New Glasses, Lulu, and Apple Pie

Just made yesterday, like a newborn babe:
"Louise 'Lulu' Brooks" (Art Pin)
Now available in my store!
....along with a few other new goodies.

I'm still carefully embroidering the fabric for The Dream Chair. It's an involved process, and I've found (sadly) that I need to begin wearing reading glasses to see what I'm working on and especially to thread the needle. Holy crap, I realized I was spending a good five minutes trying to get the thread through the eye and then I was holding it so far away I'd fairly buried the whole operation in my lap. And yet, it is very tiresome, since my new specs seem to go missing all the time, although with the level of bling on them, you'd think I wouldn't have difficulty locating them. Like they'd throw up a bat signal with the rhinestones when I began asking where they were. Here's me, with a goofy smile and my new Elton-John worthy specs. (Nope, I did not cut my hair. It's all still there. It's just that it's pony tail season.)


Goofy smile: check.
Reading glasses crazier than they look in person: check.
Getting old: check (aww crap).



Thanks to a fantastic receipe on Etsy, I've made a truly excellent
new kind of pie crust. You can check out the pastry recipe here.
Here, she's egg'd and sugared, ready to slide into the oven

And...the finished awesomeness that follows
making that pastry receipe. YUM!!
(Mine has apples rather than peaches. I know...totally
out of season, but still so good!)

Art jewelry for sale at Sunrise Soap!

It's been a busy week in the studio as I get new items ready to send out to Sunrise Soap Company, located in York, Pennsylvania, near Central Market. I'd written a blog post about Sunrise last December (you can read it by clicking here), when Michael and I first discovered it. We returned at Easter. It's an amazing little place and actually not so little: it takes up the first floor of one of the neat row homes along Beaver Street. It's filled with handmade soap, scrubs, art, glasswork, earrings, and other amazing finds. Chris Clarke, the owner, also has a kitchen in which she makes soap and conducts soap-making classes. My art jewelry is now for sale there! There are currently two art pins at Sunrise and more pieces are on the way. Just below is a picture of the items headed to Sunrise today, with a few close-up pics.


Eight new items, packaged and ready to go!



"Cat in the Moon" earrings

"Clyde, the Raining Cloud" art pin

"Coffee, Lovely Coffee" earrings

"Ye Olde Outhouse" earrings

"Sweetie Pie" earrings

New Art Pins in the Shop!



Art Pin - "Old Carriage House" (2012)



Art Pin - "Prize-Winning Apple Pie" (2012)

Art Pin - "Key Lime Pie Slice" (2012)

Art Pin - "Coffee, Lovely Coffee" (2012)

New art pins and Dream Chair progress....

Michael and I are sitting in the kitchen listening to the Pirates game. I just took some cupcakes out of the oven, which I will eventually ice with the watermelon-flavored frosting I made this afternoon while it was storming. (Hooray for rain! I've gotten so, so tired of watering the garden every morning).

This week, I've been working on my Reference Short Takes column for this month, but I've also been working on additional art pins, two of which are pictured here: a blackberry lattice top pie slice and a different version of cherry pie than the lattice top I sold back in May.

Art Pin - "Cherry Pie Slice II"



Art Pin - "Lattice Top Blackberry Pie Slice"



The Dream Chair -- upholstery fabric embroidery in progress



Detail: The Dream Chair upholstery