Decorating Discoveries

I finally came to a time in my life when I felt I needed to redecorate.  Gone were the days of having bright pink floral flannel sheets. Yes, we had those as children.

This is my cure-all trick: when you are not feeling quite of age in a world of grown-ups (cue the theme music to a quarter life crisis), change your sheets.  It's really as simple as that. Who knew new $19.99 sheets from IKEA would provide a new lease on life?

Well, that brought about a deep cleaning of my room and surrounding areas...therefore, I began discovering some treasures. I thought I would share one with you.  In an almost empty journal, I flipped open to a page with some multicolored pen scribbles and was reminded of a lovely evening from when I was working at J.Crew:

"There is so much to be gained from children.  Today my lesson came in the form of a young girl, no older than 5 years of age.  She was running errands with her mother in large snow-boots, an ill-fitting red velour jumpsuit, and a bright white Easter hat; but most importantly, her outfit was completed with the most unwavering air of confidence.  As her mom was finishing up at the register, she turned to go and called out to the young girl, 'Come on, beautiful girl,' and without hesitation, she offered one last glance my way and clobbered out, twirling her Easter hat in hand.
Reflecting on this somewhat insignificant event, I was reminded that in His own way, our Heavenly Father calls to us, 'Come on, beautiful girl.' "

So, on this lovely snow-covered day, let us be reminded how He has covered our sins white as snow!
Cheers,
Alissa

Stone Lithography

After doing my post on "A Day in the Life," I thought it would be fun to show the behind the scenes of a project I did for my sisters--printmaking through stone lithography.

I claim to be no expert and this was my first (read, trial and error and error and error) go at it.  It is a very demanding process but fun and proved to be a good workout.

First, we select a stone and bring it into the graining room...

 

This is a process by which you physically remove any and all grease deposits in the stone that resulted from previous drawing.  The stone must be coarsely grained and then slowly polished with finer and finer grits until it has a smooth but toothed surface.  You must take care to clean hands, stone, levigator, and surrounding surfaces when changing grits to prevent from unwanted scratches on your stone.

This is my stone...wet with grit sprinkled on it ready to swirl (the very heavy) levigator in order to slowly remove grease and level the stone.

After graining FOR HOURS, you begin to take joy in the little beauties...such as this pretty swirl.  As I said, this is a workout.

Now if only I had remembered to bring a protein smoothie....I might as well be getting swole when doing this, right?

Next, drawing a rough sketch of your design. I selected to do a design combining my sisters' love for string instruments and a phrase from one of my favorite songs...

So, I grabbed my sister's viola and started sketching....


Then, I drew my design (quite dark because I needed to see it through the back of the paper) on a large sheet of paper to be transferred onto the stone.  The transfer will appear backwards on the stone as we want it to PRINT readable.

Now begins the drawing with grease crayons. I purchased my crayons from the U of M bookstore and clearly they had been collecting dust for a while...with continuous small breaks and clumping, I was not very pleased with the quality of the crayons.  If I had had more time, I would have loved to replace them and begin again but that would have meant more graining...and we all know how most would feel about that.

The boarder around the design was created with straight Gum Arabic in order to have a place to rest my arm when drawing.  As the stone produces any image created from grease, that means if I were to smudge my hand across the surface, I could accidentally create a smudge of hand grease that would end up printing on my image.  This is a pretty finicky process and but can produce beautiful results when handled with care.

Then we covered the image with rosin, a cinnamon-looking powder. I believe this was to soak up any extra grease not attached to the stone.


Then cover with talc.  One thing for sure, this process is not speedy. There seemed to be a million steps and I certainly cannot explain why each was necessary...I just figured why not, eh?

Next comes the fun part...or daunting part! Mixing nitric acid with the gum arabic to create an etch of the drawing in the stone. Each part of the drawing (that you wanted to be darker, lighter, medium) needed to have a specific etch (mixture of nitric acid and gum) created...we were given a rough table of how many drops of acid to add to achieve which strength of etch.

Then cover the whole stone with the lighted etch and buff that into the stone with a cheese cloth and let stone sit for 90 minutes, at the least.  Have I mentioned this was a lengthy process? And we haven't even gotten to the printing? Uffda.

Once the stone has had its alone time, we are finally ready to roll up! This step of the process if for removing the drawing materials and preparing it for printing. First, wash out drawing with lithotine. Then, rub stone with asphaultum printing base (a thin tar-based liquid which will help your stone take the ink).

By this step, I am fairly convinced all printmakers are actually chemists.  Our goal after covering the stone with these scary-sounding liquids is to reveal a ghost image...that is to say, an image of your design without any color--only open areas of the stone for the ink to settle into.
 
Then we can roll the stone with our normal sponge/ink process...that, my friend, is a process in itself and therefore I'm just going to convince myself as though you know alllllll about it already.

Once the stone is full, dry the stone with a leather fan (aka a wooden rod with a piece of leather attached at the top...) Now start swirling--round and round.  Just in case you were losing those arm muscles.

And THEN, etch your stone AGAIN. Yes, I said again. As in, begin from step one with the rosin, talc, gum....and waiting 90 minutes...

Can you believe I made it out of this class alive?! Well, the process was well worth it! After letting the stone sit for 90 minutes, then I rolled the stone up and began printing.  I printed two a bit lighter because I wanted to personalize them for my sisters as a gift.

Below is the heavier printed edition...I'm thinking of still adding color to these but it will probably turn out a bit more faint of color than the lighter printed variable edition.


I had completed these editions in late spring and was secretly waiting until Christmas to present them to my sisters.  If you know about me and gift-giving, you know I don't like having to wait.  I want to shower you with gifts as soon as I make the gift or purchase it.  Needless to say, keeping this a secret may have been my greatest accomplishment with this project.

I have never really watercolored but decided to give it a whirl for this project. I thought the delicate addition of color would be prefect to not take away from the original print.


Finally, the print was completed!! On the left is the watercolor/print edition finished and on the right is the lighter print before the water color. I am kicking myself for not getting a better photo of the print a bit closer...but at least not both prints are being sent to Canada.  I guess I'll have to visit sissy in St.Paul for a quick snap.
Hope you enjoyed this lengthy post! It was a fun process to learn but ever so thankful that alternatives to lithography were formed...I think I'll be sticking to photo-litho from now on.

Wishing you all the best in the (fast-passing) NEW YEAR!

Cheers,
Alissa

An Orange Twist on a Classic

With Christmas comes the pleasures of calorie-free cookies and sweets...or so we like to think. But my favorite is the traditional Scandinavian treat of krumkake.  It it a delightful cone-shaped cookie that boasts of a light cardamom flavor that never gets old...even your fifth cookie in.  This year I wanted to gift some cookies so I thought I would try a new recipe with orange zest and dipped in dark chocolate!

If only I could post what these smelled like while baking...

To think my grandma would always grind her own cardamom seeds...it was quite the work out to get the seeds to be a fine grind but the smells were already intoxicating the kitchen.

Seems simple enough, right?

Creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs...

Then combining the flour, cardamom, cloves, orange peel...

Throwing them all together with the milk...

Just a small dollop on the beautifully decorated waffle-like iron press...

And after about 1 minute...

You have some beautifully golden brown disks!

Now, to be rolled around the wooden cone while still hot...

Then, off to melt some chocolate.

They say a watched pot never boils.  Well, the same goes for melting chocolate.

It didn't seem runny enough and the chocolate ended up being seized, or in layman's terms, utterly useless.  Onto a fresh batch of chocolate melting...

Now we are cookin' (sometimes, I cannot be helped).

After cooking, rolling, and dipping over 60 cookies, we are done with the batch and ready to pack them up! But first, I think I may have to taste one...you know, just to be sure.

Success. And now off to the party!

On a chilly Christmas evening, there is nothing better than gathering with friends and celebrating this wonderful season! It was a perfect night of singing carols around the piano and mingling with friends old and new. "For unto us a child is born..." so let us make a joyful noise!

Uffda. Not the best light at the Minnapolis Club but those gorgeous hardwood floors make up for it, right?

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Cheers,

Alissa

Drive-by Delight

Sometimes you find yourself driving through the city, hankering for a little bite to eat, and suddenly stumble upon someplace wonderful.  That happened tonight.

Mom and I were looking for a place to stop and saw a clump of patrons leaving the Lynn on Bryant and asked how it was...they said it was a place we shouldn't pass up! In that case, let's get in there!  The attention to detail in this place was beautiful and after speaking with the owner/chef, they put the greatest care into creating the perfect ambiance.

A window into the small kitchen to watch your dish be made. And if you can't clearly see, the walls were painted a fire-engine red with wood planks atop so the red could peak through. Added just enough color without overwhelming the dining area.

The table and menu remained simple but pleasant with a number of terribly tempting options. Their design is to create plates that bring their patrons closer to the farmers, meaning, they source their food locally. Quite the trend in restaurants these days.  Minneapolitans love their local food...about as much as those in the Pacific Northwest.  If you have seen Portlandia, you ought to be chuckling to yourself.

The food was tasty.  We had a few suggestions for the chef (along the lines of dense grass-fed beef...he took them gratefully) but with exceptional atmosphere and service, we knew we would be back to try different plates from the menu.

To add light in the dim, back dinning room, the owner/chef of Lynn on Bryant had an artist create this lit wall.  Instead of adding more light fixtures, they stayed within their design concept to keep a continuous atmosphere throughout the whole place. The more costly Edison bulbs were also a beautiful touch. By mixing different shapes of bulbs throughout the restaurant, they kept a whimsical feel throughout.

And the finishing touch? A wall of hooks made from tree branches.  That's when you know you're in Minnesota.  Well, that, or a wind curtain made of velvet....but that's a story for another day.

Cheers,

Alissa

Bombshell Bachelorette in a Bottle

...Errr, in a mason jar.  I just couldn't resist the alluring alliteration. See? I can't stop.

'Tis the time in life when wedding bells are ringing and it seems like everybody you know is engaged, marrying, and having babies! Therefore, there is a fair amount of parties, showers, and endless events that you need to buy gifts for...and doing so on a budget? It can be tricky! Enter the thoughtful, homemade gifts.

I was invited to my friend's bachelorette/bridal shower where we had to gift a negligee item that expressed our personality and she would in turn guess who the gift-giver was.  What a fun idea!  But describing myself through underwear? A bit more difficult than I was anticipating. So here's what I came up with:

A "bombshell kit" with some sassy panties and bralette with some glam red nail polish and lipstick! When packaged like those recipes in a jar, it was a combo sure to please!  A big CONGRATS to my friend Bridget as we await the happy day!!

Cheers,

Alissa

Side note, I am wearing a men's Lululemon top and y'all may want to consider investing in one because it feels like a cloud.  And polka dots? Yes, please.

The Illustrious

We have now all heard of the cro-nut, right? Or dough-ssant? Whatever take on the mystical bakery item, I decided I need to run a taste test. Gluten and all.

This little item is from Angel Food Bakery in downtown Minneapolis. It is aptly named as it is right above the well-known Hell's Kitchen and boasts of the tastiest treats around.

We were doing an install for a wedding at Hell's Kitchen (yes, it was quite interesting to say the least) so what better way to get sidetracked than to stop for a quick indulgence. We popped in to grab this doughnut/croissant combo only to find out they were long sold out...and generally are sold out by 10 am at the latest.  Whoa. Talk about hot crossed buns.

We would be returning the next day to remove our installation and thought second time's the charm.  Arriving at the crack of dawn was the way to go; however, they limit the quantity to two per customer! As part of our well-rounded breakfast of coffee and carbs (ugh, I groan just thinking of it....), it was a fun treat to try!  Will I be returning again?

I will say Angel Food does in fact have some wonderful products to boast about...this unfortunately wasn't wholly worth the hassle. The French Meadow Bakery version at the Great Minnesota Get-Together?! That is another story.  But then again, everything is better at the State Fair. 

Until next time, folks.  And I promise I don't really eat gluten every day....I just happen to blog about every time I do. Oops!

Cheers,

Alissa

Sunday in the Park

You're singing the classic rock hit by Chicago right now, aren't you? I knew it.  That's what today felt like.  All the makings of a classic hit.  It was a perfect day in more ways than one:

Minnesota summers cannot be beat, the tastiest of gluten-free banana-nut waffles, and strolling around parks marveling at the outstanding beauty of God's creation.  And all this shared with one of my sweet sisters?!  All that would've made it better is if I had both sisters here. Next time, Jen!

As if French Meadow didn't serve up the greatest of dishes, add to it the perfect outdoor seating.  As it is necessary to soak this beautiful weather up in Minnesota...this will always be one of my number one ways of doing so: patio seating.  Hurrah.

Hi, my name is Alissa and I love mushrooms.  My family can attest to as much and I was delighted to find the perfect mushy clinging to a log.

Lake life and parks are a must in Minnesota and therefore the Bird Sanctuary next to the beautiful Rose Garden and Lake Harriet is a winning combination. It is great to go for a quick nature walk right in the middle of the city! Then take a spin through the Tranquil Peace Garden...

A neat sculpture in the middle of the garden had every stage of how to fold an origami paper crane.

Until the next lush adventure,

Cheers,

Alissa