Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and an Engagement Ring

It has been a while since I posted, and I always like to share my finds and adventures.
This past weekend, Bob and I went to the local farmer's market and bought some great produce.  I didn't have anything particular in mind when I picked up tomatillos, onions, jalapeno peppers and garlic but soon realized a roasted Tomatillo Salsa would be their final journey.
Slightly sweet, a little savory this salsa would go perfectly with anything from topping a burger to eating alone with tortilla chips.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

8-10 tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed, cut into quarters
2 cloves garlic
1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and cut lengthwise (use 2 for more heat)
1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters
olive oil
handful of fresh cilantro leaves
1 lime

Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Place the tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos on a cookie sheet and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Roast in the oven for 15 minutes or until everything is slightly charred.  Let cool.
Process roasted veggies, cilantro and lime juice in a food processor or blender until smooth.

On another note, even though Bob and I are engaged, he bought me something I have wanted for a long time...a Latvian engagement ring!!  The ring has 7 charms on it and here is a link explaining what the symbols mean: http://krikisjewelry.com/KrikisJewelryBellInfo.html

More Alice Altered Tags

Here are some more tags I made for my book.  I used shipping tags purchased from Staples.  I replaced the string on the tag with ribbon and will connect all the tags together to form a book.

Alice in Wonderland

There is something about Alice in Wonderland that is frighteningly fascinating to me.  A strange world in a realm with talking rabbits, cunning cats, and the ability to shrink or grow by drinking or eating something.  I have never read the book or watched any of the movies, but the whole story is bizarre and makes me think of my own dreams which are nothing like real life, always strange and somewhat ethereal. I have been working on an Alice in Wonderland altered tag book and have the first page done:

I painted the tag blue, then used some Distress ink and a blending tool to age the edges.  The vintage paper with writing came from a variety pack of ephemera.  I added a piece of cardboard and then an image of Alice that I colored in with colored pencils.  The letter stickers are Jenni Bowlin (I think).  The clip at the top of the page is a flower clip I found in the scrap booking section of Hobby Lobby.
I have more tags done as far as a base background color.  My plan is to not tell the actual story of Alice in Wonderland, but to have a book of images and scenarios of the characters.

More Journal Pages

Credit card scraping paint technique, stencils. gel pen

The red was stamped with paint and corrugated cardboard

Watercolor and salt, stencil and ink blown with straw

Snow!!

Yesterday it started snowing.  And snowing.  As of this morning we have over 6 inches on the ground.  I was inspired to make a journal page using a piece of scrap book paper that was laser-cut into snowflakes.  I placed it on my paper and washed over it with watercolors.  I took the wet snowflake paper and pressed in onto the other page for a subtle effect.  Below is my page.

More pages

Here are some more pages in my art journal.  One is completed, the other one is a background I started.

Another Background

This was made by putting two colors of paint on the paper and using an old credit card to spread the paint around.  Then I used some punchenella as an accent on the edges of the page.  Next I dropped some white acrylic ink on the page and used the end of a paintbrush to draw out the ink to make star-like shapes.