Confection Perfection- Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was growing up, we often spent Christmas with my Grandparents. I remember being amazed at all of the treats my Grandmother would make. She never settled for one or two items. We had brownies, and m&m cookies, and peanut butter cup cookies, and coconut covered things that I wouldn't even eat! I guess she just wanted to make sure everyone had something that they particularly enjoyed. I've never been a great cook, but if I ever have kids, I want to be able to share holiday treats and recipes with them too. I think I've finally got chocolate chip cookies right:

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
1 stk salted butter softened (This is considered baking blasphemy. I prefer salted.)
1/2 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 1/2 ts vanilla extract
1 large egg room temp lightly beaten
1 (12 oz) chocolate chips

1. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Blend together butter and sugars.
3. Add vanilla and egg. Mix to incorporate.
4. Incorporate flour mixture, and repeat with the chocolate chips
5. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees- this may vary per oven. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pack the dough into balls and place them approx. 2 inches apart.
6. Set your oven racks on the second and fourth levels. Put the baking sheet on the 4th level and bake for 7 min.
7. After 7 min, rotate the sheet 180 degrees (front to back) and place on the 2nd level. Continue baking 7 more min.
8. Remove and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Sharing the love for Green and recycled…

Today, we'd like to spotlight Loran Scruggs, another artist who makes eco-friendly products. And while promoting your competition probably isn't good for business, we're so jealous of how awesome these items are, we just have to show them off. Check out this bottle cap whistle:

And there are so many cool designs, we can't decide which one to buy! In addition to whistles, Loran makes all kinds of things from airplanes to rat sculptures out of discarded materials. The shop is full of fun and whimsey and is sure to make you smile. Check out these items and more in their Etsy shop: http://loranscruggs.etsy.com
Have a great week everyone!

Sailing the High Seas with a Bathroom Blot!

Michael and I started this InkBlot to go in our guest bathroom. The room has this awful yellowish beige wallpaper, low ceiling, and bad lighting, so in my girly way I set out to make it as happy as possible. In order to make the walls appear more sunshine yellow and less dingy beige, we decided to add some fresh ocean blue to this blot. It is actually the first and only piece in the InkBlot series that has color and it is by far the largest blot to date. Here it is in the room:


With the new flowers and shower curtain, it's starting to look better than OUR bathroom! *sigh* It never ends. :)

It's all in the details...

I'm probably going to embarrass Michael a little for the sake of this post, but so be it! This is an ink drawing of my dearest and fellow Greeny, Michael. The drawing was made for his Grandmother and consists of hundreds of tiny shapes and patterns. Some of the patterns are very specific to his interests, such as music notes and letters from his name. Others are just random textures. Here is a close up:

It's difficult to depict someone you see everyday. I think we start to "assume" we know what people close to us look like, but we really don't pay much attention. Hope everyone is having a good week! *hugs*

Whole Hearted Half Tone

Another Ink Blot has come to stay with us! This one is our submission to Illustration Friday for "multiple" because of all of it's hidden imagery. Everyone sees something different in it. (One of our readers kindly posted in the comments that she saw a peacock, a pinecone, a heart, a feather, and a leaf! ) The intentional multiples however, are a face (the mouth is pointing left and an eye looking right), and botanical remnants (seeds, flowers, leaves, and stems).

It's a bit larger than some of our others and came out nicely. Due to our process, we never know what size they will be when we begin. We always start on large paper or bristol and allow the ink to carry us where it will. When we feel like it is complete, we crop it to a pleasing size. Most of them stay around 5in x 7in, but on this one we got a little carried away!
See it here on Etsy or Visit GreenSpaceGoods on Etsy

Kicking off Halloween with Widgets

You have to admit that this guy is just awesome. There is a mummy too and more coming. Happy Halloween a little early. Click his head- he bobbles. :)

Get this widget!

Excuse me... Sir, could you please stop licking the magnets?

They do look yummy don't they? These were made out of some New Castle bottle caps. Michael carefully etched the paint off of the caps to reveal the metal below in the outer rings and center stars and then we coated them in various translucent paints. Needless to say, we won't be making any more. They are simply too labor intensive and no one wants to pay big bucks for bottle cap magnets. (But my aren't they pretty?) The outer edges are painted silver and they are clear coated for durability. Check them out in our Etsy store!

A Buzzing Blot

We finished another InkBlot last weekend. This one is named Buzz. He's headed to Augusta, GA. We hope to have some more listed on Etsy soon. We just have to find some time to frame them! For those of you not familiar with the InkBlot series, our process starts by making some sort of shape and then passing the paper to the other person. We work back and forth until a theme starts to emerge and then go with that theme. Everything is in ink from the beginning, so you have to work with whatever the other person added. It's a lot of fun and something that we feel sets our work apart.