Crayon Drawings and Dance Parties

Last night the husband had a late appointment so Little I and I had a drawing party on the floor.  Little I doesn't have much of an attention span right now so our drawing party only lasted about 15 minutes but it was fun nonetheless! 

While we were drawing we were also listening the the Elizabeth Mitchell pandora channel (great for kids songs!)  This lovely song by Tristan Prettyman came on and I thought I would share it with you!  We had an impromptu dance party to it!

Well we are going back to the island today!  So excited!  I will be there for almost a week to celebrate the 4th of July.   I am off to pack!

The Spinach Smoothie...YUM!

Today is HOT here in Ohio.  The weather man said it was going to be 102 degrees today!  Yuck!  So I wanted to share with you my favorite new super healthy way to cool down.


drum roll please.......

 

 

The Spinach Smoothie (high protein, low sugar)

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you!  It really says spinach and it is actually super amazing delicious and HEALTHY!  Hooray!

So let me tell you how to make this green concoction.  First of all I got this recipe from my bestie cousin-in law Jeanette who was so kind to share this awesome recipe with me.

So here it is:  How to make a spinach smoothie:

You will need the following ingredients:

-About 1 1/2 handfuls of FRESH spinach ( I have never tried frozen)
-1/2 of a banana (sliced frozen bananas make the smoothie extra cold and amazing)
- A couple of pieces of fresh or canned pineapple.  You can really add as much as you want.  The more you add the SWEETER the smoothie becomes (also more sugar).
-About a 1/2 cup of water
-3/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt (or really any yogurt, Jeanette tried blueberry yogurt and said it was tasty.)
-I also like to add a bit of almond milk to give it an extra creamy taste.  If you do this only add about 1/4 cup or so.

Next you put this all in a blender or in my case, the Magic Bullet.

Blend it all together for about 2-3 minutes (really try and get it all blended and SMOOTH...hence the name Smoothie!)


And then VOILA:

You got yourself a LEAN, MEAN drink that is GREEN.


I have been making these for myself after my morning runs.  It has lots of protein from the greek yogurt, iron from the spinach and potassium from the banana.  It would also be a fun drink for St. Patty's day:)


So hooray for tasty drinks that are healthy for you!  Hope you have a fabulous day!

Summer Salad

Yesterday my cousin Kate came over to hang out with Little I and me.  Kate lives in Brooklyn, NY and is one of the coolest people I know.  Kate is a singer/nurse-to-be and performs with her band The Tickled Pinks.

Kate and I awhile ago

Kate came for lunch so I made this lovely summer salad.  It was inspired by Stelabird's random facts post.  She talked about putting cucumbers in a bowl with lemons and salt.  It sounded so simple and delicious!

and then I added a couple of ingredients:

 

How to make a Lovely Summer Salad:


-1 cucumber (peeled and cut into small-medium slices)
-6 cherry tomatoes (cut into halves)
-1 Lemon
-1 ripe avocado (cut into slices)
- A pinch of salt (add as much as you want)


This is what you do (it is soooo simple!)

-Throw your tossed veggies into a cute bowl (white always makes food look pretty!)
-Squeeze your lemon all over the veggies (use the whole lemon or just half depending on how much you love lemon)
-Toss in the salt
-Mix with clean hands
-Presto!  You got yourselves a lovely summer salad.

P.S.  I also put a couple of black beans into the salad for some contrast and some protein.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture.  You could put anything else you wanted in like chick peas, pinto beans, asparagus, corn....oh my....there are so many possibilities!


This would also be a perfect salad to make if you are going to a 4th of July party!


Well have a great day, I am off to hang out with Little I!

I Heart Nora Ephron!

Wow, I seriously was just thinking about how much I LOVE Nora Ephron movies today and then I just found out the news that Nora passed away.  So sad!  I am a romantic comedy sap and I LOVE Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks together.  You've Got Mail is still one of my most favorite movies.  When Harry Met Sally is another all-time favorite.  I just love Harry Connick Jr.'s music on the soundtrack.  I listen to it every fall for some reason, it is a great fall-winter cd.


Anyways....I am so sad!
So here's to you Nora Ephron!  Thank you for all of the romantic comedies that made me smile and helped brighten my day!

P.S  What was your favorite Nora Ephron movie?


P.P.S.  This is one of my favorite songs by Harry Connick Jr.    So sweet!

Throwing Stones

Today we left the island and went back to the "real world."  blah.  Little I had her 18 month shots today.  Can you believe she is 18 months already?!  Time flies so fast!


Before we left the island, Little I did some serious rock throwing, her favorite past-time when she is on the island.

Throwing rocks with Dad

Check out that form!

Pointing to where she threw her rock

Check out my cute shoes!

Hello Shadow!

Little I and me...my shadow is kind of funny looking!

Clouds

 Today on the island it was VERY windy with LOTS of awesome clouds! 

Here are some things I saw today:

The husband sailing!  I was kind of nervous!

 

Gorgeous color in the sky!

More color!

Perfect place to take a dip and cool down!

Island Life

 


Today the husband, Little I and I went to my parents' cottage.

We took a ferry over.  It was beautiful!

With lots of cool clouds!

My husband and Dad went sailing.  I don't sail...yet.  I am planning on learning this summer.  My husband LOVES it!  Sadly there wasn't much wind out today so they didn't go too far!

Today is also the husband and my 6 year wedding anniversary!  Wow!  My mom was nice enough to let the husband and I go out to dinner (to the ONE restaurant on the island!).

Little I was kind of sad to see us go...

Before we hit the restaurant we went to a special place to look for beach glass.

Here are some of our treasures! ( Except for the pink one...that was a special find by my brother and his girlfriend.  I just thought it would look pretty in the picture!)

After a wonderful dinner we came home to watch the sunset

It was a lovely anniversary!


I hope you had a great day.  Summer is soooo wonderful isn't it?  We are on the island until Tuesday so I will be enjoying it here as much as possible!

Painting Without a Paint Brush VIDEO!

Hello!  Happy Saturday!  I hope you are having a lovely day so far.  It is sunny and beautiful out here in Ohio so I will probably be hitting the pool with Little I for a little swim action.  Today we went running (Little I LOVES to hang out in her running stroller!) and in between laps at the park we played at the playground for awhile. 

I just wanted to quickly post a link to a NEW video I created.  It was for one of my master's classes but I wanted to share it with you also!  Click here to watch a video called "Painting Without A Paintbrush."  It is actually a painting project I do with my advanced painters at the beginning of the school year to help them think outside of the box in terms of using painting tools.

Well I am off to enjoy this beautiful day! 

Hollyhock Paintings

Why hello there!  Hope you are enjoying your summer.  It has been divine for the most part!  I am finishing up two of my FINAL masters classes and then I should be DONE!  Hooray!  It has taken me three years but I have almost done it!

Anyways...so I have been super duper busy this past year with Little "I", teaching art full time, finishing up my masters and MOVING!  Yes, we sold our lovely Cleveland Cottage and have moved into a WONDERFUL place.  It is not permanent but it is perfect for us right now until we buy or build our dream house (because I am never moving ever again!)

So back to being busy.  I have had no time at all to do artwork for myself.  I have only been able to work on things that pertained to school.  My school art style is different from my own personal style seen in my store.  High school kids are very picky about art.  Everything has to look semi realistic.  That is generally not my style but I have tweaked it so that I can assist my lovely students.

So that being said, here is a painting exercise I did to show the importance of completing an underpainting.  The underpainting I used here was burnt umber.

Here is my final hollyhock painting I completed using acrylic paint.  I used the monochromatic burnt umber underpainting for this one as well.

I actually gave this painting to my mom for her cottage on Lake Erie.  The reference picture I used was actually a picture I took on the island my parents have their cottage on.  It is one of my most favorite pictures!

If you would like to see how to complete a monochromatic underpainting you can check out a video I made on doing one here.


Well I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!  I am hoping to go to the cottage this weekend and hopefully take some great pictures for more paintings!

Summertime!

Hello!  It has been a VERY busy year!  So busy that I have completely neglected this little ole' blog!  Well I am back!  I hope you have been well, I can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs.

I am out for summer break right now and Little "I" and I have been living it up!

We started off the summer with some strawberry picking!

So delicious!  These were the best strawberries I have EVER tasted!

I am pretty sure Little "I" agreed!  All she did the entire time was eat all of the strawberries she found!

I hope your summer has been wonderful as well!

Have a lovely day!