At Least Someone...

...is using the bbq! I found this bold little guy under the cover staying cool. He seemed happy to let me take his picture, even waited for me while I ran and got my camera. I love how the stainless steel picks up so many colors when giving it a hit of saturation. We haven't been using the bbq as much as normally do this summer. I used the burners but have barely turned on the grill. It's too hot to cook inside today so I'm cleaning it up & firing it up for dinner. I made some of my favorite chimichurri sauce this morning. It's good on steak, chicken, fish...frog legs...! haha *No! I wouldn't!* The recipe below is one version of chimichurri that I love and the one I made today. I'm so glad planted lots of parsley & oregano this year. I plan to make many more batches of this sauce. Chimichurri is not just good for dinner, it makes a great gift or something special to take to a summer party.

Chimichurri Recipe

1 cup firmly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, trimmed of thick stems
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup fresh oregano leaves (sub 2 teaspoons dried oregano but fresh is best)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 canned jalapeno peppers (sissy? start with one & add to control heat or seed 1st)

You can substitue 1 Tbsp of red pepper flakes but I don't like as much as the pickled peppers.

I throw everything in the blender & blend until smooth, however, you can finely chop everything to make it a little chunky. (I like it either way) Serve at room temperature.

A Big Shout Out goes to EllieLee , YouBadGirl, NimiJewelry & ZiBagz for featuring my art in their fabulous Etsy Treasuries! Check out their beautiful work & shops by clicking on their names.

Another Big Shout Out, more of a holler really, goes to Sandra Hemsworth, the Curator at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery in Fremont, CA for inviting me to exhibit my artwork in their California Etsy Artist show in October! It's truly an honor!

Snapped !

Today I snapped lots of pictures with the macro setting on my digital camera & small paper light box while babysitting. I have a 12 yr old girl "Mo" staying with us until Sunday or Monday morning and I had my little Doodle bug. He is smitten with her. It's so cute. Not even 2 and trying to impress the ladies! I have to say it's nice not being the only girl in the house! So fun! She is an amazing little artist and likes to draw Anime. Here's the mermaid she drew & painted today! Pretty awesome for 12 ! Here's the paper light box I made, which works better than I thought such a simple thing would! 3 pieces of white card stock is what I used. The paper folded in the rear I used to close or open the back of the tent with, what a super simple way to adjust the light!

Happy Anniversary To Me and.........

Second Anniversary Drawing

I'd like to take this time to sincerely & gratefully thank all of my Followers, and those who stop by to visit. You all truly do make this my "Happy Place".

Ahhhhh my new Black & White blog. I hope you visit. I am having so much fun putting these collections together. I have already met some new super sweet people. Putting this blog together has been an eye opening experience. I will share the main thing I learned along the way while creating "Sometimes Things ARE Just Black & White" ...PICTURES PEOPLE PICTURES! Seriously. I have really been working on my picture taking skills, for posts on this blog, & have a lot to learn. I will admit that I have a log in my eye when I say this, however, from this point forward I will thrive to make my pictures as creative & beautiful as possible. Like Ophra's "No texting while driving campaign, I should start my own campaign, "No bad photos while selling". A FAB FOTO Zone! haha (The video up top doesn't count! I am not selling anything on that.) Reality hit me in the face, online selling requires a great photo. People deserve a great picture. They are buying something that they can't get up close to, touch, feel, see it with their own eyes, so excellent photos are so important. While searching items from fellow artisans I have come across things that I would love to post on the blog but can't/won't because the photo is so.. so.. so bad. I'm just keeping it real. For those of you that have purchased my smaller art pieces & prints you know that it comes packaged with a black & white polka dot bow. I had put a black & white polka dot background on this new blog. I chose it because of that, plus I happen to love polka dots (of any color). When I loaded it up it changed the mood of the blog, it took the serenity out of it, my first instinct was to remove it, but I didn't. The next day I had someone that had visited the blog send me an email saying they thought I should lose the polka dots! I did and it's back to the way I truly wanted it to be, serene and easy on the eyes showing off great items. I am grateful for her sharing her opinion and pushing me to do what I knew I should, it was as she said distracting. I wish I could be as bold. To email someone and tell them when their photos need fixing. Not to be critical but to help them out, possibly feature their item, but I just can't bring myself to do it. So if you are Seller of something that can't be scanned, like art, please heed my advise and take as much care with your photos/presentation as you do with creating your item. Here is a helpful photography video and there many more great photography videos on youtube. Cropping really does works wonders. There are lots of free online photo editing sites as well. I like to use this one at Photoshop. Click here.

Speaking of Etsy, I'd like to send a Big Shout Out to Rosa Mystica for featuring my art in her fabulous Etsy Treasury. Be sure to check out her shop full of wonderful medals!