Delivery by horse and carriage

I shipped off a small number of prints and greeting cards to Poppins on Mackinac Island yesterday. It's so fun knowing that they will be delivered by UPS via horse and carriage today!

Craft-A-Way Camp

I spent a weekend in the woods at Craft-A-Way Camp! Amazing, right? Amy and Ethan of Small Craft organized a weekend camp for 20 people to come out to the woods and learn new crafts, gather round the fire and relax. Amazing! 

Here you see Andy Sell, the Foraging Florist leading us on a morning hike through the woods to gather material for a floral centerpiece created with a floral frog he taught us to make.

Right around the end of that session, I decided to put the camera away and just enjoy the experience. But we went on to learn screenprinting techniques and print our own craft-a-way- camp t-shirts, learned meditative stick wrapping and painting with Val Willer, reverse applique with Karen LePage, made gorgeous wood bead necklaces with Courtney Fischer. Lots of eating, drinking and fire time.

Here's one final shot of our craft cocktail session, of course. Such a great way to lead into the week of July 4th and it truly made me feel like summer has set it.

Berkley Art Bash

I'll be at the Berkley Art Bash on Twelve Mile from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, June 8). There will be over 100 artists, live music and yummy eats. I'd love to see you there!

New Ann Arbor cards

New card coming to Rock, Paper, Scissors in Ann Arbor today!

New pot & box web site

The beautiful new pot & box web site is live and features many little drawings by me. I adore owner Lisa Waud's aesthetic and could not have been happier working with her on this project. The site is launching just in time for the grand opening this Thursday of the pot & box pop-up shop at D:hive on Woodward in Detroit. This will be a preview leading up to the opening of a new location in Corktown. Hooray!

Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire poster

The poster I designed for this spring's Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire. Te he he. Can you tell I had fun?

Michigan-made wool blankets

It may well be March 25, but it is a windy, bitingly cold day here in Michigan. I'd say we're still in the lion portion of the month—anxiously awaiting the lamb! So it seems more than appropriate to be thinking about blankets, doesn't it? I just found out about these yummy ones made of 100% pure Michigan virgin wool from the Lake Superior Woolen Company based in the Upper Peninsula. 

I had been hemming and hawing over a new blanket all winter, considering one of the Pendleton National Park blankets or one of their windowpane blankets for Lands End, but when I found the web site for this Michigan company over the weekend, my search was over. Now I just need to decide on a color …

VW Bus Food Truck

I was recently asked to draw a VW bus as food truck by a sweet gentleman to give to his girlfriend for her birthday. She runs The Sweet Life by Rachel catering and dreams of owning a food truck much like this one to spread her baked sweetness into the world. Fingers crossed that she does it as I'd like to see this riding around town!

Yellow Door Art Market

I'm very pleased to announce that you can now find Sloe Gin Fizz at the Yellow Door Art Market in Berkley.

I had such a fun time thrifting for and planning the space. I have lots of other little tweaks I want to make to it, so I plan on it being a constantly changing beast. Having a more permanent space also means I can offer a whole slew of framed pieces for super convenient grab-and-go gift giving. Stop by if you're in the area and let me know what you think!

Snow Day

Take a walk with me … 

… powder and wind …

… make stripes on the trees … 

Doesn't it just make it all so festive? Hooray for snow days. This the first of the season.

UP trip: Part 4. Keweenaw to the Soo

It's Friday and I wind down this week with the final installment of photos from our trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. When I left you on Wednesday, the boy and I had been exploring Porcupine Mountains State Park. Next stop: the Keweenaw Peninsula. We drove north through Houghton, over the river to Hancock and kept going. We jagged west out to the coast and wound our way along until we landed on the doorstep of the Eagle River Inn. The humble entrance above led to one of the trip's highlights: Fitzgerald's.

After several evenings of mediocre dinners, Fitzgerald's was a shock to the system. The hotel and restaurant is owned by two young guys, one of whom is the son of the original owner. They are doing amazing things. Everything about our meal and evening was perfect. I had the incredible dish above: walleye dusted in pecan flour with Michigan cherry butter. The beer and wine selections are great with a heavy dose of Michigan producers. The dining room is rustic and sits right on the beach of Lake Superior. We moved over to the tiny 6-seat bar after dinner and spent a wonderful evening talking with one of the owners and another couple visiting from Germany. We watched a spectacular sunset that dropped so instantaneously I think you could hear it.  As it got later, the staff slowly joined us and a couple of locals stopped in and let me tell you, it was lively. 

The best part, all we had to do was tumble up the stairs to our room with this view. I could hear the waves lapping and watched a brilliant sunrise from bed. No phone, no television. Perfect.  

We stopped the next morning at the Jampot Bakery. Owned and run by monks of the Society of Saint John, this little gem serves a huge selection of jams and jellies, very popular fruitcakes, ginormous muffins … I could keep going. Someone at the bar the night before said their truffles were the best he'd ever had. Right after we walked in, though, a huge group of crazy motorists driving what looked like a crazy ugly modern version of the Ranchero all packed themselves into this tiny little shop. They just kept shoving in. I panicked and grabbed a jar of pear butter and a huge muffin (that lasted me about five days) and ran out the door. We thought we would come back the next day when we could leisurely ask questions and read every label, but sadly, didn't have a chance. Something for next trip.

This log home along the way was stunning. The design, materials, location…

This rocky part of the northern west coast of the Keweenaw reminded me a lot of Maine. We explored some more and eventually made our way back down the east coast and back to Marquette. 

  

On our final day we beelined east all the way to Sault Ste Marie and the Soo Locks. (We decided to save Tahquamenon Falls for another trip, too.) The locks connect Lake Superior to the St. Mary's River and the rest of the Great Lakes. They allow boats to rise or drop the 21-foot difference between the two waterways. It's really a site to see. We first watched a smaller barge (above) drop down from Lake Superior. And then watched this 737-foot freighter raised up. Amazing. Dang, people are smart.

And then… back across the bridge. Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

And so ends our U.P. saga. I hope you've enjoyed reliving it with me. Have a wonderful weekend!

UP trip: Part 3. Porcupine Mountain State Park

We drove west from Marquette one morning and by the time we hit the west coast of the peninsula, Lake Superior was churning. We were about to be hit by a spectacular storm that produced crazy wind and 8-foot swells on the lake. 

We found a cozy little cabin to rent nestled in the trees right along the beach with tremendous views of the storm over the water.  We lit a fire and spent a wonderfully relaxed afternoon and evening watching the waves and storm, staring into the fire and finishing this puzzle that looked much like where we were staying.

The next day we drove south a bit to get to the Michigan's largest state park: the Porcupines. Looking out over the Lake of the Clouds (above) with all the leaves changing was magical. We spent several days checking out the area and doing some hiking.

I became obsessed with the moss. It was just so lush.

The trees were so yellow, but mostly at the top, making it seem like the sun was shining even on days that were quite grey.

We would then pass through areas that were cool and blue-green and ancient feeling.

To the west of the park is the Black River Scenic Parkway. A hiking trail connects five waterfalls on this  tremendous river — each more spectacular than the last.

 

Just one more leg to go — the Keweenaw to the Soo. But I may surprise you with a recipe tomorrow before the final trip roundup on Friday.