Thursday, June 24, 2010

Thursday-6:30am

This is what I did with the zucchini, yellow squash, and three colors of peppers--quickly fried them up just a bit and put them into small containers. Had some on rice last night with a little Tamari sauce--yummy! I have to think of ways to have fresh foods for the entire month when I only order once. I froze up the rest of the chopped orange, yellow, and red peppers--so they are ready to use in a stir fry or whatever. Should have thought of this earlier--lost the rest of my mushrooms. But--better late than never, as they say, right? They should be good frozen, too. Handy to prepare ahead of time when I am not up to all that prep work. ;)
Okay--these are my two old watercolor bookmarks. They're about 6-7 years old and have been used almost constantly.
This one has gold ink and I used the plastic wrap technique on it. That's where all the creases and marks came from. The corners can get bent, as you can see, but when they're laminated they last for years and years. May cut them a little closer to the bookmark next time.
This one was just plain bright colors of paint blobbed about on the paper.
So--I decided to at least set up the watercolor block using the plastic wrap yesterday. As soon as I left my chair Karma was up there like a big old jumping bean.
These are so much fun to do! You feel like a kid in grade school art class--hehe! Kind of drop color on the wet paper wherever you feel like it. Then dropped in gold ink randomly all over, too.
Then crumpled up plastic wrap (I always want to say saran wrap--showing my age) is pressed all over the watercolor paper and left to dry.
It can take a day or two to dry and you must have patience--no peeking. So, you don't know what you have until the big reveal. :) We made all the previous bookmarks on precut paper-individually. So this is exciting to see how this will work with cutting up the paper afterwards. The precut bookmarks were dry in about a day, but they were small. This might take even longer than two days--who knows? I remember the plastic wrap starts to come away from the paper, tho. So, I just have to wait.
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Oh--and I used the very first tiny Altoid palette I ever made--with a variety of leftover tubes that I had on hand. :) The rest of them are one brand per tiny palette.
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I found out it wasn't who I was afraid it was that was dead in the car on True Blood--hehe! Good! I think I do agree that this show is a guilty pleasure--blood, gore, sick humor, sex, and supernatural creatures--chuckle! It is just plain so bizarre that it draws you in and you can't help but wonder what will happen. ;)
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I was reading my Writer's Digest Magazine yesterday (July/August) and they had an interview with the author behind True Blood, Charlain Harris. Interesting woman! I love her attitude about having fun with her writing or she wouldn't do it. She had been writing mysteries and got tired of the format. Had a hard time convincing anyone to go with the dating a vampire book--hehe! But it took off and she's still writing the series--first person by Sookie. Harris has let go of her creation, tho--and let HBO go with their own changes and additions. Says she loves to be surprised when she watches the show. What a great attitude!!
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Harris was born the same year as I was--1951--in Mississippi. It said she has a cameo appearance in the season two finale! I'll be looking for her--roundish, with short curly dark hair, a big smile, and twinkly eyes from what I could tell by her headshot. :)
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Anyways, I only got a nap yesterday for an hour and a half. Caroline called and asked if she could come over earlier since she was getting off work early--sure! So, I ended up in bed at 9:30pm and sleeping till a little after 5am!! TADA!!
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Wish me luck at keeping this up for a while. I hope. I hope. Sooo nice to be up during the day!! :):) But after going so long with just a nap--I feel like I could use another one right now. But--no!no!no! Then I'd probably conk out and be up all night again. I wish I would have slept a little longer, but I was too sore to stay in bed. Luckily, I guess, I have the annual apartment inspection this morning by the company that owns the building. We'll see if I can stay awake all day long till some time this evening--hehe! ;)
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Well, have a happy Thursday!!
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The quote today comes from Eeyore (Winnie The Pooh)
"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

10 comments:

Intense Guy said...

:)

Your artisty produces some really cool works. I really like how eye catching those bookmarks are.

Karma a jumping bean huh... I'm glad its not Karma propelled because she ate some beans...

Nice to see you are "in the sunshine". When my friends sleep during the days, I wonder if they are vampires...

Jenifleur-de-lis said...

Yum! I love different kinds of squash. Very good for you too!

I remember those bookmarks. I still use the ones I made all the time! It is definitely like being a kid when making them. So cool! :)

Rita said...

Iggy--Karma may be eating some beans in her new healthier canned food--ROFL! She sure has been liking it and gobbling it down. :) Maybe that is the best time to be watching the vampire and supernatural shows, eh? In the dark dead of night--hehe! ;)

Jennfer--OMG! That's right! You were there, too! That was back when I first had craft nights. Do you remember how many years ago that was? Such fun! I'm glad you still have yours, too. The squash and peppers were really good on rice, but having some fresh mushrooms would have been even better. :)

Serena Lewis said...

Your veggie dishes look yummy, Rita! I love rice dishes!

I remember seeing your watercolour bookmarks once before...they look great! I used to paint up bookmarks on crazy-canvas but haven't done so in years. They were fun to make though. It will be interesting to see the effect the plastic-wrap leaves....with acrylics, I use the plastic wrap and remove it while the paint is still wet and it gives great effect. I guess because watercolour soaks into the paper more, it's best to leave it to dry before removing the plastic wrap.

I don't know what it is about True Blood that keeps me watching but it IS definitely bizarre and with just enough of a mystery to keep me intrigued. Michelle has read the books and she said the series has strayed a lot from the books.

YAY for sleeping at night instead of day....hey, maybe you've been getting influenced by the vampires in True Blood? j/k....lol

Have a restful sleep tonight, Rita ~ xo

AliceKay said...

The dishes you made with the zucchini, squash, and peppers are really colorful and look tasty. I'm glad you enjoyed them. (nothing i would eat tho...LOL)

Karma aka jumping bean. Will have to remember that. :)

Your watercolor project looks interesting. Can't wait to see the finish product.

Also glad you were able to sleep as long as you did. That would help a lot.

Love that quote. (that Eyeore is a smart one)

Anonymous said...

I love True Blood. And speaking of bizarre shows that you just can't help to watch brings to mind Twin Peaks, I am watching that now and it really is so dorky and bizarre that I just have to see how things end lol

The watercolor pictures are cute I like those and I can't wait to see how the saran wrap thingy turns out.

Hope you are having a good week so far!

akartisan said...

It's okay to say Saran Wrap, because that's the brand name, plastic wrap is the generic term. Some people just say "Saran" when they are talking about it. I make my collage cards on big, 22 x 30 pieces of paper, then cut them up into cards and flatten them with heavy weights for a day before gluing them on. I save all the scraps for making abstract design cards. It's fun to play around with them and I found there was something relaxing about gluing things.

I'm finally done with the census for awhile, so I'm trying to catch up with all the things I let get behind to do it.

Toriz said...

It's a similar sort of reason why I did all that cooking. We do a weekly shop, but hubby has this thing about when I say I want a couple of carrots, he grabs a big bag of them. There are only two of us to feed, and he doesn't eat most of the veg, so it makes for a lot for me to use. Gwydion has a bit, but I can only give him so much. So, I end up cooking up a load of meals and filling the freezer, like I did this week. I wouldn't have to do that if he actually brought just what I asked for. I mean, if I want one little mushroom, why buy a whole tub of them? *Shrugs*


I'm not a fan of True Blood, but glad you're enjoying it.

Rita said...

Serena--I just had some in a tortilla with shredded cheese. Was okay. I like it better on rice or pasta. Bookmarks are really fun to make.

Yes--the watercolor does soak into the paper when it dries. With acrylics you can even get a kind of 3D effect--so I would imagine the saran wrap would do different things. And if you let it dry on it might not come off--hehe!

The article I read--yes--sounds like they are writing up a lot of things that weren't in the books. Makes me want to read them. ;)

Rita said...

AliceKay--They are really different for me, too. Nothing I ever would have eaten before, I tell you. :)

Lynn--I was watching Twin Peaks again, too. Got started and then went off into other things like Supernatural and True Blood. I remember the first year as being really good--and strange, of course. But that it went downhill the second year. I want to watch it again and see if I still feel that way. I was also watching Northern Exposure before I got sidetracked--hehe! I really love that show--even the second time around, so far. I think I was starting season three?

Sue--Glad you are done with the census. I suppose it's kind of like people saying kleenex for facial tissue--hehe! I've never heard anyone say just saran, tho. Always saran wrap. :) It's fun to be able to splash paint around a bit.

Toriz--I had to chuckle! I can see why you have to cook some foods up ahead of time when you have all those extra carrots, mushrooms, etc. That's what happens to me ordering once a month online--always getting the packages. But then I forget last month to make up something before it goes bad. Can't afford to do that. Good thing I have a good refrigerator here! (I haven't had a good frig/freezer when renting very often.) I love having foods made up so I can just nuke them in the microwave! :):)