sweet teeth

Thursday. I love Thursday. I have no idea what happened to Wednesday, I vaguely remember being terribly worried about this and that... but I woke up today just 100% delighted that Thursday it is!

So, in my happy state I'll share some of those paintings I had finished last week. These were practice sketches, completely finished paintings that took about 1/2 day each but intended as trouble-shooting. This first guy has a layer of colored pencil over the paint, I was going for a crayon-type look:

Below were the initial attempts at the new Hello Gator drawing conversions to watercolor. In the end I inverted the orange and green of her sweater and skirt and deepened the color of her hair. I was unsure about these until going over them in ink, my favorite part.

At this point, they've gone out to milestones, some of whom may have wondered if I had forgotten about them! My 900th & 1001st Heart got these small original paintings, as well as my 200th sale!

Painting 1st:

You can bet I am really really focusing on anticipation of a deliciously sunlit apartment (or porch? or... yard!?) in my Oregon future. Pictures above still came out blue (&%$*@#!) despite several days of photo shoots. The second painting photos still need some repair before I post those.

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Otherwise this week I learned:
1. never re-list all day on a day the press is calling Super Tuesday, no matter how many Super Tuesday's there are in a year.
2. chocolate fudge trumps apples.
3. maple walnut fudge trumps apples.
4. penuche nut fudge trumps apples.

making a mess

Hi everybody! Happy Super Tuesday... the 2nd...
Yesterday was a Monday of hit the ground running: lots of work to do. After a big round of printing, it took me a little while to realize that I had not formatted the Cupcake cards correctly! Argh! It's back to the printer today, as well as a major mailing of over 20 parcels and those long over-due special gifts for some special customers (more on that soon). Whew!

I made such a huge mess in my room while cutting, folding, packaging up cards & writing notes, wrapping Moleskines, packaging artwork; finally I had to leave the room and bring my chaos into the rest of the apartment. There was a post-dinner Gocco printing of Otter Moleskines, after such fantastic light in the living room that I finally got to take new photos for the Birds and Bunny tags (before Easter- fantastic!)
...last time it took way too long and the mini-eggs were eaten during last week's Lost.

All of this packaging and mailing and printing is a wonderful distraction from the painting I had been telling you about, but already I'm feeling the urge (after 2 days) to get back to the watercolors & the peaceful pressure of painting. Here's a sneak peek at one of my projects... I am very fond of this design but it just has not picked up in the shop since adding it. So, a painted version is on it's way- the first watercolor to arrive in ouou. I'm having some trouble with reproductions, more news when light turns green on that front.

Back to work! : P

Expecto Patronum!

Harry Potter weekend on ABC? Bring it.
Totally geeked out blog entry? It been brought.

Alright, it happened. There's no turning back. I've got this yarn that Celeste gave me for knitting and I adore it so much I just want to roll around in it! Last night was lovely, just knitting and learning to purl and watching Jaws 2.
Not. Going. To. Bed.
Knit, knit, yum! Ah, ha! Now I get it!
... so many years in darkness (shakes head) ...so many things to cozy in the future...

In other news of making things other than drawings, lookit that big old scone! Mmmmmm, tasty. When you've been nose-to-the--drawing-table, it is super fun to get your cook on. (Jamie Hills, we are in the scone zone!) These came out of the oven yesterday and were surprisingly easy!

This recipe calls for several things I need to avoid like sugar, sour cream, butter.... but it was the ice cream I ate while cooking that really did me in, less the buttery goodness of these scones. Anyway, I always was much better at baking than cooking and it feels great to put together something from scratch! The major impetus of rolling out of bed this morning was the thought of these scones sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and a hot cup of coffee. Oh my goodness, it was sooooo worth it. :)

And for anyone who hasn't tried spelt flour, it is simply a deeper flavor than white refined flour. Still light, not over-powering, it is a very good compliment to the almond flavor. If you like almonds, you'll like spelt.

Thanks to Celeste's friend Kelly for this delicious scone recipe, try it out! It is very quick and truly yummy!

SPELT ALMOND SCONES
you will need:
parchment paper & 1 cookie sheet
2 C SPELT FLOUR
1/2 c + 1 TEASPOON SUGAR
1 TEASPOON BAKING POWDER
1/4 TEASPOON BAKING SODA
1/2 TEASPOON SALT
8 TABLESPOONS (1 STICK) UNSALTED BUTTER, FROZEN
(I USED SALTED, ALL WE HAD)
1/2 C SLIVERED ALMONDS
1/2 C SOUR CREAM
1/2 TEASPOON ALMOND EXTRACT
1 LARGE EGG

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a med. bowl, mix flour, 1/2 C sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt. Grate butter into flour mixture on the lg. holes of a box grater . Careful! Butter will get melty as you go, use the flour on your grater.
Use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble course meal), then stir in almonds.
(I left almonds -but not extract- out. worked just fine)
In a small bowl, wisk sour cream, almond oil & egg until smooth.

Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until lg. dough clumps form. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. (This I found rough-going at first, it is very sticky at first, but you will feel as the dough comes together)
Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7 to 8" circle about 3/4" thick. Sprinkle with remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut 8 triangles (ours came out very large, I think I could have halfed them); place on cookie sheet (prelined with parchment paper) about 1" apart.
Bake until golden about 15 - 17 min. Cool 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Art and Such (2.0) & Paint-In

Well. Here we are. The weekend. (looks at watch) 5 days until the next Lost episode.

We are getting flurries today, and I hear Boston is hunkering down for "another round of severe weather". I always hated that, you know... when it hits on a Saturday? (Knowing my friends there, they probably just plain old hate it at this point). April is right around the corner, guys! Really it is!

Taking a lovely coffee break, maybe it's time for another round of Art & Such!
The first artist I want to talk about is the amazing AJ Fosik, whose work I read about in the October 07 edition of Juxtapoz. A former graffiti artist who has incredible graphic work, he turned then to 3D work that has this powerful, detailed, old world animal-god quality to it! Above is the Juxtapoz magazine page I tore out and have in my room as inspiration, you can find an amazing shot of his work on this Flickr page here. Also, check out the Swindle article here . Every new work I see by this artist just floors me & initiates long sessions of thunderstruck awe.

Another sculptor who has recently captured my wonderment is Tricia Cline. On the other side of the spectrum from AJ Fosik, but with equal power and skill, Tricia Cline sculpts ultra-clean, iconic works in a style reminiscent of classical sculpture. She also has work that invites you into a sort of story-land, a surreal offering of seemingly incongruous figures and objects, or participants in a mythological drama but with a medium like porcelain it's no wonder the sculptures take on an other-worldly (spiritual?) untouchable quality. I love the haunting faces, expressions, gestures with the hands, and am totally stunned that she is self-taught. Read her artist statement here or simply browse her gallery here. Her website is fantastic.

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Next Art & Such will be from Etsy artists on a "Story Time" theme. I can't wait! For those of you who don't know, Etsy was on Martha Stewart on Friday, and an interview about Etsy Labs in Brooklyn will be on NPR's Weekend Edition this Sunday! Go Etsy!



Not much of a show and tell for you from me as the light is unpredictable here for pictures, but there sure is a large scale Paint-In going on over here. I'm planning on some big changes going into the last chapter of OUOU (version 1.0) before packing up the whole operation and re-opening in ...May? I've re-listed designs that I over printed during Christmas and installed a "Moving Sale" section that will be up for March.

Last, I want to extend a huge shout-out to Little Bee & Mixed Plate for their recent OUOU features. It was an incredible end of the week in the shop, and since I have been lucky enough to work on this full-time I can't express how much I appreciate the enthusiasm! It literally puts food on the table! (smile). Good luck with the snow out there, Jen! And my very best & warmest to everyone this weekend!