Square Painting Canvases by US Art Supply.

Earlier this week i reviewed  8 x 10 stretched canvas by US Art Supply.   We also received a set of square canvas panels, but the last two weeks have been so busy we haven't had the chance to really try them out yet.

These are the Square Variety Assortment of Canvas Panels. The set contains 12-Total Panels (2-EA: 12x12, 10x10, 8x8, 6x6, 5x5, 4x4). They are tripled primed cotton, acid free and medium weight. 

 These are going to be a lot of fun to work with and should keep us busy for a while. i really love the variety of sizes. i've been playing around with making some mixed media mandala paintings and i think these will work great for them.

You can find this 12 pack of canvas panels on amazon. It's only $19.96 right now, and free shipping if you have prime. The set comes with two of each of the sizes pictured. 

i received this canvas in exchange for my review. i was not compensated. i really love working with #usartsupply and have been pleased with all of their products. They offer such a great selection of affordable art supplies.

Orion's Peace Camp & Learning Center: a Global Movement

i know i've posted about Orion Strong a few times before. Orion is the son of an online friend who was diagnosed with AML cancer in 2013. On November 10, 2014,  Orion Strong, 16 yrs old, got his angel wings. His grandparents have started a kickstarter to help create Peace camps in his honor. Please watch the video,  visit the kickstarter page, donate if you can and share. 

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 As Orion liked to say, "Together we can make a difference." Thanks for being the change you want to see in this world. 

View the Kickstarter campaign here.
You can also visit the Hope for Orion fb page to read more of Orion's story.

Mushroom foraging.

Hunting morels in the spring is one of my favorite activities. The idea of mushroom foraging has always made me nervous, as there are lots of poisonous mushrooms that look similar to edible mushrooms.  Morels is one of the few that are extremely easy to identify and really don't have any poisonous look-alikes. There is a mushroom called the false morel, but there are some obvious differences between the two and with a little research you are not going to confuse them. Besides appearance, one of the easist ways to make sure you have morels and not false morels is that morels are hollow all the way through (stem and cap), whereas false morels are not hollow and will have fiber/tissue inside.  We really enjoy eating morels sauteed in butter or breaded and fried. 

This summer i found a ton of these Smooth Chanterelles.  i picked a few just to confirm my identification with the local mushroom expert. The smooth underside, and light folds is a giveaway that these are smooth chanterelles. Most of the poisonous look a likes have gills underneath. i went back to harvest the rest of them and they had already dried up, so i didn't get a chance to try them. i feel pretty confident in my ability to identify these and will probably try them next year.

i recently joined a mushroom identification forum and have begun identifying other edible mushrooms literally right in our backyard. This year i have not been brave enough to eat any of them yet (still researching) but i am getting more confident in my identifications. This one is called Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus) is can easily be identified by it's toothy long spines.The flavor of this mushroom is often compared to seafood. All 

Another edible that i found right behind our house is the Bear's Head tooth mushroom (Hericium americanum). It' in the same family as the Lion's mane. All the mushrooms in the Hericium family are considered edible and easy to identify. 

Honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea)  These were identified by a mushroom expert. i feel like they have many poisonous look alikes and i would not recommend picking and eating these without doing a lot of research first. This is not a beginners mushroom. i'm showing it here, just to show the variety of edibles i found right in my yard. Caution is advised. 

A closer look at the honey mushroom. i am not at all confident in identifying these without consulting an expert.  Some things that help to identify them is that they grow in clumps, typically on rotting stumps. The gills are whitish with a ring around the upper stem. This ring is a remnant of the partial veil, the piece of tissue that covers the gills when young. There is no bulb around the base of the stem. The spore print is white. 

Giant puff balls ( Langermannia gigantea) are pretty easy to identify. Several of the smaller puff balls are poisonous, so again make sure you do your research before consuming them. Typically the giant puff balls, are very large and have a smooth white skin. i believe that mine are (Calvatia craniformis) which are also considered a giant edible edible puffball. i have a bout a dozen of these in my goat field, this size and larger.

The flesh inside a puffball should be white. If it i brown, yellow or any other color throw it out.

Shaggy Manes.(Coprinus comatus) are also fairly easy to identify. They are also called inky caps, because as they age they turn black and inky. They should only be picked when young before they start turning black. 

Now that i'm starting to lose my fear of wild mushrooms, i'm really excited by the variety in my own backyard. i'd really like to take a class on identifying edible mushrooms as well. i learn alot just doing my own research, but i like hands n experience as well. 

It's amazing to me the amount of wild/free food that is  available to us in our own backyard.

*disclaimer- i am NOT a mushroom expert. Do not send me pictures of mushrooms asking if i can identify them or if  you can eat them. Do your own research, only eat wild mushrooms you can 100% identify.  This post was meant to show the edibles i found in my backyard, it is not intended to be used to identity mushrooms you found in your backyard- do your own research!  Eat at your risk. 

*wild mushrooms always need to be cooked and should not be consumed with alcohol.  

Creating Painted Mandalas with #USArtSupply

This week i'm reviewing this 8 x 10 stretched canvas by US Art Supply.  It's a 10 pack, so i'm thinking i may have to host a paint party for my girl and a few of her friends.

These canvases are a nice size, triple primed over kiln dried wood and ready to paint. This value pack is priced at$17.96, that's less than $2 a canvas. Really good bargain if you are hosting a paint night or planning to paint gifts for friends and family.

My daughter has been planning to paint pictures for several family members who have requested them, and  i was hoping to have her get started and paint some of these canvases for my review, but she's still working on a painting she started last week and wasn't ready to start anything new. 

i've been wanting to make a mixed media mandala painting ever since i first saw one, but really wasn't sure where to start. So i poked around the internet a bit, and found a tutorial on  how to make a mixed Media collage.

i also looked up some different Mandala tutorials and thought this one was helpful on drawing mandalas.   i went with a really basic design for my first mandala. i sketched it out, and then started applying the base colors.  

Once i get all the base colors down, i'll work on outlining and adding the details. i might still try to incorporate some paper into it, i just didn't really have anything on hand that i thought would work. Now that i'm getting more of a vision of what i'm painting and and figuring out the colors i want, i have a lot more ideas about what i can do with it.  This is just the beginning stages, once i finish it i may post my own tutorial showing my process. 

One of these days, when we have our paintings done and hung up i'll post a photo. The wall behind my sofa is completely empty and i'm very eager to add some beautiful artwork to it.

You can find this 10 pack of canvas on amazon. It's only $17.96 right now, and free shipping if you have prime. This is a fun size for a kids paint party, or for making mandala art. 

i received this canvas in exchange for my review. i was not compensated. i really love working with #usartsupply and have been pleased with all of their products. They offer such a great selection of affordable art supplies.

Organizing with Chalk Board labels.

The first *image is the inspiration for how i want my pantry to look, it's not my photo. My pantry does not look like this, it looks like something you'd see on hoarders...but i'm hoping that after i clean it out and rearrange it and get everything labeled it will look much more like this inspiration image.

i still need to get some bigger wide mouth jars for my flour and sugar, but i've starting to move a few things into jars and labeling them with my chalkboard markers and chalkboard  labels.

This set of chalkboard labels by #sacarstationery comes with 120 labels! It contains many different shapes and sizes including 8 full sheet labels. It's a really great set and probably all the labels you'd ever need. They are durable and reusable. You can remove the chalk/chalkmarker with a damp cloth. 

i'll probably post a picture of my pantry once it's organized a bit. i'm still looking for large containers and jars for all my bulk stuff and i want to find some baskets for some of the other items too. i love that inspiration picture  above and i think having a vision of how i want my pantry to look will really help me to organize it better. 

i've also been using chalkboard labels on my craft supply containers and trying to get all of that organized as well.  Organization has never been my strong suit but i do feel like i'm on my way to a having a pretty pantry. :)

i received these chalkboard labels in exchange for my honest review. i truly love them! i was not compensated. 

* i found the pantry image on pinterest. It is not my photo and i'm not sure who to credit for it.