Wicked Plants

Our weekend was mostly full of chores, but we took a little break Sunday and headed to Lauritzen Gardens. The botanical garden never seems to disappoint with interesting exhibits, and this was no exception. Their spring exhibit is called "Wicked Plants" (based on the book of the same title), and it features plants that are a little on the dangerous side, plants that are poisonous, carnivorous, hallucination-inducing and the like.

Mostly, though, the plants were beautiful, and we loved reading about the sometimes surprising dangers they contained.

Did you get out and see anything interesting where you live this weekend?

Finally Friday!

Phew. You might say this has been a really long week. Piles and piles of printing, screens not burning properly, colors not coming out quite right, mixed up supply orders, back pain and a headache that seems impervious to treatment. You also might say that I am really, really looking forward to this weekend. How about you?

Despite everything that seemed to go wrong this week, quite a bit ended up going well, too. I thought I'd leave you this week with a few more glimpses at the progress of the new Katie Blair Designs line. The colors make me smile every time I look over at them.

Weekend in Kansas City

This weekend, we took a quick trip to Kansas City. It was two days full of great food (barbecue and sushi, yum!), visits with friends that we don't see often enough, and a little time exploring a city where neither of us has spent much time.

Our primary reason for heading down was to see the Kansas City Ballet production of Romeo and Juliet, since a high school friend of C's was performing in the orchestra. The ballet was beautiful -- I don't think I've seen a ballet since I saw The Nutcracker at approximately age 7 -- and the new performing arts center there is breathtaking. We also made stops at Oklahoma Joe's, the Nelson-Atkins museum, and the plaza.

Our drive to and from the city was lovely, too. We lucked out with perfect weather, and the flocks of geese and soaring hawks that seemed to be perched in every other tree kept us busy bird-watching from the road.

A quick trip, but a much-needed break for both of us. Did you get to do anything fun this weekend?

Winter Squash & Ricotta Soup

Even though our winter here has been surprisingly mild, February always seems to find me craving warm, hearty meals. With that in mind, I threw together this little soup last night, using up a few things stocked in our refrigerator and freezer (plus the last winter squash we still had on hand from this fall's farmers market trips). It turned out so well, I thought you might like to have the recipe, too.

A couple of notes first: I used homemade pumpkin puree that I stored in the freezer, but I think you could use canned without any problem. Just be sure to get pumpkin puree, not pie filling, and you may need to add a little more broth to thin things out a bit. Also, you could switch out any kind of winter squash you like with delicious results.

I made this bread to have on the side (I swapped out the all-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour to make it completely whole grain). C declared it "perfect for sopping up soup," and I couldn't agree more.

Winter Squash and Ricotta Soup
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
4 c. pumpkin puree
2-3 lb. winter squash (I used a kabocha, but I think anything will do), roasted, peeled and chopped into chunks
4 c. chicken or vegetable broth
3 tsp. crushed dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. salt (plus more to taste)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3/4 c. ricotta cheese
3/4 c. shredded parmesan cheese

 Directions:
In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until onion is translucent.
Add pumpkin, chopped squash, broth, rosemary, cayenne, salt and pepper. Stir until the mixture simmers. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes.
Using a regular blender or an immersion blender, puree mixture until it is mostly smooth. If you're using a regular blender, you'll need to do this in batches. Return to heat and add ricotta cheese. Stir until completely combined and heated through. Taste, and add more salt and pepper as needed.
Ladle soup into bowls, and top with shredded parmesan. Serve warm with a hunk of bread.

Enjoy!

More sneak peeks

I've been printing like mad last week and this week, which is great for my productivity but leaves me with little to blog about, I'm afraid. Instead, I thought I'd post a couple more snapshots of the progress of the new Katie Blair Designs line. I'm hoping to have it ready to go at the end of March, and I'll have tons more details about what I'm working on before then.

I hope you're having a great week!

Bouncing around the web

I've been pushing ink with a squeegee pretty much non-stop this week, which leaves me with very little time to blog. I'll have a few more peeks at what I've been working on in the studio next week. In the meantime, though, I thought I'd share a few links to things that have been inspiring me the past few days.

• Letters of Note, a delicious blog featuring fascinating letters, often from historical figures. A letter it featured a while back, from a former slave to his former master, has been going viral lately, but there are all sorts of great tidbits to be found there.
• I posted about this one on my facebook page yesterday, but it's too fun not to share again: Artist Molly Rausch creates paintings by extending the images on postage stamps into full-blown scenes.
• Thanks to an article in Vanity Fair, I'm fascinated by Rodarte, a fashion line by two sisters. What makes them particularly intriguing is the relationship between their clothing and other forms of art. Check out the Fra Angelico Collection, in particular.
• This great piece, on the making of the movie Diner, serves as another reminder that wonderful things can happen when artists stick to their guns.

What's been inspiring you this week?

Custom screenprinted wedding invitations sneak peek

I'm up to my elbows in printing ink this week, alternating between screenprinting custom wedding invitations and the products for my upcoming new line. I thought I'd take a quick break to show you this little peek at one of the wedding invitation pieces.

To make the bright ink colors for these pieces pop against the dark paper color, I'm using a technique called trapping. First, everything (like the dots above) is printed in white ink. Then I do two more layers of printing, first for yellow, then for orange, adding just a little size to each dot so that none of the white shows through.

Fun, aren't they? Hope you're having a great week!