Pizza and Dirt

How do you type a noise of frustration? I just uploaded pics from my new camera showing all the work yesterday and somehow they completely disappeared into the ether.  Come back photos!! Luckily I have a few phone pics but I really am trying to steer away from those.  You're stuck with them today. Sorry!  

I mentioned yesterday that I had a some plans and I spent the whole day working on them. I have so many jars stock piled in my studio so I wanted to play around with them and create little dioramas inside them.  I have a few faux terrariums I have made in the past that I loved and with all the countless bits and trinkets and ephemera I have floating around a jar seemed like the best place to store them.

I started by putting dirt and moss inside them.  Here is where the trial and darned error comes into play. The moss was hard to work with because it was so fluffy. Since I'm trying to create scenes inside the jars it's hard to get things to sit upright because the fluffy moss wants to knock it over. By the end of the day I realized I should have bought flatter moss.  Also, I was using dirt with fertilizer in it and even though I had minimal skin contact I did start getting worried about the dangers of having it on me. The hypochondriac in me kept feeling like I was getting sick. Over all it was a mildly unpleasant day but I was ultimately happy with some of the end results.

The jars that were successful were the ones where I could physically stick toothpicks into the ground to hold stuff in place.  I had a bunch of these tiny paper flowers I made so I thought it was neat to make the jars look like a real flower terrarium.  I'll post end result pics later. I had some but they are floating around probably somewhere in Tron.

I have a few more to finish up today. I'm going to keep working with the fluffy moss because that's what I have to work with. I have a sale on Saturday and I would love to have a small variety of these. I know Fall is coming (I know this because I had a pumpkin drink from Caribou Coffee this morning) and I should maybe focus on more fall colors but it's so hard. These are the colors I crave all the time.  It's hard to switch up my palette to please the season. I guess I'll see on Saturday if the colors are all wrong.

In eating news... I made these amazing quinoa pizza bites for the second time last night.  The first time I made them was for a friend but I had to try them to make sure they were good of course. I loved them and couldn't wait to make them for my fella and I for dinner.  The picture below is from the original source. Click on the image to get the recipe.

The first time I made them I used a muffin pan but they fell apart easily after puling them out. This time I poured the whole mixture into a round cake pan and once they were done I cut them up into squares. It still falls apart but I hate cleaning the muffin pan so it made my life a little easier.  We both loved these and they were so easy to make. They will definitely be on a regular rotation for us.

I had the leftovers for breakfast. Pizza is good anytime.

Today I have to finish up things for the sale and start practicing my table styling.  I'm not using my pegboard this time so I have the challenge of figuring out how to display wall hangings.  I'm dreading this part but it could be fun, too. Tonight I'm trying a new recipe and roasting a red pepper for the first time. So much to do. Thank goodness for pumpkin lattes and pizza breakfasts!

Happy Thursday!