It's kind of hard to think of four favorite things first thing in the morning on a Monday morning after staying up too late the night before but here goes... :D
1. Hot chocolate. I gave up sugar for the past two weeks - not completely, but I cut back about 85 percent because I felt like I was overdoing it lately. I love sweets so that was a tough one for me, but I needed to stop and kind of reel things in a bit to gain some perspective on how much sugar I was consuming.
I don't drink soda or juice but I do use sugar in my coffee and tea - both of which I drink a lot!
I believe in all things in moderation, and I guess it was time to moderate how much sugar I was eating or drinking. That being said, my big splurge for the weekend was real hot chocolate that I made with 1 % milk and of course lots of marshmallows. It was amazing. :)
2. The elephant necklace with gemstone beads. I made and sold one of these over Christmas, so I thought I would make another one. I just love the colors of these stones (left to right Prehnite, Ruby Jade, Garnet, Iolite, Larimar, and Fluorite). I just love Iolite!
I wrapped them in silver wire and then hung them from a leather cord. This type of jewelry making (beading/wire wrapping) is a nice change from the china jewelry that I make all the time. Sometimes my hands and mind have to do something new for the sake of variety and creativity.
3. Making homemade Chicken Marsala. This week I made homemade Chicken Marsala for the first time ever for my girls and it was awesome! I even slow roasted bulbs of fresh garlic to make garlic mashed potatoes as an accompaniment. All I can say is it was divine.
I used this recipe from Epicurious (still my favorite place to find amazing recipes) and tweaked it to taste as I cooked, making double the sauce. If you ever cook anything from Epi make sure that you read all the reviews first before you start. I've found lots of great advice in the reviews and comments.
I used this recipe as a guide for making the mashed potatoes but I used regular potatoes, extra garlic, and half and half instead of the heavy cream. They were amazing.
4. Trying my hand at watercolor painting. Here's the first ever face/eye that I painted, and I think it turned out pretty good. At least it did until I started over-painting it! I am learning.
I like doing small drawings for fun and painting those, and I've found that I really like painting faces. It's interesting to see how when you paint a face, a personality starts to emerge. It's kind of mysterious!
If there is anything in particular that you'd like to see just leave me a comment!
I hope you have a great week!
Laura
My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns
