Adventures in Art, Product Design, Home Decor, Cooking, and Gardening
I thought it was time to switch things up and create another fantasy illustration so I painted this rainforest fairy during our Columbus Day weekend family paint fest. This painting was quite time consuming and challenging but I learned a lot and I’m satisfied with the end result. This painting is based on a tutorial from “How to Draw and Paint Fairyland,” by Linda Ravenscoft.
During our Columbus Day family paint fest my sister painted this amazing bouquet of orange and yellow tulips. She really enjoyed learning Janet Whittle’s background painting technique at our last family paint fest and wanted to try it again on this painting. This is her third watercolor painting and I think she’s hooked. I couldn’t be more thrilled; I love hanging out with my sister and look forward to many more painting sessions with her.
This painting was based on a tutorial in the book, “Tulips in Watercolor,” by Fiona Peart.
Here’s a close-up view of my sister’s painting:
During our Columbus Day family paint fest my daughter painted these gorgeous stargazer lilies. I love the combination of yellow, pink, purple, and touches of blue she used on the petals and the fine details she added with acrylic ink. This painting was based on a tutorial by Wendy Jelbert in the book, “Flowers,” by Wendy Jelbert, Michael Lakin, Fiona Peart, and Wendy Tait.
Here’s a close-up view of her painting:
What a busy weekend. Not only did I attend the Remington fall festival, I also hosted a Columbus Day girls weekend at my house. My mother, sister, daughter, and I spent the entire weekend together and we did what we girls do best–we cooked, we ate, and we painted. On Sunday we started off the day with a breakfast consisting of this delicious bananas foster puffed pancake and coffee:
After a quick clean-up, we got down to some serious painting.
My daughter worked on these colorful stargazer lilies:
My sister tried her hand at painting a bouquet of tulips:
My mother worked on these morning glories:
And I worked on this rainforest fairy, who looks a bit freakish at this stage because she has no eyes:
We painted for several hours then stopped for lunch. My sister prepared this fabulous panzanella salad with some tomatoes I bought at the farmer’s market (probably the last of the season) and some fresh basil from my mother’s garden. She served the salad with glasses of peach iced tea.
Then we continued our painting fest. We painted well into the evening because my sister was determined to go home with a finished painting. Everyone completed their paintings except my mother, who stopped to cook us this fabulous chicken with coconut-pineapple curry sauce, which we piled on top of jasmine rice:
I don’t know which was more fun–painting the day away with my family or preparing and eating these fabulous meals. I’ll call it a tie. I’ll be posting pictures of the completed paintings and recipes for the fabulous good eats next.
This weekend my mother, sister, and I attended the Remington Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department annual fall festival. The event was held at the Remington Carnival Grounds and featured a pancake breakfast, arts and crafts, ice cream and live entertainment, an antique car and tractor/truck show, and a fish and chicken fry. Remington, Virginia is a small town, so it wasn’t surprising that the carnival grounds and festival were quite small as well, which is just the way we gals like it.
The day started out cloudy and there was a light drizzle when we first arrived at the event, but it lasted only a few minutes and then the sun came out and it turned into a picture-perfect day–sunny, cool, and breezy. We had a great time.
We skipped the pancake breakfast and headed straight to the antique tractor, truck, and car show. Here are few pictures of the antique tractors on display:
This gentleman was all smiles when I asked him to hop up on his tractor and pose for a picture.
This was an interesting tractor. Notice the log cutter on the front of the machine–it’s a two-fer-one special.
Next, we headed over to the antique car and truck show. There were some real beauties on display, like this gorgeous turquoise Ford truck:
Here’s my sister getting “all up in its grill.” She really loved the front grill and how the red tail lights looked against the bright turquoise paint.
This picture is for you, sis:
My mom really loved this old Chevy.
This orange Chevy Nova really caught my eye.
Check out the size of that hood scoop.
Love the two-tone paint job on this Plymouth Charger, the chrome bumper and side pipes, and mag wheels.
I don’t recall what type of car this was, but check out that custom paint job. What’s not to like about purple flames?
My sister and I loved the front end of this car. The over-sized wheel wells that wrapped around to the front of the car reminded us of the Batmobile.
We spent a long time talking to the owner of this 1957 Cadillac, which is still sporting its original chrome, paint job, and interior. He is the third owner of this garage-kept vehicle, which has only 75,000 miles. With the exception of a few scratches on the left rear panel, this car was in mint condition, and still sports the original goddess hood ornament. What a beauty.
When the owner pointed out the goddess on the hood to the onlookers, for a moment there I thought he was referring to me. A girl can dream, can’t she?
To gas up this baby, you have to lift up the tail light. I’ve never seen that before. We thoroughly enjoyed looking at these beauties and talking to their owners.
After the car show, we decided to sample some fall fair delicacies. The selections were typically unhealthy, but so delicious.
We chose funnel cakes and fried Oreos–totally delicious. Afterwards, we headed over to the fish fry. It’s always best to eat dessert first so you don’t run out of room for dessert.
My sissy about to dig into her meal.
What a meal–two kinds of fried fish, french fries, home fries, green beans with bacon AND sausage, cole slaw, corn muffins, chocolate cake, and iced tea. Not the healthiest meal, but sometimes it’s okay to throw caution to the wind and just enjoy the moment.
The live country music was the perfect accompaniment to this down home meal.
Several gents were sporting straw hats.
The Remington Fall Festival is held each year on the first Saturday in October. I know where I’ll be next year. I better shop around for a straw hat, so I won’t look like an out-of-towner.
I love the fall–the turning of leaves, fall fairs, the crisp air, and hearty one-pot meals. And this almost home-made beef vegetable soup really hit the spot. Preparation was a snap; I threw this dish together in less than 10 minutes. And, boy, was it good. The secret to this speedy soup is to use ready-to-eat beef. Normally I use Hormel Roast Beef au jus–it tastes great and can be used to speed up lots of dishes, but it wasn’t available so I chose this Jack Daniel’s fully cooked beef brisket instead.
Since it was sliced and not cut into chunks, I cut it into bite-sized pieces and threw it in the pot–sauce and all. The whiskey based sauce was slightly sweet and made a wonderful addition to the soup. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this soup:
Ingredients:
1 16-oz package Jack Daniel’s Beef Brisket (or other ready-to-eat, fully cooked beef)
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes (or two 14-oz. cans)
2 14-oz. cans beef broth
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 large onion, peeled and diced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced into bite-sized pieces
2 cups of mini potatoes, unpeeled and cut in half
1 cup frozen peas (canned peas are too mushy)
1 can green beans, drained (fresh or frozen are better but I didn’t have any on hand)
1 can corn, drained (I used fresh corn on the cob)
Seasoning salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Now here’s the easy part. Throw all these ingredients into a large soup pot. Stir, cover, and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender–about an hour. While that’s cooking grab a magazine and a cup of tea and relax until dinner is ready. Nice! I served this soup with home-made buttermilk biscuits and topped them with unsalted butter and honey. Perfecto!
I painted these sunflowers a few months ago but wasn’t happy with the results, so I thought I’d paint them again using a slightly different color scheme and a highly saturated background. This painting is a based on a tutorial in Fiona Peart’s book, “Vibrant Flowers in Watercolor.” The background technique is based on a tutorial in Janet Whittle’s book, “Watercolor Roses.”
For dinner tonight, I whipped up this cheeseburger salad featured on ThePioneerWoman.com last January. It’s quick, easy, and delicious—and it really tastes like a cheeseburger. It doesn’t get any better than that. I made a few changes to the recipe to suit my taste. You can get the original recipe here.
Brown the meat in a large skillet. Remove from heat and drain the fat. Add ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, and mayonnaise. Stir to combine.
Cut hamburger buns into cubes. Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add bread cubes and toss to coat. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted.
To assemble the salad, place lettuce onto a plate. Top with meat mixture, cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, red onions, and pickles. Sprinkle croutons on top. Enjoy!
Rastafarian Steve
Rastafarian Dexter
This painting was based on a tutorial from Fiona Peart’s book, “Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Watercolor Flowers.” I may drop in a background at a later date, but for now I’m calling this painting done. Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an internationally celebrated architect, designer, and watercolor artist. His paintings did not become popular until after his death in 1928.