A new business is in town

A new cafe has just opened its doors in Point Pleasant, called Local Urban Kitchen. Seriously.... the cafe has an impressive vegan menu and the best smoothies I've ever had, hands down.  Their mango smoothie tastes just like a mango lassi!  People with the pickiest palette are bound to find something that they will continue returning to eat.  If I opened my own local place, it would be very similar to LUK; noting all the farms where my produce comes from and giving artists and local musicians a venue to get together.  I really support what the owner and chef, Maged, is doing in the community, and it's definitely a place worth checking out.

I just finished their handmade banner for outdoor shows and to decorate a naked wall.  We have just enough space at our apartment so I could hang it.  Some of my favorite fabrics were cut for this one- tomatoes, blueberries and psychedelic chickens.

Check out their open mic nights too! 1805 Rt. 35 in Point Pleasant, by the circle.
https://www.facebook.com/LocalUrbanKitchen

A weekend worth sharing: Kayaking, Camping, and Sandcastles

Our weekend started Friday morning, truckin' our way to Batso to kayak and enjoy some nature walks with a bag of cherries in hand.  As soon as we set up camp, I found this blinded sphinx moth!

After doing one intense 4+ hour kayaking tour (against the current... phew!), and snacking on some cookie smores, we fell asleep to a Whip-poor-will who made his presence known but was too hard to find.  We went pickin' berries in the barrens the next day.

I had some time before the Little Big Toe cd release show at the Saint, so I baked some treats.

And the next day.... we rode on  Seaside Boardwalk's Casino Pier Carousel.  I think I'll ride it one (or two...) more times before they auction it off this fall.  It's one of 150 surviving carousels in the US.  Supposedly, after the Great Depression, many carousels were replaced with more thrilling rides, and this particular carousel has been around for over 80 years with a real band organ attached so you can enjoy the same music people enjoyed many years ago.  

Meet Penny.

Aaannnnddd... we went kayaking all weekend and visited a sand castle museum... but this blogger's too pooped to post anymore. Pics coming soon ;)

Pappy's Pickles

Prior to our New Hope Trip, Daimon and I made pickles with pickling cucumbers that were so big we could barely fit them all in two jars. It takes about a week for the pickles to marinate in all the spices and vinegar, so we went on our trip and enjoyed them when we came back.  There's no way I could eat the spicy ones, but our friends have consumed most of them at this point.  It's become a summer tradition for us to make pickles, with all organic ingredients from his dad's garden; even the garlic we pulled out of the ground!

Beware, if you have one of these you will never buy store-bought pickles again.

More from the trip

Doylestown and New Hope, PA

Inside a dollhouse.

Whose that swaggin' in the window?

We stayed in Doylestown, visited a castle and saw machinery suspended from the ceiling that hasn't been taken down in a hundred years.

Seriously, we had the best ice-cream.  At the end of our trip, Daimon and I shared a hot waffle, with nutella and homemade apple pie ice-cream. I couldv'e had two... or three...

Herfin' and Derfin' with our buddies.

We came home with one antique.. this italian hand painted cat, I named Muesette... and a few other items from the Golden Nugget in Lambertville.

How cool are these weird rooster embroidery scissors? I picked up another salt and pepper shaker set (made in Japan), and an alligator tooth.

Now I can add another mini sewing machine to the collection, and what trip would be complete without a dancing santa. The cat wanted to kill it.  The holidays will be interesting having a curious cat around.

The underwater pics are not pictured here!

Life Lately... mid July 2014

We just got back from spending a few days in Pennsylvania, doing some antiquing and floating down the Delaware river. Prior to,  I spent some time in my sewing space making a few things before we left, like this yoga mat bag.

This time of year, I am so grateful we live right at the edge of the pine barrens so I can take all these nature shots!

Gotcha!

Still... over a week later... trying to turn into a butterfly.

This gross thing is called a bagworm. I'm more interested in its snail-like appearance.

We volunteered at a farm, and St. Francis over here get all the attention.

I started working at New Jersey's Bugseum, Insectropolis.  It was exciting to see this enormous donation.

And here's a few pics from our trip to PA.

This victorian dollhouse was in the most amazing store, Teardrop Memories, easily my favorite store in New Hope. It's filled with relics, oddities, and rare items. You can learn more about it here.

More pics from the Vay-cay coming soon.

A New Look for the Portfolio Website

It took months and made it to TWO seasonal lists, and I can finally take it off my summer to do list to redesign my portfolio website. I wasn't sure at first if it might be too much, but there are several categories of work and my work is diverse within each. Check it out and please send me your feedback.


Click the photo below.

Wharton State Forest on Film

It's a place worth visiting, but don't go there hungry without a picnic packed, there's nothing to eat unless you like eating frogs ;)

MOTHRA!

The mother of all moths was enjoying the light above my apartment door the other night.  Since we live practically in the pine barrens, we sometimes see (and hear) some really unusual critters.  So far, I've seen a luna moth...

 a Rosy Maple moth...

AHHH!

and this guy, the Automeris Io moth.  I carefully trapped him and brought him inside to take some pictures. The cat wanted to kill him the whole time.  He had such a huge furry bottom and furry antennae, which led me to believe it was a male.

I couldn't get quality photos because his wings just wouldn't stay open! Here's a better reference for you.

I'm keeping an eye out for this guy, the Polypemus moth, and when I finally do see this massive bug I hope to have a small photoshoot with the film camera.