(Inside A Black Apple)

Vanilla Lemonade for Friday

I whipped this up a few days ago, and it was so, so, good. In each sip there is first the great tartness of the lemons, and then just after, a mellow vanilla kick. I like my lemonade semi-sweet (but not too sweet) and pulpy, so just keep that in mind and adjust to your heart's desire!

To Make One Reasonably sized pitcher (serves 6-ish):

1. Make a simple syrup by stirring together 3/4 c of sugar and 1 c water in a small saucepan on low heat, remove when sugar is dissolved
2. Meanwhile, juice about 5 good-sized lemons directly into your pitcher (reserve half your lemon-left-over peels and such)
3. Cool the syrup slightly, and then stir together with the concentrated lemon juice. Fill 3/4 of the pitcher with cool water.
4. Throw in a teaspoon or so of vanilla and give the whole thing a good stir.
5. If you're like me, toss about 1/2 your juiced-lemon wedges back into the pitcher. I love the taste that it gives!
6. Serve over tall glasses full to the brim with ice, and take delight in one of the best things about the sweltering Summer...the cold, cold drinks.
7. Find a place, preferably grassy, on which to enjoy!

Happy Friday!

PS: Thanks for all that fabric love! What will come of my designs?

Who knows! Doll dresses, zip pouches, quilt squares, etc. I've recieved so many nice emails asking if it will be available for sale...and for right now, I am thinking probably not. The Spoonflower yardage isn't currently affordable enough to turn around and sell it in the shop, and also, I really love the idea of there being some original Black Apple fabric designs to make my dolls + things even more my own specific, unique creation.

However, I would adore to design a line of Black Apple-ish fabric that could be available to you, and if approached,  would take them up in millisecond!

I've Got Red

I just got some yardage back from the Spoon'sters (thank you Kim + Stephen!), and I'm a very happy lady indeed.
Reds! Real reds! I erred on the side of pinkishness (adding more magenta, technically speaking) when making my adjustments from the swatches. Remember this post from a few weeks back? The whole red-debacle might just be an Emily-problem, but at any rate I think I've found an Emily-solution.

Check out those wee houses! I think a "woot" is in order.
Woot?
Woot.

Ghosts and Trees and New Prints

Thanks for all of that commiseration/advice/etc. in re: the dratted Yard Sale!

You guys are very wise.

I was feeling pretty crummy about it, but now that the memory of the sad bird killings has subsided and copious amounts of baked goods were given away, I feel better. I can chuckle at the pure ridiculousness of the whole thing, and be glad that bags and bags and boxes upon boxes were dropped off at the Goodwill.

I've been doing a good bit of painting, working on more book-paintings like Rose of My Heart, and working on a little secret project involving a few paintings that are coming along swimmingly. Amazing as it seems, I think I'm going to be able to wrap up making-stuff work tomorrow and then just pack-pack-pack for the remaining days. There are lots of things I want to make for the August/Early September update, once we're settled in in Portland.

Here are some of the new paintings:

Tree Divination    5.5"x7.5"x2"    Acrylic and ink on vintage book

Evelyn Ectoplasm     5.5"x7.5"x2"     Acrylic and ink on vintage book

These two will be available in the next shop update (like I said above, I'll be shooting for one in August, once the settling-in subsides)! Hooray.

Also, there are two new prints available in the shop, the watery-themed ones from the Oceanic show:

Hey Little Sailor 

and

Hippocampus.

Lots of folks were clamoring for these, so if you're one of those, they're now up for grabs!

Happy Tuesday + see you soon!

Sometimes Nobody Comes To Your Yard Sale

...or your bake sale, especially if they're one and the same.

So, we had decided to have a small yard sale/bake sale, pitch the ol' EZ up tent that we have for craft fairs, and have a fun Summer afternoon with some friends this weekend.

I thought we we off to a good start. We invited some friends (including the Prairie Dog) to join us and sell some old castoffs.

I made a cute flier.

I baked all of the following all Friday afternoon, while Josiah read Dorothy Parker, Aimee Bender, and Thomas Pynchon short stories to me:

-Mini Lemon-Poppyseed Loaf Cakes
-Enormous Chocolate Chip Cookies
-The Best Brownies
-Those insane Peanut Butter sandwich cookies from this post

And, dang. Nobody came. Except this early-bird professional yard-saler who came 30 minutes early and tried to bargain with me on $1 compact discs.
Worse than that, we witnessed the killing of one baby bird (which we had been delighting in while we were out there) and the maiming of another by one of the wily cats that lives in our apartment building...which kinda brought the mood down even more. Okay, way more.

The day got better when we gave up around 3 pm, and I think that was our last yard sale attempt maybe ever. Oh, well...we would've never known had we not tried!

And, hey...the poster was darn cute, so that's something.

xoxo

That's All I Got for Today

Ripped straight from the headlines of Today's Doodling at Lunch.

Happy weekend, dear applets!
Remember to stay lemonade-d up and beneath the shade of your parasol whenever possible.

Rose of My Heart

Rose of My Heart     5"x7"x2.5"     Acrylic and Ink on vintage book

This print is now up in the shop, but the original won't be available because it was an early birthday gift for Josiah. Here is what it looks like in all of its 3-dimensional goodness:

I'm thinking about doing more of these paintings...I love the old Reader's Digest books as objects (such beautiful prints on their covers!) and I've been looking for a use for my small stash.

I hope you applets are having a nice week so far! Happy Wednesday.

Wrapped Up In Book(marks)!

These new enclosures for all your Black Apple orders came in the mail yesterday.
They're bookmarks!
Hooray! I'm always trying to think of a little something I can send with orders (when the vast majority of them are packed flat in a print mailer) and so here is somethin' new.

Happy Tuesday, I'm off to errand-ing.

Aquatic Paintings For You!

Just a peek in to let you know that the two pieces that I did for the Oceanic show are now available for pre-show sale right here & here! Excitement. I got quite a few emails about these paintings, so this is your opportunity to nab one, if you're so inclined. (EDIT: They're both sold now, thank you so much!)

Hey, Little Sailor


Hippocampus

A Cape to Curtsy to Tom Waits In

This is the capelet that I stitched up especially for the long-anticipated Tom Waits show, which was last night!

 

It's a little wonky...damn that silk velvet and its wily ways...but it felt just right for a visit to the ramshackle noisemaker himself.

So, the show was insanely good.
There was a carnival-esque showmanship to the whole production that I hadn't expected (I thought might be a bit low-key) and the noisy-quiet-noisy texture of the set-list worked really well and kept all 3 or so hours from ever hitting a lull. Tom stomped around in dust, told lies and yarns and truths, and all the while I kept getting distracted by his looming 30-foot shadow, snaking and creeping around  behind him. I lost it about 4 bars into "Hold On" (from Mule Variations), because...um...that song without fail makes me cry on the record, so you can imagine the real-life effect.  Later there was a rain-shower of golden glitter, and a magic hat.  I suspected from Heidi's post about the Ohio show that there might be an "Innocent When You Dream" sing-along, and there was and it was wonderful. 

I can't believe I got to see him.
I love that old bear-in-a-man-suit so.

Icing Cupcakes By Candlelight (Or, My July Fourth)

My ears are still buzzing from the barrage of firework-sounds they were just exposed to at our friend's fourth of July shindig. At half-past-midnight on the 5th, it's now officially not Independence Day for the US, but I thought I'd share what I made in honor of the day.

I made a batch of vegan brownies with peanut-butter frosting for the vegan-ese that would be in attendance, and vanilla cupcakes with cream-cheese/orange frosting for everyone else. I had done my baking last night, and just needed frost them today...and wouldn't you know it? We had a really bad afternoon thunderstorm which left me frosting my cupcakes by the light of candles.

Eventually, though our power was still out, the natural light returned and helped me with my decorating. The Fourth is always a hard holiday for me to get into aesthetically...I'm not really a huge fan of the red/white/blue, stars & stripes motif decorations, so I schemed up another way to celebrate my country.  I printed out little flags from the nation's inception (the only US flag that I love) and made some little cupcake-toppers out of those as well as some notable presidents and/or founding fathers: 

I topped the cupcakes with people that I'm really happy + proud are/were American:

Tom Waits, William Faulkner, John Coltrane, Joey Ramone, Johnny Cash, Dorothy Parker, Ronnie Spector, Amelia Earhart, Edgar Allan Poe, David Lynch, etc.

They were such a hit! Lots of people kept theirs, which I think is really sweet and made me happy that I  figured out a personal way to celebrate the country I'm from.