Adventures

Again I've let the blog sit a while.  I've got a bit of stuff to show for it though.  First, remember those culinary adventures I embarked on?  The third was lavender scones.  They were delicious:

I used the formula from this blog post:  http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2011/03/buttermilk-poppy-seed-citrus-scones.html  So easy to follow, and what I added to the basics was some ground dried lavender and some vanilla extract.  I sprinkled some lavender sugar on top before baking, too. 

Well those turned out so well that the next week I made blueberry scones.  Look at these:

I love blueberries.  And they make scones so good.  It's like a blueberry muffin but better :)  Try that formula the next time you want scones, it works out perfectly.

My other adventures have been in color.  I did make tags for Father's day and a belated Mother's day tag.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.  But they were fun color schemes... one was brown and red, the other was blue and gold.  Not too much of a reach for me, but I'd like to play with them again.  Since then, though, I've gone Summer-crazy:

Mom got us each a set of the new Tim Holtz seasonal ink colors.  So I thought they'd be perfect with my new Michelle Ward stamps and stencils because some of those have a very Moorish or Indian feel which makes me think hot weather which makes me think bright colors and now you know why Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, and Mowed Lawn seem perfect for OnWard & UpWard.  Welcome to my weird free-associating brain.

This is my favorite background I've done so far.  I added some Ripe Persimmon from the Fall seasonal colors to sort of kick up the heat.   Sort of inspired by The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which you should definitley see if you like British actors in character pieces.  It's fabulous.

I had lots of fun with this ATC background, but I didn't know what to do with it.  I now have a plan for it, but I was getting a little frustrated at creating backgrounds and not having a clue what to do with them.  I like to do a project all at once.  So on this next one, I did that...

This one cools things down a bit.  And I liked the swallow swooping along the streak of blue sky across the tag.  The contrails behind him are painted on with Distress Ink by swiping a wet paintbrush on the blue ink pad, and then I added white Perfect Pearls to make it shimmery and white, like trails of cloud, or jet trails. 

I'm looking forward to making some sprays with the reinkers for these colors.  Hoping to play with them a bit this afternoon.  I'm off today because I had some doctor stuff to take care of (routine, no worries) and I wanted to spend at least one day of Alex's vacation with him.  So once I was done with my doctor stuff, he took me to the movies to see.... BRAVE!

If you've seen the trailers or any of the promo stuff and you know me, you might be able to figure out why I'm so excited about this movie.  I love the Middle Ages, I love Celtic-y stuff (my go-to station on Pandora internet radio is built off of medieval and Celtic music - here), and... well... look at Merida, then look at me:

See the resemblance?

So did it live up to my expectations?  YES.  It's visually beautiful, the characters are great, and the story is classic but compelling.  Fantastic movie about mothers and daughters and how we both need to communicate, understand each other, and meet somewhere in the middle when we clash.  It's also about being, well, brave.  And badass.  And other b-words as well, but that might be spoilers ;)

By the way, that's Mr. Pocket's sword in that picture.  He's been learning 14th Century German longsword fighting.  It's only the coolest thing ever.  See what an adventurous life we're living?