I've been busy these last few weeks designing and painting LOTS of mugs. I wanted to share this cute set with you and give you a little update on my trials and tribulations in the mug painting world. 

So far I've got the basic mug cleaning (rubbing alcohol ftw!) and painting portion down (sharpies!) but when it comes to keeping the paint ON the mugs I've been having all sorts of troubles. 

I have tried baking them at 250° for 2 hours, I have tried baking them at 350° for half an hour. Trouble is, when you bake them at 250° the paint scratches off and when you bake them at 350° they change colors! Ahhhh! 

I made the mistake of trying to spray the cow mugs with a light coat of spray sealant to get the paint to stay on permanently BUT the paint bled everywhere and became a huge, awful mess. It was terrible. They were completely destroyed. I barely recovered. (No pictures, it's too traumatic.)

SO I bought some Ceramic Mod Podge and will be trying that this evening. We'll see how it goes! In the meantime I've been redoing all of the Cow Mugs and designing a huge set o'themed mugs for my Step-Ma. 

This weekend, with no prompting from me, Alex decided to run to the grocery store and pick up all the stuff for salads in jars (including the jars!) I think this Summery weather has him in the mood for healthy, light food. I'm totally down, these guys were delicious! 

These were really quick to whip up on Sunday, I think it took us about 20 minutes from start to finish. We set up a little salad station with beans, tempeh, dressings and veggies and tossed everything in a couple jars and were done!  

Usually on Sundays we toss together a weeks worth of freezer breakfast burritos, this was sort of the same concept but with lunch food! (Plus I'm not a huge fan of freezer burritos; frozen eggs? Weird.)

This is a really easy "recipe" to change up, you can toss in anything you like! We stuck to a pretty basic system since this was our first time around but you could throw in quinoa, hard cheese (feta, goat, etc.) cooked pasta, fruit, lunch meat, corn, rice...the list goes on and on. 

Before you get started you should give this post a look to hone your stacking skills so your toppings don't get soggy or squishy by the time you get to them. 

Alex's Jar Salad
(Makes about 6 salad jars)

Ingredients

1 Cup Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 Chopped Green Bell Pepper
5 Chopped Radishes
1 Small Head Fresh Broccoli
1 Small package mixed Baby Carrots and Snap Peas
1 Chopped Cucumber
4oz Crumbled Tempeh
1 Chopped Tomato
1 14oz Can of Drained, Rinsed Cannellini Beans
1 bag Arugula
1 bag Mixed Greens

Add 3 TBSP dressing to each jar. Divide ingredients evenly in your 6 jars in the order listed above. Seal tightly. Don't shake until serving! 

To serve; Shake, pour into a bowl and enjoy! These last up to 5-7 days in the refrigerator. If you have softer cheeses or fruits I would add them at the very end otherwise they might get soggy. I've been sending Alex to school with a side of crumbled cheddar cheese and a hard boiled egg. 

I'm looking forward to trying this recipe with many different ingredients. I saw a bitchin' creamy Caesar Salad with fresh Parmesan and Fusilli Pasta that just looked magical. I'm sure I can translate it into a sweet jar recipe. 

Give this a try! The possibilities are endless! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

​-Ashley

This was a super busy week! I've had a lot of different craft projects in the work; commissions, gifts, etc. I've also been cramming more cardio workouts in my life. Lots of jogging and Zumba and challenging yoga videos. It's been fun/tiring. At the same time, my insomnia has been extra severe this week so I've been doing it all with little to no sleep under my belt everyday.  Whew! What a week! 

I've been designing a set of Koi fish mugs for a cousin that should (hopefully) be done by the end of next week. Here are some ideas I have for the project. 

I know two of them look similar but they're totally different colors, right? Right?


​I've also been knitting some tweed socks for a friend. These will be a surprise gift, so don't tell him. 

As usual, Moonunit kitty needs to get involved with each and every project. 

I'll share more about these projects when they're all done. 


​I also wound my first skein of home spun yarn this week! It was pretty exciting, I spun two tiny balls of yarn on my drop spindle and then twisted them together to make a two ply baby hank of "yarn." Ok, it turned out a little bit more like rope due to my over-ambitious spinning technique but I'm learning from my mistakes. The next baby hank will be a little looser. 

I'm kind of tempted to dye it at this point, I don't know how to do that but I'm sure I could figure it out...


I've also been getting back into writing music (can you tell this sunny weather makes me feel way ambitious?) So I busted out my trusty music book and am writing a couple new tunes. I'm hoping to have an EP finished by mid-Summer. ​

I also have another (HUGE) mug commission coming up, a pattern I need to publish, a Spring Cardigan to knit, a recipe to publish and all my herbs and flowers to plant for the Spring/Summer. Oh, and some Birthday cards to write. I hope I'm not forgetting anything! I like to keep BUSY! 

PS. I also baked an Apple Pie. 

Whew!
​
Thanks for reading! Feel free to share your adventures from this week below! 

-Ashley