Kite and License Plate Art and Tomato Basil Soup

Holidays seem like odd days to me.  Some places are open, others are not.  It doesn't seem like a "real" day if the mail doesn't run, and today as President's Day was no different in that vein.  We got off to a fairly good start, but by noon Ornery and I were both disinterested in doing work.  He managed to get all the trim around the doors and ceiling in our bathroom painted today, but that is all he accomplished--really only about an hour's worth of work.  I did even less!

I did make this cute kite which is hanging on the wall just as you enter the studio.  The tail is fairly long--about three feet--and has all different ribbons tied onto it.

The bottom right hand panel says "Free Spirit" on it.  This took me several hours to make, but I am pleased with the outcome.

I also finished this little piece.  Well, it isn't really so little, it's about 18 inches across and a foot tall.  I had fun digging through all my doo-dads to embellish this. :)

It is raining tonight, and I fixed tomato basil soup from a recipe I discovered while rifling through my recipes last week.  It was simple to make, and oh-so-tasty!

1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 large (28 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. blackstrap molasses (to add LOTS of minerals)
1 tsp. baking soda (to neutralize the acid in the tomatoes)

Mix it all together in large saucepan and heat through, but do not boil.  We served it with Town House Italian Flavored flat bread crackers.  Yum, yum!