(Inside A Black Apple)

Easy Pie for You Sweethearts

I got the sweetest heart ice-cube trays a little while ago on an Ikea outing with Sara + Andy (who, coincidentally, like to refer to Ikea-trips as "the relationship-tester", a point with which I can't disagree). Since generally I don't like their furniture aesthetic that much, I'm pretty much only in it for the little things from Ikea, anyway. Like heart-shaped ice cubes for my cranberry juice.

Since it seems Spring is officially here, and there is no more wavering and silliness of boomeranging from 40 degrees to 90 in the span of two days, I made Nigella's super easy key lime pie the other day, and we enjoyed it with the aforementioned Sara + Andy over a heated game of evening Scrabble.

I've blogged it briefly before, but just to freak out over how easy and good it is. As I was making it this time, I thought about the fact that many people might not have the Nigella arsenal at your disposal, and this pie is so absurdly easy and scarily tasty, it needs to be shared.

You need to gather:

-Ready-made graham cracker pie crust (you can be a fancy-pants, and make your own, but this is all    about ease)

-4 limes

-1 Bottle lime juice (back-up juice for when your lime-squeezing isn't as fruitful as you would've hoped)

-14 oz sweetened, condensed milk

-1 1/3 cup heavy cream

Zest the limes as much as possible, and scoop the fruits of your labor into a large mixing bowl. Juice said limes, and if your juicing doesn't produce about 1/2 C + 2 Tbls juice (it probably won't), supplement with your bottled lime juice. Then, simply add both cream substances and beat well with an electric mixer until thick + creamy. The pie will not be green, but a light yellowy color...if you want a truly green pie you'll have to break out the food coloring.

Pour into prepared crust and chill at least 30 minutes before serving! This pie is a bit "custard" like, so don't think you've failed if it is very light and doesn't have an extremely solid consistency.

Thanks for all the Gocco love! I will certainly be making more undies...they were too fun to not do again. I'm spending today packing + shipping and working in the studio on some new paintings, so it's a typical happy Monday on my end.

I hope good weeks are ahead for everybody!

xoxo

Undies!

Go Gocco!
My new Black Apple co-employee and I sluethed out how to work mine (thanks in large part to Small Object Sarah's Tutorial, which Josiah sluethed out on the interwebs). It's super clear and helpful, so if you are needing some very simple how-to-work-it directions, hop over there.

Yesterday I worked on the top-secret printing project of...UNDIES!

That's right, hedgie undies are now available in 5,6,7 & 8 (S,M,L & XL) in the shop. These are even more limited than the tees, with only 2-3 available in each size.

They are packaged up sweetly in individual, sealed bags and tied with candy-striped string! Here they all are hangin' out in their basket.

This is what they looked like while waiting to dry + be heat cured yesterday:

So I'm now officially on the I-love-Gocco bandwagon (a bit late, but you know what they say...)

Oh, and thanks for all that Tee love yesterday! They are all sold out now, but I promise there will be a new  limited-run of tees with a different, but just as adorable design, in mid-May.  Thank you, thank you!!!

Happy Weekend, everybody!
xoxo

Oh, Hooray!

Black Apple Birdsnest Silhouette tees are now available in the shop!!!

This is an extremely limited run of 25 pieces, available in 4 different sizes (S-XL) printed on American Apparel organic cotton tees. It's an off-white, natural colored shirt with solid black crisp printing of the silhouette.

They are very soft and super cute in a simple, elegant way. I'm not a tee gal, normally, but you know that I'm loving these big time...

Hooray! Go tees!

Next month I have another round of limited-run tees in the works, and I'm working on a wee clothing-related project right now, so more wearable-excitement is to follow.

Happy Friday and xoxo, my dears! More fun stuff tomorrow.

In My Room

"There's a world where I can go
and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room..."

Oh, you Beach Boys.
I think that my bedroom is finally exactly the way that I want it! We brought this low chest of drawers home yesterday, and it finally provided the last bit of much needed storage in there. And as romantic as it might've been to just have my books stacked willy-nilly on the floor, it is much better this way!

I love that quilt so crazily-much. Especially the red/white scalloped trim. Actually, it's all about the scalloped trim...and all of the insanely tiny hand-stitches that shame me and my modern ways.

Aahhh...the books off the floor. Still romantically stacked, but off the floor. And go ahead and laugh at my oh-so-goth copy of The Bell Jar. I am pretty proud, however, of our vintage pulp copies of both William Faulkner's Sanctuary and Mr. Nabokov's Lolita.

A recently framed photograph of mine that we hung, from my art school photo-maven days (and a pretty little Art + Ghosts piece from the lovely Lou). The image was inspired by my Victorian undergarment/scandalous-old-photos obsession.

My beautiful antique, spindly chair + a recently hung poster for one of the most beatiful films in one corner.

My various Alice editions.

And I know you've been missing Mr. Goose.

I'm on cloud nine. Especially with these feet around:

Now to tackle the hurricane-damage that has swept my studio!

Prints for you + I am busy, busy!

A bunch of new prints have been added to the shop! Among them are the "Ten Arms/Ten Hearts" print, "I Will Take Care of You" and "The Pensive Wallpaper". A bunch of folks have emailed asking about when these would be available in their more affordable, print incarnations, and they are now!

Sorry about my vanishing and only blogging about shop news right now...I've been helping Mr. J move.

Add to that that my studio is an absolute wreck, plus I've got loads of shipping to do, so no new pretties from my workspace at the moment.
Maybe I'll manage to eek out some cookies later on this afternoon?

I'll be back in full effect soon enough, and I'll be updating the Some Girls Wander blog later on today, so you can visit over there if you miss me!

Stump Girl Photo prints + Happy Weekend

Just a little note to let you know that this little sweetie is now available in le shop! There are six up for grabs at the moment.

I'm off for a wee bit, but I'll see you later on this weekend (Saturdayish?)!

PS: Reprodepot just got a HUGE assortment of adorable Cram Cream tapes in...that stuff is such a cheap thrill and just makes me giddy. And it's a way to impress those who get packages from you ;)

Under a Cookie Sun

Hey, you!

Yeah, you!

Thanks so much for making today's update another big success...there were so many originals this time around (paintings have been top priority in my world lately, as I've told you) that I hope all that wanted some original work got a piece they really love.

I promise that next time there will be some more sewn stuff. My sewing machine was looking at me so dejectedly today as I finished stitching up the hedgie plush...

...it seemed to be saying something along the lines of "Come on you big jerk! Drop the brushes and get with the...um...stitchin' (?)". So, I'm going to work on some dollies (yay!) in the coming weeks, and some more hedgie plush (I'm still tweaking my pattern, AND they are so darn fat and fun to make).

The little mushroom-sitting girly at the top was part of the update today, as was this sweetie:

"Tess" 6"x8"x1"

As well as this gal who looks-not-unlike-myself with a kitten-not-so-unlike-my-own:

"Me + Miette"  6"x7"

Also, this set of quadruplet hedgies (a couple are still in the shop if you hop over there quickly!):

 

And since it's TAX DAY (I think?!) today, I thought I would share a little comedy (well, it's funny to me).
This is my tax return paperwork, ready to head off to the IRS a few weeks ago:

 

Yep, I definitely gussied it up as if it were one of my regular orders. I even included some postcards and a print...I'm not kidding. It was about 3:00 AM when I finished them, so that might've been what possessed me to woo the IRS with my cuteness. Or maybe I just wanted to impress upon them the notion of why I had to write them such a frighteningly big check. Like, "See all this goodness and sweetness? That is why I have to give you this moolah. Because I make this stuff for a living". Anyway, I took a picture cause I knew you'd get a kick out of it.

Whew! And now I'm going to make some dinner and eat some more of the chocolate chip cookies I managed to make in between all of my update-readying-last-minute stuff today.

Happy Tuesday, sweet peas, and thank you again for bein' around.

I've got ten arms for you...

"Ten Arms For You,Ten Hearts Beating True"    14"x11"x1"  Acrylic on canvas

I am so happy with this new painting!

Hooray, hooray. This piece, a few other paintings, and some hedgie plush will be available on the 'morrow!
See you circa 6:30 pm EST for the shop update!

Drink your Milk

I broke down and got the crazy-pricey overseas subscription last November.
Even though everything on the website is in French, I just needed to do it, because, this magazine is the most magical of magazines. I think it was when Lisa finally caved and subscribed to Selvedge that I decided to go for it. And then, no magazines came. It is quarterly, but still. When two (or maybe three?) issues came and went on the website, and none came to  my mailbox, I began to grow a little concerned.

So, against Josiah's good advice, I wrote to them in awful, hilarious French, inquiring about the whole debacle. Well, it seems that my pleas in broken French touched the hearts of the subscription dept. at Milk...it was probably the phrase "Je suis triste" that really got 'em. (wink)
Less than a week later, the newest issue was delivered to me! Sorry, I just needed to share the drama and turmoil surrounding my Milk Magazine, so that you could understand why I went crazy with happiness at its arrival yesterday.

Just some snippets of its beautiful children and whimsical strangeness (please ignore the stubby fingers):

 

 

 

It was so worth embarrassing myself.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
xoxo

Birds + Wolves + Hearts

What else, but more new paintings to share for the weekend:

Lupine  7"x9"x1"  Acrylic and ink on found wood-burning

Easy Heart  7"x9"x1"  Acrylic and ink on Wooden Plaque

I will take care of you  10"x10"x1"   Acrylic on canvas

I hope you are fans!
xoxo

PS: You might've heard of this recent art swipery situation, but it is really interesting and infuriating. I sometimes get creeped out that something like this will happen to me (my friend Kate says that I'll be sorry I bought so many pillows and rugs from Urban Outfitters when they are paying tiny Mongolian children to reproduce my artwork). Then I comfort myself with the notion that I am not hip enough for any of these losers to want to swipe from me, and I feel better.