Hey! So, on the Reaper Forums, they do a Resolutionary paint challenge every month. For January and February, the challenge is as follows:

Your challenge is: 8!

Bonus Challenge: The First!
Finished – not perfect! Paint 4 minis from your ‘shelf of shame.”  A lot of our minis tend to end up there for a myraid of reasons – but a common one is ‘can’t get it to look just right” Don’t get hung up on perfection – most models can be re-purchased again later

Bonus Challenge: The Second!
Bringing back a favorite for whatever absurd reason – Fingerpaint February! Paint a non-object/non-terrain miniature using only your own fingers. The exception is that priming and sealing may be done with a brush/airbrush/can/etc

Hard Mode Challenge!
Since most of us are in the winter season, and appropriately chilly, take a nod to the Greyhawk setting and the Land of Black Ice. A region of the world covered in black-blue ice. This inhospitable land is often haunted by arctic terrors, black-skinned trolls, and blue-furred bugbears among others. Your challenge is to paint an arctic terror (bonus points if it’s a black-skinned troll or blue-furred bugbear) based on this ‘sheet of black-blue ice.’ Crackle medium may be very helpful for this. The more inhospitable, dark and dreary, the better!

So, here’s my first Shelf of Shame WIP. This is about an hour’s worth of work before the most adorable alarm clock ever went off. 🙂 At the end of the pictures, I’m also gonna talk about our experience so far with Whole30, and some recipes. Just a random addition, feel no obligation to read it if that’s not your shtick. 😉

Starting

This is where I had gotten these guys up to. My shelf of shame is actually like 2 shelves and a bag. It’s kind of pathetic. I took a picture to show y’all a while back, and then I found another bag…. lol. So, let’s just say there’s a lot of shame, okay? 😉

One of the things I’m  working on is having patience with basing. I’m still kicking myself for not doing Michael Proctor’s class on basing when I had the chance. Unfortunately, the class I chose instead was completely unhelpful, and right next door to his basing class. I wanted to sneak out to ‘use the bathroom’ and go in there, but  I did not. Alas. 😉 Anyways, I understand the concepts and I know what I”m looking to make, so I just need to have the patience to achieve it. 

After about an hour of work, this is where I am now. Like I said, the super adorable alarm clock woke up, so I had to stop. I was going to have to wait for the modeling paste to dry anyways, so it was a good stopping point. I want this back to look like the back of tanned leather. I think that’s called the suede side? If anyone is a leather expert, feel free to correct me. I’m gonna do a few more passes of aging to it, and work some more on the wood/fixings at the top, but I’m mostly done with that part at this stage.

So, that’s him for now! Hopefully nap time will allow me more time to continue!

Onto the Whole30 thing.
We love it. And the super weird thing is that we save money on it, because you don’t eat out at all. So, my $100 in produce alone for 2 people a week is completely reasonable. I wanted to just put a few of my favorite recipes on here so they would be in the interwebs world in case anyone else hates eggs. I don’t eat them. and it cramps the style a bit. 🙂

Breakfast Chia Pudding

1.5 c. non-dairy milk (I like unsweetened vanilla coconut personally)
0.5 c. Chia seeds
1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla or 1 bean pod
Fixings: bananas, blueberries, nuts. I usually add 2 Tbsp cashew butter ( almond butter works, it’s just not as good). Whatever!

Thats it! Combine and let it rest at least overnight. I usually double the recipe and eat it for the week. I don’t know how many servings this is, because I just get a few spoonfuls and add some more coconut milk to it. Doubled, it lasts me all week.

This second recipe is compliant *technically*. Since I don’t like eggs, I get stuck with no real breakfast options, and these bars make a huge difference to me.

Banana Nut Bars

2 mashed bananas
2 eggs
3 Tbsp. coconut flour
1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla or 1 bean pod
1 sweet potato, grated
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
nuts to taste (I add about half a bag of walnuts, up to you)

Preheat oven to 400F.

Mix it all up together and pop in in a buttered (ghee’d?) jelly roll pan. You can do muffins if you want, but I like the bars better. Cook them for between 13 and 17 minutes. They should look dry on the outside, and they do brown up a little.

Cool and slice!! Enjoy!

I don’t have any caloric information on any of these, because I don’t care. 😉 That’s one of the things I love about Whole30 is that it isn’t counting and stressing, but eating smarter.

Hope y’all enjoyed that! Let me know if you try the recipes, or if you are doing the #rpchallenge too!

 

-marinealRose