Mini Art Project/Sun Sensitive Paper Collage

I've been on disability since April due to medical problems, which has left me with a lot of free time. Yesterday I was pretty bored and decided I better do some art! I've had this sun sensitive paper around for a while and thought I'd better put it to some use, and the results are in I LOVE this medium! Check it!

You can find sun sensitive paper at your local art supplies store (ie Michael's or Hobby Lobby) apparently there is also sun sensitive fabric!

You'll want to start this project inside with no direct sunlight around as it'll mess up the paper. Find neatly shaped objects from around the house and decide how you want to place them. I used some old keys as I liked their shape, my charm bracelet, watch and a random broken leg which was once the leg lamp from that old classic movie A Christmas Story.

"Before"

Once you've got your objects and placement, take it outside! I put my project on an old cardboard box I had lying around, which I suggest. If it's windy outside you may need to use pins to hold down the paper/objects.

Bunch of random objects
I had laying around the house.

The paper will come with directions about how long to keep the paper out in the sun, as it was a warm sunny day I left mine out for 7 minutes.

2 minutes under running cold water

After the 7 minutes was up the directions instructed to take off the objects and rinse off the paper for 2 minutes..wired right?!

Soakin'

Now time to let this baby soak for 10 minutes, then remove and let dry.

Ta-Da!!The finished project!

I let this sucker dry out and here's the final product, pretty damn awesome. At least I had a good time! :)

I first learned about this type of "photography" from an art project book, and I enjoyed this medium so much I decided to do a little more research about it.

I guess this type of "photography" is officially called Cyanotype. It was first discovered back in the 1800's and a woman by the name of Anna Atkins was the first to bring it to the photography side as it was originally used to create blue prints and such back in the day. From what I read Anna is considered to be the first female photographer because of her role in using this method. Pretty interesting stuff.

After further reading I found there are different techniques you can do to achieve different colors/tones of these "photographs", such as using laundry detergent that contains phosphates to get a gold print; or using black tea to soak the print in order to get a sepia type look. I definitely planning on getting some more of this sun sensitive paper and experimenting in the future..until next time!

Cheers <3

Tampa, Florida

Ybor City

As Noonie mentioned a few posts back I was away on vacation. I spent time in 3+ different cities, and will be posting about my travels in the coming days.

On my trip one of the stops was in Tampa, Florida.

Why Tampa you might ask? Well I'm glad you did! One of my best-friends from high-school moved to Florida a few years ago and, after 8 years, I finally made my way down to see her, and her family.

Tampa is definitely not like any city I have been to yet. I am a City Planner, so looking at, experiencing, and analyzing cities is one of my favorite past times. On my first day in Tampa I drug my girlfriend along with me Downtown to experience Floridian city life, which left much to be desired. It was quite odd if I  may say. This was on a Wednesday afternoon and the city was virtually empty. We walked for a few hours and very few people were seen, not to mention the downtown was quite bare only consisting of large office buildings with the occasional restaurant. A noticeable lack of street activities: such as shopping, bodegas, or art installation. The highlight however, was a Twinkies truck. Yes, a truck giving away twinkies, with a man dressed up in a twinkie costume. Regrettably I did not take a photo with this amazing phenomena.

After being under-whelmed by the downtown, she and I ventured into the Ybor City, which would be the equivalent to an 'old town' district. Again, deserted but more intriguing. This neighborhood (and Tampa overall) came to be built around the cigar industry, immigrants from Cuba, Spain, and the spanish-speaking world came here to make a home. The influence is noticeably 'Latin' and had some cute older buildings. This area, as with many 'old towns,' consisted of bars, cigar lounges, tattoo parlors, a handful of restaurants, and the other random activities like a movie theater. Unfortunately I was not able to enjoy the 'oldest restaurant in Tampa' but perhaps I can do that on a future visit. My friend and I did however come upon a 'hipster' coffee shop selling $4 sangria which was quite delicious and a nice stopping point!

The next day the 5 of us took a trip to the Children's Science Museum, which was super fun. My favorite part was the part about weather, the environment, and climate change. I'm often impressed by these exhibits at museums.

On my last day we went to St. Pete's beach, walked around, and had cuban sandwiches.

This trip was so much fun, I only wish I had taken more photos!
San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, and Laguna Beach soon to come!

Ybor City

Ybor City

Ybor City

Downtown Tampa

Downtown Tampa

Downtown Tampa

Downtown Tampa

Ybor City

Downtown Tampa - Art

The Family at the Museum

Monterey, CA In Memory Of

In Memory of Taleen
R.I.P. 6/8/13

So my pops decided to take my brothers and I on a little weekend get away to Monterey. We chose to specifically go to Monterey as it was my dad's late wife's favorite ocean side town and we wanted to go in her memory. We took off Friday morning and spent the night over in Salinas which is about 20 minutes outside of Monterey. That night for dinner we went to Chili's, another favorite of my dad's late wife. We sat and enjoyed our dinner and reminisced about memories of her, which was really nice. After din din we hit up the movies and saw "We're the Millers", which was hilarious! The preview really didn't do the movie justice at all, hell even my conservative dad liked it which is saying somethin'.

We called it a night after that and woke up early Saturday morning to hit Monterey's beaches. As we got into Monterey our first stop was to this little Cafe that was just across the street from the ocean, I can't recall the name of it but the food was good and the view was even better. Our batteries were charged and it was off to San Carlos Beach, which was was the best beach we found around that area. There was all kinds of activity going on at San Carlos, with kayakers and people learning how to scuba dive. My youngest brother and I had a blast playing in the water looking for shells, which we found few of.

After we left San Carlos we walked around the downtown area of Monterey and the infamous "Cannery Row" which was full of people and awesome shops. After a few more stops to a couple more beaches the boys decided it was time for shopping (and yes it was the boys!). We hit up the Del Monte Center, a huge outside mall that wasn't far from downtown Monterey. It is equivalent to the Downtown Plaza that's located here in Sacramento, combined with the Roseville Galleria, so it was super nice. After a long day we hit up some Chipotle and after some ice cream called it a night.

The Infamous Cannery Row

San Carlos Beach

Monterey 

Back to our Salinas motel for the night we once again woke up early and decided to hit up San Francisco on our way home. It was a nice half way point for the trek home as we stopped by the Pier 39 Wharf. After the city we finished the journey home and back to reality.

Robot Dancin' Guys..Classic Wharf Entertainment

 I felt super spoiled to get the opportunity to go to the ocean two weekends in a row! But it was also nice to get back home, to my own bed, and of course my boo and dog kids.

My dog kids <3

I may be going to the ocean once again this weekend with my boo..but this time I'm going so we can fly some RC slope gliders and boy will that be an adventure in itself.

Until next time..cheers!

Tree to Table Peach Cobbler

The perfect summer dessert!

There are so many perks to the season of Summer: warm weather, Farmer's Markets, concerts in the park, and of course fresh fruit..specifically peaches!!

Lucky for me my step dad has a fruit tree orchard, and that sucker was filled with fruit just waiting to be picked! I initially went out there to pick some blackberries so I could made a blackberry pie. But alas, there were just not enough berries to make my pie, so I put a twist on the old proverb "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" and made it my own.

"When life doesn't give you enough blackberries to make a pie, you pick peaches instead and make a cobbler" -Noonie

This was the first year the tree has had ripe peaches on it, so it was quite the treat! I had my peaches, and now I just needed a recipe! I had never made home made peach cobbler so I hit the Internet for recipes.

I've always been one to follow recipes to the "T", but I couldn't find a peach cobbler recipe online that I really liked. So I did what I've never done before, I found 2 recipes for the cobbler and decided to combine the 2 and make my own!

The measurements are approximate, I just kind of "winged it" but the cobbler turned out amazing!

Gettin' my peaches prepped!

Dough after being mixed & milk added.

All ready for the oven!

Time lapse of the cobbler baking


Noonie's Peach Cobbler

Prep time: 20 minutes or so

Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

Servings: I personally cut a lot of the measurements down as I just wanted to make a smaller amount. So servings will vary.

Ingredients 

*6-8 Cups Peaches Peeled & Sliced

(I personally loved using fresh off the tree peaches. If you don't happen to have a peach tree I would suggest going to a local Farmer's Market and pick some up!)

*3/4-2 Cups Sugar

*2 T. Corn Starch

*1 t. Cinnamon (I personally am not a fan of cinnamon and didn't use any in my cobbler, but hey to each their own)

*1-1 1/2 Cups Flour

*2 t. Baking Powder

*1/2 t. Salt

*1-2 Cups Cold Unsalted Butter

*3/4-1 Cup Milk

*1/2 Cup Water

Directions:

1)Prep peaches and get your ingredients out and ready to use!

2) Preheat oven to 375.

3) Combine peaches, 1/4-3/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, and water in a saucepan. Mix, boil, and simmer on low for about 10 minutes.

4) While the peach mix is simmering get your dough ready! Stir 1/2-3/4 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder & salt. Slowly add the butter 1 cup at a time until you have course crumbs. Next add the milk until dough comes together.

Note: You don't want to overwork the dough, it should be sticky but manageable!

5) Melt 1/4-1/2 cup butter in the microwave or on the stove. Pour melted butter into a 2 Quart baking dish, be sure to butter the sides of the baking dish.

6)Add the hot peach mixture into the buttered baking dish.

7) Drop the dough using a tablespoon over the warm peaches.

Note: There can be gaps between the mounds of dough as the dough will puff up and fill in the gaps.

8) Sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon on top. The sprinkled sugar on top really gives the cobbler an over the top taste as it acts as a glaze..delicious!

9) Place the baking dish on top of a baking sheet (to prevent spills while baking).

10) Bake until the dough is brown and the fruit is bubbling, about 40-45 minutes.

11) Let the cobbler cool down a bit, but serve warm with or without some vanilla ice cream on the side.

Yum!! The dough recipe can be used for any type of cobbler your heart desires!

My step dad has a ton of ripe pears waiting to be eatin' so be on the look out for my next adventure in the kitchen! :)