Art, Ipsy, and a Bowl Full of Cherries

I've been working on catalog covers this week and playing with the delicious Blick Studio Acrylics, they dry super fast but the colors are really vibrant. Couldn't you just eat them. But seriously don't. I will post some of the ombre art I've been finessing soon. 

 

This week has been busy as I've been preparing for a pilgrimage for the March for Life, but I was super excited to get my first Ipsy bag! Ipsy is a subscription service and I'm all about a bargain. For $10 a month you can't beat it. I got healthysexyhair leave in conditioner, an Elizabeth Mott eye shadow pencil, Mica Beauty lip tint, Apothederm skin serum, and pomegranate makeup removing cloths, + you get a cute little bag too. I'm definitely going to keep this one up as I like trying new things and I don't have time to get out and shop much. ( check it out! http://www.ipsy.com/r/3xts)

On a side note, some friends and family of mine have been going through some tough and trying times. Please keep your loved ones in your prayers because even though they wear a smile they may be hurting underneath. So life often isn't a bowl of cherries, but you can still buy them frozen at the supermarket throw some sugar on top and count the many blessings that you do have.

Hot Air Balloons and Dancing Sketches

My friend from grade school, yes I'm still friends with people from grade school, that's how we roll-- we form tight bonds in the Midwest, is having her first baby and is going with a hot air balloon theme for the nursery. They haven't announced the sex yet so I tried to keep the colors simply fun! I did this pair of acrylics yesterday, or technically this morning because I'm basically nocturnal on the weekends. 

Also on the weekends I'm lazy when it comes to cooking and I have a lot of projects going so I do things like dress up my Ramen, which is absolutely delicious by the way. After cooking the noodles and adding the seasoning packet, I add chopping cilantro, green onion, and shredded cooked chicken. Perfect on a cold but productive winter day!

 Some of my sketches were featured in a Strathmore ad in the Blick Catalog, it's one of the perks of my job! Thanks Mom and Dad! I'm using my degree!!

Happy Fish, First Fridays. and Ribbon Records!

 

Friday night my cousin and I partook of CIAO First Fridays in Peoria, but first I had to make it out of her home filled with swanky vintage treasures from her latest road trip to northern Illinois. Happy Fish Sushi was our dinner of choice, a cool little joint in Campustown with super fresh sushi, although the tables are a tad too close together and there is that awkward moment where you feel like you are dining with the strangers next to you and you almost reach for something on their plate :) Carrie and I highly recommend the Miami Roll and the White Dragon roll.

 

Our next trek was Ribbon Records, a new favorite of mine, you will have to excuse the impressionistic photo I took below, but it is jam packed with bins of used records and the coolest vintage clothing collection you will find outside of a big city. This is a must see hole in the wall in Peoria. You can listen to music at your leisure as well!

 

We then traversed the artist studios of the Murray Building on Walnut street (Ribbon Records is in the first floor, artists are on the next 3 floors). We met Ken Hoffman, Ken Tiessen, Tracy Frugoli, and a few more very talented folk. Our night ended under the stars eating ice cream and discussing our life's passions. It was a pretty stellar Friday.

 

Carrie wants this lamp.

Thrift Stores Are the Bacon of Shopping...

Sorry for my absence, my cousin Carrie and I went on a thrifting road trip and it did not disappoint. We laughed our way through Springfield, the Quad Cities, and Galesburg, IL. We were led on some wild goose chases and experienced lots of bargains, screaming babies, chatty hotel neighbors, one man motorcycle wheelie popping fist pumping shows, PMS ice cream outings, Gumbo Ya-Ya, would-be yogurt bandits, singing horrible 90s music, Bad Girl Video and Fat Cat's Tattoo lounge, a license plate that said WHO AM U, drive-in movies, paying in pennies, forgetting to eat lunch, and Willy Wonka saying "tell me how you're going to try and eat a salad." It was a magical journey.

  

The Sangamon Antique Mall in Springfield, lotsa junking fun.

The Route 66 Drive-In, I highly recommend this!! We saw Fast & Furious 6 (bleh) and Star Trek Into Darkness (woohoo!!!!)

 

Coasting through small towns scouting out garage sales, that is the best way to get deals.

 

Totally misleading, don't always trust the signs, they had a wooden tv table painted like a watermelon for $20. No thank you! Where's the quarter table?!? 

 

Oh heck yeah, ice cream, cures everything...except diabetes.

 

My haul! Lots of fun treasures! I've already listed some in my shop, coleblk.etsy.com. If you want to check out some of Carrie's treasures, check out swankyladyvintage.etsy.com. 

Always remember: "Thrift stores are the BACON of shopping, antique stores are the STEAK!"

Memorable Days

 

It's been a doozy of a month, for those of you who do not know, I was laid off from my job a few weeks ago and Numéro magazine is coming to a close after 7 years. It's sad to see it go, I've been through several waves of emotion over the last few weeks but overall I'm excited for what lies ahead, but I wouldn't have traded all of the priceless experience and relationships that I've formed over my time there. I updated my portfolio site, check it out!! www.NicoleBlackburn.com. This past weekend Carrie and I from Swanky Lady Vintage did some trip planning for our ultimate thrifting road trip coming up next week! I made yet another recipe from the orange book, Tuna and Artichoke pasta  - seriously delicious, and Carrie made nutty hummus! 

 

Memorial Day I woke up early and joined my dad for Mass in old St. Patrick's Cemetery, the oldest still in use Catholic church in Illinois. Very small but very cool. Our hearts go out to all those who have lived and died for our spiritual and physical freedoms! Dad also surprised me and took me for breakfast at the Jubilee Cafe where most of the patrons have white hair and the waitress has teased hair and long fake nails and there's a case of pies when you walk in the door.

 

It has been the wettest year, storming or deluging every day for like a week and there's more to come. But the flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping like crazy. Mom had me down for dinner and cooked corn on the cob, burgers, potatoes and deviled eggs! 

Oh man. Siamese Cats and Peanut Noodles

"Oh man." Those were the only words that came out of my mouth in between stuffing it with this dish. Spicy Chinese Peanut noodles. This recipe is super easy and amazingly delicious (another recipe from the orange book, thank you Renee). I ended up making this for dinner because I saw a bottle of cider vinegar in my cabinet and couldn't remember what I bought it for. Then I saw the peanut butter and pasta and my memory miraculously returned. And it contains garlic and cilantro, any argument against this dish is invalid...if you have a peanut allergy just skip this post. Also if you are distracted by the two felines, you should be because they are cute. But don't get too attached, they just sold this week and are destined to become a Mother's Day gift for someone in North Dakota! Happy Friday.

Sharks, Salmon, and Spiced Carrots

 

Saturday I had an impromptu visit to Goodwill where I picked up this 99 cent treasure. Jaws is one of my favorite movies and I could not resist this tourist trap impulse buy. I will be using it for eating ice cream...yes I eat ice cream from cups and mugs. Unlike bowls, mugs have handles so your fingers do not freeze off while trying to enjoy your creamy load of fantasticness.

 

Tonight I tried a new way of cooking salmon, it was good but not great. Even in a sealed foil packet the salmon was drier than usual. I may try to make some sort of salmon spread that I found on foodily to rescue the leftovers.

 

To accompany the salmon I made spiced sautéed carrots; they were better than the salmon and had an unexpected flavor. Spiced with cumin and cinnamon, they were smoky and mildly sweet, I may add a touch more salt and garlic the next time around. They were very light on the oil. I'm all about adding more vegetables to my diet, especially carrots. What is your favorite vegetable recipe? Please share it and perhaps I will try it and feature it!

Whirlwind, what a week

 

What a week. They say one of the only constants in life is change. They were right. The other constant in life is God, and that's how I know everything is going the way it is supposed to. The best way to respond to change is by grabbing hold of it and letting go all in the same instant, like a great weight has landed on your shoulders but somehow you know that it will soon pass through you into space. 

 

I will spare you anymore metaphors and move on to lighter matters. Congrats to MaryAnne at lifeathaven, that was the best phone message ever! I also got the magazine sent to press and saw my friends Jared and Stephanie Bartman in concert and they were excellent as always and Henry was a wiggle worm but he clearly stole the show. The string quartet were magical and everyone brought their best to the table, not to mention the fact that this concert was BYOB and there was one table in particular that brought their best booze to the table and were very giggly. Also kudos to Denim Dragons and your freaky masks but great tunes.

Renee, I'm holding true and working my way through the book. I'm so proud of this meal, ginger teriyaki chicken and smashed spinach and garlic potatoes. MMMMMmmmmmmmm. I will be eating on this for a while. It really feels good to eat real food for a change. 

On a new recipe and home improvement kick

This soup was soooooooo good, it didn't last long. I started working my way through Get Cooking by Mollie Katzen, (thank you Renee!). Her recipes are easy and really good and you don't have to have tons of expensive fancypants ingredients like saffron and organic gluten free vegan unicorn oil (okay I made that up but it probably exists). Above is the Cuban Black Bean soup, I was sold as soon as I say black beans and cilantro in the recipe. It's fantastic with tortilla chips and a dash of cheese.

Before last night I had never had eggplant before, I think I will be buying it again. These are Panko Crusted Eggplant Cutlets. I added to the recipe a little--garlic, parmesan, oregano. These are so good! I like the fact that eggplant is not super soggy or juicy, it is mild and drier which means it fries and bakes well. I foresee eating the leftovers for lunch. My parents were more skeptical, they came over last night while I was cooking and my dad refused to try one saying it looked like a fried cucumber ha ha. Oh well, more for me.

 

It's been a productive week, wrapped up a web job, designed the Peoria Historic Tour of Homes brochure, and did my taxes! As I've mentioned before, I am working my way through a long list of home improvements and I got to check one off my list last night! I got a new bedroom light!!! Only $30 at Lowes, it really brightens up my bedroom. A little good design goes a long way :) What is your favorite piece of design in your home?

Eastertide, spring on the wing, and adventures on the horizon

Sorry it's a little late in coming but Happy Easter Everyone!!! We're still in the octave right? So it's legit. I had a wonderful Easter weekend, I'm in two different choirs and we sang every day, it was splendid to hear the jubilant songs return, but most of all it was good to take a step out of the world and focus on spiritual matters. When Easter comes around, it's like falling in love with God all over again and knowing that He never ends. In the past year I've experienced moments of great joy, the kind of joy that pierces your soul but ties everything together with an unbreakable golden thread. I found this feather stuck to the elbow of my coat the other day and the sight of it just puts me at peace.

You are never too old to get a visit from the Easter bunny, okay I get visits from this little guy every day and he blesses my home with homemade black jellybeans in abundance (word of warning, don't eat them!). My mom still likes to give me an Easter basket, and hey who says no to free candy. Although, I had a major Fringe moment, I gave my mom a bouquet of tulips for Easter and guess what was in my basket? Red Vines. Those faithful few of you who watched the show will know the significance. 

 

Though I'm trying to eat a bit healthier I couldn't resist making this, after all the brie was expiring, see I had an excuse. It was so delicious and so easy, brie baked in crescent roll dough! My friend MaryAnne at lifeathaven.wordpress.com made me a jar of homemade mulberry jam. MaryAnne I apologize for waiting so long to open it ha ha! but whenever I thought of mulberries I would think of bird poop on the farm but the jam was delicious with the brie :) Also my friend Renee gifted me a lovely cookbook when I moved into my new house and I've decided to work my way through it Julia Child style, because there are so many healthy recipes in it that would spice up my diet more, thank you Renee.

As far as recent adventures, they have been relatively low key but memorable. I had a really beautiful and deep conversation about the nature of art through the eyes of faith, cafeteria food, travel, and the seeds of ideas that have the potential to bring change to the world with a friend that I met last summer. It's those kind of conversations that linger with you for days and replay in your mind. So many conversations are electronic these days that I savor the face to face encounters. I also got to catch up with a college friend last night that I hadn't hung out with in almost a year and our night was filled excellent food, The Hobbit, playing records, laughing at old photos and simply enjoying each other's company. Then came this morning's adventure, after barely any sleep I made it to an estate sale at 7:30 in the morning with my cousin in crime, Carrie of swankyladyvintage.etsy.com. We were giggling the entire time. Above are the treasures that I found, she found a crazy load of vintage swizzle sticks among other wonders. But we laughed the hardest at the Salvation Army run we made after the sale where we happened upon...adult...footie...pajamas, the worst part, we bought them. We plan to do a Macklemore inspired photo with them, they were too good to pass up. Even the cashier thought no one would buy them, but of course she was wrong. She admired our jovial sport and told us to "keep on laughing". 

Looking ahead, with my Indiana Jones hat in tow, with the warmer weather I foresee road trips, hijinks, bonfires, and the great unknown. The best thing about this hat is not that it was $2, it's that it makes me want to drive up to one of my friends say "Get in the car, there's no time to waste" and screech tires to make our future into something spontaneous and worthy of talking about for years to come. So I ask you, what is your next adventure?

Never too old or cold for a popsicle

So I'm currently writing an article for the magazine I work for about gourmet popsicles, and by writing I mean inventing flavors and eating them. This is my Cucumber Lime Peach Mango Pop. Popsicles are so versatile, you can make cocktail flavored ones, savory ones, herb infused treats, anything! And I apologize for being negligent lately, work has been crazy crazy!! But I will be catching you up to speed on my projects :)

Back from Cali

Sorry about my absence from the blog, I spent the better part of last week visiting family in California. It was a wonderfully luxurious trip, and I feel really spoiled by my aunts and uncles. Santa Ana is beautiful and it was a lovely extension of summer! Lots of thrifting, eating, laughing, and walking along the beach :) When was the last time you have been in the ocean? It had been 12 years for me.