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Peppers

Look! Food! On a food blog!  ..... Well, sort of. Really it's more fun with Paper by 53.

In progress:

Paper by 53 App Is Amazing

I have discovered a new app called Paper by 53, and I love it very much. The app itself is free, but the only tool you get is a pencil. I paid $7 to get the brush, pens, and a marker, and I have spent enough time playing with it that it's already worth the price.

This is a picture I created today based on this photo in the Atlantic. If you click on the link, you'll see that my talents for drawing a likeness are non-existent, but I feel compelled to link to the original photo. There are lots of little things that are wrong with the picture, but it was really fun to 'paint' it. And the erase feature really improves one's ability. =)

Just for funsies, below is a gif showing my progress as I went along.

Mother's Day Crafting

Pepper and I decided to celebrate mother's day by having a craft extravaganza. We brought the craft table up from the basement and laid out our possibilities.

Starting from the lower left corner and going clockwise: The B is for Pepper (spoiler alert-her name's not Pepper). She's going decorate it & take it to college (see below); Wine bottle for wine bottle art (did not get used); Little shelf/organizers we picked up at a yard sale to paint (in progress; pictures to come later); blown out eggs we never dyed from Easter (not used); wool roving (not used); old photos (not used); popsicle sticks (Pepper LOVES popsicle crafting - her house is in progress); broken slate (see below); bird house (see below); wood scrap that I was going to paint with wax paints (not used).

Here's the birdhouse, painted by me, color supervision by Pepper. I hope to post pictures of a little birdie using it.

Painted B for college! Her roommates will undoubtedly be jealous.

First, I put the broken slate pieces back together and then painted a setting sun-type deal.

Then I painted a white tree, separated the pieces back out and hot-glued them on a picture frame.  The end! (For now.)

Mother's Day Gift

My kid made me this for Mother's Day. She was all sneaky about it & pretty much everyone else knew but me. Very very sneaky. =)

Completed wine bottle art

I finally finished the wine bottle art I started 5 months ago. Actually, it's beer bottle art, but whatever. Here it is:

I meant for the elephant to be bigger, so that the trunk would go up the neck of the bottle. Ah well.

Wine Poached Pears

Wine poached pears are really delicious, and I don't even like pears all that much. They are extremely easy to make. You can also save the extra cooked-down sauce, and it's like wine jam. So yummy.