Heather Eddy Art

Picture from bloodorange.org. Fitting, no? I will eat anything once as long as it's legal for me . Some of my exotic food choices have included octopus tentacles, baby octopus (I hated eating its little head), shark and tripe. I understand that tripe isn't as exotic as all that, but when it's something you haven't had on your plate growing up, it's fancy and weird. Today someone brought a blood orange to work. There were two segments left and I saw an opportunity to further my gastronomic horizons. So to speak. When I picked it up, I saw *why* it was called a blood orange. Some of the little pulp parts looked like blood blisters. Still, I bit into it. It was so great! Tangy and delicious and strange and unusual - all in one bite! I should have included trying new foods on my 101 goals list, but it will just have to wait for another time...

Paper stitching done by Jessica over at paperstitch.net Just recently I read an article about how to be inspired by something, but how not to steal it. The idea was to look at all the things that really strike you and ask yourself what it is about them you LOVE. It's usually not the exact item, but something about it that you like and that something is You. For instance, in the picture above, I love the idea of stitching on paper. It's not the artist's design in particular that I love. So if I were to try this for myself, I'd have to think about what I'd like to stitch on paper and not just copy. Anyway, take a peek at paperstitch.net . It's lover-ly.

Here's another bread I've done for my 101 goals. If I were able, I'd eat the whole loaf. Four Orange Bread 1 cup mandarin oranges (I used 1 small can, drained) (don't eat any) (really) 1/4 cup orange juice 1 egg 3 cups bread flour 1 t salt 1 T butter 1/4 cup orange marmalade (I had apricot preserves which I used) 1 1/2 T orange zest 2 t yeast Put all ingredients in your bread machine. Keep an eye on it to see if it needs more flour. If it looks too sticky while kneading, throw in another 1/4 cup. It all depends on *how* sticky it is. Bake it on the regular or dark setting. That will let it bake a touch longer. You don't even need butter to eat with this.

I love watercolors: the jewel tones, the clarity of color, the transparent magic. This is a picture of my working box of watercolors. I've had the same box since high school. I replaced the colors with artist quality tube colors over the years and even have two large palettes that have samples of all of my tube colors. This is my go-anywhere set with my most-used colors.  I draw with pen and ink first and then make several layers of color.  Because I have to wait for layers to dry, I work on several paintings at once. My favorite size is 3" x 5". Ish.   I love strong compositions. And corn dog trees.  And little red houses. And metallic powder. I also love how forgiving watercolor is. It never mentions the weeks, months or years I neglect the art. When I come back, it still lets me make beautiful pictures.

I have a goal of making 50 different types of bread for my 101 goals. Here is the first. I'm not big on bananas. Kiff is the only one in the house who eats them regularly. When he doesn't finish, I feel REALLY bad throwing the bananas in the garbage. Many people suggest you use old bananas to make banana bread, but, again, I'm not keen on bananas... But I found a recipe for this banana bread that makes bananas yummable: Banana Chocolate Chip Nutella Swirl Bread 2/3 C water 2/3 C mashed banana (equals one regular-sized banana) 2 T butter 1 egg 3 C bread flour 3 T sugar 1 1/4 t salt 2 1/4 t yeast 1/3 C mini chocolate chips (chop up regular chocolate chips if you don't have minis) 1/3 C nutella (plus whatever you eat off the spoon) Gather ye together these ingredients:   I put mine into a bread machine on the dough setting. I couldn't begin to tell you the steps. It takes 1 hour and 3 minutes, that much I do know! When the dough is done, put it o...

Again the time has FLOWN! I've been working on sooooo many things that I didn't realize I hadn't blogged. It wasn't until I received an email from one of my blog friends asking me if everything was okay that I kinda looked up and realized, oh it's been a long time since I poked my head into blogland... But I have been doing good things. I've been working on my 101 goals. I've made seven different types of bread (orange loaf, banana chocolate-chip Nutella swirl, carrot-horseradish, lemon poppyseed, chocolate-vanilla, chocolate to die for and another chocolate one that doesn't have a memorable name) in my bread machine, been working on my personal cookbook (putting all of my recipes on 4x6 cards into a photo file box), decorating my studio/room (OHMYGOSHIHAVEASTUDIO!!!!), making silhouettes of my family (easy-peasy, done in a couple of hours) and more. I've also been having lots of problems (my stepdaughter is telling her mom that my husband and I ...