HHHHHHhhhhay cupcake!!!

friday was cupcake day.  me and my friend trish made about 80 cupcakes apiece for our friend's jade and robert's wedding party in austin.  yeah!!! it was fun to spend some time in the kitchen....that hasn't happened much lately.

golden vanilla cupcakes:

ingredients:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp. appled cider vinegar

1 1/4 all purpose flour

2 T cornstarch

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup of canola oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/4 vanilla extract

preheat oven 350.

wisk soy milk and vinegar and set aside for few minutes.

in large bowl blend sugar, oil and vanilla. add dry ingredients to wet, flour, conrstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until no large lumps remain.

fill cupcake liners almost to the top (more than the typical 2/3 full)......these cupcakes don't rise that much, but are oh so yummy!!!

bake for 22 minutes or until golden.

let cool then frost with white buttercream.

buttercream icing:

ingredients

1/2 cup of nonhydrogenated shortening

1/2 cup of  nonhydrogenated margarine

5 cups of powdered sugar...sifted if clumpy, this will yield a much smoother icing free of lumps............if doesn't matter, then don't bother

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup of soymilk

beat shortening and margarine together until well combined.  add sugar and beat another 3 minutes. add vanilla and soy milk and beat another 5-7 minutes until fluffy.

note: this recipe makes a vanilla cupcake that is fairly dense like a pound cake and super delish.

making these brought back so many bakery memories of decorating birthday and wedding cakes.........oh, how i miss that sugar shack :O)  there were many a fun time at that place.

the recipes above are from the "vegan cupcakes take over the world" cookbook by isa chandra moskowitz and terry hope romero

this sweet plate with the subtle word "because" is a piece made by our great friend kirsten jacobsen.

it could be easy being green.....

austin, texas.......lime green polyp earrings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my friend rebecca who is a raw foodie is part of an online community that is hosting a contest for the best green smoothie mustache. i wanted to share her picture for fun and as part of my picture pages series(pp11). oh, love it.  the green 'stache, sexy rexy!!!

my new favorite green smoothie is pineapple-celery with a bit of spinach to green it up.

1 1/2 cup pineapple

2 stalks of celery

1 cup of spinach

1 cup + of water.....depending on the consistency you desire

2 T chia gel

and sometimes a bit of cayenne depending on my mood

uke

i've been trying to upload the little video of me attempting to play my brand spankin' new ukulele. chris bought it for me for our anniversary. i have been wanting one for a few months now and have just been putting it off. i'm really terrible at it but it is super fun with a side of frustration at times. i have been learning how to play "happy birthday to you" which is going pretty well, but forget about putting multiple fingers on different chords for the same note. i guess, my hands after setting stones and being scrunched up for the last ten years don't really want to spread out and dance alone :O) i guess a ton of practice and maybe a few lessons will push me along a bit. in the mean time, chris and i will continue to crack each other up with some really bad but way hilarious lyrics about each other and other funny stuff that we encounter everyday. thanks babe, for giving me something that will continue to broaden and continue our laugh track :O) laura freeman and her song "orange" off of her color wheel album is what inspired me to want a ukulele. she sang it for me at the handmade austin women show over the summer.

below is a picture of me giving "happy birthday" a whirl......

one of my favorite pics. of chris and i.  we were on our way to sun valley, idaho for an art festival a couple summers ago.  we decided it would be great to camp out of the back of our truck the whole way there and back.  hahahahahaah!!!  we did have a great time, but we haven't done that again since then :O)  this photo was taken after i decided that i wanted to get in the back, stretch out and take a nap.  boy, was i mistaken.  this is not like back when i was seven and my sister and i would travel in the back of the truck with all of our cool new games mom and dad bought us, describe the images we saw in the paint splotches on the ceiling of the camper shell and nap to our little hearts content.  nope, not the same gig.  after about fifteen minutes of driving thru a little town thru all the stoplights i was completely over it.  so i knocked on the glass, since the truck doesn't have the ever so handy sliding window that pops had and chris laughed at me......it was really funny!!!!  happy 4th babe!!!

couch.sewing.movie

today was a swell day hanging on the couch doing some handi-work and watching a movie. i sewed some little pillows for some "float" pillow earrings. i am loving the brown plastic with the avocado green thread. i decided on the green thread because i have a pair of brown capris that i love to wear with an avocado green polyblend shirt i got at a thrift store. when wearing said outfit i feel like a tree. so these earrings are tree/wardrobe inspired :O) the red pillows i wanted to use a color of thread that was really vibrant. i was feeling the deep red was really fall feeling in color and i wanted to excite it up a bit. that led me on the path to choose the electric reddie color for the thread. i'm feeling their pep!!!! the brown plastic is from a cleaners zip-up garment bag and the red is from an estee lauder bag. yeah, some days i love being productive while sitting on the couch.

shell collection

here is the whole pile of shells that i brought home :O)

above are just a few of my favorites. i found 3 white limpet shells which was a huge highlight. one of them is pictured in the lower left corner, the second shell in. it's white & oval shaped with a hole in the top. the ones i use are really blue green, aqua in color. this will make my own personally found and collected limpet reach 6. the first three were at stinson beach in california. yippy!!!! the white branch coral is my other big favorite. i found quite a few of those, but most of them to small for rings......which is what i really like to use the coral for.

"sweet wishes"

i am a huge mark ryden fan. his work portrays a skewed twisted variety of childlike imagery of plushie pets, slabs of meat and youthful angelic subjects. i love the sweet composed with the odd and somewhat disturbing. enjoy his first ever children's book and movie "sweet wishes" by this international art icon.

beachy.beach

it was sheer pleasure being at st. pete beach. yeah, new beach/ocean goodies for my work!!! i think just seeing, hearing and feeling the ocean is good for the soul :O)

we have arrived.....the beach is so beautiful at dusk. i felt like a little kid, especially when i walked upon......

all of these...pure bliss

i had about 6 good hours picking up treasures, either for my work or just to have in my collection of found objects. the next day i wore a skirt and my legs got super burnt. the sunscreen didn't quite do the trick. i'm still slathering on the coconut oil to get the heat to come out of it, but oh it was worth it.

chris found this beautiful olive shell. he was pscyhed and continued to find several others throughout the weekend. he was zipping around all over chris' hand. it was really amazing to watch. every once in a while it would squirt water out....i think he was trying to tell us something. he set the lil' creature free after i could snap a pic of 'em.

fuzzy wuzzie...

these are the sweetest creatures ever....(besides beanie) i fell in love with these fuzzy wuzzies when i drove thru some alpaca farms driving around ohio making my way to my late uncle morris' house in between a couple shows. have i mentioned that i have a really bad sense of direction, sense of smell, yes....sense of direction...negative. i stayed for a few days and was so relieved to see family. i got lost so many times on that road trip so familiarity and comfort was just what the doctor ordered. we had some good eats and relaxation before i had to head off for the next adventure.

the picture above is of one of maple's alpacas of the north star alpacas in ithica, michigan. i love that maple will send a picture of the alpaca that created the fur used to make a particular hat. yippity :O) i may have to buy one just to get a picture of one of those sweet little guy. oh my, i think he would fit in just fine in my back yard. neaner, beanie, bobie, booberry......okay his real name is brinkley (my baby.....dog, that is) would like him. beanie looks somewhat like a goat anyway when we cut his hair so they would be a perfect match. we're looking to expand the family anyway. hehehehehee!!

lions & tigers

and SLUGS, oh my!!!

i will openly admit that i am terrified of slugs, but my husband came from a visit with his folks yesterday with the june 2008 national geographic issue. they had an article featuring these fanciful & showy little ocean slugs called nudibranchs. these colorful slugs are a far cry from the slugs i grew up knowing and i love, love, love these little guys. just a reminder of the amazing beauty of the natural world around us. these little gems of the sea are sure to make you smile.......

watch this video about these incredible little creatures.

happy sunday :O)

the ring show:putting the band back together

UPDATE: the ring show "putting the band back together" & "then and now" is coming together. i just received an email from the mary hallam pearse with images of all the rings....yippy. the ring's are incredible and i am super excited to be surrounded by so many incredible artists. if only i could try them all on :O) that would surely put me in debt :O)

here is the photograph of my ring as it will be in the catalog

jaime jo fisher

a few of my faves are............

lisa medlin

brandon holschuh

coffee miklos

kristi rae wilson

james thurman

yael krawkoski

allyson bone

michelle a. pajak

this show runs from august 23 -november 2, 2008 at the georgia museum of art  if you're anywhere in that vicinity it would be worth a visit.

langdon graves

i found this amazing artist on the fecalface.com website. her name is langdon graves......find more of her work at www.langdongraves.com

enjoy!!

clean-up

well, it's way past THAT time for me, clean-up time studio style!!!! for any of you who have seen my "busting at the seams, i am surprised it can still hang on the wall, crap piled everywhere jewelry bench" you know what i am talking about, and if you haven't seen it....my husband, chris doesn't lovingly call me "crap hound" for no reason. motivated by my very skilled and generous hubby who made me a brand spankin' new soldering station while i was in st. louis, i now have a "new", fresh, clean, and ORGANIZED studio to work in....yippy!!!!! drum roll please....... Ta Dah..................

here is a 360 degree view.........

p.s.---don't open the closet :)

p.s.s.--i will work very hard to keep my studio clean of debris and clutter....as for my jewelry bench?? i can't make any promises :O)

thrift or bust...SVDP in st. louis

  here's a pic of "my scores" at my all time favorite thrift store in st. louis.  st. vincent de paul thrift store on forest park blvd. is the best.......i llllllove going there when i go home.  that was my first stop in town after i dropped my mom off at work since she picked me up on her lunch break.......thanks ma!!  she would have gone with me if she would have been off work (yep, i get it honestly...from my mom and dad both) i am loving this color family....grey, creme, peachpink.....yum!!!  this could be my next triple pendant color family.

newsflash.....i love old luggage, old tupperware and anything peachypink and plasticky....the grey suitcase i needed for my booth display to put all my bags, pliers, receipt book and whatnots in for the show.   the tupperware container, well i just couldn't resist...the pie slice tupperware container, come on!!!!!!  and, the purse.....i picked up at first thinking it would make great pillow making materials for my "float" pillow earrings....sorry folks, i can't bear to cut into this gem.

breath.sweat.euphoria

new and exciting news for me personally.......the studio where i practice bikram yoga is expanding. YiPpY!!!!!!!!!!!!! which essentially means more classes, more incredible instructors, a juice bar, a store with yoga clothes, art work by the students and a special case just for my jewelry. i am so excited. this place has changed my life in such a big way. if anyone out there is at all interested in yoga and has never tried it i highly recommend bikram yoga. to learn more about bikram yoga watch the clip below (you'll have to copy and paste the link into the browser since i can't figure out how to add a link within the text yet) my practice has given me a clear mind and the ability to let go of the little fussy stuff & and some big stuff too....not to mention that i feel better & stronger than ever before. when i leave class i feel like every cell in my body is alive, awake, and doing the happy dance. swooper!!!!

cut and paste the link below to see a clip from a bikram yoga class here in austin at yogagroove. the instructor in the clip is rebecca jordan. since taking class at yogagroove, she has become a true inspiration and good friend of mine.

the picture above is of sara eubanks another friend and instructor at yogagroove. this is sara's amazing version of the standing bow pulling pose. that is simply beautiful!!!! http://www.kvue.com/video/local-index.html?nvid=235020&shu=1

the website for the studio is www.yogagroove.com