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!

Ice Cream for Real

Yesterday I saw a girl walking with a bag of groceries and I could see a frozen pizza in the bag. I was so jealous.  At the moment I was really hungry for lunch and I knew she was walking home and was going to make that frozen pizza and it was going to be soooooo good.

It probably wasn't that good but who knows.

Since we have started budgeting our life we are also working on eating better. We are not on diets, necessarily, just over-hauling what we eat.  Needless to say there are no frozen pizzas in the freezer. If you want one around here it comes out of your weekly allowance.  It's not so bad. I went home and made chicken and cous cous for lunch and forgot all about the pizza.  The hardest part to get used to is cooking all our meals. We no longer have a lot of grab and go foods so if you are hungry you have to prepare and make something.  I rely on laziness to not overeat. 

We have had a lot of changes around here and so far so good. It took me about a week to be grumpy and depressed with the food and money thing. I desperately want to buy a new dress or a new purse. All my purses are old and in various states of disrepair. Ok so my dresses are all fine but I still want a new one.  My birthday seems so far away.  But in the spirit of counting your blessings instead of your burdens I know that the balance for blessings is way stronger (did I say that right?).  Mostly because I learned how to make ice cream with frozen bananas and peanut butter.  Okay, that is not my biggest blessing but come on! Ice cream from bananas and peanut butter!

-Grab those bananas off your counter that are starting to become too ripe. You are not going to eat them anyway so cut them up in one inch pieces and throw them in the freezer (put them in a container first, duh). 

-After they have frozen put them in your food processor with a scoop of peanut butter (I try to use as little as possible. Maybe a hearty teaspoon) and turn it on. 

-If it is not getting as creamy as you like you can put a little milk in but it is not necessary if you want a vegan treat.

Auuuggghhh!  It is so good it hardly seems healthy.  With an indulgence like this I'll choose it over frozen pizza any day.  Can I eat some for breakfast? I might.

In my studio I am making messes and figuring things out.  I feel like I am basically starting on a whole new body of work and it is a little intimidating in some ways.  I am excited about what I am doing but I sort of do not know where I am going with it so I definitely have some moments where I feel lost.  All I can do is keep at it and I think the big picture will reveal itself to me. By Friday I would like to start taking pictures for Etsy.  Fingers crossed that I can meet that deadline.  

See that bowl on the left side with brushes sitting in water. I left them like that overnight. Gross.

Have a good day and I'll see you here tomorrow.