The Sketchbook Challenge: How the Challenge Works

The Sketchbook Challenge: How the Challenge Works: "Here's everything you need to know about how the Sketchbook challenge works: The sketchbook challenge is a new project launching on 1/1/201..."

Spring fever

It's finally warm enough to start gardening again....today I planted yellow squash, eggplant, chilies, tomatoes and a bunch of flowers into a lovely container garden on my porch - I also hung my kitchy string lights for warm summer night reading.

Today Noel found a cool blue accent wall in a home on Apartment Therapy dot com. I was so smitten with the color (Behr's "Distance") that I went out to Home Depot and duplicated it on my living room wall. That, along with a white shag area rug, completely transformed my drab living room into a place I now love. Enjoy the pics (as much as Gracie is enjoying the new rug, I hope)!

Chili Rellenos

Ah, Noel made the most delicious chili rellenos for me on Sunday morning. I tried duplicating them tonight, but alas, a Gringa should leave the chili rellenos recipe to the experts (Noel's gramma walked her through it on the phone....go, gramma!)

The basic recipe is as follows:

Pan fry/grill 4 Anaheim Chilies until the skins turn black. When they cool, peel the skins off.

Slit a hole at the bottom, and slide pieces of cheese (I prefer Monterey Jack) inside.

Sprinkle with flour.

Roll the chilies in a mixture of 3 stiffly beaten egg whites, folded with 3 egg yolks, salt and pepper to taste.

Fry in vegetable oil on medium heat until browned.

Enjoy!

Portrait of a Lady

This is one of my favorite paintings by Gustav Klimt that I "ripped off" and made my own. I'm excited that perhaps my creative dry-spell is over (for painting, anyway). I'm planning to rope Noel into a fun project this weekend, so we may have more to show you soon. Come back, ya'll. Alisa

Slayer

A nod to Noel's favorite t-shirt. Acrylic on wood panel.

Found objects tin

We saw this idea in a book Noel had, and so we spent a couple of months finding random objects on outings...little pieces of wood, shells, metal bits, sea glass....a pleasing combination of textures and colors, I think!

Post cards

Now we're making post cards to participate in the on-line project, "Post crossings"...a great site where you can exchange post cards with interesting people all over the world! Here are some post cards that Noel and I made today!