branch buds!

hello! It feels like spring in Vermont today, and I'm feeling almost 100% better, hooray! Some more newish art for you! In addition to the hand cut, smooth wooden earrings I have been making, here are some photos of the 'branch buds' earrings that I make. Made out of twigs I find, copper wire and findings, and love they are some of my favorites. enjoy.

miso broth, saltines, and super mario brothers

"woodends" earrings. Made from mostly local
and sustainably harvested wood scraps with
Sterling silver findings. Woods are
(clockwise from top left) mahogany,
cherry ash and walnut, cherry, and ebony.
made with love.

As the title may give away, I've been fighting off a nasty cold. My tonsils decided to triple in size and I felt awful. Luckily, I'm feeling better and with that boost of energy some new art was created. More earrings, and new finger puppets! This time I decided that vegetables aren't personified nearly enough. I'm going to sell them in sets of five with a sewn case that doubles as a backdrop for them to be played with on. In the works are under the sea, backyard, farm animal, and tool sets.
Spending time during my slushy, cold morning commutes dreaming about spring and growing veggies. Below, a photo of Lindley and I at Essex farm in NY harvesting carrots. SPring is just around the corner!

Winter doldrums

These past few days have been a little rough. Winter cold felt to the bones, but I'm slowly keeping myself positive and everything around me cozy. Int the past three days I've gotten pretty far on 15 pairs of earrings, and made 4 new bibs. It feels so good to make art.
for your viewing pleasure!

plaster the city in hearts! ( a story in photos)

Happy Valentine's day!!! As you well know, I really love hearts, and pink and glitter etc. Most of the time this makes me feel like a 10 year old girl, but I hold fast to the belief that it is impossible to be in a room covered in hearts and not smile.I love this day, because it's perfectly acceptable by society to tell people how much you love them, and cover cards, people and storefronts in pink and hearts. Even if they are silly images of cliche love, they still have some visual power. Apparently there are people in Montpelier who agree with me. Since 2002 the 'heart bandit' has covered the streets of mont p. with hearts. I have been smiling all day as I pass hearts in windows and on street signs and see people stop to grab a heart and take it with them. check out the facebook fan page! Below are photos I took of the town today! Wishing everyone a day full of people they care about, and genuine love. xoxox L. heart

happy heart day friends!!!


Some of my Valentine's this year




Langdon Street, the cafe I work at (covered in hearts)
cute art on the bridge

photos! a review of art from the end of 2010

hello! It has taken me a month to gather all the photos together, but what follows is visual bliss of all of the projects I was working on at the end of the year. Most became gifts, but I'm working out plans and patterns to sell earrings and some sewn goods in the near future.

to start with, at least 40% of everyone I know is having a baby. I decided it would be a ton of fun to make custom bibs for all of my friends. I found a ridiculously simple pattern and went to town. The chickpea sewing studio website is lovely and the pattern is super easy, check it out! Also, a special thanks to Maddie for the use of her beautiful sewing Machine and fabric.

In addition to becoming a little sewing elf, Lindley and I became wood gnomes and together cranked out a dozen cutting boards. Cutting boards are pretty easy to make, and look so polished and slick when they are finished.


Inspired by our friend, Tonia, who was cranking out sushi boards we made a sushi-ish board to keep as inspiration to make sushi in our new apartment!
Above is the butternut box from the box making class that I mentioned in early December. The box turned out so well, with lots of character, and the curly maple bottom just shines.
Earrings! these are the little lovelies that I have been giving away and selling to friends. (clockwise from top left) They first two are made of curly maple, cherry, below that another pair of curly maple, and the rectangular ones are walnut.
A close up of the curly maple leaves.



Last but not least, I experimented with some Stained glass leaves- ornaments and sun catchers for windows.

Thanks for taking the time to check out the photos! More to come- and some new recipes I have been working on as well.
hearts!

The first!

olive oil and garlic with a tomato basil sauce,
eggplant, mushrooms, onions, spinach, mozzarella,
and fresh Parmesan. So delicious, it was devoured
while enjoying the final episode of the first season
of Saving Grace, the intriguing detective show with
Holly Hunter- I totally reccomend it if you haven't
seen it...fascinatting and thought provoking.

This is the official post for the first pizza made in the new apartment. I decided pizza sounded great around 6pm and we didn't have any yeast in the house. After a trip to the co-op, eggplant mushrooms and onions getting sauteed, and a few hours to let the dough rise we ate a delicious pizza. I am a bit sad that I gave away a bunch of my cooking items before I moved to vermont; most noticeably my pizza stone. Also on my list to locate from the depth of boxes in St.Louis are my garlic press and microplane. Those are the two tools I use most frequently in the kitchen and notice when I don't have them. Especially with the microplane it made it so easy to throw a little bit of lemon zest in this sauce or chocolate on top of that dessert, or cheese on top of anything.

through mountains of snow

A recap of meals over the holidays. My favorite is the Christmas eve dinner I made for 8: salad with greens from my parent's garden- in Missouri in December they were still growing under just a light sheet of plastic. main feast. risotto with sauteed veggies, roasted eggplant slices, finished with fresh parm cheese, with a roasted tomato (also from their garden) reduced whit balsamic vinegar sauce. Served with roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted root veggies and steamed broccoli. Finally, my parents and I spent the night before making pierogies, a traditional polish dumpling, filled with sweet or savory goodies. We made sauerkraut and cabbage ones, cheese and potato, apricot and prune. for dessert
I made a flour less chocolate tart in an almond date crust. delicious! (sorry no photos)

Here in Montpelier I woke up to snow, went to work to snow, and as I write this still snow. They have little plows that plow the sidewalks, many folks were in the cafe this afternoon who took off work and wanted to be cozy with a hot beverage. I am settling in well to my new life here. I absolutely love working in a job where I feel competent, respect, and have lots of fun. I love cooking for myself at night, making breakfast in my pajamas, using my cell phone- simple things I haven't been able to do for a year.
The holidays in St. Louis were really lovely, but far too short. An update, in photos, of food from the holidays. The night I got back to st. Louis was the annual Christmas caroling on the street where I grew up and my parent's still live. I spent some time talking to a neighbor who's daughter I grew up playing with. When I was little they opened an amazing bakery in town that had focaccia to die for. We use to bring it as a gift when we would visit out of town friends, and I have vivid memories of driving to Nebraska, and Minnesota sitting in the back seat of the van with these amazing smelling breads next to me and not being aloud to eat any. The way this bakey made them they were like little pizzas, made with tons of olive oil, coarse salt and piles of onions, sun dried tomatoes, cheese and other delicious toppings. Anyway, the night of caroling, Julie who owned the bakery, gave me the super top secret family recipe for their focaccias. It was the best gift ever. I made them for the party we have after Christmas eve mass, and again for New Years Eve. Amazing!!!

The sadness that has been with me this week comes in the form of the loss of a dear family friend, John Wiedmann. Our families have been friends since long before I was born, and I can't imagine how hard it is for his family, friends, and all the students he has taught over the years. He was an English teacher, musician, outdoors man and just a really good human. I remember being in highschool and trying to understand Thoreau. He came over for dinner and talked me through he finer points of appreciating Walden Pond... Sending much love to the Wiedmanns and the whole St. Louis family today.

love, Lylee

the dough once it relaxed; the secret is dimpling it. finished focaccia!!

Hello 2011 (and hello friends!)

It's been a busy few weeks!
Between the scramble of holidays and the chaos of moving my life and starting it over in a new location I am pretty tired, but really excited to have a fresh start in the new year. My 'resolution' for the new year is to have more fun and worry less. In that spirit I have decided to keep writing the blog, and make it wittier, have more photos, and more stories.

After two days of moving, cleaning, and unpacking and with the help of two amazing friends, and my partner in crime, Lindley, we are more or less in the house. I sit in a pile of boxes and scattered clothing, as the only furniture we have includes: a bed, a bench I made, a half finished end table, and a nightstand. Appropriate to who I am, the house is in shambles, but the bedroom and kitchen are both put together.

I spent today doing adult like things (switching over the propane, changing my mailing address, calling the plumber to fix our toilet, fun.) I took a break to duck in to the cafe I will soon be working at and ran in to two friends, and saw a third in his car as I was walking across the street. It feels so nice to be in such a friendly city, and have connections here already.
I'm still working on all the photos of crafts I made for the holidays and will post them as soon as my life is back in order.

best wishes for health, happiness, and fun to you in 2011.

the next step

some of the highlights of the past few weeks:

I had the pleasure of turning 28 and felt incredibly loved and lucky to have so many amazing friends, co-workers, family, and mentors in my life. Lisa and Heidi in the kitchen made me a heart shaped frozen yogurt, brownie cake and a lunch of eggplant Parmesan with tomato-beet sauce; it was delicious. I was taken out to a lovely dinner in Montpelier and even did grown up things and looked at an apartment on my birthday.

After a good 5 years of putting it off, I finally gave up my Missouri drivers license in exchange for a Vermont one- I'm still a little sad about that one, but it's good I'm forcing myself to grow up. This 'next step' also stemmed from the fact that I found an apartment to live in! Starting in January I will officially be a Montpelier-ite and be staying Vermont for at least the next year or so.


We had an intern skill share night a few weeks ago, where Megan taught us pluming basics.
Megan grew up in Buffalo, bought a house in the foreclosure auction, and proceeded to learn how to fix a house through friends, teaching her self, then teaching workshops for the community with those skills. She is amazing, and if you are ever in Buffalo, you should check out Buffalo Basics -there is even a collective wood fired bakery that is run out of the house! yum.

This week was the super fun staff Christmas party in Montpelier. photo posted below, the best goodbye party/ fun party I've had in a while. We (the interns) all hung out Wednesday night and made Yestermorrow structures out of gingerbread. We focused on the ones that would be most amusing to create, this included the boneyard (where all the wood is stored) the arches (just next to the school where all the random/ building stuff lives) the bomb shelter (a fabric form concrete structure that is half finished) and the shade cannon (an awesome portable shade structure made from a deconstructed barn by a class here this summer.)


Finished my last week of work, I can't believe it has been a year. I'm excited to still be close by and involved in YM, and so many amazing folk connected to the school. Finally I have been a one person (and part of a two person) elf workshop. I have been cranking out cutting boards, beautiful little boxes, baby bibs, wooden earrings, and other sewing fun.



thanks for reading the blog this year! If I keep doing exciting things I may keep it going, we shall see.


Hoping everyone stays cozy this winter, and gets to spend time with people they love.
all the best, Lylee

get your art on!

Yesterday was the first day of Boxmaking, my last class at Yestermorrow. The instructors, Skip and Lizbeth, are brilliant wood workers, carpenters, and house builders. They are talented folk who are great at teaching and pretty much just piles of amazing.
I forgot how good it feels to be in class- to have someone teach me concrete skills, to learn and to feel knowledgeable, capable and competent.

Yesterday we all made a box with the same sides, front and back pieces then got to create our top and bottom pieces how ever we wanted. My box is made of Butternut (a beautiful softer hardwood) that has beautiful little worm holes all over the majority of the wood. It is put together with butt joints and pegs, has a curly maple bottom set in with a dado ( a ridge that it is inset in to- see photo below) and a hand carved Butternut lid- I'm still deciding how to attach the lid. I'll post photos of the completed boxes.

Today I'm planning on making a few bandsaw boxes, a simple way to make a larger chunk of wood in to a fun sculptural box- I like them because it feels more organic and flowing in shape than one can do with a box that has to be measured, and square and precise...

And the frosting on Yesterday wa last night, the 6th annual Art Auction at the school.
A combination silent and live auction, then event is one of the school's largest each year and turned out to be quite a success! It was wonderful to see old friends, former interns, favorite instructors and other folk in the 'Yesterfamily' come together for the evening, and see all of the hard work and hours and hours of organizing come to fruition. Above is a photo of the walnut earrings I donated to the silent auction. (Photo credit to Tonia)
Earrings are the art I am creating most consistently these days. I love making earrings, I like the small scale of jewelry making, and this year has been the first time I have tried jewelry making out of wood. Ihave some plans up my sleeve to start selling them in the near future...stay tuned.

Happy sunday!