Handpainted Owls

After we warmed up a little from our photo shoot, my sister and I painted the little ceramic owls that were part of her Christmas gift from me. We had a lot of fun choosing the colors and talking about how cute they are ~ can you imagine hundreds of these cute little owls going down the assembly line?! All that's left to do is a super glossy top coat, possibly with a slight shimmer. :)

Winter Photoshoot With My Sister

We had fun getting all dressed up for this spontaneous photo shoot. Snow is a big deal here in Eastern NC, even if it's just a little bit. We drank lots of warm tea when we went back inside, and even a little pink lemonade. :)

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito

I was totally inspired by this recipe for pumpkin and black bean burritos. There was no pumpkin in my pantry, so I improvised a little with a couple sweet potatoes and it still turned out fabulous!! This is defintely something I would make for company ~ a lovely taste of spicy, sweet, and creamy all together in a homemade tortilla. It was a perfect ending to our Saturday. :)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil
1 onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin (ground)
1 can beans (black or kidney, drained and rinsed)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup pumpkin puree (or sweet potato)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (chopped)
2 tablespoons cilantro (chopped)
6 tortillas

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds.
4. Add the chili powder, and cumin and saute for about a minute.
5. Add the beans, water, oregano, salt and pepper and cook until most water has evaporated.
6. Remove the beans from the heat and mash half of them with a fork.
7. Mix the pumpkin puree, chipotle peppers and cilantro and warm in the microwave.
8. Place some of the pumpkin mixture and some of the bean mixture and into a tortilla and wrap it.
9. Top with salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream etc.

Oh How Lovely ~ Crochetdermy

These crocheted designs are quite delightful. Artist: Shauna Richardson. Amazing technique that feeds my desire to create things with yarn all the more. I'm currently working on a purse that I started back on our week long vacation. It is almost done ... just one more handle left and a few embellishments. Yippie!

East Midlands from Artists Taking the Lead on Vimeo.

Into the New Year

These first few days of 2011 have been pretty fabulous. These pictures mark the transition time between 2010 and 2011. Two friends came to stay with us for the weekend, which means lots of yummy cooking on my part. Our menu also included several documentaries, reading, talking, and a nice walk on the first day of January. Today was icing on the cake because Tony had the day off!! So we slept in a little, I did some zumba, fixed us some green smoothies, then we got all dressed up and went to town. We had a fabulous lunch and spent some time at the bookstore. We went for a run (so cold outside) and now we're setting down for the evening. Dinner is in the oven, we're doing a little computer work, then comes movie time. ♥