Why Gestures?

When I decided to create this blog over two years ago my main objective was to document my experiences while gardening. Originally this blog was titled My Home Garden and I mostly blogged about what I had planted and harvested. When I started college I had an English class and for one class project I created a fictitious magazine which I titled Gestures. In the introduction of the magazine I provided an explanation of the title and the focus of the magazine.

Here is that page from my project which explained my personal philosophy and inspired the title of my blog...

Photo:


Text:

"Gestures
A publication about giving...

I often find myself overjoyed and giddy to know that something I made is about to bring another person happiness. It could be a gift that took me hours make or something as simple as vegetables that I grew in my garden and placed into a decorative container. The anticipation that I feel before I give someone a gift is what keeps me giving. The joy of knowing that a gesture, be it big or small, could make someone’s day a little bit brighter is reason enough for me to remain thoughtful.

Throughout the years I have come to find that if you listen to what people talk about and pay attention to their interests you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of gift that you can give them. When I say gift I do not mean running out to the local department store and spending hundreds of dollars. To me a gift can be anything that requires a little thoughtfulness. The gift can be simple or complex, it can have significance to a story that you were told or it can be as simple as a flower in a bud vase along with a note saying, “I saw this and thought of you.”

Personally, I consider the fact that someone took time out of their busy day to think of me as the true gift. It is my hope within these pages you will be educated, inspired, and elated to show someone that you care. A gesture can be a smile or the wave of a hand, but one thing I can be sure of is a gesture is acknowledgement. In my experience interacting with people acknowledgement is what we are all looking for, if you see a friend or co-worker who seems a little down or frustrated. It can really make a difference to them to know that you noticed and wanted to make an attempt to bring a smile to their face.

Welcome,

Louis J. Gastelum"

I started this blog as a way to document my garden, but as I grew and learned in my life experiences so did my blog. I know that sounds corny, but it is true. In the first year of my blog I posted only 25 entries mostly about my garden, the following year 19 posts, this year I am up to 81 and the year is not over. I find myself eager to document and share everything. I am so grateful for the camera on my phone because it has been a useful tool to take pictures at times when I do not have my regular camera handy.

Another thing that keeps me blogging are the comments I receive. I love hearing from people, old friends and new friends. I love sharing what inspires me and hopefully I can pass along that inspiration and possibly inspire someone with one of my projects. This blog is truly a joy to write and I hope I can provide the same joy and inspiration that I receive from all of the blogs that I read.

Cakes, Cakes and yes... More Cakes...

One of my blogger friends Anita asked about my previous blog post on making Spider Eggs what you cover the balloons with. The answer is nothing, we just made a mess and that was plaster that had leaked out of the balloon before we got to tie it.

If you read the instructions and the supply list the amounts of plaster do not match up. I think the instruction list calls for 8 oz of plaster and 4 oz of water, and the instructions call for 12 oz of plaster and 6 oz of water. I would go with the larger amounts otherwise your eggs could come out very thin and fragile. Oh yeah and do not blow the balloons up TOO big or they could become too thin.

Onto cakes, in my ongoing cake making deal with the CSP at Youngstown State University (which I am a student at) once a month I make cakes for the staff members birthdays. This month I was told that yellow cake was requested, other than that I had creative freedom. I decided to make a yellow cake brushed with almond syrup and with a Nutella Swiss meringue buttercream.

In other cake news I made a cake for the First Universalist Unitarian Church of Youngstown back in July and everyone liked it so much that people asked for my contact information, just incase someone else wanted a cake. A gentleman from Columbus contacted me and "ordered" a cake for his brother's birthday. He wanted the exact same cake. I think it is a compliment that someone 3 hours away ordered a cake that he hasn't even tasted. WORD OF MOUTH WORKS! Well In order to alleviate some of the work I baked all three cakes and have frozen them on cake boards. This way when I need them I take them out, let them defrost for about an hour and then frost them. In the words of Ina Garten, "How easy was that?!"

Here are some pics of my favorite white cake recipe (from of course Martha Stewart)

Here is Lucy wondering what we are doing up at 8:30 AM baking....


One thing that I like about this cake is that it is light and airy. This is achieved by mixing the batter with egg whites.


Most baking recipes begin with creaming together butter and sugar. Here is my work area with my one of my absolute favorite Christmas gifts, my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer....


One good tip that I can give is when a recipe requires you to butter your pans you can use the papers that your butter came wrapped in. It works very well....


To try and add even more flavor to this cake I took my old atlas jar full of vanilla sugar out of my reserves. When I opened this jar it smelled heavenly...


Here are my egg whites alongside the cake batter, the whites need to be gently folded into the batter. It makes for a light fluffy batter and a delicious cake...


The batter then needs to be spread into a sheet pan which is buttered, lined with parchment, buttered again and then floured.


Here is a beautiful cake cooling on a rack...

SPIDER EGGS & UGLINESS....

Yesterday Nicole and I started our spider eggs. We got to take the out of the balloons today and they look wonderful. They were a mess to make, some of them were too thin, and they are fragile but, they were worth it! Have a look....














When you display these eggs you use a glowstick inside of the egg to give it an eerie glow. I only had a small one but it was just to demonstrate the effect.


I made an army of glittered spiders to place about....


Onto Halloween costumes.... This year I have decided to be one of my favorite television characters. I have gotten the wig and the glasses but I had to make some elements and I still need to make a poncho!

Here are some things that will give you an idea of what I am going to be...


Also, the character wears a necklace and I was not willing to shell out the dough they were asking for online. So, I made my own. The original is on the left, mine is on the right....

Dinner, Crafts and a bottle of champagne....

Being busy college students does not exactly provide me with enough time to make a home cooked meal every night. Today I got the cooking bug and wanted to make dinner.

I made herbed polenta, grilled vegetables, salad, and a cucumber, feta, yogurt sauce for our grilled vegetable wraps. For Brian I made a steak, corn on the cob, and a baked potato. Have a look....

I have never made polenta before. Brian took me to a local Italian restaurant called Cafe Cimmento and they had polenta. It was delicious and had to try it at home...
Here are my ingredients laid out...


In order to not have lumpy polenta you must constantly whisk it. Here I am in action...


Here are our side dishes of herby, buttery polenta!!! YUMMY!


The tomato production in my garden has slowed down but there are still some delicious tomatoes coming out of it! Here is a salad with feta cheese, olives, and a sliced up Hawaiian Pineapple. These tomatoes are so good not acidic at all and the color, it looks like fresh peaches.


I made a sauce for our grilled veggie wraps out of yogurt, lime juice, garlic, salt, pepper, cucumber and feta cheese. YUM!


After dinner Nicole (with a bit of direction from me) made rice crispy treats! They were so delicious...


If you look closely in the background you will see Nicole's paws waiting patiently....


After all of this food Nicole and I retired to my new crafting area (which I will be blogging about later) to make Spider Eggs

This was quite an adventure and also a mess to clean up! Thank goodness we had a bottle of champagne standing by to comfort us....


I will let you know how these spider eggs come out tomorrow!

Oh yeah and baby Lucy loves my new crafting area as much as I do. I was sure to include an area for her to rest...

All That Glitters

Now that the holidays have begun I figured that it is the perfect time to break out with the glitter. Glitter is fun and adds a touch of whimsy to anything. Don't get me wrong I am sure that there is a limit that one can cross and make something hideously ridiculously glittered.

While preparing for the craft show that I participated in last weekend I was a glittering fool. EVERYTHING was covered with glitter Our dogs looked like they were ready to go clubbing and our house looked like Tinkerbell had exploded. I might as well throw this one in for Brian. Our house looked like it was one of the biggest glitter related accidents since Mariah Carey's film debut.

After the mushroom cloud of glitter cleared I ended up with some really nice, beautiful and sparkly things. Have a look...

I just love the macabre look of these glittered skulls. They were VERY inexpensive to make and the glitter just makes them look so neat! I need to find a different more spooky dish to display them in...


Here are some simple paper mache pumpkins that I found at Michaels for 99 cents each.


Oh yeah, the fact that Charlie is such a beast who is always causing torment and getting into trouble has overshadowed the fact that he is quite a pretty dog. He was sitting by the back door soaking up the sun and it made me appreciate how handsome he really is. He does have quite a devious look in his eye....

Goodbye Summer...

I was a bit sad about the fact that on Summer has officially left us. I don't feel like I had much time for my garden and our yard, but I ate and shared plenty of beautiful tomatoes.

Now this is something for me to be happy about. I LOVE THE FALL! I love cooler evenings and going outside without sweating like a hog. One big part of Fall that I love is being able to open up and air out our house. I feel that bringing fresh air inside is an important thing to do for the health of your house and everyone in it.


So what have I been up to lately? As I have previously mentioned in another blog post My friend Noreen was kind enough to let me have a space at a craft show she was selling her wonderful paintings at. Being the procrastinator that I am I waited till the last minute to get a majority of my painting done.

Brian felt as though my painted glasses and pitcher sets would be a big hit so he went out and got me 3 sets of them, which totals 18 glasses and 3 pitchers. When we unboxed all of this glassware my heart sunk and my painting hand wanted to shrivel up and fall off!


I wanted to throw a bit of Halloween painting in there so I made a few plaques.


I also made a Glittered Halloween Tree that the glitter lady made on Martha. I LOVE how this tree came out! The twisted and gnarled copper trunk was not hard to make at all.


Well the day before the craft show I had class till 2 then came home and painted until 10:30 at night. We went out and didn't get to bed until 5:00 AM and we had to be up at 6:00AM to get to the craft show to set up. We were at the craft show until 11:00 and I had to be to Jo-Ann Fabrics to do a painting demonstration from 1:00 until 3:00PM I had a break from 3-6 (which I used to nap) and then I had to be back at Jo-Ann Fabrics for a 6:00PM One-Stroke roses class. All of this on one hour of sleep. Just recapping my day yesterday makes me tired!

Here are some of my painted wares on the table. Noreen's daughter Jen makes beautiful bracelets, wine glass charms, and other beaded items. Also, if you look in the back some of Noreen's amazing paintings are hanging up.


After leaving the craft show we went to Whitehouse Fruit Farms. I LOVEEEEE IT THERE! They have the most amazing fruit and the blueberry doughnuts... words can not describe them. When we arrived at the farm this hay barrel was greeting us.


Here is the shop section of the farm. We left there with doughnuts, cheese, bread, apple cider of course, honeycrisp apples (you usually have to wrestle people for these), and some juicy peaches.


Here is a lake that was close to the parking lot when we were leaving. It was so beautiful there, I really have to start visiting more often.

Long Time No Blog....

I feel as though I have neglected my blog because I have been so busy/tired lately. I have been busy with school, teaching painting classes, painting things for myself and family, and various other things. My tomato garden has been very prolific.

My friend and amazing artist Noreen was kind enough to let me sell some painted items along side her truly beautiful paintings at a show on Saturday. I still have quite a bit of Halloween signs to paint, but I will do that later. Yesterday I painted a few vases have a look.












I also have tomatoes coming out of my garden faster than I can eat them. I decided to take some to work to share this morning.


Let me know what you think of the vases!

Scary Beast?

I noticed a lot of red tomatoes while taking the pups out this morning. Among them was one that I refer to as THE BEAST! It really does remind me of some type of beast or of the Blob from the 1950s horror film.

Here is a comparison of the two:

1950s beast that tried to eat Mr. Steve McQueen:


The 2008 blob-esque tomato that came out of my garden this morning:


I had only planned on picking a few, but when I came back inside I had all of this bundled in my shirt!


Brian (who does our laundry gets a little angry at my mindlessness when gardening. One time I put a tomato in my pocket and then squatted down. Not good! The tomato exploded in my pocket...

On another note, my friend asked me if I could paint her some goblets. She requested a beach scene on the glasses which were to be given as gifts to her friends who are moving.

Have a look:

Long time no blog...

So it has been quite a while since I have blogged. I have been adjusting to this new semester and all of the things that come along with being in school. This semester has been adjustment and I hope that it gets easier. Well enough about that! When we got back from Florida Brian and I went to Pittsburgh to the Apple store. Brian took my old MacBook and I got a Macbook pro! While in Pittsburgh I asked Brian if we could go to Primanti Brothers.


I first learned about Primanti Brothers from a television special that was on the Travel Channel. Their menu is simple and absolutely not heart healthy at all!!! Have a look!

Here is the inside of the restaurant, all of their sandwiches are served on french bread so they have to have a lot of it on hand.


Oh my! Here is my sandwich it was an egg and cheese sandwich and as all of their sandwiches come it is topped with fries and coleslaw! My arteries are clogging just looking at this picture!


Brian's brother Mark had a birthday recently and I made the cake. They requested Ina Garten's Pineapple carrot cake which is soooooo delicious!!!


So onto other cake business, I baked a cake for the staff members from Youngstown State University's Center for Student Progress celebrating their birthdays in September. Brian's birthday happens to be September 5th so he got to choose the type of cake. He requested banana split cake. I could not find a recipe that didn't have to be served immediately so I compiled a few recipes into a cake!

I first started off with a banana cake.


On the inside of the layers of the cake I put whipped cream mixed with my strawberry jam, crushed pineapple, sliced strawberries, and sliced bananas (all the elements of a banana split!)

I then frosted the entire cake with a mix of whipped cream and strawberry jam. After that I piped stars around the border and then made a banana split on top! I flavored whipped cream with cocoa, strawberries, and vanilla and scooped it onto the banana on top to make a mini banana split. Then there was chocolate ganache, chopped nuts, and a cherry on top!


Our friends Laura and Kay came over for dinner this weekend and I decided to put some of my tomatoes to use. I made a tomato salad (which was taught to me by my sister Marcie) Here is a picture. This salad was made of just two tomatoes! It is just tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil! YUM!!!

Welcome Back to Tomato Heaven!!!

Brian and I arrived back in Ohio yesterday after a long weekend in Florida. We had such a great, fun, and relaxing time. I even painted a painting for my sister and her husband (I will blog about that later). Well when we got back home I went into my garden and found sooooo many ripe tomatoes!

I love heirloom tomatoes! The colors, lumps, and sizes are just so different and the flavors are different too!


This one is called a Hawaiian Pineapple.


Here is another view of the bunch...


Look at the size of this guy! It is a Zapotec Pleated...


More shots...



Here is baby Lucy among all of the tomatoes. She loves sniffing and exploring new things!


For lunch I had a tomato sandwich with the Hawaiian Pineapple tomato it had a very tomato-y flavor without the bitterness and acidity of regular tomatoes. It was very delicious with lots of mayo, sharp cheddar cheese, salt & pepper is an absolute must...


What better to use fresh basil for than in a tomato sandwich...


And here is my finished sandwich next to a mini-pile of Super Sweet 100s and they were so sweet just like candy!