Gorgeous and Fun

Beet Root Salad with Goat Cheese

A beet root salad with goat cheese is on the menu for the dinner tomorrow. The recipe and the picture is from the book "Tea Party" by Tracy Stern. 

Maybe there is an eternal attraction to tea parties wired into the female genetics but I've never had a tea party and I am likely to never have one. But it was the beautiful sandwiches on the cover of this book that got my attention. There are 20 tea party themes in the book, but really the recipes are good for any time. The recipes are about tea, accompaniments with tea and things in which tea can be an ingredient. There are recipes for  things like tea martinis, black tea brownies, cakes, sandwiches and, of course, teas. And there are decor and music suggestions to boot!

All in all a very fun and handy book.

Chickpea Soup

Hello, hello! I am back. Feeling better, friend's visit is over and yes, I've seen New Moon. A big thank you to the people who stopped by and left me their good wishes. And now my mind is on food, not that I don't think of it otherwise, but with Thanksgiving  coming up this Thursday I have been plotting the concoctions for that day. 

The chickpea soup above, has made it to the list. Doesn't the photograph make you hungry? The recipe for this fall soup is from the book "Sunday Soup" by Betsy Rosbottom. The recipe is titled "About 30 minutes Chickpea and Pasta Soup with Rosemary". Don't recipe books with lovely pictures just make you salivate? I love recipe books with great pictures, the pictures sell me on the recipe. And this book is gorgeous with soup recipe sections for each season.

And speaking of food, I can never resist mentioning Erin's fresh365 blog food blog. I only go when I have just had food, otherwise the pictures on her blog make me hungry and then I can't think of anything but food.

Image above is from the book.

Where am I?

Just a bunch of things going on at the same time - errands, not the pinkest of healths, backups, friends visiting. So should be back to regular posting this weekend/early next week.

Happy Mail & Buzz of the Week: Interference Colors

Today's buzz of the week is interference colors. I am showing how these colors work with one of the collages I made. See that shimmery violet towards the left and the right edges of the picture? That is a violet interference color from Golden. Interference colors really shimmer when painted over a dark color and this girl can't resist anything shimmery :-).

The lady in the picture is a stamp from Queen's Ink. And this painting went as Happy Mail to Patti, the designer of the stamp and the owner of the Queen's Ink store. 

Upon Walden Pond

People enjoying a 65 degree day in late October at Walden Pond. 

To see more of the outdoors go on to Susan's blog.

A Pink Cake Card

A pink birthday cake card that I made a while back.

Go on over to Beverly's blog to enjoy more of pink. 

A Jane Davies Class Collage

 

This is one of the collages that I made in Jane Davies' class. We made five collages each but I think this one is my favorite. Jane had brought an amazing array of papers, materials and supplies. And each and every piece of art created in this class was unique, absolutely no two pieces were similar. It was fantastic!

Buzz of the Week: Collage Journeys

It happened slowly, very slowly but before I knew it I had fallen in love - with collaging. Even last year, I wouldn't really have thought about collage. If I did think about it, I would think of the hastily torn out photos from magazines to make school projects. But some time last year I discovered acrylics. I had known about acrylics for ages but it was last year that I discovered what I could do with them. And then from there the next step was collaging. And since then collages have cast a spell on me.

One of the books that has fueled the creativity in this direction is "Collage Journeys". It is a fantastic book and divinely inspiring. I have also had the privilege of taking a class with Jane Davies. Not only is she a fantastic artist but also an awesome teacher. I'll share a couple of collages I made in her class over the next week. If you ever get a chance to take a class with her, I would highly recommend it.

Outdoors

This is not a black and white picture! The sky was this overcast on Saturday. 

Go on over to Susan's a southern daydreamer to enjoy more of the outdoors.

Colors to Inspire

 

Just absolutely gorgeous colors! And in each case the design and colors work so well together. And, I love the frothiness of the last dress. And since I am taking the petite doll class with Suzi Blu, I have a suspicious feeling that these dresses and colors are going to find their way into some petite doll art.

Picture credits: Top picture from Vogue June 2009 (Model - Sasha Pivovarova), second picture from Vogue July 2009 (Model - Sienna Miller), third picture from Vogue July 2009 (Ruffled duchesse-satin dress by Zac Posen).