Sunday, March 6, 2011

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brussel sprouts always seem to be listed along with broccoli as a nasty, nasty vegetable that kids have nightmares about. I'm sure I had some as a child and found them quite disgusting, and growing up they are not something I ever found on my plate at meal times. Well, considering that Justin and I love broccoli, I thought it was only fair to give brussel sprouts another chance when we were looking for a little more vegetable variety.

We tried some frozen sprouts, and they were ok but not spectacular. While looking around online for good ways to cook them, I heard a lot of talk about how delicious & crunchy they were roasted and was eager to give it a try myself. And they were right! If you've never felt love for the little sprouts, you've got to give roasting a try.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

It's pretty simple ~ Leave the tiniest sprouts as-is and cut the rest in half (or even thirds, if they are huge). Arrange them on a baking sheet, along with all of the little leaves that fell off during cutting, and drizzle lightly with olive oil, tossing to coat. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 400 for 20 minutes...

At this point the scattered leaves will probably be quite brown, so you'll want to remove those to keep them from burning and flip all of the sprouts over while you are at it. Roast for about 20 minutes more (feel free to snack on those tasty leaves while you wait), until the sprouts are nicely browned on both sides. They should be soft on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside. (Last time we let them get very browned all over and they were still great)

It's a super easy side to whip up & bake alongside a casserole ~ delicious!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Ink

"Caitlin" & "Charlie" Ambigram Tattoo
This ambigram as a finished tattoo.

"Caitlin" & "Charlie" Ambigram Tattoo


"Ayden" & "My Love" Ambigram Tattoo
This ambigram as a finished tattoo.

"Ayden" & "My Love" Ambigram Tattoo


"Clemente" & "Marijo" Ambigram
This ambigram as a finished tattoo.

"Clemente" & "Marijo" Ambigram


"Naytzi" & "Victor" Heart Tattoo
This design as a finished tattoo.

"Naytzi" & "Victor" Heart Tattoo


"Jarron" & "Mia" Heart Tattoo
This design as a finished tattoo.

"Jarron" & "Mia" Heart Tattoo

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Baby Food

Baby Food

I make the majority of our baby food. It's a little extra work, but I make a ton at once and freeze it, so a half hour or so at the blender might make a week or two worth of meals. It's fun to pick out new fruits or veggies for him to try, and now we are at the point where he can have a combination of things. Last night we just took a scoopful of our dinner and blended it up, which is a great way to get them used to the flavors you like to cook with. I think you can tell I have fun making up the little labels too!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Changes

The last few weeks I have had an *insane* amount of orders. Like twice as many as normal. I have spent many nights working until bed time just to get everything finished. While the extra money is nice, it's not so fun when you don't have any time to actually do anything with it, and there have been some pretty stressful days.

Currently I am caught up enough to enjoy some free evenings again and am looking forward to the weekend. Let's hope it continues. I feel bad that my only posts over the last month have been dropping off finished ambigram & heart designs. So, what would you like to see? More recipes? Some new Orson pics? I don't think I've managed any crafting recently...

For now I will share the most amusing thing I have on hand ~



In the midst of it all, a lot of changes have been happening around here...
-My husband finally convinced me to raise my custom order prices and I'm so happy that I did. I also changed around the way I charge for extra font sketches, which will make me a lot less grumpy about the additional work.
-Orson is 7 months old, crawling all over the place, and pulling up to standing on everything. I don't think it will be long before he starts walking. He's such a happy, giggly baby now and pretty fun to be around.
-Large tax refund on the way. Yay! It's so nice to not *owe* hundreds of dollars every year anymore.
-I got my first ever cell phone and am not really sure what to do with it yet. It's a lovely shade of green with a touch screen and pull out keyboard and all sorts of features that they will charge me extra for if I try to use them. I love most technology but have avoided the whole cellphone thing for as long as possible but we are switching over from the LAN line to save money.
-I finally got around to changing my username on LiveJournal, which I've been meaning to do for years. "PMThreads" always sounded like I was selling lingerie, and made even less sense once Phunky Monkey closed down. All old links should still forward there.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been working on so many heart designs lately, I really need to make a separate page for them on my website. Who knew they would be so popular? I thought today would be a perfect time to share some more ~

"Courtney" & "Caitlyn"
Heart Design


"Courtney" & "Caitlyn" Heart Design

"Naytzi" & "Victor"
Heart Design


"Naytzi" & "Victor" Heart Design


"A&C" Heart Design

"A&C" Heart Design


"TAS" Heart Design

"TAS" Heart Design


"Jarron" & "Mia"
Heart Design


"Jarron" & "Mia" Heart Design


"Carolyn" & "Jackson"
Heart Design


"Carolyn" & "Jackson" Heart Design


"E&S" Heart Design

"E&S" Heart Design


"BMC" Heart Design

"BMC" Heart Design


"Arianna" & "Andres"
Heart Design


"Arianna" & "Andres" Heart Design


"Kimberly" & "Cory"
Heart Design


"Kimberly" & "Cory" Heart Design

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Ambigram Drop

"Jacek" Ambigram

"Jacek" Ambigram

"Matthew" Ambigram

"Matthew" Ambigram


"Marcus" & "Sienna" Ambigram

"Marcus" & "Sienna" Ambigram


"One Love" & "One Life" Ambigram

"One Love" & "One Life" Ambigram


"Brett" & "Derek" Ambigram

"Brett" & "Derek" Ambigram


"Melody" & "Miracle" Ambigram

"Melody" & "Miracle" Ambigram


"Grace" & "Faith" Ambigram v.2

"Grace" & "Faith" Ambigram v.2


"Agape" & "Others" Ambigram

"Agape" & "Others" Ambigram

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Ambigram Drop

"Revenimus" Ambigram

"Revenimus" Ambigram

"Synfonia" Ambigram

"Synfonia" Ambigram


"Ayden" & "My Love" Ambigram

"Ayden" & "My Love" Ambigram


"Rhonda" Ambigram Heart

"Rhonda" Ambigram Heart


"Jamie" & "Mitch" Ambigram v.3

"Jamie" & "Mitch" Ambigram v.3


"Caitlin" & "Charlie" Ambigram

"Caitlin" & "Charlie" Ambigram


"Isaiah" Ambigram

"Isaiah" Ambigram


"Cest La Vie" Ambigram v.2

"Cest La Vie" Ambigram v.2