Best Wallpapers Flowers: April 2010

Beach Sand Dunes wall art decor

Beach Sand Dunes 3 nautical tropical home wall decor summer landscape 18 x 24 inch watercolor original painting 300 dollars plus 20 for shipping. This painting is also available as a fine art print either on fine art giclee paper or on canvas all sizes from 8 x 10 to 22 x 30 inches, email me which size you want and I will send you an invoice. There are about 20 different sizes and options, my email is derek.mccrea@us.army.mil or buy the original with the below link.
View more art at my gallery at http://www.derekmccrea.50megs.com/

Featured at Coastal Charm!

A big thank you to Linda at Coastal Charm for featuring my Thrifty Community Yard Sales Buys in her Nifty Thrifty Tuesday Highlights! Be sure to head over to Coastal Charm today to see all the lovely thrifty treasures and link up some of your own!

Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market

The Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market opens for the season this Wednesday - April 28th. The market is held on Wednesdays from 10 AM to 2 PM at the City Plaza on Fayetteville Street. The kickoff will include BBQ from the Pit and bluegrass music!

Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market

Creating Bits From Pieces

Our aim here at Embellees is to work through our very large 'stash' of supplies and not waste what we have at hand. Embellees came about over a period of time when Miss Lisa and Miss Lizzie kept talking about their ever growing 'stash'. These conversations usually co-incided with their latest 'clean up' after a hectic run of creating or as they shopped for more stash and were having a bit of 'buyers remorse' as they travelled home in the car.

Our latest Embellishment Kit just loaded to our Etsy Store is a perfect example of what we wanted to produce... quality handmade embellishments that were contemporary and used our existing 'stash'.

Miss Lisa has made a beautiful kit 'The Garden' that would compliment any scrapbook layout or handmade card... you have just got to love the detail in that 'tree'.

New Etsy Store Kits ...soooo noice I say!

Miss Lisa has been busy and now I can reveal the two new kits we have just loaded to our Etsy Store. It is so great to see how the beautiful handmade flowers can be used on a 'boy' layout .... now don't think we here at Embellees are 'gender biased'... but as I sort through all my 'girlie' craft bits, Miss Lisa seems to do 'double time' finding just as much for her gorgeous 'boy' inspired layouts and crafts. It seems that the scrapbooking industry is just catching up with the number of mums and grandmothers desperate to focus on the more masculine approach.

I think that is where Miss Lisa and I compliment each other, she sees things so differently... I am such the girlie with only having one Princess to concentrate most of my efforts on - I love how Miss Lisa can take the lastest trend ... like the beautiful handmade flowers and still produce a great layout with her boys being the focus.

We do hope you love what we are showing you... but stay tuned we are slowly working out way through my 83 year old mum's sewing stash that has been boxed in may garage for the last 4 years... we have some wonderful vintage finds and are so excited about what we are planning to do with 'Pat's Stash'... don't worry she is just as excited as she is still creating beautiful masterpieces at the ripe old age of 83.

Market Day - April 24th

From the Midtown Farmers' Market

1lb grass-fed beef & 1lb pastured pork sausage (Cohen Farm)

Local honey (The Pleasant Bee)

2 bunches asparagus (Cloverfields Farm)

1 pint strawberries, red leaf lettuce & kale (Rocky River Farm)

1 bunch of radishes (Cedar Rock Farm)

1 bag of arugula (Piedmont Biofarm)

and fresh flowers (Blue Dragonfly Cut Flowers)

Sneeky Peeks

Miss Lisa has been busy on the creative side, while I work away at the technical side. It is great to know that as a new venture and as great friends we balance out not only the load, but each other.... so check out what is coming soon to our Etsy Shop...

Mom's Water Feature

My Mother wanted a water feature in the front of the house and she found a beautiful pot without a hole in the bottom. So we went to our local mom and pop garden center Tropic Plants (I prefer to support a local business owner when I can) She picked out all the plants she wanted. Then, I set it up for her using rainwater we collect and bricks. She then arranged the plants and has been maintaining it, with a little help of course. After a couple of weeks we added some mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) it has really flourished over the last month. This morning I walked the garden and discovered that the Iris (Iris sp.) had bloomed and what a beauty it is! Here are some photos for you to enjoy. Have a nice weekend.

Mom's Water Feature by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

Kale Chips - Draft Day Snack

Another way to enjoy local kale from the farmers' market - kale chips! I made these last night for Dave's NFL Draft viewing. After rubbing the kale leaves in olive oil, I seasoned them with Real Salt, ground pepper and a little Old Bay seasoning (Clayton is fond of crab chips - potato chips with Old Bay). Delicious and addictively snackable!

Waste Not - Local Carrots

Oatmeal Carrot Cookies

One of my homecaring goals this year, is to reduce waste in the kitchen. Especially when it comes to the fresh vegetables we buy at the farmers' market. A few of the carrots I bought at the market over the weekend were starting to get a bit soft. So I shredded them and made a little afternoon snack for the kids - Oatmeal Carrot Cookies!

For the cookies, I used the Quaker Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe as a guide, with a few changes of my own:

1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup Rapunzel organic unrefined, unbleached whole cane sugar
2 local pastured eggs
1 teaspoon homemade vanilla
1-1/2 cup King Arthur unbleached white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup organic rolled oats
1 cup shredded local carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together olive oil and organic whole cane sugar. Add in local, pastured eggs and homemade vanilla. Stir well. Add in flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix well. Add oats and shredded carrots. Add additional oil (a small amount) if needed.

Drop dough onto greased cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes.

Please note the preparation time of these cookies will be lengthened if you have to:

A - Help daughter locate runaway caterpillar
B - Build makeshift caterpillar Alcatraz
C- Soothe a tired 3yo who thinks naps are so 2008
D - Inform 5yo that throwing socks into the ceiling fan would not be in his best interest

Cool cookies, then enjoy!

Dinner on the Grill

Dinner hot off the grill - grilled local sweet potato fries, local asparagus and local smoked jalapeno sausage. Grilled local yumminess from the Midtown Farmers' Market!

FPU Kit Giveaway!

Image Credit - This Little Piggy Bank

Mrs. A at This Little Piggy Bank Bought A House is giving away a Financial Peace University Kit! Her family has been so blessed by Dave Ramsey's message of financial peace, and now she would like to pass that blessing onto someone else. Head on over to her blog for a chance to win this FPU Kit. The giveaway ends on Friday, April 23rd - so hurry!

More Beautiful Tags

Miss Lisa has been very busy creating some more beautiful tags for our Etsy Store. These gorgeous tags are all hand stamped, embossed and finished with raffia ties. They are just perfect for that special album, layout or for those of you not into scrapbooking - would be perfect to finish or that special gift wrapping for Mum's Day!

Mothers Day Album

We have just added another gorgeous handmade album to our Etsy Store. This gorgeous Mothers Day themed album has 12 pages and lots of beautiful extras. Take a look and see all the details. All pages are handmade - no store bought album here.... I love the fabric cover, the eclectic mix of all different media Miss Lisa has put together for this special item.

Dressing the Kids for Less

On Saturday, Dave and I got up early and went out to the Spring yard sale at Crossroads Fellowship Church. Shopping there is a win-win for us. We can find good, quality clothes for the kids at inexpensive prices ($1 a piece). And all the proceeds of the sale go to the church's mission programs.

$1 Ralph Lauren polo shirts for the boys

For the boys, I found plenty polo shirts. If you peeked into our boys' closet, you would certainly be able to tell that I adore polo shirts (and sweater vests!). To me, they are the perfect casual/dressy shirt all-in-one. I bought 8 polo shirts along with 2 t-shirts and 1 pair of shorts.

$1 Gymboree tops for Ashleigh

For Ashleigh, I found 9 tops (mostly short-sleeved and a few long sleeved shirts for cool Spring mornings - like today!), 3 pairs of jeans and 6 big hair bows. For all the kids clothing, we paid $23.

In addition to the childrens' clothing, I found this small top for myself - $2

2 board games for the kids - Dino Checkers (50-cents) and Hi Ho Cherry-o ($1)

A Vtech V.Smile TV Learning System with two controllers and 5 games for $15

And a wooden, heart-shaped flag wall plaque for $1

I can't wait until the church's next yard sale! I've already got my calendar marked.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm sharing these thrifty buys at:

Southern Hospitality - Today's Thrifty Treasures

Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

FREE Vegetable Plants!

A big thank you to Grow and Share for the free vegetable plants! We'll use these to get our small garden going this year. For those in the Raleigh area, Grow and Share will have another plant giveaway next Saturday and Sunday. See their website for details and locations. Plants are given away on a first come, first served basis.

Breakfast of Champions

A great way to start of the day - local, pastured pork sausage patties and local, scrambled pastured eggs.

Local pastured eggs - full of flavor and nutrition! From the Midtown Farmer's Market to our breakfast table!

Eat Fresh - Local Veggies

From the Midtown Farmers' Market to our table - A fresh salad made with local red leaf lettuce & arugula with sliced, local strawberries along with local carrots and radishes for dipping in homemade ranch dressing.

Market Day - First Day!

It was so wonderful catching up with some of the familiar faces at the Midtown Farmers' Market and meeting some new ones as well! I can already tell its going to be a great year at the market! Here's what we picked up this morning:

2 dozen pastured eggs & 2 bunches of radishes (S & L Farm)

Sweet potatoes (R & V Farm)

2 bundles of asparagus (Cloverfields Farm)

Red leaf lettuce, 1 bunch of kale and 1 pint of strawberries (Rocky River Farm)

1lb grass-fed beef & 1lb pastured pork sausage (Cohen Farm)

1 bunch of carrots & 1 bag of arugula (Piedmont Biofarm)

2 bars handmade soap (Moondance Soaps)

1lb jalapeno smoked sausage (Coon Rock Farm)

and a free REI reusable tote

First Etsy Store Items

Well it is official we have listed our first items in our Etsy Store. We have our beautifully designed holiday themed mini album, as shown in our Sneeky Peeky below along with some journalling tags that would compliment this album or stand-alone to use on another project.

And to add to the mix, 4 sets of the most beautiful tags with a butterfly theme... these are all handstamped, finished with embossing, raffia ties, handsewn buttons and canvas wording strips. These would compliment any project or would be just beautiful on a gift you may be putting together for someone special.

Stay tuned we have so much more to show you in the next weeks as we gear up with lots of creative pursuits we undertaking and lots of new and different stock in the Embellees Etsy Store.

A Sneaky Peeky... Holiday Album

Miss Lisa has been busy preparing some great products for our new Etsy Shop. Here is a sneaky peeky at her Holiday Album due to hit our store shortly... we just love presenting albums that are eclectic and use so many yummy elements.. so if you are interested... put our Etsy Shop on your favourites because we have more wonderful items like this coming shortly!!!

Simple Pleasure - Bluegrass...with a twist!

I heard this string band (Carolina Chocolate Drops) on our local public radio station awhile back, and fell in love with their music instantly! Hoping to see them live in concert one day. Happy Friday Everyone - enjoy!

String Band History

Shopping Smart at the Farmers Market

With our favorite farmers market opening this weekend, I'm looking forward to shopping outside of the "box" (grocery stores) and eating more locally. Here is a great link from Greenopolis with tips for shopping smart at your local farmers markets

10 Tips to Shop Smart at Farmers Markets

I especially like tip #3 letting the season be your meal planning guide. We tried so many wonderful new-to-us veggies last year thanks to our farmers market. I do go to our market with somewhat of a list in mind - pastured eggs and local honey are usually weekly buys for me. But I'm always open to each season's special offerings.

Would love to hear from you! What are your tips for shopping at farmers' markets?

Yummy Homemade Ranch Dressing

Ashleigh came home from school yesterday excited not about the field trip her class took, but about the carrot sticks she had at lunch! I normally pack her lunches and snacks for school, but for the field trip I agreed to let her buy the school lunch. I never would have imagined the school lunch would spark an interest in veggies in our normally veggie-avoiding princess!

Along with dinner last night, I cut some organic apples into slices for dipping with local honey and organic carrots into sticks. As a dip for the carrots, I decided to make homemade ranch dressing. For the dressing, I started with a recipe for a dry ranch mix on the Heavenly Homemakers blog. To make the dressing, you add two tablespoons of the dry mix to 1 cup of mayonnaise and 1 cup of buttermilk. I didn't have any buttermilk on hand, but a google search lead me to an easy substitute - add one tablespoon lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and let stand for 5 minutes. Worked beautifully. And the dressing, absolutely delicious!

Art Newsletter - April 2010

This is my first art newsletter in 2010.

I have been so busy creating larger, more complex works lately. I retire from the US Army in OCT 2010, after 23 years in the Infantry, I am finally retiring. Now I will have more time to dedicate to my artwork. 2010 marks the beginning of a huge marketing effort, consistent gallery exposure, national and international competitions, and expansion into using my images for stock products. The last 12 paintings I have completed were large, complex works. My style is floating between photo realism with florals to abstract colorful modern tropical art.

Recent awards in 2010 for my art include:

Cover Art - 12th Annual Nashville TN Screenwriter's Conference - Feb 2010
Bee Paper Cover Art Landscape Sketch Book - 2010-2011
Harvests of New Millenium - India - Annual Publication, Jan 2010
"Magnolia" flyer for Steel Magnolias play production - APR 2010, Little Egg Harbor Theatre Co.
2010 Marker Supply Tradeshow - Art created with selected of their products for trade.
Winner - Purchase Award, Winterfest, River Center, Columbus Ga
Winner of the Lukas Paints Art Contest

Art Events I was juried into so far for 2010 are:

Callaway Gardens, GA, Southern Rivers Guild Art Exhibition, 10 paintings, MAY-OCT 2010
Auburn, AL CityFest 2010, Juried Art Competion
Annual Arts in Reese Park, Americus, GA 2010
Cumming, GA FUMC Festival of Arts 2010
Georgia Art League - Spring Salon Competition 2010
Art on Broadway, Columbus, GA 2010
Arts in the Park, Columbus, GA 2010
Warm Springs Spring Fling 2010
Ocean World Aquarium Museum, 3 lighthouse paintings - permanent collection - Denver, CO, 2010

I was accepted and juried into London, England's Royal Art Collection 2010 Exhibit taking place in Dubai, Saudi Arabia. The painting that was juried into this event is below and is titled "Lotus in Paradise" The symbolism behind the art is it is the floral scene that is at ther 7th gate of Paradise as quoted in the Quran.

View more of my works at http://www.derekmccrea.50megs.com.

Midtown (North Hills) Farmers Market - Opening April 17th!

Image

The Midtown Farmer's Market at North Hills is set to open for 2010 this Saturday, April 17th!

Oh, how I've been waiting for this!

Midtown Farmers' Market

Still Under Construction

If you have found our blog... please note it is still very much 'under construction'. We are very new to the world of blogging and we are learning as we go. Thanks to our very talented graphic artist and 'techno bod' Laura we are nearly there. We look forward to posting the first of our creative content shortly.

Thrifty Buys - Community Yard Sale

My husband Dave has always been a thrifty kind of guy. After nine years of marriage, his thrifty ways have rubbed off on me - a natural born spender! Towards the end of last summer, my husband turned me on to yard sales. I was hooked! So now that it is Spring, I'm excited to get back out there and find some thrifty treasures!

On Saturday, we found a community yard sale near our neighborhood. Dave got up early and did an initial survey of the sale. Then came back and got me out of bed because he found something he knew I would like! Along the way we picked up the three vine balls and wooden salad bowls for $5 total. A paper towel holder for .25 along with a tricycle (can't believe I forgot to take a picture!) for $5. The kids definitely loved that!