A Day in the Life of the New Rennasiance

I started adding color to my painting last class!  It was so exciting.  Cliff, just having his mouse infusion was back to his cheery joking self and everyone seemed to be in good spirits because of this.  Carol had found some peace as she explained she had "put her sister in the freezer" a technique administered in hope of her sister chilling out, and the usual drama continued.  Menopausal womens' chit chat aside, I think my painting really is coming along quite nicely.  Even with the first glaze of color, the painting appeared to have greater depth.  In following the Carracci
Tradition, I first painted a black and white underpainting and then will be adding thin color glazes until the painting is completed in full color.  The master's were right in essentially painting their subjects twice.

 

 

New Things of the New Year

-New Determination
Chinese fortune cookie fortunes, I will pay no attention to you!  You think producing nagging fortunes in this economy helps?

-New Direction
Architecture.  It is time to renew my focus to become involved in the field of architecture.  It took me a tempting but ultimately unwanted job interview (not in my field) to redirect my focus.  Since then, I have followed up with the firms I have applied to and I have suggested a volunteer opportunity at one of the offices.

-New Leggings
OK.  Probably not life changing but ohh so comfortable and stylish.


I have been a bit behind on my blogging lately but I wanted to say the other weekend was wonderful.  We spent Saturday with Laura and Chris.  Laura and I went shopping downtown hence the legging acquisition, while the men had fun with toy helicopters and firearms.  We didn't hesitate about boosting the economy that day.  It was most fun just spending time with them, they are great friends and an inspiration to me.  Laura and I cooked Indian together, I must say we (at least I)  have greatly improved in our cooking skills since we were college roommates.  It has been a good start to 2010.

Happy Holidays

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We sure did!  Mr. Johnson and I went to his home town, Wallowa, for Christmas.  It was good and busy; baby, dogs, family and food!   Crab for Christmas Eve was delicious.  My present from Mr. Johnson is awesome, I am including a picture because just telling you that I got  a magazine rack for Christmas doesn't quite do it justice.  And I am definitely enjoying re-reading Harry Potter with my new collection.  The day after Christmas, Mr. Johnson and I went up to find snow at Salt Creek Summit.  It was a beautiful day and the snow had formed jagged crystals like I had never seen before.  The ground looked like it was covered in shattered glass!  We had a great holiday, and I guess it is now time to live it up in the next decade!

 

 

 

 

The Proposal

A year ago today Nick proposed to me!  I know that may be keeping a lot of anniversaries but I figured the first year it warrants a mention.  It was a lot of fun thinking about and preparing for the wedding, and these first few months of marriage have been great!  Last year at this time there was snow on the ground, an exciting and rare sight for Bridgetown, and he proposed to me as we were on our way to a very nice dinner.  Although I was expecting the question, I was not thinking it would come at that exact moment.  I was completely swept up in the excitement of things and had the hardest time concentrating on the menu long enough to decide what to order.  That night I had the most delicious spaghetti of my life.  The next day my head was in a flurry.  I spent the morning calling friends and family and flipping through wedding magazines, the day culminated with Nick's work Christmas party.  I was introduced to and congratulated by everybody.  Tonight actually is the Christmas party again.  I am looking forwards to it; I assume it will be a little more casual this time but I am no less happy!   

Salt and Pepper My Mango

Mr. Johnson and I invented a new drink.  We called the M.I.A. inspired drink Salt and Pepper My Mango.  While it is a compilation of everything tropical we imagined M.I.A. to drink, its name originates from the line in the song Sunshowers.  And yes, it does have salt and pepper.  First we were after recreating the Rubicon, it just sounds so delicious when she sings "I was sippin' on a Rubicon, thinkin' 'bout where I come..." After further research we realized that the name Rubicon is already in use.  It is a tropical fruit drink, similar to a fruitier Capri Sun that can be found in England.  As well as the name of an ancient Italian river that flowed into the Adriatic and is famous for being crossed by the Roman army.  What other river is famous solely for being crossed?  This obviously had no correlations to the drink we were about to invent and so the  mango and jalapeno-infused rum drink took on a more literal name.  All in all I think we discovered a gem, or at least came very close.  I am not going to disclose the recipe now. One, because it may undergo improvements and two, because some of you reading this may be trying it over the Christmas vacation and we wouldn't want to take all of the mystery out of it would we?

Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Chistmas Tree...

We have a lovely wreath hung given to us by my parents, and our Christmas tree is all set up!  It was fun setting up the tree together for the first time.  Each of us had slightly different takes on tradition and they blended together in a fun way.  The night we got the tree I made Butternut Squash Soup served with homemade bread.  For desert I made a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake which seemed to fit the occasion.  Very classic and colorful.  Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Crafting Martha Stewart Style

With Christmas approaching, I am excited.  Excited about the general season and about making our apartment look festive.  I took on a craft.  Cinnamon bird ornaments.  I made a dough that resembles gingerbread cookie dough in the consistancy and the aroma, but it is much more durable with the additive of glue.  I guess it helps having the architecture student's proficiency with the x-acto knife (and the abundent stash of tacky glue in the hall closet) because cutting out these birds to the level of detail Martha indicated was a sinch.  Decorating with glitter followed.  They turned out beautiful!  The awesome part was I didn't do this all on my own.  I prepped the dough, and decorated several to fill my tree, but I also organized the craft for the girls to do at Thanksgiving.  I was really excited when my aunt suggested I bring the supplies and set up the craft so my grandma, other aunts and cousins could decorate their own cinnamon birds after Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great, everyone really got into it.  I had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving and I felt like I contributed to the fun.