Last night of Hannukah

Celebrated with family last night. I need to get the rest of the pictures from my sister's boyfriend. :) Happy holidays everyone.

Nutcracker Ballet

We saw the Nutcracker at the SD civic theatre this year, they did a great job on the sets and the dancers were excellent. If anyone has a chance to catch it there, it is worth it. :)

Jess and her munchkins met up with us, I had Toad and Jack with me. The kids loved it.

Company party

Hubby was out of town for work, so my dearest Jess was my date for the night. We had lots of (drunken) fun. :)

Gallery Opening!!!

I sold tons of pieces, it was awesome. The Toad went with me, it was a great turnout. So stoked.

Birthday love

What the picture doesn't show is the mardi gras beads, confetti and candy. My co workers rock the socks. Hubby is taking me out tonight, I have birthday plans over the weekend with friends and family... All in all I am a happy birthday girl. I have so many awesome and loving people in my life. :)

I am putting the finishing touches on my projects for the gallery opening. See an earlier post for the details. Hope to see locals there. The front is finished, I know Katinka and Tim have been working overtime to get it ready for the grand opening.

Edit: All the weight training and cardio I did for the week was gone in one fell swoop. But g-d was it worth it. :)

I love vacation.

We had a great time, Wicket was a good camp dog on his first camping trip. Toad and Maddy had a blast.

Thanksgiving time

Had an amazing thanksgiving with family. Dinner was delicious. Here is myyearly list. Things I am thankful for in no particular order:

1. My fabulous Toad. I couldn't ask for a better kid or a more sarcastic evil minion in crime. He's growing up to be such a responsible, brilliant and incredible person. And humble.... Who am I kidding? Not humble. :) But still brilliant and amazing and crazy good looking.

2. My mommy. I love her so much. I could write pages about how awesome she is, but instead I will just say my mommy is better than pretty much everyone else.

3. Having a great relationship with my little sister. And as an extension of that, her totally great boyfriend. I love anyone that makes her that happy. And also hopefully some nieces and nephews soon. (Hint hint.... ) :) Love you guys. And get with making little people please. I need kids that are local to spoil that I can give back. Stat.

4. My extended family and in laws.  I have some awesome family. My hubby has some awesome family too. I'm lucky that his family loves me like I'm blood related. Not everyone has that with their in laws. I have an awesome sister in law and nephew that I adore thanks to hubby's brother.

5. My fabulous, sarcastic, weird friends. Love love love. You guys are special, and I don't mean that in a little bus way. (well, maybe some of you) Hubby and I have some incredibly cool people in our lives. I have also been gifted with some awesome women in my life that aren't related to me and I appreciate and love them a lot.

6. Working with a bunch of great people and having a good job. My company takes care of its people and I work with people that care about each other. You don't find that often and I appreciate it. Also, we have a gym at work and I pretty much think that is the best thing ever. So does my waist line. :) I'm in great shape, I have my work gym to thank for that.

7. Living some place I love.  We've been here for a couple years now and we fall more in love with this place the longer we live here. I love having land, having a garden, having no neighbors closer than acres away. It's so beautiful and peaceful when I  get home.

8. My new pimp ride. :)  I am pretty much in love with it. I didn't plan to buy a new car, but hubby insisted I deserved a brand new car. I'm glad he did, it is fricking awesome. And the Toad now has my old car, so it was good for both of us.

9. My adorable fur baby Wicket. I don't think there has been a day in his 5+ years he's been in our family that he hasn't brought extra laughs and lovins. He's the most awesome puppy ever. Seriously, you cannot be in a bad mood near Wicket.

We are heading out for camping tomorrow, vacation time. :)

 Toad and Maddy are ready to go. :)

Fabulous Toad, being fabulous.

Earrings

 

Beetle wing earrings and baroque pearls.

I found these wings on ebay and have been trying to decide how to use them. I decided earrings were a good start. I just used a small piercing tool to make the hole. Be careful not to apply too much pressure if you do this, the wing will crack if you try to force it.

 

As for the pearls, again a random ebay find. They are baroque which basically means they are off shaped. I used EC600 glue with some bead caps, it will glue anything together. Even glass. So don’t let it drip on your work bench between the finding or you will have a bead and pearl attached to your desk.

Coloring glass

This took several coats, but the color is finally looking nice. I took a thing of elmers glue, added about a dozen drops of blue food coloring, then painted it on in thin layers. It goes on opaque, but it dries to look like it is dyed.

You need to clear coat when it is totally dry.

Gallery Opening next month!

I'm putting together some jewlery and projects for the Brazen Arts gallery opening.  My friend Katinka and her partner Tim are having the grand opening on December 8th; for local people who want to come see link below. "Join us for live music, refreshments, a kids craft table and more."

I'm one of several local artists who will have my work there. These are a couple pendants I finished today. :) I'll take pictures of other stuff as I finish.

http://brazenarts.artspan.com/home

https://www.facebook.com/BrazenArts

Best news I've heard all day! Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/raul-ruiz-defeats-mary-bono-mack.html

Let me start by saying I didn’t die. I’ve just been swamped lately and haven’t taken pictures of anything I’ve been doing, go figure. Our little family has been crazy busy the last month or so and I am looking forward to a much needed vacation later this month. In any case, I had to share this amazing and happy bright spot in my morning.

 

Bono-Mack was my mom’s representative. During all the problems with my mother’s house, her office actually backed the bank and went so far as to call the city council and police on the Occupy protest we had at my mothers in an effort to stop it from happening. Apparently she missed the part about Americans having the right to peaceably assemble. Her office was made aware of the event when we invited her to speak there.

 

*In case anyone missed my posts on that last year, the police were actually very supportive and friendly, so apparently that backfired. They all came in to offer words of support to my mom and tell us that they hoped it worked out in our favor.

So, this was some of the best news I heard all day and it has been a day of good news to begin with. Hopefully this new person is more concerned with his constituents than his predecessor. Dare I dream….

New car!

Rosemary has been retired. Well, she's been passed on to the Toad who gets his permit in December.  I've named her Dinah and she is beautiful and fabulous and I love her. :)

Pumpkin patch time

We went with Jess and her kids.... didn't buy pumpkins, but I nearly adopted a goat. Eh... soon. Soon.

 

 

 

Beignets!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 cupwhite sugar

1 teaspoonsalt

2 eggs

1 cupevaporated milk

7 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cupshortening

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar


Directions

1.In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt, eggs, evaporated milk, and blend well. Mix in 4 cups of the flour and beat until smooth. Add the shortening, and then the remaining 3 cups of flour. Cover and chill for up to 24 hours.
2.Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2 1/2 inch squares. Fry in 360 degree F (180 degrees C) hot oil. If beignets do not pop up, oil is not hot enough. Drain onto paper towels.
3.Shake confectioners' sugar on hot beignets. Serve warm.

Watching oil temp to make sure they pop

All fluffy

Sugar added

As always, Toad tested and approved. In fact he ate half of them. :)

Apricot Cream Cheese Danish

 Step one: Pre heat oven to 375. Take one package of seamless pastry, roll it flat. Use a piece of parchment paper between the pastry and the cookie sheet.

Step two: Cut cream cheese and lay it out across the middle of the pastry.

Step three: (Optional) Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

Step four: Put preserves on top of cream cheese. 

Step five: Fold into thirds over topping, pinch ends together and flip over onto seam side.

Step six: Brush top with beaten egg to make it golden.

Step seven: Cut slits in top, put in oven.

Step eight: Yummy!

First attempt at Collage Couture

I need to work on designs, but for a first try it didn't come out too bad. I need paint pens for the shoes and hair though.

Note, use double sided paper or be more aware of which direction the patterns are when cutting out. I accidentally cut the first couple backwards, because I traced my pattern onto the back of the paper, I had turned the pattern piece upside down. Not a huge deal, but sort of a pain when I went to start putting it together. So, label your pattern pieces to avoid having to re cut anything.

Pretty bobbie pins

 

When you have curly hair, you go through bobbie pins like crazy. I like mine pretty and thought I would pass along how I make them so.

Piece of cardstock and some nail polish, once they are dry you are all done. :)

Demon book (WIP)

Steps three and four: Black paint, then a rub of blond bronze. The drying time is what kills me. I am way too impatient to wait for paint to dry.

Dia de los Muertos skulls

Work in progress.... I took a dollar store skull and have begun painting it.