The Splendid Table...
I am a true fan of NPR and listen whenever I have a chance. Unfortunately the signal is a bit weak - or shall we say non-existent at the cottage so I have been going through withdrawl. This past weekend I got lucky enough to hear a bit of The Splendid Table and they were discussing the best coffee maker and debating ways to brew coffee.
They interviewed Tom Owens of Sweet Marias Coffee and I could practically smell the coffee brewing as they debated the best way to brew a pot of coffee.
you can pop over to the splendid table and listen to the interview.
then let me know....how do you brew your coffee??
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Knit One... Purl Two
so.. do you knit?? I can do the basics and a few years ago spent lots of time knitting wool bags to felt. It was a slight addiction I think. My piles of Black Sheep wool can attest to that! But then sadly the lure of the sewing machine siren became louder than the lure of the knitting needles and I have been woefully negligent of my yarn stash...
but...then this gorgeously tempting photo arrived in my inbox
it is a new pattern available at knitwhits or for free in the fall issue of Knitty
so...tell me...does it tempt you too???
so.. do you knit?? I can do the basics and a few years ago spent lots of time knitting wool bags to felt. It was a slight addiction I think. My piles of Black Sheep wool can attest to that! But then sadly the lure of the sewing machine siren became louder than the lure of the knitting needles and I have been woefully negligent of my yarn stash...
but...then this gorgeously tempting photo arrived in my inbox
it is a new pattern available at knitwhits or for free in the fall issue of Knitty
so...tell me...does it tempt you too???
Thursday, July 22, 2010
gock's frocks is now appearing at Kittleberger's
I am pleased to announce that you may now shop for special one of a kind gock's frocks designs at Kittleberger Florist & gift shop in Webster NY!
Offerings include petal filled tutus, peasant tops& dresses, skirts, appliqued crazy daisy tees, t-shirt dresses and frida tunics ... all one of a kind - available only at Kittleberger!
I am pleased to announce that you may now shop for special one of a kind gock's frocks designs at Kittleberger Florist & gift shop in Webster NY!
Offerings include petal filled tutus, peasant tops& dresses, skirts, appliqued crazy daisy tees, t-shirt dresses and frida tunics ... all one of a kind - available only at Kittleberger!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Green Jobs for Buffalo
take a minute to watch this inspirational video about Green Jobs and PUSH Buffalo - my little brother is a project manager for PUSH and I am so proud of the great work that they are doing!
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Art In America interview with my baby brother!
The Sculpted Word
by Jon Leon 06/03/10
Ben Gocker is a New York-based artist whose exuberant drawings, paintings, sculptures, book objects, and other mixed-media works go on view next week in his first solo show at PPOW Gallery. Gocker, a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library, curates a reading series of poetry called Poetry Time, inviting top-shelf authors to present their work in an intimate and interactive setting in a house at the border of Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick in Brooklyn. His visual work often questions the precarious boundary where poetry alights from the page and becomes a full-blown lifestyle, an open way of moving through the world, where the graceful fold of a saddle-stitched book remains a remarkable technology.
Included in "There is really no single poem" are 11 pieces composed of small serial elements. Floating Collection consists of upwards of 30–40 books; the installation Early Poem is an assemblage of assorted collections and objects: coral, a 60-lb globe made of wood, rope, and twine, covered with canvas and horribly painted. Calendar consists of around 50 wooden staffs about 16" high whittled and painted in gouaches. These surround and interact with four boards painted and made porous with drilled out holes. Death & Friends, though one piece, is 22 separate monochromes - about the size of a hand. Drawings is an assortment of 36 plaster plates, each about the size of standard office paper. The work extends as far back as 2003 with a book called The Collected Poems of Matthew Romaine. A long scroll drawing begun about 3 years ago in Japan is an ongoing preoccupation with portability. Most of the work is very new, completed in the last 8 months or so and exhibits an all-over openness to the flux of one's surroundings.
JON LEON: I find it fascinating that you studied poetry at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, but instead of publishing a book of poems you're presenting your first show of drawings and sculpture and other visual works at PPOW this month. Did you ever intend to write a book, or was drawing et al, always your central discipline?
BEN GOCKER: I started out intending to write a book, and maybe I still do intend to write a book, but I feel like the work I'm doing now constitutes an approach to writing itself—not just the writing of a book, any writing at all. It seems to me that I'm still ‘on the way' to the poems. I'm creating a space for poetic practice, a poetic space—something not circumscribed by the page and yet still interested in that compositional field or place of activity. Drawing and sculpture have not always been my central discipline, yet always central to the ways in which I go about resolving the questions I have about language, life, color, and meaning—the whole experiential honeycomb.
LEON: The show's title, "There is really no single poem," is a line by the San Francisco Renaissance poet Jack Spicer. Spicer is often quoted as saying "Nobody listens to poetry." Do you find that loosening your definition of poetry allows for a more spirited and generous acknowledgment of its place among the arts? Like, if nobody listens to it, maybe they'll look at it?
GOCKER: I think it's important to keep your definitions loose. When we talk about poetry I think it's important to widen the scope rather than to narrow it. There is certainly a history of this. I'm thinking of the middle of the twentieth century here in America when poets would work collaboratively with artists, and also played roles as critics and curators. I'm thinking of O'Hara, Schuyler, Ashbery, Koch, and artists like Larry Rivers, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg to name just a few.
There's an Ashbery poem, "And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name," included in his Houseboat Days in 1977, in which he begins by writing: "You can't say it that way anymore." I think this is what artists and writers are concerned with—or can be concerned with—asking, "How can I say it?" And furthermore, how can the languages at work in different disciplines combine to make a more exacting language for getting it across—for saying it— whatever it is that has to be said. In something like 0–9, the magazine published by Vito Acconci and Bernadette Mayer in the late 60s, you have people like Dan Graham, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Hannah Weiner, Robert Smithson all seeking alternative routes to saying it - or maybe, as is the case, not saying it. But the field was open, and people had permission. Poetry has a pretty healthy history in the arts—I'm barely scraping the surface, of course— but I suppose Spicer is right somehow that no one listens to poetry. It still remains elusive.
LEON: It seems the limitations on what constitutes poetry and what the form can achieve is evolving from a hermetic and closed practice out into the world in a way that is reflexive and synergistic, almost magical, like Spicer going on about magic and transmissions in the "Poetry as Magic" workshop in 1957. There's an attention to exteriority in this shift, an acknowledgement that the work must allow entrance of a natural current from the outside, however mysterious and out-of-control it may feel, to crossover to a wider audience. What do you think about poetry's context and place in the public consciousness? Do you find it inspiring to think of it in the broader context of art generally rather than as a distinct artform?
GOCKER: A Haitian friend and I used to talk a lot about the spirit world. He had very strong opinions about this world—the reality and import of it. We would also talk about dreams being an extension of the spirit world, more accurately, the place where the spirit world and this world connect. His dreams offered him some serious and potent directives about how to live and what to do—whether it was drinking tea made from iceberg lettuce when he was sick, or taking wine at certain times of the year. Whatever it was, if someone came to him in a dream and told him to do something, he would do it. I don't know that my dreams offer me the same directives; regardless, your dreams exist, and the nightly unconscious phenomena happens. How do you choose to listen to what happens there? The same can be said of how you choose to listen to what happens anywhere at anytime during your life. What are the qualities of the world you pay attention to, in no small way, revere and allow to affect you? It's a matter of attention. When Spicer or James Merrill or an artist like Forrest Bess tap into these other possibilities of experience and relate it in their art they likewise make room for the reader or viewer of their work to apprehend more about the world.
Poetry is tough to get your head around sometimes. I think because it is made of words people want to understand it immediately, but it communicates with a rubbery immediacy. You have to give it time, and your head may never get around it. I know people who love looking at abstract art, but the minute they encounter language used with any kind of abstraction they run for the hills. I think, yes, if poetry can be approached from within the larger context of art people may allow themselves to listen.
LEON: You speculate on the qualities of the world we allow to affect us. Is there a diffusion of social stimuli that affects how you create and perceive your work? I'm thinking of the collection of monochromes titled Death & Friends (2010). Your work appears to be just delicate and reverent enough in its lightness of color, and its motivation to include the emotional and physical detritus of a world outside it to be impressionable in a meaningful way. It's generous to the space it occupies in the world by allowing the viewer entrance to it, like the delight that comes with a close reading of a text.
GOCKER: There's a lot out there that influences me. The work reflects those influences, reorders them, and presents them in another fashion. Death & Friends is a piece that points away from itself and toward another piece in the show, a large disc entitled Names, where I've written out in paint the names of acquaintances and friends and coworkers and old lovers; which in turn points to the 1970 Jon Anderson book of poems from which the title derives; which leads to Yves Klein's Yves Peintures and Haguenault Peintures. In some way, though the piece is drawing on all of these other sources, it can still be an empty space where someone can enter and think and look; and as you alluded to, approach the work with the sensibility of performing a close textual reading. I'd like the works to be simultaneously full and empty, to draw and to point, and ultimately, yes, to be generous
The Sculpted Word
by Jon Leon 06/03/10
Ben Gocker is a New York-based artist whose exuberant drawings, paintings, sculptures, book objects, and other mixed-media works go on view next week in his first solo show at PPOW Gallery. Gocker, a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library, curates a reading series of poetry called Poetry Time, inviting top-shelf authors to present their work in an intimate and interactive setting in a house at the border of Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick in Brooklyn. His visual work often questions the precarious boundary where poetry alights from the page and becomes a full-blown lifestyle, an open way of moving through the world, where the graceful fold of a saddle-stitched book remains a remarkable technology.
Included in "There is really no single poem" are 11 pieces composed of small serial elements. Floating Collection consists of upwards of 30–40 books; the installation Early Poem is an assemblage of assorted collections and objects: coral, a 60-lb globe made of wood, rope, and twine, covered with canvas and horribly painted. Calendar consists of around 50 wooden staffs about 16" high whittled and painted in gouaches. These surround and interact with four boards painted and made porous with drilled out holes. Death & Friends, though one piece, is 22 separate monochromes - about the size of a hand. Drawings is an assortment of 36 plaster plates, each about the size of standard office paper. The work extends as far back as 2003 with a book called The Collected Poems of Matthew Romaine. A long scroll drawing begun about 3 years ago in Japan is an ongoing preoccupation with portability. Most of the work is very new, completed in the last 8 months or so and exhibits an all-over openness to the flux of one's surroundings.
JON LEON: I find it fascinating that you studied poetry at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, but instead of publishing a book of poems you're presenting your first show of drawings and sculpture and other visual works at PPOW this month. Did you ever intend to write a book, or was drawing et al, always your central discipline?
BEN GOCKER: I started out intending to write a book, and maybe I still do intend to write a book, but I feel like the work I'm doing now constitutes an approach to writing itself—not just the writing of a book, any writing at all. It seems to me that I'm still ‘on the way' to the poems. I'm creating a space for poetic practice, a poetic space—something not circumscribed by the page and yet still interested in that compositional field or place of activity. Drawing and sculpture have not always been my central discipline, yet always central to the ways in which I go about resolving the questions I have about language, life, color, and meaning—the whole experiential honeycomb.
LEON: The show's title, "There is really no single poem," is a line by the San Francisco Renaissance poet Jack Spicer. Spicer is often quoted as saying "Nobody listens to poetry." Do you find that loosening your definition of poetry allows for a more spirited and generous acknowledgment of its place among the arts? Like, if nobody listens to it, maybe they'll look at it?
GOCKER: I think it's important to keep your definitions loose. When we talk about poetry I think it's important to widen the scope rather than to narrow it. There is certainly a history of this. I'm thinking of the middle of the twentieth century here in America when poets would work collaboratively with artists, and also played roles as critics and curators. I'm thinking of O'Hara, Schuyler, Ashbery, Koch, and artists like Larry Rivers, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg to name just a few.
There's an Ashbery poem, "And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name," included in his Houseboat Days in 1977, in which he begins by writing: "You can't say it that way anymore." I think this is what artists and writers are concerned with—or can be concerned with—asking, "How can I say it?" And furthermore, how can the languages at work in different disciplines combine to make a more exacting language for getting it across—for saying it— whatever it is that has to be said. In something like 0–9, the magazine published by Vito Acconci and Bernadette Mayer in the late 60s, you have people like Dan Graham, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Hannah Weiner, Robert Smithson all seeking alternative routes to saying it - or maybe, as is the case, not saying it. But the field was open, and people had permission. Poetry has a pretty healthy history in the arts—I'm barely scraping the surface, of course— but I suppose Spicer is right somehow that no one listens to poetry. It still remains elusive.
LEON: It seems the limitations on what constitutes poetry and what the form can achieve is evolving from a hermetic and closed practice out into the world in a way that is reflexive and synergistic, almost magical, like Spicer going on about magic and transmissions in the "Poetry as Magic" workshop in 1957. There's an attention to exteriority in this shift, an acknowledgement that the work must allow entrance of a natural current from the outside, however mysterious and out-of-control it may feel, to crossover to a wider audience. What do you think about poetry's context and place in the public consciousness? Do you find it inspiring to think of it in the broader context of art generally rather than as a distinct artform?
GOCKER: A Haitian friend and I used to talk a lot about the spirit world. He had very strong opinions about this world—the reality and import of it. We would also talk about dreams being an extension of the spirit world, more accurately, the place where the spirit world and this world connect. His dreams offered him some serious and potent directives about how to live and what to do—whether it was drinking tea made from iceberg lettuce when he was sick, or taking wine at certain times of the year. Whatever it was, if someone came to him in a dream and told him to do something, he would do it. I don't know that my dreams offer me the same directives; regardless, your dreams exist, and the nightly unconscious phenomena happens. How do you choose to listen to what happens there? The same can be said of how you choose to listen to what happens anywhere at anytime during your life. What are the qualities of the world you pay attention to, in no small way, revere and allow to affect you? It's a matter of attention. When Spicer or James Merrill or an artist like Forrest Bess tap into these other possibilities of experience and relate it in their art they likewise make room for the reader or viewer of their work to apprehend more about the world.
Poetry is tough to get your head around sometimes. I think because it is made of words people want to understand it immediately, but it communicates with a rubbery immediacy. You have to give it time, and your head may never get around it. I know people who love looking at abstract art, but the minute they encounter language used with any kind of abstraction they run for the hills. I think, yes, if poetry can be approached from within the larger context of art people may allow themselves to listen.
LEON: You speculate on the qualities of the world we allow to affect us. Is there a diffusion of social stimuli that affects how you create and perceive your work? I'm thinking of the collection of monochromes titled Death & Friends (2010). Your work appears to be just delicate and reverent enough in its lightness of color, and its motivation to include the emotional and physical detritus of a world outside it to be impressionable in a meaningful way. It's generous to the space it occupies in the world by allowing the viewer entrance to it, like the delight that comes with a close reading of a text.
GOCKER: There's a lot out there that influences me. The work reflects those influences, reorders them, and presents them in another fashion. Death & Friends is a piece that points away from itself and toward another piece in the show, a large disc entitled Names, where I've written out in paint the names of acquaintances and friends and coworkers and old lovers; which in turn points to the 1970 Jon Anderson book of poems from which the title derives; which leads to Yves Klein's Yves Peintures and Haguenault Peintures. In some way, though the piece is drawing on all of these other sources, it can still be an empty space where someone can enter and think and look; and as you alluded to, approach the work with the sensibility of performing a close textual reading. I'd like the works to be simultaneously full and empty, to draw and to point, and ultimately, yes, to be generous
Summer projects....
wondering what is on your summer TO DO list? We started a home renovation project this spring that will hopefully be finished before the kids start back to school.
We opened up our back hall area and my husband built new cubbies for the kids - we desperately need help organizing all of our stuff...once the hall is done we are redoing the powder room off the hall so looking at new bathroom vanities, paint color, toilets etc... will keep me busy until the kids are off of school.
this is kind of the idea of our cubbies - will need to take pics when it is done
but, I would love to hear any tips for organizing our gear - soccer bags, school bags and ski race equipment and a 95lb dog!
wondering what is on your summer TO DO list? We started a home renovation project this spring that will hopefully be finished before the kids start back to school.
We opened up our back hall area and my husband built new cubbies for the kids - we desperately need help organizing all of our stuff...once the hall is done we are redoing the powder room off the hall so looking at new bathroom vanities, paint color, toilets etc... will keep me busy until the kids are off of school.
this is kind of the idea of our cubbies - will need to take pics when it is done
but, I would love to hear any tips for organizing our gear - soccer bags, school bags and ski race equipment and a 95lb dog!
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
show me the love!
I love my customers and am always tickled to see the photos they send me in their gock's frocks ... I'd like to share a few I recently received and encourage you to send me photos of your gock's frocks in action!
Hard to believe she just had a baby!!!
and isn't she scrumptious! I so miss that age!!! thanks again for sharing - keep them coming!
I love my customers and am always tickled to see the photos they send me in their gock's frocks ... I'd like to share a few I recently received and encourage you to send me photos of your gock's frocks in action!
Hard to believe she just had a baby!!!
and isn't she scrumptious! I so miss that age!!! thanks again for sharing - keep them coming!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Happy Birthday to my Grandfather...
if he were still alive we would be celebrating his 90th birthday!Hard ot believe he has been gone for 10 years!
My little man Leo played the trumpet in honor of his great grandfather whose father had played the coronet in John Philips Sousa's band during WWI ...
happy birthday gramps!
if he were still alive we would be celebrating his 90th birthday!Hard ot believe he has been gone for 10 years!
My little man Leo played the trumpet in honor of his great grandfather whose father had played the coronet in John Philips Sousa's band during WWI ...
happy birthday gramps!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Sharing some new designs....
I recently had the good luck of working with Carrie Daly of Daly Moments Photography in photographing some of my new spring designs....
she specializes in natural light photography (my favorite) and the weather in Michigan finally cooperated for her to get some great shots outdoors...
enjoy and pop over to etsy if you are interested in purchasing any of these!
I recently had the good luck of working with Carrie Daly of Daly Moments Photography in photographing some of my new spring designs....
she specializes in natural light photography (my favorite) and the weather in Michigan finally cooperated for her to get some great shots outdoors...
enjoy and pop over to etsy if you are interested in purchasing any of these!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Read All About it!
In honor of creative mothers our local paper ran an article on mothers day that featured 3 local creative moms and their kids and gock's frocks was one of the moms featured! The kids were thrilled to see themselves in the paper!
Here is an excerpt of my part of the story...
Finding time to engage in creative endeavors in the midst of diaper changes, soccer practices and carpools can be a constant challenge. But some local artists have found ways to nourish their creativity by building businesses around their talents.
“I’ve always loved creating,” says local children’s clothing designer Kristen Hallagan. “I needed an outlet for all I wanted to do.”
Kristen Hallagan’s grandmother taught her to sew when she was 8 years old.
The 41-year-old has had a passion for creating things since. When she was in college, she sewed hand-crafted hair holders and designed T-shirts for a Regatta team.
Yet she decided to become a teacher. When her third child was born, she chose to stay home with her children.
And she was still sewing. In 2003, Hallagan decided to sell some of her children’s clothing designs at the Rochester Public Market during the Christmas season. She initially called her business “Crazy Mama,” because “I (was) crazy for trying to do this with three young kids.”
She eventually renamed her business, Gock’s Frocks, in honor of her grandmother, Betty Gocker. She started selling on eBay and then Etsy. Her business was an “outlet” for her.
She’s always had the art of design, now she learned the art of pricing and marketing her children’s and women’s clothing.
She has gradually increased her output, and had outgrown the basement, spilling her colorful skirts and dresses into the children’s playroom. She now rents a studio in the Hungerford Building by the Public Market and works there while her children — Klem, 13, Eily, 10, and Leo, 8 — are in school.
“How do I do it and give it 100 percent and everything I want to do?” she would often ask of her art business. “That’s the challenge for any mom.”
But, as with any artist, “the creative part would have come out at some point — you can’t suppress it,” Hallagan says.
In honor of creative mothers our local paper ran an article on mothers day that featured 3 local creative moms and their kids and gock's frocks was one of the moms featured! The kids were thrilled to see themselves in the paper!
Here is an excerpt of my part of the story...
Finding time to engage in creative endeavors in the midst of diaper changes, soccer practices and carpools can be a constant challenge. But some local artists have found ways to nourish their creativity by building businesses around their talents.
“I’ve always loved creating,” says local children’s clothing designer Kristen Hallagan. “I needed an outlet for all I wanted to do.”
Kristen Hallagan’s grandmother taught her to sew when she was 8 years old.
The 41-year-old has had a passion for creating things since. When she was in college, she sewed hand-crafted hair holders and designed T-shirts for a Regatta team.
Yet she decided to become a teacher. When her third child was born, she chose to stay home with her children.
And she was still sewing. In 2003, Hallagan decided to sell some of her children’s clothing designs at the Rochester Public Market during the Christmas season. She initially called her business “Crazy Mama,” because “I (was) crazy for trying to do this with three young kids.”
She eventually renamed her business, Gock’s Frocks, in honor of her grandmother, Betty Gocker. She started selling on eBay and then Etsy. Her business was an “outlet” for her.
She’s always had the art of design, now she learned the art of pricing and marketing her children’s and women’s clothing.
She has gradually increased her output, and had outgrown the basement, spilling her colorful skirts and dresses into the children’s playroom. She now rents a studio in the Hungerford Building by the Public Market and works there while her children — Klem, 13, Eily, 10, and Leo, 8 — are in school.
“How do I do it and give it 100 percent and everything I want to do?” she would often ask of her art business. “That’s the challenge for any mom.”
But, as with any artist, “the creative part would have come out at some point — you can’t suppress it,” Hallagan says.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Yikes!!
I didn't realize I had become so lax in my blog posting - I am having too much fun at the studio and I have no internet down there that I have sufficiently neglected my updates.
I have been busy working on lots of new goodies - new skirts for women, a small collection for the girls and celebrating birthdays here at home. I have even managed to try out some new recipes that I will share with you later this week.
Today I would love to show off my new skirts for women - I love photographing at the studio - great light, simple background... these can be found in my etsy shop
sour cherry
Deb
chocolate breeze
spring berries
I didn't realize I had become so lax in my blog posting - I am having too much fun at the studio and I have no internet down there that I have sufficiently neglected my updates.
I have been busy working on lots of new goodies - new skirts for women, a small collection for the girls and celebrating birthdays here at home. I have even managed to try out some new recipes that I will share with you later this week.
Today I would love to show off my new skirts for women - I love photographing at the studio - great light, simple background... these can be found in my etsy shop
sour cherry
Deb
chocolate breeze
spring berries
Thursday, April 01, 2010
You're Invited....
to the grand opening of my new studio space! It is rather hard to believe that I have moved out of my cave in the basement into such a light airy space.
I have teamed up with a local jewelry designer to share almost 800sq ft in an old fruit factory....we patiently waited about 6 weeks for them to renovate the space
this was about 2 weeks into the renovation work
and we thought it looked pretty good then until we saw this....
now it is a bit more filled up but we are slowly making it our home away from home...
some of my favorite fabrics in embroidery hoops
prints I use at shows
my trusty machines
and maazing cutting table my dad helped me with! the baskets have felted wool sweater parts sorted by color and bolts of fabric waiting to be cut are in the lower cubes. It is all mounted on a solid wood base on heavy duty casters so I can move it around the studio. My dad is the best!
So...if you have made it this far and are still reading I am extending an invitation to stop by our open house tomorrow night from 5-9pm ... email me for more details!
to the grand opening of my new studio space! It is rather hard to believe that I have moved out of my cave in the basement into such a light airy space.
I have teamed up with a local jewelry designer to share almost 800sq ft in an old fruit factory....we patiently waited about 6 weeks for them to renovate the space
this was about 2 weeks into the renovation work
and we thought it looked pretty good then until we saw this....
now it is a bit more filled up but we are slowly making it our home away from home...
some of my favorite fabrics in embroidery hoops
prints I use at shows
my trusty machines
and maazing cutting table my dad helped me with! the baskets have felted wool sweater parts sorted by color and bolts of fabric waiting to be cut are in the lower cubes. It is all mounted on a solid wood base on heavy duty casters so I can move it around the studio. My dad is the best!
So...if you have made it this far and are still reading I am extending an invitation to stop by our open house tomorrow night from 5-9pm ... email me for more details!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
A budding fashion designer...
This morning, about 25 minutes before the bus was expected, Eily asked if I could make her a pink skirt to wear for school - you see, yesterday I managed to pull off a skirt and a pair of pants before the bus as we had no green to wear to school so now E thinks I am a miracle worker, speedy seamstress.
Not wanting to disappoint I sent her to get ready after she picked her fabrics...she also had definite ideas about the style - high waisted and poufy ... I made my yoga style waist and added elastic to the hem to give it the full look she wanted - the result, in my humble opinion was pretty cute!
I think I will offer these on etsy for the tween crowd...what do you think??
This morning, about 25 minutes before the bus was expected, Eily asked if I could make her a pink skirt to wear for school - you see, yesterday I managed to pull off a skirt and a pair of pants before the bus as we had no green to wear to school so now E thinks I am a miracle worker, speedy seamstress.
Not wanting to disappoint I sent her to get ready after she picked her fabrics...she also had definite ideas about the style - high waisted and poufy ... I made my yoga style waist and added elastic to the hem to give it the full look she wanted - the result, in my humble opinion was pretty cute!
I think I will offer these on etsy for the tween crowd...what do you think??
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Some Bunny Loves Me.....
for easter I am offering one of a kind felted wool bunnies made from recycled wool sweaters in my etsy shop
as well as a couple of new skirts made with Patty Young's Flora&Fauna collection that would brighten even the grayest easter Sunday!
for easter I am offering one of a kind felted wool bunnies made from recycled wool sweaters in my etsy shop
as well as a couple of new skirts made with Patty Young's Flora&Fauna collection that would brighten even the grayest easter Sunday!
Thursday, March 04, 2010
We have another winner!
Lentil Barley Burgers from Cooking Light
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 patties and 1/4 cup salsa)
Ingredients
* Salsa:
* 1/4 cup finely chopped pineapple
* 1/4 cup finely chopped mango
* 1/4 cup finely chopped tomatillo - I skipped this and the grape tomatoes
* 1/4 cup halved grape tomatoes
* 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
* 1 serrano chile, minced - I used a jalapeno
Burgers:
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1/2 cup dried lentils
* Cooking spray
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1/4 cup grated carrot
* 2 teaspoons minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
* 3/4 cup cooked pearl barley
* 1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
* 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
* 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
* 2 large egg whites
* 1 large egg
* 3 tablespoons canola oil, divided
Preparation
1. To prepare salsa, combine first 6 ingredients; cover and refrigerate.
2. To prepare burgers, combine 1 1/2 cups water and lentils in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until lentils are tender. Drain. Place half of lentils in a large bowl. Place remaining lentils in a food processor; process until smooth. Add processed lentils to whole lentils in bowl.
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and carrot; sauté 6 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add tomato paste, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add onion mixture to lentils. Add remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, barley, and next 5 ingredients (through egg); stir well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.
4. Divide mixture into 8 portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 4 patties; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil and 4 patties. Serve with salsa.
I made these almost bite sized - they would be a great hors d'oeurve with a bit of th esalsa sprinkled on top!
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
something new from the kitchen and on etsy....
thought I would share a yummy little soup idea using these tasty ingredients
tofu shirataki noodles
minute miso
fresh grated ginger and vegetables - I used carrots, oyster & shitake mushrooms and scallion
follow directions for making the miso, add the noodles, grate fresh ginger and sliced veggies - bring to a boil reduce heat and simmer ....
I also listed a new goodie in my etsy store
this is a custom order - pick your color and approximate size ... can be made in any quantity
thought I would share a yummy little soup idea using these tasty ingredients
tofu shirataki noodles
minute miso
fresh grated ginger and vegetables - I used carrots, oyster & shitake mushrooms and scallion
follow directions for making the miso, add the noodles, grate fresh ginger and sliced veggies - bring to a boil reduce heat and simmer ....
I also listed a new goodie in my etsy store
this is a custom order - pick your color and approximate size ... can be made in any quantity
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
I Hate Mornings....but I love these strangers
my latest treasury on etsy
click on the link above to go to the treasury and from there you can click through to each individual shop - but hurry - only lasts a couple of days!
my latest treasury on etsy
click on the link above to go to the treasury and from there you can click through to each individual shop - but hurry - only lasts a couple of days!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Chickpea Sliders and bulghur salad ... mmmmmm
A couple more Cooking Light recipes I test drove last week included delicious mini chickpea sliders and a lemony bulghur salad...any substitutions I tried are noted next to the original recipe
Chickpea Sliders...
Serve each burger on a whole-grain slider bun or we used mini pita bread with lettuce, crisp radish slices, roasted red bell pepper, and canola-based mayonnaise. Two burgers per person!
Yield: 3 servings (serving size: 2 patties)
Ingredients
* 1 (8-ounce) red potato
* 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed, drained, and divided
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley - I used OREGANO
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
* 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
Preparation
1. Place potato in a saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil; cook 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain. Cool slightly. Coarsely chop, and place in medium bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil and garlic to bowl; mash potato mixture with a potato masher until slightly chunky. Remove 3 tablespoons chickpeas; place in a small bowl. Add remaining chickpeas to potato mixture; mash until well blended. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons whole chickpeas, parsley, and remaining ingredients. With moistened hands, divide mixture into 6 equal portions (about 1/3 cup mixture per portion), shaping each into a 3-inch patty.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 patties to pan; reduce heat to medium, and cook 4 minutes or until bottoms are golden. Carefully turn patties over; cook 3 minutes or until bottoms are golden and patties are set. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon oil and 3 patties.
Bulgur with dried carnberries
Serve this lemony bulgur—an American interpretation of Middle Eastern tabbouleh—instead of the more familiar and expected stuffing.
Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
Ingredients
* 1 cup coarse-ground bulgur
* 2 cups (1/4-inch) cubed peeled English cucumber
* 1 cup dried cranberries
* 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion
* 1 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley - I used 1 large bunch - can't get enough fresh parsley!
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
* 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil - I used less than 1/4c
* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
1. Place bulgur in a large bowl; cover with 2 cups boiling water. Cover; let stand 30 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Add cucumber and remaining ingredients; toss gently to combine.
both were a huge hit!
A couple more Cooking Light recipes I test drove last week included delicious mini chickpea sliders and a lemony bulghur salad...any substitutions I tried are noted next to the original recipe
Chickpea Sliders...
Serve each burger on a whole-grain slider bun or we used mini pita bread with lettuce, crisp radish slices, roasted red bell pepper, and canola-based mayonnaise. Two burgers per person!
Yield: 3 servings (serving size: 2 patties)
Ingredients
* 1 (8-ounce) red potato
* 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed, drained, and divided
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley - I used OREGANO
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
* 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
Preparation
1. Place potato in a saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil; cook 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain. Cool slightly. Coarsely chop, and place in medium bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil and garlic to bowl; mash potato mixture with a potato masher until slightly chunky. Remove 3 tablespoons chickpeas; place in a small bowl. Add remaining chickpeas to potato mixture; mash until well blended. Stir in remaining 3 tablespoons whole chickpeas, parsley, and remaining ingredients. With moistened hands, divide mixture into 6 equal portions (about 1/3 cup mixture per portion), shaping each into a 3-inch patty.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 patties to pan; reduce heat to medium, and cook 4 minutes or until bottoms are golden. Carefully turn patties over; cook 3 minutes or until bottoms are golden and patties are set. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon oil and 3 patties.
Bulgur with dried carnberries
Serve this lemony bulgur—an American interpretation of Middle Eastern tabbouleh—instead of the more familiar and expected stuffing.
Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
Ingredients
* 1 cup coarse-ground bulgur
* 2 cups (1/4-inch) cubed peeled English cucumber
* 1 cup dried cranberries
* 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion
* 1 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley - I used 1 large bunch - can't get enough fresh parsley!
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
* 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil - I used less than 1/4c
* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
1. Place bulgur in a large bowl; cover with 2 cups boiling water. Cover; let stand 30 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Add cucumber and remaining ingredients; toss gently to combine.
both were a huge hit!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Fishy fun...
just listed some new recycled wool sweater softies! Fish Pillows!! made from wool sweaters and dupioni silk - one of a kind creations....add some color and cheer to your winter days.
Available at gock's frocks on etsy!
and a custom top for spring!
just listed some new recycled wool sweater softies! Fish Pillows!! made from wool sweaters and dupioni silk - one of a kind creations....add some color and cheer to your winter days.
Available at gock's frocks on etsy!
and a custom top for spring!
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