Holiday Sweetness

Just wanted to share a picture of these Christmas Eve goodies we picked up in Little Italy. I got to try out our new camera. I'm looking forward to learning all of it's ins and outs. Unfortunately, I've been quite sick for the entirety of Christmas vacation so I'm not sure I tasted any of the icing or the pastry cream. I also managed to cough my way through Atonement and Sweeney Todd. So, finally beginning to mend in time for the holiday to be over. What can you do?

Happy Holidays

Heres to visiting and food and movies to come this week...

Merry Christmas to Devin

Devin's big Christmas present was the first professional recording session for our music project, Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. We're recording an ep of songs based on the poems of Richard Brautigan. I just wanted to share some of the images from our time spent in the studio. We're recording at Metrosync. Back in the day, it was a radio station. The Beatles once played live in the room where we're recording.

this time last year

I've been thinking a lot about this same time last year. I do quite a bit of that comparing one year to another.I actually started my very first blog entry with similar sentiments. Without going into too much detail, last fall was a really rough time. It was made even rougher by the fact that we were 4 hours from our families. I remember one particularly difficult day I was going to go out to buy Christmas cards. I was getting ready to go, and I thought,"I should just make Christmas cards,it would be a nice distraction". I sat down with the computer and began looking for ideas and I stumbled upon the crafty blog world. It somehow felt like a revelation to me and comforted me so much.

Finding so much inspiration has meant so much for me. I can't imagine how different my life would be right at this moment if I hadn't made this discovery. I'm so thankful for all of it.

When We Covered Cleveland in Ivy

So, its not very Christmasy, but I guess it is very seasonal, particularly if you live in Iowa. I was catching up on Tiffany's blog when I came across this quiz. I decided to take it,and while I don't want to reveal my personal results it did get me thinking about this guy. I'm not just saying that because he's my very own congressman. Actually it reminded me of a really great Dave Egger's story. The published version was included in his short story collection How We Are Hungry. However you can read another really great version here. It might be a little silly, but I have to think that crazy idealism isn't such a bad thing.

Meanwhile we are turning the corner of one week until Christmas. I have a few more crafty projects up my sleeve. We'll see how many I get done. I had decided not to bake any presents, but then I saw this post and I'm all a flutter with ideas. I'll let you know what the next few days bring. For now,I'm just listening to this and looking at this:

Oh magazines

I have a bit of a magazine problem. I'm fairly selective, but I still manage to read dozens of titles each month. A few of these I subscribe to, but many others I check out from the library. I am fortunate to have an AMAZING library, which is a bit enabling. I really just wanted to share a little bit of news with you. I just heard that Blueprint will no longer be regularly published, but instead become an occasional special guide and also be included with Martha Stewart Weddings. I like Blueprint a lot.I was really happy when it seemed to be gaining some footing and it went to being a regular bi-monthly publication instead of just quarterly. That said I probably prefer Domino. It does make for one less temptation at the checkout line.

In more exciting news, Nylon magazine is teaming up with Urban Outfitters this year. I love Nylon for the coverage of emerging designers and artists and they have fantastic music reviews among other things. I used to have trouble choosing between the now defunct Jane and Nylon. Now that my Jane subscription has been replaced by the publisher with another magazine that I would never read outside of a waiting room, this is not a problem. For a limited time you can get a FREE subscription to Nylon here.
I wish I hadn't recently caved and bought a subscription, but for those of you who don't already receive it, take advantage of this great deal.

I'm it!

Jessica tagged me last week. It's taken me awhile to reply but here goes...

The Rules:

1. Link to your tagger (see above), and also post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself (random or weird) on your blog.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, it appears some random facts are in order.
1. I was married in San Francisco's city hall. The photographer was our witness. We had lunch afterwards at the Asian Museum. That evening we went to SFMOMA and ate dinner at Millennium. This is one of my favorite pictures:



2. I used to be an opthalmic assistant. I was pretty good at it and it was really interesting, but the medical field is not so much for the creative types. Also, I was really squeamish in surgery.

3.I've been the nanny off and on for a wonderful family for the past 3 years. I love them so much They are now expecting their 6th child. I actually find it way easier an more interesting to nanny for a big family than just one child. Here's the sad princess:


4. I don't make my bed. Actually, I do sometimes, but I have a hard time getting in to the habit. I really love when the bed is made, it makes me feel all organized and together. I can make it for days and days and then poof! one day the habit has disappeared. Good habits are really hard to start. This reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg quote. "People who smoke cigarettes, they say "You don't know how hard it is to quit smoking." Yes I do. It's as hard as it is to start flossing."

5. I love Mitch Hedberg. I'm not really a stand up comedy kind of a girl, but he makes me laugh so much. I found out that he had died when a band opening for Bob Dylan in Chicago dedicated a song to him. We were in the highest possible seats. I literally had vertigo. I kept thinking I must have heard them wrong, but sadly, I had not.

6. I have a very recent obsession with potato chips on sandwiches. Mostly jalapeno or salt and pepper. I'm not sure how I went to long without fully appreciating this. I'm thinking it's kind of like vegetarian bacon.

7.For two and half years, we were tough dog owners. Ok,not so much tough, but we did follow the no dogs in bed rule. Then, one night, Devin had trouble sleeping and he went and got Ramona. That was that. We really get so much pleasure out of having her there, that we keep asking each other how we managed for so long without her. I mean how did we resist this face:



I've waited so long to do this, that it seems like everyone has already been tagged. So, I'm tagging just three:

Jen

Claudia

Ashley

Post Bazaar

Phew! The craziness of preparing for my first craft show is finally over. It went really well, and it was really fun, albeit a bit chilly. The building was pretty cool and it was kind of great to be downtown all day. I finally got to meet some of my crew from Cleveland Handmade, which was exciting. I had the pleasure of being between Oh Melisa! and the Cleveland based letterpress goodness that it Oddball Press.I had my eye on some squids across the way, but never actually got around to doing much shopping. I'm looking forward to doing more shows in the future.

Jessica tagged me last week and I owe her some random facts, but I'll save that for later. For now it's a day for pancake eating, laundry doing, movie watching.

are you my uncle?

Last week we had the good fortune of going to visit my brother and sister in law and our one and only niece. It was great to spend some time with them. Like last time we had a delicious brunch at Blue Max Coffee.




As brief as our trip was, I did manage to squeeze in a little shopping. I splurged on some delicious Beemster gouda at the Marion Street Cheese Market. I also spent a fair amount of time salivating at Paper Source. It's crazy how much paper makes me happy.

In other news, I was accepted into this years Bazaar Bizarre. I'm pretty excited and pretty nervous as well. Today is my one week countdown, so if I am even more absent than usual, this is the reason. I am holed up in the attic making, making, making. If you are in the area come on down!

I Live in the Twentieth Century

I live in the Twentieth Century
and you lie here beside me. You
were unhappy when you fell asleep
There was nothing I could do about
it. I felt helpless. Your face
is so beautiful that I cannot stop
to describe it, and there's nothing
I can do to make you happy while
you sleep.
- Richard Brautigan

One of my most favorite poems, I just wanted to share on this windy,rainy, November night.

keyhole

Just a little corner of my home I wanted to share.

fall back

I finally managed to harvest lavender,thyme,mint,and sage from the garden to dry. The stairway smells amazing! I'm hoping that it will find its way into some Christmas presents. Soap? Linen water? Any suggestions?



A new wreath for the front door thanks to the Halloween clearance.



I hate how fast the retail world moves, but I have to say that I feel a little giddy when the Christmas stuff starts to make an appearance. I can't help myself.

boo

I made Devin some Peanut Butter Blossoms with candy corn Hershey Kisses. He's allergic to chocolate,so I jumped at the chance to make a favorite work without it. The candy corn kisses taste kind of like butterscotch to me. Maybe not the most wholesome of recipes, but really good all the same.




When your walls are pumpkin colored and this is your cat, every day seems like Halloween.

good intentions

I had a nice entry to put here, but blogger strikes again. There's some error making it impossible to post photos. This has been happening a lot. All I can say is "grrrrrrr". Hopefully a real entry soon.

naan stop

A few nights ago we had Mutter Paneer (well, tofu actually) and I made a huge batch of naan. I use this recipe a lot. Mostly because the majority of naan recipes I encounter have yogurt in them and I just don't always have plain yogurt on hand. It was pretty delicious and it's really easy to make as long as you don't mind cranking your oven up to 550. I find that preheating the oven with a couple of pizza stones in it works really well. I bake about 3 at a time. It takes a round or two to get into the rhythm, but once you do, you'll start to feel confident enough to make jokes about opening your own Indian restaurant and calling it, yep you guessed it, Naan Stop. Maybe the heat was getting to me.



It seemed like fall was all stalled out, but suddenly overnight the colors are finally here. They always seem to sneak up on me. We've been hiking at Huntington Reservation few times a week. I didn't even take the camera, feeling like colors hadn't changed enough, but of course I was wrong. Deciding not to take the camera is pretty much always the wrong decision. Other than that there's been a lot of soup making and dvd watching. I realized that there are few things as great as discovering a really funny tv show and watching it all in one go on dvd. I also discovered that there are few things as disappointing as realizing you are caught up with said show and you have a years wait before you can watch another episode.

I watched the Godfather for the first time. (I know, I know, I'm not sure why it took so long). I was really struck by how visually beautiful it was, the colors in particular. The whole movie (actually 1 and 2) the color scheme is almost entirely muted neutrals with these shots of burnt orange. I tried to find a picture to show you, but I couldn't find one that wasn't filled with weapons. I can't get those colors out of my head. Unexpected inspiration.



I decided it was time to take part in the Pay It Forward Exchange. I think it's a great idea and I joined up on Jen's page. It works like this: I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on this post requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.Such a good idea.

So, comment away and enjoy this October Sunday (Actually, by the time blogger behaved...Tuesday).

craft in America

I finally got a chance to see the PBS series Craft in America. I was so sorry that I missed it when it originally aired. The topic is one close to my heart not just because of the work that I do, but because of the craft world I grew up in. My parents became involved, very young in the reemerging craft world of the seventies. My dad worked as a traditional blacksmith for a very long time. The smell of coal still immediately takes me back to the forge where he worked when I was little. This was my dad's day job. To make extra money as young newlyweds my parents managed a variety of food related businesses within the very large craft show that friends had began. Everyone we knew was involved my grandparents, aunts and uncles and most friends of the family. Our family history is full of stories like "The year the pancake booth caught on fire".

Later my mom began making hatboxes. She had a tiny spot in our tiny laundry room with a tiny black and white TV, where she would work when she wasn't chasing after my brother who was a toddler at the time or when she wasn't at her regular job. My parents were very interested in the Shakers and my dad began learning how to make Shaker boxes, working in the basement where the ceiling clearance wasn't much more than his height of 6 feet. Slowly he began to work on more and more complicated projects, eventually creating beautiful furniture pieces.



The shows we did were often based on colonial and traditional crafts so they usually involved colonial costumes. As a little girl obsessed with Little House on The Prairie, this was fine by me. I feel pretty certain that all the years spent around reenactors and other crafts people obsessed with historic accuracy had a lot to do with me choosing History as a major so many years later.

I think it's so interesting what an integral part of life craft is. The social role it plays is astounding. Before craft blogs or dare I say, the internet, the craftsmen looked forward to the craft shows where they could swap gossip and gain inspiration from one another. I suspect that this social connection is why my grandmother at the age of 81 still manages the Commissary at one of the largest craft shows in the country. I also think it gives my parents a great deal of pleasure to see that my generation is picking up where they left off and reinventing what craft means.

velvet lily pads

We had the great fortune of getting a big bad of organic Pink Lady apples at the West Side Market for one dollar. A few were a bit bruised, but they were perfect for cooking with. Every time I take one out, I think "A dollar!" in my head, so happy am I of this great luck. I've been thinking of lots of delicious apple recipes, but as it turns out so far I've ended up making only one apple recipe twice because it was so delicious the first time. Dutch Babies are a tradition in Devin's family where they are baked plain and then topped with a delicious sauce of fruit, butter, and sugar. I came across this recipe with apples and had to try it. Typically it is made in a cast iron skillet, but we don't have one of those, so I just use a glass pie plate. You could also divide it up into individual portions using a muffin tin. The batter is almost identical to Yorkshire Pudding batter and I follow the rules of my English grandmother here- all ingredients at room temperature.

Apple Dutch Baby

2 apples peeled, cored and sliced
1 1/2 Tablespoon butter
1/3 C. sugar or honey (or more to taste and tartness of apples)
cinnamon to taste
3 lg eggs
3/4 C. milk
3/4 C. flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a skillet saute apples, butter, sugar,cinnamon until apples begin to soften.

Whisk together eggs and milk. Add to flour and salt and mix together.

If you are using a cast iron skillet you can just pour the batter right over the apples and pop it into the oven. If you aren't I like to melt a little butter in the pan I am using and place it in the oven for 3-5 minutes to heat up. Then I add the apple mixture and top with the batter.

Bake for 20 minutes.
Top with powdered sugar and cinnamon if desired.

I wish I had a picture for you, but it's most delicious when it's right out of the oven and disappears quickly, so...



I've been reading Abigail Thomas' memoir A Three Dog Life. The essays chronicle her life after her husband is in a terrible accident chasing after the dog in Manhattan traffic. After the accident, he lives in an assisted living facility existing in the most present tenses, unable to recall time after a few moments. I just wanted to share one of my favorite parts of the book, aside from when he calls dog's ears "velvet lily pads" which is so lovely and perfect.

Thomas is writing about the assisted living center's art studio where many of the residents spend time working on projects and finding new life through art. She tells this brief story: "There was a young man who had arrived at the Northeast Center angry and belligerent, as inclined to take a swing at you as not. He began showing up in Bill's studio and started to paint. Bill watched him become an artist, and gradually he stopped being at the mercy of his rages. He got well enough to leave the center and move to a group home. This is what he said to Bill before he left: "What is art, anyway, except not pounding on walls."

finally autumn

Oh,have I been neglectful of this space.I was feeling all inspired and ready for autumn when a heatwave hit.(Read Shari's sentiments on the same topic here.)
It just made me feel out of sorts. Finally, though autumn has arrived. I have a habit of spending a great deal of time in my head composing lines to place here, and then, having done so forget to realize them. I do this with letter writing and even phone calls.Thinking is not the same as doing. I have lots I want to share, for now I will leave you with some pictures of the autumn light.

Shop Update

I've updated my etsy shop with some new items including some special seasonal editions. I loved sorting through all my things to handpick these images especially for this fall. I was thrilled to receive my first jewelry order and to send it off to this lady. I hope you enjoy it!
The laptop is going to the Apple store for some diagnostics, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, I'm listening to this,
being so inspired by this blog, and loving all the happy,puppy love here.

feng shui & Wendell Berry

I've been feeling a bit claustrophobic lately. Sometimes I feel as is I am being smothered by things. You'd think with the moving of the past years that we would have cut down on the things we've accumulated, and we did, but maybe not enough. I think part of this feeling came from finally getting all my project stuff out of the dining room, which has been it's temporary place for the summer, as the studio has been over 100 degrees. It felt so good to get it out of the way and to finally be able to see the surface of the dining room table and potentially eat there. However, the feeling began to fade as I faced my studio, which now has piles of things that need a place to be. Moving a mess from one place to another is not the same as eliminating a mess, nor is it as satisfying.

I've been reading a book of essays on the life and work of Wendell Berry.One of the essays, called The Art of Buying Nothing, is by Barbara Kingsolver. In it, she paraphrases Berry's standards for technological innovation.
1. The new tool should cost less than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small as the one it replaces.
3. It should do better work.
4. It should use less energy.
5. Ideally it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small shop that will take it back for repair.
9. It should not replace ot disrupt anything good that already exists, and thins includes family and community relationships.
I realize that many of these guidelines are easier said than done for those of us in the modern world. Berry, who writes his books without a computer saying, " I would hate to think that my work as a writer could not be done without direct dependence on strip mined coal." But it does make me think about all that STUFF we accumulate and spend so much time organizing, buying more stuff to facilitate the organizational process.

In the new Domino there is an article detailing a writer's experience with feng shui. Looking at the diagram of the 8 point feng shui system, I realized that our refrigerator was in our money space, and that I have been avoiding some seriously sketchy glass yogurt containers in there for a long time. Next to the fridge is a badly placed trashcan. Kind of as a joke, and kind of because you have to face those yogurt containers sometime, I cleaned out the fridge and rearranged some things in the kitchen. I also cleaned off the bookshelf that had becaome the landing ground for bills and mail (our career corner- it could use some help). There were quite a few other jobs that I'd been avoiding, but finally tackled filling bags with things to donate. We've been making jokes about how that clean freezer will help our prosperity. More than that, I think is that doing these things, maintaining order, eliminating things, makes me feel so much lighter. Whether you believe in the powers of feng shui or regard it as new age hype, I think that lightness sure counts for a lot.

chill in the air

There's officially a chill in the air, and it's beginning to feel truly like fall. Even though there is bound to be a few serious warm-ups before fall is officially here, I'm excited that the crazy 90 plus days are gone. It means that I can finallymove my ridiculous mess from the dining room back up to my attic studio. I'm excited. I had so much fun "making over" the attic on a $20 budget. I'll be glad to get settled in again, though I will miss having a dog at my feet. Ramona's domain is the downstairs. The cats are the boss of the upstairs. They would like to hide out in the attic, but they just get into spots where they don't belong and get their white feet all dirty.

This air makes me want soup, so there's some simmering on the stove. This recipe again. If I remember correctly, it was my last hurrah before spring was really here. I've been really hungry for something Indian inspired and I think this will hit the spot. I've been reading Madhur Jaffrey's Climbing the Mango Trees and I've been dreaming of curries as I drift off to sleep. Another great Indian memoir is Monsoon Diary. It really introduced South Indian cuisine to me for the first time. I finally got to try it on a trip to Concord, Massachusetts of all places. It was one of our many destinations during our "Spring of Interviews". We went into Cambridge one night and had an amazing meal. I was finally able to eat a dosa. Since then, I've managed to track down a local restaurant the specializes in South Indian food. If you are in the area, it's called Udipi (from experience I can tell you that it may be called Udipi wherever you live) There's a great grocery next door as well.
When I think of all of those trips, I think of great Indian food. We seemed to eat it everywhere we went. Concord, Seattle, Chicago, Connecticut.


I love a memoir that incorporates food, because food has such strong associations with our memories. I think of Indian food and I remember Massachusetts, that's the way it works. I was excited about Concord for more than Indian food. I loved Little Women more than anything as a girl. I read her biography as a fourth grader and just immersed myself in those Alcotts. I would carry around a notebook a imagine I had a garret to escape to to write stories in. Susan Cheever recently wrote a book about the lives of the many famous Concord residents. American Bloomsbury was interesting, although I felt like I was left wanting more. The lives of Concord residents are worth looking into though.

For now, there's soup.

Shop Update

There are lots of new additions to the shop. I'm so pleased with how everything turned out. The raccoon barrette is being featured today on Wickedly Chic. It's a great site that features lots of independent shops, so check it out!

summer's end

I think there are a few tomatoes that may still get harvested. I so love Shari's post of the Louise Gluck's poem "Vespers". I've been thinking about it everyday when I step outside and see those few hopeful Wisconsin Sixty Sixes and the ironically named Early Girls still producing new blossoms.

One sign of summer around here is the annual Dog Swim. Every year, after the pools have closed for the summer, there is an evening when one of the municipal pools opens for dogs to use before the pool is drained for the winter. Admission benefits a great cause and it is such a great community event.

Ramona spent a lot of time contemplating the deep end.


There were quite a few awkward exits.


This is Moose, one the sweet Newfoundlands we hung out with.


We managed to get a picture of Zeke. It's tough because he's always on the move.





In other news, I sent out my first big card order last week. It was exciting to send it on it's way.

My new project, a line of jewelry, is in its final stages and I'm hoping to have a shop update very soon.