"Capturing The Butterflies"

The other day my sister and I were in an art and framing store that was going out of business. The store had practically been wiped out but still had an abundance of paintings for sale. A work of art caught my sister's attention. It had been a simple painting of beautifully colored butterflies. I asked her what attracted her to this particular painting. To my surprise she told me her husband loved butterflies and she wanted to buy it for him. The painting seemed pricey in my opinion, but it was half off. Since my sister had a limited amount of funds she saw another lady interested in the same piece of art, so my sister told her to go ahead and take it. The only reason she let it go so quickly was because I told her I would try my hand at making her a similar painting that would capture the idea and feeling of that original painting. All I needed from her at this point was a couple snap shots of the painting and for her to email them to me and I would do the rest.


The trick to reproducing art, in my opinion is to capture the overall aesthetic of the piece you are trying to reproduce. A reproduction doesn't have to be perfect but getting it close to color, form and medium is crucial. In my case because the original painting was done in oil with vibrant colors resembling an acrylic painting, I recreated it in acrylic. In my opinion,  acrylic paint is easy to use, non toxic and more affordable than oil paint. Sometimes in order to get the right consistency and color to match that of an oil paint you may want to slow the process down by adding a mixture called slow-dry to the paint. This mixture can be found at your local art store. Not only does the mixture get the paint to dry slowly, but it has the effect of giving the painting a more dimensional look. Although oil color may resemble acrylic it is not an easy color match, so I would recommend experimenting with mixing paint colors in small quantities to achieve the desired effect. When the mixture is where you want it to be then try making enough of it to complete your piece of art.


In addition, getting the scale done correctly, in my case, butterflies is also important. Even though I don't have many butterflies to paint, I need the butterflies to be the right size in proportion to the rest of the painting. You might want to consider drawing the form first on your canvas with a pencil before you start painting. All in all, trying to recreate a duplicate of someone else's work is not without flaw. You will always see that imperfection or color mismatch that you didn't want. In the end, the reward is your painting getting the same "WOW" reaction as the original and maybe improving your skill.

Creating A Look You Can Live With

The other day I was reading a post that caught my attention. A new homeowner was thinking yellow walls  with black stenciling as the design element. My first thought was don't do it especially if your thinking black. If your thoughts are bringing something creative into the space then opt for a picture. You can easily change the picture. Otherwise you might be living with your creation for a long time.


Instead, create a look you can live with no matter how your life changes. If yellow is the color chosen on the walls and you want to create something dramatic to make a statement then try your hand at a line drawing using bold black strokes. For example it can represent the female form or keep it neutral with maybe one or two patterns. Your artwork can be framed in black or for an elegant touch use a matte before you place it in the frame. If bold is what your after, then paint it on a big canvas and hang it up. Better to try a style of art that's in, then a design that will take a while to paint out.


Creating a look with a color pallet of yellow and black can be tricky to balance. If you go with too much black then your room may come off looking startling or worse depressing. If you go with the yellow wall then keeping it closer to a pale yellow will give the room a softer balance. And if you want to incorporate another color into the mix try toning it down with maybe a white or possibly a soft green or blue. Besides you don't want all your first house warming gifts to be honey to go with your bumblebee room.


Remember whatever your design element happens to be you are the one going to be living with it for years to come. So, give it some thought before you jump in and end up surprising yourself and not in a good way.

The "Art of Flavor"

Are you a tired of not being able to dine out because of the high cost of eating at a restaurant? Is chicken the only meat you can afford to make these days and it just doesn't seem enough? Your troubles are over. I have the best chicken recipe. It does not take long to make and the best part its absolutely divine. Everybody that tries it says it is better than eating at an restaurant. I call it "Teresa's Italian Chicken."


Cook Time: 30 minutes      Level: Easy
         
Ingredients 
*  A package of organic free range chicken breasts
*  1/2 cup of olive oil
*  4 teaspoons of real butter
*  2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning 
*  1 teaspoon of garlic powder
*  1 teaspoon of onion powder
*  1 large can of diced tomatoes 
*  2 jars of marinated artichoke hearts
*  1 jar of wild organic capers
*  Parmesan cheese in grated form for sprinkled topping
*  1 small lemon 


Directions


Toss the chicken in a bowl and add the italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder until chicken is completely coated. Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken in oil and brown chicken evenly. About 5 minutes on each side or until chicken appears to be fully cooked. Next add the diced tomatoes, artichokes, and capers. Make sure you do not drain liquids in the jar except a little from tomatoes and a little from capers. Cut a small lemon, remove seeds and add lemon juice to the chicken. Let this simmer for 15 minutes and then add butter. Now simmer another 5 minutes with heat turned down to a medium to low heat. Remove from heat and serve on top of angel hair pasta. Sprinkle parmesan topping to your taste. 


Products 


The best chicken to use is the organic free range chicken breasts, but you can use regular chicken breast if you prefer. I usually get a package with three to four chicken breasts. The extra virgin olive oil can be what you like, but I use Carapelli brand for sauteing and baking. Most of the seasonings I prefer are made by McCormick. You can use a less expensive one for the garlic and onion powder, but try and get a good quality Italian seasoning. As for the diced tomatoes, Hunts tends to be reasonably priced. Marinated artichoke hearts tend to be pricey, so if Progresso is out of your price range then get Reese. Organic foods sometimes have less salt then regular foods in jars that is why I choose organic capers. They are the Mediterranean Organic. Parmesean cheese usually is okay as a generic brand, but I love Kraft. Everything is a little better with butter, so make sure you use the real thing. No substitutes. 


End Note
I hope you enjoy this recipe for many meals to come.

"Joy" to the Cookie

One of the many things I do around the holidays is make yummy cookies. I started passing cookies out one year as Christmas gifts because I forgot a couple of people on my Christmas list. The first batch of cookies I made that year made such an impression that now everyone insist I make them every year. I even get requests for them outside the holiday season. 


It all started because my husband was flipping channels on the television and I happen to walk through the room. I told him to go back a channel to The Food Network as Giada De Laurentiis, one of my favorite chefs from Everyday Italian, was on. In order to keep my husband from changing the channel I used my feminine wiles -- I promised to make him his favorite cookies if he would let me watch the show. Christmas was just around the corner and she was making holiday biscotti. I whipped into the kitchen between commercials to check and see if I had all the ingredients.


I was out of baking powder, had no unsalted butter, and had no white chocolate that her recipe required. Amidst all the running back and forth my husband asked if I had checked to see if we had all the ingredients for his oatmeal raisin cookies. I smiled sweetly and told him no, but that I had a great idea. I would make a version of the biscotti except I would only bake it once so he could call it a cookie. He was okay with that. Excited, I went to the kitchen and started on the cookies. 


You've got to understand that I am Italian and I love biscotti. I was raised in a home where my mother's cooking was like eating in a five star restaurant. She had a very small kitchen she called her "Love Kitchen" because she made everything with love and you had to love her to be in it while she was cooking. If my mother ran out of an ingredient she just substituted. She always made the most fabulous recipes. I guess I inherited this quality from her because I find myself doing the same thing. If you're wondering how fabulous my recipes are turning out, let's just say my mother would have been proud.


The cookies were mixed and baked in less than thirty minutes. My husband rushed into the kitchen and gobbled up the first batch I had prepared. It was a joy to know I could whip up such a great cookie in less than 30 minutes. 


I have to call this my semi-homemade cookie because it was made with two packages of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough. I mixed 2 packages of OceanSpray Craisins, and one package of organic pistachios. First I let the dough soften at room temperature then added the craisins with a tablespoon of Adams Extract Vanilla I chopped up the pistachios and added them. Rolling the dough in the palm of my hand I created approximately three dozen cookies. The cookies baked in an oven temperature of 350 for exactly 15 minutes each time. It was the perfect bite of sweet chewiness and crunchiness combined. I named my cookie creation "Joy." 


Updated: 12/03/2010 to correct temperature of 325 to 350 at 15 minutes. Cook times may vary.

An Inspired Christmas Wreath

This is the time of the year when creativity seems to be in abundance. Craft stores are full of people buying up baskets of stuff to create that perfect Christmas. You can practically see the creative mind at work. 


The other day I was standing in line at the craft store with my goody filled basket and I noticed the lady in line in front of me had nearly the same items in her basket. Casually I asked her what she was going to make and then I was in for a big surprise. She proudly said she was going to attempt her first Christmas wreath, but confessed she had followed me through the store. Creativity was not her strong suit and since I looked like I knew what I was doing she figured she would try her hand at it. 


The lady told me how nervous she was about creating a wreath for her front door because this was the first year family and friends would be coming to her home for the holidays. She mentioned that every year Christmas took place at her relatives home and that every year she felt she was walking into a designer home with professional decor. Since everyone had yet to see her new home, she felt obligated to make a good showing.


She didn't have the money to hire a professional and didn't want her Christmas decorations looking like a child had pieced them together. I gave her some words of encouragement. Whatever happens I said she should always remember when it comes to art there are no mistakes. Besides, if it does come out looking childish you can always say that it was kind of the neighbor's kid to make you a wreath this year. We both had a good laugh and I headed out with my purchases.


So what did I do that first caught her interest? Maybe it was the way I was whistling "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" or maybe it was the combination of things I was selecting. I must confess my selections were based on a web video I saw that inspired me to shop in the first place. Thank goodness this shopping spree was wreath-specific. I don't know about you but when I go shopping, especially at the craft store, I start to question my choices and sometimes do the whole shopping experience two or three times. Can you imagine if that lady caught me on one of those days? 


So what did I see that first caught my interest? Maybe it was the way the lady in the web video made wreath making look so effortless. This Christmas wreath had something I never seen before. It was full of tropical ferns. The wreath was a balanced mix of different shades of greenery. I thought of the color choices in the web video, and adapted my color choice based on the overall color of the home I was decorating. The home is a pale green so I incorporated a bright red because red is complimentary to green on the color wheel. For contrast I accompanied it with a muted gold. The muted gold was the only accent color since I didn't want it to compete with the "Santa Claus" red I had chosen.


The project was budgeted to be under $75.  Hobby Lobby had been advertising weekly in-store specials on Christmas crafts at half price. So instead of worrying about the budget, I just shopped and figured with the money I would save I would clearly meet or beat my target budget. 


The store had a good stock of undecorated wreaths. The wreath I picked was not too impressive, but for $7.99 with 50% off I was not going to pass that up. Besides, with the expert advice on the web video this wreath would look like a million bucks. Next to the wreaths were the red bows. I choose to go with the biggest one they had. The next aisle over was Christmas stems and bushes. While scanning through this aisle I found gold berries and a piece of iced fruit with a small pine cone covered in gold glitter. I thought a small pop of glittery gold might be a good accent. The wreath needed a variety of different shades of greenery so I picked a few and went ahead to the floral department. Most of the florals for Christmas were spiked with so much glitter I decided against them, but did decide on a stem with glittered icicles and went with the recommended tropical fern mentioned in the web video. As I was walking down an aisle I noticed the cutest pair of small cardinals. Even though there was no mention of birds I just had to have them. My last stop was the ornament department. There were many to pick from but I found a set of shatterproof gold ones with the words in gold glitter, "Christmas 2010." Perfect!  At the checkout I picked up some spray snow thinking it would be the "icing" on the wreath.


I reached my destination and laid out the decorations. Rather than watch the web video again before starting I just went with the flow and put it together and guess what happened? It was perfect, and only $45!

"Erasing Past Mistakes"

Today I watched an internet video that caught my interest. It was a video on erasing watercolor from a painting. It brought me back to a time when I took classes on watercolor. The instructor told the class it would be almost impossible to fix a watercolor by taking the paint off and getting it to not look over processed. She told us there were techniques with more water and toweling it off before it dried. There was even a technique of applying a solution to your watercolor painting that would keep the color out. But to remove watercolor and still keep the painting looking fresh was left to the professionals. Since my usual medium was acrylic, this was tough for me.

This was my first attempt at watercolor painting. And like all artists that spend too much money on supplies, I didn't want to mess up. Guess what? I did. I tried fixing it by putting more water then removing the watercolor paint, but my watercolor painting always managed to look over done.

Well today erasing the past is easier than ever. The answer is John Salminen. I mean his video of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. This product has to be the bees knees for watercolor enthusiasts. To be able to erase a mistake in a watercolor painting is fantastic! Normally this product is used to erase scuff marks and dirt.  But at last, here is the solution for your watercolor disaster. Who would of thought!

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is a small cleaning sponge, so you can cut it into pieces to fit the area you would like to erase in your watercolor painting. Although this product states it has no harsh chemicals, I still prefer to use it with a gloved hand since I tend to be more sensitive to cleaning supplies.

Once you tape off the area you want to wipe clean take a piece and gently erase. When rubbing with the sponge it appears as if the paper is coming apart, but don't be alarmed. It is just the watercolor paint being erased. After you finish and remove your tape, you can have a do over.
I feel like singing Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean...... that is how happy I am.

For more information on this product go to http://www.mrclean.com/en_US/magic-eraser.do


Here is the original watercolor painting on John Salminen website.

"COLOR ME BIGGER"

Have you ever been in a small room in your house and wondered how nice it could be if you just made it feel bigger? Well, you can. Without spending a fortune on remodeling you can virtually expand a room simply by changing the color choices. Start by painting the room. 

When it comes to painting there are a lot of colors to choose from. Sometimes trying to decide on a color can feel overwhelming. So relax. When I have a paint project I go to Lowes. There's usually a color expert behind the paint counter who can make a variety of helpful recommendations. If I'm still having trouble deciding, then I go to the kitchen department in the store and ask for the interior designer. They can sometimes help me come to a decision. 

Lowes offers a variety of paint choices, but I always purchase Valspar . I love this paint's Signature Series. This paint is primer and paint all in one which gives better coverage. It also has low odor, low VOC which matters when I'm painting indoors. Its important to me because I want to finish painting without having to stop every few minutes because I'm feeling woozy from the fumes. 
Painting your space can transform you and your room, so take some time before making your color choices. Color can make or break a room, so realize that getting the right balance of color is just as important. And I'm sure you'll agree, after all is said and done, bigger does feel better.

For more on color: http://www.hgtv.com/color-central-find-your-color/package/index.html

Deck the "Halls"

Recently, I had the opportunity to decorate a home with an unusual layout. What I thought was unusual about this layout was the way it resembled a long hallway. Although it had an open floor plan, it still felt like a hallway every time someone entered it. And since the home was a combination of office and living space, I had to make that constant hallway effect disappear. So, my resolution was to keep it economical, contemporary, yet simply stated. By opting to go with indoor/outdoor area rugs that would subdivide the spaces, I would achieve my goal.


My selection of indoor/outdoor area rugs was limited, but I did manage to find some great buys at reasonable prices while shopping at Lowes. I started with the home's entryway. In order to create visual interest, I chose the rug with the dragonfly motif and positioned it lengthwise. This position visually created a needed extension in the doorway. A sort of Zen transformation took place when I set a beautiful tall Japanese floor lamp at the base of the rug. This finished and defined the space for the entryway.


The next target was the same wide hallway leading to the work area. Here, I created a living room space. This time I chose to go with a more neutral pattern. The rug had a well defined border which anchored the heavy furniture and created a much needed focal point in the middle of the room. It was placed perpendicular to the entryway between the entertainment center and leather sofa, transforming a 10x12 foot hallway into a living room.


Finally, I tackled the 20x20 foot work space. The main goal in this area was to create a contemporary look that didn't feel overstated. Since the furniture in this space took up most of the room, I positioned the desks against one wall and kept the rug at the ends of the desks. This placement increased the apparent size of the room by drawing the eye from the desks, to the rug, to the open floor space. This created a spacious work area with a flowing traffic pattern.


By separating the seemingly long hallway into spaces, a look was created. All it took was strategically placing area rugs. The space that once was a long hallway, now was a home with character.


For more great ideas go to Area Rugs 101. 

"Its Pumpkin Time"

Ah, Fall... I love this time of year!  Mainly because this is the time when I see a lot of creativity. I enjoy seeing how people tend to come up with the most clever ideas. Whether it be decorating their homes, or making special holiday dishes they grew up with. And for the month of October, this usually means, "Its pumpkin time!" 

I for one, remember growing up in a household where my mother made the most delicious pumpkin pie.   Of course, the crust was always homemade. She would never have dreamed it any other way. But what sticks in my mind, besides me licking my plate was the special detail my mother took to create the perfect pumpkin pie for our family. My mother would make the pie crust so decorative with beautiful little handmade designs, it made you not want to eat it. Mostly, because you didn't want to ruin the beautiful pie, but you knew you were going to anyway because it smelled absolutely divine. Also, my mother would quickly whip up some cream topping for us, as well. And as always with a big smile, my mother would ask us if we wanted another piece. Of course, everyone quickly ate their last bite to come running back into the kitchen for another slice of pumpkin pie. That is how I remember my pumpkin time.

It's funny how the smell of pumpkin brings me back to that time. The things we notice and take for granted as kids become the memories we cherish as we grow older. Maybe, you can create some wonderful memories for your family. 

There are some wonderful variations on the traditional pumpkin pie recipe on the food network channel.  For example here is a fabulous one: 
 Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart.