A BIG day at the market

I must have been hungry-definitley low on sleep-I wanted everything in sight. The big disappointment was NO blueberries. They stayed good for two weeks. I ate the last of them today. I would have loved two more quarts!
I missed out on tuberose today but went with sunflowers again and at the last minute grabbed a bunch of zennia for the great vase Amy gave me. Perfect.
See the Cumin Seed Gouda? Yippee! Buffalo for us and for Mom who is eating heart healthy these days. We had enough chicken, as a matter of fact there is a whole chicken marinating in the fridge for Mother's Sticky Chicken tonight. Yellow squash which I like just boiled with onion, kale- I'm slow cooking that tonight and making soup maybe. Though maybe Sue roasted kale? The corn isn't the best. I didn't pull the husks back and some isn't so good but 1.50 for 4 ears,
who's complaining?

More small potatoes, red this week!  I got a lot of tomatoes. Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, lemon somethings, and these cute little Peach tomatoes which are a little fuzzy and translucent. I can't wait to try them on a salad. I bought peaches to replace the blueberries. Some green beans, green pepper, red pepper.

Is your mouth watering yet?

I loved this boy blowing bubbles with a rope wand. Big bubbles. Sweet.

More art

I'm catching up with a few assignments and still behind on some.  The first image is painted sticky back canvas (SBC) that was run through the Cuttlebug with one of my Asian embossing folders. I chose the debossed side for the painted side.  I used Versamark pen to color the debossed areas and then swirled Perfect Pearls over the penned areas. I like it.  Pink is not a color I use often but it lends itself to the Asian folder and the soft metallics.

This is my embossed SBC that I used the mask on with embossing powder added to my techniques book.

This is the technique I love this week. Faux batik. I stamped with several foam stamps with gesso onto the SBC. When the gesso was dry, I went over it with really diluted paint. The colors I used were Dazzling Metallics-Glorious Gold, Folk Art-Lemon Custard, Calypso Sky, Bayberry, Christmas Red, Van Dyke Brown. I especially love the colors of the sea shell one. I used the yellow, van dyke brown and the gold. I think the subtlety is wonderful! I can see a lot of things I might do with this.

ARt Friday

Tonight I explored Sticky Back Canvas a little more with an embossing technique. Using the sticky side of the canvas, I placed a dragonfly mask down and sprinkled Bmuse very fine detail ep in Sepia. Dumped the excess off and carefully removed the mask. Embossed with heat tool. This leaves sticky canvas where the mask was. I swirled Perfect Pearls over that which added to the shiny look of the piece. It does look a little like "pleather". You could also apply a different color embossing powder to the remaining sticky part and heat again-making sure that the first color has completely cooled.
I've got the beginning of a faux batik going and canvas drying for a debossing technique for tomorrow! I'm lucky I have some really great foam stamps I got at a yard sale. They came in handy!

Art Sunday

I was able to do a little creating today. Continuing with what I'm learning in Claudine Hellmuth's class, the first was embossing sticky back canvas. I used a Cuttlebug Asian embossing plate and ran the sticky back canvas through it. Took Folk Art acrylic paint and added an equal amount of Extra Time with my blending tool and applied in gentle swirls. I like the effect. When I peeled the backing off the canvas I liked the pattern in it and hated to throw it away. I thought I might be able to do something with the shiny side so I got out my alcohol inks, but they just bubbled up. But, I went ahead and applied it to the other side of the backing and came up with this. I liked it too! I'll use it for an atc.

Next, I printed a black and white image on glossy inkjet paper and added color with Extra Time blended with yellow, brown and the same blue paint used above. Nice look. I have a fun colorized project that I'll do later this week. I may use it for Christmas gifts for my sisters. Shhh, don't tell them.

Next, I did a pattern paper transfer onto the sticky side of the SBC. I put the paper, print side down onto the peeled back sticky side. Burnished it well, spritzed with water and rubbed the paper off to revealed the transferred image. The nice thing about this is that any patterned paper design you like can be transferred to canvas and become something you can stitch on and use in anyway you would use fabric. The first one I did was disappointing, too much white in the background. Some of the red transferred onto the white in the rubbing process. Busy pattern and less white for the next one.

This worked much better. One small flaw-the line across the canvas is where in the manufacturing there was a break in the sticky application. For most uses this would not be a problem, but it definitely made a difference with this technique. I'm hoping that is not a regular problem with the SBC. I could see a line when I peeled it but didn't realize it lacked adhesive there. Next time, if I am doing this technique and see the line, I'll know to avoid it.

Some interesting things you can do with this technique and it was super easy.

I'm liking Sticky Back Canvas.

And a blistering farmers market day it is!

It is sweltering in the Ohio River Valley today. Expecting temp of 99 with it feeling like 105+ with humidity. There was no eating an omelet outside today! We went to Fleur de Lis for scrambled eggs, bacon and whole wheat pancakes, I bought 1/2 home for a snack. :)
You can tell we needed animal protein this week: ground buffalo for stuffed peppers and stuffed 8-ball zucchini (the little round ones, aren't they cute?), buffalo brats, whole and cut-up chicken. Yum!
These apples looked really good, I'll report back when I try one- forgot the variety (I'm bad about that). The little red potatoes have been so tasty! Two yellow squash for us and sending three to Mom along with the eggplant, tomato and an apple. I tried the peaches from Indiana today. My ones last week rotted very quickly, some the next day.
Guess that is about it for the market today. Talked with Ann from Kenny's Cheese- she had cumin seed gouda but we were late getting there and it was gone. We missed almost all of the flowers, too, though my sunflowers still look fantastic!
Enjoy!

Ok, It's really yummy!

I ate the Mortgage Lifter tomato that the critters so graciously left me this morning!  I had a BLT along with this yummy fruit. Too bad you can't taste it, too. It was like tasting summer!Oh, and they ate a green one, too. I picked the remaining green on and will let it ripen in the window, drat!

Market Day!

I had a great time at the market today. Yummy omelet made by Brent, the middle school teacher who is in training for a triathlon. Yippee for sunflowers, aren't they just spectacular?  Corn-a bi-color variety, red potatoes for green bean potato salad-you know it is a favorite of mine, a jalapeno because I hear we all need to be eating more of them. I found a jicima recipe that calls for one. I think I'll make squash casserole tonight to go with the chicken breasts from last week.  I love getting #2 tomatoes for half price. These look good to me! Speaking of tomatoes, I was going to pick two more off the Mortgage Lifter plant and ugh-a critter got to them first! I wish they would just eat the whole thing!  I think we have a raccoon, something has been in the pond most nights and leaving foot prints.
Don't these blueberries look great?  I'll probably freeze some of them.
The peaches have been great! I'm eating 1 or 2 a day. Needed some garlic, too, figured I'd try the market offering.
Thought you might enjoy a few pictures of the market today, too!
Have a great weekend!

This is when I wish I had more readers

I love reaching out to my family and a few friends to share my life, art and trips to the farmers market, but every now and then, you want to get the word out to help a person reach a worthwhile goal.
My friend, Sue, who stays up into the wee hours for some "me" time to surf the web, finds the coolest stuff. I've said it before.
Today was no different, and yet-different. This is a nice read, a cool cause and a wonderful piece of art. The best kind of art-from the heart and touching others. Head over to littlebitfunky to enjoy the story and go buy a net, I'd buy one even if there wasn't a beautiful piece of art love to win!

My first tomato of the year!

My Mortgage Lifter tomato was ready to pick!  I have to beat the squirrels, you know. This is not a big producer and if I had read the article I would have pruned it. But, I have 5 large tomatoes and several more blossoms so I'm excited. It is a big plant! I haven't had this variety before. Like some of the novels I choose, I chose it for its "title".

Another technique

For this technique I used acrylic paint mixed with Claudine Hellmuth's Extra Time brayered together and applied to sticky back canvas. On one canvas with the dandelion I spritzed the brayered stamp with water after applying the paint, in the other I did not. When I first stamped it, I didn't like the spritzed look but it dries nicely. The trick is to hold the spritzer back so that it is barely a mist.
I had a lot of paint left so I painted and stamped some atc-sized canvas, too.