epic fail x2

 I'm making dessert for my husband's birthday celebration,

and these are the 2 chocolate cakes that just didn't work!

The top one usually has chocolate chips in it, but he 

requested butterscotch chips instead... which all fell

to the bottom and adhered to the pan!
I would have served it anyway, but the texture
came out odd -- almost watery. Blech.

This is a flourless cake that I overbaked.

I realized afterward that I had also omitted the BUTTER.

Aaaack! Totally dry and disgusting.

Fortunately, there was enough chocolate around

to remake them both, so now we're sittin' on

one gluten-free chocolate cake,

one double chocolate chip cake,

one dairy free angel food cake,

and one dairy-riffic sour cream cake. 

Whew! Now for some sauces...

(and hopefully plenty of people to share these with).

zucchini plant

Things in the garden are a'flowering!

watercolor, 6"x6"

tiny teacup

I'm particularly fond of this little teacup

painting by my daughter.

1.5"x 3" watercolor

tiny tea pot

Painting with the kids -- it's spring break!
Watercolor, 2"x2"

gift wrap

 I just love the look of a gift wrapped in pattern paper....

It also seems to lend a vintage touch to a hand sewn gift.

Here's the sign I mentioned working on previously. 

 

It's painted primarily with Golden brand Fluid

Acrylics, which were a nice consistency for 

the flowing lines and small brushwork.  

This brush, which I bought on clearance several years

ago, came in very handy. The store display had it labeled

as a sign painting brush, and it turns out to be just that!

The brush is cut at an angle, so it holds an adequate amount

of paint while coming to a precise and swirlable point.

baby plants

Some of our veggie garden is planted from seed 

and the rest from seedlings. Aren't they cute?!

end of february in my corner

 

Since we're well into seventy degree weather around here, we 

decided to go ahead and start our spring veggie garden.

We've had various garden-related ideas for this plot of land over

the past decade, but this is the first time we've actually done more

than the initial turnover. It's been a fun way to work with the kids

and hang out with our community house as a whole.

As you can also see, I met my camera's aperture

setting last week, and we're slowly becoming acquainted. 

sign painting preparations

 Over 6 months ago, I bartered design services with 

a friend. My end of the deal was to paint a lettered 

sign. Since I have been frozen solid when it comes 

to painting, I spent the past six months procrastinating

on this project. Today, however, I pulled out my acrylic

paints and went to town, combining colors for a series of 

test swatches. The lettering style is borrowed from 

Donley & Singh's book called Hand Lettering.

I think it will make for a very festive name plaque!

lilly plant at crave coffee