peace

Above: For Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Peace." I'm still not comfortable with the oil brushes in Corel Painter, but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to experiment more with them; I tend to stick to pen and ink drawings, which are easier for me. Then again, I used to feel awkward using the pen and ink tools, so it proves that (hopefully) all I need is practice. My main challenge is patience, since I tend to prefer drawings that I can do at one sitting. With oils, it takes longer, and there's a lot of careful blending needed if you want to get anything semi-realistic. I'm not a great blender. :-)

But hey, maybe I can pretend that's my style! ("I'm striving for that organic, finger-painted look, you see...")



Above: our niece, Annie, designed and created the above creatures for Jeff and me as a Christmas gift.

Thanks for the good wishes for my Uncle John, everyone. My cousins told me he feels much better, and they had a good Christmas dinner. He is scheduled for a triple bypass operation early January.



Above: My new slow cooker (General Electric 3-1 Multi-Cooker - Model 169043, also is a steamer and deep fryer), a gift from my Dad and Mabuta. I've never had one before, and am excitedly combing through online resources for info on how to properly use one. I also bought two cookbooks with part of a gift certificate from my dad-in-law: Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann, and The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson.

I love the idea of just throwing things in a pot and forgetting about it until dinnertime. I tried my slow cooker for the first time last night when I made curry chicken for Jeff and his father, and it turned out pretty well.

If any of you have slow cooker tips for me, I welcome them!





Livejournal comments