Pancakes!

We have been so sick this week.  Nora first got sick and then passed it around to the rest of us- isn't that how it usually works right? oh life as a parent. Thankfully since I am a lover of pancakes and there are healing properties in pancakes especially ones with cute little faces on them- we have been having pancakes most mornings. Pancakes, pajamas and watching far too many episodes of sesame street and bolt have been the path to wellness.  Tonight is date night which means once Nora goes to bed- its pizza and a movie. yay! which is exactly what I need and am so happy it's friday.

what are you up to this weekend?

Graham Cookie Recipe

Nora is turning into quite the little baker.  We have been spending lots of time in kitchen baking her snacks and treats for the week.  She pulls her chair up, and pours, mixes, rolls and of course her favorite taste test.  Like all kiddos, she loves her graham crackers but why not make them into cookies? The best thing about graham cookies is that it has the same honey taste but they are more of a cake like yummy taste , sort of like a gingersnap or snicker-doodle texture.:).

Ingredients 

2 and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp of baking soda
1 stick of butter- cold
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 cup of whole milk
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoon of sugar

Mix the flour, brown sugar and baking soda until they are incorporated. Dice up the butter into little cubes and then mix into the dry ingredients. The consistency should be a crumbly sort of mixture.  Add the honey, milk and vanilla until its sort of a sticky doughy ball.  Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 350.  In a separate bowl combine the cinnamon and sugar.  Take your dough from the fridge and make 1 inch balls of the dough.  Roll the ball in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and then place on baking tray lined with parchment. Bake for 12-15 minutes and enjoy! yum!

Art Love: Ben Giles

Wow! Birds. Flowers. Old Photos.  What more could you want in a collage?  Ben Giles alters old photos and uses collage and injects them with color and energy.  The black and white pictures with the over lay of big, bold, beautiful vintage images are so out of ordinary. Love so much!

5 Activities to Inspire Creativity.

Having creativity is such an important thing to your person and soul. There isn't anything better than feeling that surge of magic when you find that special something that inspires you. I get stuck every now and then and what helps is always being on the look out for inspiration and to have a few activities to help those creative juices flow.  Here are some of my favorite go-to challenges or activities that get me unstuck from a rut.  

1.  Go to the art museum and go straight to the current exhibition.  The current exhibition usually changes seasonally. The art museum usually has a few different sections that they rotate the art to make it feel fresh but there are some that are permanent display that are just plan boring. skip it and go right up to that amazing current exhibition and be in the world of the artist.  Walk slowly and let your brain enjoy what your looking at and ask yourself at the end how did they make that? Before you leave visit the museum gift shop and buy yourself a cheap postcard from the exhibit to always remind you of how awesome it was.

2.  Take 5 dollars and only 5 dollars and go to your local thrift store. Your job is to find an object that inspires you and it's ok if it's broken or missing something or dirty and basically the only rule is that it needs to be under 5 bucks. Once you buy the item, take a piece of paper and fold it in fourths.  Unfold the paper and write in each corner 1,2,3, and 4 (1 being in the upper left hand corner, 2 being in the upper right, 3 in lower left, and 4 in the lower right) Refold the paper leaving the corner 1 showing and draw that corner of your object, not the whole object just that corner.  Refold the  paper showing only 2, and draw that corner and keep going until your drawing is complete. Unfold paper and see what you made! yay!

3.  Wear comfortable shoes and make sure your camera phone has 100% juice. Go into your local city or town- somewhere busy.  Look for something that starts with the letter A and take a photo. Then go onto the next letter and the next.  You can not go out of order and it has to be alphabetical.  Now you can look back and see what happened.

4.  Make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sammich. Now if you don't like the PBJs that's ok too, thats not the point. Take a piece of paper or sketch paper and write or draw 20 different  variations of the PBJ- they can be as crazy as you want. and just for the record I like my PBJ with crunchy potato chips.

5.  Take out a couple of old magazines and newspapers.  Take a blank piece of paper and start cutting out only words that you are attracted to. Now stack the words on top each other like a list. On your blank piece of paper draw out each word and I am saying draw not write.  Writing is something you do everyday this is something that should be extra- ordinary. Now at the end- what did your subconscious say?

Happy Creating.

Art 101: The Color Wheel & Secondary/Complimentary Colors

Last time we talked about the primary colors and now its time to tackle the rest of the color wheel- secondary and complementary color.   My favorite things about the color wheel is that its an easy reference to figure out an exact color because a color in real life isn't just red or blue its usually somewhere in the middle. The color wheel is a great simple way to see if that color leans more warm or cool and figuring out the color that best compliments it.

A quick recap from last week is that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.  The secondary colors are orange, green, and violet.   A secondary color is a color that is created by mixing  equal parts with it's neighboring primary colors. Red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make violet. Complementary colors are colors that when placed next to each other they create a strong contrast and they enhance each other.  Complimentary Colors are as follows red to green, orange to blue, and yellow to purple.  You want to place Red opposite green, orange opposite to blue, and yellow opposite to purple. Sounds easy right? A great art tip is that to create an easy shadow use it's complimentary color.  So if you are painting a bright red apple try mixing in some green into that shadow to make that apple really pop.

I keep two handy dandy color wheels, one I made in a one of the few art classes I took in college and the other I bought at a local art supply store.  As you can see both have been loved.  You can easily make your own color wheel and this is how you do it.  You want to draw a rectangle on a piece of paper and take out your ruler and make a dot in the middle.  Draw lines to create pieces of the pie and start filling in first with the primary and then the secondary. You can do different gradients/shades going between the colors depending on how detailed you want your color wheel but I think having a simple one is the best.

If you want to learn more about color and how they compliment each other. A really fun art exercise is that you are only allowed to paint with 2 paint colors and they have to compliment each other.  So this is your chance to do that red and green Christmas painting I know you have been itching to do :).  Sounds a little cheesy but I promise if you really want to learn about color and shadow- its the best way to really see how they work together and against each other.

Hey want to read more in this awesome non art school series click here.

Do It Yourself: Deer Silhouette Key Chain Holder

I am the only one who loves forest creatures, especially little deer? Well I certainly do! I was in desperate need of a keychain holder because Nora is extremely fond of keys because why? well they are way cooler then any type of block or stuffed animal. (obviously)  Babies and toddlers love keys, I know that this is not a new thing.  So now she knows I keep my keys in my purse and will push a chair over to my purse, climb on the chair and riffle through my purse until she finds my keys. Then she buzzes the car alarm on and off for a good 15 minutes and once she gets bored of that she puts them away in her hiding spots. Luckily I know her hiding spots- behind the toilet or underneath one of the pugs.  Oh and if take the keys away- she goes into a full blown tantrum and well the world is over until I give in and give her back the keys.  So I made an extra fancy key chain holder to keep our keys away from her ever growing reach.  This could also be used as a pretty awesome jewelry holder too!

Supplies:
1.  Wood Plaque
2.  Gold and Black Acrylic Paint
3.  2 Hat Hooks
4.  I got a different set of screws for the hat hooks because the ones that came with the hat hook were really long and I didn't want the screws going through the plaque. I got 3/4 inch wood screws size 8, but double check what size of screws that come with your hat hook.
5.  Pencil
6.  Sawtooth Picture Hanger
7. Paint Brush
8.  Acrylic Varnish Matte

Take the Wood Plaque and apply 2 whole coats of gold acrylic paint.  Let dry and then take your pencil and draw a silhouette of a deer. It doesn't have to be perfect and don't worry about the too many pencil marks, everything is erasable or you can always paint over it to fix it.  Use your paint brush and fill in black around your silhouette.  I left the very edge of the plaque gold but you can always paint black all the way to the edge.  Let dry and now its time to add your little deer antlers (hat hooks).  Its ok to make them a little crooked because they are antlers! Add a coat of acrylic varnish and let dry. Add your sawtooth picture hanger to the back and thats it.  Hang it up and put your keys on those antlers. yay!

Do It Yourself: Gold Leaf Flower Pot and Ikea Hack!

I don't have much of a green thumb. What I am I saying? My plant survival rate is pretty bad, if I take a plant home the chances of it dying or getting eaten by the pugs are extremely strong. But this plant is special- this plant is my longest living plant.  This plant has survived college, Tim and I dating, us getting our first home and the birth of our daughter. I know this plant looks a little on the scrawny side but its the plant who lived.  This plant was in need of a new pot and I picked up this one at Ikea and wanted to add a little something extra. I used a gold leaf that is a two in one application because generally gold leaf you have to apply an applicator then apply the gold but the two in one is way easier and a lot less messy.

Supply List.
Ikea pot
Bristle Paint Brush
Gold Leaf
Painter Tape- if you don't have a steady hand.

Use the painters tape to tape of the areas you don't want gold.  If you have a steady hand then just paint on the gold leaf.  It takes about an hour to dry and I think it's the perfect home to my extra special plant.

Have you tried using gold leaf yet?