Wholly Guacamole Recipe!

Hey guys! This recipe is super easy and oh so delicious!  I got this recipe off of food.com here -->  http://www.food.com/recipe/wholly-guacamole-8739 . I will post up the recipe and my picture to save you the trip!  Add it to your mexican dish tonight. You won't regret it!

Ingredients:

o    6 avocados (soft, but not mushy)

o    2 -4 garlic cloves, minced (depends on how much you like garlic)

o    1 lime, cut in half

o    1 medium tomato, diced

o    1/2 medium onion, diced

o    salt

o    chopped cilantro (optional)

o    1 dicedjalapeno peppers (optional) or 1 diced serrano pepper (optional)

Directions:

1.  Cut avocados in half, remove pit, and spoon avocado into a mixing bowl.

2.   Add minced garlic and squeeze the juice from one-half of the lime into the bowl of avocado.

3.   Mash the ingredients together to desired consistency using the back of a large spoon or a potato masher (some like the avocado chunky, some like it smoother).

4.   Fold in diced tomato and diced onion, a couple pinches of salt, and the juice from the remaining lime half (Also add cilantro or peppers at this time).

5.   Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.

6.  Uncover and taste.

7.  Add salt as needed.

8.  If you don't give the resulting guacamole at least 4 stars, then you ain't making it right.

9. NOTE: The purpose of the lime is to allow any leftover guacamole to retain its "avocado" color as it sits in the fridge.

10.  Some folks use lemon, but it's been my experience that if you accidentally add too much lemon, it seriously affects the guacamole's flavor; if you happen to add too much lime, the guacamole just gets a little more tangy.

11.   If you find the leftover guacamole has darkened, simply stir it before eating and use more fresh lime juice next time.

12.   Wholly guacamole may be used as a topper with tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, etc.

13.  However, some say it is at its best with a bowl of warm tortilla chips and an ice cold beer.

 

E-mail Time Capsule For Your Kids

Ok, I ripped this idea off of a commercial, but I thought it was a fantastic idea and had to try it.  I call it an e-mail time capsule.  Where you open up an email for your child and write to them during their lifetime until you finally give them the address and password.  So I opened up an account for Anya and started writing to her. Here I will guide you on how to go about doing this time capsule.

1. Make an E-Mail account for your child. Don't put their real birthday as they will not accept it because they're too young! Make one up, or put in your own.

2. Write down your child's username and password so you don't forget 18 years from now when you finally want to give it to them.

3. When you start writing to them, you have to be careful because you can easily get off track and start talking to them like their teenagers already. "Please don't do drugs". "This is what I hope for you..." Remember, they will be reading this when they're older and when they will appreciate it.  They will probably already have been through your lectures and have experienced half the things you want to warn them about.  I have already gone through this in my emails to her and constantly have to remind myself to stop doing that! 

4. Focus on the main points of what we're going through, today.  What was the highlight of your week?  Did you take him/her to the park?  Did you go on vacation?

5. You don't want to write every day because then your child will have a million emails to read when you decide to give them this great gift. Keep it to once every two weeks or just when a big event happens. Or when something great/funny happens that you think he/she will find it interesting to know.

6. Add pictures!  Did you take pictures on that vacation you were on?  Did you take pictures of the Easter egg hunt he/she had? What about when they ate a bug?  Add these pictures, it will only add to the fun of reading these emails.

7. At the end of some emails I would add a section called "Fun Facts about You". Here I will write such things as, "You love to play with your daddy's dirty socks when he gets home from work" or "You love to dance and be tickled".  Always make it in the present time.....and yes my daughter has a fascination with my husband's nasty sweaty socks. Don't ask me why.

8.  You can give this to them as a graduating gift or whenever you feel like they will appreciate it.  Think of a creative way to present it to them. They will thank you for it and have a blast reading it as an adult.

God Bless! 

Ashley

                              Photo provided by: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2280

God is Good

The power of prayer is astonishing.  I don't know what else to say. God is good.

Arts and Craft Show Ideas and Sexy Aprons, what?????

OK, so here it goes again.  My whole post just got deleted. Don't you hate it when that happens?  So I have some ideas for my arts and crafts show I'm doing next year.  I believe your booth display is just as important as the items you're selling.  You want to get people in your booth and keep them there.  So I'm going to use the colors pink and black again or Tiffany blue and black so it's not too girly.  Also I was shocked that I didn't see any artist doing their craft in the booth when I went to a show here in town.  So I'm going to bring my easel, canvas, paints and brushes. Hopefully this will bring people in my booth and get them more interested in buying my art.  I will definately be selling prints no question.  Also, I am trying to think of a completely different way to display my work than the norm.  Also, I ran accross this shop on Etsy called Dot's Diner.  She sells the cutest retro 50's style aprons.  Normal art aprons are bulky plastic things or just plain ugly.  So I'm going to save up and get one of these sexy little numbers! I'll probably wear capris under them with a tank top. I don't want to offend anyone at the show. lol!  I know you're thinking "Wont you get paint all over it?  I'll probably get a little bit of paint, but overall I'm a pretty clean painter so I'm not too worried about it.  Also, I think it gives it a little bit of character.  Below I have listed some of her items that I adore. Go visit her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/dotsdiner .

Do you have any crative ideas to display art in an arts and crafts show?  I would love to know!

Enjoy - Finished My Painting!

So this is more of a design/realism painting.  I think you call it figurative realism?  I'm not sure.  With this particular painting I mushed together different Mucha prints.  For example the girl's left arm is from a different Mucha girl holding a different cup.  It's a cup I found in my pantry, more elegant than the beer cup in the original.  The girl's hair is different than the original, the original had her wearing a headband, so I painted her some fire red hair and tossled it up for that morning look.  I wanted her to be looking at something, so I peppered some butterflies here and there.  The design that is framing her in is probably one of my favorite parts.  Mucha rarely had symmetrical designs which is something I love. I hand painted every line. No measuring, no ruler. Just my hand, a tiny paint brush and my eyeballs.  All I gotta do is take a really good picture of it without a glare and put it up on Etsy!  If you want to visit my shop you can go to http://www.thesketchyeasel.etsy.com/  or if you want to see all my artwork you can go to my facebook page at   http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/The-Sketchy-Easel/195620920486042  Don't forget to "like" me when you're there!!

I hope all is well with you

Ashley

Bills Bills Bills

I know my husband and I aren't the only ones that feels like that lady up there.  My husband got a great paying job up here in NC but alongside our bills it's like we're making NOTHING.  We're the only ones to blame for that, I know.  In order to move up here we had to get a credit card or a loan just to be able to afford an apartment and the move up here.  Now we're at a point where we are going to need to downsize to a smaller two bedroom apartment that will hopefully save us about 400.00/month and we can begin to knock out these credit cards.  Bad thing about that is, I will have to squeeze myself somewhere to be able to paint.  Our bedroom I suppose.  We'll be high on paint thinner until we get a house! HA! We figured we will be able to get a house in about 1 yr or 1 1/2 yrs.  We thought about doing it now, but with all the little extras like closing costs, house maintnance, utilities and all of that, we would have to fork over more of what we don't have.  Better to get the debt paid off, then get a house we want.  I want to get a job and would love to work, but I would basically be paying for my daughter's daycare like I was in GA.  I would make about 800.00/month and daycare was 628.00/month.  Then you have to take out gas and that leaves basically nothing.  Day care up here in NC is over 1,000.00 / month. So, in theory I'm saving us money by not working and saving us money in the grocery department.  

Praying constantly.  God will see us thorugh it. :)

A Work IN Progress + Arts and Crafts Shows

Ok, so I started this painting before I left for GA over the weekend.  I got pretty far when I got back. Especially after the Casey Anthony trial ended, which BTW I'm pissed about the outcome.  Anywho, This piece is close to being done. I've got a nouveau border to paint around her and some butterflies along with touching her up.  The border is going to be incorperated along with her and what she is sitting on.  Confused?  You will see when I'm done!

So my previous post was "To craft show or not to craft show", or something of that matter.  Over the weekend my husband and I were talking in the car and this came up.  I told him how I would like to do it but it was going to be more money than I will probably make, but I like doing them and it's good for publicity.  Well, he then made a good point. He said "I don't care if you make any money off of it. You like to do it, right? You enjoy it? I don't make any money off of fishing, but I spend money on it because I like doing it". So that's that....I'm going to do it next year!  I'm going to try and kick it up to high gear and get a lot of paintings done.  I plan on entering the Lazy Daez show here in NC. They have to accept you first so *fingers crossed*. 

Here is my newest "work in progress".......