simpletruths

yumminess

it's more than just a cookie

it's IT! (only better)

 

Pumpkin Pancakes - some people make a few pancakes for Sunday breakfast and call it a success.  No less than a few dozen is a must when I'm at the stove - many for eating, a few more for snacking and at least two bags for freezing.

 

...and since, once I open a can of pumpkin puree, suddenly, everything MUST have pumpkin in it: double pumpkin, cranberry muffins.

 

Works in progress update:

 new earrings and a couple of bracelets are currently in the works, and I'm working on a new scarf concept I think you'll like.  In the meantime, checkout my facebook fan page and become a fan! 

Behind the scenes of a product photoshoot

Any online site that wants to draw people in knows it happens first with pictures. And like any other site - I want my etsy shop to draw people in.  So, I put a lot of thought into my photos. 

Some people have photobooth-like set -ups with lamps and white balancing and the like.  Other people go outside and prop their wares on whatever nature has to offer - fence posts, tree limbs, etc.  

I have an extra couple of yards of linen I haven't gotten around to making into anything more useful.  Some people iron their background cloths to smooth perfection, but I think the cream colored linen lends itself to a softer more relaxed look; that and I tend to avoid any and all ironing that isn't completely necessary - I've been known to run the dryer a second time just to shake the wrinkles out of clothes that may have been sitting in the basket a little too long. 

Since the best light is usually during the little guys nap time, and product photography is just one bullet point on a long list of things I attempt to get done during nap time, I can't spend a lot of time on set up and break down.  I toss the cloth on the table (right over the fruit bowl and whatever else happens to be cluttering the table), grab a few props - ranging from a couple of kitchen mugs to Mr. Man's fedora, and go to work, 

 

This photo shoot features a couple pair of earrings with some wool roving-hand felted by yours truly, and a brass bead. I also did a pretty col wrapped bone ring right afterwards.  The above photos are the 'behind the scene's look"

These will be the actual product photos from that session.

 

this one hasn't made it to the shop just yet.  After looking at the photos, I decided a few tweaks were necessary

 

 The macro setting is my friend :)
 

The ants go marching 4 by 4 hurrah! hurrah!

So, there's this thing where you get "tagged" to fill out a silly "all about me" questionnaire, after which you're semi-obligated to tag a certain number of people so that they too might share with the world bits of random personal and not so personal information.
It sounds silly and a tad like a Jr. High SLAM book - without the hurt feelings and "code names" But some of them are fun.  Like this one!!
So here it is - a little about me, 4 things at a time:

Four jobs I've had:

• Hydrolosist (yup – that’s what Vitamin Water called the the lackys who stood around natural food stores handing out samples of the rainbow colored drink)
• Assistant to the Conference Center Coordinator at Mills College (the most boring job EVER)
• Bartender
• Girl-who-folds-shirts at Miller’s Outpost

>Four places I've lived (unpacked and stayed for over a month):

• Berkeley, California
• DF, Mexico
• San Francisco, California
• Quepos, Costa Rica

Four places I've been on vacation:

• Paris, France
• NY, NY
• Panama
• Quetzaltenengo, Guatemala

Four of my favorite foods:

• Baked macaroni and cheese
• Quesadillas
• Tiramisu
• grapes

Four places I would rather be right now:

• >Hanging out with my sister
• having a picnic with my boys - someplace where it's warm
• Tartine
• Greece

Four favorite things to do:

• walk
• play
• read
• create

 and then the tagging - I'm going to bypass that part and just say this - it was fun, you should do it and add it to your blog too.  If you do let me know so I can read it :)  come on - why not participate in a little bit of lemming-like behavior?

 those poor lemmings get such a bad rap - I'm sure they're adorable little creatures

Afternoon Delight!

My mom came over this past Saturday to spend some time with her grandson,  giving Mr. Man and I an afternoon all to ourselves.  

It was glorious.  

Irish Coffee at The Buena Vista

 

Because if you haven't had Irish Coffee at The Buena Vista...then you haven't REALLY had Irish Coffee

Then it was off to Pier 39 for an overpriced round of air hockey.  There used to be several places all over the bay area you could go to play air hockey but they have almost all disappeared.   Next year, for my birthday, I want my own air hockey table. I know - how awesome would that be.

my guy in his air hockey-ninja stance. yea, I lost this round

And then to celebrate his air hockey victory - brownie sunday from Ghirardelli

  

good times

Got Cranes?

I found out about Pam's goal of collecting 1000 origami cranes for her classmate Jen through Alice at futuregirl (who just moved to the bay area yay!)

Jen has a brain tumor.

 The crane, in Japan, is a very important creature and the practice of folding 1000 cranes represents a form of healing in difficult times. Pam wants to present 1000 hand folded Cranes to Jen as a gesture of support and love.

I have cranes.  I'm sending them to Pam.

Apple recipes?

It's apple season at my dad's house. And, as is the case every year around this time, all visitors are encouraged to have an apple to munch on, no matter how short their stay.  If, for whatever reason, your apple ends up sitting on the kitchen counter, forgotten amidst the riveting conversation, don't fret.  My father will make sure that a couple end up in your purse, pocket or one of the extra shopping bags that always seem handy in these situations. 

This past weekend my dad was coming over to our house to, among other things, drop off a few apples (and I quote) "Not too many, maybe a dozen or so"

I believe the total was actually closer to 16 - keep in mind that our house was not without apples before he arrived.

So I've made an apple tart

 

Yes, the skin is still on the apples.  I don't do this when cooking for others but the skin doesn't bother anyone in this house so I don't bother with the extra step.

I've made apple bread

 

it ended up being a bit on the dry side, especially considering I put 2 1/2 chopped up apples in it.

We also had a bunch of pears sitting around, though it was in no way the fault of my father, so I also made red wine poached pears. Sorry no pictures of the pears, but I can tell you that they were delicious!

After all of that we still have about a dozen apples crowding out all of the other fruit in what used to be the fruit bowl, but has now become the fruit table; plus a couple of apples I have at my desk at work. And so I ask of you - send me your apple recipies.

You should know that I'm not going to make apple butter, no matter how brilliant and simple your recipe may be. I love apple butter, it's delicious, but this is not the year for me to decide to take up canning.  Additionally, I make a pretty rockstar apple pie (remember, I grew up with an apple tree in the backyard) so don't get any ideas about passing along some run-of-the-mill apple pie recipie.

With the ground rules set, let the recipie sharing begin; these are perishaible items we're talking about so let's not dilly dally.

A chosen path

 It was bugging me that my etsy shop's url had my old username - one that was unrelated to anything I'm currently doing.  For a few days I didn't want to change it because I was so proud that I'd finally gotten it all set up. 

But I bit the bullet (I've never understood that saying) and changed over to an entirely new etsy profile.  That means I'll lose the hearts people gave me :(  but I figured that it's better to do it now before I get really invested in it.  I'm supposed to be showcasing some of my items (exciting) at a couple of holiday events and I wanted everything to be sorted out before then.

And now it is.

So the real, here to stay, URL for my shop is simpletruths.etsy.com. So much better, right?

low tide

Fun with wool

First of all, the word 'roving' is fun to say.

 and it's fun to play with.  I took this stuff and turned it into these

 

which I turned into these

 

I'll be keeping these earrings for myself but there's more roving which means more beads. So I'll be making a few for the shop this weekend.

I Like Orange

Each month my mom and I go to the Alameda Antiques Fair.  Sometimes we find something, sometimes we don't.  This past Sunday I got lucky and found these

 

I got the set, plus three cards of awesome buttons for $20.  yup, $20!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Alameda Antiques Fair, it is not a place to go looking for bargains of the flea market variety. For a while I was also looking for a kid-sized table for the little one.  I found what I thought was a perfect table.  1940's style diner-type table in miniature. Similar to this but much smaller and orange with 2 chairs):

 

well, it was going for $250 but "I would usually sell it for $350 but with the economy..." ummm ok and I'll keep walking. 

Maybe for a collector that's a steal, but I'm looking for a kids table - to be used by a kid. I'm thinking crayons, finger paints and playdoh - this is why people shop at ikea.  I think I'll just go the route of my friend Alex with an inexpensive table and some cool vinyl covered paper; all for about $50.

$250.00 is just crazytalk

Back to my awesome orange canisters.  

They have been cleaned out and one is now...

 

the cookie jar. Complete with oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies - delicious!

It's Alive!!!

Well, I did it,  I set up my etsy shop :)  

The shop name and url don't really go together because when I first started shopping on etsy I hadn't thought of simpletruths yet :(  Ah well, live and learn. 

Everything goes together now :)  simpletruths.etsy.com

I'm also planning on setting up shop over on artfire shortly at some point, so stay tuned.

I'm very excited about the whole endeavor and hope that this is something I can continue to do for a while. 

 Yay! go buy something ;)