Cate Anevski

Season's Greetings

I made these mustachioed holiday cards last year for the various craft shows I participated in, and they were a big hit, so I've decided this year to bring them back and include them in the holiday offerings available at my Etsy shop.

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't look at these cards and not think of family back home. (Although that probably has something to do with my dad's mustache.)

Either way, I think these cards would make a nice jolly greeting for anyone on your list this year. You can find your very own set right here.

Why I Don't Mind the Rain

The rainy season in Portland tends to bring out the best in mushrooms. This behemoth of a shroom masquerading as a hamburger bun was only one of many lovely spotted beasties outside of the grocery store this afternoon.

I want you all to understand just how big this guy was and how dreadfully excited I was to have discovered him.

Here are some of his best and closest friends, all enticing me to leave my day of errands for a day of fun and frolicking.

The shroomies reminded me that I hadn't yet posted this month's free embroidery pattern. In honor of my favorite food-centered holiday, I created a fun "Eat Me" pattern for you to try.

My Favorite Art Medium is Cookies

Marissa inspires me to try all sorts of baking adventures I never would have embarked upon by myself. This time, a quick AllRecipes.com search for something tasty made from both cocoa and hazelnuts resulted in the splendor of the haselnussmakronen.

As we reviewed the recipe, I noted that it sounded an awful lot like a hazelnut version of the traditional almond macaron, a treat I've meant to try baking ever since enjoying my first bite at Pix on my birthday. Upon closer inspection of the name of the cookie, we realized that haselnuss means hazelnut, which would allow us to incorporate the native Oregon filbert; makron means macaron, which would let me try my hand at a new delicacy, and en means plural, which ensured us that there would be plenty cookies to go around.

After much hemming and hawing over exactly how to execute each step of the recipe (meringue can be scary, you know), our resulting dessert was a great success.

Next stop: vanilla custard. (Gotta do something with those egg yolks, after all.)

Me Oh My, I Love Pie!

I always get excited by first experiences. And then I get excited again when I master whatever it was I was trying to accomplish in that first experiences. There's that whole middle ground that isn't quite as fun, but, hey, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this first experience. With a little help from my friends, I made a pie entirely from scratch. (I got high entirely from scratch. I get by entirely from scratch.) I peeled the apples myself and everything. And, you know what? It was wonderfully tasty. Not as pretty as it will be once I slog through the middle ground and reach mastery, but tasty nonetheless.

My friends Bridget (who really needs to post more artwork on her blog) and Marissa from my college days have been in town this week, and it's been a whirlwind of wonderment as I showed them the beauty of my new hometown, which included craft stores, grilled cheese, street art, sticky rice, and apple season at the farmer's market.

The Pact

I've wanted to create custom doll panels for a very long time, but every method I tried ended in disaster. (Let's just say I'm not exactly a master screenprintress...) However, thanks to Spoonflower, it's easier than ever to print whatever my bizarre little heart desires onto fabric, and doubly-thanks to Spoonflower, since they have created a doll panel contest that kicked my creative flow into gear to meet the deadline.

I have yet to order any doll panels just yet (I'm waiting to see the proofs of a couple other fabrics before I place all my orders in one fell swoop), but I can hardly wait to bring these little girls to plushie life. In the meantime, you can check them out at my Spoonflower profile.

Mischievous

As promised, I managed to catch up on a bit of my work today, and I have the results of the fabric giveaway. The fat quarter of fabric goes to Heidi, who, by the by, has been working on some pretty amazing embroideries that you can check out on her very entertaining blog. Thanks to everyone who participated. I will do more giveaways before the holidays, so be on the lookout.

Speaking of embroidery (lame segue, I know, but it's late and I'm sleepy), my October monthly embroidery pattern, Mischievous, is up on Bee's Knees Activities. It's based on the embroidery above, but I've cleaned it up a bit and changed a couple of things that I didn't quite like on the original.

I'd love to see any creations made with the design, so feel free to send photos my way. Enjoy!

A Moment

Last night, my grandmother passed away. She was the type of woman who kept her true age carefully guarded, but the family's best guesses place her at 89.

She was a pretty interesting woman. While I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, she lived out in the magical coastal land of Massachusetts, where I would visit every summer. We would spend hours together enjoying the wildlife (particularly the families of rabbits and chipmunks she'd befriend annually), working on needlepoint projects, or listening to baseball games on the radio (but never on television). She was also the only person I've ever known to do crosswords with a pen.

I wanted to stop in to the blog to let you know because this has been a bit of a tough week for me. I managed to get behind on some things (like the giveaway drawing and this month's free embroidery pattern), but I'm going to spend tomorrow getting caught back up, which is always a feeling I enjoy.

Nonetheless, I'll probably move a little slowly on things for a little bit as I take time for my family.

Goodbye and good journey, Dot. You will be greatly missed.

Dame Darcy Lovelies

One of the best parts of working with Dame Darcy, other than the fact that she's a super sweety pie and an amazing cook, is that I get to enjoy the lovelies she offers on her Etsy shop before they have to be shipped off to their new lucky owners. It's like having a constantly revolving art show in my home.

Fabric Giveaway!

Thanks again to everyone who voted for my Ghostly Paisley design at Spoonflower. And to show you lovely blog readers just how thankful I am, here's the giveaway I promised. Simply leave a comment below to enter. Next Saturday, October 3rd, I will close the comments and pick a name out of a hat. The winner will get to choose a fat quarter of their choice of any of my fabric designs.

A comment of any sort will enter you into the contest, but I'd love to hear of any fabric designs that you particularly love, so feel free to let me know of any fabric designers out there I should keep an eye on. As I'm sure many of you know, we fabric lovers can never get enough...

Balloon Ride

Well, that's one way to get around...

This is one third of my submission to this year's Siren Nation Festival. (The other two thirds are old illustrations, so I won't bore you with the gory details.) The theme this year is journey, and I knew immediately that I had to complete this drawing that has been knocking around in my head for the past few years.

I first thought of this drawing when I saw a blob of water on the floor of Kieran's bathroom (back when it was just his bathroom—not ours—about four years ago) that was shaped like a girl with her hair stretched out above her. Well, vaguely shaped. Alright, maybe it was just shaped like a water blob, but there's just no accounting for inspiration or her many sources.

I'm actually not sure yet what the date is of the opening of this group show, but I do know that it's next week, possibly Thursday or Friday, and it will take place at the Olympic Mills at SW 2rd & Washington here in Portland.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank all of my wonderful blog readers who voted for my fabric design at Spoonflower. My Ghostly Paisley won the competition, and to celebrate, I will be hosting a fabric-related giveaway here on my blog. Tune in tomorrow for details.