This is late and I'm ashamed

So.

It's been a freaking long time since I bothered everyone with how annoying I am. Har. I don't even have the excuse of no WiFi anymore.

I'm just lazy.

So how do you feel about a catch up post, yeah? And from now on I shall post more than once a week!

 HAPPY EASTER!!!!! He is Risen! *dances because Lent is over* (Actually, I really like Lent, it's good for me. But I like food and Lent cuts out a lot of food.)

We wanted to make it a really fun Easter, so we older girls went out and got a bunch of candy and plastic eggs and extra Easter baskets, and then we decided to make Ravioli from scratch. We normally buy it and make our own sauce. But this year, we thought we ought to be really Italian and make everything.

So we started preparations on Thursday evening because we all work. We got so much chocolate, and so many fun things to stuff Easter baskets with. (We got a lot because A.) We never get enough chocolate in our baskets to satisfy us, and B.) we had fifteen baskets to fill, okay?)

Kat and me

And we split up. Two of us piled baskets full of yummies and pressies, while the other two started working on ravioli filling. (As an aside, please don't ever say raviolis, in Italian, "i" at the end already makes stuff plural. So ravioli is already plural, and adding an "s" to the end is redundant and annoying. Please don't do that.)

Meats, and onions, and spices and stuff, and then you put it all in a blender and turn it into paste. 

After that, we stopped for the evening, because it takes a long time to stuff that many baskets and make filling. (Also because we didn't particularly feel like working anymore so... yeah.)

The next day we made the dough for the ravioli, and started putting it all together. Let me just say, it takes for freaking ever to make ravioli by hand, guys. We didn't finish until late.

You need to roll it really flat, and then fold it over and roll it out and fold it over and roll it out.... I forget how many times. In the voice of Treebeard: A huuuuge number.

And ravioli dough is very tough so that it doesn't fall apart when you boil it, which makes it difficult to roll out. (By difficult, I mean, IT WAS A GIANT WORKOUT.)

It took so long though, lots of hysteria ensued before the night ended. I think we filled up three or four cookie trays with delicious food.

We went down to Easter Vigil for the first time in ages. (It's kind of like Midnight Mass, but for Easter. It's a bit longer, but so worth it) Because of how far away the church is from where we live, we didn't get home until almost four in the morning.

We girls who've moved out had a small breakfast at Amy and Mahri's house, with coffee and French toast and fruit salad.

A little after noon, everyone met at the parent's house (home base, I like to call it.) for basket finding and dinner.

I think Mother Nature is a bit confused though, because we did not get snow for Christmas but we had some for Easter. (yay)

We had drinks and appetizers and visited.

Amy made this beautiful arrangement for the dinner table...

And we basically had a really relaxed, laid back Easter Sunday.

Bella was right next to the window, which is why she looks like a ghost.

The ravioli was delicious, in case you were wondering. We were a bit nervous because it was the first time we'd ever made it, but I think it was a success.

I GOT THIS REALLY AWESOME DOCTOR WHO MUG WITH A TARDIS THAT DISAPPEARS WHEN YOU FILL IT WITH HOT LIQUIDS.

It was a really beautiful Easter.

So what did you do for Easter? Anything special? Did you try something new? (Do you make the mistake of calling them raviolis?) 

Let me know in the comments, because I'm nosy...

Cheers!

Picture Saturday -- Stuff and things.

Yep. It's been a while.

Yes I know.

No, I don't really have an excuse. I mean, I have WiFi now, which is jolly. I have enough time, which is also jolly.

At the moment, I'm just a little bit brain dead when it comes to blogging ideas.

I need to start writing ideas down and putting them in a little clear mason jar, so that when I'm stumped I can stick my hand in and pull out a pre-thought-up post idea. Bountiful!

LET'S DO A LIST!!

A LIST OF HAPPY THINGS!

1.) I wore a cute sailor-y outfit today. I felt quite fabulous. (we won't mention how I may have splooshed wine on it, because that's not a happy thing.)

2.) My sister and her husband and their youngest came out for a weekend visit last week! (Hence no Picture Saturday.) We did lots of stuff and things, and it was really epic.

Yes, I make funny faces at babies. WHO DOESN'T?

3.) I figured out how to make the scanner scan stuff on high quality so my pictures aren't grainy. THIS MEANS I will not be using the camera anymore, and my drawings will look much more better on here. This delights me.

4.) I bought copic markers. *Flails*

Right, so happy thoughts done! (What a freaking relief.... can we get back to the sarcasm now? Thank you.)

Picture Saturday has... very little color. See I have my colored pencils on a shelf. And if I want to use them, I have to get up and get them and that's so much work. I will color more next week. And I will draw Luna the MLP next week as well.


1.) So first we have the bizarre doodles. Yes, I draw people kissing. What can I say? I'm in love with the idea of love.

2.) More bizarre doodles. But I finally drew a smiley person that I like!*

*You may applaud the smiley girl.


3.) HUG, because HUG.

4.) Le fairy, because fairies are always awesome, and I really like them.

5.) I had a really bad week, and this was the Postcommunion at Mass, and it just sort of made my day. And yes, I totally botched writing which Psalm it was, because I got ahead of myself and tried to write the wrong letter first. In pen. Go me.

 6.) My co-worker's birthday was last week, and a couple weeks ago, I found out that she really liked this song called Bus Stop by the Hollies. And since the lyrics were so freaking cute, I figured for her birthday I would draw her a picture illustrating it.

This was the rough draft.

7.) And this was the final version. I was very proud. AND she really liked it, so BONUS!

8.) The semi-self portrait that I did. Semi, because A.) I don't actually look like that. B.) My hair is not that fabulous. And C.) I'm a leftie.

 9.) The really terrible dual.

 10.) Jack posted the other day about how she looks when she rides her motorcycle, and her description was so cute... I had to draw it.

11.) Le scowly girl who did an admirable job depicting my feelings at the moment of her creation.

12.) Le mommy and her daughter, which was inspired by my sister and her kid. I shall probably color it in eventually.

13.) So I was listening to Taylor Swift....

14.) And that led me to my country music mood. And I just happened to listen to Play It Again by Luke Bryan, and that song is fabulous. (So yous all who don't like country *coughHannahcoughJesscough* can go somewhere else, because this is CUTE.)

15.) I bought Copic Markers.....

WELL THAT WAS A MISTAKE. Because see... as soon as I try new art supplies, I can't live without them. COPIC MARKERS ARE SEVEN BUCKS A POP, PEOPLE. Why!? So I only bought two. Yeah, I know what I'm saving up for....

GUYS IT'S ACTUALLY SKIN TONED. IT'S SKIN TONED! NOT PEACH! SKIIIIN.

Yep. My hobby is very expensive and it's sad. OH WELL! *Dances off to work for markers*

Goodbai. I shall see you in a few days.

Tra!

And this is how we cook pizza

This has been a while in the making.

I am sorry.*

Things got super busy, and then editing had issues, and then I got lazy, and then I sort of, might have been putting it off.

*not really sorry.


I mentioned a few posts back that Amy and I had filmed a pizza vlog, because apparently we talk about food so much on our blogs that it makes our minions slaves followers hungry, and a couple of you actually requested the recipe for our pizza. (It was Hannah's idea to film it, but whatever.)

SO if you want to make delicious pizza the DeLallo way, here is our recipe for it. (And trust me, it's fabulous, we are pizza snobs.)

However since this is our first cooking vlog and we kind of suck at it, here's the recipe written down in case you have no idea what we're talking about.


Dough: 

1c warm to hot water 
1 package yeast
1 glug (about two tablespoons) oil
3 c (give or take) unbleached white flour

In a medium to large bowl, mix water, yeast and oil. Add, little by little, 2 1/2 c flour, and knead together. Move the dough to a floured surface and knead in the remaining 1/2 flour. Your dough should be soft and not overmixed. A good way to test, is to stick your finger in and if it comes out clean or mostly clean, your dough is probably ready.

Rub it down with oil (so it doesn't crack) and put it back in the bowl, covered. Set aside to rise for about an hour, your dough should double it's size.

Makes 1 pizza.


Sauce:

1 medium sized can (16oz) unseasoned tomato sauce
1 1/2 tbsp oil
1/4 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced.
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp basil or sweet basil
Pinch of salt
Pepper to taste.


Dice the onion and garlic and put them in a sauce pan with the oil. Saute over medium heat until the garlic is browning and the onion is sort of transparent and soft. Add the sauce and stir. Mix in the spices, and let them cook into the sauce for about ten minutes. Then turn the sauce down to about med-low or low and let it cook down for about an hour. (This makes the sauce super flavorful and yummy. :)

Good for one pizza.


The Pizza: 

Preheat oven to 375*f.

The dough
The Sauce
Whichever toppings you're going to use (Optional, you don't need toppings, but whatever)
1 c cheese (Mozzarella is best) Or as much as you want, the more the merrier, I say.

Roll out the dough onto an oiled pizza tray. Spread the sauce fabulously over the top, and add toppings if you have them. Sprinkle the cheese and stick it in the oven for 12- 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown on the bottom.


And then all you need to do is partake of delicious goodness.

Just FYI, we are at a pretty high altitude, so the timing and cooking temperature might be a little off if you're closer to sea level. 'Pologies. :)

IF YOU FEEL BRAVE, YOU COULD DO A VIDEO RESPONSE.

But seriously, try it out and let me know what it goes!

Cheers!

Picture Saturday - Randomness

Coming up with titles is hard, guys.

I get stuck on "Picture Saturday" and then I can't think of anything else to describe it, ya feel me?

It was really warm this week, which simultaneously made me really happy and a little disturbed, because when it's this warm in March, it usually means we get a ton of snow in June.... No one likes snow in June. June is supposed to be warm!

Right now it's super grey outside.

Grey days make me have three kinds of moods: 1.) I get really crafty and artsy, and I want a billion cups of tea. 2.) I get incredibly restless and want to take a walk or spar with Amy. 3.) I get a bit moody and have no energy, and binging on TV shows seems like the thing to do.

I'm currently a bizarre mixture of all three. I want to do stuff, but I also don't want to do anything. It's very confusing.

Choices. 


So here's what I worked on this week, drawing wise.*

*You don't seem very excited, what's wrong with you?!

1.) I finally saw Big Hero 6 last Sunday. It was adorable and fun, and sad, and I cried like three times. (Judge not until you see it, okay?) I'd probably rank it just under How To Train Your Dragon. It made me feel things. Terrible things. lol. I won't lie, Hiro's hair was so cute, I love little boys to have hair like that. I like messy kid hair.

Anyway, yes, I recommend it, it's cute. I came home after I saw it and had to sketch a fist bump, because bah-la-da-la-da-la-da!

 2.) And then, because Baymax is really easy, I had to doodle some more. (Hiro, not so much, but shhh, I didn't have a reference picture.)

 3.) Seriously, Baymax is adorable.

 4.) We played basketball, and failed miserably. (Soooo miserably: Six or seven of us played, and over the course of an hour we probably got a basket... like... 6 times? In our defense, we don't like to do things the easy way, so we were really far away from the hoop, with the hoop being on one side of the yard and us at the other. Nevertheless, it was embarrassing.)

This prompted sketching.

 5.) .... yeah.

 6.) Random Irish guy.

 7.) Creepy pose of stretch.

 8.) Pirate lady, who's waist is incredibly small-- I blame it on the corset. *Shifty eyes*

 9.) The one I finished and went "Whut."

 10.) We did something that got me back in the mood to learn self-defense, and I spend a goodly while doodling boxers.

11.) Because boxing doodles are fun.

12.) And then I promptly binged on FightTIPS* videos on youtube and figured I might as well draw that logo.

*Really fun to watch and you learn a lot. 

I'm very proud of that logo.


13.) This inspired more boxing sketches.

14.) I drew a character for Hannah a few weeks ago, and she was like, "I love it, but can you make his 'fro... bigger?" And apparently this 'fro gives the guy an extra five or six inches in height, so I gently reminded her that I suck at drawing afros. But I gave it my best shot.....

'FROS SUCK! I failed. I hate drawing 'fros, they are terrible and it looks like... I don't even know what he has on his head but it's not hair. I found something I fail at.

Treskie cannot draw afros. 

15.) Moving on quickly, we have Richard, which is also from Hannah and Jess's book. He's a twelve or thirteen year old hyperactive genius, and I don't know what it was about him, but I imagined him with giant circle glasses. Hannah insists that he does not, in fact, wear these, but my imagination says he does, so... He wears glasses. I insist.

Treskie has spoken. 

16.) Finally, on our list of delightfully disturbing drawings by Treskie, we have the next installment of

Project My Little Pony Humanized!

But because Princess Celestia doesn't get a whole lot of screen time, I don't know her that well, and hence, she only gets one picture.

Princess Celestia is... billowy.

Seriously, she can be standing completely still and in an enclose space with no wind, and she's billowy.

It's magical.

Surprisingly enough, I actually like the way she turned out. I know she's not exactly the way people imagine her, but I ended up not violently wanting to destroy the drawing, so there's that. What think you?

I took a break halfway through this post and went on a hike. It was quite delightful.

And with that, I shall leave you all, with many hugs and kisses and whatever you humans do when you say goodbye.

Cheers!