Hooray for Change!

If you’ve been around the ol’ Etsy shop, you might have noticed a few changes.  I’d like to discuss these at great length with you.  Or not.  I’ll keep it short.  But I’m going out of my way for you—over the river and through the woods out of my way—as concision isn’t really my thing.  You’re welcome. 

First, I’ve done away with postage fees.  They stink.  In reality I’ve just been going through some growing pains with my packaging and have settled on something that allows me to post orders at a lower cost and hence I’m passing on the savings.  You’re free to dance around about it.  I did.  

Second, I hired a model.  Myself.  I pay her in sandwiches.  She seems pleased.  Selling online can be so impersonal, and it has been my decision to let go of all the shadowy mystery (intriguing as I'm sure it is) and present myself along with my work.  So, yep, that's me! 

on sale now!

And lastly, I’ve added a sale section to my shop.  I’ve dropped the prices of a few pieces as I’m making room for new work to come this summer.  The changes there are going to be novel-worthy!  It will be epic!!  Okay, I’ll try to stick to pictures only and perhaps a few choice words.  For the sake of the world. 

business as usual

We made it back (read: arrived kicking and screaming) to Edinburgh this past Monday and were slapped in the face with both the cold weather and reality that we weren’t in Costa Rica anymore.  Sigh.  

Here are just a couple of shots from the trip--will be posting more to my new Flickr page!

Although I couldn’t take the warm, sunny days along with me, I have managed to take back plenty of inspiration.  Oh and a horrible sun burn.  worth. it.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Just in case you’re like me and completely forgot it’s Valentine’s Day until much too late to make something complicated and frilly for your sweetheart—I’ve got the perfect solution: strawberry banana Chia pudding with (if you happen to have coconut milk in your refrigerator) coconut milk whipped cream.  Not to worry, the whipped cream isn’t necessary to enjoy this tasty and healthy treat.  Find the guidelines here!

Hope everyone has a lovely Valentine’s Day!

I’ll never bake again.

Okay, maybe that’s a lie.  I probably will bake again.  I mean I was just thinking about baking some homemade rolls…

In any case, I’ve been experimenting with lots of mostly raw meals.  And I say ‘mostly’ because there’s so much heated—to less than 115° F, mind you—debate over what is and isn’t actually classified unequivocally as raw such as “raw” agave nectar or even cashews.  This led me to discover the beauty that is raw dessert. 

I’ve always loved to bake (because I love to eat what I bake), but there has always been a tiny twinge of guilt after indulging in that fifth cookie.  Maybe the guilt was because this meant Grandma would get fewer cookies this Christmas, but you see the point.  Guilt.  These cookies are bad news. 

Raw desserts are in a class all their own.  They are not without calories of course, but the fats and calories involved are healthy and necessary in any well-balanced diet.  They take significantly less time to make as everything is, of course, no-bake.  All you’ll need is some sort of trusty blender such as a food processor or immersion blender.  Oh, and lastly they’re delicious.  As in 'I feel like I just consumed ten thousand calories and lived to tell the tale' delicious. 

Last night I attempted my first raw passion fruit “cheesecake".  It was actually my first passion fruit anything.  I’d never tried one before.  Marcus (my partner) and I were in Tesco a couple days ago and only had to smell them before choosing to give them a try.  We cracked one open when we got back to the flat and were a bit disappointed to be honest.  Not in the flavour as it was tropical and amazing, but there just isn’t much of it in there.  I had to find a way to make it stretch.

So, I thought, “Why not a passion fruit cheesecake?”  I poked around online checking out various raw cheesecake recipes, but ultimately I just do what I want in the kitchen.  Guidelines for how I created my raw passion fruit cheesecake are available here. 

Before I’d even added the passion fruit to the cashew cheesecake filling I was saying to myself out loud alone in the kitchen like a goober, “Wow.”  It was shocking how some soaked nuts, lemon juice, vanilla extract, salt, and agave nectar could taste like cheesecake.  I could eat all of this and feel no remorse.  It’s all just a bit of nuts and dates.  It’s practically a granola bar.  This is health food. 

And let’s face it…you can’t very well bring Grandma ‘health food’ for Christmas after all.  Guilt be gone. 

Getting Down to Business.

This won’t be the most visually appealing blog post (have I even had many of those yet?), but I have to ‘get down to business’ and make some semi-important to some people announcements.

Firstly, and no matter where you’re located you can go ahead and get excited, I am having my second—and final—sale of the year.  I decided to jump onto the Black Friday and Cyber Monday bandwagon and have a little promotion of my own.  If you buy two or more pieces in my shop you are entitled to free worldwide shipping.  So, this is the perfect opportunity to pick up some gifts for the ladies in your life, or just for yourself—I don’t judge.  

Secondly, although I’ve nearly written off doing ‘the craft shows’ in Edinburgh after a trying first year, I will be participating in two more events before the year’s end.  The first is the Out of the Blue Drill Hall’s Xmas Arts Market on 3 December.  Details can be found here.  The second event is the Christmas Craft Fair at the Columcille Centre, Morningside 10 December from 11am-4pm.  I will be sharing a table(s) with other members of our shared pottery studio, so there will be plenty of ceramics to check out at both events!

And lastly, I will be flying to my home state, the wild and wonderful West Virginia, to enjoy the holidays (plus another month of freeloading) with my family and friends on 13 December.  I will remain there until 31 January!  I plan to keep my Etsy shop up and running for the majority of it, so expect to see prices in USD and any other relevant changes such as postage. This random WV picture was borrowed from here in my sorry attempt to make this somewhat attractive.

Sorry for the multiple blocks of scary text—I’ll be sure to put ‘make blog prettier’ somewhere on my laundry list of New Year’s resolutions…     

New Attitude and (More Importantly) New Porcelain

Well, as we’re nearing the end of October (really?  already?!) I’ve come to accept that warm weather is not in my near future and have since chosen to embrace the oncoming winter.  In a big way.   I mean I already sang a damn Christmas carol (Johnny Cash’s Christmas-y feeling, if that counts). 

So yesterday morning I posted an Etsy treasury with a ‘cosy’ theme to further entrench myself in the holiday spirit despite my inner voice shrieking, “It’s too early for that crap!”  Not that the items in the treasury are crap—au contraire!  (Nobody said that while I was living in Paris, by the way, and I was sad.  But then I ate a demi-baguette and forgot the whole thing.)  I especially love that print by caitlihne who also happens to be located in the UK.  

Along with welcoming winter with open arms, a big ol’ man sweater, and obscene amounts of coffee, I’ve welcomed some new porcelain into the studio.  And oh my, do I like it!  It is higher firing (1280º C) than the other porcelain I was using which is now considered ‘discontinued’…pretty much forever.  I love this new porcelain too much to go back—it’s a much brighter white but not a stark white.  I hope everyone else will be as smitten with it as I am, and I’ve just listed three new pieces demonstrating its beauty, so you all can now check it out!  More to come!

see it in the shop!

see it in the shop!

see them in the shop!

Stage One: Autumn Denial.

This is the time of year when I’m usually quite excited and welcoming of the change in season—autumn has always been my favourite with its own particular smell and light along with comfortable temperatures.  However, after spending my first summer here in Scotland, I’m feeling a little ripped off.  When did the summer happen?  Was I taking a nap when it came and missed it?  Did it forget to stop by and say hello to me?  

It’d be nice to have the strength to simply accept that summer’s gone never to return until next year and avoid complaining for the sake of my blog.  But I don’t wanna!  [stamps feet like child]  I’m going to have a nice whine and post a couple pictures from a trip to Nice, France back in 2009 instead!  Now where did I put that time machine?