What I have been up to lately!

Hi Friends!  Here is is: the link to my new etsy shop!!  Sorry I have been incognito, but I was working on getting some items ready to sell.  So, here is the link.  Please stop by and take a peak!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/EfflorescentDesignz

Trista

P.S. Still working on my cookbook... not too much progress yet, but perhaps soon I will post a couple pics of what I have done so far!

New Eyes!

Ok, I didn't really get new eyes!  I just decided to play around with some of my makeup.  I found the most awesome page in my new Real Simple magazine.  My all time FAVOURITE magazine!  It's pretty much AWESOME!  Anyway, there was an add for some makeup and I realized that in all the eye makeup I have, I already have the colours they were using.  I normally stick to pinks and browns, so this was a fun way of branching out in my colour palette and using some colours I wouldn't normally use.  

{Here is the magazine add}

 {Purples on}

{Me just being me}

Do you ever get stuck in a makeup rut?  

Trista

NEW HEADBAND!!

I just want to share the cutest headband I just made!  Complete with the cutest bow EVER!  Seriously!  It's AWESOME!  I know you will love it and want one of your very own!

{LOVE}

Trista

LOVE!!

Hubs and I have married for 3 years today!  I am sooooo excited!  So in LOVE!!  I decided that I wanted to make a cute banner to hang from our awesome window that said "I love you" and was totally going to wait to hang it until today, the actual day, but instead I hung it up a week early!  So that the celebration could begin!  You know, like birthday week!  It's anniversary week!  I hope you enjoy the cutest project ever!

{I took some heavy card stock paper to trace out my letters, a heart for the centre and hearts for either side}

{If you ever did arts and crafts when you were younger, perhaps this might look familiar?  Yes, tissue squared wrapped on the end of a pencil and glued to the heart.  Super cute, right!?}

{Here is the final product hanging from our window.  I used a needle and thick thread to attach it all together}

{LOVE IT}

P.S. How in the WORLD do you rotate a photo??????  Obviously, I need help!

Trista

Fun Recipe!

I LOVE Tofu!  And yes, I get mocked for it by meat lovers, but seriously... I don't eat lots of meat... chicken and fish sounds good to me!  One thing that I keep stocked up on in the fridge is a thing of firm tofu.  Normally, I just like to put it in a stir fry with noodles and veggies, but this time I opted to bake my tofu.  I googled baked tofu and found some strange recipes, but I also came across this amazing one!  I wish I would have actually bookmarked the site so I could go back to it, but instead it's going into my book of recipes that I am making.... if you follow my blog, you might now what I am referring to!  Basically, it calls for a marinade type sauce.  This one had soy sauce, sesame sauce, ginger... all kinds of YUMMY GOODNESS!  All you have to do is stir everything together so it's well blended, let the tofu marinate for an hour in the fridge and then bake!  If you want the full recipe, feel free to shoot me an email!  I served the tofu up with some fried rice {Hubby's request} and egg noodles {my FAV}. 

P.S.  See those super cute Japanese tea cups??  Charity shop!  Super cheap!  That's the way to shop on a missionary budget!  

Baking Fun!

I LOVE baking! I love being able to put ingredients together that on their own, might not be so spectacular, but mixed together make a wonderful treat!  Every other Wednesday, I have a cute little baking buddy who helps me make wonderful goodies!  Last Wednesday, she wanted peanut butter cookies and I had some bananas that were going bad, so we decided to make 2 desserts.  She made peanut butter cookies and I played with a banana bread recipe.  I had a part fail on the bread because I subbed here and there and then also realised that I didn't have the oven on high enough... oops!  But, hey, it still turned out edible!  And, it had chocolate chips in it.  I wasn't going to let that go to waste!  Especially since I am almost out of the ones that my mum brought me from the states.  Here are some cute pics from the evening!

P.S. Her peanut butter cookies turned out AMAZING!  And, she did most of the work!  

~Trista

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