Retro Style Sports Art GIVEAWAY!!

Now that I work from home, I spend A LOT of time in our living room. Like a really gross amount of time. And I have come to realize that I HATE this room! 
When we first redid this room after moving in, our taste were drastically different than they are now. So what we have are 3 walls painted a tan color, and the other a really deep red. And all of our furniture is dark dark dark! And the saddest part? We make a living as artist, but have a total of 3 pieces of framed artwork in our entire living room. 
Sad. 

So I have decided it is time to fix this depressing room into something bright and cheerful, a place that I enjoy spending my days and a space that inspires me to do my best work. Because all our current living room inspires is naps.

So for my first project, after painting the room white, is to create a gallery wall of art that reflects on us as individuals, and as a family. I have been scouring Etsy (which is just bad news if you have anything else you're supposed to be doing in the next 10 hours) and have found so many great things!

We got our first piece in the mail yesterday, and while it is definitely a Richard thing, I love it!

We got this awesome New York Rangers retro eye-chart from Retro League, and I think it's going to make such a cool addition to our gallery wall! 

The Rangers are Richard's favorite hockey team, so I knew I wanted to include something to do with them or hockey. But when I started searching, everything was just too obvious, if you know what I mean. I didn't want a picture of a hockey player, or a huge Rangers logo, but something that was artistic on it's own.

They have so many retro style sports artworks to choose from! And they are the perfect gift for the men in your life. 

Gil and Sara, the couple who run Retro League, have offered to give one of you your choice of any of the awesome designs available in their Etsy shop!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?? Get over there and get looking!

Giveaway will run through July 4th, and is open to all residents of the US and Canada.

Black Bean & Sweet Sriracha Marinated Butternut Squash Quesadillas - GOYA Foods review & GIVEAWAY!

Do you do anything special for Cinco de Mayo? We started celebrating early here with quesadillas and mango margaritas last night!

GOYA Foods sent me their Healthy, Tasty, Affordable Latin Cooking cookbook, a can of their low sodium black beans, and a bottle of their extra virgin olive oil, and told me to recreate their black bean quesadilla recipe with my own twist.

Their original recipe (which can be found here) was a quick and easy meal that called for Pico de Gallo and cilantro to be mixed with the beans, then fried between 2 tortillas with cheese.

But like a weirdo, I don't like the pico. So I had to make some changes.

So here is what I came up with:

Black Bean & Sweet Sriracha Marinated Butternut Squash Quesadillas

with pickled red onions

That's a ridiculously long title.

 What you need:

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1/4" pieces

2-3 tablespoons Sriracha (depending on how spicy you want it)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 can GOYA  Low Sodium Black Beans, drained and rinsed and tossed with a teaspoon of Taco Seasoning

1 cup shredded Colby & Monterey Jack mix cheese

1/2 avocado

4 tortillas (I used homemade, but GOYA's 8" Flour Tortillas would be perfect)

1 tsp. GOYA Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1 small GOYA Jalepeno Pepper, sliced

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Full recipe and Giveaway after the jump...

Get a FREE photobook from Groovebook!

I don't know about you, but I do some of my best photography with my iPhone. Thousands of candid photos of my kids, caught in everyday moments. I'm a little embarrassed to say that currently I have 3,943 pictures on my phones camera roll. Ridiculous  And then what happens to all those priceless memories? Nothing. They sit on my phone, rarely to be seen again. Sure I've had good intentions of printing them out, but good intentions don't get anything done.

So when I heard about Groovebook, I was stoked. If you don't know what it is:

Groovebook is a FREE app that lets you choose up to 100 photos from your camera roll into a beautiful 4.5" x 6.5" photobook for FREE and mails it to you monthly.Your photos are printed on glossy photo paper and perforated for easy removal. That means you can share, frame, decorate, scrapbook and more. All this for FREE and just $2.99 each month for shipping and processing!

No joke. For $2.99 a month you get to choose 100 pictures, straight from your phone, to have printed and mailed to you. The free app links directly to your phones photo album, and lets you choose which photos, and how many of each, you want printed. It's super easy to use, and is all done on your phone.

 I downloaded the app, choose my pictures, and a week later I had this beautiful little album of my photos! Its so cute I almost don't want to even take the pictures out. I think these would make awesome little keepsake albums for grandparents, you could choose 100 pictures from the whole past year and have a flip book of how the kids have grown! The app even adds the date and time to each. Or for people who fancy themselves as iPhone photographers, it would be an awesome way to have all your cool pictures in one place.

 It's so simple. So clever. So CHEAP!

And because you really HAVE to try this out, I think you should get your first Groovebook for FREE! That's right.
Download the FREE app.
Sign up.
Enter coupon code STOICGROOVE
You get 100 pictures. You pay NOTHING.
Sweet deal, huh?
You can thank me later.

Download yours now:

After you download the app they will ask for your credit information even though you have a coupon code. But don't fret, you can cancel your subscription at any time.

*Post sponsored by Groovebook. 

Stoic Design Giveaway!! **CLOSED**

We have been busy busy busy coming up with a new product for our Etsy shop, and I'm excited to share it with you!

We are now offering PRINTS of some of our favorite sheet music designs!

I think the prints will be an awesome alternative for customer who want to spend less, or who are looking for a piece of art they can frame. 

 I'm really loving how they look, and can't wait to get a couple matted and framed for our house.

 So what do you think? Would you like a couple of these for your house? Or to give as a gift for a wedding or engagement?

 Or how about a baby shower?

Well 2 of these could be yours! Just use as many of the ways below to enter, and I will announce 1 winner on March 18th. Several entries can be done daily for more chances to win, so come back as many times as you'd like!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: Items were provided by the Stoic Design Shop. I was not paid for this giveaway. Last day to enter the giveaway is March 17th, 2013. 11:59 CST.  One winner will have 72 hours to get back to me after I email them. After that, I will contact someone else to be the winner. Good luck to you! This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (unless you would like to cover the cost of shipping internationally).