Hijacked....

Yep, Paula and Debbie are off in Fresno, CA teaching this weekend so I thought I'd hijack the blog and do another post.  This is where I have to confess that I had an entire post written and just deleted it because it was nothing more than me on my soapbox ranting about BBQ.  So I decided to implement the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle, and write another post.  It's still about BBQ but with less ranting.

One of my very favorite styles of BBQ is Brazilian style.  In Brazil, and Portuguese for that matter, it's called churrasco [pronounced shoo-HA-scoe].  Without getting into a history lesson, let's suffice to say that the Brazilian cowboys (gauchos) started the tradition of putting big slabs of meat on, what amount to big skewers and roast them over an open fire. 
 

Brazilian BBQ restaurants, called Churrascarias, are sprouting up all over the USA and maybe many of you have been to one of them.  If you get a chance, go.  It is a carnivore's paradise, and there's plenty for those that don't eat meat as well.  If you're not familiar, you start by loading your plate up at a very well appointed salad bar/buffet type of self serve station.  It's not uncommon to have 20-30 dishes, hot and cold, to choose from.  Make sure you get the traditional rice and beans.  Most of the restaurants offer a price for the buffet bar only, which is plenty of food.  But that's not why I go to a churrascaria, it's all about the meat.

Personally, my trip to the buffet is to get rice and beans and then back to the table.  This is when the fun starts.  Servers, often dressed in traditional Gaucho costume, commence a parade of meat.  Each one with a giant skewer with one of the 10-15 types of meats you'll be offered.  If you would like some, they'll cut off as much as you want and move on.  CAUTION! Don't take too much of any one type to begin, you'll want to sample them all.  As you dive into the perfectly roasted and seasoned meats, the parade of meat continues.  Pace yourself.  CAUTION #2: Don't get more than 2 or 3 types of meat at any one time or they'll pile up and get cold before you get to them all.

I've been to Brazilian BBQ restaurants (churrascarias) all over the USA and throughout Brazil.  Most are very good, a few I'd never visit again, and a couple have been SPECTACULAR.  One, was in the Plaza Sao Rafael Hotel in Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.  This is in southern Brazil and is where this style of BBQ originated.  I ate there 26 years ago and I don't know if it even exists any more but the flavors are emblazoned in my brain.  The very best has locations in Brazil and the USA.  It is called Fogo de Chao (fire in the floor).  I ate at the Beverly Hills location but I'm sure their other locations are as fabulous. 

If you've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, search one out, most major cities in the USA have one.  Go with a group of friends and you'll enjoy the experience even more.

If you'd like to have a Brazilian BBQ in your own backyard, let me give you some tips.  It's pretty simple and the internet is full of recipes and suggestions. But, this what I do.
 
Here's what's different about basic Brazilian BBQ.


1) The traditional seasoning on beef is VERY simple...salt.  That's it.  In fact to be more specific ROCK SALT.  Yep, that same rock salt you use in your hand-crank, homemade ice cream maker.

2) I then cut the meat it to equal size and chunks (about the size of a softball) place them on big skewers, okay they look like swords, that I bought in Brazil. Roast them over hot coals, turning frequently.

 There you go, it's that simple.  You'll notice that I've added some linguiça and pineapple for this particular churrasco.  It's common to have skewers with chicken thighs, pork loin, all sorts of cuts of beef and even lamb.  There is a classic traditional Brazilian staple that I don't include, ever.  First, they are hard to find and second I don't like them, and that is chicken hearts.









ENJOY!  Let me know your favorite Brazilian steakhouse and if you want to try it at home, I'd be willing to give you some tips.

Thanks for letting me hijack the blog again.   Paula will be back with her promised post on Monday probably.

Red Lead inspiration

I actually visited Red Lead twice while I was in St Louis.  Once with my sister during the week and again on Sat to meet some of the ladies that were in the store for a make and take.  Chris and Sharon were welcoming and super enthusiastic about everything altered.  The store was just how I imagined it would be; full of charms and treasures, tons of alterable surfaces, custom rubber stamps (just what I was looking for), as well as a ton of inspiration for a girl like me.

see all the white bags hanging on the wall?  All custom rubber stamps made by Chris and Sharon.

Trinkets, trinkets...

and more trinkets, I love it!

lots of 7gypies bottles, labels, tags, paper packs and tissue.

do you not love this lamp shade made with old baby shoes?

As you walk to the back of Red Lead there is a stairway down to the classroom area.   Wish I had that room for my everyday creative space.  Flooded with light from the windows on the left, it is the perfect space to find your creative mojo...all I would need to add was some good music and I'd be set.

I brought a couple of my journals and the blog samples from the past few months to share.  We talked about what you do when your on a design team and the ladies asked some questions about 7gypies products.  At the end I asked if anyone had any questions and a very nice lady said, "Do you know Tim Holtz?"  I said I did and that he was a very nice man.  It is my one claim to fame...I know Tim Holtz! :)

I love all the boxes lined up on the back wall with old cameras, clocks, books and such. What a great way to fill up a big wall.  Makes me want to rethink a few walls in my house.

A surprise was waiting for me in the classroom.  It was my friend Lesley from California.  I first met Lesley at Gypsy Caravan a few years back and we continue to visit each year at the trade show.  When I saw her at CHA in January she told me she was moving to Missouri so I didn't know if we would meet up ever again.  Well, guess who stopped by to say "hi". 

thanks Sharon for the photo!

 Chris and Sharon gave me a fabulous gift for stopping by on Sat which was not necessary but very, very nice.  It was tied with beautiful hand dyed seam binding and inside was a couple more custom cling mount rubber stamps to add to the ones I purchased when I visited the store with my sister earlier in the week, as well as 4 tiny custom wood block stamps, trinkets and the fabulous patina metal swallows and disks that I totally missed on the first trip through.  I feel some creative time may be necessary in the near future!

As we were leaving we stopped to watch a local artist paint a street scene of the block that Red Lead sits on.  We chatted away for a few minutes and then found our way back to the car passing other artists along the way. 

 What a beautiful morning.

 Thanks again Chris and Sharon!

Lets Start at the End

Bet you thought we fell off the face of the earth...we didn't, but travel has cut into the blog schedule.  I thought about blogging from St Louis but then I decided the trip was about family time and that just didn't include blogging (it always takes longer than you ever expect when sitting down to write).    Anyway, the trip was great...I have lots to share, the visit to Red Lead (fabulous), historic St Charles, and some other fun shops.  

I have to start at the end of the trip and the visit to the St Louis Arch.  I have visited many monuments from Washington to Rio and the arch stands up to my personal litmus test.  Which is, "when you walk up to the monument does it take your breath away".  
It does.

A visit to the downtown waterfront park was on my short list of things to see in St Louis.  I wish I would have known to bring a blanket so my husband and I could lay on the grassy hill in the shadow of the arch and watch the clouds go by.  

The weather was warm, the clouds were moving fast, children were running and laughing, a bride was having her photo taken, a school group with bright yellow t-shirts crossed the lawn. 

All in the shadow of the arch.

We took the ride to the top in a pod of sorts (not too good for anyone who is claustrophobic) since there are no windows to see where your going. 
But the view when you get there...fabulous.

It was a great day at the park and the perfect end to a week in St Louis.

Watercolor- part 2

Before we get back to the water color pages I thought I would show you the cover of the little journal I decided to make.  I still haven't decided what to put on the tabs but that will come in time.  I stuck with a nature inspired theme for the cover and added about 12 cardstock pages in between the tabbed pages I made a couple days ago.

I cut 2 pieces of book board 4 3/4 x 6".  

Covered them with patterned paper - the ledger paper is from 7gypises.

I rounded the corners of the book board and punched the holes with the Binderie Punch.

I added a piece of vintage music paper across the front with Matte Medium.  Then waited a few minutes for it to dry, then covered the entire surface with the same medium.

Once dry, I took some Claudine Hellmuth Sky Blue paint and painted the outside edge (think quick and random here).  I know it looks garish but we will fix that in a minute.

Take a baby wipe and wipe away what you don't want (still very random).  Because I sealed the surface with the Matte Medium I can manipulate the paint until I like the way it looks.  It will only take a few minutes to dry so work quickly.

Once dry, add some Vintage Photo Distress Ink with a blending tool (that's more like it, right?)

To complete the cover turn the 7gypsies ledger paper over and cut out the bird, the red floral block and the text in the blue box from the back side of the paper.
The stick came from my neighbors tree and is wrapped with a little cheese cloth and held in place with Golden Gel Medium.
I cut "her tender heart" from an old book and stamped the number 26 with the new 7gypsies Numero stamp and black Archival ink.

Inside the book-
I used the same watercolor method shown in the last post.  This time using Weathered Wood and Wild Honey (loving these two colors together).

Here is the finished tabbed page.  All the stamps are from the new 7gypsies Conservatory stamp.  If I would have had a plan to start with, I would have positioned the butterfly over a bit so that when I punched the page it would not have gone into the sewed circle.  But I didn't, so it does and I'm okay with that.  This in fact turned out to be my favorite one.

The third tabbed page was done with Spun Sugar and Peeled Paint.

Once dry I added the 3 butterflies from this paper, some Tissue Tape-Sketchbook and some stitching.

As I mentioned before in between the tabbed pages I cut about 12 sheets of paper and rounded the corners.  I stamped each page with the Numero stamp to finish it out.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little watercolor adventure.  I love the way you can mix two or even three colors and get such a cool effect with very little effort.  I think this one will be appearing in a class project sometime soon.
cheers!
paula

Watercoloring

Well, we are officially back in the rat race after a relaxing week of vacation.  Everyone is back at school today, the suitcases unpacked and the laundry complete.  Sooooo much to get ready before I leave again on Wed morning for Phoenix, Tucson and St Louis.  My friend suggested packing a bicycle helmet for St Louis since it's tornado season and us Californians don't really have any tornado training.  I assured her I was going to be with my sister that has lived in Texas for 25+ years and she has plenty of tornado training so I should be fine as long as the airport stays open this next week.

I thought I could get in one more project before I go so that is what we are starting today.  First of all I found some great flower pictures on Deviant Art.  You can download them for free (which is great). You will need a least a few flower pictures for this project or some of your own ephemera.

1.  Download the file from Mellowmint.
2.  Open the file and choose the pictures you want to print.
3.  Open Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to size...if you don't have either of these programs, just open a Word Document.  Drag photos into the Word doc.  You can size it and even add text using a text box if you like (see below).
4.  Now print...it's that easy.

 

Super easy to do... for those of you that might be shy about trying to print your own ephemera, try a few of these.  

Okay, so back to the project at hand.

                       

To be quite honest I am still not really sure what I am making yet, but this is how I started...For the foundation I am using the 7gypsies Naked Tabs (6 x 4"), much bigger than the little tabs I used in the last project.  These large tabs are made for the 7gypsies Library Drawer but of course I am going to use them for something else.  I guess I should say that the Library Drawer comes with some index tabs but they are printed with lines and the months.  These naked tabs are sold separately ($5.95 for 24), are not printed and heavier weight (which is why I like them).

You will need the tabs, a mini mister and some distress stain.

 Cover the entire surface with Spun Sugar.  You can lightly blot to give it a mottled effect.  Dry with a heat gun.

 Working quickly add some streaks of Broken China then spritz with the mini mister.  Don't worry when the paper starts to curl.  Just let the stain bleed, creating a watercolor effect. NOTE:  You can spray the water before you add the stain...I just like the effect of spraying after for this project.

 You can stand the card on end to let the stain run.  If you get to much at the bottom just blot with a paper towel.  Once you like what you see, dry the card with heat gun to stop the bleeding (and the card will go back to being flat again).

 Now add a bit of Antique Linen Stain.  

Again, spray with Mini mister, let bleed then dry with heat gun.

 Here is the finished watercolored card.  I love the fact that every time you do this it will be totally different and unique depending on the colors used, the amount of water, and honestly how fast you are.  The tabbed cards hold up well to repeated spraying and drying and still retain a great work surface for stamping.  I did a have one card I got overzealous with and the pulp started balling up, but I just dried the card and then flicked away the pieces with my fingernail. 

I grabbed a script stamp and inked it with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink, but before I stamped the card I used a baby wipe to wipe away a few of the edges and a bit of the center so there would be no straight edge to the image. Gosh, that sounds much more confusing that it really is.

 You might be able to see it here better than I can explain it.  You can see there are portions of the image missing where I wiped away the ink.  Super simple technique.

 Cut out the printed flower.

  I added a stamped image from the new 7gypsies Conservatory stamp (sorry I don't have a better picture of it) that just came in last week, a bit of dyed cheesecloth and Lille paper tape (stamps).

Well, I feel like it's 90 percent complete...I ended up spraying it with a bit of Perfect Pearls Mists - Heirloom Gold that you might be able to see in the finished card.  I may add some stitching and I still need to add a word to the tab but that will come when I finish the rest and have an idea of what I want to do with the cards. I guess you will have to stick with me while I go on this little watercolor journey.

because there are more to come...

So back to the table for more fun using the Distress Stains as watercolors...on second thought, maybe I should pack first.

cheers,

paula