Mushroom Foraging

Fall is finally here in North Carolina. I love this time of year. It's the season I wish would last forever. Cool pleasant days, excitingly brisk evenings, little humidity and the most gorgeous colors everywhere. I've been spending more time outdoors with the cooler weather and have noticed all sorts of mushrooms popping up in the woods around where I live. So today I decided to take a painting break and go mushroom foraging. Below are pictures of my bounty.

I was really lucky and found two treasures. My mushroom finds range from very poisonous, like liver failure poisonous, to just a tummy ache bad for you, to not poisonous but not very tasty to delicious and a rare gem. I'm not a mushroom expert and would love some corrections or comments from more knowledgeable foragers.

This bright red capped mushroom you see growing is one of my rare finds. It's commonly called a Caesar's Mushroom and is considered a delicacy in Italy. It has a poisonous twin so I won't besampling this guy just in case I'm wrong. I saw the bright red peeking out from underneath some dark leaves while on a walk today and you can imagine my surprise when I unearthed the whole thing.

My second tasty find were these wild Cinnabarre-Red Chanterelles. I LOVE chanterelles. Whenever I see them in bulk at Whole Foods I'm tempted to buy a whole cart full. I've always loved mushrooms. I must have been such a strange child. I love them so much that as a kid I collected scratch and sniff mushroom stickers and plastered them all my bedroom walls. I canremember smelling the stinky stickers and wishing that I could eat mushrooms every day. Weird, I know. I've done some research online and am confident that these beauties are true red chanterelles and I'm going to be sauteing them in butter and salt for a tasty snack.

I also found plenty of poisonous and not so tasty shrooms. Some that looks like sponges and coral, some with purple hues, and more red and orange topped mushrooms that I have yet to identify. I found lots of Death Angel Mushrooms which if consumed will cause liver failure and death if a liver transplant isn't possible. But don't let that scare you from mushrooms! Even ifyou aren't a fan of eating these fabulous fungi, everyone can appreciate their visual color and texture.

It's the next day. I cooked the Chanterelles and they were so delicious I went back out with my mom to see if we couldn't find some more. Further back in the woods we found red gold. A forest floor of these beauties. We picked just a bag for dinner tonight, Red-Chanterelle bruschetta with truffle oil. There's lots more where these came from so we will be happy to cook some for you to try, but we aren't sharing the hiding spot!

Painted Baby Clothes

I'm at that age when all my friends are starting to have babies, including my sister-in-law. I just found out I'm going to be an Aunt to a little baby niece! She's due in January which is exciting because Jan 6th is my birthday. I'm really enjoying all the new love that's entering the world around me.

I've started painting babies clothes to give away as gifts to all the new little ones. Each piece is made of organic cotton that I've hand-painted with textile paints that are heat-set so they can be machine washed. My painted baby clothes won't be for sale. They take so long to make I'd have to charge outrageous prices, but they are perfect for gifting to all my new momma friends. I'm taking requests so let me know if you'd like an outfit.

Glassware Photo Shoot

I decided a few months ago that it was time to increase the quality of my glassware photographs. I fell in love with my wedding photographer's style of capturing moments rather than posed shots so I once again called on talented Annemie of megapixie.com to help me with my project.



I spent a month painting inventory for the event and coercing my friends into showing up for the big photo shoot. I asked them to bring their pretty smiles and a few changes of clothes.



The day before our photo shoot I polished glasses, ironed table cloths and staged tables. The wind was so strong I had to do all the prep work indoors because the wind threatened to blow away all my glassware and flowers. I was really worried the wind would continue and our Sunday photo shoot would end in a flurry of shattered wine glasses.



Sunday came and it was as if the weather had be pre-ordered. It was a gorgeous, calm. sunny day. My friends showed up, beautiful and ready to pose.



The photo shoot started off with some polite smiles and awkward delicate sips but as the wine flowed the photo shoot became less of a staged production and more of a real party.



We all had a lot of fun and felt like models for a magazine. My gorgeous friends played their roles beautifully and we spent the next few hours changing outfits and switching out glasses. I wanted the pictures to look natural and Annemie is a professional at capturing those special moments for the perfect shot.



It helped that I had such beautiful, fun people to work with.



My brother and I are in the picture below. George was so cute, he changed his cuff links to match the glasses for each shot.



My sister-in-law Julie, was on her fashion game and came with a ton of dresses. I love how the turquoise in this dress picks up on the turquoise of the Peacock feathers.



We even staged a wedding! Amy was kind enough to bring her wedding dress and her good looking husband along for the shoot. You can't fake these sorts of lovey looks and I was so thankful to have a bride and groom to showcase my best selling champagne flutes.



As dusk arrived, the smiles grew larger. I lost count of how many bottles of wine and champagne were poured but I think a good time was had by all. You can see the rest of the pictures taken on my websites, both on Etsy and BigCartel.



I owe everyone involved a giant THANK YOU!
Thanks for making my glassware look beautiful.
Cheers to you!

A Kaleidoscope of Spring

A Post Christmas Update:
Images are of marbled fabric, cotton and silk

This past holiday season was insane. Mary Elizabeth Arts in the past year has more than doubled sales from last year and we've run a projection and are on track to double them again this year.

My repeat customers are becoming my favorites folks. It brings me so much joy to be able to create pieces for special people I'm getting to know. Their generous feedback is what keeps me going. One of my favorite customers this year was the sister of Etsy's Founder. She purchases some glasses for a friends birthday and some pieces for her mother. I love knowing that the mother of the guy who created Etsy uses my work. That's just awesome!

We are on the hunt for an artist agent! This is very exciting news as it means that in the near future I'll be signing contracts with larger companies who will be reproducing my designs in factories and selling them in larger department stores. This will allow me to create new designs and pick back up on all my unfinished projects such as my hand-painted lingerie and silk painting.

There are two new babies in the family! My best friend of BlumeBloom just had her first baby, Emma Rose. And my sister-in-law just had her second baby boy, Christopher. Both babies are healthy, beautiful and perfect in every way.

This April I'm very excited to say that there will be a professional photo shoot of my glassware. All my product images I've taken myself and it's time to increase the quality of my listings. We are staging a faux dinner party, although I'm sure in the end the photo shoot will become a decadently staged real party. I'll be working with a few of my gorgeous friends as they sip champagne under twinkly lights this early spring. I am truly excited about this and can't wait to share the images with you. My wedding photographer Annemie of mexapixie will be taking all the shots. She's the gal who photographed my wedding so I already know her work is fabulous.

We've re-painted and re-carpeted the house! Having my studio, my packaging warehouse and inventory supply room in my home makes it easy to find living in total chaos a complete norm. I've grown accustomed to paint stains on, well, everything. And instead of scented candles and charming decorative figurines my house is constantly in a state of disarray. I secretly laugh when customers mention "stopping by my studio for a tour" I can image myself saying, "Welcome! Please just sit directly on the pile of laundry as it's the only clean place in the house." And on the way out the door everyone gets a complimentary lint roller to clean off the cat hair. So Nick, seeing my insanity grow deeper every day, has given me a new home. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint and new carpet will for the the soul.





I have a few new oil paintings in the works. Canvas paintings are always a treat for me. It's hard to sell original art for walls these days. People tend to prefer spending their money on functional art that they can afford--and I don't blame them! But I'm trying to make it a goal to paint more with oils and canvas, even if it is just a few hours here and there. Right now I'm working on two piece from my honeymoon. A lake and mountain vista from Alaska and a Sea Cliff scene from Maui.

Back when I first started selling my artwork online the focus was on fine art prints of my original paintings. Over the past year or so I stopped making the prints and have been focusing on my glassware, until now! I'm working with Through This Lens, a local Durham photography studio and Roylee is not only making prints of my paintings but he's matting them as well so they are super easy to frame. These prints will be available in my shop by the end of the week!


And even more exciting, is my dear friend Lindi has created a small book with a whole bunch of my paintings. When I first saw it I seriously couldn't believe what an amazing job she did paring paintings. I couldn't have done it any better if I'd spent months laying it out. I was really impressed and remember thinking, it's almost like Lindi is a professional at this. Then I remembered she is. She has her masters in Museum Management and arranging artwork and displays is her specialty. Think coffee table book full of my colorful artwork--professionally arranged. The book isn't for sale just yet, but I hope to have it in print within a month or so. I'll keep you posted as to when it's available.

I'm so happy Spring is almost here. Yesterday I went on my first bike ride since last summer and I'm excited to see more sunny days and blooming trees. Happy Spring Everyone!

Black Friday Sale

Happy Holidays Everyone!
I'm starting the shopping season
off with a 10% discount on everything in my Etsy shop. One day only, Black Friday (Nov 26th) Just type in BLACKFRIDAY2010 when you check out and you'll automatically get a 10% discount. The code will only work on Friday Nov 26th. Have a great Thanksgiving!