My Latest Art Project!

I am super excited to share this art project with you!  A couple weeks ago, Roo-Roo got some awesome Chinese Character stencils and I started thinking about doing the most awesome art project painting with them.  I chose my favourite: LOVE and got to work!  I wish I had pics to show the process, but I don't, so use your imagination :)

First, I needed some sort of cardboard that would be heavy enough to make my own stencil out of.  I chose a cereal box, because it was handy.  Next, I traced the characters and made my very own stencil.  Then I decided that I wanted to use my acrylic paints and covered my whole canvas with this pink/read colour.  {The colour is a bit different than I wanted, but that's because in the middle of my mixing colours, I realised that I really needed to purchase the actual colour I wanted it to be.  Which, I only had this one canvas left.  So, by the time I purchased the colour I wanted that was on sale and then the other paint had already dried, it kind of turned a bit more on the red side.  But, whatever!  I still think it looks AWESOME}  After that dried, I mixed my colour for the character part, stuck the stencil on the canvas and painted over the stencil, being very careful to not allow the paint to spread by really holding down the stencil.  And, here is my finished product!

I am quite happy with the final product!  I love it so much, that I already have it hanging on the wall!

~Trista

The Supplies!!!

Woohoo!  I finally made it to the art supply store to collecting materials for my new recipe collection book! One of my greatest friends had suggested doing a decoupage type of a book and I think I am most definitely going to incorporate that into my design.  Here is a sneak peak at my supplies so far!

{sorry the image isn't super great!  I took it with the flash.. in the dark basically}

The supply list:

Rubber cement: this is my most FAVOURITE glue in the whole wide world!  Unfortunately, they don't sell it here :(  When I was at the art supply store, they did inform me of another glue that she thought sounded like American rubber cement, so let's hope when this runs out and I have to buy something else that it will be my new favourite.  I know that we are here now, so I need to make the most of what they offer here.  But, SERIOUSLY! It's my FAVOURITE.  Wanna know why?  Ok, because you can "erase" it if you mess up!  They make these most amazing rubber cement erasers that basically remove any residual glue that you got outside the lines.  Just like that.  GONE!  And, you can also make it so that when you are first trying out things, that if you just put a thin layer on one side and stick it to the other, it's not permanent.  So, if you decide that you want to change it, you just peel it up!  And then, when you are ready to commit, glue both sides and bam!  It is now permanent! Thank you 2-D Design art teacher for sharing all your amazing art tips!

Coloured Card Stock: to write out my recipes on and to make pretty designs with

Markers: Also to make pretty designs with

An Awesome Sketch Book: So cheap!  It will be perfect!

Recipes: duh!  

So far, that's what I have... Now I just need to make the time to really work on it:) 

~Trista

Sick in Bed.

Since we got back from our holiday, I had some awesome posts planned out!  I wanted to put up a couple pics from Sicily, show my supplies for my cookbook project, and show you a couple other fun things.  Instead, I am home sick with the flu, praying that sometime soon I will be back to full health.  I would greatly appreciate your prayers!  And hopefully soon, I will have the energy to get back to blogging!!  For now, I will continue my movie marathon...

~T

Chinese Awesomeness!!

We celebrated Chinese New Years London style this year!  Tuesday before our Saturday celebration, hubby and I went to China town to see what we could find.  I have always wanted to use the bamboo steamers and make yummy dumplings, but I never purchased them because of their steep price.  While looking through the market, we stumbled across an end cap that had bamboo steamers!  WOOHOO!  They were sooooo much cheaper there than anywhere else I have seen them.  I also found the cutest pink shirt to wear!  The only picture I have of me wearing it, isn't the best for showing off the shirt, but I will include it anyway :)  With my bamboo steamers in hand (and some panda snacks) I set out to find a recipe.  I searched online and found this recipe.  (I subbed with gluten free white flour).  They took a little longer than I anticipated, but they turned out seriously GREAT!  YUM!  So, here are a couple of pics from the evening!   

{This photo is from the celebration in Trafalgar Square on Sunday evening}

~T

Happy Heart Day!

I really really really wanted to share a recipe that I made on Saturday, but my sweet hubby had taken a couple of pics on his mobile and I don't have them yet on my computer.  Instead I decided to post this cute quick project that I made for Roo Roo for heart day!  It was soooooooo easy!  And, I had all the supplies already so I it cost me, well, nothing!

Supplies:
Felt: white, pink... whatever you colours you wanna use!
Clip
Hot glue gun (one of my most FAVOURITE TOOLS EVER!)

First, cut out hearts of varied sizes and colours

Cut out one circular piece with 2 slits in it

Slid clip through slits and glue down

Hot glue the hearts to each other

Attach circular piece to the back of the largest heart

And that's it!  Super easy!!!!

Trista

Excited!

The Problem:
I just have to say that I have loads of recipes floating around without any proper way of storing them.  A few years ago, my mum had given me a nice recipe binder which contained pockets to place recipes providing some organisation, but with all the accumulation of recipes it has run out of space.  What to do???

The Solution:
I am going to design my very own recipe collection book!  WOHOO!  So excited!!!  Tomorrow I will start gathering the supplies.  I am going to head up to Cass Art Supply and find a cheap sketch book.  When I was in there the other day, I saw some really inexpensive sketch books - spiral bound (although I haven't decided yet if I really want spiral bound... I have one more night to decide).  That will be my first purchase!  I will eventually need to get some rubber cement (they don't really have the same kind of rubber cement here that you can find in the states, so I will be trying out different kinds of glue that will hopefully do the trick!) and some cool paper!  I am going to look for that also, but I have noticed that you can find some inexpensive coloured scrapbook paper online.  Then I am going to let the creativity flow out!  I will try to post my progress as I go along so that you too can be inspired to organise your recipe collection!

Trista

Meet Percy!

Back in the summer, I took a really quick journey up to York for a Pastors/Leaders conference with Suzanne, the girls, and our hubbys (hubs were only there for a day because they had to get back for Bible study the following day).  We had almost a full day of walking around York and seeing the sights.  We went to an amazing museum that had the cutest make you feel like you lived way back when street and other amazing exhibits.  We also spent some time walking around the cute downtown shopping area.  So fun!  That's where I met Percy.  He sits in the window all day long hammering this one shoe!  Poor man!  That must get incredibly boring!  Just whistle while you work... all. day. long.  Come to find out, he has many other twins ALL throughout London!  Must have been a really HUGE family!  Anyway, I was looking for something funny to post today, and well, there ya go!

Seriously funny!
Trista