stuff about artstuff.

Pinterest, I Love You.

I mean seriously. You just made my life so much easier. I'm so excited about this one I had to come right in and blog about it, crappy photo quality and all. As far as life-changing pins go, this is right up there with that magical peeling-garlic-in-seconds-by-shaking-it-in-2-bowls thing.

I have been on a pomegranate kick lately, it is that time of year after all. I'll admit that one of the things I've always sort of liked about eating them is that it's so complicated that it becomes an event in itself. You know, like artichokes or sunflower seeds. A project, an accomplishment, with delicious food as the prize. I'll admit that my sometimes-love for these impractical high-maintenance foods are really just leftovers from my childhood: you know, when we had more time to play with our food.

But in the real and grownup world where things are supposed to happen on a schedule, I have spent a lot of time seeding pomegranates that could be spend doing other things. And my kitchen usually looks like a  murder scene afterward. I'd been seeing a lot of tips online for using that underwater method but hadn't tried it yet because frankly it looked like it might just be a just a different flavor of messy and complicated than I already had. But the other day I noticed this pin and visited this awesome blog and wow, like that garlic thing, this one is a life-changer.

Do you have a pomegranate in your house? If you do, run to your kitchen and do this right now! I mean it. You'll be so happy. That is if you're even half as easily excited by things like this as me.

By the time I was making dinner this evening I had forgotten what tool she had bapped her pomegranate with. I chose this wooden thing that shall hereby be known as the Pomegranate Bapper. I know, you'd think that someone who pretends to be such a foodie and who spent so many years in professional kitchens might know the real name of this, rather than that round poundy smashy bappy wooden thing; but that doesn't matter any more because it's the Pomegranate Bapper.

I remembered she said to bap it fairly hard. This is true, a gentle tap may dislodge one or two seeds; you need to really lay into it. You know, this was a very naughty pomegranate and it needs to be spanked.

In less than a minute, you've got a nearly-empty hull and a lovely bowl of seeds. You'll have to pick a few pieces of membrane out of your bowl, but that's it. I dug the last 9 or 10 seeds out of each half by hand, just for old time's sake. And I learned after the first couple baps that the closer you hold the fruit to the bowl while bapping, the less murder-scene-ish your kitchen becomes in the process. It hardly looks like anyone died in here at all. How awesome is that?

You should check out the blog post where I learned this: since it's a for-real food blog she has much prettier photos (!) and there are links to yummy looking recipes using pomegranate seeds. I sprinkled mine on a pretty amazing salad and look forward to adding them to just about everything I eat for the next few days.

Thanks, Pinterest!

Nailed It. No, Really I Did.

So how often does this actually happen in real-life:

I'm here at the computer and take a peek at Pinterest while waiting for a big file to upload.

I see something that looks good, get up right that second, make it, nail it, and eat it.

No, really.  I did that.

I suppose it's not that impressive of a feat considering the recipe has 3 ingredients and takes 5 minutes, but still.  You fellow-pinners know that immediate follow-through on a pin is a rare event, maybe even just an urban legend.  So I figured it's an event worthy of an actual blog post.  Yeah, I realize I have important art-related things I should be blogging about but haven't gotten to yet - but seriously: saw it, made it, nailed it. I mean, really.

So I just had to tell you: I highly endorse this yummy little concoction by Kaitlin of the Garden Grazer.

Of course I had to add a bunch of cloves of fresh garlic to mine (burp, excuse me) a little salt and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, and wow.  Love.  What had motivated me, though, was that whole sandwich she shows in the photo - how happy was I to check on my little sprout factory and see that my cute little alfalfa was grown just the right amount and ready for sandwich duty at that very moment?!

You may notice my sprouts look a little surprised to be here.  I did sort of sneak up on them, after all, before plopping them on top of this delicious little monster of a sandwich.

Go make this and eat it now!  Really it's just that easy.  And delicious.

 

And while I'm on the subject of yummy food type stuff I've been enjoying, do you remember when I started experimenting with simple syrups a couple years back after getting the SodaStream, and shared my ginger-syrup recipe?  Well, add another favorite kitchen appliance to the mix and I've found my ultimate ginger beverage, and this time it's raw, sugar-free, and loaded with healthy goodness.  I just throw sort of equal-ish parts fresh organic ginger root and raw local organic honey into the Vitamix and, wow.

This may have the depressing appearance of creamed squash and chicken baby food, but drop a dollop into a glass of sparkling water and you've never had a nicer ginger soda.  Or add to a cup of hot water with a little fresh lemon juice or ACV, a dash of cayenne pepper and you've got a super-healthy (and yummy) detox beverage.  And do I even need to mention that experiments are in-process to create the perfect gin-and-ginger cocktail?  I didn't think so.  I'll keep you posted.

 

And finally, after almost a year of just looking at it sitting on a shelf (don't even ask) I finally used my little veggie-spiralizer and ehrmagherd!  So easy and zucchini "pasta" could be my new favorite thing.  I zapped this in the microwave for just a minute and it was perfectly al dente.  What took me so long?  Oh yeah, I said don't ask. 

I keep seeing people say things on Pinterest like "really, I don't even miss real pasta when I eat this" and stuff like that, and I always sort of want to call BS just a teensy bit.  I was sure I would like it, but come on.  It's a vegetable, not a noodle. 

Well, I get it now.  They haven't been lying.

My favorite-little-Italian-joint-in-my-neighborhood-that's-no-longer-there (sadly, sniff) served up an uh-maaaa-zing Puttanesca with tuna that I ordered pretty much every single time we went.  Yes, other specials always sounded delicious but Tony's special Pasta al Tonno was what I always craved, and miss the most.

Well, it's not Tony's but I think I may have come pretty close.  This was spicy and garlicky and olivey and capery and homey and rich; the finely-grated Parmesan bound the sauce to the zucchini "noodles" perfectly and between every bite I had to stop and say "oh wow that's good".

Do you use a veggie-spiralizing gadget, and if so what's your favorite thing to make with it?

 

Pinterest Attempts to Sum Me Up:

Here's one that falls under the "probably only amusing to me" category: are you a Pinterester?  Have you tried this "Explore Interests" feature?  I just discovered it and it's sort of cracking me up.  I realize it's just a handy way to entice me to interact with new and different pinners but somehow I'm more intrigued by the list itself; it's like they've written my very own personal Pina Colada song:

Hi, I'm Beth. I like Crows, Garden Accessories, Iris Apfel, Atlanta, Radishes, American Beauty, William Morris, Elephants, Fairy Houses, Typography, Wedges (the shoes), Birdhouses, Avocado, Tree Houses, Fonts, Fairies, Easter Card, Pantone, Anthropologie, Monday Quotes (hmm, really?), Ravens, Quinoa, Garden Ideas, Fennel, Bats, Washington State, Wes Anderson, Plants, Vanilla Cake, Lambs, Plates, Syrup, Fairy Doors, Hand Lettering, Old Signs, Trellis, Cauliflower Pizza, Vintage Fonts, Kale, Greeting Cards, Gingers (no offense to my extremely-redheaded friends but I think this is supposed to be about recipes, not hair color), The Life Aquatic, Louise Fili, Paper Mache, Chickpea Salad, Honey, Carrots, Ireland, Olympic Peninsula, Salads, Blackberries, Sheds, Pets, Industrial Interiors, Quilt Shop, Polka Dots, Kombucha, Old Photographs, Vintage Christmas, Garden Gates, Lemonade, Ginger Beer, Vintage Photos, Rabbits, Bees, Sand Castles, Buckets, Open Shelving, Wallpaper,  and Barns.

I can't say there's anything here I don't like - so they're probably not too far off.  They've decided that I'm a big American Beauty (the movie) fan because I've pinned a lot of my fabric of the same name . . . but it just so happens that it is one of my favorite movies, too.  

I mean, I like lambs and syrup just as much as the next guy (not together, silly) but honestly I never gave either of them that much thought . . . or so I have been telling myself all these years.

So if you also have a thing for radishes, tree houses, William Morris, polka dots, or ginger beer, maybe you should follow me on Pinterest (or I should be following you!) because apparently we have that in common.  Or if not - well, you might have even half as much fun as me finding your own "Explore Interests" list.

Current Obsessions

Life seems to be moving at the speed of light.  I think it always feels this way around this time of year - after months of deep, dark hibernation I feel as if I'm emerging from a hole in the ground, squinting at the light, wondering where those winter months actually went.

Days, weeks, months are just flying by.  And now it's officially spring.

Handsome Ted has settled in and finally realized that he is home.

He has warmed up to being excessively picked up, smushed, scrungled, and loved-on, but still doesn't understand why he would ever want to sit on a lap, or why we would suggest such a thing.  He is perfectly content to sit next to us, watching us with his eyes closed.

This one has been filling the empty spot in my lap whenever possible, though.

She is, without a doubt, the. Best. Dog. Ever.

It's been super busy here in the Artstuff Studio since returning from Atlanta in January, but during little breaks in big projects I've been trying new things.  After decades of distantly longing for one, we finally got a Vitamix last month and I have been obsessed with smoothies morning, noon, and night.  I just can't get enough.  This new obsession may require a whole post of its own soon.

I've found some more new obsessions via Pinterest.

When I finally scraped the last bit out of my favorite delicious lavender lip balm my sister gave me last year, I decided I could just make my own.

So I did.

I found the recipe here.  It was so easy; literally, like this stuff, it took me maybe 10 minutes at the very most from start to finish.  I was so happy with this first batch, I am now obsessed with the concept of making my own personalized-to-perfection organic skin and hair products.  I've barely dipped my toes into this thing, but I think I'm soon to creep out of the I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing stage into the knowing-just-enough-to-be-dangerous stage.

And then there's this:

Sorry, this isn't frosting.

The next recipe I tried was this homemade rosemary-mint shaving cream I made for Husband Guy.  We Logans seem to have this curse: when we love a product, a restaurant, even a TV show . . . it goes away.  Disappears, gets cancelled, changes formula, whatever.  This has happened to him a few times with favorite shaving products, so when I saw this recipe, I had to try it - hoping he might fall for a product that will never, ever be discontinued.  He was a little frightened, but agreed to give it a shot if I made it.

And, ta-da, the first batch was actually Husband Guy Approved, although the moisturizing effect took some getting used to for him.  He's "not a moisturizer guy" so after the first few times using it, he could not stop touching his face because the sensation (of hydrated skin) was so weird and foreign to him (which was sort of cute).  But then he admitted that his skin felt good, and most important not oily at all (this had been his biggest fear).

 And finally, my Annual Early Spring Obsession:

The first seedlings are about to go into the garden!  I am over-the-moon excited for this gardening season to start.  This is the part of the year where all I've got is high hopes: for a long, warm growing season, for successful slug-vanquishing, for months to come enjoying yummy goodies from my own backyard.  These precious little babies from last weekend's Edible Plants Sale have been spending this week hardening off in big plastic tubs outside and will go into the ground any minute now, really they will...

Happy spring, everyone!

The Beach, September 2013

It felt like it would never come, this vacation.

But it did, and we spent a gloriously refreshing couple weeks at the cabin.

Making stuff 

and chilling.

Ted got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Constantly inspired by everything surrounding me there

I started playing with beads.

Inspired by the golden glow of the sunsets

or maybe it was just my beads...

...even my drawings coordinated with it all.

With so few distractions

"Hey guess what, let's go to the beach."

I started making earrings.

and more earrings.

Like, a ridiculous amount of earrings (more on these soon).  I couldn't stop.  It happened sort of on accident, I hadn't set out to make that many.  Really, I think it was the lack of distractions.

"Hey, I have an idea. Let's go to the beach."

Another thing that happened totally on accident: my finished necklaces caught my eye one afternoon

and a thought popped into my head

about all the super neato suncatchers and mobiles I keep seeing on Pinterest.

The challenge here was making it fit in the long window without distracting from the beach view.  I built it in several shorter sections and fastened them together, some while they were laid out flat and others after hanging it up.  For a mobile it's pretty heavy, and about as tall as me.

Glass, shells, rocks, even a small float are mixed together with the glass beads, jewelry wire, and some random rusty hardware from my Granddad's basement that I'd thrown in a bag to take with me, not knowing what I'd make with it.

It was good wire-wrapping practice.  Some are swirly and nice, others not so much.

But it's the beach.  The beach is supposed to be imperfect.

I made other stuff too and can't wait to share in more posts, but for now I'm just starting to settle back into home and studio, back to reality, where it is starting to feel like . . . fall.

Hope you are enjoying September so far yourself.

Mmm, Gingery.

Ever since getting our SodaStream (several months ago) I've been threatening to start experimenting with simple syrups, infusions, and tinctures using goodies like herbs from my garden.  Threatening, but not actually getting around to it until a couple weeks ago.  My first experiment was (not exactly from my garden, but) a recipe for ginger syrup I had saved to Pinterest a while back, and it was awesome.  This particular recipe is more gingery than sugary and it packs a little heat, which I personally love.  Super simple (why haven't I done this before?) the house smelled heavenly, and it tasted soooooo good.

Well, that's all past-tense, because we quickly finished the first batch off.  A couple weeks of ginger ales, cocktails, and detox teas - so much gingery goodness.  Already gone.

I need to hurry and pick up some more ginger and get experimenting - I'm thinking I'd like to try a honey-based ginger syrup.  Then, decide what's next: I've been on a lavender-flavored-everything kick lately (I know, late to the trendy-food-party, whatever) but then a friend put the thyme or basil syrup bug in my ear yesterday - hmmm.  What do you think?

Random Cozy Winter Stuff

As the year comes to an end I'm looking back at some highlights, or I suppose they're more just odds and ends, of my winter this far - under the cozy category:

Winter sparkles

and bits of sunlight

enjoyed inside and out

Eating lots of cozy, hearty homemade soup and cheesy biscuits

A few firsts, and successful ones at that:

Chewy salted caramels.

I used this recipe found through Tastespotting then added some of my new favorite thing: Trader Joe's flavored-sea-salt-in-a-grinder, yum - and the darker section is a super-smoky Yakima Applewood Smoked Salt.  Pretty much addictive, and dangerous because although many were wrapped up and given away, there is still a good sized chunk in the fridge...

This winter I made my very first lemon meringue pie.  So happy to have found this amazing recipe.  The meringue is extra-marshmallowy as the sugar is cooked into a syrup before it's added to the egg whites.  And her lemon curd has a higher lemon-juice-to-water ratio and a few more egg yolks than others I found, resulting in tangy-sweet heaven.

The girls have been helping me practice my sewing "skills".

I have a favorite set of bedding that Husband Guy got for us in Montana years ago: flannel with cute bear silhouettes.  But the problem with cute bedding sets like that is there are only 2 pillowcases, and the Logans love our pillows.  Lots and lots of them.  So there are also a few umatching ones thrown into the mix, which I pretend doesn't bug me.  For a while I've been wanting to make some sort-of-almost-a-little-bit-matchy ones with some of my At The Lake flannel, and have hoarded the last few pieces of it for that purpose.

I'd made basic pillowcases before, but found this great pattern on Pinterest and learned to make the perfect, no-seams-showing pillowcase using the "burrito method" - and learned French Seams in the process.

At The Lake doesn't actually "match" my bear bedding as much as I had imagined it would, and the new pillowcases were much longer than the original ones, so the old ones got a matching border - and so did the top sheet.

Tall Bear agrees, it's quite cozy.

Another cool Pinterest thing: embroidery floss organization.

I don't know about you but before implementing this genius idea, every bit of my floss was a tangled tornado of torture.  Now it's a pleasure to use.

Our lives are infinitely better now, as the girls demonstrate while helping me finish off the crow pillow I made for my sister.

And speaking of stuff that makes my life infinitely-better, I made a bunch of my favorite easy-peasy scrub from Pinterest for Christmas gifts.
That was fun.

And to wrap up random winter highlights, this has nothing to do with anything, I suppose, but it made me cozy on the inside, and it was another first:
I finally stopped at the taco truck outside of the Home Depot in North Seattle.  Oh em geeeeee, the fish tacos were to die for.  Fresh, crispy, spicy . . . absolutely perfect.  My brother and nephew enjoyed big gooey meaty tortas that were pretty amazing, also.  You local folks really ought to try it out, if you haven't.  It's even a cold-wet-winter-friendly place to stop for a bite; there are tables under-cover with a couple big cozy propane heaters keeping it quite nice.

I want to go back right now, soooooooo goooooood...

Wishing you all lots of random coziness and other good things in 2013!

Fresh New Start.

Happy new year!
As I've mentioned here before, for me, New Year isn't when those numbers change in the dead of winter.  With my business revolving around a show like Surtex, my year builds toward that golden opportunity to show what I've been working on all these months, to start new and hopeful relationships, and to get that annual opportunity to sit down face to face and chat with my wonderful licensing partners and brainstorm and plan new projects I'll work on in the coming months.
For the past 12 years, every late-May I return home from New York to a house and yard that's been neglected for months, a garden that's just starting to thrive (and get really weedy!), a desk that's ready to be purged of the previous year's clutter, and a brain just bursting with new ideas for things I am dying to create after the long hard focus on show prep: portfolios, displays, travel, logistics . . .

This is my fresh start, when I feel like anything is possible in the next year.  My tomato seedlings have little blossoms, baby birds are fledging in my back yard, and my clients want new art and are also starting the process of manufacturing new products with last year's art.
I'll share more about Surtex in another post, but for now, I just wanted to take a minute to say "Happy New Year!"  I hope you are enjoying your own fresh start in this transition from spring into summer.

Oh, and . . . here's to having time to start trying more of those fun ideas and projects I've been collecting on Pinterest, like my useful little broken-rake tool-hanger!

I Made Stuff!

When I was a little girl, I fantasized about living off the land like a pioneer woman; making everything by hand, growing, cooking, and creating every waking moment. My older brother, whom I idolized pretty much from birth, lived in a hippie commune on Washington's Olympic Peninsula for a while in the early 70s.  I was not allowed to visit that strange and magical place so the mystique surrounding the lifestyle was overwhelmingly romantic to my innocent, little-girl senses.  I adored the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, my favorite, of course, was On the Banks of Plum Creek - who wouldn't want to live in a dugout cave in a creek bank?  It's practically a Hobbit house inside a tree!

Even as an adult, the romanticism of that off-grid fantasy still lives somewhere deep inside me, but my reality is juggling running a demanding business with managing our little household here in a city neighborhood where literally everything I could ever need or want is conveniently available "just down the street".  More often than not, I suppose much like I did when I was little, I feed that pioneer fantasy vicariously - through blogs and websites of creative and clever folks who have a lot more time and energy to devote to cool DIY projects than I seem to manage.

One such project caught my eye on Pinterest last month.  It was this delicious looking exfoliating sugar scrub.  I thought, "oh that looks neat, but who has time to make their own beauty products?"  Then I saw that you basically stir 2 ingredients together and add a scent if you like.  "Well, maybe for a special occasion..."

The special occasion came soon after that: a vacation with a girlfriend where we would be in the sun a lot, and pampering ourselves a bit.  I made a little tub to take with us.  For the first batch, I avoided the fresh lemon juice from the original tutorial because I wasn't sure how fast we would go through it (I didn't want rotting lemons in my sugar scrub) but we used it fast!  This stuff makes my skin feel amazing!  I'm hooked.  Husband Guy was intrigued, and when I mentioned that I would be adding lavender essential oil to the next batch, sheepishly requested that I make some that was not so girly - maybe orange would be nice.  By this time I had actually forgotten the lemon juice option, but I think I will try a small batch of that one next time to keep next to the kitchen sink.

So here it is!  This couldn't be simpler:

The basic recipe is 1 part coconut oil to 2 parts sugar.  First I melted some coconut oil in the microwave - this only takes a few seconds, don't cook it, just start to melt it!  Take it out when it looks half-n-half (liquid vs. white chunks) and the rest will soften and melt, like butter does.

I don't measure the coconut oil before I melt it, and I only really measure the sugar by doubling whatever the amount of melted oil is in the cup.  I just pour in sugar until the total volume seems to be about 3 times the original amount of oil. 

For you eagle-eye photo-measurements noticers, part of the melted oil from the previous picture was poured back out before adding the sugar, when I realized I had less sugar than I thought!

And stir it up.

It's that easy. 

It's at this point that you can add essential oils until you like the smell.  I was afraid of adding too much, but all 3 batches so far have been very subtle (with several drops of oil in each).

Pack it into the container of your choice, keeping in mind that it hardens quite a bit once it cools back down again.  I will probably buy some regular old white sugar for future batches - the only reason that I used this more expensive organic unbleached sugar was that it was what I had in the house.

But it's pretty, isn't it?

And one final detail, if you were dumb like me and made this mess on your stove of all places, avoid that mysterious burning sugar smell next time you get ready to cook...

Ok, all better now.

If you're still asking, "who has time to make their own beauty products?" in this case, my answer is everyone!  Even with the extra stove-top cleanup this took me about 10 minutes.  I've since seen a different recipe on Pinterest that has dried lavender flowers in it, that looks cool.  The possibilities here are endless. 

The hardly-any-time aspect of this project has me a little extra intrigued with other neato DIYs from One Good Thing: homemade makeup wipes, homemade "Clorox" wipes . . . underground dugout on Plum Creek, here I come!

Rock, Paper, Scissors and Pins.

Pretty pictures make me happy.

That about sums it up.

We visually oriented folks do love our eye-candy. Inspiration. Stimulation. Comfort.

The other day, I finally gave in and joined several friends who all claim to be dangerously addicted to Pinterest.  That in itself frightened me, the fear of addiction.  But it looked so fun.  Aren't those always the last words before plunging into the abyss?

I realized, not very far into the process of pinning and organizing, that it all felt very familiar - and I suppose this may be the case, although maybe not to the extent it is for me, with many other creative friends.
I have always collected pretty pictures.  Books, magazines, catalogs.  From the latter two, I've cut out things I found useful, inspirational, or just pretty enough to want to look at another day. Recipes. Decorating ideas. Garden tips and inspiration. Things I might want to remember how to draw someday.
Before Google Image Search, there was the free magazine exchange in the lobby of my local public library branch. Every subject matter I could ever possibly need to know how to draw was covered in my neighbors' wildly varying collections of donated periodicals. I would entertain myself in the evenings happily cutting out and filing reference pictures and weird goodies.
These images fill the oversized file-drawer in my big, old oak desk.  There was a time, long ago and far away, when I intended for each and every clipped item to someday go into a beautifully organized scrapbook or cookbook, but there's also something satisfying about the hunt when flipping through a folder. I know, I'm weird that way.
Some might see this as an unnecessary conglomeration of paper clutter taking up space. Especially now that with Pinterest, I can do same thing, only better - because each picture links back to its original source, opening up worlds of information and the possibility of finding more of the same. 

I am trying to be more efficient and resource-thrifty in this digital age, and am already dealing with the emotional and practical push-and-tug surrounding the slow-but-sure transition from my Big Black Book (really, the thing that has kept me upright and able to function for decades now) to the many amazing scheduling and organizing apps integrating my iPad, iPhone, and real world. 

I'm sure I will not stop finding snip-worthy pictures and goodies in paper form, and I'm not about to send my file collection to the recycling bin.  But I can't help being a little bit excited about finally discovering this time-sucking plaything I mean valuable resource for visual inspiration and networking.

Join me, will you?