Work Day and Name Change

I've officially been accepted into the Ft Collins Holiday Craft Fair over Thanksgiving weekend! Hooray! So as you know, I have some work to do, and today I invited three helpers into the art room to help me with some of the grunt work of mass card-making: Mivvy, Haley, and Katie.

We worked for a good 4 hours (with a gourmet snack break half-way through) to do all the finishing on my non-Christmas cards. The photo below is the pile of cards we completed. I'd done all the design, painting, gluing, layout, etc. beforehand. Then today we sewed on buttons, beads, and other embellishments while keeping each other company and laughing at the chickens clucking right outside to screen door. We accomplished so much; that was 16 hours of work that the four of us did in 4. Fantastic!

Now, a story: when I was in Oregon over Memorial Day weekend, I stopped in a great quilt shop in Hood River. I was explaining to the woman there the type of art I did and the reason I was there to buy buttons (for 2 cents a pop from their bulk basket), and she asked if I had a card, so she could visit my website when she got home to her computer. A week or so later, she called me(!) and said she'd had problems finding my Etsy shop, Follow Him.

Whoa.

And so, I would like to announce the transition to my new studio name: Parsley Art. I am still working through the details, but you will see that it is a good fit. "Fresh art with lots of taste," you know, something along those lines. Katie came early to our work session today to do some photography with freshly picked bunches of parsley from my garden. We experimented with all sorts of things to integrate the parsley and some of my art supplies. You'll see more of those photos soon. For now, here are a couple...

Without Meaning To...

...I recently learned some new techniques! The other day, I was in the scrapbook store by happy accident, and since I had no agenda or no project to buy specific stuff for, I could just look around. Well, I got inspired, as usual. And I saw some stuff I'd never seen before. Handmade paper ribbons, ruffles, and flowers. So I asked the lady there how to do them. Here you can see my own successful attempts! (They're pretty easy to do, just something new and different.)

This menu features the ruffle (under the bow) and a couple of the flowers. I just love how much the ruffle looks like fabric, but it's paper!

Aren't the flowers just so cute? In person, you'd see that they, too, have a fabric-esque feel and look to them.

NEWS FLASH: I applied to the Fort Collins Holiday Craft Fair and although I haven't heard back officially, they did cash my check. Soooo, I'm thinkin' I might be in. Below is my list of things to make before Thanksgiving weekend. I've got my work cut out for me but boy am I thrilled!

Food Art

After a hiatus from the blog for a few weeks, I'm back to share the latest project I've been working on: a party! My vision: in the back yard, fairy lights, white table cloths, candles, friends, and above all, delicious food in seven courses. With lots of help from my sister, bro-in-law, husband, and friends, the loveliest of parties was most certainly accomplished. Here are some photos of the star attractions (my foodie cousin Lindsay will be proud):

Appetizer: Stuffed mushrooms with a balsamic reduction and herbed goat cheese puffs with a peach glaze.

Soup: Roasted red and yellow pepper

Risotto: Browned butter with sage -OR- pesto risotto

Salad: The $23 Heirloom Tomato Salad -OR- Spinach salad with cilantro, walnuts, and brie

Main: Lamb sliders with yogurt cilantro sauce -OR- Pot de Aubergine, served with a lima bean parmesan salad

Cheese: three different types of cheese, served with a warm rosemary-orange-cured olive salad and homemade herb crackers

Guests had a lovely time... hooray!

The lights were wonderful as the sun set.

Dessert was finally served at 11:00pm! (Unfortunately no photos of that though.) There was a tall and glossy über-chocolate cake, a blackberry fool (mousse), and a cherry clafouti (hats off to Julia Child).

Hot!

Yes, today it is supposed to get up to 92 degrees, but more than that, I feel like this project is H-O-T, hot! To have made all these at once really feels great. I've got 10 to show off and sell so far! Here's photos of them in their penultimate stage:

Here they are finished!

Close-ups of a couple:

Last weekend we went to a most excellent wedding in the mountains, at a beautiful mountain chateau in Estes Park. Katie and Adam put their hearts into the look and feel of the ceremony and dinner reception and we had a wonderful, fun time (there was even a bear sighting during the ceremony)! Below is their card-turned-art piece, made from the dictionary! Check out the detail of the background page--of course I had to use the page with the definition for "marriage."

Production

Check out this dictionary!! Copyright 1952, rescued by my sister from a classroom purge in California, and sent media mail for just over $8 to me in Colorado. The pages are perfectly suited for tearing out (no gasping allowed... remember, this was saved from the landfill!) and using as collage material. As you can see, I started using them today.

I'm working this week on pumping out some product. The application deadlines for two craft shows I want to participate in in the fall are in July and I need to show that I can fill a booth with my goods. Whoa! Plus, I'm working on making those wall hangings that Angela at Mama Said Sew will sell in her shop. So today I finished the 10th mini quilt and wrapped each of my 10 boards in pattern paper (below). None of them are finished yet, but at least you can see part of the process.

My friend Katie volunteered to be my guinea pig student in teaching an apron-making class. You saw my version of this apron in my last post, and here she is with her completed apron (her honey had her pose with kitchen items...).

I learned a lot from teaching this to her. She was a great student, with patience, enthusiasm, and basic sewing skills. She helped me to remember that things always go slower than you anticipate, and I learned that this apron is a little too complex to teach to someone who has beginning or probably even intermediate sewing experience in just 2 hours (my time limit). She also suggested that I have the project in its various stages already sewn to show as examples along the way, a la Martha or cooking shows. Finally, she suggested I write a take-home guide with instructions to hand out to students for them to refer to later when they want to make the project again. I thought both of those were great suggestions.