Creative Musings

Waffles

Posted on March 20, 2012 by cgoyer

Today is Peter and my 8th anniversary. While 8 years doesn’t seem like many years it still surprises me that those years have zipped by so quickly. In that time our combined children have become adults, married and given us 4 grandchildren. They have all turned into wonderful adults that we can be proud of. But that’s not what this post is about.

Peter is in Tuscon this week and we will be celebrating this weekend when he’s home. So, for my own little celebration today I decided to make myself waffles. Homemade, Betty Crocker waffles. It’s a great recipe that makes about 7 very flavorful and tender waffles in the great little waffle maker the kids gave Peter for Christmas some years ago.

For those of you that would like to make them here’s a link to the recipe online. I use a stick of unsalted butter instead of oil making the waffles really tender. And, eliminating the need for added butter once the waffles are cooked. They freeze very well so I can have waffles the rest of the week if I want. And, I can’t have waffles without bacon.

Posted in breakfast, Cooking | Leave a comment

I got a letter

Posted on March 20, 2012 by cgoyer

Mark B. Hill is a talented artist that is doing his part to save the US Post Office by creating envelope art and then sending them through the mail. If you email him with your address you can own a one-of-a-kind piece of art and give the post office a small boost. Mark is creative in his work and a generous soul for distributing his artwork without cost to the recipient. Brownie points all around I say!

Just head over to his blog and take a look at all of the creative envelopes he has created so far.

Thank you Mark!

Posted in art | Leave a comment

Healthy Snack

Posted on March 17, 2012 by cgoyer

I like to have fresh fruit around and especially like bananas and almonds as a snack. However, I also like my bananas to be slightly on the green side. Invariably there are always 1 or 2 bananas that get too ripe for my taste sending me on the hunt for something to do with overripe bananas. Not being one for banana pancakes, or banana bread, I have considered muffins but just haven’t made any yet. One time I made The Easiest Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe…Ever with good results. Peter really liked it. Much better than I did.

Still on the search for a recipe that I could call the definitive recipe for overripe bananas I ran across this one – Banana Oat Squares – in several versions but all very similar. There’s the one at Allrecipes.com that uses quick cooking oats, white sugar and no fat. The one at Sweet & Savory Tooth substitutes brown sugar for the white and uses 6 tblsp of butter, and another very similar one at All Day I Dream About Food that uses more bananas, and less sugar (bananas are very sweet on their own). What I liked about the latter two was that they both called for old fashioned oats not quick cooking and they had fewer ingredients. So, here’s the recipe I made.

Banana Oat Bars

4 Tblsp butter at room temperature
1/3 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 c old fashioned oats
1/2 large semi-sweet chocolate bar broken in small pieces

Preheat oven to 350° and grease an 8×8 pan. Cream butter and sugar together. Add in egg and vanilla and mix well. Add salt & bananas & chocolate, stirring until well mixed. Add oats and spread in 8×8 pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes until edges look done.

They turned out chewy and moist. I’m really happy with how these turned out. Baking the bars filled the house with such a wonderful smell just in time to welcome Peter home from Arizona.

Posted in baking, Cooking, recipes | Comments Off

How my week goes

Posted on March 16, 2012 by cgoyer

During the week Peter is usually out of town working. So I do various things to keep myself busy, anything from getting creative in the kitchen to learning a new art technique or getting in touch with my inner self. Being the recluse that I am I don’t venture out very often but I do keep myself busy.

Last month was the Letter Love 101 class with Joanne Sharpe, this month there’s the watercolor class with Cathy Johnson hosted by Strathmore. I haven’t watched the videos in Cathy’s class yet because I’ve been busy working on the March quilt blocks from the Block of the Month over at Craftsy.com.

Before starting on the March blocks I finally got around to doing more of the assignments from Letter Love 101. Specifically the Letter Loved Journal and some more backgrounds and a finished page.

This book was fun to make. You just cut the pages created on the bristol and watercolor paper to various sizes then tape it all together using decorative duck tape. Yes, Duck tape, not duct tape. You can find it in Michaels in all sorts of colors and patterns. I like the black and white patterns best. I will definitely make more of these. They’re fun and nice to look at. I still haven’t added any journaling to them yet but I will. Here’s a page I did in my mixed media journal.

Last weekend I made some letter stamps out of sticky back craft foam. They were fun and easy to make. Just draw the letters on the paper backing, cut them out and then stick them to something firm enough to hold up. In my case I used chip board I had cut for another project years ago so have forgotten what the project was. I’ve only stamped them to try them out but I love how they look. I stamped them a couple of times to remove the extra ink and really like the look of the stacked letters.

Enjoy your weekend.

Posted in about me, Craftsy Block of the Month 2012, Creative Every Day, journaling, Letter Love 101, quilting, sewing | Comments Off

Zucchini Frittata

Posted on March 15, 2012 by cgoyer

I don’t know about you but I really love zucchini. And I hate how much it costs in winter so don’t buy it very often off season. But I do occasionally give in thinking I’ll make a stir fry or something. Because of one such urge I had 2 zucchini languishing in my fridge completely forgotten until the other day. They were still good thank goodness. But I didn’t want to make stir fry, especially when it’s just me during the week to cook for. I also had a plentiful supply of eggs since it’s getting close to Easter and eggs are relatively cheap. Eggs, zucchini, and a few other ingredients and I had the makings of a frittata.

It was delicious and I’ll definitely make this again.

Zucchini Frittata

2 medium zucchini thinly sliced – I used a mandolin to slice them paper thin
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 poblano pepper diced
4 eggs, beaten with 2 tblsp water or milk (your choice)
I use water because it makes for fluffier eggs, milk or cream makes them creamier
1/2 c shredded cheese of your choice – I used a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses because it needed to be used as well but Parmesan would be just as good.

Cook onions and peppers in oil in 10 inch skillet until the onions are transparent. Add garlic and zucchini and cook for 3 minutes. Mix salt and pepper to taste in the eggs and pour the eggs into the skillet. Cook without stirring on medium heat until eggs are set – 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. At this point you can cook in a 350° oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese or just let the heat of the eggs melt the cheese. That’s what I did.

Enjoy

Posted in breakfast, recipes | 1 Comment

Happy Pi Day!

Posted on March 14, 2012 by cgoyer

Today is Pi day – 3-14. Being somewhat of a math geek I chose to celebrate by having pie, pizza pie. And, because we all know that pi(r)^2 so was my pie. What I usually do for pizza is use a store bought frozen cheese pizza and then add the toppings I want. This time it was artichoke hearts, peppers, and hot Italian sausage. No making dough or sauce or shredding cheese makes for a quick and easy dinner.

I hope you enjoyed today with some pie.

Posted in about me, pies | Comments Off

Birthday boy

Posted on March 5, 2012 by cgoyer

Last Thursday was Peter’s birthday. He’s now on the countdown to the end of our current decade and I guess that means I am too. But my birthday is still a few months off. This is the birthday card I made him. We went to sushi and a movie on Friday night. The movie was Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Lots of action. Our first choice was John Carpenter but that won’t be out until this Friday. We WILL be going to see it on Friday.

Since he loves apple pies I made him a birthday pie instead of cake. No picture but it was a thing of beauty. On Saturday morning I made a German Apple Pancake that turned out great too. And, we ate the whole thing. It was pretty sweet so next time I won’t use as much sugar.

After breakfast we went to World Market because they were having wine and food tasting. While there we looked for containers for loose tea since we’ve taken a liking to loose leaf tea. Teavana is the only place we’ve seen them and I don’t really want one with a logo on it. World Market didn’t have any but what they did have were cast iron tea pots for $20. We’ve been wanting to get one but didn’t want to pay $120 for one on sale. We could have bought one online but would have spent about $75 after shipping. Anyway, it was a bargain and they also had the tea candle warmers. Isn’t it pretty?

We also bought some of the World Market soup mixes and I tried the corn chowder tonight. It’s pretty good and not much work. Friday I plan on making the chicken soup. The mixes use a combination of fresh ingredients with the mix ingredients which helps the taste. I’ll let you know how it tastes.

The Letter Love 101 class ended last week and now I’m in one of the free Strathmore workshops with Cathy Johnson. I haven’t watched the videos yet so should get busy. Plus, the next 2 quilt blocks are available at Craftsy. My need to/want to do list is growing. My sketchbook is being neglected and I miss sketching. I did however, manage a quick sketch this weekend using a Pentel brush pen.

Blessings until next time.

Posted in brush pen, Every Day Matters, family, sketches | Comments Off

Letter Love update

Posted on February 23, 2012 by cgoyer

As the class is winding down I’m still gearing up. I haven’t gotten to all of the exercises but what I have done has been loads of fun. The above example is my interpretation of the Artfully Abstracted exercise. Very colorful, I know, and the scan is a bit off making the colors garish. I like it better in person than here. Very fun and one I will definitely give another go.

Joanne Sharpe is an amazing supportive teacher, very encouraging of everyone in the class. All of the lessons have helped me to lose my trepidation about adding text to my journaling and consequently inspired me to finish a couple of my pieces.

The strips with the text are from the junk mail book workshop I took from Carla Sonheim. The book never got made but I did prep several pieces of junk mail. The prep for the junk mail is gesso with watercolor wash. Don’t know that I’ll ever make the book but now I have a way to use what I made.

One of the more recent classes had us make several pages of backgrounds. Since Peter is in Tuscon I took the opportunity to set up my craft station to do several backgrounds.

I used Tim Holtz Paper Stains, spray bottles with a mixture of gouache and water, acrylic inks, stencils, both purchased and found objects, handmade stamps, and an empty spool for a stamp.

My tiny work area and supplies:

more of the backgrounds

The backgrounds are fun to do and doing them makes me realize I need a more permanent spot as an art space. The apartment is too small and we have so much stuff. I need a studio, some place where I can close the door to the mess. And Peter needs a shop and an observatory.

Posted in about me, art, doodle, journaling, Letter Love 101, tombow | Comments Off

I Won!

Posted on February 22, 2012 by cgoyer

Every morning I read the daily digest from the Yahoo group Every Day Matters and spend time looking at the blogs and sketches of the creative folks that post to the group. A couple of weeks back one of the members, Marsha Baker, held a contest for a piece of her artwork, you just had to leave a comment to enter. Well, I did and I did, win that is! My prize was the card and earrings you see here. Wonderful artwork in the card and so appropriate for Peter. I only wish it had gotten here in time to give to him for Valentine’s Day. But that’s okay, he won’t remember the card when I give it to him next year.

I love the earrings. They’re made from part of a bicycle chain and are very cute. The maker is Chainspirations and if you buy their jewelry some of the proceeds go to organizations that promote fitness. All in all a very nice prize. Thank you Marsha!

Posted in about me, Every Day Matters | Comments Off

February Quilt Blocks

Posted on February 21, 2012 by cgoyer

I finished the February quilt blocks from the Craftsy Block of the Month. Since there are 2 new blocks each month that means 8 blocks total for the 4 quilts I’m making. The blocks this month were the Balkan Puzzle Block: