Weekly Adventures April 22nd - April 29th

What a crazy week! I feel like I have been just going non-stop for a couple of weeks now.

This past Thursday I was supposed to go get my hair colored, but my cousin was busy and couldn't fit me in, hopefully I will be able to get in this Thursday. Well it worked out in the long run because the boyfriend broke down on the motorcycle and I had to go save him. We tried everything from jumping it, to going and getting gas to top it off and it still wouldn't start. The nice guys at the little car dealership let us push it inside the garage, and come get it later.

The boyfriend's birthday was yesterday and I had a hard time deciding what to get him. I did end up ordering pizza from Gino's East in Chicago for his birthday. We had been talking about wanting to order these for awhile because there isn't a pizzeria down here that does Chicago style pizza.

Another thing we had talked about wanting to do is go to a wine tasting. I got online and searched for Winery's in Florida and found we have one in the next city over. We decided to go check it out on Sunday. All their wines are made from Florida Grapes and most of them are sweeter than wines I have tasted before. I actually liked most of them except for one, which was the dessert wine. After we did the wine tasting, they had an event going on at the Pavilion they have outside. They had music, food, and Wine Slushies. We did each try a Wine Slushy, and then tried a couple different glasses of wine. We did decide that it would have been cheaper if we just bought a bottle and drank that, but it was nice trying the different wines they had. It was a very beautiful place and we had a nice relaxing time.

Books: I am reading Beautiful Redemption and making better progress with this last book than the book before. The storyline is more interesting and seems like they are going to tidy things up.

Also I am on Goodreads if anybody wants to follow what I am reading. I would love to follow other people and see what you guys are reading also.

TV: We have been watching Chopped All Stars on Food Network the past couple of weeks. This season they have celebrities competing. It's neat to see what they come up with, with the crazy baskets of ingredients.

Movie: Gangster Squad came out on DVD this past week. I ended up buying it because I had seen it in the theaters already. We watched it Friday Night. It's a pretty gritty movie with a lot of shooting and killings. It's about a group of cops that go against the grain to take out a mob boss. There were quite a few well known actors in this movie, but one I wasn't expecting to be in it is Giovanni Ribisi. I just love him he is such a great actor.

Food: Friday night we made these Fish Tacos that are one of our favorite meals, that I don't make that often. Basically all it is, I either get Tilapia or Mahi Fish depending what is on sale and pan cook it with some blackening season on it. Then I make coleslaw, and we wrap them in either flour taco shells or burrito wraps. It a very yummy simple meal.

Music: With it being the boyfriends birthday I thought I would play a song that reminds me of our relationship. While we were separated for 6 months this song made me thing about him. I am glad we are back together and learning to be with each other again. Pink is also one of my favorite female singers.

Tinkerbell Sketch

So here is the sketch of Tinkerbell! I hope the painting comes out as good. I am a little nervous to try my hand at the acrylics again. Drawing this I used a couple different references and combined them. I didn't want to just copy a picture. For her pose I did use one reference and then changed up her dress and added the flowers from a different reference, but still changed them up a bit.

Weekly Adventures April 15th – April 21st

This past week was crazy, with all the news about the Boston Marathon Bombing. My heart goes out to all the people of Boston. I am so glad they were able to catch them.

During the week I was happy to have finished the Rooster painting for my sister. Now I need to get on the sketch for the Tinkerbell painting for my little sister.

This weekend I took a Weekend Watercolor Workshop. We met up both Saturday and Sunday for 5 hours both days. I didn't realize how tough watercolor is to work with. I do like it and I think I am going to try and get a small medium grade kit and play with it. I do have some Crayola watercolors but I don't think the colors are bright enough. I was thinking about Sakura Koi Watercolors. What brands would you recommend? Here are the couple of the paintings I came up with during my class.

TV: I didn't really watch to much TV this past week. I end up recording Bates Motel on Monday Night and watching it Tuesday Night. Still a very interesting show.

Movie: We rented Django Unchained Saturday night. This is a Quentin Tarantino movie and he is one of my favorite Writers/Directors/Producers. This one was about slavery in the 1800s. It really depicted the harshness of slavery and racism. Of course the blood and killing was exaggerated, definitely Tarantino style. My only complaint was it was super long at just about 3 hours. Sunday night we did end up watching the movie Avatar on TV, another great move.

Books: I finally finished Beautiful Chaos! I do like this series of books so far, I just still think that the story line is dragging on a bit. I have started the last book of the series Beautiful Redemption. I am hoping with this being the last book, that it clears a lot of things up and comes to a good closure.

Music: I was over my Aunts house sometime at the end of February and my cousin was watching one of the award shows. I don't really watch the award shows much anymore, but this band Fun. came on and I was instantly interested in them. I went and looked them up and relate to most of their songs. This one especially with all I have been going through the past couple of years. I have to just tried and remember to keep moving forward and Carry On!

Food: I actually made a couple recipes from Pinterest this week. I am horrible and forgot to take photos of both dishes. The first one I made Thursday night was Pierogi Casserole, I have made this before and it has become one of our favorite meals. Sunday morning before my class I started this Honey Garlic Chicken in the crockpot. When I got home the house smelled amazing. I made some rice to eat with it, and it was really good.

Well I hope everybody is enjoying my Weekly Adventures with some of my favorite things. 

I hope everybody has a great week!

Rooster Completed!!!

Crystal's Rooster Oil Painting 11"x14" (Present for Sister)

Finally finished with the Rooster. 

Now I need to start on the sketch for my next painting. My little sister wants me to paint her Tinkerbell. I am thinking because she is younger that I should do it in acrylic. This should be interesting considering I am enjoying the oil painting. I find acrylic a little more difficult to work with, wish me luck.

Weekly Adventures April 8th – April 14th

This week wasn't to adventurous! Been very busy at work, we are right in the middle of designing all our books for the coming year. I really need to share more of my designs from work on here.

I went and visited my Mom this Saturday and took a picture of the sun behind some clouds as I was heading home.

TV: Still watching Bates Motel and I really like how crazy the whole family is. I was over the boyfriends house the past couple of fridays and he has got me into watching Shark Tank. I kind of like seeing how people present their ideas and products to these moguls for money to back them. Sometimes people are so stupid and shoot themselves in the foot. The moguls are pretty tough on a lot of the people.

Books: I am still reading Beautiful Chaos, getting real close to being finished with it. Since I am not done with that one I thought I would review a book I previously read. Maybe I should just review an author who has steadily become one of my favorites, Melissa Marr. I have to admit I started reading the Wicked Lovely book, one because I loved the cover, and two because it was about fairies. These fairies are a different kind of fairy than your typical Tinkerbell. They are dark, beautiful, and conniving. There are 5 books in the series, a definite must read if you like fairies. She also has a book called Graveminder, this book was a bit creepy, but a great story. The last book I read by her is called The Carnival of Souls. This book is about daimons (demons) and witches and how they cannot seem to exist together. The daimons have a class system and they have this fight to the death type competition. They are fighting for respect and honor. There is a lot more to the story than that but it was a great story and I am looking forward to the next book to come out. Also because of this story is why I fell in love with Five Finger Death Punch. Here is a trailer for the book:

Music: My music choice of this week is Otep's Apex Predator. I love how she is such a strong woman and not afraid to speak her mind.

Food: I have been wanting to make these Donut Muffins I found on Pinterest. They tasted really good, I can't say they tasted that much like a donut but somewhat similar. The only thing is they were kind of thick and you needed something to drink with them. We think they were missing something, maybe blueberries? You can find the recipe here.

I also took this picture of these Ibis' on the wire in front of my house. Aren't they to big to be up there!

Well that was all the excitement for this past week. I am looking forward to this weekend. I signed up for a Watercolor Weekend Workshop so I am excited to see how I do in the class. I will be sharing photos. 

Until Next time!

CreativelyTara

WIP Rooster #4 - Almost Done

Made more progress on the Rooster! It's pretty much done, I just want to do some touch up next week and add a little more detail back into it.

Weekly Adventures March 31st–April 7th

I have decided that I am not active enough on my blog. I thought it would be a good idea to do a weekly update of what is going on in my life and list out some of my favorite things of the week. I am not a great writer so I am also hoping this will help improve my writing skills.

Easter Sunday: We did the traditional Easter Sunday Morning and went over my Aunt's house for brunch. She always gets us big kids a package of our favorite candies, mine are Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. Then we watch the kids find their eggs. My Aunt started getting the kids kites for years now, so that has became a tradition. Although us big kids are usually the ones out there trying to get the kites up. It wasn't to windy out so it was hard to get any of the kites going.

Ninja Turtle Kite!

Movie: We went and saw The Host on Easter Sunday. I read the book, which is written by the same author that wrote Twilight, I like this story more than Twilight. I think they did really well with the movie and followed the book pretty closely, from what I remembered because I read the book a couple of years ago. I loved the way they portrayed the aliens, they were very pretty!

T.V.: Now that The Walking Dead has come to a close for the season, I needed to find something else to watch. I really do not watch that much T.V. but I do like watching a few shows, and they are usually spread out throughout the year. I actually got into a new show on A&E called Bates Motel. It is based off the story from the movie Psycho, which unfortunately I have not seen. I know its sad right, especially from somebody that loves horror movies. Bates Motel is perfectly weird and creepy, and I just love Freddie Highmore.

Books: Right now I am reading Beautiful Chaos, which is the 3rd book to the Beautiful Creatures Series. These books are good. It is taking me forever to get through this 3rd book, one reason is March is usually a busy month for me, the second reason is because the story just seems to be dragging. The subject from Book 1 to Book 3 is the same. Also I saw the movie for Beautiful Creatures and it was horrible compared to the book. They changed and twisted so much that it was a totally different story. I usually go into a movie, that is made from a book, with the attitude that it is going to be different. I really try to look at it as a different entity, but this one was way off.

On Goodreads you can set a goal for how many books you would like to read by the end of the year. I set my goal at 30 books. I am doing really horrible keeping up with it. It says I am 3 books behind. I guess I have some catching up to do.

Music: Here I just thought I would share any new music to me. I feel like I am a little late to the party when it comes to this band, but I found a love for them and this song. It's Five Finger Death Punch - Far From Home.

Food: I have a bad habit of making a lot of the same food throughout the week. I have gone to Pinterest and have been trying to make something new at least once a week. This past Sunday I made a Pork Tenderloin Au Jus. It was amazing, I should have taken a picture of it. I will try and remember to do that next time. Take a look at the recipe here. After it was done cooking in the crockpot most of the day. I shredded the pork and put it on hoagie rolls with an Italian Cheese mix on top, and put it in the oven until the cheese melted. Then we dipped it in the Au Jus sauce that was left after the pork was done. So Yummy!

Well that was all the excitement of my past week. Over the weekend I also got a lot of spring cleaning and yard work done.

WIP Rooster #3

More Work In Progress on Rooster Painting! I really wish I had more time for painting so I could finish these a little quicker. It's hard with a full time job and taking care of a house, pets and everything else.