North Carolina Museum of Art

We took a field trip on Saturday to Raleigh.  Eric had a conference and I wanted to see the new and improved North Carolina Museum of Art.  When we arrived at the North Carolina Museum of Art it was a stormy, rainy afternoon.  I was not even thinking that a stroll through the sculptures would be possible.  So, biding our time, we headed indoors to look around.  Greta was very alert and drew a few stares as she flapped her arms and kicked in reaction to some of the artwork.  What can I say?  She’s the daughter of an art teacher!  We looped through the old building to see Portraits by Beverly McIver first.  I was impressed with her style of painting, and loved her use of color and large bold brushstrokes.  Then we headed over to the main collection, did a few laps, had lunch in the cafe, and grabbed some postcards.  At this point, the rain had stopped so I decided we would venture a sculpture tour.  








The first lap around the sculpture garden and the new building. 
Checking out the Rodin Sculptures. 
In trying to get Greta to take a nap, I kept walking.  To my surprise, I found trails with more art!  The trails sign had 4 options for our walk.  I love this idea – get people exercising and looking at art.  
So, off we went.  
We walked past the amphitheater…
over a bridge…
around a pond…
  

and through the woods.  This is one of the best parts of spring in North Carolina – the dogwoods.  Then the sun came out!
Victory for me!  A sleeping baby at one of the first sculptures we came upon.  At this point one could have kept walking back toward the museum or headed farther down the trail, where it eventually links up with the greenway to Umstead State Park. 
The prairie views were spectacular – kind of made me homesick for Iowa.  
A fun wind sculpture, Wind Machine.
Above, Crossroads from the path and Crossroads, detail.
Collapse.
The trail looped around back to the new building.
On our way back to the parking lot we stopped to take a photo of our reflection in the new building.  
I was completely amazed at the new facility at the North Carolina Museum of Art and found myself jealous of those who reside in Raleigh.  What a great way to spend an afternoon – indoors and outdoors.  

Baby Handprint Watercolor

I started this painting quite some time ago.  I won’t tell you how long I have been procrastinating finishing this, other than my daughter’s hands and feet are much bigger than they would have been had I finished it when I started it. 

I started by painting simple abstract design using patterns of shapes and lines – nothing too fancy about this watercolor.  I used watercolor paints for the background on a 140 lb cold press watercolor paper.

I added in some etching by scratching into the wet paper and then painting over it.  This creates areas of color much darker and more precisely defined because the pigment pools and dries in the etched lines.  This photo above shows the orange lines and yellow dots are etched. 
When the paint dried completely (over a much longer time than I had planned), we stamped her little hand and foot.  
I needed Eric’s help holding her still while I applied the paint.  I rolled black acrylic paint onto an old magazine (for a smooth surface) with a brayer, pressed her hand into the paint, and then pressed it onto the painting.  If you don’t have a brayer, you could also use a paint brush to smooth the paint surface out.  
She was so intrigued by the black stuff on her hand, she did not put up a struggle at all.  Make sure you have a wet rag or paper towels handy if you are going to paint your baby’s hands or feet!  
Now we just need to frame it and hang it somewhere where it will make me smile for years to come.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

It’s Saturday afternoon, my daughter just goes down for her second nap of the day and I am struck with the urge to go up the street to the local coffee shop, Spring Garden Bakery for coffee and their delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  What am I to do?

Make my own muffins and coffee and enjoy a half hour to paint and relax!  More on that painting later this week.  

Pumpkin Muffins:
1 -1/2 c. sugar
1 c. canned pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 -3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degree. Prepare a standard 12-cup muffin pan with spray or paper liners. 
Whisk together sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, and oil until smooth. 
In another bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.  Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and beat 1-2 minutes.  The batter will be thick, do not over mix.  
Spoon batter into prepared pan.  
Bake until top is browned and crusty, 20-25 minutes.  Knife should come out clean.  Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.  Remove muffins from pan to cool completely.  
Two of my favorite flavors: cinnamon & pumpkin.  Yes, I do keep cans of pumpkin on hand all year, it’s not just for autumn cooking!  

Repurposing old books

Part of me cringes at the thought of cutting up books and the other part of me loves the idea of turning an old yellowed hardcover with no hope of being read anytime soon into a work of art.  My newest collage I have started is based on pages from old books.

We visited the Green Hill Center for Art in downtown Greensboro last weekend to see the show Word Maps.  It featured the artists Vicki Essig, Heather Gordon, Paul Rousso, and Merrill Shatzman.  All of the works by these artists were inspiring to me, and I found the show to be such a surprising delight.

Paul Rousso’s work with collage was most interesting to me – his use of old books, comic pages, and newspaper was fascinating.  The scale of his collages were formidable, however upon closer inspection you were able to start recognizing and picking out text and patches of color.

Needless to say, I was inspired.  On the way back to the car we stopped at a used book store and I picked up a few old hardcover books to start my newest collage adventure.

Eric and I had bought a canvas a while back to use as a fireplace screen.  We don’t actually have fires in our fireplace because it is the best current location for the litter boxes.  The canvas does a very nice job of covering up and containing litter, but it was just begging to be clothed.  
I researched adhesives and methods for this collage before beginning and decided to try watering down white glue and brushing it on the book pages, then brushing it on again over the top of the pages.  At first the entire canvas was a wrinkly mess – my best guess is that the canvas was wet and sagged a bit.  Once it was dry it was smooth and leathery to the tough.  
This is only layer one.  I plan on adding more layers and creating some designs as well.  So far I am pleased and wonder why I had not thought of using old books before.  

Easy Ribbon Headbands

Cut a length of ribbon, use your head and the hair tie to measure. Cut the ribbon longer than necessary so you can trim excess.

Fold and iron a loop of ribbon around the hair tie at one end. Sew and back stitch along the length of the hair tie.

Measure one last time by safety pinning other end of ribbon around hair tie. Try the headband on and make adjustments as needed.

Sew along second loop, same as first.

Variations of ribbon headband to try: braided ribbons, beaded ribbons, sewing a smaller ribbon on top of wider ribbon, adding embellishments of all kinds.

Upcycled Tee Shirt Bib

What to do with all those old concert tee shirts that crowd my closet?  Make my baby a rock star at meal time!
I started with one tee shirt.  The smaller, the better the neck hole will fit without alteration. 
I traced around an existing bib with a chalk pencil for the correct length. 
I cut out the rectangle, cutting through both sides of the shirt, making the front side longer.  I then doubled the longer side back under, folding right sides facing each other and pinned.  I sewed around the bottom three edges, and stopped on both sides where the two pins are located above on the left and right side. I used 3/8″ seam. 
I then folded and pinned the remaining edges for a smoother edge.  The nice thing about tee shirt fabric is that you don’t have to worry about fraying, so hemming is not required.  I wanted the edges to lay flat, so I opted for a hem.  
I used a decorative stitch to create a little more interest.  
The finished bib.  It fits well over her head, has ample length to catch food, and washes so easily.  If the neck hole is too large, the easy fix is to attach a snap so that the opening can be snapped smaller. 

Brought to you by the letter G

Some friends gave us baby room decor as part of a baby gift way back in July.  I finally have the project finished and up in her room.  It was a fun and really simple project.  
I started with the blank G.  What to do?
I decided to go with magenta.  
A couple of coats later, it was much darker than I anticipated.  So I added some white on the face of the G for a lighter tint of magenta.  It looked nice with the contrast.  I let the paint dry.  
Next, I used my hole punch to cut out an assortment of green and black & white dots.  I was going for a complementary color scheme.  If use pink at all, I like to tone it down with some green so it is not too girly.  The black & white dots were just to punch up the design. 
I tried placing them in various ways on the G. Once I had them where I wanted them, it was time to glue. 
Scotch adhesive has a nice tip for gluing small items and the gloss gel is perfect for decoupaging surfaces.  I glued the dots onto the G.  
Then I sealed the surface with the gloss gel.  You can also use Modge Podge.  Be sure to clean your brush with soap and water if you want to use the brush again. The gloss gel will go on whitish but dry clear.  Let it dry for a few hours before you hang it up.  
Greta’s G! 

DIY diaper bib

On Sunday morning, I woke up early and felt the urge to make something.  Lucky for me Miss Greta was still soundly sleeping and so I had plenty of time to whip up this easy diaper turned bib.

I started with a clean, ironed, cotton diaper.  I trimmed it shorter, taking off about 5 inches.  The more you cut off, the shorter the bib will be.  Then, I cut a half circle neck hole in the middle of the diaper.

I used a zig-zag stitch to sew along the entire cut edge.
Next, I chose some cute coordinating ribbon to trim the bib.  I chose a wider polka dot pattern for the sides, bottom, and neck hole and a thinner green and white polka dot for the ties.  I pinned the wide ribbon on the edges, lining up with the edges of the diaper.  Along the neck hole, I folded the wider ribbon in half, pinning as I went.  The ties were pinned along the shorter lengths on either side of the neck hole, make sure to overlap the edges of the wider polka dot ribbon.  
Double check to be sure your ribbon edges are folded under (see above) before sewing.  This will make a neater edge and prevent fraying of the ribbon. 
The last step was to sew all edges, leaving the green ties for last.  The neck hole can be tricky due to the slippery satin ribbon.  A stretchy, ribbed knit will be in order for the next bib I make.  From start to finished this project took about 20 minutes.  The size works like a poncho for messy eaters.  

Super Bowl Surprise Cake

The surprise is that this chocolate cake is vegan. 
This recipe takes the cake on vegan desserts.  One would have no idea it is vegan unless told.  It is everything a cake should be – moist, dense, and so chocolately!  I doubled this recipe to that I would have a larger cake – just bump the baking time up to 40 minutes.  
Mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt directly in the pan.  This is the added bonus – less to clean up!

Mix dry ingredients very well with a fork. 
 Mix warm water, vegetable oil, vanilla, and vinegar.  

I am a fan of the pyrex measuring cup in lieu of a small mixing bowl.  Easier to pour, easier to clean. 
Mix dry and liquids.  Use a spatula to find any hidden pockets of dry ingredients.  
Chocolate Vegan Cake
Ingredients:
1-1/4 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. warm water
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1. Preheat oven to 350.  In an 8×8 inch square pan, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt with fork.  Mix very well. 
2. Mix water, vanilla, oil, and vinegar in a small bowl.  Add all at once to the dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Use a spatula to scrape sides and bottoms to ensure adequate mixing.  
3. Bake 30 minutes or til knife comes out clean.  
Let it cool completely before frosting.  Sometimes I create a simple powdered sugar and almond milk glaze and sometimes I make a more complicated simmer on the stove glaze.  However, this time, I used a simple store-bought frosting in caramel flavor.  Check back tomorrow to see pics of the frosting and the eating of the cake.  
Happy Superbowl Sunday!  

(function() { var po = document.createElement(‘script’); po.type = ‘text/javascript’; po.async = true; po.src = ‘https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();