Constant Dreamer

Holey Bread

My three year old son has a thing about bread. He will not eat bread with holes in it. It must also be free of any nuts or seeds or flecks of oatmeal or wheat.  It has to be a light to medium brown inside or forget it. As you can imagine, this is not so awesome for those of us serving him the bread. Oh my god, the screaming that kid will do over a hole in his bread.
"It's YUCKY!"
Usually followed by more screaming and some writhing on the floor.
Fortunately, most of the slices in any bag of bread aren't too offensive.

I took photos of my new workspace the other day and I don't like them. It might be the mess I still have to remove. I'll take more and post those instead.

Father's Day

Today, my husband slept in and I painted everyone's nails. Except my husband's. It was a spa day. No, the fussing really kept that spa vibe away. Regardless, everyone turned out pretty.

My daughter's toenails:

Her fingernails:

My son's fingernails (you try and leave out a screaming three year old):

My son's toenails:

It took me hours to get to my own toenails. In fact, I had one hand painted when my daughter insisted I paint ALL of her nails. Along came my son and he wanted to be painted. Not anywhere near as particular, he preferred a touch of color on each nail. A little messy-like.

I made blueberry pancakes today as a treat. They are wonderful to eat cold later. It's been a relaxed day for all of us.
Right now, there is a blanket fort in the front yard and it's starting to rain. Beautiful evening.
Happy Summer Solstice!

P.S. In the end, I locked myself in the master bath and painted my toes in peace.

I'll Take "Things That Are Not Washable" For $200, Alex

Last night, I washed a pair of disposable training pants with our clothing. That's about as awesome as it sounds. It might surprise you to know that it takes two "super wash" cycles to get rid of the gel from the explosion.

Bird

This bird has been half done for months. Oops. I'm recently drawn toward using more detail in the little things (in this case, the flowers). Aesthetically, it matches the other work in my shop. Mission accomplished. This one is 7x6.5. The original is larger by an inch or two.

In other news, we watched The Flowering of Human Consciousness last night. Wow. 

Preserving Memories

My children are constantly making new things. Of course, each and every thing they make is extremely precious. All of those things also have a tendency to bury us, so I start pitching them. Let's face it: you can't save every first thing. Those of you who saved that nasty umbilical stump may beg to differ.

The good thing is that some objects can be repurposed.
In this case, I took a picture my daughter Olivia drew and covered it with clear packing tape to make a bookmark.
The red person leaping through the air is her. The blue one is me. My hair doesn't often stick up that high.

Watercress

Yesterday, I went out to pick up some groceries and have some alone time. There sat some watercress in the produce department of our co-op. Woohoo! Dinner.
The ingredients are: watercress, tomatoes, cucumber and neufatchel cheese piled on a toasted bagel half. You could certainly use cream cheese (I have and prefer it).

Books!

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. I read several books a week amongst other tasks and really enjoy it.
The list on the left will show the last ten books I have read or am currently reading. I called it "Books!" because the formal explanation is much too long for that tiny title area.
I have a habit of spending tons of time on Amazon making long lists of books I intend to read. From there, I usually buy them or check them out from the library (or a friend lends me a copy). Rarely are subjects off limits, but there are things I'm simply not interested in and won't bother with.
The list is a bit light on the subject of art at the moment, but there are more than enough art books on the way. 

That's all I've got for today. There is a three year old boy sitting behind me in my office chair. Sometimes he's whiny. He also likes to poke me in the back. It makes it hard to concentrate. You understand.

Yummy Zucchini Bread

Everything is still a mess, so I haven't taken photos of the new studio.
Instead, I'm passing along a recipe for some super delicious bread. You'll like the recipe much better than photos of my work space and so will everyone around you (if you are sharing)

This was altered slightly from the original because people leave great tips in the comments. I also make my own adjustments. It all works out.

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups WW pastry flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 apple sauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown (I use dark brown)
3 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups grated zucchini (3-4 small zucchini or 2 large).

Grease and flour 2 8x4 inch pans. You can make 2 dozen muffins instead if you wish. Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C).
Mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla and sugar together. Add the shredded zucchini and stir to mix completely.
Add dry ingredients and combine well.

If you want to add nuts, do it now (a cup of chopped anything). I can't or my son won't eat it. Instead he freaks out and starts screaming.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 40-60 minutes (55 for me). Bake until a toothpick inserted to the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Then, remove from pan and let it cool completely.
Muffins take about 30-35 minutes. Everyone's oven varies, so I'd advise keeping an eye on them and noting how long they take for next time.

:)

Debauchery.

For the past ten years or so, I have barely listened to any music at all let alone new music. I was really into complete silence whenever possible. Over the past several days, I’ve been listening to the top 20 pop hits on our television (it beats all the kid shows by a landslide) (well, perhaps not Charlie and Lola because they rock). I can’t get over how much good music I’ve been missing out on!

My favorite today is “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga.

As a warning, it’s full of references to sex and debauchery.

You"ll have to click because my embedding skills have taken a vacation this morning.

This version has no video but prime sound.

The beat is fantastic and makes me realize I need to get out dancing very very soon.

 

I’m still in the process of moving into my new workspace. Luckily, my husband hooked up the internet and all the other computer stuff I’d rather not have to worry about. I just need to haul a bunch of supplies and such.

When things are looking reasonable, I’ll post photos. :)

Banter and Cookies.

Click click plink.

That’s the sound of my 3 year old son dropping buttons inside my tripod. Since he already dumped them all over the floor, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let him make an even larger mess. I suspect he’s also trying to sneak and drop buttons down into the vent. He did that once with pinecones.

Anyway, I could show you a photo of the floor covered in buttons, but I trust you have a superb imagination. Instead, I will post images of cookies. Rather, the makings of cookies. My cookie photos didn’t turn out. I am not in the mood to place cookies in the sun and photograph them. Besides, my kids will see and they won’t be secret cookies any longer.

 

The recipe is for Snickerdoodles and I got it from allrecipes.com. It had the highest rating by far so I used it. Those of you who like to modify things should dig through the comments. People are always changing things up. If you need a place to hide them from your small children, I suggest inside the microwave (unless that is where you cook of course).

 

I’m still not in my new studio. In fact, I have to clean out my new space and vacuum before making 856,348 trips up and down the stairs. Good times. It will be awesome exercise for burning off all the cookies I have eaten.