Ooooh... Kiev!

Well I have returned from a few voyages, our marriage in Costa Rica and then a week in Oregon. Now back to business as they say. Since Easter is approaching I thought we'd chat about the inspiration for the Kiev print! Pysanky eggs, the symbolism behind them, Ukrainian dishes and more. Also a note... through the weekend all our medium prints are 20% off. Woo Hoo! More to come!

Mmmmm... Salsa.

I love salsa, I eat it every other day if not every day, (I have quite the Mexican food/chili habit). When Andy from Traverse Bay Farms sent over some of their salsas for me to try I was delighted. (Thanks Andy!) Dave and I broke out the tortilla chips (see above) and threw our points to the wind (we've been doing weight watchers for our upcoming nuptials... you wouldn't believe the points in tortilla chips).
Their salsas have won all sorts of awards and rightfully so, they are very good. I'm not generally a big fan of cooked salsas, but these are some of the best I've had.
The Pineapple Salsa was my favorite and I think it would be great on shredded pork tacos. Actually, I really want to try that now that I've thought of it. That is going to be so tasty.



Dave's favorite was the Peach Salsa. It was little too sweet for me, but that worked out perfectly because Dave quickly claimed the jar for himself.
Both the Cherry and the Raspberry were very unusual but very tasty - you can really taste the fruit. I think the cherry would be great on a big pile of steak nachos. Seems I'm ready for dinner round deux...
Check out the salsas here at www.traversebayfarms.com

ps the cookies i made with the Traverse City cherries from The Cherry Stop came out De-Lic-Ious and are packed up for tonight's Cookie Swap!

Fortune Teller

So we might totally be psychic cause in our 2008 calendar, November was Chicago (Hello, President Obama) and in our 2009 calendar, February was Pittsburgh (Hello, Steelers - Superbowl champions). Just remember that these calendars are done a year ahead of time (crazy - i know). I just might start placing bets in Vegas.

Congrats Pittsburgh!

So the Steelers won! Woo Hoo! We were really excited for our dear friend JJ, he's a die hard Steelers fan. In fact he was an inspiration to do the print in the first place. To celebrate our Pittsburgh print, all 3 sizes, will be 20% until Wednesday. Check it out here.

French Country Fabrics

When I designed the Traverse City print I was looking at a lot of French Country patterns. I love that type of design and I hadn't looked into it too much. Infact, it ended up influencing the Portland pattern as well. Check out these examples of French Country pattern from French-Treasures.com





and Green House Design.

The Cherry Snow

I've heard that people talk about walking in the Cherry Snow when all the Cherry Trees shed their blossoms. I saw this old photo on flickr and thought that it portrayed that perfectly. Turns out that the keeper of the photo, UpNorth Memories - Donald (Don) Harrison, has a wonderful ebay store chock full of vintage postcards from not just Traverse City but all over Michigan. Check it out here.

Mmmmm... Cherries!

The weather here is mucho icky... so I thought we talk about a cheerful little fruit: the cherry. When my dear friend Chad mentioned that Michigan was quite the cherry producer, I was surprised. I never knew. In 1852 a Presbyterian missionary planted a cherry tree near Traverse City, Michigan and they have been flourishing ever since.
Now there are different types of Cherries.


Photo by Wildcat Dunny.

The sweet one. It's the kind you steal from the bin at whole foods, the one that are almost blood red and dark. I love those ones. When I was in Portland I ate an entire bag (in fact I'm going back to Portland in March for a long weekend and I plan to do the same thing). This includes the Bing, the Lambert and the Rainer.


Photo by frankfarm

The Maraschino is like a sub group of the above cause it is made from the sweet cherries. These are the ones that top your sundaes and float around in your Manhattans.


Photo by mstephens7

But it is the Tart One that is grown out in Michigan. These are used in pies, juices and preserves and the primary type is Montmorency, and there is also the Balaton.



Now I'm not all that familiar with this tart cherry. So I'm ordering a few things from The Cherry Stop. Like these dried ones, so I can make this cookie for an upcoming cookie swap, and these Chocolate Covered Cherries. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Oooooh....Traverse City, Michigan

Thanks to Emily of Traverse City magazine for writing such a nice piece about our Traverse City pattern.The print was inspired by our Michigan friends stories of tart cherries in the summertime. It looks like we even may be making a trip out that way this summer! Coming up... tart cherries, french patterns, cherry snow and more... see all things Traverse City here.

Block Island Scones

When researching Block Island I read about a mystical scone woman who sold her baked goods out and about. According to a post on Chowhound: "The "Scone lady's" real name is Pat Doyle. She and her husband Tom bought a used Blodgett oven years ago that they keep in their backyard. Each Wednesday and Saturday (the days of the BI Farmer's Market) they get up at 5 am and bake about 60 loaves of bread and 300 to 400 scones. They usually sell out by 10 am. I haven't actually tried them but I hear they are very good.".
I'm a scone addict. The bakery down the street from us makes different scones everyday, they are such a treat (and healthy i feel since they have fruit in them - forget the stick of butter).
Well, Pam and Tom now sell their scone mix online. You can get a package here that makes 12-18 scones. The mixes come in Plain, Raisin, Orange Pecan, Lemon Poppy, Apricot Ginger and Cranberry Walnut. So do i order or do i wait til i get to block island for one made by Pam? Decisions, decisions...

The Block Island Print

As mentioned, we are donating a portion of the proceeds of our Block Island print to the Alzheimer's Association. I thought of doing this a while ago; a special print that would always be the month of November in our calendar, (National Alzheimer's Awareness month) with a portion of the proceeds ($5-$15 depending on the size of the print) going to the Alzheimer's Association.



My dad traveled a lot when I was growing up. A lot = constantly. When I think of my dad back then I think of the navy blue garment bag hanging on the bedroom door. The places weren't all that exotic; San Diego, San Antoino, Sacramento... he did take a trip to Europe once. Regardless, he loved it and in turn we traveled a ton as a family (I have to use 2 hands to count how many times I've been to Disney World). One place he went that I have yet to go to was to Block Island, Rhode Island and that is why I picked it for the first print.



My dad was 49 when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. We kind of knew what to expect because my grandfather had died with Alzheimers when I was in high school (I know... having alz on both sides of the family... not such a good thing). My dad died 3 years ago from the Alz at the age of 54. Those five years were pretty horrible, but one great thing was that my dad stopped traveling. I started my business so I could have a super flexible schedule and help take care of him. We hung out A LOT and it was great, I loved it.



By having a yearly print dedicated to my dad and Alzheimer's I'm hoping to help raise awareness of the disease, especially the early-onset part. There are very limited social services for those families with early-onset alzheimer's and their troubles are different than those of eldery people. Children are generally in school and college, people are under the age limit or make too much money to qualify for government help, spouses need to work and care is so expensive... to learn more about early onset alzheimers click here and here are some great links:
- News Hour
- NPR
- Mayo Clinic

Austin City Limits

Austin is so well known for its music scene, and that worked its way into the Austin pattern through the use of guitar tableture (see all those dots on the boots?).



I love Austin City Limits on PBS, a wonderful program showcasing various bands in a great studio setting. Right now on their site you can watch Lyle Lovett and My Morning Jacket. My favorite show was when Arcade Fire performed, I think I've seen it like 5 times (you can watch it here). See a full list of performances here (I wish the Modest Mouse one was online!)

There is also the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Sasso and I are always talking about going to this. It takes place in Austin (duh) and is 3 days at the end of September.


alison kraus by dave mead

If I was there this year I would have been watching
1. Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiely fame)
2. Robert Plant & Alison Kraus
3. The Black Keys
4. Beck
5. Patty Griffin (my favorite)
6. Foo Fighters (I used to have a huge dave grohl obsession)
7. Teagan and Sarah
and soooooo many more, the best thing about going to a festival like this is getting to hear new acts!


beck by matt ellis

I wish we had gone last year so we could have seen Bjork and Arcade Fire or in 2006 to see the Flaming Lips (they put on a crazy show).


bjork by Cambria Harkey

Get on their mailing list here to find out the line up for '09. And if you go, don't forget to hit us all the great clubs in Austin to catch even more talent.


the arcade fire by dave mead

Mmmmmm.... Queso!

This post is dedicated to Alston, without whom I'd never had known the joys of queso. When I told her I was doing an Austin Print she told me all sorts of stories about her time spent there, but the one thing that stuck out was this thing called queso. I mean I knew that meant cheese in Spanish so I thought, oh it must be like that cheese dip you get in the jar at store-24. Oh no my northern friends... that is a cheap imitation.



Alston said that outside of Texas they couldn't find any good queso. I started looking around at the Mexican restaurants in Boston and didn't see any. I started researching this dish and found that there were sites reviewing just the queso in Austin!



Well, since I couldn't get to Austin I decided to make the queso myself and see what this is all about. I learned that a lot of Texan queso is made with velveetta. To be honest, I don't even know where you buy that, (and it kind of scares me), so ours was made with straight up Monterary Jack.



I found this recipe in Savuer (a little pretensious for queso perhaps... but just make it and you'll rethink that). I combined Chorzio, Onion, Tomato, spooned that on top of the cheese and put it all in the oven to bake. I topped it off with cilantro and we dug in with tortilla chips. I wish I had the alcohol to make it light a fire, I'm sure that would have added a delicious brown crust. But regardless, it was SO GOOD. And since I'm not a dairy girl Sasso was both surprised and thrilled to be eating a pot of cheese for dinner (we had fajitas too... not just cheese).

I've been craving it ever sense and can only imagine how good it is in Austin.

Friday Night Lights

O.K. so this doesn't have ALL that much to do with Austin. But anytime I can blog about Tim Riggins, I'm going to do it. If you don't know about Friday Night Lights (and I'm guessing you don't cause apparently no one except me, sarah and grace were watching it - it got moved to DirectTV).
The show is based on a book which was then turned into a film all of the same name. The show follows a football coach (hot) and his wife (please let me look like her as I age) and his daughter as he tries to lead the Dillion Panthers to football glory. You get to follow the lives of the injured quarterback (again, hot), the convert cheerleader, the bad girl - good guy romance, tim riggins (very hot), julie's boyfriend whats-his-name, and Smash the receiver (hot as well).
So basically there is a lot of killer dialouge and the whole thing is shot without rehearsals or a lot of blocking so it all feels really off the cuff. There are some great plot lines (though I wasn't so into that whole "murder" thing) and you really start to conect with the charaters. Plus, I thought Boston fans were hardcore - apparently we have nothing on Texas football fans.
So what this has to do with Austin is that it is shot there. They've got some good "spotlight on austin" things on their site.
You can watch season 1 + 2 online here, and hopefully season 3 is going to be rebroadcast on nbc this winter. you must watch it.

These boots are gonna walk all over...

When I was researching Austin I stumbled upon some killer cowboy boots. Maybe it is because I've never worn cowboy boots, (and i don't think I could really pull them off) but they've always seemed really cool to me.
Here is a great step-by-step photo look at how a custom pair of boots is made. This would have been a great Mister Rodgers episode - anyone else remember the crayon factory show. so great. anyways...
So here are a few great places in Austin to pick up your boots.



1. Heritage Boot: Handmade. Handcrafted. The soles are attached with lemonwood pegs. Totally beautiful. heritageboot.com



2. Allen's Boots: A nice selection from many major boot labels. Going to the store to see all the rows of boots would be pretty great. They have boots from $100 - $12,500! My personal favorites are the Luccheses. allensboots.com

I think designing cowboy boots would be such a fun job... another thing I'd like to put the PIHNB patterns on...

Oohhhhhh... Austin!

Things have been busy here. I'm redoing the entire JHill Design website, including coding to save a few ( a lot) bucks. It's about 75% done and I love it, but it sure is taking up a lot of time. But I wanted to start a new posting series and I thought that maybe it would be fun to share the inspiration behind the Austin Print.
Texas is pretty foreign to me. I know Friday Nights is from there (filmed in Austin actually) and I LOVE that show (Tim Riggins) and I know our president is from there... not such a big fan of that, and that is about it. But I had heard a good deal about Austin as of late and got a little bit obsessed with wanting to visit.
Our travels are pretty booked up through next summer so gazing at this pattern will have to do for now. I was thinking about live music, festivals, queseo, margaritas, artisan cowboy boots and a funky spirit.

Portland : The Coast

Oh it's the last Portland post. One day 4 of us piled into Marisa's car and headed West to the ocean. We drive through the beautiful farming community of Tillamook. Farms on the ocean, who knew?



I heard murmurs of hiking and even saw some boots in the trunk and was a bit worried. I just don't hike, and I definitely don't have the wardrobe for it. But our hike turned out to be more of a walk through tall tall grass until you came over a hill and saw the most amazing (and empty) rough coastline.



I'm used to East Coast beaches that are teaming with brightly colored umbrellas and families with coastal living room setups, this was refreshing to say the least.
The water was freezing. I barely put in a toe, this coming from someone who at least waded in ankle deep into Ogunquit's chilly water this weekend.



There were piles of driftwood, huge logs that looked prehistoric and the sky was just huge. The coolest thing was that at the horizon, the blue of the ocean matched the blue of the sky. The perfect ending to a great vacation.

Portland : Waterfalling

I wish I could tell you about this waterfall that we visited... but I can't remember the name. I just remember calling it "Melanoma Falls" and I'm pretty sure that is just 'cause I couldn't pronounce the real name. Regardless, it was beautiful and sooooo tall!

Portland : Lots of Nature

One of my favorite things about Portland was the abundance of wild flowers and plants that seemed to grow out of everywhere. I used to think that Jamaica Plain was green, but it has nothing on Portland. Here are a few of my favorite finds...



Some purple...



From the city of roses, I saw two HUGE rose gardens there and they smelled as sweet as you'd imagine.



Zucchini blossoms from Marisa's garden (which we later made into a delicious risotto). Her garden was just delicious, I wish I had one here.



Wildflowers everywhere... these were just hanging out in the median. I've never seen such pretty medians before.



Where else would you find a huge bamboo patch (and a little Marisa) on your walk home from dinner?

New Rome Print

Oooooh to commemorate the last few (so sad) days of summer we've released our Rome Print on our website. I feel like I got more rain than summer here in Boston, so maybe this will keep me thinking of sunshine and gelato until next year. Check it out here.

Portland : Mt Hood + Timberline Lodge

The moment that Marisa told me that the exterior shots from The Shining were done at Timberline Lodge I was SO there. Well, I had seen a great PBS documentary about the lodge too, so there was also that reason. Anyways, when I was young I was obsessed with scary movies/books and The Shining was right up there at the top. That movie is scary as hell. When you pull up to the lodge you can see why they used it, all big and desolate surrounded by snow. I wish the hedge maze had been there. (BTW, have you ever watched The Shining in 30 Seconds, Reenacted by Bunnies? Do it now, here.)



So Mt. Hood looked like Mt. Olympus compared to the "mountains" i'm used to out in New England. When we flew in we were so close to it and my face was pancaked against the window, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Also that it was July and I was wearing a tank top and people were still skiing and snow boarding on the mountain, so cool.



The lodge itself was built in the late 1930's on the south side of Mt Hood. It was constructed as a WPA project during the Great Depression. The whole building is filled with beautiful details thanks to all those fine craftsmen. Like the mail boxes above.



These great iron / leather / wood chairs.



This crazy metal work on one of the lodge's main doors (this was huge).



This fine woodworking. Above most of the doors were wood carvings like the one of this mountain lion. All the main banisters had animals carved on top with beautiful metal railings that all were capped off by a pine cone. This fox-like carving was also seen throughout the lodge on furniture and such.



I loved how burly and oversized everything was. Like the huge stone fireplace that went up 3 floors.



A cozy corner and an overhead light fixture.



Last but not least I loved the colors of these textiles. Inspiration for a future pattern perhaps.

Portland : Cool Houses

One of my favorite things about Portland was all the very interesting houses. Coming from the land of brownstones and triple-deckers this was quite refreshing, and surprising. When I walked into Marisa's house I couldn't believe that 1. She had a WHOLE house to her self and 2. That she had STAIRS. I haven't had stairs since I was in high school... that was like 11 years ago, god knows how I still know how to use them.
Marisa said that the "Bungalow Style" is very popular out there, and they happen to live in one. I just loved her house (see above). I wish I had better pics of it but the entire front is covered with fig trees, which I guess is a good thing to have. Her backyard (yes, a yard) was full of blueberries, strawberries a garden and all sorts of other fruit trees.
We took a few walks around her neighborhood while I was visiting, here are some of the great buildings that caught my eye.

Portland : Chowing Down

As most know I consider eating one of my favorite hobbies (you may be able to tell since there are many food/drink related patterns in the PIHNB line) and one of my favorite things to do is to go to a new area and devour all things local. This is exactly what I did in Oregon.



1. Doughnuts. Sasso and I have been watching Twin Peaks on DVD and not a night goes by when I don't say"I wish we had doughnuts". The doughnuts in Boston are kind of lacking (sorry Dunkin') but not in Portland. The 2 lovelies on the left are from New Seasons and the shelves on the right are from Voodoo Doughnuts (a Portland must-see).



2. Kruger's Farm. 'Ris and I took a trip to Sauvie Island to see all the farms and cows with bangs. We stopped at Kruger's Farm to walk amongst the flowering fields and to pick up some super fresh produce. The best (and cheapest compared to the East Coast) avacados, cherries, cucumbers... See that little white tent in the middle picture? The magic tent. There a lovely lady will see you a freshly roasted ear of corn for $2. She dips it in a crockpot of butter too. I know, unreal. There aren't any pictures of me eating because I was dripping in said butter but 'Ris still let me eat my corn in the car. Me eating corn on the cob in the car = Sasso's personal nightmare.



3. Delta Cafe. We relished in Southern Food at this fine joint. I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes + gravy, fried oysters and collard greens. I know, I went healthy. They also had all these great drinks made with their own infused vodka. My favorite was the Hey Ya! which was concocted of cucumber infused vodka, sours and cranberry juice. In fact I am infusing come vodka in the pantry as we speak.



4. Otto's Sausage Kitchen. Across from Delta's is this fine fine meat market. Whenever Pete and 'Ris come back to Boston they always bring with them this amazing homemade beef jerky. The minute I stepped into PDX I knew I had to return with some. They close early, at 6:00, and we just barely made it. I also got some great mustard made in Beaverton there.



5. Tin Shed Garden Cafe. I had some fine local Belgian beer and a salad with candied bacon on it. I didn't even know you could candy bacon (you can and it is great). I hear it is great for breakfast, but even mid-week there was a long line to get in there. Must be delicious....



6. Teadrop Cocktail Lounge. My dear Peter built this place out so I was really excited to see his handy work in person. It is such a beautiful bar, I was so impressed. They have a selection of savory cocktails too, I didn't know what was in most of them, but the nice waiter helped us choose.



7. Stumptown Coffee. Since I only guzzle decaf I am generally used to mediocre coffee. But this Stumptown Coffee is the best decaf I've ever had. Especially when French pressed. I just ground the last bit that I brought home with me today, so I may need to have 'Ris express some out here. Plus how cool are their posters?

Portland : Vintage Shop : Good Find

Portland was LOVELY! I thought it was such a great area. So different from Boston in so many ways. I'm trying to find a French press cup of decaf as good as the one I had out there and I have turned up empty handed. I can't wait to share all the pictures and thoughts...
It rained one day and Marisa and I spent the afternoon trolling around vintage stores (of which there were many). After walking though many labyrinths I stumbled upon these and immediately bought the lot. They reminded me of the Great Journey series I posted about a bit ago. I later found more of these books but they were in poor poor condition so I let them pass.

The inner pages are all text with stamp like color photos pasted in. The books are from the "Around the World Program" by the "American Geographical Society".
The program was written from 1955 to 1973 and was subscription based. It looks like about 68 books were produced and 6 were rereleased in the early 90's.



I was lucky enough to get: Venezuela, Burma, Pakistan, Iran, Peru, New Zealand, and Columbia but I would LOVE Egypt + Austria since I'm working on patterns for those 2 places. (who am I kidding - I'd love to have them all).
Learn more about the series here.

Giveaway Winners!

Yesterday we randomly picked the winners of our JHill Design Giveaway so congratulations to Annette Reiley, Andrea Grant and Marina Colton!
We had SO many great submissions. Some of our favorite ideas where Egypt, Austria, Kentucky and Conney Island! Thanks to all of you for your great ideas and all of your inspiration!

Ooooohhhh.... Portland!

I thought I'd share the Portland pattern today since I will be heading there tomorrow afternoon! I'm pretty excited to 1. spend a whole week with my bff 'Ris and 2. get to check out this city that I've read so much about. Above is the card and below is the print.



I became interested in Oregon when Marisa moved there and then again when a couple of great stores placed orders for the line (check out Paperdoll and Modern). The pattern is all about the hops that make all those great Portland beers you hear about. The flower/bud is actually quite beautiful with a great green and purple.
I am hoping to visit some wineries, the Timberline Lodge where scenes from the Shining were shot, the hot springs, a brewery, the Saturday Market, and some killer Co-Op Marisa tells me so much about. I'm going to use my lovely new camera (a very nice Sasso B-Day gift) to take some sweet shots and use those to inspire some "Places I HAVE Been" patterns about Portland.

While I'm away don't forget to enter our giveaway (see below). We've gotten some GREAT entries. Including a few about Egypt that inspired me to spend the afternoon in the MFA's ancient Egypt exhibit (which is amazing if you've never seen it).
Also, check out our new style blog. It is just a visual list of all the pretty and clever things that are filling our del.icio.us account. It's called Sacrebleu!
See you in a week!