Category Archives: Thistle Dew Mercantile

This Week…

Posted on by

1

Haven’t had much time to write, but have been keeping my hands busy lately!

So, just a few photos from this week…

FramesIt began with frames and yellow paint…

GrainingAnd then some brown paint…

MoreFramesAnd then some more frame parts took over the dining room…

(And laundry too…
…a basket of folded clothes decided to make an online appearance!)

Details

And there were LOTS of little details!

photo

We even got to spend a few hours holding little hands!

:-)

And there was sustenance in the form of Raisin Bran Muffins…

DSC_0016

I am always amazed when making this recipe
that was a staple of Hubby’s Mom’s kitchen…

DSC_0012

The bowl is filled to the brim with the initial ingredients…

Muffins

…and then you’re supposed to stir in a box of of Raisin Bran cereal!

DSC_0016

And somehow it fits!

DSC_0018And there are plenty to share… The batter can keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks!

(Great to have on hand for Instant Hospitality!)

It’s amazing what can be accomplished with a pot of coffee on the back burner
and a stash of fresh, yummy Raisin Bran Muffins!

Grammy’s Raisin Bran Muffin Recipe…
(Originally from Kellogg’s, I think!)

Mix together 1 cup oil, 4 eggs, & 3 cups sugar in your largest bowl.
In a medium bowl, sift together 5 cups of flour & 2 tsp. baking soda.
Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, alternating with 1 quart buttermilk.
(You will need the entire quart!)
Once the buttermilk, oil mixture, and dry ingredients are well mixed,
Stir in 15 oz. Raisin Bran cereal.

Bake muffins @400° for around 15-20 minutes.
(They should be golden brown, and not smooshy on top.)

Keep extra batter in fridge for up to 6 weeks…
…but I’ll bet it won’t last that long, they’re so yummy!

:-)

You can play around with this recipe…

Mix up your flours… white, whole wheat, spelt, oat?

Use brown sugar?

Add in some nuts or seeds?

Also… I never seem to have the correct size Raisin Bran box, so I look at the serving
size on the side and do a bit of math to figure out how many cups are needed.
This store-brand cereal ended up being 7 ½ cups for 15 oz.

I usually use between 7 & 8 cups.

Branching Out…

Posted on by

0

In the midst of a long-distance Mother-Daughter phone conversation, somewhere mingled with Design Ideas, Mommy Advice, Airplane Tickets, Business Brainstorming, Children’s Drawings, and Plans-for-When-We-Next-Get-Together, my oldest daughter Jordan and I came up with a Brilliant Plan. While we were talking about the possibilities for developing a single design, the idea of a Grand Collaboration popped into both our heads at just about the same instance! And so did a quote that we both liked…

Home is Where You Are

It’s been nearly four years since Jo’s family has been back on the East Coast, and a good part of our conversation was about  Jo, her Hubby Luke, and her boys Jack and Derik traveling back home to Delaware for a couple of weeks in the late Spring. We’d both been searching online for airline tickets, and let me tell you, the price of airline tickets for four people to go across the country is nothing to sneeze at… As a matter of fact, it could make one swoon and fall over in shock.  But, where there’s a will, there’s a way!

We gals had an Idea…
…Take that single quote about “Home,”
create some Art around it,
and get those designs on the website, post haste!

Home is Where You Are

Jordan was feeling rather artsy that day, and jumped in feet first,
and got the ball rolling by coming up with
a beautiful sketch in her loose, happy style...

HomeIsWhereYouAre

Her Mama, on the other hand, was a tad bit slower, and took a couple days
to produce a matching papercutting in her somewhat-tight, in-the-box style…

WherYouAreCut

And then we set to work to produce a sweet line of prints and cuts that we’ll be
selling on our Etsy shops and websites to help play for those tickets!

WhereYouAreLine

Click Here to Purchase on our Website!

Or Click Here to Purchase on Etsy!

And don’t forget to stop by THIS POST and leave a comment to enter my current Giveaway!

Adding a Little Value…

Posted on by

0

My Mom, my brother, and I had an impromptu thrifting adventure last week… They were in a second hand shop about ten minutes from home, and saw some things they thought I might like and called me to come check them out. So I did… Not quite what I needed, but we hopscotched down the highway to several other shops, and at the last shop I found something I wasn’t expecting to find, but definitely something I could use in the art room…

GoodDeal

Sitting on an overflowing shelf were three “shapes,” a sphere, a pyramid, and a cube. Just what everyone needs, right? Well, immediately I knew what to do with them… They would be perfect hands-on thing-a-ma-jigs for art classes to help students learn to draw three-dimensional shapes. I’ve been wanting to buy a set for quite a while, but hadn’t gotten around to it, and here was a small set of three, for only $4! I didn’t know how heavy they were until we picked them up to carry them to the counter. Once I brought them home, I realized their intended purpose. The cube had the original tag from (insert famous brand store name) that said “Set of three paperweights… $58” Well! As you can see, we soon put them to their proper use while cutting backing paper for frames! Though I would have never paid $58 for three paperweights, it sure did feel good to know their value.

“Value” means “how much,” and in most cases we think about money or worth when we hear it. Value is also an element or building block of art and design. The last two weeks, we’ve been experimenting with Value in art class… the amount of lightness or darkness an object has. We discovered that extreme darks or heavy shadows can allow the light areas of a work of art to become focal points. And we played with making tints and shades by adding white or black to paint to create some interesting contrasts…

Value

To add a bit more “Value” or “worth” to my Home is Where the Heart Is design, I played around with it by fancy-ing up the border. My favorite papercut border is a bit lacy or icy-looking, but it adds several hours to the cutting process, so I usually reserve it for “one-of-a-kind” paper cuts. But… if my new “assistant” can help with the snipping, I could add that border to the design! Sooo… I re-cut it!

Cut

What little things do you do to add value to your daily work?

FancyEdge

If you missed my last post… There’s a Giveaway to sign up for…
Pop over and leave a comment!

Expanding a Design…

Posted on by

10

We’ve been filling quite a few special orders around here, and it’s been difficult for me to switch gears and get some new designs “up and going.” I find it hard to strike a balance between producing old designs and playing around with new ones… Either the former or the latter takes over, and something always falls between the cracks. However, the idea of “Home” has been consistently coming to the front of my foggy brain, and a new design has recently emerged…

WhereHeartIsDigicut

I’ve been wanting to try cutting something larger with my brand new Silhouette Cameo, and this is the first cutting of this design that came “off the press,” so to speak! When I learned about the Cameo, I had mixed feelings. Something similar to how the lacemakers, weavers, and spinners must have felt when the Industrial Revolution hit and factories began making in a few moments what took them hours, or even days to create. Watching that amazing machine cut away at paper had me and my entire family standing there in awe… And in my mind I was thinking “I’ve just been downsized!”

But then I tried to look at the other side of the coin.

I’ve been cutting paper for almost a quarter of a century. Every day. I love it, but must admit that I often fuss about how my eyes hurt now when I push them beyond their daily limit, and  grumble about a sore arm and neck when I’ve been doing lots of papercutting. Maybe it WAS time to take on an assistant. So, during the rest of March, I’m going to play around with this design, exploring the many ways that it can be expanded into products… and hopefully make the best use of technology in the process. Stay tuned!

And… A Giveaway!

The above electronically-cut papercutting
Home is Where the Heart Is
(Mounted on Lime card stock, Fits an 8″ x 10″ frame)
will be given away at the end of this month!

Leave a comment on this post to enter…

…You can include ideas for ways to expand this design if you’d like…

… And we’ll have a drawing on March 31st to determine the winner!

How do I love thee?

Posted on by

6

Are you getting geared up for Valentine’s Day?

Forever

I didn’t realize it, but over the past year I’ve been decorating our new
hand-me-down bedroom with some really sweet memories!

Tasha

I didn’t want to “over do” the decorating,
or just quickly fill the room with a lot of “things,”
but as special little treasures caught my heart
I tucked them in our room, sort of here and there…

Bear

Some have a REALLY special place in my heart,
like this tiny little painted rock…

Rock

…which I got for my 12th birthday…

…from Guess Who?

:-)

KimChrisKiss

Sometimes a little trinket like my rock will be
tucked away in a box or drawer for many years.

Or maybe a special card will be saved…

LoveCloseUp

We just added a few new designs to our shop…

BeMinePackage

…Just in case you haven’t found the perfect card yet for your Valentine!

Count

Bear with us…

Posted on by

0

Hey Folks!

I made the crazy decision this week to switch our main website
from WordPress.com to WordPress.org…

 …and somehow managed to do it with only two tech support calls!

But now the pages aren’t working, so I may need to make one more call.

Unless it’s just because today is the “switcheroo day”
and the dust hasn’t quite settled down yet.

That’s what I’m hoping.

E-mail might be a bit weird for a day or so also.

If anyone needs to contact me, you can do so at…

thistledewmercantile (at) gmail.com

:-P

A Place for Everything…

Posted on by

2

A place for everything,
And everything in its place.

That is one of my life goals.

Obviously, I still have some work to do.

After a busy Fall season, my desk is a mess…

MessyDesk

And our Work Table is even worse…

MessyTable

I usually do NOT show “Before” pictures, but thought you might
like to know that being an artist is not all Glitz and Glam.

Though… if you look really close, you’ll see there actually is quite a
bit of “glitz” on the table, stuck to things it’s not supposed to be stuck to.

It’s even stuck to me…. My nose, forehead, hands, shoes, etc.

:-D

Creativity is not necessarily tidy.

BUT… I do like order, when I can manage to achieve it! I’m still working to find the perfect place for everything, and having a spot to put things away helps when the clean-up process begins. You can make a huge dent in a big mess when there’s an easy-to-use organizational system. I keep looking for really cute, vintage-y ways to organize in the art room. Drawers are my favorite, since all you have to do is open them up and drop things into them…

FramingSupplies

WaxPaper

LittleDrawers

Jars are a favorite too…
These get shuffled around quite a bit, as I grab a jar of color!

Watercolor pencils on the top shelf,
Prismacolors on the bottom.

MyRainbow

The green bread box below is filled with small tools.
Patterns in the red “Martha” binders.

There’s even a small jar in the hutch filled with kitty whiskers.

I thought they might come in handy some day.

You never know.

PencilsTools

And every studio needs some “Flat Storage.”
This old fridge comes in handy to keep larger items safe.

FlatStorage

And smaller papers have a place to be as well…

PaperStorage

Now, if I could just learn to “clean as I go” when working on art!

“After” pictures coming another day…

Monday, Monday…

Posted on by

2

Mondays.

Most people hate ‘em.

I actually like Mondays quite a bit. They’re like a brand new start… a clean sheet of drawing paper… a new new notebook and freshly sharpened pencil. I usually have a bazillion things to do Monday mornings, and today was no different. It’s almost lunchtime, and my morning has consisted of sending off a note to a friend, sorting and washing laundry, vacuuming a poor neglected floor, and shuffling piles of stuff. But it’s all good, and really nice to see  some tangible results.

I was able to tidy up my computer desktop a bit as well, by listing a couple of new things in our Etsy Shop… a couple of silhouetted inspired by my favorite place, which just happens to be Colonial Williamsburg. My parents started taking me there since I was about 8 years-old, Hubby and I honeymooned there, we took oodles of family trips there, and even celebrated our 25th anniversary there! I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve walked up and down Duke of Gloucester Street.

I’ve toured the houses and museums there. Shopped in colonial shops. Watched plays, gone to concerts, and interacted with historical interpretors. We even got to dance once in the Capitol! But my favorite place to go is behind the fences.

Behind the fences are the gardens. And about midway down “Duke” is the garden market, a working garden where you can wander and touch and smell flowers, herbs, and heirloom plants. A gardener is on duty that can tell you all about 18th century gardening methods, and how to care for the plants they sell. Sometimes he’ll even put your kids to work watering or weeding. We bought our Pomegranate Tree there. And one year, both our Moms got Strawberry Trees for Mother’s Day. Every single time I go to Williamsburg, about half my photos end up being taken in that small, colonial garden. I just plain love it .

The Etsy silhouettes were inspired by that garden… and also by Mondays, which sounds like a rather odd combination. But, on Mondays, I sort of feel like this Jenny Wren, taking a good, hard look at the house and thinking about what needs to be done to put it in order.

And then I need to get to work moving things around.

A few things…

Posted on by

0

Hubby and I have had a quite productive… and quite quiet… day! We got some stray frames painted, and framed a bunch of stuff that was lying on our work table. (Chris is still framing as I type. He’s a really good sport about it, but I’ve probably mentioned that before.) And I finished the painting details on a few special orders.

It feels good to get a few things done.

We even got to the bottom of the pile of
dishes we’ve been battling all week.

Other than those odds and ends, I’ve managed to keep
adding a few things each day to our Etsy Shop.

Thought you might like a sneak preview.

Oh! And I forgot to mention…

We are privileged once again to swap this…

 for this!

Shuffling Stuff…

Posted on by

0

Seems like we’ve been shuffling quite a bit of stuff around here lately! Art supplies and picture frames. Summer clothes and Winter clothes. Suitcases and purses. College texts and library books. Weeds and sweet potato slips. And as soon as possible, I’m hoping to shuffle some furniture. Including two pianos. That will definitely make the blog.

Being quite an expert Stuff Shuffler, last night
I started The Great Blog and Website Makeover.

It was time.

It was overdue.

I had been tired of the dark, primitive look of our website and blog, and wanted to freshen things up a bit. I’d been chatting with my girls for a few months about this idea, trying to brainstorm ideas for a new look. My papercuttings and silhouettes definitely lean to the “historic” side, but I really like bright happy colors. Kate and I have been watching Etsy Success videos. Jordan and I got to skim through some magazines and play with paint chips during our trip out West. Both girls suggested I make a mood board or collage of favorite colors and images. I started that, but I think it was more in my head than on paper. I wanted to incorporate…

White space

Antique images

Lime Green

Old Time Fonts

Simplicity

Etsy

And… many hours later… I think it’s just about there.

Please excuse the dust as I shuffle lots of pictures around. One main decision we made was to move the shop over to Etsy. I’ve had a really hard time keeping up with oodles of special orders, as well as all the pages on my shop, and adding things to Etsy too. So, I figured having everything in one spot would help simplify life. We’re trying to fill up our Gallery on Tumblr with old designs, and will take orders if life is not too crazy at the time, but our goal is to have a shop with things ready to ship. So there’s still lots of picture taking and uploading  to do, but at least the main reorganization is done!

Have fun exploring…
And let me know if you find any broken links!