Monthly Archives: May 2012

A Weekend with an Art Journal

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So for months now I’ve been thinking and talking about starting an art journal.  I know that art journals have reached trending popularity in the last year or so, which normally would turn me off of them.  However, I’ve always been a prolific journaler and I frequently doodle, add doodads and keepsakes to them. So in effect, I’ve been art journaling for years, just not officially.  One day in February, I spent my lunch hour at Michael’s perusing their supplies and picking up some things to kick-start my art journaling adventures.  I spent about a week prepping the pages of a sketch book with white and black gesso so that they would stand up to various techniques and additions of things over time.

Making Space for Creativity

A couple of weeks later, I gathered together all the supplies I thought I might need, purchased a rolling cart with drawers and organized the shit out of it all.

And then my creative energy fell flat.

Well on Thursday, I was “bit” by a creativity bug.  I was sitting at my desk wondering what I was going to do for the next few days, knowing that my usual Friday shenanigans were going to be off due to a friend’s illness and no dancing in sight as I was still recovering from my own recent medical anomaly.  Bored at work, I started searching online for art journaling supplies — maybe it was a shopping bug!  I came across a page that included a video for making a fabric art journal, watched it in all of its four parts, and I was bit (bitten?). Regardless, I watched it once and wanted to make it.  So I wrote a list of supplies, made the executive decision to leave work early (shh…don’t tell the boss or “admin cam”), stopped by the fabric store and headed home with my creative spirits high!

Materials to Get Started

Like I said, I watched the video once.  That’s how simple this project is.  Though since I already had a spiral bound journal ready to go, I did need to figure out on my own how to sew it into the cover.  Easy Caprese!

Thanks to my friend Sarah, who is keeping her sewing machine at my house, I was able to quickly sew together the squares I would use to create the “quilted” cover of my art journal.  I am not a sewer, but these were so quick to just do a running stitch around, stuff and then close up.  You don’t even turn them inside out because you use the raw edge as part of their charm.  I had a lot of fun deciding which fabrics I would use for each pillow and the colors of the border, etc.  What’s great about it is that when you run out of one color thread, you can start with another and it works fine.  Its meant to be rough and haphazard.

I started the project late Thursday afternoon and by Friday mid-day, I had it mostly together and was ready to embellish.

Fabric Art Journal

What was so great about this project, is that the creative energy sparked an entire weekend of journaling and doodling and creativity.  At one point, I was kinda afraid to leave the house and interact with other people in fear that it might zap the energy.  But alas, on Sunday morning when I learned I was out of milk and creamers for my coffee, I had to abandon ship and make a Starbucks run.  But no fear!!! Once I returned and spent some time cleaning up the apartment, I was able to tap right back in and pick up where I left off.  In fact, I’m excited to get home from work today to do some more.

I took lots of pictures and have put together a little picture montage (with music) of the process and some of the inside pages.  I hope that you’ll enjoy and perhaps it will inspire you to take on a creative project of your own.

 

More Muffins

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I’m on a roll now with my weekend muffin making and so I thought I’d post a few more successful recipes.  I’ve pretty much gotten it down to a smooth process, making two separate batches each weekend.  I pull out all the ingredients at once and have everything at the ready.  This weekend I made two batches in just about an hour.  And will enjoy them all week long.

 

Tart Cherry Muffin

Tart Cherry Muffins
Ingredients list:
1 large egg, beaten.
3 ½ cups of unbleached flour.
2 cups of milk.
¾ cup of tart cherries, drained.
1/3 cup of vegetable oil.
1/3 cup of chopped pecans.
¼ cup of sugar.
1 tablespoon of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
2 teaspoons of almond extract.
1 teaspoon of salt.

Instructions:
In a suitably sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and the sugar.
In another bowl, combine the beaten egg, milk, almond extract, and vegetable oil; blending thoroughly.
Mix the ingredients together gently.
Gently fold in the drained cherries and chopped nuts.
Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins filling each about two-thirds full.
Bake at 400°F (205°C) for 25 minutes.

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Strawberry Muffin

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar. Using a potato masher, lightly mash berries; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a glass 2-quart measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to combine.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with remaining sugar.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Raspberry

Lemon Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole-wheat flour, or whole-wheat
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) raspberries

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 large (1/2-cup) muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper liners.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the lemon in long strips. Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar. Add buttermilk, oil, egg and vanilla and pulse until blended.
Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
Bake the muffins until the edges and tops are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm.

Honey Rhubarb Muffins

Honey Rhubarb

Ingredients list:
1 cup of oats.
¾ cup of unbleached white flour.
1 cup of diced rhubarb.
1 tablespoon of baking powder.
½ teaspoon of salt.
½ cup of honey.
½ cup of skim milk.
1 large egg.
1 tablespoon of grated ginger root.
1 tablespoon of canola oil.
Paper liners or cooking spray.

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with oil.
In a bowl, combine the oats, flour, diced rhubarb, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, stir together the honey, milk, egg, grated ginger and canola oil.
Form a well in the dry ingredients and pour the milk mixture into the well.  Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Divide the batter among prepared muffin cups and bake for about 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and spring back when touched.

Feeling Crafty

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Last Saturday morning about 4 am, I was wide awake laying in bed wondering how I might better organize my jewelry. I don’t wear much, but in the past year I’ve become slightly obsessed with cocktail rings. They were starting to pile up on my dresser and they are so bold and beautiful that I really was doing them a disservice. So I opened up the web browser on my smart phone and searched for “ring organizers.” There were lots of options, but none that really caught my fancy. And then it came to me. Why not make something that would display and organize most of the jewelry I wear regularly. And I came up with a plan.

 

 

Modified from a padded bulletin board concept, I put together a framed organizer using fabric, batting, high density foam, foam core board, and a frame I’d picked up at SCRAP for $5. I used the design of a dresser top ring organizer and created padded “slots” with the high density foam for the rings to slide in to. I chose a fun and bold fabric that matched the colors of my bedroom decor and sewed on buttons to hold necklaces. I’ve used quilting pins to hang the tiaras above the rings. I’m pretty pleased with the result. I like quick craft projects. And this one would have taken an afternoon, if I hadn’t been derailed by other life stuff. So I finished it up over the course of about 2 days, all told.  I didn’t have a pattern or a plan, that’s pretty much how I work.  But if you are looking for basic directions to get you started that you can modify to your needs, I would start here.

The Truth About Lies

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The other day, I was flipping through the photo stream on my phone looking at all these word/quote images I’ve collected through Pinterest recently.  I was preparing to post this one to my Facebook wall. I was as close as only having to touch the post button when I was like “fuck that, this is so messed up.” I had saved this image because at the time I came across it, it struck a chord in me and I felt in agreement with it. But not now and hopefully not ever again. And I hope you won’t be either.

I recently was faced with the very real possibility that a relationship I cared very much about and had invested a significant amount of time and energy into was based primarily on lies.  And for a not-so split second I thought I might fall apart.  And truth be told (ha!), I kinda did (little bit).  But then I was like “fuck this!”   The way the relationship made me feel at the best of times, the good things that came into my life because of it, shouldn’t be diminished because some asshole doesn’t have the balls to be honest and truthful with himself, me, or anyone probably.  Unlike him, I was all-in.  For  reasons I won’t disclose, I felt safe–completely safe to be totally me: authentic, emotional, crazy, raw, sexy, giving, trusting … all-in!  And I learned so much about myself.  And I won’t let someone else’s lies take that away from me.

When someone lies to you, it has very little to do with you as an individual and has absolutely nothing to do with your worth.  Lies are about the other persons concept of self and worth.  Either they don’t believe they deserve to be authentic and honest themselves or they have an inflated sense of self that allows them to use lies to take what they want and move on.  I think this is true in all relationships — friendships, business, etc.

Here’s what, I know we all tell a little “white” lie from time to time to get out of sticky situations or whatever.  I’m not talking about those kinds of lies.  Although I do believe that these kinds of lies have their own impact on our lives and we all have the ability to rise above them.  I’m mostly referring to the lies that have the greatest impact on someone’s life.  Those that change the way a person may react, that impact the decisions of an individual, that manipulate and twist the truth into something unrecognizable.  I encourage you to not be that kind of person.  And most of all, I want you to believe that when someone else tells you this kind of lie, it is not about you!

Here’s how I’d rewrite this quote:

 

Unfinished Words

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From time to time, inspiration for writing strikes or is–well, triggered.  Some times a piece is complete, often its not.  These are my unfinished words.  I will share them here from time to time in hopes of capturing them more in their entirety for future works or just to preserve them as they are.

Written 5/2/2012 12:30am…

It’s this one.  Moments like these when the darkness overcomes you and every pore of your body is crying out for respite.  When you reach out for the comforting reassurance of another and realize you are alone.

It no longer matters how you got here, you are here.  Hyperventilating, your body contorting as if possessed by a demon.  It is, in part, an exorcism.  You’ve had that insight, that moment of clarity, regardless of how excruciatingly painful it is that he is only ever going to be capable of hurting you.  Hurt.  Even if he’s not trying to, everything he does and says, the very essence of his being fills you with it.  He has no capacity for seeing or understanding it.  Does not feel the sharp edges of his words slicing through the beating tissues of your unprotected heart.   He smiles, licks his lips.  Nodding a brief acknowledgment in your direction, blind to the broken shadow of the woman he once claimed love for.

You were only his prey.  And leaving you cold and lifeless, he moves on.