home and cleaned up, I turned to my cookbooks to find a strawberry-rhubarb recipe.

I quickly learned that it helps if you know how to spell rhubarb when you go to search for a recipe.  Browsing through my two all purpose cookbooks, I was sure there was a recipe for rhubarb. Defeated I turned to the internet and my favorite food blog, Smitten Kitchen, typed in “rubarb” and realized I’d been looking under the wrong spelling.  Smitten Kitchen’s  “Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, Improved” appeared but I was deterred when it called for tapioca. This is not an ingredient I keep as a stand by in my kitchen.

Now that I knew how to spell rhubarb, I went back to my Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook and found a recipe for Rhubarb Crisp. I had been craving pie, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through the hassle of a pie crust. This Rodale recipe would be perfect.

I adjusted the recipe to fit what I had on hand, which turned out was not enough rhubarb, but plenty of strawberries. Remi sat on our back step and watched me work in the kitchen the whole time.

The wonderful aroma of something sweet and tasty baking made my stomach rumble for it’s tasty, though slightly inappropriate, lunch. (This was also great warmed up on top of oatmeal the next morning.) I was certainly happy with my baking choice and I know I will have to go back to my neighbor’s soon and cut more rhubarb. Perhaps next time I will try the Smitten Kitchen Rhubarb Pie.

Rhubarb-Berry Crisp, adapted from The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook

Filling:
2 cups  rhubarb, cut into 1 inch chunks
3 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 berry fruit spread ( I used boysenberry because that’s what I had)
1/4 cup brown sugar (most recipes call for brown sugar to be packed, I always try to reduce the amount of sugar in my baking so I didn’t pack my sugar)
1/8 teaspoon allspice

• Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour into 9in. x 9in.  baking dish.

Topping:
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (half a stick) Smart Balance buttery spread
1/4 cup brown sugar (unpacked)
1/4 teaspoon salt

• Combine all ingredients into food processor and pulse until well combined. If you don’t have a food processor you could use a pastry blender or the 2 knife scissor method.

• Cover the fruit with the oat mixture and place in oven.
• The recipe states to bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees F, or until the topping is crisp and brown and the fruit is bubbling. I baked this for 38 minutes in a convection oven (at high altitude) at 350 degrees F.

Make Your Heart Sing, An Artist’s Date

My mother-in-law gave me a gift card for Archiver’s for my birthday last Fall. I’m not a scrapbooker, but I love all of the fun papers and notions.

I went through the struggle that most of us go through when we get a gift card. Should I save this and buy something special, or just go and spend it on something I normally wouldn’t buy. After the gift card sat unused for several months I finally decided this week I would walk into the store and purchase whatever made my heart sing that day. I would not over think what I was purchasing.

I browsed through the store for an hour, considering this an “artist date” for myself.  I noticed I was drawn to a particular color palette that day: pink, teal and brown. It can be fun and insightful to let your eyes wander and to allow yourself to gravitate to what is calling you. Some of these things will end up in my art, certainly the tape and the letters, but sometimes I purchase papers just because I am inspired by the images or the color palette.

I counted and recounted the prices of the items I had picked out to make sure I was right in budget with my gift card and I walked out happy with my new papers, letters and washi tape.

Personal Bribery and Thankfulness

We’ve all had jobs that we don’t love, perhaps even loath. Often we have mornings where we have to bribe ourselves out of bed. I know for me it went something like this:
“To make it through today, you’re going to need a treat. Get out of bed, get ready and go stop at Starbucks on your way to work. Oooh, yes a carmel latte, or maybe a chai tea. If you hurry and leave the house you can stop by your favorite coffee shop and get their chai tea.”

This motivates me to get out of bed. I might even choose my favorite shirt to help brighten my mood.

I was doing contract design work for a few months and I certainly used this bribery a few times. Now I’m back to not working and an open schedule.

It’s interesting how not working can illicit this same kind of bribery conversation in my head. It starts off with a pep talk about how I should get up even if I don’t need to be anywhere by a certain time. Followed by the nagging thought about all of the art that I could be creating. I have deadlines, but none are looming so the pressure isn’t on.

I remind myself that I won’t always have this time, that (hopefully) I will have a job soon. The thing about not working is that bribing yourself out of bed with a trip to Starbucks doesn’t work as well. The guilt of spending money when you are not personally bringing any in creeps in. And then remembering that your business has only profited $250 in 4 months, pretty much wipes Starbucks from your mind. Then add the guilt about how your spouse is at work every day working long days while you are sitting at home-bored.

Eventually I get out of bed, eat, make some tea and sit in front of the computer for a few hours. Around 11 o’clock, I’ve run out of things to do and I’ve checked facebook too many times to count.

I’ve learned that getting out of the house once a day is key to keeping myself going. I also I am trying my best to NOT FEEL GUITLY about having this time. Last week I laid in the backyard on a blanket and read…and then fell asleep in the sun. I try to savor this time, they way an expectant mom would savor her carefree childless days.

I trade in my coffee run for a trip to the thrift store, that’s at least an hour of entertainment. And when I find a top for $3.99, I reason that it is better money spent than on coffee. I can wear the top over and over (or at a new job) while I can only drink the coffee once.

J. Crew Cardigan, Banana Republic top and Express Jeans, all thrifted.

Grocery shopping rounds out my day and I am thankful to be able to purchase our groceries when the gentleman in front me decides to skip on the purchase of a block of cheese because it is no longer on sale. He carries a backpack that is tied together with a piece of twine and his one other item is a package of shrimp, on clearance.

Yummy Summer Snack

My new favorite go-to snack this summer is a healthy version of a chocolate shake. Who wouldn’t want to indulge in that?

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Shake
about 2 cups milk (Soy, almond regular, etc, I’ve been using soy milk.)
1-2 Tablespoons peanut butter, adjust to your own tastes
1-2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, adjust to your own tastes
1/2-1 frozen banana broken into chunks (make sure to peel your banana before you freeze for easy smoothie making)

Place all ingredients in a blender, or magic bullet, and blend until smooth. Watch out for those banana chunks. When you think it’s blended, blend a little more just to make sure.

For extra indulgance, drink with a straw while sitting in the sun.

Enjoy!

Complete and in Progess

I’m a bit behind in sharing my photos of my Bloom True paintings.

Canvas #2 Layer 8.5

Last time I checked in on this, I was not happy with all the green “pot” leaves that had appeared. While working on a different project, I used my canvas to clean up my paint brush and painted a bunch of pale blue paint to neutralize the painting.

Canvas #2 Layer 9

Then I focused on the colors I liked and simplified it even more.

Canvas #2 Layer 10

Next I added some dripping paint and some darker tones to create contrast.

And my final bold move was to add circles! Over the entire painting. And I added some more detail with white.

Canvas #2 Layer 11-Final Layer

I actually finished this canvas at the end of March.  It’s been hanging in our living room and I’m very happy with it. This painting is a great example of intuition coming through. I’ve been drawing these flowers in some form since high school-that’s 10 years! Below is a drawing a did last summer in my sketchbook.

Canvas  #1 is another story.

It’s still a work in progress and has sat mostly untouched for over a month. I really love the green blue background areas and the vibrant colors. I added some white orbs but that only helped the background rather than the main image.

Canvas #1 Layer 9

I’ve just been living with it, waiting for something to come and feeling stuck. Flora’s voice is in my head reminding me “to do something!” Luckily her new book, Brave Intuitive Painting, arrived last week and I think it was just what I needed to get back to my painting flow.

I’ve been so afraid of ruining my painting and feeling so proud of how far it has come, but also not loving where it was at. There is a great line in Flora’s book that says “You  are the person behind the brush, so anything you’ve created, you can likely create again.” What a great way to remember not to hold your painting too precious. If I really don’t like where my painting goes, I took enough pictures I could certainly recreate it if I wanted.

Canvas #1 Layer 10

Besides painting over my awkward white orb, I made a baby step and drew in the outline of a new bird. I hope to spend some time painting soon and getting back to my intuition.

New Plants

I made a trip over to our local nursery yesterday to pick up more plants for the yard and purchase herbs since our seeds never did anything.

When I walked in, a sales associate asked if I was looking for anything in particular. I told her I wasn’t and she said “We like people like you.”

I wondered around for about an hour, deciding which plants I wanted to take home. I settled on a neon sedum, two asters and a hollyhock to help fill in some of our flower beds. The flowers aren’t blooming yet, but I look forward to some more color to our yard later in the year. Right now everything is just very green!

We are growing cilantro for the first time this year. It will be so nice to just go out back to pick a few sprigs to add to mexican dishes. Whenever I buy it at the store, there’s so much I feel like we have to have it in every dish all week to use it all.

In addition to sweet basil, which I planted last year, I also added boxwood basil. I was at a friend’s recently and he said it was the most flavorful basil he’d ever had. It looks like mini basil with small leaves and the smell is so potent…it’s divine! I can’t wait to start cooking with it.

Now I just have to wait for our tomatoes to come in and I can have caprese salad.

Sweet Horseshoe Market Display

Lexisworks and {afd} had so much fun sharing a booth at the Horseshoe Craft Market last weekend. We had a steady stream of traffic and sometimes our booth was over flowing with guests.

THANKS to everyone who came out! If you missed us at the Horseshoe Craft and Flea Market this time, mark your calendar for July 14th. Or come see us at one of our other upcoming events.

I was excited to re-use my bunting flags from my wedding. They were the perfect touch to our sweet booth and we even had two people ask if they were for sale. Of course I said they weren’t because they are more sentimental than anything.

I was also really happy with how seamlessly our both display came together. Sharing a booth with {afd} was such a great decisions because our work and style compliment each other so nicely.

This is going to be a great market season!