Food recipes

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Sense of smell

My friend Carol gave me these peppers yesterday. She has a friend who grew them this summer. It's not hard for family and friends to find someone who to share hot peppers with. As Mexican, I like spicy food and I appreciate that they think of me. There's always hot salsas or some sort of spicy food in my refrigerator or on my table. Some times I cannot keep up with the peppers that are given to me but I always manage to do something with them. I tried to grew them last summer but it was the only vegetable didn't do so well. These ones are so beautiful. Carol gave 3 kinds of peppers: güero(blond), jalapeño and serrano. The freshness and grassy odor coming out of the bag made me feel so well. It's amazing how one of the most underestimated of our senses can make us feel when we are aware of the fact that most of us are bless because we can smell. Aleluya! Time to eat...


Friday, July 25, 2014

Hide and seek

I went for a ride on Route 6 with my husband yesterday.  The old road  between Seneca and Marseilles in Illinois is curvy and shaded by the overgrown trees. The ride is just enjoyable, we rolled our car windows down and off we went. This road is close to the river. Seneca and Marseilles are old towns with four digit populations. We stopped at Marseilles and found this old church. It is 150 years old, majestic. I'd like to draw more people on my sketches, but this was not the place or time to do so. It would worked if yesterday was Sunday, but I couldn't overlook the opportunity to sketch a beautiful building. Close to finish my sketch a boy appeared and sat down on the stairs by the door, he's there, use your magnifying glass. He was playing hide and seek with other kids...that's right....kids hiding when I wanted to draw people.......just my luck.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

People at the beach

I went to Coal City beach this morning. It looked like a possible nice day to be in the water. I couldn't be more wrong. It was windy and chilly. Only kids were in the water, and we all adults...no way. So I was determined to practice drawing only people with high expectations of keeping human proportions close to reality. I think I did pretty good. I used my S&B sketchbook given to me at the first USk Chicago Seminar, Lamy fountain pen and watercolor pencils. This is what I found:

1. The "I workout 3 hours at the gym everyday and I deserve a rest" mom.





2. The "I want to whistle but all the kids are behaving well" lifeguard.





3. The "I can't let social media go" teenager.




4. The "I'm freezing" lifeguard.



5. The "I'm so bored, why did I take this job" lifeguard.



6. The "I'm falling asleep" grandma


That's it. I was cold too, so I packed my things and returned home.


Saturday, July 19, 2014

Parked kayaks and canoes




Few years ago, this place used to have a only a handful of kayaks and canoes. Now there's need to cut the shrubs at the edge of the water to make more space to "park" many more.

Friday, July 11, 2014

My odd encounter with Mayor of Shorewood.

This afternoon my hands were itching, I needed to sketch. So I went to sketch this building that I had in my list for a while. I sat near the entrance of the parking lot, minutes later a car stopped near me and the man in the car looked at me and say nothing.......... I didn't either............ I waited for him to say something. The silent was awkward, so I broke the ice by saying hi. He asked me what was I doing and I said I was sketching the building. He smiled and gave me a thumb up and said - Send this to the mayor's office! I replied - Sure! Who are you? ( I meant to say what's your name). He looked at me surprised for a moment, I don't know if it was because my question sound rude or because I didn't know. Finally he said -I'm the mayor-......oh....that explains everything.

Update: I sent the image to the major, he asked me permission to print and frame to hang it in his office, what an honor! Of course I said yes!

Camping site

Here in Coal City people is used to this life style. This homes may be compact but they offer everything to people to live the life. I don't know where they come from or how long do they stay here. I know they take turns to share water front plots. While doing this sketch mosquito were in a war with me, it distracted me so much that I make this sketch with non-waterproof ink pen, that's why I didn't add to much color. Overall I'm o.k. with the result. Next time save it and put mosquito repellent on.....to start.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

My best friend outdoors

I don't know why do I have so many mosquito repellents...from Mexico! I took my outdoors kit  with me today and it was so heavy! I went through it and found 5 mosquito repellents and 6 sunblock bottles. It was hard to figure out how old they were, since they have no expiration date! But there's no way I'm going to throw them away! Why did I get so many? I guess I'll have to try them at the risk of being bitten by mosquito if any of these repellents doesn't work. It will be a fun summer or a miserable one.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Bee hive boxes

Driving out of the city to the country is just very relaxing. Bob and I went out for lunch at a place called Emerson Creek Pottery and Tearoom. It's hard to get a table, specially for walk ins. We didn't make any reservations but fortunately we got a table outside. I noticed this group of bee hive boxes after lunch. The honey they sell in the shop must be from these boxes, since they cook all the food from scratch, why wouldn't they sell honey coming from their very own backyard, right? Needles to say I wanted to sketch the boxes on location, but as you can imagining, being close to bees is serious business. I  approached to the boxes to take photos and I had them buzzing around my ears and eyes in no time. They were flying over my head, I think they liked my hair to start a new hive. Ha! Imagine that!