New Painting & Updated Built-in Shelves

 

A year ago I decided I wanted to build a canvas and paint something in our living room to replace our gallery wall. 

So I built the frame...

and stretched the canvas and painted it. But I didn't like it. Then I tucked it away for a year.....Until last week when I decided to try again. So I reprimed it and painted it. 

And I even got a little help from the little one:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. We had decided to go with one large piece for the living room wall instead of a gallery wall, so it wouldn’t visually compete with the built-in shelving. And special shout-out to Uncle Gary who built me a frame for the Canvas! Because the canvas I built wasn’t perfectly square, he had to do a lot of extra work to make it work.

Here's our updated shelving that we repainted last summer:

Here's a before photo (yep, that's Ms. Rachel on TV...this is the only photo I could find)

Earrings

I've made some ceramic earrings over the past few years and these are a few of my favorites. The gold flecks in the glaze on this big one turned out especially fun. I try not to spend too much time on any single earring since I lose so many of them in the greenware stage. Lots of them crack when I’m making the holes and end up getting tossed. I loaded a kiln yesterday and broke one of the necklace pieces in transit 😫 (that I did spend some time on!).

This glaze is called "june bug". The photo doesn't do it justice, but it's a glossy, dark green metallic glaze. 

More earring posts coming soon.

Sprinkle Cookies

 

Like any other normal toddler, Mari is obsessed with sprinkles. We finally made sprinkle cookies together and she loved them.

I'm not a big sugar cookie fan, but I really liked these. Recipe adapted from here. (They call for sprinkles in the dough AND on top - seemed too much for me. We only put them on top and they were great and not overly sweet.)

Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

• 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sprinkles (for just on top)
  

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. 
2. In a stand mixer (or separate bowl), beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium high speed until creamed, ~1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on high until combined, ~1 minute. 
3. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low (or by hand). Scoop dough and roll into balls (I made them small). Dip tops of cookies into sprinkles. Place on a sheet or large plate and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. (I put them in the freezer for an hour and then the fridge for 20-30 minutes.)
6. Arrange chilled cookie dough balls at least a couple inches apart on baking sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look soft.

Bandana Bibs

How cute is this little nugget?

She's been drooling up a storm lately, so I sewed her some bandana bibs. It's nice to have an excuse to sew some quick things now. 

Introducing Mari Lee

 Wow, my last post was in January 2020. I'm not sure how things could have possibly changed more! We survived the last couple years and came out with a special prize. She's now a little over three months old and we are very happy. She's so sweet and happy.

Meet Mari Lee.

I should have been posting during the pandemic because I made loads of things! Pottery, baked goods, delicious meals and jewelry. We even closed in our garage and turned it into a room. That is probably worth a post.

More to come soon!

2019 Highlights

Happy New Year! I hope to be blogging more regularly here. 2019 was mostly a very good year and had a lot of family and travel highlights.

In March during my spring break, a group of close friends traveled together to Big Bend National Park. It was a magical week of hiking, group meals and goofs.

I won a teaching award in the School of Natural Sciences:

 In May we got to travel with family to the UK and had a wonderful time exploring coastal towns, visiting family, eating (fish & chips! meat pies!) and family runs:

Eric and I had a week to travel together post-family trip to visit a friend in Ghent and spend a few days in Paris:

At the end of June my family rented a beach house together in Florida. It was a really special week of seashell hunting, sand castles, pool time and a record amount of snacks (seriously! sadly don't have photo evidence):

and I continued making ceramics: