Monday, June 30, 2014

End-of-the-month Photography Scavenger Hunt Check-in

Hi there, blog friends!
Today I'm linking up with Rinda for her end-of-the-month 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt check-in. I only have a few items so far, but I'm not worried. The photo hunt runs through September 23rd so there's still plenty of time to find and photograph more items on the list of 21 things.

Here are some that I have so far, a few new ones and a couple that I've already blogged about:

#20 - A bus with a picture painted on its sides
I've seen a few other bus photos popping up for this photo hunt, and it's so fun to see the different scenery behind them. Some are surrounded by old architecture and rain, but here in Arizona we have palm trees and blue sky.
 
#1 - A sign welcoming people to your home town
{I blogged about this welcome sign here.}

#8 - A tattoo on a person
A couple of weeks ago my girl C and I got matching lotus flower tattoos. And for the record, this is something we'd been wanting to do for a very long time - it wasn't done for the purpose of getting a photo for item number eight on the photo hunt list.
 
#18 - A waterfall 

{I blogged about this waterfall here.}
 
#2 - A garden gnome


Technically, this one's a kitchen gnome, but I love him just the same.

If you have some time, check out some of the other links for this photo scavenger hunt on Rinda's blog today. She has blog friends from all over the planet playing along, and it's fun to see how others interpret some of the prompts.

Have a great week, my friends!

Friday, June 27, 2014

Just a Quote for Friday



"Home wasn't built in a day."
~ Jane Sherwood Ace

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Summer Solstice 2014 ~ Sunshine Art

Carrie and I were resting on our mats last Saturday when our yoga teacher entered the room and cooed, "Happy Solstice, yogis." In my mind I searched for "What date is this..." and was like, "Hey yeah! Summer solstice...totally forgot about that..."




I love that this particular yoga teacher will choose a theme to repeat throughout the course of our class. On that day she recited this piece from Rod Stryker, over and over: "In me there is a light that lights up the whole world. It radiates truth, boundless will, action and knowledge." She repeated it enough times that I committed it to memory, and as soon as class was over I jotted it down so I'd remember when I got home.




I knew that I'd be working on an art canvas later that day, and I was thinking of putting those words on it. I mentioned it to Carrie after class, thinking she'd say, "Oooh, I love that..." but she didn't respond quite like that. Ha. Daughters. Once she voiced her opinion I second guessed myself and the direction of my canvas art.




But, I'm glad I did. I went home and pulled up the file in my computer where I save quotes I like, and these lyrics written by John Lennon couldn't have felt more perfect. I love the song, "Across the Universe" anyway. This was meant to be!



The part about how I made it:

The art canvases I've made in the past have been done with acrylic paints, but this time I used watercolors and loved every bit of it! I used an 8" x 10" canvas, used mod podge to attach sheet music and then added a wash of blues and purples. And the suns rays got yellow and orange. Yes, the text is French - ooh la la. The half-circle for the sun is a piece of white fabric. I wet it with water first, then did a wash of yellow, orange, and a little red.

I ironed some freezer paper to the back of some unbleached muslin to keep it stable while I stamped my words, then I cut it into strips and peeled the paper off before attaching it to my canvas. I outlined all the pieces with a black Sharpie, stamped it randomly and called it good.

And there you have it ~ my little sunshine art to
commemorate Summer Solstice, 2014.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The first time I made pizza crust

I've been wanting to try Elisa Blaha's pizza crust recipe for a long time, and this past weekend I finally did just that.


The recipe was super easy to make, and the result was a fantastic homemade pizza crust.


I topped this one with (store bought) pizza sauce, Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, black olives, and some fresh basil. I baked it on a basic cookie sheet, but I think the future holds a pizza stone for Doug and me. And, I'm going to figure out how to make my own sauce as well. I'm getting serious about pizza making, my friends!



This will definitely be happening around our house again.
{recipe here}

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Arizona Falls ~ a little field trip

When I read the list for Rinda's photo hunt I wasn't sure I'd be able to find a waterfall. I mean, I live in a big ol' city and when I think "waterfall" my mind goes to something more natural - water falling down a beautiful mountainside into a river below...

#18 - a waterfall
Rinda's 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt


I had a few suggestions from local friends with recommendations for local parks with manmade waterfalls and I figured I'd end up at one of those. That is, until Carrie came across this list for "100 Ways to Survive 100 Degree Weather in Arizona." That's how we found out about Arizona Falls.


Arizona Falls is operated by our local power provider, Salt River Project (SRP). It's a 750-kilowatt hydroelectric facility that provides power to 150 homes annually. I loved learning about the history of this place.


Back in the late 1800's, this was the location of a natural 20' drop in the Arizona canal. Locals used to gather here for recreational purposes and in 1902 it became Arizona's first hydroelectric plant.


The Phoenix Arts Commission is responsible for rebuilding this site, and it was "reopened in 2003 as a restored hydroelectric plant and neighborhood gathering place where visitors can learn, interact and reflect. The new Arizona Falls combines art, history and technology to generate clean electricity from the canal's waterfall." {source}


Carrie and I walked around the site, snapping photos and enjoying the novelty of the place. The temperature was noticeably cooler from inside the structure, and the roaring sound of the falls made it necessary to shout to hear each other. It was awesome!

You can read more about the history of Arizona Falls (and where it's located) by clicking here.
 
And you can check out the entire list of items for
Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt by clicking here.

Monday, June 23, 2014

About my weekend...

Well hello there, blog friends.
And happy brand new week to each of you.
I had a fantastic busy weekend and I have some photos to share with you this morning. The past few days have been a mix of creating art, baking, photographing, laundry, yoga, gardening, light housework, and knitting. Oh, and making plans for the future but that's a whole 'nother blog post...for the future...


Saturday marked the official first day of summer. Bla. Not crazy about the thought of three more months of this Arizona heat, but it was fun to celebrate summer solstice with a yoga class with my girl C and then making some art in the form of sunshine.

Speaking of sunshine... Mr. Sunshine himself...


If you follow me on Instagram I hope you love sunflower photos because 'tis the season for me to be peppering my feed with them. I took a bunch of photos of my garden over the weekend but probably won't have a garden post this week because I have a ton of other blog inspiration to share. Funny thing, this blog - sometimes I'm grasping for something to blog about, and other times I have about three weeks worth of posts lined up. Not complaining, just sayin'...



Lucky followed me around this weekend because Doug was away on a scouting/camping trip with his brother. He's usually all about following his alpha dude and I'm cool with playing second fiddle. We spent a little time outside in the early morning hours and I cut a few flowers to bring inside for the weekend...

Saturday evening Carrie and I made a little trip into Phoenix for the purpose of checking off an item on Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. I'll have more on that later in the week, but here's a quick peek of an interesting place we visited...


I loved Saturday night's adventure with my girl. Loved traveling to a part of town that was new to us, discovering a fun little restaurant close by, sharing a meal while listening to some cool live music, and making plans over great conversation. (Kitchen 56)


Also in the mix this weekend was the baking of brownies. Man, I had been craving chocolate all week long and I'm pretty sure I got my fill this weekend. I need to go back to work today just so I'm don't have to pass that brownie dish in the kitchen several times a day!
 
And yesterday I tried my hand at making pizza dough for the first time. It came out awesome and will definitely be made again. I'll share that here on my blog on Wednesday.



This week holds a couple of evening yoga classes, figuring out meals that don't heat up our kitchen, and celebrating a milestone birthday for my awesome SIL, Janet. Plus I have so many fun projects calling my name that I barely have time to go to my day job, but duty calls...

I hope your week is filled with all kinds of awesome!
Go get it!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Just a Quote for Friday



"Each person has his own safe place - running, painting, swimming, fishing, weaving, gardening. The activity itself is less important than the act of drawing on your own resources."
~ Barbara Gordon

Thursday, June 19, 2014

A Quilt Square for Fiona

Hooray! I've completed another square for Fiona's Friendship Quilt project, and this month's square actually went to Fiona herself. I loved creating this one for Fiona! I wanted her square to not only represent her love of sewing, but also to represent the way she has inspired so many of our blog friends to come back to fabric.


I had played around with paper piecing when I made the cat block for Beverly in March, and I knew from past experience that if I wanted pieces this small in my final block (finished size is 6.5" square) that it would have to be done by paper piecing. {You can watch this video for an idea of how paper piecing is done.}


I started by drawing a 3.5" shape and mapping out where I wanted the spool to land inside that square. Then I made copies of my drawing, cut it apart and started sewing. {Don't you just love my fluffy pink pencil? Carrie gave that to me years ago and I use it only in my craft room. Love it!}


Of course. Whiskers Jay is always on the scene while I'm sewing. Always.



I'll admit that this block took a bit of trial and error, but once I got the hang of using my own pattern (ha!) it all came together. The duplicate square that I made to keep for myself was my first try and...well...let's just say that these spools got better with practice.

The tan fabric on the spools of thread came from my mom's scraps.





Ah ~ I love this friendship quilt project so much! I have very mixed feelings about the fact that the months are ticking by and this project is drawing to an end - only four months left. But you can bet I already have other ideas to keep me busy when this project is done.

You can see the rest of the squares I've made so far by clicking here.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Carrot Cupcakes and a Converstation with Grandma


It had been a long time since I'd made my grandma’s carrot cake. Grandma’s recipe makes a three-layer cake and I knew that we didn’t need/want to have that much cake around, so I cut the recipe in half, modified it just a bit, and made cupcakes for Doug as a Father’s Day treat.
While I was making Grandma’s recipe I was thinking about her. I thought about how she used to make this cake and it was sold by the slice at a local restaurant – back in the day before rules and regulations of commercial kitchens. And since I was baking it on Father’s Day, I thought about my grandpa and how much he loved my grandma’s mad baking skillz.
Once I had the cakes in the oven I gave my grandma a call. We struggled through the conversation – I’m pretty sure she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids. I told her that I was making her carrot cake recipe and how I had changed it up a bit and baked it in cupcake form. She seemed interested to know that I had added pineapple to the batter, and that I was going to use some leftover cream cheese frosting I had on hand. Then we talked for a bit about Grandpa, how he’s been gone for 26 years now, and that Monday (June 16) was the 105th anniversary of his birth.
And then I asked about her dad – my great-grandfather. What could she tell me about him? I loved that the tone of her voice changed when she spoke of her father; how asking about him softened her and reminded her of him on Father’s Day.
She said, “Well, honey, I don’t know what to tell you,” and she paused before continuing. “He never cursed – I never once heard him say a swear word. And he never drank. Never learned to drive a car – rode his bicycle all over the place. He loved to read and he loved to sing!”
I told her that I remember my mom talking about what a wonderful grandfather he had been and how she had loved him dearly. Grandma’s voice lit up when she said, “Oh, he loved his grandchildren! They were his pride and joy!”
At the end of the conversation I told her that if we were neighbors I’d bring her one of those carrot cupcakes I’d made and she said, “Do you want that recipe? I can send it to you…” Eh-hm. Told you she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids.


Here’s Grandma’s carrot cake recipe, cut in half and slightly modified by me. They were so delicious and got two thumbs up from Douglas.

Deb's Carrot Cupcakes
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking power
1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus a little bit more...)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/3 cup raisins
Cream sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl. Stir in pineapple.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix well.
Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture and stir until just combined. Don't over-mix.
Add grated carrots, nuts, and raisins and fold to incorporate. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting - I used leftovers made from this recipe.
Makes about 16 super delicious cupcakes.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

We Love Weekend Road Trips ~ a Mini-book

I'm excited to have a little scrapbooking project to share with you today!
I love having a collection of photos from a special occasion or a little road trip to put together in a mini scrapbook! I haven't made a mini-book since last summer and I'd been itching to play with paper - just needed a good set of photos to fill one up. For this one, I used the photos I took recently when Doug and I went camping.

I kept my embellishments simple and one-dimensional, and I was tempted to add some journaling and doodling along the way but in the end decided that I was happy with it just the way it was. I'll show you photos of my pages and then at the end of this post, for those of you who are interested, I'll provide some detail on how I made my book.





 
 
 
 
 
 
  
And now, the details:
 
♥ My pages are 4" x 6" - I cut Kraft cardstock to 8" x 6", scored down the center and folded to create a double-page layout.
♥ Book pages are glued back-to-back - I used a tape runner. I published a tutorial a while back that shows how to construct a book like this, and you can see that here.
♥ Before adding photos and/or embellishments, I stamped the background with a few random stamps I have. Nothing fancy, just random...
♥ I used punches for my shapes, cardstock and scraps from an old dictionary I have.
♥ I inked the edges of my punched shapes, as well as the edges of all of the pages. Inking the edges of punched shapes gives them added dimension.
♥ My title strips were printed using a Word document. I inserted a table and filled the background with brown, then made my font white. Printed, then cut the strips.

 You can see other mini-books I've made by clicking here.  :o)

Monday, June 16, 2014

Flowers in the House This Weekend

Good day, blog friends!
Today I'm combining my regular weekend recap with a little Flowers in the House link-up with my florist friend Jane over at Small But Charming. Come on in...


What photo shoot in my house would be complete without a cameo by Whiskers Jay?

I can never resist a sweet bunch of mini-carnations when I pass them in my grocery store! I have a small collection of old camping cups on a shelf in my kitchen, so I pulled one down, dusted it off, filled it with a chunk of floral foam, and proceeded to arrange (and re-arrange...) mini-carnations until the floral foam was close to crumbling. Ha - if any of my flower-pro-blog-friends have any tips for working with floral foam I would totally dig that!


I really did consider what I might be able to bring in from my garden this month, but the only thing cut-able right now are sunflowers and no way did I have the heart to chop any of those down. I ended up spending more money than I should have on some grocery-store sunflowers, complete with some twigs that Whiskers has been munching on since Saturday morning.


Meanwhile, outside in our dirt...


Carrie treated Doug to a Father's Day breakfast on Saturday morning, and then they checked out a new driving range called Top Golf. While they were off and entertained, I busied myself with laundry, grocery shopping, and baking a double batch of banana chocolate chip muffins. I had a ton of bananas that I didn't want to waste, and man, that was a lot of muffins. I sent some home with Carrie, froze a bunch for later, and gave some to my sweet father-in-law for a Father's Day treat.


A good chunk of my Saturday afternoon involved finishing up my "weekend road trip" mini-book. I'm happy with the final results, and I'll share more about that tomorrow. :o) It felt so good to play with paper again, but by the time that project was done I was ready to switch back to fabric.

Saturday evening Doug grilled burgers out in the heat - turkey for me (yum), venison for him (ew)...


We met Doug's dad and siblings for a Father's Day breakfast yesterday morning. I wish I could describe to you what an awesome dad my father-in-law is, how he has passed on some stellar fathering skills to his sons, and how grateful Carrie and I are for Doug. But this is a post about flowers in my house...

And baking and sewing and a cat...

I've had an idea in my head for a quilt square for Fiona's friendship quilt project, so I spent some time working on that yesterday afternoon. {You can see my squares here.} My trusty furry side-kick was right there in the mix, and I don't think he minded at all that the idea in my head did not translate out through my hands like I had hoped. Whiskers purred while I grumbled.

Back in the kitchen yesterday... I baked a yummy batch of carrot cake cupcakes using my grandma's recipe, and then I gave her a call and we chatted for a while. I asked her questions about her dad and also my grandpa and I loved our conversation so much. I'll blog about those cupcakes and my conversation with my grandma this week too.

So, yeah, a weekend filled with baking, crafting, sewing, cat tricks, phone calls, photographing stuff for future blog posts, some Father's Day love, and the ever present Flowers in the House.

Here's wishing you a fantastic week ahead!
You can check out Jane's flowers and links to others by clicking here.
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