Germania

Supper Club strikes again! This month, our hosts Rachel and Seth chose to hold our monthly dinner on All Hallow's Eve. Spoooooky! Not everyone could make it, but we had fun, nonetheless. Our theme was German food and it was surprisingly good. I didn't grow up eating very much any German food so I was at a complete loss. Luckily, my husband recalled a dish he enjoyed at a friend's house years ago and saved the day for our course. Some even came dressed for the ocassion – it was awesome and hilarious.

First Course » Schwenka (sp?)  Schwenker

David & Katie made these little pork burgers with onion that were insanely good. Easily my favorite for the night. Loads of great flavor and oozing with juice that dripped down my hands and all over my face.

Second Course » Ribs + Kraut

The Mead family special! I'm not sure I love the smell of sauerkraut cooking for 8 hours in my house, but it was really wonderful. Monotone food is a crime in my book, so we added color by serving in raw, red cabbage cups and adding a parsley leaf.

Main Course » Homemade Sausages, Pretzel Buns and Grandma's Potato Salad

Seth and Rachel ground a bunch of different meats and made their own sausages. Super impressive. I was slightly scared of the albino color, but the flavor was great. Rachel was worried that it was bland, she is a stickler for preparing it exactly as the recipe says. I actually enjoyed tasting the meat though. The pretzel bread was so good. Jeanne made her grandma's potato salad recipe, it's just vinegar and no mayo. We loaded up on three kinds of mustard, two kinds of German ketchup and went back for more sauerkraut and whew, what a meal!

Sweet Course » Apple Strudel with Vanilla Ice Cream

We had a chef in the house as our guest, Mr. Carter Holton. Carter and Jason made this together and they said it didn't take that long. When you're an expert pastry chef though, it only takes minutes to make paper thin dough. When you're not, it could take a million years and still not be right. Jason did a great job cutting up the apples though.

As always, we enjoyed a lot of good drinking: German beers and wine, a hot cider and rum drink and even some bourbon, whiskey and Bailey's. Every Supper Club dinner leaves me so full I'm about to explode, but the company and the food are always too good to pass up.

meaningless

Recently, I liked a page on facebook that I thought supported one of my favorite events, the Wellie Race (now the Wellie Walk). I've attended for the last four years and each year, my husband and I bring a different group of friends to "our" secret small town. The event takes place during the city's Irish Fest weekend in the month of October; in addition to the requisite Wellies, the participants wear all shades of greens or are in costume. My husband helped organize the event for a couple of years, but for the most part, I have had the pleasure of only attending. As many fundraisers as I've organized over the past five years, trust me, being "just a guest," is a true pleasure.

Unbeknownst to me, the founders/organizers of the event had some behind-the-scenes drama regarding the event. One of the founders used his page to spread some misleading (to my eyes) information about the walk/race, and always being the pot-stirrer, I decided to call him out on it. I have no loyalty to either side and have no idea what happened between them, but I really love this event. Our Wellie Race group usually caravans out there after a group picture and we have so much fun walking through this small town of charming houses and local stores. Every year, we end up buying bits and bobs from the antique shops, have breakfast in the cafe, buy sweets from the candy store, and basically support the tourism and economy of this town, in a fairly small, but still important way. 

I understand that as one of the founders, this guy is emotionally attached to the event, but little did I know how much my comment would rile things up. In the space of one thread, I was accused of being hateful, meaningless, a free entertainer, libelous, and oh yeah, a blogger.

I found his ranting laughable, but what disturbed me is how easily I was dismissed. I've worked with this type of "gentleman" before. He is making a living writing and publishing a free newspaper while I am a "blogger who entertains people for free." I am meaningless while he is the founder of this event. His Irish readers are more valid than my "hipster" audience. I write fiction while he concentrates on the FACTS. 

To that point, I would like to say, Fuck You. Immature, crass, stupid? Maybe. But that's what I want to say. Just because you're a man and you're older does not make your opinion more valid than mine. Just because your medium of communication is more traditional than how I choose to voice my opinion does not make you more important. I am making a living too, it might not be through my blogs, but I work very hard to create projects that mean something to me, projects that inspire me and support the things and the people that I believe in.

I've been dismissed as someone who doesn't know what she's doing before. By a similar type of man. And you know what I did? I blew the project out of the water and made it hugely successful. So I hope the behind-the-scenes "drama" dies down by next year. Because my Wellies are always ready for a little action.

2012 on my mind

2012 Frank Calendar

I am in love with this calendar – a year of gorgeous, whimsical illustrations. A couple of clicks later and this little beauty is en route from Australia to my front door! via eat drink chic

Tomato

I made a new bestie recently for The Employee Lounge blog. I started a new feature over there called Friday Fun Day to motivate myself to get away from the computer and make art. I think everyone has the ability to be creative and I'd love to see more people not be afraid of it like I once was. After being rejected for a special art program in elementary school, I thought, art must not be for me. Isn't it crazy that I let a small thing like that determine who I was for so long? But I found art again in college. I walked past the design program projects in the halls and just like that, I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I usually name my besties, but this one is just called Tomato. Made with felt, buttons, thread, tulle and poly-fill.

Korean Drama

It's no secret that I'm addicted to Korean dramas. Even though they're sometimes ridiculous, I can't stop watching them. But like any genre, once you watch or read enough, you start seeing patterns. This is just an ode to my favorite shows right now. While I was "researching" why Koreans always took out their cell phone battery instead of just turning it off, I found out that I wasn't the only one who was deconstructing all the insanity in the world of Korean dramas. You can read a great list of fun facts here while this post explains they why of the cell phone battery thing. 

Baby Connor

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My photog friend Beth got some new lights and a new nephew she can adore through her lens. I had to share some of the great photos she took recently - I really love the light, the textures and the sweet sleeping poses. That said, newborns are probably my least favorite stage of childhood. I just don't think that most newbies are that cute. So I say very obvious and stupid things like, "Oh, look! You have a baby!" My second least favorite age is when they have buck teeth bigger than their faces, like awkward beavers. To all my mommy friends, I'm sorry, but it's my truth. I will love them all dearly when they are at least 9-months-old and can look me in the eye and smile and gurgle. As for Connor, the mouth puckering one was pretty stinkin' adorable.

All photos used with permission, Elizabeth Cook Photography.

Hoot! Hoot!

I swear my friends are still getting pregnant and having babies left and right.

Even though I continue NOT being a fan of baby showers, I am, however, always

delighted to design their invitations. As usual, they don't stifle my creativity with

a lot of restrictions or rules, just the event details, the rest is left to my imagination.

For this invitation, I did know they are having a baby girl and

her room would be decorated in an owl theme.

Before I worked at Gear, I bought a lot of vector stock files because it was faster and

easier than illustrating everything myself. But I learned some tricks on the job, including

learning how to use the pen tool better. Now I can make those illustrations myself!

This owl was based on a vintage trivet I own but modernized with stripes and a fresh

color palette. The font is Napa which I love and got free from here.

Usually, I'm not very good at creating designs that work for more than

one person or project. But I can see this one working as a template with some

color changes for semi-customization. So what do you think?