My Life painted in 1998

This oil painting by me was done in 1998. I also had this posted on my old blog and decided to post it here too.

A Moonlit Ride

This is a watercolor I had posted on my old blog. I painted this back in October of 2007. Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's always been. I love the crisp leaves crunching under my feet as I work in my gardens to prepare them for sleep. Driving to my local apple store to buy apples and cider is also a favorite thing for me to do. Not to forget to mention going to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins . The most enjoyment I get during the month of October is on Halloween night, when all the children come out wearing their very creative costumes.

Baby Artichokes In Olive Oil

Globe artichokes which originated in southern Europe, the first being in Naples Italy, then around the rest of the Mediterranean, is a perennial. It has silvery, green leaves and it develops a large purple flower head, from an edible bud. The edible bud is on the lower portion of the plant, which is called the heart. The center of the bud is called the "choke" and it's also the part we eat.
Today the main producers of artichokes are Italy, Spain, France and the United States. We here in the U.S. get most of our artichokes from California.
Since I'm Italian, artichokes were always a main part of my diet. My mother made some scrumptious artichoke recipes. One of my favorites, which I have listed below was her "baby artichokes in olive oil."

Ingredients;
1 package of baby artichokes

2/3 cups of water

1/4 cup olive oil

4 lg cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbs parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and remove the green petals off each artichoke, until only the yellow petals are left. Cut the stem of the artichoke just below it's base. Cut 1/3 off the top of the choke. After finishing each one place them in a bowl of water with 1 Tbs of lemon juice added to it, to prevent them from browning. When completed, drain them out of the lemon water and add the rest of the ingredients to a medium sauce pan, including 2/3 cup of water. Bring everything to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to medium. cook for about 40 to 45 minutes or until they are very soft when poking them with a fork. To avoid the artichokes from breaking apart, do not stir them during the cooking process.

After they have become soft, pour the artichokes along with the juices into a medium bowl and serve. This vegetable recipe pairs nicely with spaghetti and a fresh loaf of Italian bread. Enjoy!

Sun And Moon Oil Painting

This is a painting that I had displayed on my old blog. I've decided to move it to my new blog. this was done in 1999. At the time I was on a celestial kick, so I was buying and drawing everything celestial. Again while working on this composition, I was thinking about my future child, since we were starting to plan our family at this time. I had my girl first, so I ended up hanging this in my hallway, thinking it looked too masculine for her room. When my son was born in 2004, I hung it in his room. He really enjoys looking at it.

My First Watercolor "The Lotus"

This was my first watercolor. The background was done with my fingers and not a brush. While painting this composition, I wanted to try and get a bit of an oriental feel from it. At the time much of my home was decorated with a mix of both Asian and East Indian objects, most likely due to my love for anything exotic and beautiful.

A Flower For My Baby Girl

This is a charcoal pastel I did back in 1998. Even though a didn't have any children yet, I started thinking about kids and what kind of drawings would be nice in a little girl's room. A few years later my daughter was born. She is now 7 years old and I have yet to frame it and hang it in her room. One of these days I'll remember to pick up a frame, while I'm out browsing at the store, so I can finally get to hanging it on her wall.

Our Kitty Cat Named Ginger

Meet one of our kitty cats. Her name is Ginger and she's now 3 years old. My hubby brought her home from an animal adoption center for my daughter, when she was 6 months old. Ginger has so much personality. She thinks she runs the household. This is truly a cat with the biggest attitude I've ever seen in an animal. The reason behind the attitude has to be that she belongs to my daughter (she has a bit of an attitude herself.)

Watercolor Pansy

This is a watercolor I did in 1997. I finger painted the background for a different look. This was the first painting of my pansy and violet series.

My Dog Hera

This Is a photo of my 2 year old dog, lounging around in our garage. I remember when I first brought her home two years ago. She was small enough to fit on my lap. She is now a 114 pound moose. The name Hera came from an ancient goddess who was also a powerful queen in her own right. In mythology , Hera was the original all-powerful multifunctional goddess responsible for every aspect of existence, a symbol of the complete woman. Among the Greeks, Hera was the goddess of marriage. She was the bringer of fertility, protector of children, and of women during childbirth. Hera was often represented with a peacock, symbolic of beauty, luxury and immortality. For some reason I thought this name fit my adorable little Rottweiler puppy, when we were driving the hour ride back home after picking her up from the breeders house.

My First Few Seedlings Sprout

How Exciting! My first few marigold seedlings just sprouted. This makes me anxious to get out there, so I can get planting. Next week I'll be started my basil indoors. I usually start four or five seed packets of basil, so I have plenty of this fresh herb through out the summer and plenty to freeze and dry for the winter.

Feelings

This is another charcoal pastel I did in 98. It's an abstract. I named this picture "feelings." As I was creating this composition I was trying to keep in tune with my feeling at the time, because I wanted my feelings to guide me to the colors and lines I was making for this drawing.

Butterfly Sequence Jeans

A few weeks ago while out shopping, I came across these eye catching butterfly sequence jeans. Ten years ago I had a pair of rose sequence jeans and I just loved wearing them. Needless to say, I ended up getting rid of them when I had my children. After ridding of my rose jeans, I never came across sequenced jeans in the store until now. I couldn't resist buying this pair and I can't wait to wear them. There's a large butterfly on the right upper thigh shown in the photo above and another smaller butterfly on the lower left calf of my jeans. Hopefully I will get to wear them when me and my hubby go to dinner at this Japanese restaurant in the city that we've been waiting to try.

Starfish running With a Seashell

Here is another drawing I did in 1998. I don't know how I thought up this composition. While creating this drawing I just went with the flow and this was the end result. As you can see by the fold in the upper left hand corner, this drawing has been sitting between a bunch books for a very long time.

Tomato Sauce With Asparagus.

Asparagus, which is native to most of Europe, Africa and western Asia, is a perennial with feathery foliage. The flowers of this plant are bell-shaped and greenish- white in color.
In very early times asparagus was used for culinary purposes, because of it's delicate flavor and as a medicine for it's diuretic purposes. It was widely cultivated and used by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks, who ate it fresh when in season. They also harvested and dried it for use during the winter months.
When I was a child, me and my mother would gather up a couple buckets and head out to the field behind our home, so we could harvest the asparagus growing unattended in between the brush. We would be out there for at least an hour and a half or more and return with way more asparagus than our family could consume. Needless to say are friends and relatives were more than happy to take the extra pickings home with them to enjoy at the dinner table with their families. The reason we had these tasty little spears growing among the weeds in the woods was because, there use to be a huge asparagus farm behind our home way before we ever lived there.

The other day while shopping in the produce department, I decided to pick up a bunch of asparagus, so I could go home and make that mouth watering sauce I haven't tasted since the passing of my dear mother. My husband was very impressed with the results of my sauce. He said it was almost identical to my mom's recipe, which made me very happy. For those of you who would like to try asparagus with sauce, rather than steamed and buttered, I've listed this sauce recipe below.

Ingredients;

3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch of fresh asparagus washed and chopped.

1 Cup of washed and chopped baby bella mushrooms

6 large cloves of minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

2 large cans of crushed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato paste

1 tbs. dried basil

1 tbs. Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)

grated cheese (optional)

1) Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add the asparagus, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Saute for 10 minutes over medium high heat, sirring frequently.
2) Add the minced garlic to the pan and saute for an additional 5 minutes.
3) Once the vegetables have become tender, add all the rest of the ingredients, except for the grated cheese. Bring to a boil, then reduce, heat to medium. Stir well and cover. You may even want to turn your heat down to medium low the last half hour of cooking. Continue to stir occasionally until the sauce is finished. I recommend letting the sauce simmer for an hour to an hour and a half.
When the sauce is complete serve this over your favorite pasta, along side of a salad ,with vinegar and oil and some fresh Italian bread. This is a very healthy comfort meal that the whole family will love.

Starting My French Marigolds Indoors

Every March I Start my marigold seeds indoors, so that they're ready to plant along side all my vegetable plants by the first week of June. The first reason why I plant marigolds in my garden is, because it deters some of the pests that are harmful to my vegetable plants. The second reason why I inter plant these petite fragrant blooms is, because they attract beneficial insects to my garden, that help my vegetables grow better, thus giving me a high yield come harvest time. Last but not least they add color to my garden and they're so beautiful to look at.
I've just returned from the store with a packet of French Marigold seeds, seed starter mix, peat pots, and plastic wrap. Tomorrow me and my kids will plant them. It's very easy to start marigolds indoors. All you need to do is fill each peat pot up with seed starter mix. You then use a spray bottle and spritz the mix with a little warm water. Poke a small shallow hole in the dirt with the eraser of a pencil, and drop one seed in the hole. Cover the seed with more mix and spritz well with water again. After all your pots are completed you cover them with plastic wrap and place them in front of a sunny window. If the soil seems dry, you simply remove the plastic, spray warm water on them again and recover the pots. You'll see sprouts in no time. Once the seeds have sprouted, remove the plastic, water as needed and keep them uncovered for the rest of the indoor growing process.
When they are ready to move outdoors, you'll have to get them slowly use to the outdoors. This process is called "hardening them off." Place the pots out on your porch in indirect sunlight for about an hour the first few days and slowly increase the time they stay outdoors, until they are ready to plant. When your ready to harden off the seedlings, I recommend it be at least 60 degrees outside and keep a close watch as to how they react outside when you begin hardening off your plants. By starting these pretty orange and yellow blossoms indoors right now, they'll be ready to plant outdoors right at the beginning of planting season for my zone.

Black Eyed Susan In Glass

This is a charcoal pastel drawing I did in 1999. Flowers and celestial themes were some of my favorite subjects to draw and paint. Black eyed susans are one of my favorite meadow flowers. They are also called rudbeckias. They are biennials. The dried flower heads drop seeds every year, so they can sow themselves for the following season. In the summer I have them growing in the small meadow behind my garden. I love picking bouquets of black eyed susans and placing them in a rustic vase, or a mason jar, so I can place them on my dining room table as a center piece.