Archive for November, 2011
What Fun It Is - original watercolor by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
Are you ready for the hustle and bustle of the “Holiday Season?”
That’s not the question but I’ll answer anyway: Me neither. Part of me wants to run under a rock for the next few months. Until it is warm outside and the sun stays up past 5pm. You know…just hibernate until after Valentines Day. Wake me around Spring break, okay?
Okay, okay I will hunker down and participate. I even painted a lovely little Christmas tree last night. See….I do have some, uh, what some would call holiday spirit.
I do enjoy the festive quality of Christmas; making things decorative and of course the FOOD is pretty amazing.
But I can do with out the shopping and the forced family get togethers.
So before this post gets all bipolar on you I will just end with this question:
1. What do you most look forward to during this lovely time of year?
Twisting the Night Away - 8x10 watercolor by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
I can’t look at this painting without hearing the title ring through my head in Sam Cooke’s soul shaking voice.
“Let me tell you bout a place…“
But for a minute no one was going to look at the painting because about halfway through I started to hate it and wanted to throw it away. Sometimes it’s just good editing and sometimes it’s only for the thrill, the power, the glory of deciding an artwork’s fate (insert evil genius laugh).
I did not toss it out. But I came to a turning point while painting and decided I was just going to have fun with it and paint it how I wanted. I think you can tell I was not so strict about painting over paint (which can be really tricky with watercolor) and I can almost hear my painting teacher in high school shouting at me, “Don’t make it muddy!”
I exercised some restraint and came out with this pretty picture of a gang of owls having a night time soiree. By pure sweet wonderful miracle I sold the painting on the same day I listed it for sale. That almost never happens! But you can pre-order the print if you like. It will be in by Saturday, Dec. 3rd.
A couple weeks ago my grandmother turned 86 years old. I went to visit her and borrow some more of her cookbooks. She finds it funny that I read cookbooks before bed each night and encourages me to read from her library. I find it very relaxing to go to bed dreaming of cookies, candies, and random hard boiled egg in gelatin recipes. On her shelves of funny old cookbooks I found a collection of hand written recipes acquired by Grandma’s mother, Helfred Herbert.
I never met Helfred. But I think I would have liked her. Upon further investigation I found this photo of her (above) and Grandma told me she was a red head (like me!). Helfred was born in America but her parents immigrated from Sweden. Helfred lived in a little Swedish town in Iron Mountain, Michigan and later married a minister and lived in Chicago where my grandmother grew up. She loved food. According to my grandma, Helfred made cookies from Dec 1st to Christmas Day. This is my kind of gal.
I thumbed through the notebook of recipes she collected and am completely excited to try one out. Yesterday when my daughter was bored of TV and barbies we decided to make some cookies. Well, I didn’t have the ingredients to make some of Helfred’s cookies but I had just what I needed for the world’s most perfect frosted sugar cookies. Recipe below adapted from Better Homes and Gardens:
2/3 cup of softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 T. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C. all purpose flour (plus more for rolling)
1. In large mixing bowl beat butter with mixer for 30 secs. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt, beating well. Beat in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in flour a little bit at a time, stir in remaining if you cant beat it. Cut the dough in half and wrap into plastic wrap tube then put them in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. On a flour dusted surface roll dough to between an eighth and a fourth of an inch thick. Cut with cutters and place on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 7-8 minutes (depending on the size of your cut-outs). You really don’t want to over bake them. Don’t let them get brown. It would be a shame.
4. Cool them as long as you can. Then frost with a quick mix of lots and lots of powdered sugar and a little bit of water. Water goes a long way. Get your consistency to your liking. Frost and sprinkle…. let the frosting get hard before you eat up all the sweet sugary goodness!
I think Helfred would be proud.
Giving Thanks - Original painting 8x10 by Lauren Alexander
With so much to be thankful for, it’s hard to know where to start. But I’ll try. Coffee, sunrises, puff pastry, sweatpants…the list goes on.
Along with wishing you a very merry Thanksgiving I want to share my newest painting. Sorry but it is a re-run! But only for the better. Musicians do it all the time….take old songs and make them new again. So why can’t I? Yesterday I took an old painting idea and made it new and true to how I like to paint today. Click here to see the old version.
I do hope you all are enjoying some good food and surviving your families with grace and pie. Happy Thanksgiving!
Okay! (claps hands) It’s shopping season. Millions of people will flood major store chains starting at midnight on Thanksgiving. But not me. I will stay home, all warm and snuggly with a belly full of pie. Sure I’ll have to swing into the big stores for certain things sometime this holiday season BUT I really want to get most of those pesky little obligatory gifts out of the way by shopping from independent merchants. It’s just the right thing to do. So let me help you help yourself (and more importantly help the world) by making a few suggestions from the independent merchant right here, moi.
For your Mother-in-law:
Brooch; original framed artwork 3.5"x5" by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
Ladies. Feel me out here. You stole your husband away from his mother. She’s all lonesome inside (and that’s why she makes it her personal mission to torture you). So you should give her a gift that is not only beautiful but evokes a feeling of comfort. This painting features soft baby blue tones that will remind her of when she was young and in love with her brand new baby boy (that you stole from her). But never mind that part – the white frame goes with any decor and this is a truly unique one of a kind gift you can give her just like the son she once had all to herself.
For your baby-crazed-soon-to-be mom friend:
Playing Hard to Forget - archival 3.5"x5" art print by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
You that friend of yours that won’t stop talking about her future fantasy nursery and how she plans to have 3 boys and two girls all in about four years? The friend that sends you links to bedding from Pottery Barn and registers for 100 dollar crib sheets? She’s crazy. But why not indulge her quest for a catalog perfect nest with my small art prints. You can get a choice mix of 10 for only $25! Boy, girl, whatever she’s having (0r intending to have) your friend will delight at the options and inter-changeable beauty of a nursery adorned with Lauren Alexander art.
For your child’s overworked and underpaid teacher:
2012 Lauren Alexander Art Desk Calendar by Lauren Alexander on Etsy
Don’t delay. Winter break rolls up just three short weeks after Thanksgiving. You know you want to score some extra brownie (aka report card) points with your kid’s teacher by giving them a beautiful, artful, handmade school countdown tracking device like my oh-so-adorable desk calendar. It’s smaller so the year will seem shorter. And that’s what teachers want to believe! There are even free note cards included that the teacher can use to send home those little notes that tell you how wonderful your kid is in the midst of thirty screaming emotionally unstable hooligans.
These are my latest little paintings added to my ACEO collection over at my Etsy shop. I really hope to use my time off over Thanksgiving Break to paint some more. This snail’s pace of work painting is really getting old. Time to crack the whip!
This weekend marks one year ago that we signed the paperwork to officially adopt my daughter. It’s been a wonderful year. To celebrate I am offering you a free 2012 calendar (handmade featuring 12 unique artworks by me) with your purchase this weekend only. Buy anything you want and mention Adoption Day in the notes to seller when you check out. I’ll put it in with your order. Easy! Visit my shop here: Lauren Alexander Art on Etsy.
Quick Question: What Show from your Childhood Never Gets Old?
November 17, 2011
Lauren Ingraham Alexander
Cozy shows that make you feel all warm and happy? For me, it was one show that came on Saturday morning. The silliest, strangest, wackiest half hour of TV perhaps ever. Someone gave me a box set of the Pee-Wee Herman Show and my daughter was curious to watch them. Of course! Hellllooooo…..Pee-Wee is far more entertaining than that Shake That So Charlie Life on Deck show she watches over and over on the dreaded Disney channel. Ick.
Something about the crazy colors, the clay-mation sequences, talking puppets, secret words, penny cartoons, and guest visitors….it’s all just as nutty as the shows I can’t stand on the Disney channel but it’s a show from when I was a kid and therefore it is better. So, I ask you….what show from your childhood makes you feel all young and fun again?
Apparently the economic crisis is leaving no product untouched by it’s low standard of performance in the interest of profit. I’m talking about masking tape, folks, one of the most key art supplies I have in my studio. It makes all those edges so crisp and tidy. Peeling off the masking tape from the edge of my painting has long been a point of sheer joy I reach when finished. So imagine my frustration when I pull the masking tape off my latest few paintings and realize the tape has failed me. Big time. 
But the ever-optimistic side of me thinks this is so bad it’s good. Almost like I meant to do it…so the painting stays. And so does this one below and a couple more that were the victims of poorly made masking tape. After all this is the only new work I have been able to complete in weeks.
I think in art school we called this a “happy accident”
But I still think the masking tape makers need to work on their quality control.
Today I read this post by a parent who I have come to know via internet blog world. It really choked me up a little. And it got me thinking about my experience becoming a mom. I didn’t birth a baby physically. I never had cravings or fat face, no achy back or screaming on a hospital bed in front of strangers and loved ones. I met my daughter online. Truly. When not getting pregnant was getting to be more than I could stand emotionally I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted to be a parent no matter what it was going to take. If I was going to parent another woman’s child I would. So we adopted.
There are hundreds of children in the foster care system who need families. You can see for yourself here. My daughter was in the care of the state but really in the care of a wonderful and loving foster family. It makes me feel good about the world to know there are people out there who are willing to foster children who have no other home to go to.
The post I read was about that moment when your child is born and they make you hold it for the first time. I am sure that is a beautiful unforgettable experience. I will never have that. But millions of other people in the world will never have the experience that I had when I met my daughter, a whole person already at 7 years old, and she grabbed me by the hand and said “Hi Mom!”
