Left Over Paint on my Palette

On my last blog post, March 14, 2018, I showed you three designs Tom printed as 5 x 7 cards and I wanted to tell you why I made those. “Poppy”, “Pretty Tulips”, and “Pretty Rose” were made because I wanted to practice painting these three flowers and also use up the paint from my palette. We also printed them as our NEW THANK-YOU CARDS. Yeah, so exciting, I’ve been wanting to offer thank-you cards for a long time. Those of you who are developing product, hang in there!

Tom is putting the original,  “Pretty Tulips” in a 10 x 10 purple metal frame, with a white mat and bevel cut. It will look awesome, just right for someone’s bathroom above the towel rack, above a small shelf, foyer, or anywhere for your decor needs.

The following designs were done wanting to use up the paint in my palette, and to also practice painting mountains, sunsets, roses, pansies, and cosmos. For “Late Fall Snow”, I watched a video on how Bob Ross painted mountains. “Cosmos”, “Lovely Rose”, “Purple Pansies in my Garden”, and “Sunset Over the Horizon” were also turned into our NEW THANK-YOU CARDS.  See Artistic Accessories for card prices.

The other two designs I want to show you were also practice paintings that we turned into fun Birthday cards: “Strawberry Frosted Cupcakes with a Cherry on Top”, and “Chocolate Cherried Cupcakes”. Any of our Watercolor cards can be sent as birthday cards, but I thought these two cupcake designs would also make nice Birthday cards.

Last, the painting, “Winter’s Beauty” that hangs in my Living Room, new this past year was a practice painting and one I wanted to use up paint on my palette. I love it and think it looks so nice in a white mat with the gold frame. It is available as a 5 x 7 Greeting card.

205 “Winter’s Beauty”

I can’t seem to just wipe the excess paint away when I have finished a painting. It seems like such a waste.  I know Lindsay, the Art teacher I follow on YouTube, is very opposed to saving any paint after painting a design.  I can see why; some paints become mixed by picking up two colors  on one brush. I haven’t done that too much. Her reasoning is that when you paint a picture you should only use a max of six colors; that way your painting will look harmonious. I do agree with that. As she teaches you can mix and blend colors from just six colors. She also said, don’t worry about saving paint, you are only saving pennies. Well, knowing that I am careful to use paints that match, once in awhile it is necessary to add a matching color to the paint already on my palette to complete the practice painting.

I found that all but two of my practice attempts looked nice so I wanted to turn them into Art or cards. I wouldn’t have wanted to just stick these practice paintings in a drawer; that seemed like such a waste. I want to turn my practice paintings and the designs I make using leftover paint from my palette into Thank-you cards or perhaps other 5 x 7 cards. One day, in a future blog, I will show you something else I do when I save the left over paint from a painting.

Do you like our new Thank-you cards? I want Tom to continue to  print some of my practice paintings I think would look nice as Thank-you cards, I think they are so pretty. I have wanted to offer thank-you note cards for a long time and I am VERY EXCITED we are now offering them to you. See Artistic Accessories for pricing.

Christmas Cactus in Spring!

A few weeks ago the Christmas Cactus I received from my cousins, Judy and Bert last Thanksgiving, bloomed beautifully! All I did was water it once a week and it got direct sunlight in the afternoon. I love it! How surprised and happy I was to see it in bloom!

Centerpiece for Easter dinner

I’ve had fun making this blog, I hope you’ve had fun reading it and getting the inside story of how I created these Thank-you cards and Birthday cards.

Have a blessed Easter. May you find comfort knowing God cares for you.

Happy Creating,

Vicki

As you know I love pressing flowers from my garden and making designs since Aug of 1995, and have also loved learning how to Watercolor since Oct 2015. I also want to share my love of paper crafting. I have made cards, all different kinds of cards, for a little over twenty years. From time to time I will share what kind of cards I am making. It’s something I do when my stash of cards that I send to people runs low or when I want to make cards for someone as a gift, or when I want to develop my cards for sale in my business, Nature’s Best.

I am a serious card sender and love uplifting someone. I send Birthday Wishes, Get Well Wishes, Thinking of You cards, Baby Wishes, Holiday cards and many more throughout the year. I think it’s one of the best ways to let others know I am thinking of them, to let them know I care, and to cheer them on.

These are a few of the cards I recently made and gave to someone that also enjoys enlightening someone’s day with cards. They developed because I made 50 small 3 x 5 (or around that size) cards for a couple in our church. We asked everyone who wanted to write a note to them to please do so.  They were moving away from the area for awhile. Some were made from my stamps and stamp pads.  Tom helped make the cover for a binder, it had the Michigan map on it and our church name.  He also helped me gather the small cards after worship & use our ATG Gun to tape the cards to colored paper which we inserted in the binder. It was one of their gifts from the church. They really appreciated it and enjoyed everyone’s well wishes.  Our minister, who is also a photographer made up an awesome picture which was also very meaningful for them.   Everyone had fun that Sunday signing all the cards. A couple of the ladies really loved the 3 x 5 cards, so I thought I would make the left over cards into 4 x 5¼” small greeting cards to give them a gift of cards. Here are a few of the cards I gave to one of the ladies:

All these cards were made from my collection of stamps, stamp pads, one of my Nature’s Best designs and a few embellishments.

For these cards I used Recollections 65 lb. black and brown card stock from Michael’s. I cut the paper to 5½ x 8½” and scored the long edge at 4¼” to make a 4¼ x 5½” card. I used my Boston 2612 paper cutter to cut the paper. I also sometimes use a Fiskars paper cutter.

White paper was cut to place in the inside of the cards

I signed the back of the cards with a gel pen & let them dry overnight. Gel pens are nice, but the ink takes awhile to dry

Tools I used to make these cards:

ATG Gun to tape the pieces of the card together. I love this tool

Tim Holtz scissors to cut ends of paper to line up with card and also my ribbon. These are awesome scissors. I bought them from Michaels. They are sharp, precise, and cut ribbon well

Other stuff I used to embellish cards

When I use ribbon for card making or other craft projects, I usually have small left over ribbon. I save and make small bows to adhere to my cards as embellishments. I use small permanent zots to adhere them to the paper. I just put one zot in the middle of the ribbon.

My “go to” drawers when I am making cards

These are what I call my recycled stash. I sometimes use them for my handmade cards. For example the card made with the small heart design was  in the drawer labeled “Nature’s Best”. Most of the papers I have in this drawer are small designs that were printed but, for some reason or other, were not used to sell. I labeled the drawers so I have everything separated and can easily pull from. For example, other drawers that are full of stuff are; Baby Stuff, Get Well Wishes, Birthday Wishes, Anniversary Wishes, Wedding Wishes, and more. I bought these drawers at a garage sale about eight years ago and love them.

Some day, I will show you more papers in my craft room saved to make cards. I will also show you the card ribbon boards made by my daughter as a gift for me.  These boards are in my craft room so that I can look at them daily and enjoy the cards that I have kept – mostly from my children. I love the ribbon boards, and I love the cards; they make me so happy when I look at them.

My basket of papers I cut and made messages for cards, papers cut from paper punches, or papers I stamped messages on.

I still have a few papers ready to use that I bought – probably on sale. I basically stopped buying pre-made papers to use on cards since I have accumulated so many papers, stamps, etc. to make my own. It’s less costly that way.

Some of my stamps

I love these drawers for my stamps.  I have another photo box filled with rubber stamps not mounted on wood.

My drawer papers filed by color

I keep left over pieces of paper for stamping or putting on my cards. I love the way I arranged them by color – they are easily accessible. I can easily spot what papers I want to use on cards; for decorating the card, for stamping on, or for other craft projects.

Hope this has helped anyone who is thinking of making cards. I have found that having the right tools makes it more pleasant to create. I also like my tools and papers to be organized and easily accessible. Our Art Studio is so organized, but my craft room/gift room needs to be, shall we say, “thinned out” – or shall I say, I need to do some purging. Maybe I will get to that by summer’s end. The room really needs to be painted too. Doesn’t all that sound exciting? We are talking about redoing our kitchen so maybe my craft room has to wait until next year. We will see.

These are some of my newest 5 x 7 cards made from my original watercolors.  In a near future blog I will tell you why I painted these.

Cards can be sold individually, in 3’s, or boxes of 10 cards – see our Artistic Accessories page. I absolutely love sending our Watercolor cards, they are among my favorite cards that Tom and I have made in the last 23 years. All my designs are printed “in house.” Tom does an awesome job and I am so grateful for all his work.

Happy Creating!

Vicki

Award Winning Pot Roast – Spices were added after picture was taken.

This pot roast recipe is an AWARD WINNING pot roast – award winning because it’s delicious and because I said yes to a marriage proposal. Tom didn’t ask me to marry him on that date that we shared this pot roast he made,  but the way I think about it, it’s award winning because he had won my heart with all that wonderful cooking he did at times and if I may say so, he had won such an awesome wife (well, it’s good to boost ourselves with words & thoughts sometimes, right?!)

I make my beef roast in a crock pot, but you can use a roaster if you don’t have a crock pot. I have cooked it in the oven in my roaster, and it works very well. You would have to add more water around the meat in the roaster to cover the vegetables around the beef. Put the cream of mushroom soup on top of the beef with no water on top. I  cook it at 350°F, the size of your chuck roast will determine the time, I cook mine for 2½ hours or less.

When using a crock pot, I fill my crock pot up with: (It’s important to follow this recipe & layer the vegetables like this starting with the carrots on the bottom of the crock pot)

• 4 – 5 carrots – cut into about 1″ pieces, enough to fill the bottom of the crock pot
• 4 big or 5 small / medium potatoes – cut in 1″ pieces
• ¼ of a cabbage head – chopped (can’t taste the cabbage primarily, it will just add to the combination of flavors)
• 1 onion – cut in eights
• put rinsed chuck roast on top of all the vegetables
• sprinkle a good amount of basil and marjoram on top of all that ( I just sprinkle it so that it covers entire top, put more basil then marjoram) & add 2 bay leaves around the sides of the roast, slide them down a little
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup on top of roast (no added water on top of that)
• fill 1/2 of the emptied cream of mushroom soup can with water & pour around the sides of the roast (not on top of the roast)
• I cook mine in the crock pot for 5 hours on high.

Enjoy the wonderful aroma as it is cooking!! I think you will really like this hearty dish!

My Vegetarian Stew that I love

I am also going to share my vegetarian “stew,” as I call it.  I’ve been a vegetarian for a little over ten years now, and yes I do make the two now, one pot roast for Tom (which usually is shared with the kids when they stop over)  and my vegetarian stew for me. Many years ago when I first saw tofu in the stores I thought, I will never eat that. Well, now I do, and it really has no taste, it just soaks up the other flavors in the recipe. One day I want to try a recipe with it that would taste like the tofu I get at the restaurant, Noodles. It’s so yummy.

I cook mine in a wok: (If you don’t have a wok, you can use any skillet and cook it on top of the stove).

• I put about 3 Tbsp oil in the pan, usually canola because of the high heat & add:
• 1 chopped onion and 2 stalks diced celery. Sometimes I add ½ a Hungarian pepper chopped. This pepper is a little on the hot side if you like that. Cook until tender then add,
• 1 bag of any frozen vegetables or fresh vegetables you like. I like Steamfresh Bird’s eye; broccoli, carrots, sugar snap Peas & Water Chestnuts or I put in fresh sometimes, you can cook the vegetables for about 5 – 7 minutes, then add,
• 2 cans of stewed tomatoes (not Italian stewed tomatoes, just regular cans of stewed tomatoes, the can I buy has a little pepper and onion added to it, I buy the Kroger brand)
• Tofu – I buy one container of it, drain the liquid, and cut it in cubes. I get the firm kind, in the refrigerated health food department at Kroger or Whole Foods.
• I sprinkle a good amount of basil and some parsley
• Cook & mix occasionally until done, 15 – 20  minutes.

This lasts me for half the week, love this combination of food, it’s good!

Swedish Pancake Recipe

I’ve been making these pancakes for forty-seven years, they are the most delicious pancakes I have ever tasted. I made them every Saturday when our kids were little. For awhile we tapped our maple tree to get syrup. (Doesn’t hurt the tree, it’s like if someone needs a band-aid for a very small cut).  I now make them just once in a great while for Tom or anyone who is around to eat them. I now eat oatmeal every morning and really love it as I mix my Light Soy Milk that has vanilla in it and don’t eat the pancakes.

• 1¾ c white all purpose flour if you want it like a crepe (they will be thin), 2 c all purpose flour if you want to make heart shaped pancakes or want to make them round and fluffier
• sprinkle sugar (to your taste), mix, then add,
• 3 c milk
• 3 eggs
• ½ stick (4 tablespoons melted butter)
• mix well with mix master
• make in iron skillet. I keep adding butter in the pan as I cook them.  Get your skillet hot enough so you only flip the pancakes once. I stack them on a small plate as I am making them.
• Serve with your favorite syrup or sprinkle powdered sugar.

If you’d like to top it with a blueberry sauce, here is my recipe for that:

• 1 c blueberries
• 1 TB cornstarch, mix with ½ c water
• add sugar to your taste, mix all together in a sauce pan
• cook over stove, stirring & watching till it thickens (serve warm)

Oh, my, I just remembered I made 88 of these pancakes when my oldest daughter volunteered for an animal shelter when she was about nine or ten. I made them for their fund raiser. So many happy memories!

Enjoy these wonderful pancakes!!

I wanted to just share the rest of  heartfelt goodness we had on Valentine’s day and the week before:

What a wonderful Valentine’s day I had. I came downstairs to get things ready to take care of my 4½ month old twin grandchildren and Tom had surprised  me with these flowers on the table and the laundry was all folded.

Pancakes made on Valentine’s Day (sorry about the cloudy picture – I didn’t realize my lens was blurred, but wanted to give you some idea of how the heart pancakes turned out)

I made the heart pancakes for Tom and my two year old granddaughter who came over. My oldest daughter brought her over then went to her son’s Valentine party at his school. Our granddaughter really enjoyed the pancakes and her baby cousins. Did you notice in the background the two car seats for the twins? Every morning my daughter carries in those two car seats plus the diaper bag. I can’t even lift one!

I love using this heart made out of clay. My oldest son made it in Scouts when he was younger and I love it so much.  I used it the day I had the Valentine Get – Together to hold tea bags

Here is a story board with Valerie the Valentine that I made for the story for the children

I had so much fun putting these snacks together. Tom helped me prepare them in the morning for everyone to enjoy.

I had a wonderful time seeing friends I hadn’t seen for awhile and the children all loved playing together. The children enjoyed the story and craft.  A friend of my daughter’s had made the story board and gave one to my daughter,  that really worked out well to use for the story. Then, with help, the children put heart hands, eyes, and a smiley face on their Valerie the Valentine and took them home. We all enjoyed the tasty snacks.

The next day we got about nine inches of snow here in Michigan, so I’m really glad it was an o.k. weather day.

Remember to check out new pictures on our slide show & below the slide show by my picture on the Home page of our website each month. Tom posts new pictures I have done or the ones I talk about on the blog post.

Also don’t forget about our sale – everything is 10 % off until the end of winter, March 19, 2018 except custom orders, which are Personal Touches, Newborn Portraits, framed Wedding Invitations, and  A Life Remembered Series.

I also want to let you know about our discount card for Custom orders – every 6th one you order, you will receive $25.00 off your order.  Just to list what custom orders are again, they are:

• Personal Touches – Choose from a selection of printed Pressed Floral designs which can surround your poem, saying, or favorite scripture within the design. Price is dependent on frame & size – typically $85 for an 11×14 with standard frame.
• Newborn Portraits – Custom Watercolor painting by Vicki from a photo of your newborn – Generally it will cost $120 in an 11×14 frame. To me this is so special. I remember how important it was for me as a new mom to remember what each child looked like when they were first brought home and what they were wearing and to capture that in a portrait – oh my, how awesome is that for you and for the child in later years – a very special memory. see my Dec 16, 2017 blog post
• Wedding Invitations – framed with one of my pressed floral print designs printed on the mat, tell us your wedding colors and send us a wedding invitation to be mounted and matted. Cost starts at $85.00 & up, depends on the complexity of the design you choose & the size of your frame & mat. This makes such a special gift and a wonderful memory for the Bride & Groom. We also mat and frame them without flowers printed on the mat.
• A Life Remembered Series – for someone who has lost someone – one of my Pressed Floral Art prints will surround your words of encouragement or scripture. We can help you with suggestions for sayings or poems to use – I have written some that are uplifting – or scripture. Price is dependent on frame & size – typically $85 for an 11×14 with standard frame

I can’t even begin to tell you in words what a blessing doing these custom orders has been for us and for those that have received them. When I think of all we have done, it has been an incredible journey. My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have crossed our paths and have ordered these incredible custom orders and have blessed others in this way.

I was incorrect in saying on the Feb 5, 2018 blog that when Tom does a cut out below the picture on the mat to insert a scripture or someone’s name and anniversary wishes or In Loving Memory of… for example,  it is considered a custom order, it is not considered a custom order. The cost for cutting and printing a cut out is $15.00 – you would still get our winter sale of 10% off.

Spring is just around the corner!

Much happiness to all of you… from my heart to yours,

Vicki

Valentine’s day is fast approaching —

I love to share the love all year, especially on Valentine’s day.

These are some of my favorite things I do for my family on Valentines day:

I make special foods and serve them throughout the day for my family, I use a heart jello mold for raspberry or strawberry jello with cool whip on top of it and make heart shaped pancakes with an iron type heart I place in my iron skillet – works really well.  I especially did this a lot when my kids were little.

Molds for Making Jello & Pancakes

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design #186 “Romantic Walk on a Snowy Night”

design #188 “New House at Christmas”

I love making designs with a purpose. These two were just that. I actually painted “Romantic Walk on a Snowy Night”and that was going to be it,  but then decided making a second one was absolutely necessary to continue the story, thus I painted “New House at Christmas”. Let me explain —

Did you ever name your pet after a boy or girl’s name because you could never use those names you still had in your mind after having all your children and knowing you wouldn’t have anymore children because, well, that’s just the way it is when you get past those child bearing years. I still have names I would have loved to name my children, so I thought it would be fun to use those names for the characters and animals in my paintings, thus, Steve and Charlotte, and Rachel the dog now exist.

After Steve and Charlotte lived in an apartment, in the painting “Romantic Walk on a Snowy Night”, oh let’s say in the city of Chicago, they moved to a house in the suburbs. The house was painted after I woke up at five in the morning one day and saw the beautiful fallen snow and was looking at my neighbor’s house across the way. The lights were on and I thought,  wow, I have to paint that, but perhaps make the setting during the day,  so I sketched it and painted the scene.  I thought this would be the perfect first house for Steve and Charlotte.

When you looked at the park bench did you notice Charlotte forgot her scarf on the bench? I had to think of a way she would get that back. There had to be a way, and I thought when I painted the house, “New House at Christmas” I will paint a snowman wearing the scarf. Yes, she went back to get it on the bench as the story goes, and they used it when they made the snowman as you can see!

So, I’m having lots of fun painting, creating, thinking of a purpose for my paintings, it’s so much fun. And I still have names of children in my mind I would have named if I had more children, hmmm, this story and these paintings are not over yet, what will be next?!

I also have to say I love paintings that I paint just for fun, or a landscape that is beautiful, or  I want to challenge myself and paint glass, so far I have enjoyed painting everything.  Hope you too have fun exploring the art of watercolor or whatever medium you enjoy. I love the way Bob Ross explained mistakes when painting, “happy accidents”, also, I love the way my favorite YouTube Art Teacher, Lindsay Weirich, explains painting,  “you either succeed or learn.”

Happy painting,

Vicki

The Christmas tree and the decorations are down. I usually put things away a week after New Year’s, but I’m going to start taking care of my two grandchildren for three months starting tomorrow. My daughter returns back to work tomorrow after having the twins.

I look forward to taking care of my two grandchildren these next three months. I also look forward to posting, watercolor painting, working on my pressed floral art, paper crafting, and working on other wonderful adventures in my art studio and craft room when I can.

I ran across the following while thinking of all I wanted to create this morning and want to share this with you:

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out to another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self

To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure

But risk must be taken because the greatest
hazard in life is to risk nothing
If I risk nothing, I do nothing, have nothing
and am nothing
I may avoid suffering and sorrow, but I simply
cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love,
or live
Chained by my certitudes, I am a slave
I have forfeited freedom
Only a person who risks is really free
Author Unknown

I wish you all the best in 2018. May you have many peaceful moments and many exciting moments. May your days be happy and troubles few.

Happy Creating and hope you have time to enjoy a little bit of nature,

Vicki

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this wonderful holiday!

We’ve had lots of snow this past week in Michigan. It’s beautiful but very cold here!

I’ve had so many blessings this year. I could have named my twin grandchildren and so many other wonderful things that made me happy, but looking back at what I have shared with you, I already mentioned many things. The following are some things I haven’t mentioned:

1500 Color Mixing Recipes by Walter Foster, a book I purchased at Michael’s. I think this will help me with skin tones when I paint newborn portraits. It also has info on painting lips, hair, also landscapes, etc.  I look forward to learning from this book this next year.

Christmas dresses I purchased for my granddaughters at Once Upon A Child, a shop that offers slightly used clothing. These dresses cost $6.50 – $8.50!

Bagels from Elaine’s Bagels, a shop nearby. Tom & I bring bagels & cream cheese every month from September to May at church.  Another couple brings fruit. For the month of December three other women bring special bread and cookies. With coffee, it makes a nice breakfast for everyone.

Muffins from Ridley’s Bakery. Oh how I love Ridley’s. They not only have wonderful muffins, they have wonderful sandwiches, soups, and salads.  I bought these for our out of town company we had this Fall.

Wrapping paper as gifts to my children purchased at The Christmas Store. “Kids, if you are on my blog, don’t look at the wrapping paper, it’s a surprise for you all.”

Pictures of my animal pictures I painted that I never knew I was able to paint. One day I can tell you why I’m painting all these animal pictures! That will be an exciting day.

The Rainbow Pants book, written by Kelly Brooks-Bay and illustrated by Lindsay Weirich, my favorite YouTube Art Teacher. I purchased this on Amazon. It’s a wonderful story of a boy who has different moods, so he chooses different pants to wear to fit his mood, Lindsay has illustrated it so well. I love children’s books.

My Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda Jeans I purchased at Kohl’s. I was in need of a new pair of black jeans, I had worn my other Vanderbilt jeans for years. I generally wear my “work out” clothes daily so my other clothes really don’t wear out quickly. I am happy to say I went down a size!! I have lost 40 lbs, so that means I have gone down now 3 sizes, but I do have 15 more pounds to loose. One day I will share my fitness journey with you.

Hope you too can think of many blessings you’ve had this year.  Many happy wishes to you this Holiday! To all those who are traveling this Holiday I wish you safe travels.

Enjoy family & friends, and as always…

Happy Creating!

Vicki

design #205 “Winter’s Beauty” – available as 5×7 cards

I’m so excited to show you my Watercolor painting I have on our wall next to our Christmas tree. For Christmas it just makes it more special. It glistens as the Christmas tree lights shine on the glass. Tom framed it for me, and I’m so happy I picked a gold frame for it as our colors are golden yellow and neutrals in our living room. We like white mats for our watercolor pictures and I was so happy to see that it looked really nice in that room.

Hope you are having fun preparing for this holiday season.

If you’d like to leave a comment on any of my blog posts you can now do so! If you don’t see the comment box at the bottom of the post, click on the title of the post, and then you should see it. I would love to hear from you.

Also if you have any friends or family that want to be notified of my posts, please ask them to send their email address to me.

Happy preparing for a joyous holiday,

Vicki

220 “Beach House” – Frankfort, MI

I loved painting our beach house we stayed in at Frankfort, Michigan.  I loved thinking about how much fun we had Up North as I painted it.  It was also wonderful being so close to Lake Michigan and seeing the beautiful sunsets every night, although we had rain many times throughout that week. Hope you too have many happy memories of great vacations.

221 “Point Betsie Lighthouse” – Frankfort, MI

This is Point Betsie Lighthouse in Frankfort, Michigan. What a beautiful lighthouse inside and out. I was taken aback by the beautiful setting and the most interesting stories about the rescue missions that took place long ago, it was fascinating. I love, love, love this lighthouse – I hope you get to see it someday.

View our watercolor gallery for information on the above paintings.

“Happy Memories Everyone”

Vicki

design #78 “Golden Rose”

Pressed Floral design, “Golden Rose,” was created Dec. 2005 for my oldest daughter’s wedding. A splash of an elegant floral rose – a special flower on a special day – simply beautiful. Enjoy the beauty of God’s gifts. Enjoy each other.

This design is a limited edition print framed in a beautiful 18 x 24″ gold frame.  The larger image is a 12 x 12″ closeup of the rose and the smaller image below it is a 3 x 4″ image of the same rose. This image is triple matted with conservation mats – the inner & outer mats are an off white (called “Half & Half”) and the middle yellow mat is called “Curry.” Overall frame size 22 x 28″.  This framed art sells for $190 plus tax & shipping.  As a special, thru December 31st, we are offering this framed art at $180 including tax & shipping (to continental U.S.)  to any of our web site visitors who mention this special (if you are in the area and would like to pick up your picture, we will discount the price an additional $20 in lieu of shipping fee). Please contact us if you would like to purchase this artwork.

Baked Stuffed Pasta Shells

Stuffed Shells, with my special sauce, served with pizza bread

I’ve been cooking my special sauce for 30 years. I also use this for my spaghetti. It’s delicious. So happy to share something with you that’s so good!

In blender:

• 1 can (14.5 oz.) stewed tomatoes
• 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
• 1 can (emptied tomato paste can) of water
• 1 Tbsp. each of oregano, brown sugar, and olive oil
• 1 teasp. of basil
• 1 clove garlic

Ingredients for Sauce

Sauce simmering in iron skillet

Blended sauce

After blending, heat in iron skillet (or any skillet you have) for 20 minutes. When I’m making spaghetti, I let the sauce simmer in the skillet for 30 – 40  minutes. You’ll want to use a splash guard on top of your skillet and stir occasionally.

Mix together in bowl:

• 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese (optional – 16 oz. small curd cottage cheese instead)
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup mozzarella, grated, (need additional mozzarella for top of stuffed shells)
• 1/2 Tbsp. parsley
• 1/2 teasp. salt
• 1 teasp. oregano

Ingredients for mixture

Stirring mixture in bowl

Cook & rinse one-half of a 12 oz. box of jumbo shells (noodles)

Jumbo Shells

Spread 1/2 of the sauce in baking dish.

Sauce in baking dish

Stuff precooked shells with mixture. Put a layer of stuffed shells in the pan and spread the remaining sauce on top of stuffed shells. Add mozzarella cheese on top; then sprinkle Parmesan cheese; and then sprinkle parsley on top. Cover & bake at 350° F  for 30 minutes.

I usually double this recipe so I can use all the noodles in the box.

Ooo, la, la – pizza bread is also fabulous with stuffed shells

• French bread. I buy this at Kroger, already baked
• slice lengthwise and place on cookie pan – cut side up
• brush olive oil on entire both slices
• sprinkle garlic powder on entire bread
• put one-half of a 6 oz. can tomato paste in a cup, add some water & stir, spread on bread – I use the back of a spoon to spread the tomato paste
• cut up some green pepper & red onion & add this to the bread
• sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top; then sprinkle Parmesan cheese; then sprinkle parsley on top

Bake for 10 min. on a cookie sheet at 350° F

Cut & serve with stuffed pasta shells

It’s also nice to serve a salad with stuffed shells.

I just had out-of-town company and served this. I will also be making this the day after Thanksgiving for our company and also be serving Turkey Curry. Can’t wait!!

“Happy Thanksgiving everyone!” I hope you have a wonderful holiday, many blessings to you all. I’m thankful for your support and encouraging words as we bring you Nature’s Best Pressed Floral Art & Watercolor designs, information, instruction, and other fun stuff.

Until next post – “Happy Creating and God Bless!”

Vicki Achard and Tom too