Eat a Slice

After tasting this heavenly pie last summer at a bbq, my husband begged the recipe. He finally whipped it together this weekend after several days of cooking mainly meat dishes. While the name made us a little skeptical, one bite was all it took to get me hooked. Oh so creamy, just slightly sweet with a hint of tart, it is everything I want to cool off my palate after a meal of spicy Indian dishes.

Avocado Pie

1. Prepare a standard graham cracker crust
2. Mix together until smooth:
   • two egg yolks, beaten
   • one large avocado or two small avocados
   • 1/4 cup lemon juice
   • dash of salt
3. To the above mixture add one can sweetened condensed milk, mix until smooth, pour into graham cracker crust
4. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes, remove and cool
5. Top with 2 cups sour cream mixed with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and a dash of salt
6. Refrigerate until serving time

Thanks to Wayne Lennon for the recipe and the Crowleys for hosting the summer fun.

Buy Handmade. Buy Local. Hug an Artist

SpiderFelt will be in the school, the Blue Building and the house this holiday season with fresh new wares: felt flowers, scarves, ornaments, feltilocks, soaps, pebbles and felt kits.

Indie Banditas at Woodward Middle School on Bainbridge Island Friday/Saturday November 27 & 28 from 10-5pm
Winter Festival in the Blue Building at the Phinney Center on Saturday/Sunday December 5 & 6 from 10-5pm
Fatto a Mano, a trunk show at the home of Roberta Torgerson on Saturday December 12 from 11-5pm

Your Name In Letters

A few months ago, the editor from LMNOP, a cool new Australian lifestyle magazine, invited me to submit some felt balls for their 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. Their inquiry was my first introduction to the magazine, but a quick browse through their most recent issue was all I needed to see. The photography and styling is gorgeous, just the sort of eye candy I love.

My custom felt letter balls are featured in Issue 9, page 13 of the gift guide and page 38, in ‘Summer Hits’. Each of the nine issues are available for free download from their website.

Their latest issue also includes articles for families traveling to New York and Tokyo.  The piece on Moomah, a restaurant/art-space in Tribeca, caught my eye. It looks like a feast for the senses and a great place to spend the afternoon.

Charcoal Boxes

I went on a wild tear today, following the rabbit down the hole of inspiration, feeling the joy of creativity for the first time since…how many days ago did I make the feltilocks? Two weeks ago. The dry spells are hard on me, but probably worse for those that have to live with me. It is amazing how fluid I feel on days like this. There is an endorphine rush that comes from imagining something, making it and then seeing it just the way you imagined it.

The idea started with three large pieces of heathered charcoal felt, I set aside yesterday. After working all day to create the felt, I  decided to back out of  a custom order for some extremely large felt boxes. Working on these three pieces of grey felt wore me down, physically and emotionally. I love the wool from Harrisville Designs for the beautiful texture and interesting color blends, but there is no doubt that it is a tough wool to felt. By the time I finished the third piece, my elbows and forearms ached. The order was for three boxes, requiring fifteen identical squares. In this busy season, I didn’t have the mental fortitude or the hours to commit.

The dried pieces of felt jumped at me this morning as soon as I came downstairs. I can’t even trace the source of the inspiration, probably seeing the bowl of felt leaves as I sewed the pinbacks on a batch of completed felt flower brooches.

After finishing the first two, I wasn’t sure where to go next. Rather than making a rash decision, I walked away from the sewing machine to document the finished pieces. Suddenly, it occured to me, as I was stuffing the rectangles just what I wanted to do. Bright circles were the perfect counterpoint to the more subdued colors I chose for the rectangles.

Sometimes when the weather is grey and the days blend into each other, you just have to grab the tail of inspiration and follow it, even if it means setting aside the schedule. There will be plenty of time for jumping back on the wagon tomorrow.

Feltilocks

I spent hours and hours yesterday working on an idea that had been buzzing around in my head for several months. When it started to appear in my dreams, I knew it was time to start working it out in the studio.

I first saw feltmaker Tash Wesp wearing a bracelet she made of felt dreads at a workshop we took together in May. While I didn’t want to knock off her idea, I couldn’t stop thinking about how to make my own version.

My felt workshops always generate lots of scrap bits of roving, and often when I create a work, there is just a tail end of a handpainted colorway too precious to throw away. The pile of ends was spilling out of its plastic bag, so it was time to put them to use.

When they are spread flat, the locks remind me of strange seastars washed up on the beach.

The best part was pulling the colors together to make different combinations. I spent two hours working on the color pairing for fourteen pieces. These are now available in my etsy shop and will also be for sale at the upcoming holiday fairs (watch here for a save the date announcement coming soon).

My daughter wore one in a ponytail to school this morning; the best I could do was pull together two tiny ponytails on top of my head. Walking down the sidewalk this morning, I couldn’t help skipping.