Independence.

SO bummed I'll miss this screening in 2 weeks, as we'll be in L.A. (YAY!!!) but if you get the chance, PLEASE go see Handmade Nation, and listen to director Faythe Levine speak. It's a great film, from the trailers I've seen, and is dedicated to all that we crafters do and love. Plus, it's worth seeing for the opening title sequence alone.

No internet on the Prairie at the moment... it's a long story... so posts for July may be a little more sparse than usual... but maybe you should be out enjoying the sunshine anyhow.

Happy Independence Day. Be well & be safe. And be full of beer and grilled food.

First Fridays/Last Fridays

I've known for a while that Megan, co-owner of Double Dutch Boutique was leaving Baltimore for Savannah, GA at the end of July. Phil and I found out about 2 months ago, when we fell in love with the Baltimore rowhouse she and her awesome husband and son are leaving behind... and... well... decided to buy it.

Megan has done so much for the shop (which carries Red Prairie Press ladies apparel, and was the among the first shops to do so), for Hampden, and for Baltimore. I'm glad to know she's staying on behind the scenes at DoubleDutch, though I will sincerely miss seeing her face there.

If you love Double Dutch, or if you've always wanted to go in, but never found the time, you really should make an effort to go in this Friday evening, during Hampden's First Fridays. Have a ginger mojito, have some sushi, shop with 10% off the whole store, listen to music mingle, and say farewell to one of Baltimore's finest.

Call for Entries - Nudashank Gallery, Baltimore.

CHROMATOSE - Call for entries!
Submission Deadline: Postmarked by July 10th
Exhibition Dates: August 21st – September 19th 2009
Awards:
-Best In Show: a $500 Liquitex grant to be presented by Baltimore painter- Dale Ihnken
-Two artists selected for a two-person show at Nudashank in 2010.
Application Requirements:
-One CD with 3-5 images (jpeg) of available work. larger dimension at 800 pixels, 72dpi. Jpegs labeled- Lastname_Title.jpg.
Maximum work size: 36inches x 36 inches.
-A works list sheet including Name, email, website, and mailing address. For each piece list title, media, dimensions, and year.
-$15 entry fee in the form of a check made out to Nudashank Gallery.
Please mail your applications to:
Nudashank
C/O Seth Adelsberger and Alex Ebstein
405 W. Franklin Street, 3rd Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201
15-20 artists will be selected for the exhibition

Chocoland

There appears to be a dessert theme in my life recently.
Combined with the cease of all exercise, these are dangerous times...
Wanted to give a sneak peak of the chocolates I designed for a shop in MD called Artisan Confections.
Info on how to get your hands on these tasty morsels to come... this is just a test run, and the actual chocolates won't be available for a while as the shop is moving to a new location. Still. Art on chocolate? You can't go wrong really.
My design is the one with blue tulips. In case you couldn't tell.

What a fun project!

Birthday Cake

My favorite art objects conservator celebrated her birthday this weekend, and we have begun a tradition of attempting to one-up each other with fancy birthday cakes, so I had my work cut out for me. Last year, Duncan Hines helped me out, but this year, I made a fancy cake, from scratch for what seems like the first time ever. And after three months of admiring it in our kitchen, I also used our kitchen aid mixer to do so.
This is Pistachio cake with marzipan, apricot preserves and chocolate ganache that I found on Smitten Kitchen. Decorated with marzipan versions of the flowers in Angie's beautiful garden. Phil made the little furry friend on the bottom of the cake... modeled after the sometimes present UNwanted living things in her garden.

Goodbye to Michael

Phil is annoyed at how much I'm pouting over it, but I can't seem to think about much else today.
We found out last night from the checkout lady at Superfresh. She said it felt like family had died, and told us about watching the Jackson 5 on a black & white T.V. with this funny filter thing you could buy to cover the screen and pretend it was a color TV.
I thought about how many times in the 90's Kim and I dressed up with one white glove in her living room in NH and attempted to moonwalk. How many times we made lipsynch videos to Billy Jean and Thriller. The first time I watched MTV was a Michael Jackson video (followed by Madonna).
So many mixtapes made better. Wedding receptions and school dances made more fun.
As many strange and unfortunate things that happened during his career, there sure were a lot of good times made better with his music, and today in the car, listening to the Jackson 5 sing "just call my name......" I will admit, I teared up a little bit.

In fact, I got so emotional, that I accidentally got out of the car with it still running (and the Jackson 5 still singing), and locked myself out.

Peanut Noodles and Limes

You know those desperate times where you look in the kitchen and see you have no food - nothing at all - and then you somehow come up with the most delicious thing EVER by using the ingredients that are cowering at the bottom of drawers? I think those might be my proudest moments.

Last night's such story starts with Alicia & Seth. They ditched Baltimore for Portland TWO YEARS AGO and left us with a box of random food from their kitchen. Most of it is long gone, but somehow a package of Soba noodles remained, and I have always been intimidated by them. (i know. lame.) I realize they aren't the normal noodle used for peanut noodles, but looking at them got me thinking that I wanted peanut noodles, and I took inventory and found I also had peanut butter, sesame oil, sesame seeds, carrots, lime juice, vinegar and some near-death scallions. Mixed all together, I cannot begin to tell you how tasty this was.

combined with some Superfresh Vegetarian Sushi, and a Gin & tonic, my infinite lime and peanut butter cravings were satisfied for at least 24 hours. My two favorite foods are excellent at collaborating.