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.

Making Things Make Sense

After my post yesterday I got many great responses here and on Facebook from others who were very inspired by what Jessica Swift had to say. I also received plenty of encouragement which I'm forever grateful for.

I worked in my studio yesterday and finally finished these two little collages I have been working on.

In this one I was using a wood frame and I thought about painting it but instead decided to hammer letters into it. I liked the type-o that happened. Reminds me of a calculator.

I've been thinking a lot about this work and what it means. I'm making these strange landscapes that become a little clausterphobic. I think it some ways they represent what is happening inside my head and how I over think everything and worry so much. Maybe instead of art imitating life, life can imitate art and I can make really sparse collages and then stop thinking so much. Does it work that way?

Last night I glued animals to jar lids by candle light as we watched the season finale of The Walking Dead. Do you watch it? Whoa Baby was that episode intense.

I'm off to style my hair and work at a beautiful store for the rest of the day.

xoxo

Procrastination At It's Best

Sometimes I move at such a snail's piece when I'm working in my studio. I have ideas for projects and I get really excited and can't wait to get started but when it comes to the execution I stall. I started cleaning little messes that I find on dressers and tables. I decide I should vacuum my rabbit's cage. I make lunch and watch a tv while eating. Finally I realize the day's almost over and I haven't even started yet. I know it's because I'm so scared of failure. I've always been this way with my work. I'm afraid that I won't be able to make my ideas come to life or if I do they will be terrible. Now that I know the problem why can't I just fix it?

Are you this way? What do you do to get out of that funk?

I have a new banner that I'm very anxious to see finished but after spending a whole day hem-hawing around it all I managed to do was get my letters glittered. To be fair this did take FOREVER! Now what? I have an execution problem I'm dealing with but mostly I'm just finding new things to clean.

Now that I've whined a little bit my plan is to finish this up and get a handle on this fear. I don't know how many times I've told others that if it doesn't work just try something else. It's time I tool my own advice...

I'm also working on a cupcake liner garland, too. I'm sure it will be finished by 2013. ( :
Happy Tuesday!

Factory Girl

In the last few days my studio has turned into an animal lid making factory. It feels like magic watching these animals turn into solid gold. Well... you know what I mean.... I figured if I'm going to start getting serious about art fairs I need to start making lots of stuff.

There'e also a custom-ordered black Corgi in the mix.
I struck jar gold when my future Grandfather-In-Law gave me all these jars he had been saving. These glass fruit jars are some of my favorites. I love their shape.
Here's a cuty-pie fish I made a while back. He's been hanging around in my studio for a while now. I think I like him in there. He's sort of my muse.

You know who else is my muse? Luxie. If I could have one wish it would be to let her talk so I could know exactly what she's thinking. It drives me crazy that I don't know. Any rabbit whisperers out there?
I hope wherever you are the weather is unseasonably warm and fantastic. I also hope this isn't a sign of global warming. Eep!

Studio Happenings

Little bits and pieces of thins happening in my studio right now.

Cutting Out Cuties

I have to admit it's been hard to get my mind to focus on anything besides our new house. But we don't move in for months so I have to think about other things. Monday I had the day off work so I did tedious studio things that have to be done eventually, like cutting images out of books and magazines. I find it's so much easier to have a library of images on hand when I'm ready to work instead of being in the middle of a piece and then trying to find something to collage into it. So I cut... and cut.... and cut....

And then I put this sea anemone on this geometric-like shape and I felt pretty satisfied.
Today I'm going to go exploring for inspiration. And I may eat my first macaroon. Fingers crossed.