If your Halloween week is like our Halloween week, you might be running out of time to make fun Halloween snacks like the caramel apples we posted earlier. This week, however, when it was the night before advisory snack day, we were needing the purchasable kind of treat.  While shopping at our local Randall’s grocery store, I spied this curious green Halloween delicacy – sort of a monster mush.  He was so ugly, he was cute, and he was only $12.99!  He is also a cupcake cake, so all the kids can just grab a frosted limb and dig in.  I know these are not the greens recommended for growing fresh smart brain cells … but sometimes you just have to go with a little green sugary goo during Halloween.  Monday, we’re back to broccoli.  Hope you have fun with your ghosties and ghoulies.  Happy Halloween from all the critters at Cathy Heck Studio!

Ellen started our Something Lovely category a few weeks ago, and ever since then, I have been continually spotting something lovelies, but finding myself without my camera nearby. Last week, however, I was working in the studio with Julianna, who was home for Fall Break, when she said, “Mom, look, look at that BLUE bird. He is really blue.” I turned around from my work, “It’s a blue jay!” (Coincidentally, I call Jules “J-Bird” all the time.) I was so excited, “Oh, oh … I have my camera, be very quiet.” I started to tip-toe a little closer to the window. I have tried this a million times, when I see a pretty bird from the studio, but usually, by the time I get my camera and make my way stealthily over to the window, my little feathered friend looks over his shoulder, sees me, and bolts. But, this time, I got it. I couldn’t believe it. Even on a very foggy day. Good work J-Bird!

Here are some studio cousins from our Little Forest collection. You will notice that these little guys have yellow tummies while the local bird model does not. I was just using a little artist’s license so that the forest friends would show up against the light background of a baby’s crib bumper. I hope a lot of precious babies enjoyed waking up to these something lovelies.

Your bluebird reminded me of this photo from a walk around the block:

Though a hose is undoubtedly much easier to capture than a blue jay, I felt like they both had a similar appeal.

p.s.

“Ellen started our Something Lovely category a few weeks ago, and ever since then, I have been continually spotting something lovelies…”

When I read this, it reminded me of listening to a passage from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, where the narrator mentions that her pastor refers to this phenomenon as grace.

We recently had a fun brush with greatness.  That’s what we call it when we spy a movie star on the streets of New York.  But this time, we brushed with greatness right here in Austin, Texas. And we actually know her!  Anna Margaret Hollyman was in town with her very talented and smart movie makers, Lilianna Greenfield-Sanders (director/writer) and Rowan Riley (producer) to be a part of the Austin Film Festival’s screening of their film short, Adelaide.  Anna Margaret is Adelaide!
Their funny film is about a girl who creates medical emergencies to find love.  Not only is it cleverly written, but it is wonderfully portrayed, and that’s not just my prejudice speaking.  I am particularly fascinated with Anna Margaret’s lips.  There are several extreme close-ups of her, in which she is able to express a feeling or create a mood change very quickly with just the tiniest movement of her lips.  And the artist in me has to give two thumbs up to the beautiful art direction.  I love the way the film is bathed in vivid saturated colors.  The rich, creamy pepto-bismol pink, which accessorizes many of the scenes is bubblicious.  Even Adelaide’s fresh complexion glows with pinkness.  I might have to use this film as inspiration for a new collection … hmm, I think I’ll call it Adelaide Adorability.

So, if you have a chance to see this entertaining short film, do.  It has won Best Short Film at the 2009 Woodstock Film Festival, Best Narrative Short at the 2009 New Orleans Film Festival and the Best Short Film and Audience Award at the 2009 Gen Art Film Festival, just to name a few … the list goes on and on.
If you would like a little taste of our brush with greatness, click below to see the trailer.  If your spirits are low, it will definitely put you in the pink.

Recently I was filling out a profile for a food blog, and one of the questions was: What is something you’d like to eat or cook?  And my answer was: “I wish I had more time to make my daughter’s advisory snacks on snack days.” (We usually buy the junkiest of snacks the night before, which apparently is perfectly fine with her fellow 16-year olds, but still.)  I kept thinking about my answer, until I finally decided, “I shouldn’t just wish that, I should do that.”  So this week, when her snack day rolled around, I decided to make caramel apples since it’s halloween season.  I know  that’s not exactly health food, but at least it includes an apple. We have also been wanting to include a fun gift for our readers, so I decided to double the fun and design some caramel apple banner toppers that you can make, too.  The artwork link is included below.  If you want to avoid a dental visit, you might use them to decorate some cupcakes, instead.

TaDah! (photo above)  Here is how I did it:  First, I began my quest for the perfect caramel apple recipe, and found this one for Sweet and Salty Caramel Apples, which sounded like it would be appealing to all taste buds.  I added toasted pecans to the bases, because I think toasted pecans make everything better.  Then I put a few grains of sea salt on the tops.  And, I even mastered the art of flinging the chocolate as a final embellishment.
I chose to use dowel rods from the craft store instead of popcycle sticks, because it gave more room for hands to hold without getting sticky.  Then I topped them with our handy dandy toppers and some ribbon and called it a night … a late night.  It ended up taking a lot longer than our usual junk food run, but it was very satisfying.  See photos below, sent to me by Margaret’s advisor, of happy teenagers (and a coach) gobbling down their advisory snacks before returning to class. I thought I might suggest a Halloween-themed Chemistry Lab assignment: Discover a caramel coating that is thick enough to stick to apples, but not so thick as to pull out teeth.  Happy Halloween from all of the goblins at Cathy Heck Studio.

Click here to download our Halloween Toppers artwork .

Click here for easy instructions for making Halloween Toppers.

We’d love to see pictures of your caramel apple successes (and get any tips you might have learned along the way). You can add them as comments to this post below, or email us at friend@cathyhecknurseryart.com.

I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in a few years, but I felt like we were very efficient this time.  It must be the new tools they’re selling – especially a little plastic rasp that comes in one of the kits from Target.  I remember emptying out the gunk with big salad spoons in the past, but this thing is shaped a bit like a spatula with a short handle and a serrated edge.  Very effective.

Here’s a little montage from the  event:

In the end, we decided that each pumpkin resembled his carver.  (I silhouetted all of their facial expressions in a row at the top.) Mine is the one with the big smile, and my husband is the one who looks a bit concerned.  :)  We also had a Dr. Jekyll who rotated into Mr. Hyde, and first-time Czech carver who seemed uninhibited – or at least not inclined to use the traditional symbols on the Jack-O-Lantern’s face.

We’ll see if these semi-solid sculptures can make it through a week of wet Berkeley October…

Well, October is in full swing! Here are some friendly fellows from my neighborhood (and a catumpkin) (and, yes, that is Batman there in the lower right corner, though he is looking a little puny in this particular scene…).  I love the idea of using dishes as jack-o-lantern hats – it makes these two look very dapper (and is a great solution if you happened to forget to bevel the top while cutting…)

I love the idea of using dishes as jack-o-lantern hats – it makes these two look very dapper (and is a great solution if you happened to forget to bevel the top while cutting…)

Don’t worry mom, we did not have a fire!
Lunch was over and I was heading up to the studio, when suddenly, I heard the sound of rushing water … unfortunately, it was coming from under my kitchen sink.  The next thing I knew, water was filling our kitchen.

I raced to the location of the geyser.  A pipe had broken and hot water was gushing everywhere.  I tried to turn the handle, but to no avail. I was afraid that I was trying to turn the knob in the wrong direction. “Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey,” I kept saying … still it remained frozen.  So I called 911: “I am not having an emergency, but can you remind me what number I should call for a non-emergency emergency?” She told me that, actually, I was having an emergency and she would send the Fire Department over right away.

I was making dams out of old towels as fast as I could, when I heard the firetruck arrive.   The firefighters (now flood-stoppers) raced in, and with proper tools and strong muscles, turned off the spewing geyser.

If they had not arrived so quickly, we would have been swimming in our living room. And, as if that wasn’t grand enough, they procured large wet-vacs and long floor squeegees from their truck, and began to remove the gallons of water that had filled our kitchen and living room. Wow! I was amazed.  They didn’t stop until it was completely cleared of water and then they packed up their equipment and left like Superman after saving Metropolis. I began looking around at all the things which we would not have to replace because of the swift attention of our firefighters. And, I was grateful.

Konichiwa.  (Hello) This is probably the market from which many of the unrecognizable foods were procured for the neighborhood Asian grocery about which Ellen wrote in her last post!  I was reminded of our first visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, and I found this page from my journal.  It was 5 a.m. on a Monday morning during one of four fascinating summers in Japan.  Each summer, our family worked at a camp teaching Japanese children to speak English, and on our days off, we immersed ourselves in all things Japanese, one of which was the world-famous fish market.  In the wee hours of the morning, it was THE place to be … busy, loud, and colorful.
The bouquet of fresh fish and seaweed so early in the morning was not the scent to which we were accustomed, but it was so exciting, we didn’t care.  We took it all in and topped it off with a seafood breakfast.  I’m not sure if I could do that again, but at the time, it was perfect.  Go chiso sama deshita!  (Thank you very much for the delicious food.)  We arrived home as others were just waking up, and fell onto our futons for a much needed nap.

And here is a photo, which we embellished, of Margaret near a fish market stall, to send to the family back home in Texas.

In the Bay Area?  Need some Fresh Opo, Bitter Melon, or Sinqua? Never heard of Opo, Bitter Melon, or Sinqua?  It matters not! Pacific East Mall has everything the East Asian ex-pat might need to make a dinner of comfort food, and everything the corn-fed American might need to liven up the palate (or, in our case, to make enough sushi for ten people for the price of two.)

This enormous mall in the heart of the east bay has restaurants with menus written only in Chinese, a tea shop, a Japanese candy shop, a manga shop, and several herbal pharmacies. The grocery store inside, Ranch 99 Market, sells a lot of vegetables I have yet to try, preserved duck eggs, bean paste bread rolls, but no coffee (lots of tea though). Definitely worth the trip if you are in the mood to spice things up in the kitchen, or just want to stock up on moon cakes.