joe randel's art dump

So this is the last post I’ll be making before Christmas. Tomorrow I pack the family in the van and take the big 3.5 hour trip back home. Which means I’ll have to drive through Toronto so add an additional 2 hours to that. Suck… Also have to pack the van with anything and everything we’ll need for the trip. Frig, you’d think I was moving again.

I seriously hope that my kids don’t get any presents from relatives. Well… just one is okay. Last year my wife and I (mostly me actually) where completely blown over with the amount that they got. Completely ridiculous. They even got presents from Aunts and Uncles that they never even see. From us (and Santa) they get two toys and the rest is books and cloths. But from everyone else… all toys. We actually took back a bunch because there where some that we knew the kids wouldn’t play with. We set ground rule this year. Grandparents are allowed ONE gift each to the grandkids. That’s it. My Dad is actually very cool with this and have agreed to not get them toys at all. Wonderful, that makes me very happy. We’ll see if people stick to their word though. I’m tired of driving home with extra crap.

So is anyone else doing extensive traveling this season? Last year it was nice as my Dad and Step Mom came and visited us. Not so lucky this year I tells ya. Oh well… it’ll be nice to see everyone all the same.

I actually already know what I’m getting. Slippers and some new razors and that makes me very happy indeed.

Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and a belated Chanukah! I’ll be back on the Monday.

Joe

Tonight I made the pieces for a gingerbread house that my kids are going to put together on Christmas.  My wife was making fun of me because I draw out my house plans at a reduced scale, cut my dough with a pizza cutter to get perfect lines and measure out everything so all the pieces fit together.

She would have had it all cut and baked before I even had my first pieces planned out.  That’s the fun part about us.  I’m all super planned out guy and she’s fly by the seat of her pants girl.  We balance each other pretty well in that regard.

Although I generally forget a step or screw up one thing during my whole process.  This time I over cooked some of the parts, didn’t roll out the dough thin enough so the cookie is a bit puffy and cracked the roof when I picked it up… sigh…

It seriously makes me want to make those pieces over again but I just don’t have the time to do it.  I’ll have to learn from these mistakes and try and remember them next year.

Did you ever make a gingerbread house when you where a kid?

Today was baking day.  I made some of my annual mint chocolate pinwheel cookies and some orange chocolate cookies.  Mmmm tasty.

I think I’ll share with you one of those recipes.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE COOKIES

– 1 oz square of unsweetened chocolate or about a 1/4 cup of chocolate chips.
– 3/4 C. butter
– 3/4 C. sugar
– 1 egg
– 1 tsp vanilla
– 1 1/2 C. all purpose flower
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 1 medium orange

Preheat oven to 350F (175 C)

In medium bowl cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg and the vanilla.  In separate bowl combine the flower and the baking powder then add it to the creamed mixture.

Once the dough is well combined, pick it up and divide it in to two parts and put each part in separate bowls (use the bowl you used to mix the powder ingredients and your current one).  Zest the orange on to one of the half’s of dough and mix it in .  If you don’t have an orange zester you can use the small holes of a cheese grater.  Melt your chocolate (be careful not to scorch it) and add it to the other half mixing it in thoroughly.

Get your baking sheet ready (I generally bake with a sheet of parchment paper down to get a nice brown on the bottom of the cookies but that’s just me) and take a small amount from each mixture and roll it in to a 1 inch ball.  This will make neat white and chocolate patterns in your cookies.

Bake your cookies for about 8 min, checking at the 6 min mark to make sure they don’t burn.

Let cool and enjoy. ^_^

I took a pic of mine so you can get an idea of how they’ll look when they’re done.

Today I got the rest of the Christmas shopping done.  My daughter and I went out and bought gifts for Mommy at the mall.  It was a little crowded but everyone was nice and no one was pushy.  Actually, my wife and I are totally in the mind of “we don’t need anything so you don’t have to get me anything” but we also don’t our daughter to ask why we didn’t get anything for Christmas, so we get just each other a few small things and the kids help.

Now I just have to wrap it all.

If your one of the fools that buys gifts for people during the holidays, are you done yet?  Or are you a “I’ll get it done on the 24th” type of person?

I pass by a “gentleman’s club” on the way home every day and I just happened to notice this on their sign.

One has to wonder what happens at a strip club on customer appreciation night… one has to wonder indeed…

I’m sorry I missed it.

Hey everyone.  I just want to take time now to say thanks for all the comments you guys and gals leave for me on my posts and pics.  It means a lot to have so many people take interest in my fun little hobby.  I guess it means I’m doing something right. ^_^  Sorry that I don’t give replies to everyone that leaves a comment.  Especially now during the holiday season I find it really hard to even make the posts.  Recently there have been so many great comments on past posts, and I would have loved to go in to deeper conversations with the poster on what they had written… but alas… time is something that I lack in great amounts.

I also want to say that commissions are a bit slow right now but they are still being worked on.  I’m also doing portfolio pieces (folio as in my real job type folio) with the hopes of getting in to another studio in the new year.  But no worries, I still put time in on them when I can get it.

Oh and if you’ve sent me a note or an email lately and I haven’t gotten back to you on it, I apologize… I have read it and I will comment back.  I promise.

Well I think that’s it.  Just wanted to get all that out there.  So thanks again everyone.  It all just makes me want to draw more and more. ^_^

Later

Joe