Mashup

Tiny Banana Split Brooch, Q. Cassetti, 2013 (live link to Etsy)Snowing some more. It was a wet winter wonderland last night when we were out…and it continued over the course of the evening. But there were honking geese in the sky this morning, and the starling were hunting around on the rooftop for a nice little spot in the gutter or under the roofline to make a little grassy nest for the new family on the way. The starlings are agressively family minded…so there is something in that as it relates to a promise of Spring though we certainly do not see it. We saw snowdrops in Ithaca on Sunday, again…another check that change is at hand…but I will not believe it until the white stuff is DONE.

It is very left foot right foot with my design work these days. Move ahead one step, back another and then change the palette sixteen different ways to sunday “Just because”. Very prescriptive and not really getting to visual problemsolving. Hairpullers for yours truly.

As you can see from the Banana Split brooch posted today, I am putting some new stuff on Esty, and am making duplicates to provide for fundraising auctions for Great Camp Sagamore and for MANY/Museumwise. I have a box of about a dozen different ones for both charities (and with these babies fetching around $ 25. a pop…there is a little bit of potential profit along with the gliclees I will be sending along with them). Nice that this might equal a scholarship for one and some supplies for the other.

The community read is raising money even before we have started the programming. Exciting that there is such a wide amount of support around this project.  Meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m. to see where we can take this and who else we can engage in the process.

I am buying Hawkeye and Redmon vintage picnic baskets and will be selling them through Sundrees soon. Diane and I thought it would be fun to have them as part of the mix and as part of the Farmgirl/ Tburg Bride styling that she is working on. So, I have some beautiful things coming my way to sell for dish to pass chic…and ready to be tricked out with your favorite tablecloth and vintage melamine (or some of the really cute plates they have at Target for poolside or lake side endeavors).

Must go. Time’s a wasting.

Sundae on Monday

Sundae Brooch by Q. Cassetti, 2013 available on EtsyIts been a while. A busy while, nonetheless… Let me think about the news, the new ideas, the state of the state. The Federation of Farmers Market meeting was very nice and homespun. I liked meeting and seeing the range of people, their engagement, and the vitality in the room.  It wasn’t a huge group, but lots of interest in all that was said. I had the pleasure of meeting the Executive Director of the Niagara Frontier Growers Market and the President of the Board of the Ithaca Farmers Market. The takeaway from that experience as that we should absolutely embrace the dynamics of a small market and truly own it, build into it…and keep it the personal experience that it is today. Bigger is okay, but not for our little community. What we can do for our community is provide a gathering space around food, eating and locally made objects.. We can provide a platform for local music, local performers, local arts. We can provide a neighborhood approach to “why not” type of entertainment and gathering from dish to pass suppers, to fundraising auctions, to the craziness of my friend Deb’s Soap Box Derby. We can revel in Local, Locavore, and in each other. We can use the farmers market to create new bonds beyond the church, the schools, and the community groups. We can continue to weave those ribbons of connection between people…to build and support each other. This is something we do well here in our little Village…and if we are deliberate about this activity, think of the strength we ill all have in each other.

I was prodded to join the Chamber of Commerce. Kicking and complaining…saying no…no…no…and then, surprisingly, I attended and am enchanted. It was such a bright group of action oriented people that being at the table to represent the Farmers Market was a pleasure. The Chamber and the Market both have literature distribution issues, so we are going to create a job and share the expenses etc. There you go! Reason one to go to the Chamber, share the wealth and get stuff done. So, more on that.

We had a very engaging Farmers Market meeting last week. The librarian at the Middle School attended and spoke about partnering with us to do some programming with him around a Middle School “read” to a community read…The book is SeedFolks…and it is about the power of planting to help draw people and communities together. Of course, we are on it…and interestingly, after an email to a variety of community groups, we have traction with them. So, we are going to meet this week to get this thing rolling. The day one of this activity is April 26 to roll through a month, so there is not a ton of time, but it should be fun to see what can happen. It was very rewarding to make a few calls and write an email or two and see the energy that is being put towards this thing. Not much more than that, but should be very cool to see what happens. I am feeling this.

Off topic entirely, Squarespace (the entity I author this blog with) has a site for visual people to create more visually inspired pages (Squarespace 6) along with a way to post retail pages /create a store which is linked to Stripe (a company that can do the financial transactions). Lets just put it this way, my mind is a whirl on this.

Kitty is home for Spring Break. It is great to have time with her. I taught her how to needlepoint yesterday and gave her a kit which I must admit, given how she is absolutely voracious…it will be done before the week is out. This is a great thing as with all the bus travelling she does, this will keep her hands busy during that down time. She had a group over last night to eat snack food and celebrate the Saint who chased snakes out of Ireland….I wonder if he wore green loafers much like the pope?

Market meanderings.

Toivo at the Trumansburg Farmers Market, Q. Cassetti 2012Trumansburg, New York is a community of 1500 people in the Village and 4500 in the Town of Ulysses. Trumansburg is a very collaborative and creative place where lutiers, financiers, farmers, teachers, carpenters all meet at the local coffee shop to klatch and plan. Trumansburg is a project kind of place. We give money, but what we love more than anything is a dish to pass, a community build, a project we can make happen. We have an annual music festival, The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, which for over 20 years has brought the world to our hamlet—and we have embraced that spirit of community and power that comes on the local level. This spirit leaks into pretty much anything that happens here, including our Farmers Market.

Our little farmers market sits on a small, triangular village park on Main Street in Trumansburg, New York. It is a young market that started under the big willow tree with several farmers who came together to sell produce and food to the local populace. There was interest and this little market grew. Grew so much that a grant was applied for, and funds were raised by the community to build a pair of roofed pavillions and a bandstand in this little park to formalize this market and move it forward. A local architect and community team designed these structures and over a 4 month period, built it over a series of weekends as a community build. There were people of every shape and size building our market with lunches brought in from local restaurants and families who wanted to contribute. It was truly a remarkable moment which for me fully defined what we were capable of as a village. It was sheer positive energy directed at making something wonderful that would enhance our life on this little Main Steet place.

That was four years ago. Today, the Market boasts a thriving community of farmers, producers, restaurants and caterers, and artisans that come together from mid May to the end of October, every Wednesday from 4-7 in the afternoon and early evening. It is dinner time, and the community turns out to do the circuit and shop, eat and meet up with friends. We have live music every week (pro-bono—but a hat is passed) and occasionally, we will have movie night after the market when we have a screen put up, and movies played with prizes, popcorn and even one evening last summer, rootbeer floats for everyone! Heaven.

We entertain, we enchant, we feed, we involve people and and, we also sell produce and sandwiches, eggs, wine, hard cider and cheese, bread, horseradish jelly and garlic scape pesto. But we need it all to move forward. The market is a three way gimbol— balancing the needs and expectations of the farmer/producer with the needs and expectations of the consumer along with the needs and expectations fo the community. As much as we would like it to be as simple as selling celery, in order for this market to have roots, we need to address all three in the most engaging, out of the box way. If we can charm and provide a treat along with educate and inform, we have a chance of sustainable success for our local food producers and eaters.

The interesting thing as I think about the market and how to talk about it—I keep reflecting on the farmers markets of my life. Growing up, my mother and I went to a farmers market in a very dicey neighborhood in Pittsburgh that must have been in a garage or something. It was an indoors market, very dark and dreary. We would go to see Mr. Kutz (from Central PA) with his red haired, apple cheeked daughters to buy eggs and chickens and occasionally something green. Somehow the green stuff always came from Giant Eagle.

The next snapshot was learning about the Ithaca Market and watching it grow. The concept that local food, or organic food would have any significant foothold was totally alien at the time. Food Co-ops and natural food stores when I was in college were grungy places that smelled odd, and the produce was less than hearty or robust. It was more about tea than it was about food, at least for me.

Moving ahead again, I was sent to the Natural Foods and Products Convention in Anaheim (1989) when I was working for Estee Lauder. I was sent to get an eyeful of what was happening in this Natural world…particularly that of the channel of beauty and cosmetics. I was sent to better understand the competition so as to be able to leverage the power of this beauty brand, the funds and product development we had, and take it to the next level from the grungy health food store to counters at  Neiman Marcus and Nordstoms. I was horrified (and delighted I was wearing my badge backwards) when I sat in on a personal products break out session , when a leading light in the natural foods store beauty business pulled out an article hinting at Estee Lauder getting into the natural products world. This woman proclaimed that those in the business had better raise their sights as the competition was just about to get bigger, and they couldnt just be natural product people…but needed to improve their marketing, their image, their brand. They could not rest happily in the dusty food coops and needed to up their game. The concept of a Whole Foods was beyond imagination.

Now, look at where we are. Whole Foods is a reality. Organic produce is available at WALMART?! People really are reading the labels. Packaging is more responsible. The CSAs are booming…and popping up everywhere…can this continue? How is going to evolve? What is the model? How can anticipate this? or should we? Can the Trumansburg Market be the incubator for these new products and farms? Can we have a lovely night of stars, and friends, food, and bags of leeks and organic eggs while supporting local agriculture and thus supporting the betterment of those around us? I think we can. We are a community of do-ers…and this seems right up our alley.

Now that I got that off my chest, I can think about the board a bit more. Thanks for your patience.

Locavore

Hardware Store Punch, Q. Cassetti, 2013Tomorrow I have the opportunity to speak to the Farmers Market Federation of New York at LaTourelle Inn and Spa about how our board works with our Market Manager. Just thinking about the points I am going to make, has forced me to think about how I have engaged in the local foods movement, and the progress that has been made in the last 18 months.

In the past two years, I have provided pro bono work (some design, some consulting, some both) to: MyerFarm Distillery, Redbyrd Orchard Cidery, Good Life Farm, Sweetland Farm, Tree Gate Farm, Stone Cat Cafe, MacDonald Farm, Wide Awake Bakery, Farmer Ground Flour, Regional Access, New York Foods, The Trumansburg Farmers’ Market,  Central New York Cider Week, Forge Cellars, The Piggery to name a few. I am sure I am forgetting someone. It has been an amazing journey learning about these farmers, their farms, their livlihood, their focus and why they farm. I have learned that farmers may not all be born marketers, and that the perception that there is fairness in the world/ and in the local economy should be cultivated (to that, I believe that the market teaches us if we listen—to tune our products, product selections, and the work we do to be desirable….We just have to each listen, and hear). I have learned about the import of transportation, of distribution hubs wheither it is in the form of a weekly pick up or CSA, a pop up shop or a truck that delivers to a bigger area. I have learned about farming during a drought, and the sheer knife edge these farmers live on between the seed purchases to harvest with bugs, and water, and hail, and heat or lack thereof….defining success and financial disaster. I have learned that sometimes, just sometimes, I need to give my farmer friends a bit of rope to figure things out themselves, and in the same way, give myself permission just to take a little time and let things simmer and evolve. These are people who know about watchful waiting. They know about seasons and time. They know about light and darkness, heat and cold. These are people who will move greenhouses around on tracks to make sure their greens have the best source of light and heat to bring us delicate greens in the middle of March. These are passionate people who love deeply but because of their trust and collaborative make up, can be hurt as deeply as they love. These are people who do not mind getting dirty, working hard, and when possible, playing just as hard. They care about their apples, their greens, their flowers and boules and link it to a larger, more spiritual notion. Allison Usavage  created a lovely film about Stefan Senders and David MacGuinness’ Wide Awake Bakery and captures this spirit that seems to be an overlay to the local food scene here, here is the vimeo link>

This work sometimes can be challenging…but the film shows the reward. To be able to drink from the same cup as these hard working people is an honor. And, to try the first fresh greens of spring, to taste Eric and Devas sublime sparking cider as delicate as a bite of apple, or see tiny Melissa get her massive horses, Randi and Betsy pull together for her, or taste Stefan’s wonderful hot bread made from Greg’s flour (Farmer Ground) which was ground from Thor’s wheat….Or to try Tony’s black beans…the circle is complete. One blessing after the next—from the farmer to the consumer and back to the lovely land we live in and on. The same birds sing to my farmers as they do to me. The same rain and snow come our way. It is all right here, right now. And we all live in it for now.

Peace

Winter on Cayuga Lake, Q. Cassetti, 2013The sun finally shone today. First real sunny afternoon since February 1.  The light was so welcome, so crystalline and bright, bouncing off the snow, casting deep blue shadows. It was a miracle to feel the heat of the sun heating up my studio, heating up my heart a bit.

It has been a cold, dark, grey few weeks. It has been a hard time for all of us, most particularly Mary, Rob and Gloria at Two Camp Street with our sudden loss of Ron.

We have all been winded by the whole experience starting with his last trip to the hospital through to a week where he was admitted to hospice and by the following week, gone from us. The whole experience felt as if it was triple time, and we were all trying to learn the new normal, the new dance steps for the next day, and the day beyond—finally feeling that we could do this, could incorporate this change into our lives when he left us.

We were told we had weeks not days… but we had days. Albeit, the end was sweet for him. He was comfortable, with his family, and spent the last few days with us enjoying the simple things like a perfectly poached egg on toast, listening to Wodehouse read by his brother, talking about summers in the Thousand Islands and his large Italian family of uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents. He had his family, his wife/son and daughter all around him during that last week, attentive and sweet. He was at peace, and he left us gracefully, quietly, as if letting go of a light tether that bound him to this plane. It was a gentle moment of passage—a soft birth into the next chapter.

I cannot say enough of the little village we live in. It is times like this that the rubber hits the road—and we were supported, cared for, and loved by the remarkable EMS team who were with us at the end—gentle and respectful, kind and giving—taking something that could be frightening and embueing it with humanity, humility and  grace. They were there to allow Ron to leave us, and help us to understand he had left us. Their kindness went way beyond their job, and we will be forever grateful. We had a beautiful prayer and service with the Episcopal minister while Ron was here…and when Mary was ready, Joe Sibley came with hugs and common sense to take Ron to the funeral home. That evening was filled with sadness, but also with heart, and life confirming. It confirmed we are in the right place surrounded by the right people who care. We are part of a community that reaches out and hugs those in need….and know it is the right thing. It was a blessing that Ron waited for his brother to come. It was a blessing to have Rob’s first cousin here. It was a blessing we had Alex over the Presidents Weekend…all of it bolstering and bracing all of us.

We are now putting together a Memorial for Ron—with poetry, music and spoken word. There will be a reception chez Camp (2 blocks from the Church)—and  I am scanning cookbooks and catalogs to see what we can do. We have guests coming in from California and Boston. We will have people from Corning and Elmira, Rochester and Ithaca. Of course we will have those from his little village. We will have jazz, as Ron would have liked it. We may even have martinis as that was his most favorite. So, forgive me for my silence…I have needed to gather my wits and calm the spinning wheels in my brain.

I will be able to say a bit more tomorrow. Thank you for your understanding.

What a week

Summer in Ithaca, Q. Cassetti, 2013, Adobe Illustrator Cs5Things have been a bit wild around here. My father-in-law was rushed to the hospital last Friday with a significant nosebleed. He was in the hospital for a few days—and then the process of interviews, deliveries, questionnaires, phone calls and the beginning of the “new normal” began. Hospice has begun. He has moved downstairs as his movement/mobility is challenged. He is not in pain, though breathing  is challenging. He has limited time awake and conscious with most of the time asleep. We are all trying very hard to wrap our heads around this change…and it is stressing us all out in different ways. Everyday is different—and all of our independance is challenged as Mary and Gloria need time to tend to their lives as well. This week with Rob is going to be tough as he is seriously busy and travelling, so I feel I will fill that gap as well as I can. I have set up a Caring Bridge site (a wonderful service that is private and allows a family to talk about  a family member who is sick/ailing/challenged etc to a wide community of friends—essentially making the same “phone call” over and over again…and keeping all the friends and wellwishers up to date with the status quo. I have taken this on….and I hope its been helpful for Ron and Mary’s friends. To learn more about Caring Bridge (www.caringbridge.org)

Rob has been busy moving furniture, making beds out of sofas, moving trip hazards, supporting the change next door in a broad physical way. He also has been very kind and open with his dad and mom…spending time with them and sweetening the sadness that we all have. Lightening the moment with stories and popcorn. He is such a wonderful guy.

We got an impressive amount of snow on Friday. Its been grey until today which has given us a blazing blue and white day to relish the snow bouncecard effect on the light, and the lovely blue shadows we have here on our plateau.

I am rounding the corner on a lot of projects from the candle packaging for “Bee of Life” (using one of my bee goddesses as the image and I created a hive texture and my bees as a complement and background for the paper labels) to Sagamore’s Benefit event package graphics. My big client is bending and changing, and we are bending and changing with them. I am working on box graphics and some vintage related publications for Forge Cellars, updates on the packaging and new ideas for Redbyrd Orchard Cider. The Piggery seems well on their way with new programming and promotion (their BaconFest was a huge success) with Valentines Day seatings filling up, and plans for a St. Patricks Day Sausage Fest on the horizon. Good Life Farm is ramping up for Asparaganza this spring, so we have had a meeting about that…and putting plans in place to support this event. The Farmers Market has sent out applications for vendors (I think I may be a day vendor for a few of the markets just to sell my little thises and thats along with cards)….but we will see.

Creatively, I am a bit shot. I wish I had the zing going on that the Advent work had, but given the changeability of the moment, I am just happy to make little creature doodles in my notebook and focus on the work at hand (teasing out a content review of a website for one) to make psychic room for the extra stuff. I have also decided to spend time learning new things, so I am trying to do a few Lynda.com tutorials during the day to keep my head in the game…and learn something that can make me more productive etc. Plus, I love my digital tools….and the more I learn, the more fun it gets.

Scary.

Glamour Girl, Q. Cassetti 2013, Adobe IllustratorIt was a mild spring day yesterday, but this morning snaps us back into winter on the first of February. All of our mounds of velvety moss had seized up into bright green patches by the side of the house. Shady romped while Mr. White wriggled on the pavement with feline delight. Today we will be running for the radiators and prime spots under the stove. Its frosty and white.

Love Leif Peng. Love Leif Peng’s “Today’s Inspiration” illustration history blog which surfaces people, time, projects, trends of illustration. Leif recently interviewed my mentor, Murray about Herb Lubalin and more broadly, on the ’70s. Take a look. Murray and Leif surface some lovely things and trends highlighting the amazing PushPin Studios along with the work of John Alcorn (wooooooweeee!!)

More pictures of percieved glamour… Here is a vintage Barbie with the half frisbee eyelash shelves, pouty lips and the tiniest pre-surgical nose in the universe. Freakolicious! Isnt she horrifying? Not surprising, even in her updates, she continues to be horrifying though her nose gets a scootch bigger, and her body a bit less atomic…its still pretty unreal. Good thing Barbie never gets old, gets pregnant or has gall bladder surgery. Middle age Barbie goes to the PTA meeting?  Colonoscopy Barbie? And its also good that Barbie is independently wealthy, so Barbie working at the Grocery Store or Walmart is out of the question. If she does work, she is a Vet or owner of a candy store…but never a window clerk at the DMV…though I am sure she has some rocking denim studded number that would really make folks sit up and take notice.

heya.

Troll, Q. Cassetti 2013. Adpbe IllustratorAlex is back at Hofstra. Kitty has started classes. Rob is busy. I have pulled another muscle in my leg…so I am hobbling around cronelike…and living for the heating pad. We are a few days into it…and I must admit, its getting better—but not as quickly as I would like.

Lots of work from Great Camp Sagamore. Just finished a poster, quartercard, black and white ad, ticket, web icon, Facebook graphic to promote a benefit folk concert April 5 in Saratoga Springs with the Jamcrackers and another group. I have their benefit invitation, website work and then, hopefully we can do a bit of a dive into a brand. After the board meeting, I now grasp how I can help the team move the needle in branding, brand building, promotion and programming which I am beginning to understand I am pretty good helping spin ideas about. The Piggery did a Bacon Fest which we talked out…and it rang the cash register, drove traffic and awareness and was a complete success for them. I hope with Sagamore, we can drive more people to visit, to give and to support. So much is volunteer, that those with means should contribute a bit….but that is a later story.

The troll is one of a series of illustrations I am going to work on—portraits of toys that terrified me as a child… breathing alittle life into their scariness. I finished a Barbie and have a few more Barbies to do…as I am stunned by the big lips, and the alien eyes that these oddly shaped iconic dolls portray.

frosty

Winter on Cayuga, 2012, Q. Cassetti, Adobe Illustrator.Wintery mix. The weather got so nice and warm this weekend, it was doors open, with Rob chipping away all the left over ice in prep for the next go round. It is white and magical this morning, with a slow fall, falling quietly albeit not too oppresively. Alex is itching to work, and I need to figure out how to get him occupied for a significant amount of time so it isnt this little thing and that little thing. I have projects to do, and with the littleinterruptions all day, it can make things a bit unwieldy and though productive for him, not so for me.

I got some bad printing back (first time ever) from an online source who has an email customers service thing…and I am anxious as the job is def needing to be reprinted and it is their problem… I think I am going to send another email with a photo of the job attached….so that the question of fault goes out the window. It is a time sensitive thing, so I need to get them rolling and I do not want to take a hit to reprint a job that I am doing as a courtesy for a friend. Quel Drag.

The winter bunny is an exploration of the color palette for a local college who has gold and blue as their exclusives, which I have pushed to a rainbow of tints, with beige. I was monkeying around with it for a legit picture, and figured I would salvage some of the parts and make my own picture just for kicks. They also are looking for another approach which dawned on me could be a photographic collage which skirts the color issues (no guidance on photography) yet, gives me some leeway with imagery and the mooshing of all sorts of ideas. So, I did one for kicks yesterday in addition to the vector image just to see what their response would be. These images may be “grandmother tested” when the kids come back to school to see what they respond/react to, and then move accordingly. Collage is a whole world of opportunity we have not really even explored! How exciting! Equally time consuming but in a different, more humorous way.

 

Citric Acid

Citric Acid, Q. Cassetti 2012, Adobe IllustratorHave been full bore on work and trying to slip in an illustration  or two just to keep the advent buzz going. A local college contacted me for an illustration for their summer program (which formerly they have mined my existing images that we would change out to suit their needs). But now that they have a new branding program which is fairly constricting, with a very intense, very quiet palette which they are firm on…I figured this was a good challenge to create within these bounds to see what could happen. Interestingly, the more limits I iput on myself with the color, the better the illo got (using basicallly two colors and the myriad of screened color). I hope it is something we can go with. I am intrigued to see where this can go combined with the trippy brushes, objects, and animals.

Alex is helping me with cards for Valentines Day. We are cranking them out from my printer and my accucut die cutter. We have about 10 different designs for sale at Sundrees along with some pins, some pendants and some little collections of tiny food that can be purchased in a nice tin box. We also have a cute Bakery Case (mini) to show the cake and cupcake pins, and some little unfinished/raw pine tables for sale to go with the little food for Valentines Day. I am focused on this as I am delighted that we made a bit of money out of one venue in December, and hope to see where this can go as the possibility of going to the stationery show in NYC and selling cards is not an impossibility. Consider that I have well over 40 images from the current Advent Calendar, why shouldnt I take advantage of that income stream.

Walking in Sunshine

Walking on Sunshine, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Trumansburg, NYWell…it is snowing, and snowing and I couldnt be more pleased. It is mounding up and needs to be plowed… And I am coming off the Advent Calendar blitz by reacting with full Kawaii, full Lisa Frank, full Alex Grey, and the tools of candyshop illustration. I am just going with the flow…to see what evolves. I have a lace brush, rainbow brushes, a beginning knowledge of a few new tools, and the urge to take cute and run with it,. I have instruction from Kitty that the new neutral, the new grey for me to work in is rainbow. Wow. Far from the discipline of black and white and a second color. This is hard going to let the reins out.

Christmas: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Five, Christmas Peace

Christmas: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Five, Christmas Peace, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYPeace be with you and yours on this day that reminds us that each new day is a new birth, a new opportunity to grow, change, give and love each other. Have a lovely and warm Christmas with those you hold dear.

Advent is done. Christmas is here. However, if you want to review the images created for this years Advent Calendar, they are all compiled here (and a few more I didnt post)… its right here


Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three

Christmas Eve: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three, Wrappin’ Mr. Giftie, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYLove to all my friends and family here and abroad on this Christmas Eve 2012. The day looks to be promising, filled with light, people gathering, and the space for all of us to assess all that we have to be thankful for—in the past, present and hope for the future. May you soak in the day—with those you love.

Sunday Special: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Bonus: A Little Happy Time

I know its off topic, and I know it really isnt part of the proper advent calendar, but it was created only last week, so I will post this as a bonus on a beautiful Sunday before a week of celebration and joy.
Sunday Special: Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Bonus: A little happy time, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NY

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three: Kawaii Snow Globe

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day Twenty Three, Kawaii Snow Globe, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg, NYWe got some snow yesterday. So, it is feeling a bit more like winter. Kitty made a ton of earrings out of the dollhouse treasures—and sold $70. worth to friends during the course of the day. Alex visited with friends and helped Rob get the tree. I wrapped presents while waiting for my computer to boot up from the numerous crashes while making tomorrow’s picture for the next to final Advent Calendar project. I love what is going on with this picture and my mind is whirring about what is next. So, this body of work drove technique inspired by content, and now the content is evolving for the next collection of images inspired by the new techniques.  The Catherine Wheel of insipiration keeps proving itself to me.

A person saw my food brooches at Sundrees and contacted me to create a holiday feast without the pins to give to his wife for a holiday gift. I have a bunch of small pine tables and whomped up platters of cookies, veggies, a turkey, tea in cups with lemon, bread in a bread basket, a pie and more…so cute…I think I have another product to sell for Valentines Day? I need to get the valentine printed…and create a few to sell. Maybe this little deer would like to be part of a Kawaii valentine? Or the head of antoher stratosphere suit. Why didnt I see that yesterday? Jeez. Not much time to reflect on what is being thrown out the door.