Thursday, October 29, 2009
Cakey cake.
This weekend our dear Nashville friends Aaron and Jenn came to see us as part of their 1 year anniversary trip. At their wedding last year, they had the most delicious pumpkin cake. Yum! So I made a mini one for them, and put it on my new mini cake plate!!
This was so moist and delicious!! I traded most of the vegetable oil for applesauce, and next time I think I'm going to use only applesauce. I also used less sugar than the recipe called for. My adjustments are written in this recipe:
PUMPKIN CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING (adapted from cooks.com)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2/3 c. applesauce (sugar free)
2 c. canned pumpkin (just a little more than 1 can)
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 of an 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 (1 lb.) box powdered sugar
A few splashes of skim milk
2 tsp. vanilla
Prepare Cream Cheese Icing. Combine icing ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, adding milk and powdered sugar until it's the right consistency. take about 1/2 cup of the icing and heat it in the microwave for 15 seconds. Spread this on the cake as a very thin crumb coat, and then chill in fridge or freezer until set. Spread remainder of frosting on cake!
Makes 10-12 servings.
I don't love cream cheese icing, so I used 1/2 the cream cheese, and also some milk to make it more like buttercream.
Now go get a large glass of milk and a fork. And some friends..because it would be easy to eat the entire thing if you didn't have witnesses!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
My love for Blurb continues
My honeymoon book is finally done, and you can see the whole thing online at fabulous Blurb!
I really love how it turned out. The cover is awesome, and I included my sketchbook pages and watercolor paintings from the trip.
Now for my plee: I know this is shameless begging. I don't ask much for all these pages of delightful drivel ... do I? But I NEED you to go vote for my book.
Blurb is running a competition for the best book, and after you see some of the others on their website, you'll agree (I hope) that I could be in the running for winning $3000!!! You can also go on there and see the whole book in preview mode. And like I said before, I think it's pretty great. The photos look dark, and I hope that it looks better in person.
So just go to this page and vote!! PLEASE! I just need to get voted into the top 15 books by website visitors, then the jury will take over and I won't have any control.
I love you guys! You love me too, right?...right? Uh, guys? Hello?
Just because I love you, here's another photo of Walter from the weekend.
He wants you to vote, too. Maybe if I will $3000 I won't make him wear this sweater anymore.
Friday, October 23, 2009
New arrival
I've been MIA this week because we got a new baby at our house!
Meet Walter. He's an 11 week old Boston Terrier, and let me tell you: he's both a scholar and a gentleman.
Now many of you who know me personally have heard me say that I'm not a dog person. And I'm really not. But we're working out our differences. He sits on my lap while I'm on the computer.
I'm still a little freaked out, just because I'm not used to having someone to watch out for, and I don't know what's okay or not. I am getting better, and he's getting used to his new surroundings also. He's not a barker or a biter, so that helps some of my anxiety. And the fact that he is so darn cute. I mean come on. It doesn't get much better than that.
Well, actually, check out this link to photos of Boston Terriers in halloween costumes. That might be cuter.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
What I Did Last Summer
This is the post where I admit that I can't do everything. I should have spent all the time in my class learning to do at least ONE decent mug, as opposed to thousands of crappy items. I had almost gotten the plate thing down at the end.
Considering how much time I spent obsessed with YouTube videos of pottery throwing this summer, you would think I might have learned at least how to make a decent mug. Maybe not.
This is a decent pitcher, but for the atrocious handle.
I'm afraid that my new brother-in-law will find this cake plate so hideous that he won't let my sister bring it into the house. Hey, when you're glazing, you just dip your precious pot in a bucket and pray for the best. Sort of like finding a boyfriend.
I actually kind of like this cake plate below. When we were carrying all the pieces out of the studio, Jason said "would you cry if I dropped all of these?" I said "If it comes down to your face, or that floweredy cake plate, you better save the plate. The rest I don't care about."
My attempt to be the fabulous Whitney Smith whose work I love but cannot afford.
And what the crap is this? I didn't even think it was worth glazing. Now I don't know what to do with it.
As for the pottery: super super fun, but I'm going to stick with what I do best...now if I can just find the post-it note where I wrote exactly what it is that I do best.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Carrie's latest print
Check out the latest woodcut Carrie put in the shop!!
On Tuesday night we did some creeping around a certain school that might have a large press. There were some really nice students working, and we didn't get in their way or anything, but we wanted to use that big press! It takes so long to do the printing of these by hand.
It all went fine, but Carrie thinks they look better when printed by hand. I think it's awesome no matter what.
Now I need to get to carving. We both really like the act of carving, then printing. I haven't really done much of it at all since the 2009 calendar last fall, and I got a lot better doing all 12 of those. I have a design all ready in the sketchbook. Maybe this weekend.
Home Sweet Home Print:
9x12 paper
8x10 print
Buy it here!
Labels: carrie, letterpress, printing, shop
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
HOT OFF THE PRESSES!!! FABRIC!!
Oh my gosh, you guys! I'm so super excited about this stuff. When I was opening it last night after a long rainy and cold day, I actually started jumping up and down. Holy crap this stuff is awesome!What is it, you might ask? It's bona fide 100% cotton quilting and upholstry weight fabric OF MY OWN DESIGNS. I took 2 of the drawings from our 2010 calendar and colored them in Photoshop, then sent them off to Spoonflower. Most genious idea ever, that Spoonflower.
Of all my skills, I think photoshop might be the most valuable. And my enormous arm reach (but that's more of a side effect of ginormousness than it is a talent). But seriously, I can do just about anything given Photoshop and a scanner. It's so much a part of my way of thinking that I sometimes fo to hit "command+z" in real life, only to find out that I'm not actually able to do that when not on the computer.I colored these puppies to my heart's content, and then fiddled with them to make sure they would tile correctly. For the garden one, it really hurt my brain, but I think I have the process down now.
I created a login on Spoonflower, ordered a yard or so of each, and 2.5 weeks later, there I have it!! Amazing! It's a little expensive---$18 for a quilting yard, $32 for an upholstery yard, but that's okay. It was totally worth it when I got my package and those bright, saturated hues showed up exactly like I had seen them on screen. There are all these tutorials about how the colors show up purple instead of blue--but in my case, they look totally fine!
Did I mention I'm super excited!?!?!
Labels: design, drawings, fabric, printing
Monday, October 12, 2009
My name in print...Beth Snyder 1canoe2 Columbia Missouri
Newsprint!
This weekend I was the featured artist in the Columbia Daily Tribune's Ovation section.
You can read the whole thing online here on their website.
Aarik Danielson did such a great job with the writing. I wish he had included my web address or etsy shop address, but what can you do? What's funny about it is that the article sounds exactly like the way our conversation went when he interviewed me. I was just rambling rambling rambling, and he took out the crazy parts and boiled it down to the good stuff, put it in order, and polished it up. Awesome.
And by the way, the web addresses are here:
Our 1canoe2 shop
My website
My bhstudio shop
Friday, October 09, 2009
Happy Fall
It's deadline week at work, and I've been printing like crazy at home. So instead of instructional posting, I'm just showing some photos that I'm pretty proud of.
Welcome to the Midwest. Where soybeans are NOT called edamame.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Oktoberfest Lederhosen Tutorial
It's been a long time since I've posted a tutorial here. In honor of Oktoberfest, a lederhosen tutorial! Well, the cheap and easy way to do it anyway.
You could rent costumes like my sister and her boyfriend...or just grab a long sleeve t-shirt and an iron!
Suppplies needed:
white t-shirt
1/8 yard of black cotton
1/8 yard fusible web
Iron
Sewing machine with a zig zag stitch
1/4 yard of German Awesomeness
Step 1: iron t-shirt and black fabric
Step 2: according to the package instructions, apply the fusible web to the black fabric only
Step 3: draw out 2 suspenders pieces. You may need to measure these on your model to fit properly. Draw out the shape for the yoke.
Step 4: cut out these shapes
Step 5: peel off backing, place black shapes on t-shirt and iron to securely fasten.
You could be done at this point if you don't have time for the sewing machine. We all know how lederhosen emergencies just can't wait some times! You could get a fabric pen or puff paint and draw on the black part.
Proceed if you have sewing potential:
Step 6: stitch around all pieces with a zig-zag stitch
Step 7: Put the feed dogs down on your sewing machine and move the fabric around to create a design or write your name.
Step 8: Use your German Awesomeness or borrow some to make this Oktoberfest the best!