show : Renegade Craft Fair 2014

This coming weekend (September 13 + 14) I will be showing and selling at Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn! The fair is right on the East River off Kent Ave. between 10th & 11th St.

I will be sharing Booth #1 (right by the main entrance and information tent) with my friend Beth of Honest Alchemy Co. Beth makes beautiful sustainable textiles and accessoies using 100% natural fibers and plant-based pigments. She is a fellow Philadelphia artist and a wonderful soul.  

There will be over 150 tents and 250 vendors to check out, and of course lots of good food, music and a free photobooth! If you're in the area or just in the city for the day please stop by and say hello!

Vendor List & Map (click to enlarge):

Midsummer Celebrations

 

 Here in Philly we've just passed the Midsummer Solstice, that date in the summer with the longest hours of daylight. To celebrate the coming bounty of summer crops I made us a wholesome, partially homegrown dinner last night. A salad of romaine, arugula, sauteed kale and asparagus, with a parsley lemon dressing. Hardboiled eggs with spicy mustard. And this beautiful nutty yogurt bread. 

I've been making this bread since we lived in England and recently it's fallen off my radar, but I am so happy to remember it exists! Unlike other breads, this one relies on a combination of baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar to get a lift. Which means that it is no-knead and no-rise. All you need are two bowls to mix the dry and the wet ingredients, a loaf tin and an hour in the oven. What you will pull out is the most moist, nutty satisfying bread. I'm sure this loaf won't last long past the weekend.

Nutty Yogurt Bread

1 tbsp sunflower oil (I used grapeseed)

375g plain flour

125g wholemeal flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

90g mixed nuts, chopped (I used walnuts, pecans and almonds)

90g sunflower seeds

1 tsp runny honey

200 ml plain yogurt

300 ml milk

2 tbsp sunflower seeds, for sprinkling

1) Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease a 2 lb loaf tin with oil or butter. Sift the flours, salt, cream of tartar, baking soda and baking powder together in a large bowl. Stir in nuts and sunflower seeds.

2) Mix the honey, yogurt, milk and oil together. Stir into dry ingredients and mix to form a soft dough.

3) Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth to level the top. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour until golden and risen. The bread is ready when its edges shrink from the sides of the tin.

Enjoy 15% off all items today with code midsummer14 at my shop!

donut shop at capsule new york womens

I'm very happy to say that I'll be exhibiting this weekend at Capsule New York Womens!  

While the main show focuses on womenswear and accessories, I'll be in the Donut Shop extension.  This is the cash and carry section of the show where they bring together brands from other design and creative disciplines outside of fashion.  I'll be bringing some of my new pieces for F/W 2013 as well as my current line.  

Other brands I'm excited about seeing are Odette NY, Another Feather, Ilana Kohn, Fischer, Black Crane, Mociun, Bailey Doesn't Bark, and Coral & Tusk, among many others.

September 15th, 10-7  |  September 16th, 10-7  |  September 17th, 10-6

Basketball City

299 South St (at Montgomery St), NYC

building with willow

Eesh, I've been really bad at updating here recently!  I promise to be better, which should be easier as I really want to use this space to share some of my gardening adventures.  Now that we own a house we finally have a bit of land to get all green thumbed!  I'm so excited to plant vegetables and figure out what plants to cultivate.  We're in Northwest Philly now, and our tiny bit of yard didn't come with much landscaping, which is pretty neat since we have a blank slate.  I want to learn more about native plants to our area and more natural and organic ways to garden.  Luckily, both my mother and grandmother are incredibly green thumbed and volunteer loads of advice.

Over this winter I've become interested in willow structures, both alive and dried.  I really like the idea of natural borders and I think willow could be a good use for tiny spaces.  So when I saw that Terrain was offering a class on willow garden structures I thought that it would be a good introduction for me.  Some key things I learned were:

• You can cultivate willow clippings.  Anything you cut, from the long branches to the tiny off-shoots along the branch, will root.  If you're not planting them immediately after cutting, just place them cut-end-down in a bucket of water and leave them there to keep them alive and supple, and to allow them to develop roots.
• There are tons of varieties you can use, like pussy willows, red and yellow twig dogwood, willow bush, etc.  Just keep in mind its future size and voraciousness, they're not all suited for smaller spaces.
• Willow is naturally very supple, but can remember sharp bends, so if you are creating a shape, gently manipulate the willow branch before bending.

You can see my willow structure in the last two photos.  I didn't have a plan of attack when making it, but I think it's funny how it ended up having a stained glass resemblance.  All of the willow sticking into the soil will continue to grow.  The mini "wreaths" and woven sections will just dry in place.  For now I'm going to put it outside (once it stops snowing...) and let it develop more roots before choosing somewhere to plant it for real.

One day I'd love to build a willow hut like the ones Kelly makes as Cheeriup!

rcf photos

hi friends, thanks to everyone who came out to RCF this weekend, I had so much FUN. I'll definitely be applying to future dates, who knows, maybe I'll even try for Chicago this december...

here's a few photos from the show, I also got to explore my dad's old stomping ground sunday morning, though williamsburg has changed a bit since the 1940s.  it was kind of a melancholy moment to see that his house (and where my grandfather had his metalsmithing and roofing storefront) is now an overgrown vacant lot.  maybe one day another family will make it their home, for now it can be a home for brooklyn wildlife...

a little rain can't ruin our day

Despite bringing tent walls in a superstitious attempt to ward away rain, we did get a spontaneous shower on Sunday afternoon.  However, the Clover Market vendors and customers proved that nothing can get in the way of that excellent market!

an impromptu river

proof that these bird baths work swimmingly!

all the customers returning in mass

And then the sun was out again!  The rest of the afternoon was sunny and warm, and us vendors already started planning mini reunions to stay in touch until the fall market series starts up again in September!

trip: storm king

On Saturday we had a mini art-themed roadtrip to Storm King Art Center in NY state. It was that perfect first roadtrip of summer. I think we talked so much in the car that the drive up and back went by in a flash. Virginia even got some sewing finished in the first hour of the drive.  I am a bit embarrassed to admit that my favorite part of the park may have been the new honeybee hives.  The heat hasn't affected my brain so much that I've forgotten bees are not art, but they are pretty amazing creatures!  Besides the bees, my next favorite thing was finally getting to see Andy Goldsworthy's stone wall (see last photo).  Overall, a great trip (and only a bit of sunburned shoulders)!  We're already planning a trip back again this winter.

summer!

Had a great time at the Trenton Ave Arts Fest this weekend, if you didn't get to go, I'd highly recommend putting it on the calendar for next year.  On Sunday I had a belated Mother's Day with my Mom (since I was on my stand on the real day).  We had brunch at Hank's (my Mom loves scrapple) and then I spent the rest of the afternoon at my parents.  Everything in their garden has grown so much!  The peas are over waist-height, the herbs are bushy, the mint is taking over as usual, and the gooseberries are on their way to being huge.  I left with a big bag of lettuces, spinach, asparagus, radishes and herbs.  Summer is here!

phew

I had a great time this weekend, and the weather was absolutely beautiful.  It was perfect for lounging on the grass, having a picnic, playing some frisbee and people/dog watching.  It was also perfect to be minding a booth outside for three days, though I have to admit that by the end of day 3 I was ready for a long nap!  (especially since I churned out some emergency terrariums on Friday night/Saturday morning)  I loved meeting all you great people who stopped by my tent, but I'll admit that I may have enjoyed dog watching the most.  I even started recognizing some of the dogs on their daily routines.  One massive black dog with a tiny pink bow in her hair stands out in my memory the most.

For those of you in the area who missed out on the Rittenhouse show (or who just want to say hi again!), I will be showing in Philly again this weekend, at the Trenton Ave Arts Fest in East Kensington.  And with that being said, I think I need to get back to work!

weekend photos and a thank you

This past weekend went so fast, between Wilmington and Ardmore I also went up to Easton, PA for a quick trip!  Thanks so much to everyone who came out to my shows, it means so much to see you guys and to meet new people.  This weekend I felt overwhelmed with everyone's generosity and support, so thank you! 

As usual, it seems these days I never end up taking many photos of my stand, but here are a few I can share.  I don't know if you noticed, but I actually forgot a piece of my stand in that top left photo (let me know if you can figure out the part, it is important and visible).  Luckily I was right next to my friends at Volta Organics so I spent lots of time catching up and playing with their adorable little girl.  Clover Market was amazing as usual.  I think it's really one of the best organized and vended shows that I do.  And this time I had more time to talk to people, so I am brimming with talented people I can't wait to post about on Fridays!

Now I have 4 days of prep before my next show, and I have lots of exciting things to share with you later in the week, so stay tuned!

how does your garden grow

My Mom's grows with a lot of hard graft.  But it's so worth it.  On Sunday I went out to help plant the tomatoes and pepper.  As soon as I got there I smelled that sweet rural air and couldn't wait to get digging and get my hands dirty.  To me there's nothing like country air for the senses.  I also got to see how everything is growing.  Heavy lilac blossoms that can't hold up their heads, yellow scotch broom with loads of honey bees buzzing happily, radishes pushing their way out of the ground, the first asparagus heads peeking through and the herbs coming alive again.  She also recommended that I start cultivating the moss in my terrariums as it's growing so happily and will spread if I take some out and re-pot.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Later today I'll do a post on where you can find me this month.  I figure that even though surprises are fun, everyone likes a little advance warning.  In the meantime you can always check the sidebar <---

weekend photos

 1 more colorful flying heart necklaces :: a new style mobile with bubbles

(my next one will be all in clear so it makes disco ball style light reflections)

2 Sunday lunch at the continental diner :: ice cream afterwards at the franklin fountain 

(pay extra for the waffle cone, it's worth it)

3 peach raspberry pie for a birthday (my favorite pie ever) :: a cardboard loving kitty

p.s. I'm on instagram, look for me: glassandsnacks

some photos from clover

I didn't get too many photos on Sunday at Clover Market but I still wanted to share a few.  The day was really beautiful and it warmed up so much in the afternoon that I left with a bit of a sunburn!  All the Clover customers (and vendors) were as lovely as I remembered from last year, I'm so happy with the turnout and everyone's compliments.  It really means a lot to have people talk to me about my work and appreciate what I'm doing.

This week I'm getting organized for another show on Saturday, this time in Brooklyn, NY!  I'll be at the Prospect Heights Craft Fair from 11am-6pm at PS 9.  The booth fees and proceeds from the fair go to benefit the arts program at the school, which is amazing, so if you're in the area please come by!  And remember my friend Virginie from this new friend friday post?  She will be there as well with her jewelry!

terrarium table

 We always have a family gathering on Easter at my parents' house.  It's more an excuse for us all to get together, talk about everything you could possibly think of in very loud voices, and eat favorite foods.  This past Sunday I also got to show off my new terrariums alongside my Mom's moss garden that I grew up decorating year after year (including this year!).

Every Easter we also get out these little silver baskets that were passed down from my great-grandmother and fill them with locally made chocolates and peeps of course.  This year we had 11 people over so we had to improvise three other baskets.  Yay for unexpected craft projects!

We took inspiration from Martha Stewart and used the leftover egg dyes to color coffee filters.  I decided they looked quite like daffodils...

The terrariums really looked great as centerpieces.  I would do this in our apartment if our big table wasn't currently a mass of half-complete glass projects... Spring cleaning anyone?

And no family gathering is complete without a homemade cherry pie!