Winter Blues

Well, the holiday season has come upon us faster than my cat when she runs up for a treat. This holiday season seems to be especially rough so far. I suspect that a good chunk of the blame can be on the pandemic. It has changed things drastically for many of us this year. Usually for Thanksgiving my husband and I get together with my family and have a nice dinner, play board games and just visit. Instead this year my Thanksgiving was spent at home with my husband and my sister-in-law (she lives with us) so it was rather quiet. It was still nice, we had a nice dinner and watched a movie or two but it just wasn't the same.

Most of this year I have been able to keep busy so that keeps me from thinking about and missing my family and friends. I didn't miss being around people too much but the further a long the year gets the more I seem miss everyone. Especially during the holidays it has just been a constant reminder that I can't go and see my family, have dinner with them, give them a hug. I can't just have a girls night with my friends any more. I've been missing them all a lot lately. It doesn't help that my house is a mess, I haven't been able to work on any other art projects and my undiagnosed health issues keep causing issues. Overall it's left me feeling rather blue. So I've just been taking it one day at a time.

This last month I have been able to do only two projects outside of illustrating my clients children's book. One project being the November coloring page available to my patrons on Patreon. My husband suggested a ferret for the coloring page so I designed a little ferret dragon or "fragon" as we like to call it. This next month I think I might draw a lynx for the coloring page. Interested in receiving these awesome coloring pages? Every month for $10 you can receive a printable PDF of the months coloring page. In addition you will receive one of my very own greeting cards in the mail, access to my monthly newsletter and any Patreon exclusive content such as videos, images of works in progress and more. To support me and my art and see more of what I have to offer on Patreon you can visit my page at https://www.patreon.com/alexandraartdesign?fan_lan....

The other art project I got to do is a small painting when my husband and sister-in-law convinced me I needed a small bit of girl time. My sister-in-law and I opened a bottle of wine, put on one of our favorite movies and just sat and painted. I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to paint but not knowing when I'd have time again to paint I decided to paint something I knew I could finish in one session. I haven't painted in forever either so it was really nice and relaxing.

Since I have not been able to work on many other art projects I decided to switch things up a little and instead share a recipe or two I tried over the last month. With not having enough time to dedicate towards full art projects I take the little breaks I can afford to and release some stress, creative energy and relax a bit. Plus yummy comfort food is always a plus. :)

If you have celiac disease or are just gluten intolerant you know just how expensive it can be to buy gluten free. I got sick of buying a gluten free brownie mix all the time when I wanted brownies so I found this awesome gluten free AND paleo brownie recipe that takes very little time to put together and tastes amazing. My husband and sister-in-law now prefer it over the box mix we used to get. I think one week I made 3 pans of brownies because we kept eating them so fast. It's made with almond flour so you can even say it's semi healthy. :) Here's a link to the recipe if you want to try it.

https://www.onelovelylife.com/the-perfect-gluten-f...

Since I not only have my business but am also working part-time elsewhere I am always looking for snacks to bring to work. I used to always bring granola bars to work but there's just something about store bought granola bars that I just don't like. Maybe it's the amount of sugar but they always left me feeling a bit blah. So I decided to try my hand at making homemade granola bars. At least with homemade bars I know exactly what's going into them and I can always change the amount of sugar if they're too sweet. I found this great little recipe for chewy granola bars that packs a ton of protein, some fruit and just the right amount of sweetness. These bars are delicious and even my husband loves them.

https://iowagirleats.com/homemade-chewy-granola-ba...

Well that's all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful December and happy holidays!