(Inside A Black Apple)

Beautiful Soup

Lately, Josiah has been making a variation on the Neely's corn chowder that I am just nuts about.

  The recipe he uses comes from their book, and looks to be just slightly different than the one linked up there (bunches of paprika and sweet potato are in the book recipe). I impulsively bought the book for him as a fun, out-of-left-field Christmas present, and while we're not really barbecuing or deep frying people, we are most certainly soup people. He leaves out the bacon and adds browned + shredded chicken, and it becomes this extremely hearty, warmingly spicy dinner. It is also fantastic a day later, after everything has been commingling in the refrigerator overnight.

Also on the local eats front, we went to Dove Vivi a few nights ago with the B's, and...boy - their specialty cornmeal crust pizza is pretty otherworldly. I've always assumed that regular ol' pizza was already as comfort food-y as it could get, but their buttery, almost quiche-like pies turned the comfort factor up to 11. I got leeks, red pepper, pesto and feta and it was outstanding - although very rich. Just one more excellent Portland eatery...we are some of the luckiest ducks as far as restaurants go.

And thank you so much for all the excitement and kind words about the upcoming show! I hope everyone local (and semi-local) can be there...and of course, I'll keep everyone posted as we get closer to June 4th.

June Show!

This is where (nearly) all my time is going right now!

Land is the beautiful two story storefront and gallery space devised by the good people of BuyOlympia. I am so excited for this show. Named after a line from my favorite Tom Waits song, there will be carnivalesque antics, oddities, and curiosities.

I've already got quite a few pieces ready to go, so I'll start sharing them really soon. A bearded lady, strong man, Figi mermaid and more! I'm completely immersed.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Fancy Wearables are Restocked

Woot!

They're all in the shop, except for one or two designs that have sold out already.

Happy Monday!

Updated: Random cute animal alert - this tiny horse is the most darling, astonishing random news item of the day. I can't believe he's real!

Wearables Ahoy!

Edited: The shop is now all stocked up with pretty locket goodness!

I am happy as a clam that I will finally be able to restock a whole slew of Fancy Wearables lockets early next week (I'm hoping for Monday or Tuesday)!

 

I feel like I've been promising it forever...but they're worth the wait - you have my solemn vow.

And thanks so much for all that fun music/books/movie chatter on the last post! That was so much fun. I will have to read over them again and do some investigations and make some lists.

I hope you have a lovely Spring weekend ahead of you (or Fall, for my friends in the Southerly hemisphere).
Happy Friday!

Joanna

Does it ever feel like you are are having your own personal cultural dry-spells, where no music, books or movies come out that are up your alley for months at a time? These times are very sad. But when the opposite happens, it is such a happy thing

Which brings me to right now, which seems to be a bountiful time for things-Emily-likes finding their way into the world. Things like Joanna Newsom's newest three-part record. I love Ys so deeply that this new record will have to work so hard to get to me in the same way, but I'm listening to it part-by-part, and giving each disc their turn. Right now I'm really infatuated with part 2 ("Go Long" is killing me in particular), so the others are on the back burner for the time-being. But I have high hopes for part 3, because the song titles are really beautiful.

Are there any new music/movie/book releases you're particularly excited about right now? I'd love to hear what everyone else is jazzed about!

The Stitching Parade Notecard Set

The Stitching Parade notecard/postcard sets have arrived and I just put them in the shop!

And there is a 5"x7" print available of the image as well - I just couldn't let it only live inside my little doll tags.

Happy Monday to you!

Vivre Sa Vie

I was very jazzed to discover recently that my favorite Godard, and one of my favorite movies in general, has been Criterion-ified. After years of dubious prints (including my current copy) and unreliable availability, I'm so excited to see their edition. I kind of hoped this was in the works after it went out of print a few years back, and now - voila!

I discovered this movie when I was working at ye olde video store, having no idea about the significance of the French New Wave, or that Godard and Anna Karina are icons. The box just seemed promising, so I took it home and fell in love. It's a beautiful, melancholy visual poem - and Anna Karina has never been lovelier or more adorable. And it's one of those things that found me at just the right time...those things always stay close to my heart.

I can't wait to see this restored version with all the extra bits and doodads I'm sure will fill the DVD.
Go Criterion!

Little Book-Tags

I've been thinking about tags for my dolls for a long time, but in the last few months I really buckled down to designing one. It's just back from the printers, and I'm so happy.

They're made to look like tiny storybooks:

 

And when you open them up, this is what you see:

You will probably remember this little painting from a few posts back (and there are notecard sets arriving with the same image very soon!). I can't wait to tie these little tags onto many, many future soft-things.

We went out of town rather suddenly for a family obligation on the Easterly coast, but today we're back and I'm back to working on my June show and all the usual Black Apple things. I'm always so excited to get back to work (which, methinks, is a sure sign that I indeed have a lovely job).

Happy Tuesday!

Little, Big - and a Giveaway!

*Edit: Comments are now closed, and I'll announce the winner tomorrow!
The RNG chose a winner, and she's been notified -
Congratulations, Stacey!
And thanks so much to everybody for their sweet + thoughtful comments.*

To celebrate our fantastic new ability to create large-format prints in-house, as well as the growing list of new 11"x14" images to be found in the Large Print section of my shop (be sure to hop over and see), I wanted to have a little gift-away!

So!
I'm giving away a large (11"x14") print of the "Books" image (shown above) in the red colorway, which is newly in the shop.

To enter, all you have to do to enter is leave a comment - it can be anything...musings, recipes, recommendations, and I'll close comments after April 6th draws to a close.

Then I'll let the random number generator do its work!
Good luck to you and Happy Monday!

Friday, Saturday, Bun-day...

From The Three Little Bunnies By Ruth Dixon
(and currently my favorite photograph)

Happy Easter!

Little Doll-folk all in a Row

I seem to have parades on the brain lately...I keep making parade-ish images without meaning to!

This little gouache painting was made for a little (literally and figuratively) project I'm working on. I ended up liking the image so much that I might offer postcards of it as well!

Not parade or painting related, but we've been obsessive about this Popeye collection lately. Not only does it have all of these beautiful black + white early Popeye episodes (like this one...not the best video quality but it's one of my favorites because the monkey is so cute!) it also has a fantastic amount of extra features. The best one is a wonderful documentary about early animation that includes some of Winsor Mccay's beautiful short films, like the creepy-lovely How a Mosquito Operates.

I never predicted I'd be nerding out over Popeye this way, but it's probably good that I can still surprise myself.

Happy weekend to you!