Art #1

  Ok for some crazy reason I've had this desire to see if there's an artist hidden inside me.  I think I've said before that when I was in elementary school and we had Meet the Masters, I cringed.  The lecture on the artist was fine but then we had to try the different styles of art and I would get frustrated and annoyed.  At the time, I had no idea why I didn't enjoy it but I think I've drawn (no pun intended) the conclusion that I didn't like it because I am a perfectionist and if my art didn't turn out the way I wanted, I get mad and loose my patience and give up.  A few months ago, I decided I wanted to give this whole art thing another try.  Part of it is because I love a challenge and another part is because I want to see if my patience has improved over the years.
  A couple who is near and dear to me is expecting in the coming months.  They have chosen whales as the theme for their nursery.  I really wanted to give them a keepsake gift.  With that in mind I decided to try a piece of art for them.  Now this wasn't going to be something that would take up an entire wall, but something could that the couple could sit on a shelf or dresser if they wanted to. In fact, I got so brave I even wanted to water color once I drew the whale. Drawing the whale was much easier than I thought it would be.  Water coloring however proved to be a task. Throwing in the towel crossed my mind more than once but I wanted to finish it.  I am definitely still the perfectionist  I was in elementary school (guess we can't change the stripes on a zebra can we?) but I had fun working on it, probably drove a few people crazy in the process and it's not perfect but I did it!  After many tries with watercolors (and at the recommendation of my husband) I ended up using oil pastels and was much happier with the results.  Here are my whales in all their glory :) 

Apple Dump Cake

Recently we were watching an episode of Pioneer Woman and she made a dessert called dump cake.  My husband said it looked really good and that we should try it. I've actually had dump cake at my Aunts house and I'm a big fan.  I had asked my Aunt how to make it and she said you put a can of apple pie filling into a cake pan, pour cake mix from the box on top of it and then put butter on top of that, throw it in the oven for awhile and that's it. I always thought she was leaving out a step or two but she wasn't! It really is that easy :)  Here's the recipe from a cookbook I have just to prove how simple this was.  PS If you're not an apple fan, you can use other fruit instead!