Life Well Lived #10: Stumbles & Stepping High
When life offers lemons, make lemonade. The lemon life delivered this week was my experiment with sweetening the Artisan Bread mentioned in my last post. When a reader wrote that he was going to try the recipe, I advised: Adding sugar and dried fruits didn’t go well. Must run an advisory in next week’s post. Turned out a bit tangy. [Will stick with muffin recipes for that kind of thing.] Perhaps I used too much yeast for the heavier, non-wheat flours. Here’s how I made ‘lemonade’ from that bitter bread: Crumbled everything while watching Chopped-Beat Bobby Flay. Put all those crumbles on cookie sheets, baked them for four hours at 200 degrees. [They got really crunchy.] Made granola with this recipe Decided that was a way lot of maple syrup and honey for a couple servings [made with my dehydrated bread, it tasted like peanut brittle candy], so … Pulverized remaining crumbles in my seed-coffee grinder and now have fine-ground bread crumbs. Voila! Stumbles can be stepping stones. As the philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Geothe said, “By seeking and blundering, we learn.” Learn what? Astronomer Carl Sagan suggested “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Yeah! And, I promise, no more Artisan Bread posts!! * Commencement Speech Transcript * Write for Succeed and Soar Succeed and Soar’s next theme is “Love.” Twenty great quotes have been chosen as prompts. Let me know if you’d like to share your thoughts, meditations, memories, opinions, and the list of quotes and guidelines will be sent asap. I look forward to publishing you in the Succeed and Soar newsletter and on the blog. Click Here to be a Guest, Succeed and Soar Author. Tales from The Dream Zone & “Wishes” Tales from The Dream Zone is Flying Ketchup Press’ second anthology. This collection of weird and wonderful stories is inspired by remembered or imagined dreams. “Wishes,” my short story about a magic coin debuts in this collection. Copies of this beautifully illustrated book are $12.99. Sandra’s Special, Limited-Time Offer Receive unlimited, personally-autographed copies on single orders, to one US address for $5 shipping & handling. Request here. * Preparing to Win National Novel Writing Month In 2019, nearly a half million people started National Novel Writing Month, determined to build at least 50,000 words into the start of a book-length story. A few succeeded. Far more important than piling up words is producing useful material. This Pennwriters workshop will use October to launch a fabulous writing adventure at midnight, Halloween night while winning the word-count challenge.Join me. I’m a NaNoWriMo winner and learned a lot along the way. Course Info When life offers lemons: Stay flexible. Accept that we can’t control everything and life is unpredictable. Maintain good, healthy relationships with family and friends. Learn from situations so that history doesn’t repeat itself. Stay positive. Here are four more tips. And, here are Five, Powerful Ways to Turn Adversity Into Opportunity. Please share. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar.
Life Well Lived 9: Something That Wasn’t There Before
The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something [delightful] that wasn’t there before. Neil Gaiman As promised last week, here’s my incredibly easy Artisan Bread. Because I avoid wheat, these loaves were made with flours on hand: Cassava, Tapioca, Oat and Garbanzo] Extra yeast and water was added because these flours are heavier. My Artisan Bread has a focaccia-like texture. It’s definitely tasty with butter. Also with mayo and tomatoes. I’m looking forward to trying some vegetable hotdogs [purchased at Ikea, of all places]. . Artisan Bread is a forgiving, flexible bread that invites experimentation. So, have just finished baking mini loaves that have blue-cheese look given the spicy, cooked spinach I stirred in. Loaves that contain dates and dried apricots are about to leave my oven. I look forward to adding chopped nuts and seeds. Here’s the 4-minute PBS for Kids video that inspired this delicious, artistic endeavor. Here’s a printable recipe. Reply! Share your bread making adventure! Comment on this blog post. NOTE: The word delightful was added to Neil Gaiman’s quote because some things this incredibly imaginative author have created that weren’t there before have been pretty monstrous. If you’d like a good scare [friends of mine have been really spooked], listen to this 7-minute read of Gaiman’s short story, “Other People.” * While Social Distancing, Here Are Great Ways to: Stay creative Exercise [includes videos] Feel happier Make your own, natural disinfectants Please share. This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original image was shot with a Nikon SLR camera using positive film. The transparency] was later digitalized. That JPEG file ‘was processed’ in Adobe PhotoShop Elements 14, achieving a painted effect via the Fresco filter. The color saturation and vibrance were then enriched.
Life Well Lived #8: Let’s get a little crazy here.
The creative personality seems never to grow old but rather, simply grow. – Alden B. Dow Whether you have or have yet to see Bob Ross create a large, beautiful landscape in 30 minutes, treat yourself. Watch a “Joy of Painting” show. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear him croon about painting “happy little” trees and clouds. These words from a man who reminded us to hold onto a bit of childhood and sometimes get a little crazy. Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential painters of the 20th century said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” The man who helped found the Cubist movement and constructed sculpture also said, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off of our souls.” This week, and for a bit of every week, why not make some art? How? This post’s “Tools and Resources” offer some great, free, online courses. Or, even better for connecting to the child inside and dusting drudge off the soul, another great Picasso recommendation. “To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” Share your arts adventures. Reply. Comment below. And, consider making some easy, four-ingredient, Artisan Bread. See video. See my bread results next week. The video is from PBS for Kids, I looked all over the site and couldn’t find the recipe. HERE is a quick, easy one with specific instructions. I combined with video info [like baking in moist oven]. * As Bob Ross would recommend, Let’s get a little crazy. Make some art this week. Here are some, Free Online Art Classes Kline Creative Free Drawing Lessons for beginners ArtyFactory All kinds of free art lessons, from charcoal portraits to aerial perspective, from African masks to pen and ink and more. Toad Hollow Studios A very talented artist shares her drawing techniques, including how to draw shining objects, an open rose and more. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original image was shot with a Nikon Coolpix camera. The jpg was “developed” in Adobe PhotoShop.