Summer Shows

Just a couple of weekends ago, I got to have a fun day selling at my first summer show - and my first outdoor show. It was a real treat! It was a hot day, but under the tent it was nice and shady and there was a wonderful breeze. The crowds were friendly - it was a neighborhood festival in an area heavily populated by young, trendy folks, so people watching was one of the highlights of my day. The real highlight, though, was that the area's farmers' market was set up just across from my booth and they advertised their space with huge canvas carrots - how I wanted to steal one of those carrots, but I resisted!

My first summer show - in my favorite outfit, which, of course,
matches my shop colors.

You just don't know how hard it was not to take one of these carrots,
but I feel like I need to be a good role model for the baby. Though, when
it comes to carrots, I should get some latitude, right?

My Continuing Carrot Collection

I love this time of year: carrots galore in every store as the Easter decorations come out!!

I, of course, am adding to my carrot collection whenever I can and Michele and friends are lovingly enabling me.

These carrot chocolates are from Michele - they are
actually hazelnut and chocolate and are carrot umbrellas, which really
adds to their coolness. I have to say that they will not last long enough to
be added to the collection, but I LOVE them!

In addition to the carrot chocolates, Michele has recently given me other consumables, like carrot hair conditioner, bath wash, body butter, and carrot lip balm. I'm carrots head to toe, inside and out.

My friend Carole, an art teacher, found a stack of carrot-themed creations
from a long gone student as they were cleaning out cabinets at her school.
She gifted me these beauties! I hope that Nate is somewhere and I hope he's famous!

This makes me think of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Attack of the Killer Carrots!!
I should be scared, but am not at all.

Could this be more perfect for me?

I would love to ride a carrot train . . .

. . . to this carrot hotel.

And to cap off this phase of my collection, a gift from the lovely and talented painter and sculpter Randy Duncan, husband of the awesome and talented crochet artist Karen Duncan:

An Original Randy Duncan work of art! How I love this! There are no words!

My collection is growing by leaps and bounds and I feel so loved when friends remember this quirky obsession of mine and gift me carrot-y lovelies like these. I'm truly living the dream! :)

Gifts of Our Hands

Just the prettiest carrot wall pocket ever!!

Michele and I both gave one another a very special Christmas gift made from our hearts and our hands. Michele's gift to me was extra, extra special because she's never actually made me anything before. She worked with our very sweet friend and brilliant potter, Sabra, to make me a ceramic carrot - that's right, I said "ceramic carrot!!" It's so very gorgeous and wonderful and beautiful and perfect!! Plus, it adds to my collection - I didn't have a ceramic carrot yet! This gift touched my heart like none other could! It's actually a wall pocket, which could hold flowers, but I think that would detract from the carrot. I think I may make little beaded carrots to live in the pocket, but we'll see. I still need to find the very perfect place to hang it.

I cannot wait to have this on the wall, but I MUST find the
perfectest most perfect place!

Now, I make Michele gifts quite often - in fact, it's rare that I give her a gift that isn't handmade. But I am particularly proud of this one. It's a simple design - nine patch squares - but I designed the kitty myself. I call it Kitty on My Quilt since it's a good bet one of our three cats will be cuddling with Michele on this quilt at any given moment. And I accidentally made it a bit too big - in my head I thought lap quilt, but it's actually twin-sized, so it's "accidentally" big enough for two! 

Isn't that an adorable kitty?

Definitely big enough to share!



Michele's Birthday Weekend - Part Three: Garden Decor

Now, we did spend most of Michele's weekend relaxing, but we also opened a package we'd received from a delightful stained glass artist in Florida: Glass of Many Colors. I had commissioned this husband and wife team to make a set of four stained glass veggies for our square foot garden. Michele and I spent a fun-filled hour deciding where to put each of the four and then just admiring our handiwork. Aren't they gorgeous! We've decided we'd like six more: a beet, cherry tomatoes, a red pepper, a head of broccoli, an onion, and a yellow squash to join the current corn, green beans, carrot, and beefsteak tomato. When the sun hits these it's like you're in heaven! And, in addition to the beauty they add to the garden, the carrot is a welcome addition to my carrot-themed art collection: glass!

Carrot Dogs, They're What's for Dinner

On the evening of my birthday, we'd planned to have a barbecue, but Michele and I were so pooped we decided to follow out customary birthday tradition of dinner at Red Robin and a movie (we saw Date Night, which I highly recommend! SO funny!) Now, the most exciting part of the whole barbecue plan was that I was going to try my first carrot dog. Don't be disappointed. I didn't do a carrot dog barbecue for my birthday, but I did make one for myself last night and all I can say is YUM!!! They are really, really good! So good! I put mine on a grilled bun, topped it with grilled red onions, hand chopped relish from bread and butter pickles, and peppadew mustard, and paired it with roasted asparagus and homemade mac salad - quite the gourmet feast! You've really got to try it. Just steam a carrot, chill it, and then grill it and voilá! You have a yummy carrot dog!

A Creative Carrot-Centered Mission

As I mentioned in my last post I have a new mission. Either Mum, Deb, or Michele was brilliant and suggested this at the show. I happened to wander around to all the vendors looking at all their beautiful items and looking, without knowing I was looking, for carrots. By the end of the show, I'd harvested four beauties and one of the brilliant people named above suggested, "You should make it your mission to collect a carrot in EVERY medium!" And so that is my new goal. I thought I'd catalog the ones I have so far:

Photographic carrots: The Organic Carrot series by Chris Farnum - I actually bought the photo on the left at the food co-op, Deb gave us the photo in the middle, and I bought the photo on the right - the third in the series - from the artist herself at the show!

Felt carrots #1: Carroty Goodness family of carrot magnets by Happy Olive Designs - I commissioned these adorable magnets from my friend Sarah.

Felt carrot #2: Smilling carrot key chain by Beadwork by Amanda. This carrot I met and fell in love with at the show. Its purchase spurred the creation of the carrot below.

Needle-felted carrot: Impromptu Carrot by Peaches Products. When the lovely Casey saw how excited I was to find a carrot at her boothmate Amanda's booth she immediately reached for the fiber and started felting me a carrot. She promises to make me a forrest of them and I plan to hold her to that! The delivery of this carrot spurred the gifting of the carrot below.

Crocheted carrot: Impromptu gift carrot from Duncan Creative. When the divine Karen saw how excited I was when Casey delivered unto me my needle-felted carrot, she immediately gifted me this beautiful crocheted specimen.

Polymer clay carrot: You likely remember this gorgeous carrot crafted by Heavenly Creations (my big sis). Sometimes I just stare at it - it's such a beauty!

And now for ones that I did not buy/acquire from my favorite artisans: Ceramic carrots: I bought these during one of my mom's visits. We went to a little town with a little library and a little gift shop and found these adorable bunny/carrots (or barrots or carrunnies).

"Paper" carrot: this beauty was purchased on an anniversary trip to Skaneateles. Its made from a combination of raffia, wire, and papyrus and hangs from the ceiling in our kitchen. We (I) bought it in the morning and Michele wouldn't go back to the bed and breakfast, so I had to walk around with a three foot long carrot all day - I got some interesting looks! It was worth it, though!

Wooden carrot: This is my carrot surprise. I got this in Skaneateles, as well. I actually got two carrots and a parsnip. I decorated two small gift boxes and placed each carrot in its own box floating on a cloud of fiberfill. I haveone in my kitchen and one at work and whenever I feel down I give myself a smile by opening one - it works every time!

Rubber carrot: This handy kitchen carrot was a graduation gift from our friends Tina and Kathryn. They took us on a trip to Ithaca where we had amazing food at the Moosewood Restaurant and saw the gorges - the carrot vegetable peeler was the icing on the cake!

And now for a couple that I've made: Quilted carrots #1: Carrot Mat-a-tat-tat #1. This mat sits on my kitchen table and her sister mat, #2, graces my desk at work. So lovely. I made these from a pattern I found online, but I can't find the link. I will and I will let you know.

Quilted carrots #2: Heavenly Carrots. This quilt hangs in a place of honor in my dining room. I also made this from a pattern I found online - my very first paper piecing. I know the pattern was called Holy Carrots, but I can't find that one, either.

I've got a lot of media covered, but I can think of a few I'll be on the lookout for: painting, metalsmithed, knitted, rubber stamp (Oh, Jackbear!), glass, beadwork, hmmm, what else?

Carrot Creative

OK, well, I am clearly not the only one "crazy" about carrots. This video is awesome - it show a man making and then PLAYING (quite well) a carrot clarinet! TOO COOL! I think I may need to try this, too! This link was sent from one of my favorite coworkers, John, who has an awesome photography blog, A Second Look (though, sadly, I haven't seen any carrot photos on his blog. More's the pity!)


Also from John comes this link to Flute 'n' Veg. Oh, what I wouldn't do to be one of the Flute 'n' Veg musicians! I can play the violin, do you think I could make a carrot violin??

And, last, but not least, in case you missed it, I wanted to share Teresa's cleverness that she left in yesterday's post's comments:
"A museum devoted to carrots?! Are you sure YOU are not the proprietor or should I say "carrator" (as in curator)." LOL!! TOO funny!

Amd, on a completely unrelated note, voting started on my Etsy team's first monthly challenge. I'd love it if you'd head over to that blog and vote for your favorite entry!

Carrot Dogs - OH YEAH!!

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but I REALLY LIKE CARROTS. Well, today I was perusing my friend Carol's facebook page and she was saying one of the reasons she likes Rochester is "homemade Mac and Cheese Hot Dog with bacon, next to the Farmer's Market where you can also eat Carrot Dogs." Most of the text was just 1s and 0s to me once I saw "Carrot Dogs." I had to find out more, so I went to The World Carrot Museum, which has a page dedicated to Carrot Dogs on their site - which you should totally visit, it's SO interesting! I'm definitely trying these, so, anyone visiting me this summer for a cookout be forewarned: that's probably not a beef, pork, turkey, or tofu dog on your bun! (That wasn't at all meant to sound as dirty as it sounds!)

A Delightful, Carroty Surprise

Last week's craziness ended on a positive note. As I mentioned after installing the new water heater, we discovered the chimney was backed up with squirrel nests. Well, after a consultation with my doctor, she believes that most of the health issues I've had over the past year were likely due to chronic carbon monoxide poisoning. So, our flooded basement revealed a life-threatening problem. I told the doctor that as of Thursday I felt so much closer to my regular self - I'm sold that the problem was poor ventilation and am grateful that it was taken care of before it became a tragedy! (Michele suggested that the squirrels were trying to kill me so that they could have my garden all to themselves, but I won't follow the path of that conspiracy theory.)

Right on the tails of this hopeful report from my doctor came a package from my sister. She made me a carrot key keeper! Isn't it just the cutest?! It coordinates so well with my bag, but I think I may make myself a new one. A friend gave me a couple yards of carrot fabric that has been waiting for the perfect project. I think I just found it! Thanks, Kym!! 

Harvesting Carrots

This is a year of firsts for me. In addition to my first foray into online selling and my first craft show, I attempted gardening for the first time. Well, I think I've mentioned that carrots are hands down my very favorite food, so I made sure that there were plenty planted in the garden. Although I worried about the critters, I was trying to follow the advise in one of the gardening books Gloria sent and not harvest them until after the first frost, but before the first freeze, because it's supposed to make them sweeter. Well, on Monday, Michele locked the keys in the house and sent a friend to get me from work while she had another friend take her to Rita's work to get Rita's keys so that she could then get our spare key out of Rita's house.

Well, the first friend dropped me off about a half hour before Michele returned with the keys, so, not one to be idle, I decided to harvest my carrots. And, oh boy, what a lovely haul of carrots. Gloria and I planted short and sweets and at one point when putting down the seeds I accidentally dumped quite a few in one area and then forgot to thin them, so some were VERY short. I washed them off and popped a few of those little babies in my mouth and WOW! I've never tasted a carrot before that was as amazing as these! If carrots weren't my favorites before, they definitely are now! I have plans to try at least five varieties in the garden next year and CANNOT WAIT!!

And I just had to include this image. The minute I pulled this particular carrot out of the ground I thought it looked like a lady's bottom. I'm not sure this one will get eaten.

Carrot Crazed

I don't know that I have been overt about my obsession with carrots, but they are truly my favorite thing in the world. I love to eat them, I love to quilt them, I love everything about them. My friend Sarah of Happy Olive Designs, made me a carrot family felt magnet set that I display in my craft room. I firmly believe that carrot quilts work in any milieu, which explains the quilted carrots on my desk at work and kitchen table at home and the carrot wallhanging in my dining room. Plus, I have a 3 foot long wicker carrot hanging in my kitchen. Now that you understand my adoration of carrots, I want to bring the following serious issue to your attention. This was forwarded to me by Sarah and was created by Natalie Dee (who, by the way, has some awesome carrot t-shirts and totes on her site!).

nataliedee.com

Edited to add: I got featured in my very first Etsy Treasury. For those who don't know what that is, a treasury is a curated gallery that houses items chosen by other sellers. This particular treasury features quilted items that depict fall. My fall wallhanging was included! Please check it out, but don't delay, one other thing about these is that they expire. This one will be gone like the wind by Friday!