full of mistakes

French Macarons

Ever since I had a bite of Laduree macarons a few years ago, I have been fascinated by them. The color, shape, flavors are just so scenic and tasty... I recently tried to make some to see how hard it is to achieve perfection. My friend Jen helped me as I am a novice baker and she is really good. I looked online for a recipe and decided on this one as it looked fairly simple and by a professional. The notes from the first trial are as follow:

1. It does not take very long to make these, so I can try many more batches.
2. The chocolate batter turned out very rich, which does not bother me at all but for common like, I can use less of the tasty Scharffen Berger chocolate.
3. Very little amount of dough is enough for the little macarons. I ended up with giant ones, which is not a problem in terms of consumption, but just to be traditional, I need to be careful.
4. The macaron itself was not moist enough. I might need a different almond or look into troubleshooting solutions online.

Here is a photo from the first trial (the last one...):

For the next batch, we are thinking of trying a rose macaron~

Hillary also joined us during the baking session with 3 month old Mia. I forgot how light 3 month old babies were and enjoyed holding sweet, little Mia very much!

 

Wine maker - I think

I was going through some old journals and bumped into this old drawing. It surprised me as I recently have been mostly doodling, not putting much detail in any drawing. I guess I was having a good time.

This was in the front yard of a hotel that we were staying at a small island,  Bozcaada in Turkey, one of my favorite places in the world...

The Stationery Show - 2009

Back from another show. I have to say, maybe because it was smaller and only the good ones made it to the show or maybe there was a lot of talent this year, there were just so many good products and companies at Javits... During the quick breaks, I browsed through the isles and enjoyed the lovely selection of cards + products . Many design bloggers covered these great stationers, so I will not repeat, but before I move onto some other things, here are some photos from our booth [The photo quality is terrible. I had a hard time taking photos inside Javits with the bad lighting]:

Show was great for us and we had fun!

I also had some time to visit ICFF, International Comtemporary Furniture Fair, and at the Design Boom where designers sell their products, I found  Heather Lins textile products. The coasters from the Numbered Edition will hopefully be mine someday.

I had some other favorites in different categories. They will show up as I get through the show orders and all the paper work that has piled up.

They are all out there

I have finally finished editing photos and all the new products are on the Small Square Design website and the Etsy store. I had fun, as usual, with the photo shoots, walking around the house to see which props would work for which card, what I can do with what I have. The only bummer was the lack of sun in SF that delayed the photos shoot for days. This is one of my favorite products of the new season:

and its detail:

The show is approaching and I am very excited. My sister and her boyfriend (who are architects!) are building an amazing booth using wooden doors... Diva's friend has sewed us a curtain to cover up the top part from linen with Diva's ladybugs printed on it. I will have photos soon.

Cow!

I am participating in a collaboration among 5 small studies at the Stationery Show this year. The organizer, Shelley, picked up the nursery rhymes theme, probably inspired by her pregnancy!  Having Lula music around us all the time, I do have some favorites, so it was not hard to pick what to do...

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

And here is how the Small Square collaboration card looks like:

It will be presented in a hand bound booklet with the other cards... The book and the first card will be at Shelley's booth, and you will need to go to the other studios' booths to complete your book!  The previous year's book looked like this... I am excited to see how it will turn out!

The Stationery Show

Phew - it has been ages since the last post. I am getting ready for the National Stationery Show! We are leaving in a week, and I have been packing, posting, planning, taking and editing photos, working on the Etsy store and this and that. I am just finished with preparing our media list postcards for shipment. Diva and I will be sharing a booth and we collaborated on the postcards. I think that they have turned out pretty well...

Mmm. Chocolate.

Today I was at the Say Cheese store getting one of my favorite sandwiches, coppa on ciabbatta with provolone, a little olive oil and vinegar, and pepperoncini. Everything there tastes so fresh and good. Then, as I was leaving, I was looking around the sweets to have a little something after my favorite lunch, and picked up a dark chocolate that I have never seen before and had really nice packaging. My sandwich maker saw what I got and could not stop raving about it.. This guy was making everything by himself, picking the cacao beans, preparing the mix, etc... And he said that it tasted so good! Well, I was excited and I am not dissapointed. This chocolate by Rogue Chocolatier is so good! I got the Hispaniola.

 

I hope I will be able to taste more of Colin Gasko chocolate soon!

The Little Prince

I just finished reading The Little Prince one more time. It is one of my favorite books in the world. Since my first time, the drawing of the boa constrictor who ate the elephant was something I promised myself to always remember when I am a grown up....

The Prince asks the narrator to draw a sheep. Not knowing how to draw a sheep, the narrator draws what he knows, a boa with an elephant in its stomach, a drawing which previous viewers mistook for a hat. "No! No!", exclaims the Prince. "I don't want a boa constrictor from the inside or outside. I want a sheep!...". He tries a few sheep drawings, which the Prince rejects. Finally he draws a box, which he explains has the sheep inside. The Prince, who can see the sheep inside the box just as well as he can see the elephant in the boa, says "That's perfect".

The Little Prince himself was the sweetest thing in the book. His little planet, his troubles with his flower and his fox make me sad and make me smile.

Hello Cards

We have a great visitor in the house, Grace Chamberlin Watson. She had  been a great help and inspiration throughout several seasons of Small Square Design, BUT this time she actually printed one of her own designs. They are called hello cards and are available at a special Grace section in my Etsy store. Have a look, it is great work by a 7 year old.

 

Limited Edition

I believe I have a really special limited edition print by Jen! Once when she was doing silkscreen printing, I tagged along to learn how to do it and, to show me she just did a quick reprint of something she had worked on before, with some ink that was mixed and left around. I thought it looked great and she gave me one of them... Here it is:

Here is the link to the original of this print.