glittergoods

we're way past chilly now

School is closed again today because of snow, well, because of icy roads, really.  The roads around us are fine, but apparently the roads to everywhere else are still awful, including any roads I might want to take to run errands today.

From the kids' perspective, snow days are way more fun when there's some actual snow around instead of a thin layer of crunchy stuff that refuses to melt.

Or, possibly, the fun comes when you have a mother who isn't shaking her fist at the sky while trying to figure out how to  1.  keep you from strangling your sibling while in the throes of cabin fever, 2. deal with a convalescing cat who has decided, since returning home from bladder surgery, that she prefers to sleep IN the litterbox, & 3.  get orders out the door (& to the post office without hitting any black ice) while also preparing for a big show this weekend.

I am very nearly philosophical about the situation; if school is off again tomorrow because of the snow that's supposed to show up tonight, I might even start to find the whole thing funny.

First thing on my list for the first moment I'm able to think about something other than holiday wholesale & shows, which will probably be sometime in January next week?   Finally getting serious about some window quilts for our back hallway, which is lined with lovely old single-paned windows, & which is also either roasting or freezing for half the year.  I keep translucent shades on them all year round, & have been considering adding some actual curtains since I painted the walls back there.  Now, though, thanks to this post at two straight lines + a lovely small version of a Denyse Schmidt pattern I saw somewhere online yesterday (you'd think I'd remember to take notes about my blog wanderings by now) + the kona sale at Hancock's, I think I've finally got some clear ideas about how to get some real quilty insulation up there.  Maybe I do hope it stays cold a little while longer.

[Edit:  the small lovely quilt is at Pink Chalk Studio, whew.  Also, the craft geek in me is delighted that she lists the exact colors she used.  & look, there's my beloved Road Trip on the back!]

cupcake 03: pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with cinnamon icing

Somewhere, I have a recipe for a pretty good chocolate chip pumpkin muffin.  It's a little tough, & a little too sweet, but not bad for a vegan muffin.  I thought I would bake a batch for Thanksgiving, but because my recipe-filling system is "shove everything in an expanding file & sort it out later," I couldn't find it.

So, of course, I turned to VCTotW, p. 126:  Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing.

I should probably say, I would have been happy with these cupcakes no matter what, because I love pumpkin baked goods, but also because I got to use these tiny chocolate chips from Tropical Source (not mini chips, but, just, smaller & less clumsy than your average chocolate chip.)

[O, tiny food, I will always love you.]

Anyway, the cupcakes were a cinch to mix up, & they turned out beautifully.

I was going to give the Cinnamon Icing a miss, but then decided to make leaves with it (although certain small girly factions of the family insist that they're butterflies.  I even broke out the flash so you could very clearly see that they are leaves).

If you make these, I definitely recommend the icing; I'm not sure I'd want gobs of it, but just a little bit piped on adds a nice spicy touch.  The verdict:  thumbs up on flavor (oh, speaking of which, I used fresh roasted pumpkin for these because I had some around, & I think they might actually have done better with the denser, less watery flavor of canned), thumbs held out sort of sideways on texture (although, see previous "watery" comment re: texture being a little too moist.  They might be better all around with canned pumpkin).

thanksgiving weekend

I have been going so fast lately that I have tried to make the most of the past few days "off" (although is it really a day off if you spend 5 hours in the kitchen -- even if you love cooking?).  We started off with a leaf garland (yeah, I know that the blog holiday train has already left autumnal decorations far behind, but I loved the idea (via Blair via Pink Trees with templates from Martha) & I'm playing catch-up), cut, painted + glittered by me, strung under the direction of my three year old.  We're happy with it, though the fall/winter holiday season is always the one time of year that I feel the lack of a waiting-to-be-decorated mantel in the house.

Thanksgiving morning I made apple waffles.  I am not a huge waffle fan, myself, but the family likes them & I do love the process of making them.  The waffle iron is such a mysterious machine to me, & I always hold my breath a little when I open it, sure that the batter won't have spread or the waffle will stick or etc.

The waffles, while tasty, are probably not really worth showing off, but I didn't get any other food pictures until after we'd already eaten our dinner, & a leftover bowl of gravy is just not that visually appealing.  I make a pretty excellent vegetarian Thanksgiving:  our main dish is this thing the kids call "Thanksgiving bread," based on an old Vegetarian Times recipe & which is basically seitan, topped with stuffing, wrapped in puff pastry.  It's delicious & centerpiece-ish & such a festival of wheat that it could take out the gluten-intolerant at ten paces.  We do all the sides, too, but for me it's really the Thanksgiving bread that makes it a harvest feast.

Since then, I've been getting the kitchen ready for the new appliances that are coming tomorrow (trip to Ikea the day after Thanksgiving:  not as bad as you'd think), visiting the cat at the vet (post-op recovery from suddenly discovered urgent situation:  she is crabby but doing very well for being 14), going to the fabric store (line:  longest ever, plus then I had to defend the idea of using corduroy for curtains to the checkout guy), & actually getting another project crossed off my list.

This is the little red skirt that's been hanging around unsewn for a while.  Once I gave up on my original plan to do a contrasting-but-still-red border, I wasn't sure what to do with it until I saw Sally's appliqués mentioned on the CRAFT blog.  Thus, me at Joann on Saturday, longest line ever, corduroy debate with checkout guy.  This was my first experience with Wonder Under, & while it worked perfectly well for what I had in mind & I knew, thanks to Sally's post, to expect some fraying (which I'm seeing already after applying & stitching it), it does make me wonder if the people who use it for art quilts have some special anti-fray techniques when using it.  (Edited to add:  after running it through the wash for the first time, I'm seeing some softening/slight fraying of the edges, but overall the design is holding its line much more cleanly than I was anticipating.)

I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with the appliqué idea until pretty late last night (while watching bad cable movies.  Has Donald Sutherland ever been in a conspiracy theory movie where he doesn't turn out to be one of the conspirators?), & it took me a good long while to pull together the right fabrics for the look I had in mind.  I love it when I've got the time to sift through my fabric collection, waiting for things to click into place.  Today I've got a big colorful mess to clean up & a slightly calmed sewing yen (Blair, I'm right there with you on wanting to start a new quilt), which seems like a good way to close out the weekend.  Tomorrow later tonight, back to work.

three down, two to go

Phew.

Friday + Saturday was the Queen Anne Artists Trunk Show, which was nervewracking not just because of usual pre-show bustle but because I was peripherally involved in the organization (it's sponsored by my girl's preschool), & so there was a whole other level of will anyone come?  For only being the second year of the show & there also being a ton of other events that same day, I think it went nicely.  It's very much a work in progress, but I think we'll get there eventually.  My show favorites:  Bouncing Wall's table (a new shop on Queen Anne Ave. with really gorgeous stuff from Northwest artists), & the amazing organic chocolate sugar scrubs from Sweet Beauty.

My table:

I even got a real ring display:

& also caved to holiday pressure & made a snowflake hat (which I actually really love).  I did a penguin shirt, too ("chilly"), which you can kind of see on my mannequin in the table picture.

The next day was Swank, (first one on the Eastside), & while the venue was terrific, the show itself was kind of slow.  It's a great group of vendors, though, & I always enjoy doing shows with them.  Then, last night, I dropped off a big bin of product for this:

It's my first time being involved in this show, & I'm really curious to see how it goes.  Hands-down best part?  I don't have to work it.

 

chilly, damp, sparkly

Today it looks like this outside:

which actually doesn't bother me much except for the fact that my cute new umbrella does a pretty lousy job, plus suddenly it really feels like November & I don't know where any of my scarves are.  The transition to this kind of weather seems to bring a strange combination of jangly energy & complete sleepiness to our family, but we'll get used to it.  My son is on early dismissal from kindergarten all this week, & I have been enjoying watching him come barreling down the short half-block between the bus stop & our house, bundled up in his huge raincoat, cheeks glowing with damp chill + the sense that he is both grown up & getting away with something, to be coming home from the bus stop by himself.

The pink cheeks of my five year old aside, though, this weather is doing nothing for my photography.

These are my glitter dot bobby pins, which I love bringing to shows (they haven't ever made it to the website because there are just too many colors) & which have gotten the resin treatment this year.  I'm excited about them, although the weather is making me hold my breath a little about whether they'll be cured by Friday.

This weekend is going to be busy & fun*, but I'll admit that I'm already looking past to think about next week's plans:  a garland of felt leaves; finishing that red corduroy skirt I cut out weeks ago (did I ever mention that I'm worried that my cool two-toned red idea is just going to make her look like she's wearing a Christmas tree skirt?); cooking for Thanksgiving (maybe some pumpkin cupcakes?); maybe even a little bit of doing nothing.

*Locals, come say hi!  Friday 6-9 & Saturday 10-3 I'll be at the Queen Anne Artist Trunk Show (in the Queen Anne Baptist Church), Sunday 2-7 I'll be at Swank (this one's at the Highland Community Center in Bellevue).

(this one is mostly about music)

Three things happened over the past few days that have me thinking about music again in a way I haven't in a few years: 

1.  I got an ipod.  It's probably been about 5 years (right around the time babies started needing my attention) since I've listened to music with headphones, & the way it takes me right on back to the time when music was absolutely crucial to my life is kind of amazing.

1a.  Almost as exciting as the music is the fact that, clearly, I will need to be making myself an ipod case.  As soon as I have time!

2.  We took the kids to see John Doe play an acoustic family concert in a tiny little venue (I know there are are at least a couple of readers out there who get the magnitude of this).  It was a great, fun set, plus also pretty funny the way that the room was full of parents (including us) who were way more excited for the show than their kids were (no adult admission without a child in tow).  After the show, I looked up his recent work on iTunes & have to say that I think "Ready" off of Forever Hasn't Happened Yet is completely fantastic.

3.  As a result of the first two things, I re-acquainted myself with Pandora & have been finding some great new stuff.  Lately it's been seeming like dirty guitar + garagey drums have been cycling their way back up into the indie music scene (mostly I'm talking about what I regularly hear on KEXP, since I know that there's always dirty guitar somewhere), & I could not be happier about it.

I'm expecting to be scarcer than usual this week (but will try to at least post pictures), because now is the time when all of my ridiculously overextended chickens are coming home to (try to find a place to) roost, plus I just realized yesterday that the kindergarten early dismissal week that was happening sometime in November is now. 

It'll be ok, though, because I have my headphones.

PS:  speaking of family music, as I sort of was up there, if you & yours are Dan Zanes fans, I highly recommend the live version of All Around the Kitchen -- it's the audio version of the dvd concert, & I just discovered that you can download it from his website & iTunes.

never mind the cupcakes

And in my second post of the day, I'd like to point out that it's not all giggles & cupcakes around here, no!  I am nearly to the end of my big wholesale push, which means that I'm starting to focus on all the holiday shows I've got coming up (two shows next weekend, then one the first weekend of December & one a couple of weeks later) & thinking about things like display & show specials, etc.  Sometimes this phase is fun, sometimes it makes me want to tear my hair out (or bake 100 cupcakes instead of even thinking about glitter), but I've managed to come up with an idea or two.

As always, I am deeply satisfied by the supplies.

The plan for these is smaller versions of the glitter letters I did back in May.  They're four inches tall, small enough to be tree ornaments but large enough to look good hanging on a wall (though now that I've written that I'm suddenly imagining a wall covered in tiny glitter letters).

I'll have these at my holiday shows, & they'll also be over at Venue in a couple of weeks (locals, it's going to be worth stopping by the store sometime this season, since they're really encouraging the artists to bring new fun stuff in).  I'm also working on a couple of holiday shirt designs, but don't have one to show yet.

In between everything else, I've finalized the design for my sister's save the date cards & the paper for them just arrived.  I can't get over the envelope color, especially in a big stack like that (although ask me how far over it I am when I have to wear a dress that color come June, ok?).

cupcake 02: your basic chocolate cupcake

The second cupcake from my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World project:  Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake, p. 37.  I really did mean to frost these with the Fluffy Buttercream Frosting, but I decided that I should probably eat a plain one for review purposes, & then I was really busy trying to get out of town for the weekend (this was last weekend, when I had all those fun Portland plans), so I just threw the lid on the cupcake pan & hit the road.  Judging from the way they disappeared down at my parents' house, the lack of frosting wasn't a problem.

Great flavor on these, even better the next day.  I used 1/2 tsp. almond extract in the "optional other flavor or just add more vanilla" part, & I really liked the flavor, although I think I might try to track down some chocolate extract so I can try that variation (I'm also very interested in the chocolate-orange option listed at the end of the recipe).  The texture was a little less excitingly cakey than the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes, but in the end I decided that they weren't so much squidgey as they were very light.  Taste outweighs texture on these, though, & I'll definitely be making them again soon (where "soon" very probably means "later this afternoon, this time with frosting.").

craft geek goes to studio craft

Ok, finally a chance to sit down & write about Studio Craft, which was just about the sweetest little show I've ever seen.  If you read any of the blogs involved, you already know that each participant is already wonderful at the little details, so just imagine what happens when you get them all together.  For instance:

See what I mean?

Also, everyone was just flat out charming, even more so in hindsight when I realized that I was just one of many who came to the show to meet the crafters as much as to see the crafts, & so the very pleasant chats I had with Blair, Sally, Alicia, Abby, Melissa, & Stephanie (plus hearing a great story that proves that amazing vintage finds are cosmically attracted to Lisa) probably had less to do with me having fresh & witty things to say & more to do with them being excellent + tireless hostesses.

I loved seeing all the goodies in person (it was like celebrity sightings for the terminally craft-geeky, Look, there's one of Stephanie's squirrels! Ooh, & Sally's pin boards!) & picked up quite a few little things here & there, but I have to say that my score of the day was this notebook cover from Melissa:

I love so many things about it:  the brown, the white stitching, the polka-dots, the pocket.  I am a big believer in notebook pocket systems.

I also get a kick out of the Denyse Schmidt fabric on the inside; one of the things that was great about the show was seeing a bunch of familiar fabrics used in ways I wouldn't have thought of (craft-geeky, remember?).

After all the chatting & shopping, I rounded out my trip to Portland with my first visit to Bolt, which is a perfect little jewel box of a fabric boutique.  Portland really seems to have a knack for the perfect little boutique; I'd say that maybe it's all the time spent indoors that lends itself to creating that kind of thing, but we have rain up here too & there are far fewer amazing little shops than I'd like (though we do pretty well when it comes to the needs of knitters).  Anyway, I found & immediately snapped up all they had left of this fabric

which is something I've been looking for for months & had given up hope of ever seeing again in this colorway (it's one of those Alexander Henry short run prints).  For this, if nothing else, Bolt has my undying love.

Then a wistful glance at all of the other enticing but unvisited (by me) shops on Alberta, a sandwich from the Wild Oats deli, & a drive back north through horrible, horrible rain.  I didn't stop to fortify myself like Blair did, but only because I didn't think of it (though I did have a handy bar of Green & Black's in my purse).

Great show, great day.

glitter factory

It took a couple of days, but I'm finally over this year's pouty round of wishing I had time to do up a really crafty Halloween, complete with chocolate bat-shaped cookies (I made these one year for a party, using a Donna Hay recipe & decorating them with black sprinkles.  They tasted like little slices of flourless chocolate cake.) & Martha-tastic pumpkins.  After five years of this parenting gig, I'm starting to have faith that things like time & a moment long & quiet enough to have a complete thought will eventually wander their way back into my life, & I'm sure Martha & her pumpkins will still be there when they do.  In the meantime, at least there's still plenty of candy.

Not helping the spooky cause this year, either, has been a small explosion of wholesale orders, so while I have been wistfully eyeing gorgeous one-off projects on everyone else's blogs (you've all seen the fantastic Moonstitches book cover tutorial, right?), my days have looked like

this:

& this:

& also this:

I actually love doing wholesale:  I like making a whole lot of a thing, I like sending boxes of sparkly stuff to stores all over the country, but wow am I learning about budgeting my time this season.

This weekend I'm heading down to Portland to check out Studio Craft (so excited!) & also visit Bolt, then it's back up here to start getting organized for the first of the holiday shows I'm participating in this year.

(I think the "free childcare" part is sort of irresistable.)