Etsy Tuesday: Betsy Walton

Betsy Walton is an artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. She seems to be everywhere right now; her artwork graced last week's Portland Mercury newspaper, shes showing at Olio United and has tons of "happenings" around the US. Her work is colorful and filled with interesting shapes and subjects. I love looking at her prints-such talent! You can find Betsy's great artwork here.

Friday Faves

This week's faves are bird themed. I've been seeing a ton of birds, owls, anything feathery and in flight. I'm hoping to use these as my next Treasury, whenever that happens. Have a GREAT Valentine's Day weekend!

Valentine's Treats!

Today I made a batch of homemade RED VELVET CUPCAKES. Thats right, I caved in to the craze and made those suckers. They turned out quite delicious but my frosting went a bit awry (not enough sugar!), so I decided to use store-bought cream cheese frosting...which in my opinion is way better! Go figure. For Valentine's Day, all sorts of great desserts are rediscovered. Theres just so much chocolate and red floating around its hard not to get all caught up in it! Heres the recipe I used and a picture thats not mine (I'll take some tomorrow when they're properly frosted!). Perhaps you can bake your sweetie some of these? They'll LOVE you for it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
recipe from Paula Deen

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a larger bowl, carefully whisk together oil, buttermilk, food coloring, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Add the dry to the wet and mix until smooth and combined using an electric hand mixer.
Divide batter between cupcake pans lined with papers (should make about 24). Bake 11 minutes- turn- bake 11 more. Test for doneness with a toothpick.

Frost with whipped cream cheese frosting:

1/2lb c. cheese
1 stick of butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 c. powdered sugar

YUM!

New Items in Shop!

Hey all, I just put in three new photos into my Etsy shop....yay!

Drawing...!

I chose to respond to the question..."What do you personally use drawing for?"

-distraction
-doodling
-list-making
-reminders
-sketches/plans for current projects

I use recurring shapes in many of my drawings, like crystalline or geometric imagery. Something about it just keeps it coming back. I love making lists and organizing my thoughts (I have a very bad memory), so just scribbling down ideas is "drawing" my thoughts out onto paper. I hate doing thumbnails or sketches, but I'm usually required to, so its more of a tangible thing for someone else to see whats in my head (I often work on projects from what I think originally, not what I draw or sketch on paper). Many times I just doodle and that sparks another idea. I guess to sum it up most of drawing for me is used for organization and clearer focus than all the ideas in my mind.

Etsy Tuesday: Mincing Mockingbird

Todays finds are from a quirky, talented painter-mincingmockingbird. He paints birds of all sorts, and occasionally puts in a witty line or two. His prints are super affordable (magnets are $4, 8x10 prints are $13!) and theres always a TON to look at. You can buy mincingmockingbird prints here. Happy Tuesday!

Woop Woop!

So apparently my treasury made it to the front page of etsy today! HECKYES! I secretly thought it would, the stuff i picked were really really cute-how could it not? Now I feel like I have a hold on the Etsy "look". Thats right, I'm bragging :)