Flowers on Friday

Have a wonderful weekend!

Little Monsters gallery show

I'm excited to fill you in on a little thing I've been hinting at here and there. I'll be having a gallery show at Little Monsters in Lake Orion, Michigan that opens at the beginning of June and runs through July. The show, Animal Behavior, includes a variety of new paintings and prints. 

Little Monsters, if you haven't been, is the most amazing toy store that happens to have a small gallery space in back with a rotating exhibition schedule. The shop has a fantastic selection of unusual toys, educational games — definitely fun for all ages! 

We haven't set a date yet for an opening reception, but I will let you know as soon as I know — I've got a special surprise planned for it. In the meantime, I thought I'd start teasing you with a sneak peak of one of the new pieces. You might have caught a glimpse of it on my Facebook page. This one was inspired by a Rockwell Kent engraving for Moby Dick I saw at the recent DIA exhibition Once Upon a Time: Prints and Drawings That Tell a Story. (Sorry I didn't tell you about that one sooner — it was outstanding, but closed yesterday.) Stay tuned for more! 

Flowers on Friday

Poppies are so hard to photograph. It seems nearly impossible to capture their unique red-orange color, but I keep trying. They are one of my favorites. There is a house at the corner of Kingsley and Ashley in Ann Arbor that has a crazy, over-the-top hodge-podge garden. Something is always in bloom  there and I always love walking by. The poppies, snow-in-summer and columbine were growing mad wild there this week. There are also plenty of irises and a smattering of clematis. Here's a look:

This one is from last weekend's Crafty Supermarket in Cincinnati — a little yarn-bombing fun to start off your weekend right. Enjoy!

P.S. Don't forget tomorrow's Craft Revival at The Loving Touch in Ferndale. I'll be there with my wares from 12 to 6 p.m.

212 Arts Center summer offerings

Two Twelve Arts Center in Saline is the creative hub and heart of that community. Their mission is to give "visual and performing artists the opportunity and working space to come together to work, create, and teach." They are certainly succeeding and I feel lucky to have found the wonderful collection of creative people involved there. Two Twelve offers a full schedule of classes, programs, performances and exhibits. You can check out their summer brochure to catch the latest offerings. (Doesn't that cover look familiar?)

Book Business Tuesday: Rose Sanderson

For this book business Tuesday, I have for you a look at artist Rose Sanderson's paintings of bugs on book covers. Perhaps it's her background as an illustrator—or that they have a little bit of many of my favorites things: books, painting, color and butterflies—but I find these truly delightful and appealing. I just wonder why the books are torn, rather than left intact. Sanderson's recent paintings of birds in graffiti-like settings are remarkably beautiful. Truly. I'm going to stick with the book theme here, but you should have a look!

 

Maker Works: Crafting a Small Business

If you haven't been to Maker Works in Ann Arbor yet, this Saturday, May 12 would be a great time. They're hosting a grand opening open house and party from 12 to 4 p.m. Maker Works is an 11,000 square foot member-based studio featuring four concentration areas: metal, circuits, wood and craft.  They host classes in each of these areas and on Saturday will be giving demos on the wide variety of tools and equipment they have. This would be a great time to check out the space and get inspired to sign up for the upcoming 9-week workshop series on Crafting the Small Business.

Crafting the Small Business get down to the nitty gritty of running a small business within the handmade marketplace. The handmade marketplace has emerged as a rapidly growing network of arenas for  handmade goods from independent artists and crafters: online marketplaces, individual online stores, indie craft fairs, crafting blogs and independent brick-and-mortar stores.

This workshop series is designed to set beginner and intermediate crafters on the path to financial stability by offering face-to-face time with experts from around southeast Michigan who are well versed in this new handmade marketplace. From craft show organizers and brick-and-mortar store owners to experts at Zingermans and a registered patent attorney, this series is sure to answer questions, inspire those tottering on the cusp of launching their businesses and be a whole heck of a lot of fun.

The sessions take place Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. You can register for the entire series or individual sessions. Details on each session and the schedule can be found here. I will be on two of the panels: The first on July 5 dealing with Pop up Events and Shows and the second on July 19 focusing on the online marketplace. I hope to see you there! 

Flowers on Friday

It's Friday! Since this is the first spring we've been in our new house, I didn't know what to expect in the garden. Each day has brought wonderful new surprises: a sea of dense lily-of the-valley (above), blankets of sweet woodruff (below left). I wish I could bottle the smell of these two together. They are two of my favorite  scents and humid, 80-degree days have created a heady warm blast of weighty sweetness and damp each time I walk out the door. Needless to say, I keep walking out the door and wandering in a lap around the house just to smell deeply.

The boy gave me a lilac—one of my favorites—for my birthday last summer (above right), and then I happily discovered a fairly large one with deep violet buds getting ready to pop in the next week or so in another part of the yard. It happens to be right next to another large bush, that I realized today is bridal veil spirea. It's like a shadowy, shady wonderland here — I couldn't be happier with spring.

Happy weekend! I hope you find time for some flowers. I'm off to Cincinnati for Crafty Supermarket and good times! 

Illustrator Brian Wildsmith

I discovered an amazing blog yesterday and I likey: Eye Likey. That's what it's called. Charming. It doesn't say much about who it is running it, but they have great taste. The site introduced me to illustrator Brian Wildsmith, who creates wonderfully vivid picture books with gorgeous and lively animal characters. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I am! 

Library Tuesday

Rijksmuseum Research Library, Amsterdam (via Flavorwire)

I'm here today with some library porn. Yes, that's right my fellow book lovers. I've read several good books lately and, if you follow along with my Facebook page, you may have noticed I have a certain fondness for Flavorpill lists. (If you're not familiar with Flavorpill, it is my all-time favorite source for fun lists covering anything from art and books, music and pop culture. As they say on their web site, "Highbrow, lowbrow, and everything in between: if it's compelling, we're sharing it.") This combo of bookish things to share seemed like a good reason to make it a semi-regular book/library-themed post. So let's begin!

If you're like me and the library is top on your list of places to visit in new cities, you'll probably enjoy this as much as I did: Flavorpill's list of the 25 most beautiful public libraries in the world.
 

 Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (via Flavorwire)

Old Market Library, Min Buri, Bangkok (via Flavorwire)

While you're in one of these faraway libraries, you may want to check out a book or two. The first book I'd like to recommend is Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. This seems appropriate as most introverts are book lovers of one kind or another. Are you with me? Quiet is a well-written and accessible book filled with research and personal stories demonstrating how American society undervalues introversion, particularly in business settings. The author discusses, among other things, ways in which we can recognize and appreciate these traits -- within ourselves and others. As always, you can check out my ongoing reading list here.

If that isn't enough book business for you on this Tuesday afternoon, here are some buildings built from them. View the entire list of 10 Gorgeous Buildings made from Books here.

The octagonal Book Cell by Matej Kren (via Flavorwire) 

Home, a self-sustained book igloo designed

by Colombian artist Miler Lagos (via Flavorwire)

Here's hoping you find time to hunker down in a cozy nook with a good book this week!

German Pork Stew for Warm Days and Cool Nights

We've been having my favorite kind of weather lately: warm during the day up in the 60s and 70s and then dropping down into the 30s at night. This calls for the kind of dinner that is warming and yet has some bright flavors reminiscent of the warm sunny spring day. This pork stew recipe is just that. It's one of those recipes that I've made several times recently, but have been too lazy to take photos. But it was just too good to not put out there on the blog and so I made sure to capture it this go round.

You already know how I feel about fennel and pork and the addition of caraway seeds here is even better. And I often steer away from recipes with oranges or grapefruit with meat or savory dishes in general, but it is perfect in this flavor combination, and is the thing that gives it a bright springy flavor. Don't skip it! You can also skip the sweet potato if you'd like and switch in a few carrots: I haven't decided which way I like better.

For this recipe, you want to really keep cooking the pork until it is very tender. I find that I start checking at 15 minutes and it usually seems like it's cooked through but maybe tough in a way that will be dry and never get tender. But if you keep cooking it, it really will melt to tenderness very quickly after that. The original version, found on annarbor.com from the Associated Press, calls for a French dressing type garnish at the end, but I think a nice dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of dill is a simple and better finish.

German Pork Stew

via annarbor.com/AP
Serves 6
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 leeks, white parts only, sliced
2 teaspoons caraway seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced or 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
2 stalks celery, diced
Salt, to taste
Sour cream and chopped fresh dill, to garnish

Cut the tenderloin into slices 1 1/2 inches thick. In a bowl, toss the sliced pork with the olive oil.

Heat a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the pork and brown, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. It does not need to cook through. Add the onion and leek, give it a good stir to combine and continue to cook until the vegetables soften and begin to brown, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Add the caraway seeds, fennel seeds, celery seeds, mustard, black pepper, orange zest, orange juice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook until the pork is very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

When the pork is tender, use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the liquid. Using 2 forks, shred the pork to bite-size chunks, then return it to the pot. Add the sweet potato, cabbage and celery. Continue to simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt.

In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, ketchup and relish. Serve the stew topped with a dollop of the yogurt mixture and a sprinkling of fresh dill. 

New rug from Green at Heart Rugs

This beauty arrived yesterday from Green at Heart Rugs. The boy had his heart set on an oval braided rug, and though I like this style, I was finding that the colors out there are all super dull and/or old-fashioned. But then, of course, Etsy to the rescue! I found Laury's wonderful shop with braided rugs made from organic cotton t-shirts that she finds at local thrift stores and/or dyes herself. We were torn between the red poppies design above and this gorgeous sunburst style -- we may just be saving up for that one, too! The rug is super soft underfoot and extremely well-made. And doesn't it add a nice pop of color?!?

How to frame your art tutorial

I came across this great how-to video from Jen Bekman of 20x200 on how to frame your art. 20x200 is a fantastic -- and perfectly curated -- venue for affordable art for your home. The video is straight forward, easy to follow and perfect for that Sloe Gin Fizz print you have propped up on the mantel in its cellophane bag. (Am I right?!)

Simmer down!

I had the pleasure of working with Noelle Lothamer on a new header for her site, Simmer Down! a food lover's blog. Noelle is a culinary goddess in the Detroit area with a particular fondness for all things French. She writes regularly for Model D and runs a wonderful small-batch preserve and jam company called Beau Bien Fine Foods with things like Garam Masala peach jam and wonderful preserved lemons.

Happy Friday!

Hi all! I know it's been ages — last week I was fighting off illness and then this week we took a quick jaunt to Washington, D.C. for a little business, a lot of pleasure. We got to visit my friend John who you may remember from the infamous Chesapeake chicken. We had more great culinary ventures with him including a visit to the fish market at the Maine wharf, Korean fried chicken and more. I came away with some new recipes I will share next week, but in the meantime, I wanted to stop in and wish you a happy weekend and let you know I'm thinking if you! Don't forget that Sunday is the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes Whip Stitch Art and Craft Fair at the Corner Brewery in Ypsi — hope to see you there!

Spring Show Schedule

It's that time again: craft and art fair season! I will be at the following shows this spring.

Whip Stitch Art & Craft Fair
presented by the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes

Sunday, April 15, 2 to 10 p.m. 

Corner Brewery
Ypsilanti, MI

Crafty Supermarket

Saturday, May 5, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Clifton Cultural Arts Center

Cincinnati, OH

Craft Revival

presented by Handmade Detroit

Saturday, May 12, 12 to 6 p.m.

The Loving Touch

Ferndale, MI 

You can always check back here for details under the show schedule link at the top of the page. I hope to see you all out and about supporting your local artists and crafters!

Flowers on Friday

It's that time of year when I just can't help taking pictures of flowers. They make me so happy and I think are a fine way to round out the week. Enjoy! And have a happy weekend.