Black Friday, Small Business Saturday & Cyber Monday

Did you survive Thanksgiving and Black Friday? We only made one shopping excursion to Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee so my husband could buy their limited edition Black Friday beer, which is only sold today.  If you are trying to do the buy local - buy handmade - support small businesses - thing, here are some suggestions for both in-person shopping in SE Wisconsin and some on-line gift guides in the form of Etsy treasuries for those of you in the rest of the world.

If you live in southeast Wisconsin and are looking for some local, handmade holiday gifts, here are some upcoming craft shows & one workshop:

Saturday, November 30, 2013
Art Vs Craft (their last year) - Milwaukee WI at the Harley Davidson Museum 

Holly Craft Fair - DePere WI

Sat & Sun December 7-8, 2013
Crafter's Marketplace (presented by the ABK Weaving Center)
at the Jazz Gallery, 926 E Center ST, Milwaukee  (I'm participating in this one.)

Sat. December 7, 2013
Holiday card making workshop at Redline Milwaukee

MKE UP Market Holiday Bazaar and Fundraiser for the Philippines at SPIN Milwaukee

Sun. December 8, 2013
Hovercraft 2013 at Turner Hall

Buy Local Gift Fair - Lakefront Brewery

There are probably plenty of others that I am missing!

If you don't live in Wisconsin, you can still shop on-line. (My Etsy shop is here)  I've also been putting together some holiday Etsy gift guides ranging from the kooky & creepy to the fun & colorful.  I've tried to keep the focus on handmade, as well as feature some folks I know both in person and on-line, though there are also strangers included along with members of the Etsy Wisconsin Street Team (WIST).  Enjoy!

Home for the Holidays (little colorful houses)
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTIxNzIyOHwyNzI1MzM3NzY0/home-for-the-holidays

Spoiled Cats & Spoiled Dogs (gift ideas for pets & pet lovers)
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTIxNzIyOHwyNzI1MzE0OTM2/spoiled-cats
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTIxNzIyOHwyNzI1Mjg3OTU0/spoiled-dogs

Krampus (a mythical creature who accompanies St. Nicholas and punishes the naughty children)
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTIxNzIyOHwyNzIyNjY4MzM5/krampus

Zombie Holidaze (and there's a lot of holiday themed zombie stuff out there)
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTIxNzIyOHwyNzI1MjQ0MDI4/zombie-holidaze 

Kooky & Creepy Holidaze (if you prefer your holiday a little off-kilter)
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTIxNzIyOHwyNzIyNzE4ODgz/kooky-creepy-holidaze

Now time for leftover pumpkin pie and a nap.... 

Milwaukee ARTibles Holiday Bazaar - extra hours!

Still looking for unique holiday gifts? The Milwaukee Artist Resource Network's ARTibles Holiday Bazaar will be open extra hours Dec. 19-24, 2011:
Mon-Wed 12 to 7
Thur-Fri 11 to 7
Sat. 10 to 5
(for those of you who like waiting to the last minute)
You can find all sorts of cool stuff made by local artists including clothing, jewelry, purses, ornaments, art magnets, bird houses, quilts, soaps, greeting cards, and more!

ARTibles Holiday Bazaar at MARN

Happy Thanksgiving! Tomorrow is traditionally "Black Friday" when we're supposed to all go out and do our Christmas shopping (even though many businesses have started holding their Black Friday sales early). If you're in the Milwaukee area, be sure to check out the ARTibles Holiday Bazaar at the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network (MARN), 5407 W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee (conveniently next door to Four Corners of the World). ARTibles features handmade artsy gifts, ornaments, and accessories by local artists (including me). A percentage of the sales also benefits MARN, a non-profit organization serving the Milwaukee arts community. After Thanksgiving, regular ARTibles hours will be Thursday & Friday from 11-7 and Saturday 10-5 through December 24, 2011. Go shop!

Easy Pumpkin Bar Recipe

Here's an easy recipe if you have an extra can of pumpkin sitting around. I posted recipes last Thanksgiving, so maybe this will become an annual tradition. This recipe actually came in a flyer from a local bank, so not all junk mail is bad!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar (I used slightly less, I admit)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple juice (I didn't have any, so I substituted apricot nectar - hey, it was in my pantry!)
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin (not the pre-seasoned pumpkin pie mix)
2 eggs

*NOTE: If you don't have 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, you can substitute 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. cloves.

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease & flour a 15x10x1-inch pan. (As you can see from the photo below, I didn't have that size pan, so I improvised.)

In a large bowl, beat all the ingredients together with an electric mixer until combined. (The original recipe said "on low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed," but who has the patience for that?) Spread batter in pan.

Bake 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely (about 1 hour). I admit that I didn't wait that long before tasting.

Finishing touches - The original recipe suggested using a 16-oz. container of ready-made cream cheese frosting to be applied after the pumpkin bar has cooled for an hour. Then it said you should refrigerate the whole thing for another 30 minutes "until set." Honestly, who can wait for that!? Assuming you have leftovers, you should store them in the fridge.

I'm not a big frosting fan, and I found it fine without topping. I did briefly consider spreading pecan pumpkin butter on it, but decided that was overkill! Happy Thanksgiving!

New Year's Resolutions, or lack thereof

My mom asked me what my New Year's resolutions were for 2010, and I surprised myself by echoing my husband's sentiments: "I'm not making any resolutions." Every year I have some vague idea that THIS is the year when I will organize my office & art space and make art to sell and so forth and so on. Well (as my hubby will tell ya), my work areas are still a mess, and while I did sell some art and teach workshops this year, it wasn't through any concerted effort on my part. So this year, I figure I'll try to do my best, and we'll see what comes of it!

My book arts group is doing a monthly mail art swap where we each send someone else in the group a piece of mail art each month. Above is the postcard I made for my friend Darlene, who is also a cat lover.

So Happy New Year, and let's all just try to do the best that we can in 2010!

Christmas is NEXT WEEK?!?

Not that I'm panicking or anything! I have been working on little art projects here and there, but can't post photos until after the holidays. This coming weekend is our local ATC group's end of year party, so I made a few Christmas-ish ATCs such as this Zentangle tree & wreath inspired by Sandy Steen Bartholomew's article in Cloth Paper Scissors and the Tangles of the Week on her blog.

I did a bunch of holiday crafting in November because Lisa Vollrath gave the Ten Two Studios Design Team a challenge to come up with projects for the December front page eye candy, so check out what we've all been working on! And don't forget, the holiday printables countdown is still going on through Dec. 25!

If I don't manage to get another post written before 2010, have a safe & creative holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Éire go Brách and all that! Here are some photos from Milwaukee's Irish Fest (since I haven't yet visited Ireland). Above is my husband (left) bartending with Steve Twigger from Gaelic Storm.

Don't forget this is the last day of the Ten Two Studios St. Patrick's Day printables countdown! Lisa just posted the winners of her giveaway drawing, and I'm happy to see that Ellie Burke, one of my friends from the Milwaukee ATC group, won a 6-month subscription to the Monthly Muse. Ellie is an amazingly talented glass artist. She's just started posting her work on Flickr too. Go check it out!