Fruit Trees!

Yesterday was another wonderful day at Market. Windy and blustery in the morning- I brought my gloves, scarf and down coat. It stays so cool on the lake side of the pavilion that I kept them on all day. Thanks to my white tarp, I kept the light in the booth and the wind out! By the end of the day, the weather was glorious! There is something idyllic about the way the sun shines across the water on the inlet at 5:00, when the wind is calm. A perfect ending to the day.

Today was beautiful. Cool in the morning and perfect, mild, spring weather later on. It inspired me to go buy the fruit trees that I have envisioned putting in the planters for over a year now. 2 dwarf Reliance peaches and 2 dwarf Anjou pears seemed perfect!

Those who know me (and love me as I am), know that I can be the consummate procrastinator. At times, I can raise it to an art form. Always wanting to get it perfect, I can put things off till it reaches the level of absurdity. No more! I decided to strike while the iron was hot.
2 trips to Agway for locally grown nursery stock, one trip to the house for a shovel and watering can and I got to work.
Amazingly enough, it took less than 2 hours to transport the trees, dig the holes, water them and take the tools back home. It was such a cheerful sight that I had to walk back to the store with my camera and take some photos. Hey, how about the nice bike rack?
Next step is to get some herbs in the planter to continue my edible landscaping plan. I wonder if folks will pick the edibles or just continue to use the planters as oversize garbage bins, like they usually do.

The New Tomato Design

Another amazing day. Way too warm for April 5Th, but no complaints. As promised, here are some photos of our newest design, the luscious, juicy Tomato. The process goes from idea to thought process to image to cutting and building screen to printing. This culminates in bringing the finished product to Market. So exciting! I wanted to show some photos of the Tomato hanging for the clothesline at the Market booth but they sold off the line too fast to let me take a picture. Yay!

Here we adhere the lacquer film to the screen. Given that our process is pretty old school, this is the only nasty part of the whole deal. So, it makes it really nice to be able to do it outside in the fresh air!
Just a little time to air dry before we're ready to peel off the backing and tape off the edges.

After doing the first color, we let it air dry and apply the second color. It really comes to life!
And here we are. The culmination of all the work! Actually, there's a whole lot more to this whole process. after the printing is done, we let it air dry for a day and launder it in three successively hotter washes to remove the washing soda and excess dye. After 33 1/3 years of doing this, I still get excited every time I see a new finished product!

Amazing day at Market. The first day of the 2010 season, jam packed and over 80 degrees! Usually, the first few Markets start out slow. This is a blessing since it takes time to remember how to set things up and get all of the things together that you need to sell each day. Lucky for me, I live less than 2 miles away so I can dash back to the studio sometimes to pick up important things I forgot. ( this doesn't always work so well as any local can tell you who has spent half an hour or more trying to get into Market!).

Anyway, it was wonderful to be back and a treat to forgo the sheepskin boots, down jacket and hand warmers, in favor of flip flops and a short sleeve v-neck tee. Very odd weather for April 3rd but enjoyable nonetheless!

I was reading Maya Donenfeld's blog, www.mayamade.blogspot.com . She has added a new feature called "Fix it Friday". Each week she will fix something around her home and showcase the process on her blog. Maya says, "The goal is to bring attention to the lost art of fixing, rather than discarding. Repair is a creative form in it's own right, but has been forgotten in our throw-away society". Wow, I really resonated with that. There is nothing more satisfying than breathing new life into something, rather than discarding it and purchasing a new one. It's not just about being thrifty. It's about valuing the resources that went into creating it to begin with, to say nothing of the joy in knowing that we are still capable of being resourceful and taking care of business!

Maya had a link to the "Repair Manifesto" from platform21, which is so inspiring that I had to copy it here. Read it, be inspired and check in on Friday's to see what the ever innovative Maya decides to take on!

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program at BJM

What a delight it was last week to take this photo of John Simon

and Friends at Beverly J. Martin (BJM) Elementary School in Ithaca

wearing their Silk Oak Fruit & Veggie shirts for the cover of

their upcoming CD to support their innovative snack program.

It was particularly nostalgic for me as 5 of my 6 kids went

to BJM, formerly Central. I spent a lot of time there from 1977

till 1994 and the Library/Auditorium, in particular,

has to be one of the finest in our school district.

This past year, the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food,

in conjunction with the Village at Ithaca, GreenStar

Community Projects, the Park Foundation and other local

non profits funded a pilot program to introduce children in

school to fresh veggies and fruits for snacks, instead of

the usual highly processed snacks that they were used to.

For many students, these were the only fresh veggies that

they got that day. It was also an introduction to the flavor

of pure unadulterated, fresh produce. What a wonderful

opportunity to influence their lifelong food and dietary

choices!

Understandably, a program like this costs money that a

struggling NYS budget can't fund. They are still in need

of funding to finish this school year, as well as fund the

program in the fall. If you would like to make a donation,

go to http://www.healthyschoolfood.org/, click on donate

now and choose the Healthy Fruit & Vegetable Snack

Program in Ithaca. You can also contact Village at Ithaca

at http://www.villageatithaca.org/ and donate in the

name of the program.

If you still need more inspiration, take 15 minutes to watch

the video that NY Coalition for Healthy School Food

made about the program. I was touched, moved &

inspired!

http://www.healthylunches.org/video.htm

Spring Cleaning!

Entropy sets in everywhere over the winter and the studio

is no exception. The first few pictures show what it looks like

when it's clean and organized. I'm looking to them for

inspiration since it doesn't look anything like that at

this time of the year.

Wow, clean tables, space to print, all the light bulbs working,

things folded neatly on the shelves and in plentiful supply.

Well, maybe a few bulbs were burned out.

Over the winter, without the weekly organization of

Farmers' Market, things get really sloppy. Projects half

finished, things not put away......

Gotta sew the ruffles on the dresses, what about the velvet

scarves that need the merrow edging, oh, and the wooden

picture frames that need painting and the new screens

that need cutting and......

Market starts in 3 weeks! It seemed like such a long time,

easy to put some things off till it got closer.

I'm the queen of stacks. Piles of things everywhere.

What a lovely pile of white things. I wonder what color

I should dye them.

Only 3 weeks to get the studio together, new stuff for Market

and fix up my booth at Market! I'll keep this Ghandi quote on

the wall, "If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me

incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire

the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in

the beginning."

Spring is in the Air!

How do I know Spring is in the air? The yellow aconites

are popping out of the leaves down the street. the sun is

shining and it's close to 40 degrees!

The pileated woodpecker has returned to N. Aurora St. and

you can hear the falls roaring with all of the snowmelt.

Even the gravel next to the house is sporting crocus shoots.

Most of all, I find myself waking up to Possibilities. Working

on a new Sea turtle design that I've been meaning to get

around to for ages now.

Also, spring cleaning has begun. That not only entails cleaning, sorting

and recycling things. It also means revisiting all of those old

projects that got started but never managed to make it

being finished. Hmmm, maybe I should sew up this

little sweater and send it off to my great niece before

she has out grown it!

Most of all, I feel like dancing. I feel alive. The quote for the

day is from an unknown source. "Some people pursue

happiness, others create it". I'm in creation mode!

Check out our Give-Away @ Mayamade.blogspot.com 

Silk Oak Give-Away- The Owl Family

It runs today through Saturday. Thanks, Maya!

I love the contrast of the white snow against the bright studio.

 

I'm really ready for spring but the snow looked so beautiful

outside the studio that it renewed my appreciation for winter.

The kitties were the first ones to venture out to the studio

this morning. Then, they made a hasty trip back to the house.

Snow Hearts

Love is where you find it and hearts are where you see them!

What if Einstein had been a Big Silk Oak fan?

Playing around with the idea of famous people in the past

being fans of Silk Oak. What would they look like and

which ones would be their favorites?

Doesn't Einstein look hip in his black Raven tee?

Tax Help!

I'm always amazed at the ability of cats to hone in on whatever

 is most important in your life at a particular point in time.

Today, for me, it was working on taxes and my cat, Marmaduke, felt 

compelled to lend a hand (or paw) to the task. I found it fitting

that he chose the Cat bowl (by my favorite, amazing, Martha's 

Vineyard artist Washington Ledesma- www.washingtonledesma.com),

to perch in. True, I had already filled the bowl with my

check registers but, still, is nothing sacred?

My Silk Oak Family Holidays

I finally got around to going through photos from the holidays

and couldn't resist these pics of the family all decked out in

their new Silk Oak Owl American Apparel track jackets!

I made 15 of them. These photos only show 11 of them in action.

We were worried that someone stumbling upon us 

might think we were a cult!.

Of course, nothing is cuter than Weezie & Beeks in

their one of a kind outfits. I always like to try new 

things out on my in house fans to gauge their response 

and work out the kinks. Cute Belly, huh?

Organic Cotton Quilt Squares, Oh My!

Now that I've discovered how much I love the look of Silk Oak

colors against the backdrop of my studio barn wall, I want to 

photograph everything against it! I've been wanting to do some 

quilts and pillows, maybe even wall hangings for a long time now.

A friend asked me to make a Farmyard quilt square for her 

soon to be born grandchild and it finally got me moving. I 

bought some organic cotton fabric at Quilters Corner and 

we whipped a pile of them up.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. We did 

these 3, as well as my perennial favorite, the Frog. I want to

do lots more but these are piling up. Great, now I've created

another project waiting for me to get to it!

 

Maybe I should just sell the squares and let customers DIY.

Or I could have a contest to come up with the most

innovative use for them. Or ........ What do you think?

The Cutest Lunch Bags ever!

We started making these incredible Organic Cotton Lunch 

bags around the holidays but we never got a chance to take 

photos of them. Today the weather was perfect so we dragged

my little green table from my bedroom and set up a photo shoot

against the backdrop of my amazing cornflower colored, studio 

wall. Even though it was chilly, it was well worth it!

I love these bags. I can see them as perfect for travel with kids. 

They're just the right size to hold treasured little toys.

I think they'd be great for carrying my beading or

knitting projects, too. What do you think they'd be good for?

I love the way they all look grouped together. I'm not sure

which one is my favorite. Today it might be the Dandelions!

Here I am with my "Say Cheese" smile in front of the new

sign. Just think of how amazing this will look when I

have some living plants in the planters!

I love this store! It's like a little cottage and a dream come true.

I've been fantasizing about having a store in this building

for about 25 years. The interior is even cuter than the outside.

Finally got our flag mounted on the building.

Now you can tell when we're here!