springing forth!

amazing what a few days can do...




snap peas going wild!!

Illustration Friday - Breezy

This is my first ever Illustration Friday post!
This Friday's theme is Breezy - which it sure is today in southern Vermont!

Here is my interpretation of Breezy - an original digital illustration with all the pieces and parts vectorized from a couple of my pen & ink paisley drawings.... Happy FRIDAY!

Cranberry Chocolate Chip cookie recipe

This recipe makes a crisp, crunchy cookie with a slightly softer inside. These just so happen to be the ingredients I'm using today... I like replacing pretty much everything in my baking at any point in time, so switch it up! Add in coconut and flax seeds vs cranberry and hemp seeds, use eggs instead of egg substitute, other sweeteners instead of cane sugar..try it out, believe me, they will still taste amazing, I am sure of it!


pre-heat oven: 375*

2 sticks butter, unsalted or similar (soften to room temp, try not to microwave if you can avoid it)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I make my own, it is very easy to do!)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I keep a vanilla bean in this too)
2 eggs or egg substitute

*Beat the ingredients above until creamy. like below.

now take another smaller bowl, add 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, stir or hand whisk up a bit, and add slowly to your main batter. should look something like the image below, once all the flour is incorporated.

Now, my favorite part! add ins. With this particular recipe I added a bag (or half) of chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of hemp seeds, 1/4 cup of dried cranberries. hand stir these into your batter. now you are ready to bake!!

Teaspoon batter onto cookie sheets, bake from 13-15 minutes, depending on how you like your cookies done....keep on cookie sheet to cool for a couple minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack, then on to the cookie jar...Voila!

Vacation poster - custom design

A very sweet friend of mine saw the Fox Hollow Farm poster I designed and shot last year - and asked if I would be willing to perhaps take her pictures from her European vacation and make a similar large poster out of her favorites. What fun it was getting to design a permanent poster memory of her vacation for her.

seedlings!

In the midst of the very snowy past few days, I took it upon myself to start up some seedlings. Just a little wheatgrass and some snap peas(thanks to Jenna on the snap pea idea!) to give me something to tend until I can go whole hog in another month or so with the cold frame and garden sowing...or maybe it is just to spite the seemingly infinite winter we're having up here.

The snap peas are soaked and planted, but will take a while to see them pop.
I started & kept the wheatgrass on paper towel under cloches for a few days until they started getting a bit too big for their britches - they have been in these little pots for two days, isnt it amazing how fast they grow up? I can't wait to see a full bed of it soon enough.

Lavender is up next ...what a finicky seed they are, but the flowers soon make me forget all the trials!

my favorite Handmade dress Makers

All courtesy of etsy! This handful of artists are just a sample of the amazingly talented independent clothing designers out there that I love, particularly for dresses. These are all handcrafted clothing shops, perhaps offering new product with your custom measurements, or inventively re- and up-cycled from vintage pieces galore! Many of these products are very eco and environmentally friendly too!

gaiaconceptions.etsy.com
ArmoursansAnguish.etsy.com
CrowsCloth.etsy.com
econica.etsy.com
kimenna.etsy.com
hollystalder.etsy.com
malphi.etsy.com
trapperjane.etsy.com
missbrache.etsy.com

find designers who's taste and style you love, but also keep in mind your body type. We all have our own unique figures - show it off the best way you know how! Dresses are so much more forgiving than pants - you will never have the dreaded muffin top with a dress, I assure you. Also, ask yourself if the frock you pick out can be used in more than one season- whether it is seasonless, or through layering! I like trends as much as the next girl, but when it comes to clothes, I like to keep 'em simple, stylish and modular. I find working trends with layers or accessories tends to be a little less painful on the wallet.

Bees ordered!

2009's bees are ordered!

Two hives in this case equals six pounds of bees - 25,000 honeybees and two Italian Queen Bees.
One hive for me, one for my Dad - bees are a great christmas gift, what can I say.
my Dad really is very excited for his first hive ever - on the farm there are tons of berry brambles, hay fields to preside over, along with the orchard of pears, apples and grapes - oh and the vegetable garden too! We can't pick the bees up until May, it needs to be warm enough and have stable weather over a period of time for the bees to travel this far North from Georgia.

Fun with digital illustration

The repetition of shapes is very appealing to me, and of course with illustrator or photoshop, you can basically repeat the most complex of images into the millions(like fractals) if you felt like it. I'm playing more with the concept of repeating shapes to build larger more recognizable images and creating patterns than actually creating fractals - in fact the butterfly is looking more like a Rorshach inkblot!

Friday Fun Links

Friday not going fast enough for ya? spend some time on one of these links - a few of my favorite places to visit for inspiration right now!

Coraline the movie - the site is just a taste of how amazing the detail and craftsmanship is in this movie - stop motion, everything handmade. How inspiring this movie will be for artists and hand crafters alike!

Design*Sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product. Grace has some of the best taste around, I don't offer that lightly. Her growing compendium of ideas, contacts, design, textiles, DIY's...you name it, they will drop your jaw, and expand your mind into new, more gorgeous design levels... or whoever is looking over your shoulder. I bet you will forward Design*Sponge to a friend.

Josh Spear I have been following for years it seems. Keeps me on the cutting edge, Josh IS the very meaning of trendspotter. Very modern design, amazing technology - great ideas on sustainability particularly with furniture, clothing and accessories. Always makes me feel good visiting the site, and offers so many fantastic designers and points of view around the world. Again, I bet you forward one of JoshSpear's posts to someone else you know MUST find out the Awesome too....and they will appreciate it!

Etsy. Be forewarned, this place will take up your life with all its creativity and amazing shopping potential. You will hear this name in both Design*Sponge and Josh Spear for good reason - some insanely awesome artists and crafters reside at Etsy, selling their wares! Truly one of those places you will get lost in for hours searching for the perfect robins egg blue jacket, recycled from tupperware containers, or start selling your handmade knit dog sweaters and homemade macaroons.

Next Friday's links will be all Etsy crafters to check out!

Enjoy your weekend!

a new day!

I've been in a "designer cage" the past few weeks with my trusty laptop not able to handle all the design I've been throwing its way. Love my powerbook, but it is just not enough power for my needs. As any designer or artist knows, nothing is more frustrating than having ideas, but not being able to flesh them out to your desires! SO I bit the bullet last week and ordered a new laptop - the macbook pro - which is better able to handle the processing needed for photoshop, illustrator and indesign.
It arrived late Tuesday - the computer switch took a few days. A few more glitches than expected in the transfer and cloning(isnt it always?), but I am now fully back up and running - at a whole new level of speed. Indesign flies!
I can design again at my own speed again,
I'm a very happy camper, dear friends.

Happy Thursday - I hope you Enjoy Your Day!

leftover spinach salad omelet

Any day I can make an omelet for breakfast is a good day. Any day I can recycle last night's salad into a omelet is even better!

This only works if you don't put dressing on your main salad, dressed salad gets icky too fast to reuse in the morning. The greens really need to be spinach, kale, collard- any green bit of goodness that is good cooked.

My salad leftovers were whole baby spinach leaves, chopped broccoli, slivered almonds, hemp and flax seeds. Tons of vitamins, minerals and protein for a busy day ahead.

I threw all that into a pan with a bit of olive oil on medium heat and got it all nice and wilty (i'm sure that is not a cooking term)

In the meantime, take two eggs, scramble with salt and pepper in a bowl with a whisk.
I use one yolk, two whites, you should use however much you need for your family, or for the amount of leftover salad you want to use.

Pour in the egg mixture once your salad is "wilty". Scrape your omelet into the center until it starts creating a solid mass - cook it up on both sides, toss on a bit of shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese if you wish, then fold up and let melt for a minute or so. flip it once more for good measure, and voila!

It always makes me happy to make the most of my food, waste not, want not!
What could you throw in to your omelet this morning?

the sunflower handspun beret

From the top down it resembles one, doesn't it? Some in part to the colors, but mainly got its name from the textural pattern of the staggered fishnet lace.



the top part of the hat is fine commercial wool, beautiful heathery browns, flecks of reds - the funky thick and thin green/amber/blue is hand dyed, hand spun yarn. the second it came off my wheel i started knitting with it...this yarn knew exactly what it wanted to be when it grew up...part of a gorgeous little beret!

thick and thin handspun yarn looks amazing used in simple lace patterns with big needles. cozy, funky, but also delicate and pretty. it begs to show off, so i let it!

Want to know more? Email me or visit my online shop, where you can view details sizing, see more pics, buy this exact hat, or custom order one of your own!

writing patterns - giraffe

I have finally begun my pursuit of writing down the knitting patterns for each of my different toys and creatures. So many to write- the task is certainly daunting. I want to be sure to create patterns that allow for the most creative leeway for each knitter, but still give specific details and guidance on the process of making a creature precisely like mine.

First up, my giraffe twiglet. the giraffe is super cute, I have knit it in a variety of sizes, shapes, yarns... each have been successful and unique!
I really thought it would be a simple writeup.

A few realizations:
Writing a giraffe pattern takes WAY longer than knitting one. WAY LONGER.
I was shocked how much I wrote. {4 pages- on a little KNIT creature?}


After dictating it back to myself twice, I updated and fixed the first draft for test knitters. And off it went. Only a few small fixes to start, and the knitters were knitting!

Another realization: It is SO cool to have someone else knit your pattern! Even better is to SEE someone's interpretation of your pattern! I was pretty awestruck, to be honest. Another knitter totally understood and followed how I create! odd concept I know, but so very cool for me.

I have a couple more patterns in progress, nearly set to try out - anybody want to be a knitting guinea pig?
If you have a real confidence in DPN's, you will love these!

Fairy angels


bunny rabbits

spring fever

i've got a fevah - for spring.

ticket design - 87 racing team dinner

this was a fun little project. the car's colors are black, blue and orange, so wanted to be sure to use them in a nice contrast...i liked the idea of using barcode lines, reflecting speed...kachow!

spun up unplanned goodness

a little over a week ago, I did a big fiber dyeing day....lots of boiling water, vinegar, colors blending and mixing away...me running from my stove, to kitchen sink, to drying rack - rinse and repeat. fiber dye day is hectic, hot, fast-paced and fun...like kickboxing...fun.

next up, make yarn.
if coloring the fiber is like kickboxing, then spinning yarn is like yoga or meditation. More hands on prepping of fiber - carding, blending and rolling, or pre-drafting to perfect little pencil rovings, ready to be spun up. Every step counts towards the end result. Pedal ready to go...the wheel starts a whirring, and we're off. the methodical sounds and pace really chill me out...focusing on the fiber flowing through both my hands, an attention span is lengthened to new degrees!

i often have ideas as to how the yarns will turn out - i have, after all, picked out the fibers, planned their colorways, drafted and carded the stuff to exactly my desires, and spun to exactly the right tension... but the fiber tells my fingers what to do with it. Thick becomes thin - smooth wants to be funky - the laughable attempt of planning my art births a totally different, more amazing product in the end, every time.

now what to knit?

Toys win...We Have been Heard...for Now.

check out the full press release here, but suffice it to say, the CPSIA law has been granted a stay of testing! Wonderful news that we are being heard, but make no doubts about it, we will still need to keep a close watch on what regulations and testings they assert upon those of us who make toys from scratch.


press release link

hat from scratch - from the fiber to your head

This custom handspun lace rib hat was so much fun to make- and it was completely from scratch! Sweet, soft, snug and supercool! So much goes in to making a hand spun hat - I love every single part of the process, each offers me different ways to express my creativity.

Planning a hat from scratch:
I started with three wools - I hand dyed some white wool to teal, raw local unprocessed wool locks dyed to olive- the grey I left natural. I took the three and ran them through my drum carder to blend them up - sort of like making a paint color - the more you blend, the more even your color becomes. I carded(brushed) this batch at least 8 times - I wanted the grey and teal to be very combined, and did not add in the olive locks until the 6th carding or so - to offer some standout between the primary teal grey heathered blend. Once I got that where I wanted it - on to the wheel!

Most fibers that I run through my drum carder are formed into rolags(rolls of fiber) - fun to spin from directly, no other special prepping, which I love. I spun this up quick, I knew I wanted it to be funky - some super thick spots, super thin ones - some nips and noils from the olive wool locks - it needs to have character like its owner :)

Once I had it spun up, I set the yarn's twist in a bath of warm water and lavender, hang out the yarn and let it dry. Time to figure out what I'm knitting with this!

I knew the pattern I wanted to use for the detail edging - a sweet lace rib pattern - practically speaking, it offers give on the head, and if worn as a beret, it holds on. This pattern also offers a feminine detail of a lace pattern between the ribs.
Oh, and double bonus, that hat is completely reversible!

I used big needles to let the yarn show off - each part of the hat has interesting detail, lacy, delicate, but super soft and warm. I wasn't expecting the soft delicate edging that came about, but it is a very pleasant addition, something I plan to recreate very soon for my shop!