First Friday- I'm IN!

I love First Fridays in Portland, Maine! They are a great night where everyone comes out, visits and enjoys the art scene. I am participating this month in a group show at Corduroy, where I have two large prints and two gouache paintings. Above is the flyer, click on it to read it more clearly. Hope to see you there!

Tis the Season for... PIES! (A repost)

I decided to repost this from last Thanksgiving- to offer our family pie recipe! Enjoy!

My Mother is the queen of pie making hence why at every birthday and at our wedding reception I asked for Pies please!

With her recipe you will be making delicious pies too! The recipes are SOO easy!

HERE GOES!

Pie crust:

1 crust- ie just a bottom crust for a pumpkin pie

1 and a 1/3 cup of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

3 Table spoons of cold milk

1/3 cup of Wesson oil/ veg oil

1/4 cup of sugar

2 crusts- ie top and bottom- for an apple pie

2 Cups of flour

1 tsp of salt

1/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1/4 cup of sugar

HOW TO!

Measure out your oil in a measuring cup then add the milk to the measuring cup- DO NOT STIR

In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients- the flour and salt. ADD the liquid to the flour mixture and mix with a fork. Here comes the improvisation- if the mixture is too dry and not sticking together then add a touch a milk until it begins to look like dough. Sometimes you will need to do this and other times you wont! Its part of cooking!

Then wet the counter and lay one layer of wax paper down (the dampness allows the paper to stick and not move).

Then put your dough on the paper and layer another piece of wax paper over top. Then roll it out with your rolling pin. Be sure to change directions to get an even circle and not an oval!

Then take the top piece of paper off and scoop your hand underneath the paper with the dough on it and flip it over into the pie pan and remove the wax paper.

If you are baking just one pie crust for a pie whose contents you don't have to bake- ie a French silk chocolate pie- then you will stab holes in the crust with a fork- to avoid any air bubbles being created btwn the dough and the pan. You will cook it at 500 for 5-7 mins.

APPLE PIE recipe- (what to put between your pie crust!)

NOTE when making an apple pie you will prep the apples before making the crust- because since this is an easy pie crust recipe it doesn't keep like the standard old fashion crusts do- and you will need to cook this one right away.

Peel and core 6-8 apples

Put them in a bowl and squeeze a lemon over them to prevent them from browning.

In a separate bowl mix sugar 1/4- 1/3 cup of brown sugar and the same of white sugar. 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a 1/4 tsp of nutmeg and a pinch of salt AND mix!

ASSEMBLE the crust and place the bottom crust in the pan and then layer the apples into the crust.

After the first layer of apples- you will sprinkle on a layer of the sugar mixture. You will repeat the altering layers until you have reached the edge of the pie crust. I usually over layer because the apples cook down a bit and you want your pie to have some apples in it!

The last layer will be the sugar layer.

Then cut 2 Table spoons of butter and put it on top of the apples.

Put the top crust on and pinch around the edges of the crust- sealing the two crusts together.

Cut 4 holes in the top crust as a vent to let the pie breath when being cooked. THEN sprinkle a little bit of white sugar on the top of the crust.

COOK!

Preheat the oven at 425- you will cook the pie at this temp for 15 mins

THEN turn the temp down to 350 and cook the pie for an additional 30 mins.

The pie will be done when the edges are golden brown and there is a nice bubbly over flow around the edges!

EAT UP!

Black Friday shopping suggestions- online of course

Many people will be hitting the net this weekend to get a crack at some holiday shopping, although I am not one of them (i'll be selling though ;) )- I have some fun suggestions for new sites I've come across... maybe a wish list is in order?


Need Supply, modcloth, pixie market, abigailpercyJewelry, harvestgoldgallery, luckymebeads, Littlehousesclothing, isphotography, bluebellbazaar, blacksheepheap, moxieandoliver, marcig's, macslaps, prettysneaky

that's it for now!

Oh and free shipping at Urban Knitifits this black friday weekend!

Craft Fair Prep

Here is our Banner for our Craft fair booth! And since we have two fairs coming up in Dec, we thought this weekend would be the perfect time to get cracking! I had some leftover canvas and I zig-zagged the edge with red thread, and then Les cut out "Urban" from gray felt, glued it in place while I stitched "knitfits" by hand with this fun blue yarn. Then Les outlined the city skyline and we painted it with black fabric paint. Then I cut a bird shape out of an old red vintage sweater that was in my "sewing" box. And poof our bird! Just like our Etsy shop banner!

Now we just have to have grommets placed in all four corners. Below the banner is one of the three aprons I made. I copied an industrial apron for size and pocket ideas. I made them out of this striped kaki fabric, attached some ribbon, then used the same fabric ink to paint on the letters- Urban with stencils and knitfits free hand. There are three pockets, two large- for all the Scrillah we'll be bringing in, and one slender and shorter pocket in the middle for pens.

Here's a detail of the banner. Once the bird dries (adhered with fabric glue) I will go around the edges with a zigzag red stitch for extra reinforcement and to ensure the knit sweater remnant wont fray. I might also stitch around the word "Urban" with black thread. (From a distance it doesn't read as felt, but rather paint... and we wanted a few different textures on our banner while keeping it simple and graphic.) If you've been to craft fairs you know that a banner is kind of important and the more unique and fun- the more eye catching and as a result- more visitors to your booth!

How to make over a dress form, in case you were wondering!

In Prep for our Urban Knitfits Craft shows, I wanted a dress form for our booth- something that would act as a display and as an element that would transform our booth into a shop.

So I posted an ad on craigslist and the above dress form is the result. I knew that an authentic vintage form would run me $150+++ So I settled for this $40 one and I decided I would transform it myself. Here's a how to! (in case you ever find yourself in the same situation!)

I had a bunch of Canvas fabric around from a pillow project, so I dyed it in our tub with loads of generic tea bags. (I took pictures of the process and I might use these images in an art project down the road.)
I felt that the leg definition- or crotch, was a lot of things- unauthentic to the vintage version, visually distracting as a result and too mall mannequin. So I used some epoxy glue and adhered cardboard to the form.
Once the fabric was dry and ironed, I sewed seems and darts along the larger pieces with my machine, before using some sturdy fabric glue to ultimately glue it in place. Originally I planned on hand sewing the canvas to the form but soon realized I was insane and with some helpful motherly advice, I bought some fabric glue. -Above- is a picture of how I would glue the fabric and then keep it in place by pining it to the form until it dried.

Here is the final picture. I still have one or two things left to do- for example, I might take some sand paper to a few edges and fray the fabric as well as take fabric paint and stencils and add letters and numbers along the neck- to mimic the vintage forms. I decided not to put the wooden top back on, since even if I aged it, it still wouldn't look authentic. I'm not too jazzed about seeing the cardboard so clearly through the fabric, but ultimately I think it's fine. It's finally done to the point that we have been using it for pictures for our etsy shop and we might hang or write "Urban Knitfits" on it to act as another sign for our booth, as well as necklaces or scarves. We are making our banner for our booth this sat, I'll post pics once that's done!

Need some fun gift ideas!? Here are a few from etsy!

Here are a few shops and items to get the wheels turning and your heart inspired to buy some unique gifts this year! Support artists and the environment and buy hand made!!

Above, a print by Slidesideways, they have really great artwork and other silk screen printed items! Check them out!

LovePrint makes this fab necklace of your prints! Would look great on it's own or added to an existing necklace!

My friend and co founder of Urban Knitfits- Her brother has this insane shop called MacSlaps. He has been selling these great decals like crazy! He's hit it big. They make a great little add on gift, or stocking stuffer for 12-14$.

I Love this shop -Yann Pendaries, a photographer whose images are whimsical and inexpensive.

Hope you enjoyed, and happy shopping!

ps- I have some new artwork on my grayday shop you can check out too!

Second day in a row on the front page of Etsy!!

Check us out!!! It's the ski cap on the middle right!!! This is so awesome to be recognized for the second day in a row!! Hip hip hooray! and become our fan on facebook! And it sold!!

Making it to the front page of ETSY!

Tonight we made it to the front page of etsy. That's me in the gray slouchy hat! And it sold, naturally, that's the blessing of being on the front page! (btw this is a big deal in etsy land!)