this is halloween

  

 

Details of note:
:: Gesso is finally mature enough to wear his top hat
::  I'm dressed up as a pregnant lady
::  This is Evan's tough-guy face (also his bunny face? also, I made him shave his bushy mustache last night--he looked like a pervert.)
::  It's been so foggy outside today I feel like I'm living in a cloud

 I just came back from the store because I had to emergency buy some more candy (somebody ate too many pieces.....burp).

Happy Halloween!

end of october

 

 The weather has been terribly moody lately.   I mean, not hurricane sandy moody, just seasonally appropriate moody.  I like it.

Evan assembled the baby room furniture last night and I must say, I feel a million times more prepared now that there is an actual crib in our house.  That's right, there's a crib in our house.  Eeeeeek!

unfinished business

I have quite a long list of things to get done before January 9th.  Mostly they are quite practical and rational, ya know, nesting-putting-my-house-in-order type of things.   But replacing invasive-species Toadflax in the wildflower series was at the top of the list.  The Toadflax was one of the first wildflowers I drew and Evan tried to tell me that it was actually a weed and not a Rocky Mountain Wildflower, but I am really quite stubborn and wanted to draw it anyway (it's pretty!).  So I did. 

 Fast forward to two summers ago and everytime we would go to the mountains there would be big posters of Toadflax with a big "x" through it, telling people to KILL it if they saw it.  

oh.  

So whenever I sent off a package to Wild Hands, I quietly left that flower out of the mix.  

This is a Wallflower.  And it's a wildflower, NOT a weed.

 I have been wanting to start a new art project, but I knew I had to finish up this business first.

Check!

cannon beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a little trip to the Oregon coast last week.  I really wanted to have a little last hurrah before baby boy comes and things get more complicated, and I'm so so sooo glad we made it happen!  We fit so much into our trip (including a three hour stop at ikea--poor Evan!), and I hope to be visiting again soon.

p.s.  This happened while we were gone.  Even though we hadn't known each other very long, I had grown rather fond of mr. tree limb and am sorry to see him go :(  

 

 

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch,you must first create the universe.

-- Carl Sagan

Well I did what I could.  And it was deeeeeeelicious! 

Fall has been making more of an effort lately, and it hasn't gone unappreciated around here. 

 Also, BATS!  In my HOUSE!  I got the idea from here.

Sour Cream Apple Pie

from Posie Gets Cozy

Topping:

3 T. unsalted butter, softened

1/4 c. plus 2 T. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

2 T. flour

Filling:

1 1/3 c. sour cream

2/3 c. sugar

1/4 t. salt

2 t. vanilla

2 large eggs

3 T. all-purpose flour

4-5 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Pie crust (I used a pre-made one from the refrigerator section of the grocery store--it was just fine!), fitted into a 9" pie plate

To make the topping, in a bowl blend the butter, sugar, cinnamon, and flour until the mixture is combined well.  Cover and chill the topping.

To make the filling, whisk together the sour cream, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs, and flour until the mixture is smooth.  Add the apples and stir together.

Spoon the filling into the pie shell and crumble the topping evenly over it.  Bake the pie on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.  Transfer to a rack and let cool completely.

sweet home :: a stoffice

Evan thinks it should be the studiffice, but I can never remember how to pronounce that.  So stoffice it is!  I feel so lucky to have this room--a little space to make things.  And I get to share it with Evan's 'man corner' (the computer desk...), which means that at night while Evan's doing man stuff (paying the bills...), we can still hang out together.  I know!  It's just a treasure of a room.

I was going to leave this wall blank, but as it turns out, I can't leave walls blank. So I dug through Evan's map box and picked out the *prettiest* maps to hang up instead.  Evan was concerned because according to him, I picked some really lame (but pretty!) map locations to hang up, but really, I don't think they'll be there forever.

I had one of Evan's pictures printed on a canvas last Christmas and I don't think I've ever showed it off before.  He took this with our crappy point-and-shoot-camera early one morning in the Wind River mountains.  No fancy equipment or anything.  I know!  Amazing!  We had another one made up of a different photo but it's hanging in our room.  

For my birthday this year I got a drafting table/drafting lamp/drafting chair.  It was Evan's idea and I thought it was such a good one!  Evan is kind of my number one fan--he is sooo supportive of my creative endeavors.  Whenever we have people over he insists on the complete Holly Art Tour (it can be rather exhausting!) because sometimes I can be a little bit shy about all the stuff I make.  And when I happen to be taking a painting break he kindly suggests that it might be time to go on an art store shopping spree.  It really is so sweet.  And finally having a *real* setup is super exciting.  Now I just need to use it haha!

And if you're wondering where all the supplies are hiding...

they are here.

aaaaaaand here.  I like it because some craft supplies just weren't meant to be organized.  So it's nice to hide them instead :)

This is my little sewing corner and so far I don't miss having a gigantic table to work on.  We found this awesome sewing table at a yard sale shortly after moving here.  There is a real live sewing machine living inside of it!  Proof:
(also, there is captured proof of my list problem above....)

I had to de-smellify it, but shoot, it cleaned up real nice!

Also, I've been told it still works but I haven't tried it out yet.  Probably because I'm kind of scared (the plug is a little bit wire-y).

My family left this morning after a very quick weekend visit.  It was really really really nice to have some company!  I took two pictures while they were here, and my sister captured the one of me and baby on a bike ride (a bicycle built for two!), so I have three whole pictures to share :)

You should know that I used 15 cups of flour on Sunday.  Cinnamon rolls and pizza dough--we are good at carbs over here, what can I say?!

little critters

I've been slowly gathering things for baby boy's room and these little critter prints make me so, so, so happy.  

Probably because they remind me of a certain not so little critter that lives in my house.  He loves to sleep curled up like a fox, and if it's cold, he burrows his face under his fluffy tail.  It's pretty adorable.  I ordered the prints during Heather Ross' studio sale, and when they arrived I realized that I can count on one hand the number of things hanging on our walls that aren't Holly-made (or Evan-captured).  That's pretty lame of me--I need to be better about supporting other artists!

 p.s. pumpkin cookies!  these are my very favorite ones (and not to brag, but I'm somewhat of a pumpkin cookie expert....)  They remind me of a macaroon, a little crusty on the outside and perfectly wonderful and soft on the inside.

Have a happy weekend!

weekending

 

 

There was some hiking, some pizza, and some bike riding.  Poor Gesso woke up with the weirdest eye infection and didn't come along.  We felt super guilty the whole hike--we haven't left him home since he was a little puppy!  He's all better now, thank goodness.

other thoughts:

::  I finally gave in and bought some maternity jeans... and let me tell you something: I think the world would be a much better place if everyone traded in their constricting waist bands for stretchy maternity pants.   So comfortable!

::  I found out yesterday that my family is coming for a surprise visit this weekend--yippee!

::  This has been the warmest fall I can remember and I am kind of over it.  Every morning is like groundhogs day--I wake up thinking it's going to feel like fall, but it's still 80 degrees and sunny.  I keep over-dressing because deep down I know it's supposed to be fall, but it's pretty much still summer.