Swiss Cheese In My Cookies :Daily Watercolor Practice
Couch Talk
Today is a very long post so I hope you have a hot warm cuppa something. First off, I wanted to share my new Swiss Cheese Plant. It is itty bitty but I spied it at the nursery when I was supposed to be shopping for garden plants. It was a steal for $2.99 as I know these go for $60-$100 as a mature plant. They have beautiful leaves and I hope that I can keep it alive long enough to get it to a mature size.
Our plumbing was finished up last week and the whole process was mostly painless. Except for the various patched wholes in our ceilings and dining room wall it wasn’t that bad. A drywall screw was left in my daughter’s carpet and got sucked up by the vacuum while cleaning up the dust. The screw broke the belt and now I have to wait another week to put the bedrooms back together until the belt can be replaced. But that is the worse to come out of it. They found a few potential water lines waiting to break so I am very thankful that we got this done otherwise we would have had significant water damage somewhere down the road.
Baking
I did quite a lot of baking this week. Maybe I felt like I was trying to make up for previous weeks where I did none, nevertheless, my freezer is finally full again. I didn’t get pictures of all my baked goods as sometimes I get side tracked by other things. Imagine that!
First up is snickerdoodles. The recipe came from the cookbook, The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook. This is a really fun cookbook for those of you that have ever been to Colonial Williamsburg. As a child, we vacationed there a lot and I have some wonderful memories. I loved visiting the houses and shops of Williamsburg and seeing the people dressed in period costume, acting like they would have back in the day. My favorite shops to visit were the apothecary, millinery, silversmith and the candy store. The gardens were lovely and arranged in an English style. I loved when we had the chance to sit and rest on the benches in a secluded spot. It has been over 20 years since I have been there but I would love to go back and introduce my children to the culture and arts of Colonial Williamsburg. They have a virtual tour of several buildings that you can check out HERE.
Recently, I have had to make more dietary changes and one of things I have had to cut out is BBQ sauce. While browsing my copy of The Big Book of Kombucha: Brewing, Flavoring, and Enjoying the Health Benefits of Fermented Tea, I found this recipe for Kombucha BBQ Sauce. While is doesn’t have the smooth consistency of BBQ sauce from a bottle, I am really enjoying this alternative on my chicken and burgers.
After a month of slacking off when it comes to sourdough, I finally made a few loaves of Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread.
The brownies I made this week have frosting but since I didn’t take a pic, I figured this previous batch of brownies would do.
I made another batch of oatmeal raisin cookies from the cookbook, Specialties of the House: A Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook.
Lastly, I made gingersnaps as well but forgot to take a picture. Where is my brain?
PaperArtsy
This past weekend I was over at the PaperArtsy blog. I made a mixed media card for the theme Mandala. I hope you will stop by and take a look. You can check it out HERE.
StencilGirl Column
My column is up on the StencilGirl blog today. I made a piece of art using only stencils and watercolors. Who knew stencils were so versitile?!! You can check it out HERE.
Daily watercolor Practice
If you made it this far, thanks for staying with me. Here is my daily practice of at least 30 minutes.
If you recall, I got the book Imagine a Forest: Designs and Inspirations for Enchanting Folk Art, for my birthday. The first two pictures are lessons from the book.
In this next one, I was practicing with my new Lamy AL-Star Fountain Pen To outline the flowers. Not sure I like what I did but I like the pen.
And then I had some food inspiration from Dearannart | Anna Koliadych. The following are step by step photos on her blog.
Lastly, I found a photo on Pinterest and tried to paint her.
Tea Day
I am joining the Tea Day ladies, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. I recently found out that I am sensitive to black tea and cinnamon. I don’t know if you noticed but I LOVE cinnamon in my teas. It has been a difficult adjustment and it has only been two weeks. As an alternative I am using lemongrass. Two years ago I grew it in my garden and dried it into wreaths. It sat in my cupboard for that long as I was unsure if I would like it. Surprisingly, I like the lemon flavor and I am very pleased that it tastes nothing like grass. Now I am thinking I may go back to the nursery and pick up one of these plants. It grows like a weed and now that I know that I like it, I can dry the extra.
What is your favorite herbal tea or tisane?
Happy Tea Day,
Kate
Hi Kate, wow you did do lots of baking-it all looks delicious too.
I love seeing your watercolors, I bought the chinese watercolor book you shared a couple weeks ago. searched online and found one like new for 6.00 free shipping-haven’t had a chance to play yet.
I love allot of the herbs we can grow in our gardens too-lemon balm, lavender, mints-so many to choose from
Happy T wishes Kathy
Oh my- sorry to hear about your water damage-I missed that one. Your baking is just wonderful and even the photos make me want a bite of it all! Loving all your watercolor art- it really is beautiful and so well done. Fab mixed media art too with all those super layers and textures.
Happy T day!
Wow you did a lot of baking last week. I’m hoping now that the yard work is more or less caught up I can get back into doing some baking. The other night I had a hankering to bake at 10PM, but it wasn’t going to happen as I’d probably fall asleep in it would burn in the oven.Smile. It all looks good Kate. Well I am not sure of kombucha BBQ sauce.since I’m not a big fan of kombucha. Your water color paintings look great too. Food might be your thing to draw. I bet your lemongrass tea tastes wonderful. I keep my plant in a pot and bring it in during the winter. It won’t spread the same way, but then you have fresh lemon grass tea all year.. Hope you enjoy your snacks and tea and have a super week and T day. Hugs-Erika
Kate you have been busy. Sorry about the vacuum. However, time to bake. Wow! you did a lot of it. I bet your house smelled soooo good. Your art always impresses me and that goes for this week as well. Ohhhh I enjoy lemongrass tea. I like it cold though. Sounds like you have a good nursery close by. You did get a good deal on that Swiss Cheese plant. I am sure you will see it grow to maturity. Have a very nice evening.
You get a lot done in your week, it must have been longer than mine! Love the baking, and your water colours are fabulous. Happy T Day. hugs, Valerie
Morning Kate, you’ve really made me feel hungry with all your gorgeous baking, it all looks so delicious, I’m not a lover of BBQ sauce, especially if it’s smokey;
Your artwork is beautiful, you really have a talent, our eldest GS loves art and he did a pencil sketch of one of their pups, a local man bought it from him!
I can see him on the beach sketching peoples pets in his school holidays to earn pocket money LOL
As for tea, I only drink black breakfast tea with a splash of milk, boring I know but I’ve never been able to get into herbal or fruit teas,
Have a Happy T Day
Jan S
Those snickerdoodles sound and look so good. Even better than the brownies. Your drawings are beautiful. You are doing so well. I tried to click on the link to your Stencil Girl art, and had t get there from the link on your sidebar. I am so impressed with all those flowers you fussy cut. They are amazing.
Your use of lemongrass in tea sounds wonderful. I also grew it for a couple of years. Thanks for sharing your drawings, your art, your baking, and your lemongrass with us for T this Tuesday.
Yay for plumbing done! My T still “fights”.
Full freezer of home stuff – here, also 🙂
Love your paintings, happy T-Day!
You sure packed a lot of activity into one week. The baked goods look delicious. I think the bread would be my first choice. Nothing like home baked bread. I enjoyed looking at your art work. It all seems so bright and happy. Have not heard of the pen you used but I’m going to look for it. I have a thing for pens and like finding a new one.
You have been very busy! Good that you got the potential plumbing problem fixed before it became a real issue. Your bakes are wonderful and now I’m so very hungry. Your watercolors are wonderful and that donut looks good enough to eat. I told you I was hungry. I don’t care for herbal teas. They smell pretty but have very little taste. A few weeks ago there was lemongrass in a meal kit we got. Pleasant lemon taste though I found it difficult to peel. Happy T Day
I’m glad the plumbing job went well. It will have saved you from a lot of trouble and expense down the line. Too bad about the vacuum cleaner, but I suppose it’s one of those things.
Your bakings look utterly delicious. I have started making kombucha again but my scoby has not survived the winter unfortunately. Now I have to try and find a scoby somewhere online. I have seen them online from the UK, but since the UK is no longer in the EU, people get slammed for with very high import duties (and they don’t tell you in advance how much it is) so I don’t want to risk having to pay something extortionate.
Your water colours are lovely. What fun it must be to do that every day.
Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca
I love everything about your blog from start to finish…baking, art, books. It is all so good…delightful!
Wow, you have been busy with all that delicious baking and beautiful artwork! I love how you used the stencils – amazing 😀. That little Swiss Cheese plant is so sweet too! Happy T Day wishes! Hugs, Jo x
Holy smokes lady! You have been so busy! I can almost smell all the delightful baked goods. Your watercolor practice is amazing. Such lovely work.
Happy T day!
Wow – you have been busy! I am amazed at all you do! Great looking baking and so much of it! Impressive and it all looks so great. Super pretty creations too. I am off to check our your related posts and your watercoloring practice is fabulous.
I love Licorice tea right now but wanting to try some lemongrass after reading your post. Happy late T-day.