28 April 2009

Working for the weekend

I've got a new work in progress. I had such fun with the Amanda Palmer portrait, working in graphite, that I'm doing another pencil piece. Here is the current work in progress:




No title yet. I'll have to think of one. Maybe I'll do a contest or something. I've got another sketch started, but it's not far enough along to be of interest yet.

6 more sleeps until my UK holiday! This weekend, we're going over to Yorkshire to visit with family. I'll be taking the sketchbook, but will be without computer for 2 weeks. Well, technically I'll have access to a computer, but I'm going to try to stay away from it!

I've been playing around with shoe designs in the Zazzle shop:


Friend Selina is having a buy one get one free sale because she's moving house and wants to find happy homes for stock instead of packing it and moving it - she ships worldwide and is known to throw in neat freebies with orders:

21 April 2009

This week, I are been mostly blogging sketches

I thought it might be fun to post some sketches. These are a few pages from one of my sketchbooks. Click to embiggen!


  

    

There's not been a lot of arting this week, as I've been working on the Blue Moon Atelier web site. It is to be a portal for all sites related to my art, and will include links to the retail site, a wholesale site, and a portfolio that just showcases stuff I've done. Currently, the link to the retail site and the link to the portfolio are up and active. The wholesale site will be up by the end of the month - coding skillz permitting! You can check it out here: Blue Moon Atelier. Critiques are welcome!

01 April 2009

Random thoughts and a recipe

But first, this is quite possibly the funniest thing I've read since 9am:

Fiction World Rocked as Woman Claims No Sexual Attraction to Neil Gaiman http://short.to/3d0u

Just thought I'd share some random thoughts that occurred to me whilst browsing a freelance site:

Dude - you're only offering $5 for several hours of someone's time and you wonder why no one's bidding?

What are you people thinking - bidding on "clone PayPal/Western Union/etc. site" jobs? Are things so desperate for you that you'll accept payment for helping rob others of money/identity?

When you say you need a 'Simple static web site' in your posting title, and then say you want "Flash start page/e-commerce cart/database/full backend" - you do realize you're contradicting yourself, don't you?

There. Snark over.

It occurs to me that I once indicated that I'd post recipes on the blog occasionally - when I make something up and it seems to work, or when I find something everyone should know about, sort of thing. Well, I sort of made this one up - based on something my husband sort of made up. He usually baked his version, whilst I like my chicken pan-fried (but - not, you know, clog-yer-arteries-at-a-glance deep-frying, like). So, here's my lime-garlic chicken recipe:

Zesty Lime-Garlic Chicken
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Juice of 1 medium lime
Garlic Powder
Sea Salt to taste
Ground Pepper to taste
Red Pepper (Cayenne) to taste

This can be marinated ahead of cooking, or just pop the spices on right before plunking it in a pan.

1. Place chicken breasts on a plate, or shallow dish. Squeeze lime juice over pieces. Add a pinch (or more to taste) of sea salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper powder. Turn breasts and repeat.

2. Heat extra-virgin olive oil to medium heat in a non-stick pan, using just enough to coat the surface of the pan (sometimes I use part olive oil, part butter for extra flavour and enhanced searing).

3. Place chicken (what would be) skin-side down in pan. Cook chicken breasts for about 8-10 minutes per side (depending on thickness), reducing heat to medium-low after the first 3-4 minutes of searing (the lime juice caramelizes a bit making for a nice browning).

It's very tasty, and relatively low-fat providing you don't go crazy with the olive oil or oil/butter blend.

I'll be updating the web site over the next several days - watch this space for news!

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