The One On Art and Shows

Last month I did my first "art" show with my fabulous friend and photographer, Sam Smith. I worked like CRAZY for 2 weeks doing about a million prints, making decorations, building a booth and getting excited for my first show! It was the Art and Wine Festival in Spring. Lemme just say... it was lame. A big disappointment. The crowd was definitely not one that appreciates art, and would rather buy a bedazzled gourd or plastic toys from China (not kidding) than a cute card or print. Sam and I were both disappointed with the turn out, but besides the blistering heat we had a great time together. By the end of the day it seemed like almost everyone was drunk and walking around with wine stains on their clothes. So, no more small town shows for me! I'm doing a couple of Houston shows in the fall and winter which I am really excited about! Here are some pictures! 

I am taking the summer to work on more serious art. I will still be making prints and doing stuff with At This My Heart Pounds, but I have been itching to get my hands dirty with collage, paint, canvas, charcoal, and recycled materials. I have missed working on bigger projects and I have a lot of ideas floating around my head that I can't wait to make into something! After I get a big enough body of work I will be entering more art shows in the fall. Thanks for reading! 

On Butchering A Chicken

Why should you buy + butcher your own chicken?


1. Its economical. Buying a whole chicken is usually a lot cheaper than buying separate parts.


2. Flavor. You will get a much more diverse range in taste and texture in your chicken dishes if you mix white and dark meat. 


3. Know your food. We only buy meat from the farmers market, but when we sleep in and miss the market we only buy meat from Whole Foods or other stores that support local/fairly treated/organic/happy animals. In a taste test both my husband and I agree that there is a major taste difference in buying the cheap meat that is pumped full of crap and treated like crap while it is living and is butchered by workers that are treated like crap.... and happy animals raised on farms. Butchering your own meat allows you to understand different pieces of meat and where they come from on the animal. Different pieces will have different flavors, and your knowledge in the kitchen about the different meats you cook with will greatly increase the flavor of your dishes.


4. If you plan on moving into a third world country one day like we do, this is a useful skill to have. 


5. Its an interesting conversation starter. I butcher my own meat. Yeah. 


The Dirty:


1. Sharpen your knife/kitchen shears. 

2. The chicken, in all of its glory. 

3. First you are going to take the leg and pop the joint. 

Then you will cut through the joint at the base of where the leg is connected to the chicken body. 

Do this to both legs

4. Separate the drumstick from the thigh 

Once done to both legs you have 4 pieces 

5. Extend the wing and cut where it connects to the body, then cut the tip of the wing off 

6. Cut the where the wing joint connect (this is where buffalo wings come from, Jessica Simpson)

Once done to both sides you will have a total of 8 pieces

7. Now you will cut the chicken's breast away from the backbone 

8. Separate the chicken backbone from the body. Yeah, its gross. Then throw the carcass away.

9. The breast will be in the shape of a heart, and you will need to cut it in half 

Clean up the chicken breast by cutting off any excess fat and tendons 

10. Cook or freeze. The ends. Noms. 

Bird Feeder!

I love birds! I love squirrels! Here is how to make a simple bird and squirrel feeder. 


1. Take a coke bottle, cut the top off, and poke 2 holes in the side


2. Tie twine to both sides of the coke bottle


3. Fill it with bird feed and hang it from a tree!


4. Enjoy watching cute animals munching out of your bird feeder all day!

Shooo Fly Don't Bother Me! (how to get rid of fruit flies)

Fruit flies = the bane of my existence for the past month. Taylor and I eat a LOT of fruit and vegetables, and with that comes those pesky fruit flies. Then, those fruit flies have babies, and make a swarm of fruit flies in your apartment/house/loft/whatever. What started as an annoyance turned into an embarrassing problem when the little bugs were flying around when we had company over. Something had to be done. I constantly washed dishes, cleaned the counters, and even poured bleach down the sink every night in order to get rid of any food that could be hiding down there. Nothing worked. Until. I conducted a little experiment. I am now fruit fly free! Here is how! 

Get a piece of fruit (I used a strawberry) and put it sitting in a bowl with balsamic vinegar. 

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and poke little holes in the top. The flies can get in but now out. 

Once you collect all of the flies in your kitchen you can discard of the bowl outside. Badabing badaboom! 

VALENTINES DAY (belated)

Hey friends! Yes, I know Valentines Day was almost a month ago, but I am just now getting around to blogging about it. Taylor and I were both working a LOT the week before/week of Valentines Day, so I wanted to do something that would be special for him but also manageable for me with the time I had. I decided to decorate a little cubby in our apartment with things that he likes, and things that reminded me of us....on a budget! Here are some of the projects I did! 


The set up: 
I made a banner reading "Sweet Love" with letters I found at Hobby Lobby, twine, and gold spray paint. 

The Goods:

On one side of the twine I attached "Love Tickets", which he can redeem at anytime for a massage, head scratch, and some other stuff that I won't mention

On the other side I put a cut out of a mason jar reading "Happy Valentines Day Love Bug"with a stick on lady bug inside. I know, cheesy, but thats how we roll

I found a project on Pinterest that I thought was cute and would look good on our wall. To make it I bought a frame from The Container Store and maps from a gas station. Cut out the places on the map where we met, married, and live and glued it to the inside of the frame. Then I used some of the handmade paper that I have (I will do another blog on how to make paper) and wrote in the text. He loved it and it looks really good on our wall with all of our other decorations

Because he is an artist, next I got home some paints and brushes and attached tags that I got from paper source with phrases like "You Bring So Much Color Into My Life! Its true! He does! 

He works at a coffee shop, and we drink WAY too much coffee, so I couldn't resist using the ADORABLE template that I found online and attaching it to a coffee mug. I am actually making a few of those so even when he is sipping on his morning coffee he will feel loved

I then got his favorite candy, Rollos, and with felt, glue, and some pipe cleaners and made him a few sticks of dynamite! 

I also got him a necklace from James Avery, but I didn't make that so no pictures are necessary. Happy (belated) Valentines day to everyone! More blogs to come soon! 

Cream Cheese POUNDCAKE!

I love pound cake. And I LOVE my pound cake recipe. I have treasured and kept this recipe to myself for a long time, but in light of the current economic problems and job crisis, I figured that the world needed a glimmer of hope. Here it is people… in all of its buttery, sugary, eggish goodness. You might initially feel slightly guilty about eating this after looking at the ingredients, but when you put that piece of cake in your mouth all of that guilt will melt away into gratitude that the gods of baking have bestowed this recipe upon you! I only got a chance to take one picture of the baking process because I was in a hurry, so enjoy! 

The Meat Of It:

-3 Sticks of butter

-1 8oz package of cream cheese

-3 C of sugar

-6 Eggs

-1 TBSP vanilla extract

-1/2 TBSP almond extract

-3 C cake flour (DO NOT use regular flour. It tastes way different)

-1/4 TSP salt

How Its Done:(this is so easy its ridiculous)

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add flavorings. Gradually beat in cake flour and salt. Pour into a greased bunt pan. Bake @ 325 for 1 hours-1 1/2 hours, put a toothpick in it, and if the toothpick comes out clean its done! 

Devil's Food Cakies with Chocolate Frosting

What girl doesn’t love a good excuse to go to the grocery store and buys a bunch of chocolate? Well, my friend was having a craft party and asked me to bring some treats. So I’ve got a dynamite recipe for Devils Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting! It’s a chocolate lovers paradise in every bite

Insides (cupcake): Makes 18

-3 1/2 TBSP soft butter

-1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar

-2 Large eggs

-3/4 C flour

-1/2 TSP baking soda

-1/4 C unsweetened coco

-1/2 C sour cream

Insides (frosting):

4 1/2 OZ semisweet chocolate

2 TBSP sugar

2/3 C sour cream

Topping = Semisweet chocolate curls

What’cha guna doo: 

1. Put 18 cute paper baking cases in a muffin pan, or put 18 double-layer paper cases on a cookie sheet

2. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking sida, and cocoa into the blender and mix. Or use a large bowl and hand mixer. Beat together until smooth.

3. Add in sour cream.

4. Spoon the batter into paper baking cases 

5.Bake the cakes in an oven heated to 350 degrees, for 20 minutes, until well risen and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool 

6. Enjoy a mocha latte that your husband makes you between making the cupcakes and the icing 

7. To make the chocolate icing break a bar of semisweet chocolate into a nonstick bowl and heat while stirring with a whisk until the chocolate is melted, stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn. 

8. Whisk in sour cream and sugar

9. Once the cupcakes have cooled, dollop chocolate icing on top. Grate semisweet chocolate with a potato peeler, or a knife, and sprinkle on top of the cupcakes. Let the cupcakes sit in the refrigerator before serving. 

10. ENJOY!