Things to Make - Roasted Peaches and Cream Popsicles

I'm still on my popsicle making kick, they're just so easy and so good. I wanted to hide these from the children, so I could eat them all myself. But luckily I'm nicer than that (well, sometimes).

ROASTED PEACHES & CREAM POPSICLES (slightly based off of a recipe in People's Pops: 55 Recipes for Ice Pops, Shave Ice, and Boozy Pops from Brooklyn's Coolest Pop Shop, love this cookbook).

Ingredients:
* 4-5 tennis-ball sized peaches, halved
* 2/3 cup cane sugar
* 2/3 cup water
* 1 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the peaches cut side down on a cookie sheet. Bake about 20 minutes (until the skins and flesh have softened)
2. Discard the peach pits and blend the peaches.
3. Make simple syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then let cool. Add 1 cup of the cooled syrup to the peach puree.
4. Pour the puree into popsicle molds until they're about 2/3 full.
5. Pour the cream on top of the puree. Don't worry if you don't use it all.
6. Use the popsicle stick to stir the cream into the popsicles.
7. Freeze.

(Makes approximately 10 popsicles)

Still hungry? Click here and scroll down for more popsicle recipes.

Things to Do - Take One Sh**** Picture a Day (June 2015)

It's amazing how many perfect moments you capture when you forget about perfection for awhile.

I know this project is still new, but for now, I'm still a little in awe at how accurately it captures our life. I managed to include one shot from every day but June 4th (apparently I just couldn't be bothered with the camera on this random Thursday).

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!! HAVE A FABULOUS WEEKEND!

Things to Watch - 7 Great TV Dramas on Netflix Streaming

Last month I posted about comedies (click here for the post), so now it's time to get serious.

1. Bloodline - "We're not bad people, but we did a bad thing." Most addictive show ever. I could not stop watching.

2. Mad Men - No real description is needed, as everyone has heard of Mad Men by now. Worth watching for the costumes and scenic design alone. And for Roger Sterling, possibly the best TV character ever.

3. Breaking Bad - Dan found this whole show addictive, but I thought it a little too depressing to binge watch. Still who doesn't love a show where Mr. Chips turns into Scarface?

4. The Honorable Woman - This suspenseful mini-series concentrates on Israeli/Pakistan relations. Kidnappings. Abductions. So much intrigue.

5. House of Cards - Politicians are so evil. But fun to watch.

6. The Walking Dead - Personally, I'm sick of thinking about/hearing about/imagining the apocalypse. So I've never learned to love the Walking Dead, but many good friends (including Dan) insist that it's one of the best shows on TV, so I'm including the Walking Dead on this list.

7. The UP series - Last but DEFINITELY not least, this documentary series follows the lives of fourteen British citizens over a 49 year period, as they age from 7 to 56 years old. The first episode (filmed in 1964) is a little painful to watch - awful sound quality, bad editing, no thoughts as to cinematography. But over time I became somewhat obsessed with the lives of these strangers.

Things to Make - Nature Stencils Using A Plant Mister

As I blogged about yesterday, I'm loving the projects in Margaret Peot's book - Stencil Craft: Techniques for Fashion, Art and Home.

For our first project, the kids and I tried making nature stencils using a plant mister. Of course, when we put all the pieces together, it turned out we were out of watercolor paper, then the kids chose to use several leaves which weren't heavy enough to work as stencils. But despite these handicaps, the project ended up resulting in cool, abstract artwork.





1. First we searched the neighborhood for natural materials to work with.



2. We then made collages with our discoveries.

3. The kids used a plant mister to spray down their creations. T tried this with red, watercolor paint (diluted with water); whereas the girls used heavier blue, biocolor paint (diluted with water). The biocolor paint was hard to spray, so I'd recommend using watercolors or, even, water dyed with food coloring. The paint did not spray evenly, which lead to a cool, layered effect (though this would have worked much better with thicker paper).

4. We left the creations outside to dry for a few hours.



5. Coolio, abstract paintings. I think a really fun project would involve using these as a base and stenciling something defined on top. Or making wrapping paper/greeting cards.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a copy of Peot's book. For information on how to enter, click on yesterday's post.

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONE!!

Things to Make - Stencil Craft Book - TWO GIVEAWAYS!!! [NOW CLOSED]

Lately, I'm a little enamored with Margaret Peot's Stencil Craft: Techniques for Fashion, Art and Home, perfect for summer arting. The book helped with things I've always wondered how to do (i.e two color stencil portraits), as well as introducing cool new techniques - stenciling with foil, using Derwent Inktense blocks, working with discharge paste, etc.

Really, there's a little bit of everything - practical application projects as well as lots of new techniques and materials.

For an easy project with the kids, I decided to try "nature stencils" using a plant mister and thinned watercolor paint (Peot recommended thinned acrylic paint, but we didn't have any). I'll post on this tomorrow.

We can't wait to try more of Peot's projects. In the meantime, Peot has offered to giveaway one Stencil Craft book to a No Monsters reader (US addresses only). To enter, just comment on this post. Please include your email address in the body of the message (so I can find you). This giveaway will close in two weeks (at 8:00 pm on August 3rd).

In addition to the book giveaway, there's also a Rafflecopter giveaway for:

STENCIL CRAFT TOTE STENCILING KIT

The winner of the rafflecopter giveaway will receive:

17" x 15" canvas tote hand printed with a stencil interpretation Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring
A signed copy of STENCIL CRAFT: TECHNIQUES FOR FASHION, ART AND HOME
1 blank 12" x 12" canvas tote
1 10" x 14" piece of stencil Mylar
1 sponge
2 stencil brushes
1 craft knife set
2 Metallic Lumiere Acrylic Paints, Indigo and Metallic Copper.

To enter the rafflecopter giveaway, click here.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!

[THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED, A RANDOM WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!]

(Disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book in return for writing an honest review. The opinions expressed in this post are, obviously, entirely my own).