50th post!

Wow! Hard to believe I've done 50 posts already! Must be the caffeine. ;)

Title: Feline Caffeine Dreams
Medium: Digital Painting
Full Size: Greeting Card
~

Our Anniversary Cards

We celebrated our Anniversary a couple of weeks ago, I find men's cards difficult to do at the best of times, but cards for Tony I never have a clue. Anyway this is what I came up with.


This was made from 2 sheets of A4 card, It was a lovely shimmery champagne colour unfortunately it doesn't show well in the photo, it seems to have taken on a grey hue, just me, not a very good photographer. Used the Cuttlebug Embossing Folders again, I'm getting quite addicted to them. Put a brown ribbon across the card, to hide the join. The hearts are a die that I put through the big kick, I just reversed the colours, and added a few gems. For the sentiments I used Design Master and cut them out with Robo.

We received 2 lovely hand made cards..............

The one on left was made by my Sister, Dawn, the one on the right was made by our friend Kate, I thought both of them were lovely, it's great to receive a hand made card.
If you see this, thanks to you both. xx

Hope you like them,

Hello (#8)

Slowly but surely, I will get all of the Anni-Verve-sary cards shared with you all. This is another one of my favorites. I used Bazzill Black and White cs. I stamped and embossed the floral image (Dandy from Penny Black) in black and cut out with my oval nesties. I colored the flower with a Copic (G99-Olive) marker and then added a little glitter glue.

The satin ribbon was white and I wanted it to match, so I colored it with my Copic (G99-Olive) marker also. The word "hello" is from the Stampendous Sunny Flowers set.

I ran the white background panel through the Cuttlebug first with the Swiss Dots folder for the bottom and then the Leafy Branch folder for the top.

Finished it off with some green bling from Me and My Big Ideas.

I gotta run, we are off to a friends for a BBQ/Swim Party.

Hugs,

Quote of the Day

~
Sometimes you must become simple, strip away all ambition until you are bare, before you can build from the true design in your heart. Some pieces can be recycled, re-used, reincorporated. The other things, that took away your strength and energy, are ready to be discarded into the void, to be transformed by the mystery.

~Unknown

Welcome New Members!

I just wanted to welcome our newest members. They've been added to our shop link list to the right. Below is a brief description of their shop, inlcuding links.

CTStudios - hers is quite the eclectic shop. All of the items are beautiful, but her mosaics are among my favorites. When you visit her shop, check out Starman.

dirtydishes - the tag line "the store for things I won't show to my mother" made me smile. Her "Put On Your Big Girl Panties and Deal With It" mug is a favorite of mine.

We also have a new member who has several etsy shops, each with its own unique theme:

bayoubabe - stealing from her shop announcement, she features "whimsical figurative art." Solace Original Nude is especially lovely.

crookedtailcats - This shop just 'pops' with color for the feline lover. Precious the Crookedtail Cat caught my eye first.

greyhounddawgs - I used to have a greyhound so this shop really "speaks" to me. Homage Greyhound Print is beautiful.

roseheaven - This shop features a mother-daughter team creating mostly one of a kind works of art (their profile indicates that they'll be including prints). Lovely spiritual pieces. I especially like Midnight Cross.

Welcome to the LouisianArtisans Team!

TO EDIT AN OLDER POST

Gemma Ramirez Lavapie, that lovely and sweet Administrative Officer of a security agency, whom I fondly call ‘insan (cousin), dropped by our office one afternoon for an official business and told me she read my blog.

She asked me if my older post, “An Untold Story of Heroism”, was a true story. I said yes. Since it happened several years ago, she said it was good I could still remember everything.

The truth is, I was not certain of the date Nilda and I met for the second time. I could no longer recall if that really took place during my freshman year in the high school or a year before that. What I was certain about, though, was when we met for that second time, she was with Linda, Ine’s elder sister.

I have yet to see Linda and ask her of the dates she attended high school in order for me to make the necessary correction.

I also told Gemma the reason why I posted such kind of an “assuming” or “immodest” article. I have a very low self-esteem and thinking about the good things I did in the past will help me boost my morale. That was one of the good lessons I learned from my Training Instructor in a seminar that I attended during my employment with the now defunct United States Naval Base in Subic Bay.

Anyway, thanks, Gemma, for reading my blog and for your comments!

Treasuries! .... and More Treasuries!

Thanks to our LArtisans Etsy Team, there are *FIVE* active treasuries featuring LousianArtisan members:

1. Lemon Yellow - curator: tu2cute. Fifty percent of the items featured are by team members. Click here to view. Please note that the link will expire at 12:37 pm on August 31.
2. Green with Envy - curator: tu2cute. All LouisianArtisan items. Click here to view. This link will expire at 7:48 pm on August 31.
3. LArtisans Team is Ready for Fall - curator: AccentEnvy. Click here to view. This link will expire at 6:36 am on Sept. 1.
4. Darker - curator: tu2cute. Click here to view. This link will expire at 3:34 am on Sept. 1.
5. Rainbow by LArtisans - curator: LisaRaspino. Click here to view. This link will expire at 8:22 pm on August 31.

Later I will post screenshots of these treasuries.

Way to promote the team, tu2cute and AccentEnvy!

Garden Nymph

I took this photograph 2 years ago when there were 4 of these nude nymphs guarding my garden. They were very vigilant...staying out there day and night. And I never caught them napping...they always had their eyes open. After a year with no time off, we decided it would be best if they took a permanent vacation.

Title: Garden Nymph
Medium: Digital Painting
Full Size: 8" x 10"

Last Night's Etsy Chat - A Recap

Turnout was small, but it was a lively bunch. A couple of the points discussed include:

• Google Group is our primary mode of communication.

Although the other networking sites (IndiePublic, MySpace, WeLoveEtsy, etc.) have message boards, we agree that the Google Group is our primary mode of communication among members. By all means, feel free to post of the other message boards, but if you have an official question about our group - or for our group - be sure to post it on Google groups. Revelant info will also be posted to our blog, but it's not as up-to-date.

• AccentEnvy updated the committee list on Google Group to include the ideal number per committee.

She will post a deadline for signing up.

• Should we invite Louisiana buyers to join our group, or perhaps a sub-group? If so, what access will they have to our Team networking sites?

Just an idea that's being tossed around. I'm sure you'll see more about this on the Google group page.

For those of you who attended last night's chat, thank you - it was great getting to know you. I hope everyone will mark their calendars for Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. for our next scheduled chat.

#11) M&M Mouthfuls

For the past couple of weeks I have been staying at my parents. And see, no one loves cookies more than my brother so seeing as I am moving out again tomorrow, I decided to get him to help me make my latest sweet treat. So I went back to that wonderful cookie cookbook from my birthday and adapted a "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Chip Cookie to make this adorable version.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup M&M minis
Steps:

-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.
-Cream butter with sugars. Add eggs, one at a time.
-Add flour mixture to creamed mixture in three additions. Fold in with rubber spatula.
-Fold in chocolate chips and M&M minis.
-Drop onto un-greased cookie sheet from rounded tablespoon.
-Bake for 10-12 minutes.

*For that true bakery look, we added some chocolate chips and M&M minis on top of the dropped cookies before baking.
*Should make about 4 dozen cookies :)

Miss Mary Mack (revised)

Miss Mary Mack all dressed in black
With silver buttons all down her back
She asked her mama for fifty cents
To see the lizards leap over the fence
They leaped so high
They touched the sky
Grew dragon wings and learned to fly
They flew so far
They reached a distant star
They settled there
Grew wise and strong
Spoke Dragonspeak
Sang Dragonsong
Danced in the sky and played with fire
Felt dragon love and warm desire
No need for greed or fear or guilt
Their paradise was dragon built
and yet...

Some miss their place of birth
And they try to journey back to Earth
They find the way
Still very far and Earth beholds
A falling star
But Mary knows and so do I
Where dragons go after falling from the sky.

-Pellegraina (further adapted by Tashai)

Title: Sky Dragons
Medium: Digital Painting
Full Size: 8" x 20"

Etsy Treasury by tu2cute!

Did you see that LArtisans Team has a Treasury! Click here to be linked to it. It expires August 29 at 9:47 p.m., so be sure to check it out before then. Also, leave a comment on the treasury.

tu2cute is the curator and she did a great job putting it together!

AccentEnvy posted the following on our Google Group page (click here to read her post in its entirety):

"For now, if you create a treasury with 25% or more of LArtisans Team Members, post it on google group. Hopefully, all members will support and click pics and comment. Although this doesn't guarantee front page, it can move you up in the treasury, where you will be better noticed. "

It's still summer!

It's still summer and warm out. Thank you very much.

And to prove it I took my snakes for a photo shoot outside. At first they weren't sure they liked the grass.
But soon decided there were no elephants around to step on them.
So loosened up.

#10) Bakeapple Muffins with Streusel Topping

School starts soon and that means my baking time will be drastically decreased... But you all know what that means, right? As much baking as possible before September 4 LOL. I still had some bakeapples left in the freezer when I went in search of a sweet treat main ingredient today, so I decided to make some muffins, and what makes a tasty muffin even better???? Streusel topping of course. Dig in!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg + 1 egg white
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp sour cream
1 1/2 cup berries

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon

Steps:

-Thaw berries, if frozen.
-Preheat oven to 425°F and spray muffin tin(s) with non-stick spray.
-Stir together flour, sugars, salt, and baking powder.
-In a small boil whisk together oil, egg, milk, and sour cream. Add to dry ingredietns with as few strokes of the spatula as possible.
-Fold in berries.
-Using a 1/4-cup measure, fill muffin tin(s) to the top.
-In a bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over muffin tin(s).
-Bake for 20-25 minutes

*Makes about 18 muffins
*Be sure not to add too many berries... The muffins will not bake properly.

Lace

Title: Lace
Medium: Digital Painting
Full Size: 23" x 27"

Oooo... I've got an Arte Y Pico Award

Liz has kindly given me an Arte Y Pico Award, my very first award, thank you Liz, I really appreciate it.

Now I have to send this to five other bloggers who I think deserve an award, and hopefully they haven't received it before.

so here goes ummm........

OK, Here's who I've decided to send it to

Joanie ..PeeJay.. Nettie.. Carol.. Karen

Just found out about the award and rules from PeeJay......

The "Arte Y Pico" (Art & More) is given to bloggers who share their art and creativity making their contribution to the blogger world.

The rules

1. You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. To show these rules

Thought of the day

~
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.
That will be the beginning.

~Louis L'Amour

New Blog Feature - Links to Our Etsy Shops

If you'll look to the right sidebar, you'll see links to 39 team members' Etsy shops. I took these from the following link: LArtisansTeam's Favorites on Etsy. I'll check that link regularly so I can add new members to our blog list.

Right now, the list is in alphabetical order. I'll occasionally switch it up to reverse alpha, and I hope random order, from time to time. This way the last-but-certainly-not-least will sometimes appear at the top of the heap.

Please do me a favor: Click on your name to the right and be sure it links to your shop. If it does not, either comment here on the blog or convo me on Etsy and I'll fix it.

LisaRaspino

Mr. Owl's Heart

Here is card #7 from the Anni-Verve-sary (August 7). This turned out to be one of my favorites also. The green base layer for this card is from Bazzill, the purple layer is some paper that I had in my stash from ???. The white dots on the purple are embossed. I wish I could remember where I got this paper from. The print paper is from the first Karen Neuberger paper collection that was released from Paper Adventures. The verse is from Verve, the branch from Impress and Mr. Owl is from Hero Arts.

It is kinda hard to see, but Mr. Owl was paper pieced and I managed to get a heart from the paper for his chest. Too cute! For the verse panel, I cut the panel and scalloped panel with my nesties. The scallops on the purple panel were also cut with my nesties. I just layed the paper on the die so that only one edge would cut. The ribbons are from Amuse and they are so yummy too!

The branch stamp is a solid image and I took a hint from Julie Ebersole (JulieHRR) about outlining solid images with a fine black pen (Pigma Micron .005) to give it more definition. I used Prisma pencils and Copic markers to color, shade and define the branch and leaves.

Well, I should go and get ready for work. TTFN!

Chaos Too

Title: Chaos too
Medium: Digital Painting
Full Size: Greeting Card

Kaleidoscope - Green Canopy

Title: Green Canopy
Medium: Digital Painting
Full Size: 18" x 18"

Another 2 cards

A happy one and a sad one.




Sadly a friend of ours passed away, so I had to make a Sympathy Card.
I've never had to make one before, and hope it will be a very long time before I have to make another one. Amethyst Stardream card embossed with the Cuttlebug Birds & Swirls folder, which was matted onto purple mirri card, onto a Ivory pearlescent card, made a small bouquet of flowers for the embellishment, with some purple ribbon and punched the corners.
I tried to keep it simple.






On a happier note, a Birthday Card, cut & embossed using the Elegance and Fantasy Board by Keepsake, Anthracite Stardream Card for the base, for the segments I used the Centura Pearl Embossed Spiders Web card in Platinuim, added some peel offs and some gems, made a couple of little flower posies and a double bow to finish it.


Bye for now

New Blog Feature - Where Else We Can Be Found

On the left sidebar, I've include "where else we can be found" and provided links to Flickr, IndiePublic, Google Groups, etc. I thought this might be a nice way to keep it all together in case someone misses something. If we create team pages on other venues, I'll add the links.

Also, I'll contact AccentEnvy soon for a membership roster so I can add links to your Etsy shops to the right sidebar. If you haven't formally joined the LouisianArtisans Etsy Team (tag: LArtisans Team), please convo AccentEnvy via Etsy. We want to be sure to include you!

LisaRaspino

#9) Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes

Recently, while on vacation, bf and I went to a U-Pick. Now I have a cherished bag of raspberries crying out to be turned into delectable sweet treats... Today I decided to make some of my raspberry cake fill and pair it with some oh-so-sweet chocolate. This recipe makes a rich cupcake filled with sweet and sour raspberries and gooey chocolate.

Ingredients:

Filling
2 cups raspberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1.5 tbsp cornstarch

-Bring berries and 1/3 cup water to a boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
-Strain the berry mixture and return to heat.
-Add cornstarch to remaining water. Whisk into berry mixture.
-Add sugar and bring to a boil. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.
-Cool completely.

Cupcakes (All at room temperature)
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk, shaken (1 cup regular milk + 1 tbsp vinegar)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp brewed coffee
1 3/4 cup flour 1 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
150 chocolate chips (preferably dark)

Steps:

-Preheat oven to 350°F. Line pan with paper liners.
-Cream butter with sugars for 5 minutes on high.
-At low speed, add eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
-In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee.
-In a third bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
-At low speed, add the milk and flour mixtures to the butter alternately, in thirds. (You should begin with the milk and end with the flour.)
-Mix only until blended. Fold slightly with a spatula.
-Place 1 tbsp of batter in the bottom of each liner. Top with 1 tsp cake fill and 5 chocolate chips. Cover completely with remaining batter.
-Bake for 20 minutes.

*Should make about 30 cupcakes. Happy eating!

House Panther

Do you have one?
He prowls the halls.
He's the House Panther.

Title: House Panther
Medium: Digital Photograph
Full Size: 5" x 5"

Chicken Man

Title: Chicken Man
Medium: Digital Photograph
Full Size: Greeting Card



Chickens (in small numbers) are the coolest new city pet. Yes, more and more people are getting their municipalities to legalize keeping a few hens in city limits.

Not only can they feed you (eggs) but they have interesting little personalities.
Who knew?
I did! ;)
~

Babies

Had to make a couple of baby cards, why do I never have the right colour accessories when this happens..... here's what I managed to make.



Used Cuttlebug heart blocks folder on crystalline shimmer card and mounted the decoupaged image onto it, added a bit of crystal glitter, used peel offs for the name.
I border punched some gingham card and wrapped it around the back of the card, added ribbon along the card and made a little bow. Added some peel offs and a couple of bought embellishments.



I think it would have been better if I'd left the embellishments off.



Used a Bookatrix board for this one. Added a feather, ribbon and bow. Baby image decoupaged, with a bit of glitter. Designed the name in Design Master and cut with Robo. Mat was cut using mirri card, top cut in white card and glittered with glamour dust. Added a bought satin teddy, and dress embellishment.



As far as the Blog layout is concerned I still haven't been able to resize the header but I've got rid of the box that surrounded it and I've added a few more blogs to my list that I visit.



Getting there slowly..........
Hope you enjoy looking,

Welcome!

Welcome to the newly formed LouisianArtisans Etsy Team (tag: LArtisans Team)!

A mere 10 days have passed since AccentEnvy sent out a convo inviting a few of us Louisiana-based Etsy sellers to meet in an Etsy chat room and discuss setting up a Louisiana Team.

Since that fateful convo on August 11th, here's what the team has accomplished:

• Team Name: LouisianArtisans Etsy Team. If you're not yet a member of our team, but would like to join, send a convo to AccentEnvy - she's our group leader.


• Etsy Tag: LArtisans Team. If you're a team member, please consider editing your listings to include this team tag. It will help other members find you easily when putting together a Treasury.


• Google Group: LouisianArtisans, by invitation. If you're not a member of the group, contact AccentEnvy so she can add you.


• Flickr Group: LouisianArtisans. Again, be sure AccentEnvy has your Flickr ID so she can add you to the group. If you're not familiar with Flickr, click here to learn more.

• IndiePublic: LouisanArtisans, by invitation. If you're not familiar with this site, click here to learn more about IndiePublic in general, and click here to see the team page.

• MySpace: MySpace.com/louisianartisansetsyteam.


• Blog: LouisianArtisans.blogspot.com (not case-sensitive).


• Etsy Chats: Wednesday nights at 8:30 p.m. We're having a great time getting to know one another.

A note about this blog:

We plan to promote our Etsy shops via links and slideshows, feature interviews with our members, applaud our accomplishments, discuss Etsy, share marketing tips, and identify local venues in which we can promote our products.

This blog is still in its experimental stage, so don't be surprised if you stop by one day only to discover it has a completely different look. I do plan to jazz up the banner.

I'd love to hear your ideas, too. Please leave a comment on this blog (or convo me).

Lisa

Coffee with Barbie

Title: Coffee with Barbie
Medium: Sculpture (sold) Prints available.
Full Size: prints from greeting card to 8" x 10"

I did this sculpture for a coffee house art tour in 2007. It took a long time for me to figure out how to make the coffee without melting the doll. The whip cream was especially fun to do!

She was a big hit on the tour and now resides in her permanent home. However prints of her are available.

#8) Bakeapple Bars

As part of our vacation, the bf and I spent some time in southern Labrador with the "in-laws." While we were there we spent a day picking bakeapples. It was my first time tasting bakeapples and I fell in love a little... Okay, let's be honest, I fell in love a lot. I like mixing them with sugar for toast well enough, but these berries are too good not to bake with. This sweet treat is my own spin on blueberry squares, so you can use practically any berry you like. Don't let the length of the ingredients scare you - this recipe is simple and delicious!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar, divided in half cups
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 tsp cornstarch
4 cups berries

Steps:

-Preheat oven to 375°F.
-Grease a 9x13 pan.
-Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, flour, and baking powder. Add salt and cinnamon.
-Beat egg with vanilla. Add to flour mixture.
-Cut in butter with a fork or pastry blender. The mixture will be crumbly.
-Pat down half the dough into the pan.
-Stir together 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in berries.
-Spread berry mixture over the crust. Crumble the remaining dough over top.
-Bake for 50 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

*The smell of the the bakeapples baking is enough to make you hungry :)
*A scoop of ice cream over top makes this sweet treat even tastier!

A couple of more cards, Deco Ladies

Well I managed to sort out a graphic for the header, I'm not really happy with it, but it will do for now. I've been try to get it to stretch across the screen, but it doesn't want to grow, so I thought I'd leave it for now and put on a few more cards for you to look at, I'll try and sort it out another time.

I love using these Deco Ladies, both are from a sheet of wrapping paper.

The blue lady was decoupaged, then some crystal glitter was added for a bit of sparkle. The large peel off down the side was one from the Glitter Girls. I rounded the corners on the card with a corner punch.

I didn't decoupage this lady, just added some glitter. Backed it onto card then using silicone matted on a thick silver embossed card. A peel off down the side and a lovely marabou feather to finish.

Names and sentiments on both cards were made using Design Master and cut with Robo.

Hope you like them,

On Caterpillars

~

When it reaches a certain stage of its evolution, a caterpillar starts to consume more than it can handle. It becomes extremely voracious and becomes extremely disfigured and grotesque, and its cells begin to go into chaos and start to die.

Within the body of the caterpillar at that time there are a few scattered cells, which biologists refer to as imaginal cells, and these imaginal cells start to connect with each other. And when they reach a certain critical mass of connectivity, a genetic mutation occurs which has a genetic code for a different species: a butterfly with wings and a flight to freedom and a desire for that flight to freedom and beautiful colors. And this genetic code also has a gene that allows the connected imaginal cells to use the decaying body of the caterpillar, the liquefying mass, as their nutritious soup.

~Deepak Chopra

That's pretty awesome! Just think if we had imaginal cells.

Little Lily

Wow, am I behind or what? By now, you all know that I made cards from all twelve of the Anni-Verve-sary sketches and that the contest has been over for a week now. I didn't win anything from Verve, but I am still a winner. I have twelve wonderful cards to add to my stash!

This was the sketch and card from Day 6 (August 6th). Keeping with the idea of using stuff that I already had in my stash, I pulled out the green print paper from the Paper Salon/Karen Neuberger/Sorbet collection. I really wanted to use the other side of this cardstock, but it just didn't come together the way I wanted. This sketch has a circle as the main image, so I changed it up a bit to use an oval instead. The stamp is an oldie, but not moldy from PSX. It is the Lily from the Botanicals collection. I wish I still had all of my Botanical stamps (have you seen what some are going for on Ebay?) I embossed the image with gold ep onto white shimmer cs and colored with Copic markers. It is hard to tell in the pic, but the shimmer from the cs comes through the color of the image. So pretty in person!

I used the Spellbinders tag set to make the strips for the eyelet brads (yes, eyelet brads) that my sister gave me some time ago. Thanks sis, I knew the orange would come in handy some day.

The corners are pierce with what seems to be my favorite design. Who am I kidding, it is the only design I know how to make. :) If you have designs or know of someone who does, leave me a comment with a link. I would love to check them out!

I will try to post again tomorrow with #7.

hugs to all,

Teachers

~
Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

~Chinese Proverb

#7) Double Chocolate Banana Cookies

My birthday was a little better than a week ago, and being as smart as she is, my bestest girlfriend gave me a cookbook all about cookies. I couldn't wait to try one of the yummy looking recipes, so here is my first attempt. This sweet treat goes heavy on the chocolate, so if you aren't into cocoa as much as me, I would steer clear :)

Ingredients:

3-4 extra-ripe bananas
2 cups oats (I used quick oats)
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1 /4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped roasted almonds

Steps:

-Beat bananas with hand mixer.
-In another bowl, combine oats, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
-Stir in bananas, butter, and eggs until blended. Add chocolate chips and almonds.
-Refrigerate for 1 hour, until partially firm. (Batter will run if not chilled, as seen below)
-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-Drop batter unto greased cookie sheets by the 1/4-cup measure. Flatten slightly with a spatula.
-Bake for 15-17 minutes on the middle rack. Cool on wire rack.

Info:

-I halved the recipe above and got 20 large cookies.
-the 1/4-cup measure makes for a big cookie. If you would like smaller try tablespoon drops.
-Refrigerate batter right up until you place it into the oven. If not you will get monsters like those in the second picture HaHa.