Part 1 of (hopefully more than 1!)

I've been doing my research, scouring the farmer's markets and NYC Greenmarkets... I've been reading and collecting recipes and tips. This year will be my first adventure into canning. My Grandma Decker's basement always had a rack of shelves under the stairs (& I'm sure much more than that when she was raising her 13 kids on a North Dakota farm!) with homemade sweet pickles, jellies, jams, and other delightful preserves that she or my Grandpa had grown.

I'm thinking that I'll be doing some of these summer squash & zucchini pickles (I'm notorious for hating traditional pickles.) Some more traditional spiced kirby pickles for J. Possibly some peaches and this recipe for spicy okra. My Aunt Connie has a Jalapeño jelly recipe that I'm trying to track down at the moment as well.

I've never tried anything like this before and I found the How-to section of Fresh Preserving to be the most helpful resource so far.

If you have any recipes or advice please do share. I need as much help as I can get!

*typography adapted from a recent article on Home Canning that I worked on for my day job.

The Welcome Wagon

We saw The Welcome Wagon play at The Bell House last night. They were awesome. I can't even say much else. I've searched for a good video on YouTube all morning but keep coming up short of something worth posting of them so instead I want to send you post haste to their myspace page to hear some of their music. I hope it brings some joy to your afternoon.

sea glass makes my heart hurt... in a good way

I learned about sea glass for the first time when I was 18 years old and living/working on Martha's Vineyard for a summer. It now holds a special, nostalgic place in my heart next to beach grass, rusty cruiser bicycles, Paris in the rain & the Llano Estacado (these things are mostly unrelated).

sigh.

It's been another grueling week. But I'm praying that we can make it out to the beach sometime this weekend.

*photo taken at the lovely house we stayed at on the North Fork.

A little more illustration, because it's good for the soul!

While perusing Julia Guther's site (see last post) I came across this beauty. I'm a sucker for folk art, anything hand drawn, mountains, goats...yakks... I'll stop there for now but this illustration really caught my eye amidst all of her other really great work.

Seeing Guther's illustration made me think of this outdoor piece that made my heart skip-a-beat earlier today here. I love the colors they used, a little unexpected and reminecent of autmn. We're working on Halloween/fall photoshoots this week so mentally I'm being forced to change seasons a little sooner than I want to. Even though it's sweltering (I'm talking sweating while you sit still, breathing steam all night!) in our 4th floor walk-up apartment but I'm not quite ready for fall. This Texan can take the city's cement heat-bubble!

Illustration + Music + Paper = giddy!

I love these illustrations for many, many reasons. I'm posting them especially for J (& his partner-in-crime, Jeff), who have each bought at least a record a day all summer—I'm pretty sure. What are two teachers out of school for the summer to do!? When I got home from work today he had a Billie Holiday 7" wrapped in tissue paper for me, sweet surprise from a man who is not known for his gift giving! Thanks J, xo.


*cut paper illustrations by Julia Guther.


**Morr Music, is the label that Mum is on, J just got us tickets to their show in October, so excited.

Annie & John's Reception Invites

Two of my dearest friends, Annie & John, got hitched in an intimate ceremony this spring. They're having a laid back reception in September & I got the opportunity to bust out the yudu for their invites. It was a learning process since yudu isn't quite like the screen printing I've done in the past though it's very similar.


John found these lovely envelopes in pine to complete the project.

When I was working on sketches for these I felt like I kept missing the mark. Then Annie sent me some of the wedding photos and her dress was absolutely amazing. When I asked Annie how much she "hearts" the pattern on her dress I believe her exact answer was "one-million hearts!" that's when I knew I finally had something that was going to work great for them. I used the vine-like beading on the dress as my inspiration for the invites. I love finding that perfect marriage (no pun intended) for a design, something that really fits the personality of the project & people that I'm working with.

*One day I'll share my yudu tips and the problems I ran into. I should also mention how glad I am to have the new apartment (nothing spacious but no longer a 450 square foot studio!) for lots of future yudu projects!

Charley Harper Coloring Book

I've been a little MIA lately but I'm trying to remember to take time to enjoy the city in the summer rather than sit behind the computer for 15+ hours a day. We've been doing a lot things in the new apt as well, it's starting to come together. Slowly but surely.

Today we took a little office-adventure to Kate's Paperie and I found a Charley Harper coloring book. I just couldn't say no. Now the dilemna is do I color in it, keep it to look at, frame them... send it to one of my friends with a kids as a gift? Now I'm thinking I should have picked up a few...

North Fork

Last weekend J & I took a trip out to the North Fork of Long Island. Cold, salty ocean water & beach grass speaks to my soul. I'm still waking up every morning wishing that I was there!


I'll probably share more photos later, I've been sitting on these for about a week now but haven't gotten to sift though the others.