Monday, January 4, 2016

New Shop!

Happy New Year everyone! Just like everyone I'm hoping that 2016 will be a great year!

I have a favor to ask!

If you like shopping, jewelry, or paintings please take a look at my brand new etsy shop! We do custom paintings, jewelry, and sell antiques too. Kind of a eclectic mumble jumble of things I love.



My boyfriend and I are hoping to move in together in the spring/summer and I'm hoping this etsy page will do something good :) So please check it out, follow, like, share my shop please!

You can find my shop in many place
Twitter - twitter.com/CourteneysArt
Instagram - www.instagram.com/d3bating_0n_d3structi0n/
Etsy - etsy.com/shop/courteneysartistry
Facebook - facebook.com/courteneysartistry


Have a wonderful and magnificent new year everyone!

xoxo
Courteney

Friday, November 13, 2015

Happy Adoptaversary!!

Today is a very special day. 

Today marks the exact day we adopted our handsome boy Sherlock!!!




Look at him in all of his sassy cuteness. Our handsome Sherlock is a Holland Lop and super cute! We adopted him on November 13th exactly one year ago today from a wonderful rescue called Amazing Grace Animal Rescue. We are so grateful for them because without them we would not have found this handsome little guy.

When we first saw Sherlock we weren't quite sure if we were ready to get a new bunny. My sister had just lost her rabbit of 6 years (Buttons) about 2 months prior. We were also living with my grandmother at the time and we weren't sure if we had room to house him.

The day I brought my sister into the rescue she fell in love with this little ass (yes I mean what I said! Sherlock is a butt!) So she spent the next week Begging my grandmother to let us get him. And not soon after Sherlock was ours!

So today we celebrate the day this four-legged family member joined us.

When we first adopted our Sherlock he had a HORRIBLE biting problem. Assumably he was found on the campus of a local university just hopping around, (we believe he was a students pet who then dumped him off at the rescue). Today he only bites once in a while (WHICH IS GREAT!!)


Sherlock has also figured out how to open his cage door. He OPENS the door but NEVER comes out of it. Yes, he is a strange one!


So In honor of our little guys "Adoptaversary" I made him a little fruit and vegi "cake" and lit him a candle (only for the photo).

Happy Adoptaversary Sherlock! We love you!




xoxo

Courteney

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Fall

Well the fall season is ending,
and the cold wings of Jack Frost are blowing closer. Soon winter will be upon us. 

Wanted to share a few pictures I took of my mum and her boyfriend while we were up north enjoying the wonderful weather last month. We also took some pictures of my wonderful friend Vincent. His senior pictures are turning out awesome!!

I downloaded some AWESOME leaf overlays from Deviantart and BAM! These turned out awesome!







Feel free to check out more of my work at...
or on Facebook at


xoxo

Courteney





Friday, October 30, 2015

Bloody Moscato Cupcakes

Happy (almost) Halloween ya filthy monsters!

Halloween is by far my favorite time of the year, so I thought that I would celebrate by sharing my most favorite recipe with you guys!!!



Moscato Cupcakes, with of course some gore for Halloween!




 The original recipe is adapted from Brook Bakes and are my absolute FAVORITE! I make these cupcakes on a daily basis since my mother is a HUGE wine-o.


For the cupcakes you will need

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 and 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup olive oil
1/3 cup Moscato wine
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. white vinegar



 As a wine family we always keep any wine (flat or not) because it can always be used in cupcakes. Todays "secret" ingredient is Beviamo sparkling moscato wine.


 So gather your ingredients and start cooking!


Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. And then begin mixing all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt)  in one bowl and whisk together until blended. Then add all of the wet ingredients (olive oil, wine, butter milk, eggs, and vinegar) in another and whisk together.


After those ingredients are combined slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly.






 Scoop your batter into your prepared cupcake tins, about 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until a inserted toothpick comes out clean.


Once your heavenly, magical, delicious, wonderful moscato cupcakes are completely cooked let them sit out to cool for a while before frosting them










As your magical cupcakes cool it's time to make the frosting.


What you'll need is....
 8oz of cream cheese (room temperature)
2 cups of powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. of Moscato wine



In a large bowl cream the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add in the moscato and half of the powdered sugar and blend. Once that is evenly blended add in the final cup of the powdered sugar and blend until fully mixed.

Sooooo yummy right?

Frost the cupcakes and your all set!

And of course it being Halloween I wanted to add a little gore into the mix. I picked up these super awesome severed finger candies at Meijers for $2!! (image thanks to bakingbites.com since I forgot to photograph mine)


Pretty awesome!
I thought these would look a little too "plain" just throwing them up on the cupcakes so I added a special touch...... blood. 

I used a small amount a light corn syrup, red food coloring and a drop of blue food coloring. Mixing all these ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle them over the fingers and frosting on the cupcakes.

AND here is the finished product










Have a fantastic Halloween everyone! Enjoy these little bloody cupcakes ;)


xoxo

Courteney










Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Reading by the Moon: 3 Thursday - Inspiration on Life, Depression, and ...

Reading by the Moon: 3 Thursday - Inspiration on Life, Depression, and ...: Sharing some life tidbits on dealing with depression, finding hope, and why I continue to live...

3 Thursday - Inspiration on Life, Depression, and Inner Beauty

I always find myself scouring Pinterest at the darkest hours of the night. 
I've been having a rough week so I thought I would share a few my favorite quotes that have gotten me through some hard times. 


http://readingbythemoon.blogspot.com/
Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/kohanart/4916218209/
In all honesty this is something I have learned the hard way. 

When I was younger I took everything for granted. I took life for granted. I didn't live each day like it mattered, I breezed by waiting for the day to end. 


When my grandpa died was when it really HIT me. The littlest things matter the most. It's not about living it's about LIVING. Truly and fully. And I'm not telling you that you need to go out and do something super important and amazing and fun right now. What I am telling you is to live. To learn to love life as though it could end any moment. Spend time with your loved ones as though today could be the last day you see them. You don't have to do something brilliant every day. Do something that you consider to be brilliant. Whether that brilliant is sitting with your mother and watching TV or baking with your grandma. Learn to appreciate the little things. It took me 19 years to figure that out. 


http://readingbythemoon.blogspot.com/
Image from pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com




To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. 



I cannot begin to tell you how very true that is. After 16 years of school I have discovered that EVERYONE will try to mold you into something you are not. It does not matter who it is, teacher, friend, students, jerks you meet on the sidewalk. Everyone will want to change something about you. What you must always remind yourself is that you are perfect. It doesn't matter if you aren't a size 0 or that your boobs aren't quit perky or that you don't have that 6 pack abs that your bros at the gym have. YOU ARE PERFECT. Every inch, meter, foot, of you is perfect. You do not need to change so society accepts you. Simply say FUCK YOU to society and go on your merry little way. 

http://readingbythemoon.blogspot.com/
Image from healthyplace.com


I found this one one day when I was scrolling. It stuck to me like glue. There was something about this little quote that made my mind wander. 

When I was a kid in middle school I struggled with serious depression. The only thing was, I didn't realize it. I didn't see what was happening to me. All I knew was that I wanted out of life. 

When I was in 7th grade I started to cut myself. I would hide sharp things in my pillow. Some days I would escape into the school bathroom to find the sharp blade of release. This is what happened. Am I proud of it? No. But I was 11 and had no idea what was happening. I didn't know who to turn to.

In 8th grade I thought about suicide. A lot, more than I'd like to admit. I thought of it as a way out from the horror of my mind. It was a friday evening after school, my parents were still at work and my sister was still at daycare.  I went out to my woods and stood in front of a tree for nearly an hour or so debating on whether or not I should take the chance. Later that evening I heard my mother calling me for dinner. I dropped the rope and went back to the house. 

Life isn't just about getting through the day. I can't begin to believe how grateful I am that I didn't go through with what I had planned. My greatest accomplishment (even if I didn't know it at the time) was continuing to live when I truly felt as though death was the way out. I can't begin to say how important it is. 

Today I am 19, I graduated with honors from high school, I am sophomore in college, I came out Pansexual to my family,  I have a magnificent boyfriend whom I love more than my own life and we plan on moving in together soon and maybe I might even marry him (who knows?), my life has continued. While many days are a continuous struggle to fight myself and to get out of bed. My world is slowly getting better. I am working on fighting and living every day to the best of my abilities. Some days it takes more than work than others. 

I am happy I didn't use the rope.


xoxo
Courteney

Monday, October 26, 2015

Some Tidbits of Me

I kinda wanted to show off a little about me and what I love. I'm going to go away from the super depressive stuff today and think on the positive side rather than the negative.

When dealing with depression I often find it hard to do things, but knowing that someone or something relies on me really helps me get out of bed in the morning.

Personally I absolutely adore animals, big small, furry, scaly, I love them all. I am a constant volunteer at a local animal rescue here in the city, the rescue is called Amazing Grace. I tend to photograph many of the four legged friends that walk through the doors of the rescue. With doing so
helps the animals get adopted much faster and find their paws into a loving home.


Here is a picture I took not too long ago of a wonderful dog named Zephyr. He is one of my favorites at the rescue and my favorite pooch to snap pictures of.

His background is kinda rough but you wouldn't have guessed it by that adorable furry face of his!






 I love having the ability to spend so much quality time with the animals and volunteers that work at the rescue every day.
My senior year of high school I ran my own little fundraiser called "Paintings for Pets" I sold many paintings and raised $200 for the rescue. I had the honor of being interviewed and was on the front page of the paper about me helping the rescue by selling my paintings.
Some of my favorite things to paint are animals. 100% of any proceeds I have made from my paintings have been donated to the Amazing Grace Animal Rescue.

These three cats are some of my favorites, from left to right there is Valentine (deceased), Stella (Adopted), and Zipper. 
Photo courtesy of SaginawNews

Another thing about me is my general all out geeky/nerdy ness. I love adding all the nerdy to my house. I currently just finished decorating my bathroom in Star Wars.
. I love to cosplay and have been learning all I can on how to perfect my cosplaying. I have recently been able to bring my sister into the geeky world as well. We recently went to Almacon this past summer as Lady Loki (Me) and Poison Ivy (Sister).

xoxo

-Courteney