Wall Candy

When dreaming of owning a home I knew that I wanted to create my own artwork to hang on the walls. Pieces that would represent who we are as a family and who I am as an artist. Well, I have been in my home now for a little over six months and have been able to create one work for the wall. It is more of an arts and crafts project, so I thought I would share how to create it.

What you will need:

Four art canvases (any size you want, but they should all be the same size)








Mod Podge (any finish you like, such as matte) & A brush










Scrapbook paper (all sharing common colors, patterns, subject matter, and/or theme)






And some black paint, as well as some yellow-brown paint (optional)

To begin you will want to paint the outside edges, as well as a small amount on the front, with your black paint. This will help your final piece look clean and gallery-like.



Once you have done this to all four canvases and allowed them to dry lay them out on a table or floor so that they form a square. This is for the purpose of helping you to lay out the paper to your liking. Then take your paper and cut it into different shaped rectangles. You may want to cut one and lay it on your canvas where you think you want it, and then continue cutting piece by piece so that you get varying shapes and are able to cut sizes as you may need them.


















One look that helps tie your four canvases together is by taking a picture-like paper and cutting it half, and then putting one half on one canvas and the other just opposite of it on the canvas beside it. You could also cut it into fourths and put each piece on the inside corner of each canvas.


When you have your canvases covered and in a look you like you can begin pasting them. Then, piece by piece, paint the mod podge onto the backside of the paper and press onto your canvas starting at one corner and rubbing to the other side to make sure you don't get any air bubbles. Make sure you alternate how your papers overlap so that they don't all overlap in the same direction.


Once all of your paper pieces have been pasted onto your canvas, and are dry, you will then paint over the top of everything with the mod podge. If you want an antiqued looking finish add some yellow-brown paint to your mod podge and shake it up before this step.

When your project has dried completely it is ready to be hung! Leave about an inch or two between the canvases for the best look.

Risotto

My latest food obsession: risotto. This is actually a very simple dish to make, it merely takes a little time and patience. It has a wonderful blend of creaminess, salty and savory.

To make this dish you will need:

1 small sweet onion, (such as a shallot), diced
1/2 sweet pepper, (such as a yellow bell), diced
1 cup arborio rice
3 cups broth (any kind you like)
1/4 cup dry white wine
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

To start put your broth in a pot and heat it until it is hot...and don't make bad rhymes like me ;) Keep it warm while cooking, as you will be slowly adding it to your rice mixture and you don't want to shock the rice and have it not cook properly. Heat a skillet on medium/medium high heat with a little oil. You don't want it to be so hot that you would scorch the dish, but hot enough to keep it cooking at a hot temperature (not warm). You will be continually stirring it, so there should be little chance of that happening. To begin, throw the onions and peppers into the skillet along with the arborio rice.

Just a little lesson on this rice, arborio is a short grained Italian rice. It has a higher starch content than other rices, which attributes to the creamy texture that is achieved. The center of the rice is sometimes referred to as the pearl. This is because as it is cooked, and it slowly reaches the center it opens it's riches and reaches the state of creaminess.

While continually stirring, you want your onions to become translucent, the peppers to be soft, and the rice to become toasty brown. Once you have reached this point add the wine to the skillet and allow it to cook for about a minute to boil off the alcohol. Make sure you scrape up any bits stuck on the bottom of the pan, you don't want to miss any of the flavor! Now, add one ladle full of the stock and stir until most of the stock has been absorbed by the rice. Repeat this step until either all of your stock is used up or the rice is firm, but not crunchy to the taste. Finally, add the cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the top and it's ready to serve!

You can make many different varieties of risotto by changing out the things you add to it, such as panchetta (an Italian bacon) or regular bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, or chicken. You could also add fresh herbs to it after it has been cooked such as chives, rosemary, or cilantro. You could even use a different kind of cheese, or omit the additives other than the cheese and have a very simple risotto! Try it soon, you won't be sorry!

New Family Member

Just wanted to post a few pictures up of our new family member, Avery, as some haven't seen any pictures yet.

This is when we first brought her home after she was neutered...she was a sleepy girl!

Playing with her lambie

Her first vet visit...poor thing had kennel cough

First bath!

This past November we did a family photo-op with a professional photographer, and here is a little slide show of the day!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Sheesh.

Wow! It has been a very long time since I have last posted anything on here! I guess I will just post a basic update, to get you up to speed with what's going on. We did end up getting the house, and it has been such a blast to turn it into a home. Slowly but surely I am adding pizazz to the place to really represent who PJ and I are. I will hopefully get some pictures up of it soon. I keep telling myself that as soon as the house is clean from stem to stern I will do this, but it is a much harder task than it sounds! The inside is looking really great. We've added paint and decoration to the main living area, which is the living and dining room. Next up is the kitchen once we get our tax return! A new stove and dishwasher are in the works, and I would like to either resurface or replace the cabinet doors. And finally add a little more paint and deco. Currently I am working on clearing our back yard and front yard to prepare for planting. It will be a fresh palette basically, as most of the pre-existing landscaping had died by the time we moved in. Another challenge with this, however, is the new member of our family. Avery is an adorable two year old pit bull-boston terrier mix that we adopted at the end of last year. She is full of energy and likes to chew on things. I planted an agave plant in the backyard, only to have her chew it and dig it up! So now I will have to come up with some kind of a deterrent. Other than that I'm just keeping busy with school and work! Will try to post again soon!