Art & Crepes

This past weekend I went to the Bellevue Museum Arts Fair. It is an annual event that has several artists (using various mediums) with their work to display and sell. Every year, there seems to be more and more to see. This year seemed to be one of the best years I have ever seen. There were so many talented artists there, that it is hard to narrow it down, but here were a few of my favorites that I saw this year:

J D Hillberry - He does some amazing work with charcoal and pencil! His signature style seems to be how he draws masking tape on many of his drawings, making it look real. It is very cool.

My favorite piece of his is called "Which Came First."

Another booth I went to had some painted shoes. I thought for sure they were ceramic sculptures at first, but then when I touched a pair they were actually real shoes, that you could wear! The had some very fun styles. These are the pair I touched (though in the photo they don't really look ceramic like they did in real life):

Shoes by Heliotropium - Fine Art Accessories

The next fun booth had some awesome handbags made from game boards, record covers, and programs! It was so tempting to buy one, but I decided I had enough purses for now, so I just picked up a business card:

Business card by Bagitude!

One of the more popular displays, one that I also enjoyed last year, was some metal sculpture work done by Jeffrey Zachmann. Not only is it formed in an interesting way, but it moves, drawing the attention to the whole piece for the viewer's pleasure.

It's fun to see kids watching these sculptures, because they are so fascinated by them. To get a better look at what these do, click on Jeff's name above and go to his site. There are some links there where you can see his art in motion!

Did you ever think you could make art out of a gourd? Apparently Susanne Newbold did, and she makes some impressive boxes out of them. They look like they are some type of wood material at first, but looking closer, they are definitely gourds, just by opening them you can feel how light they are, and the insides are painted, but they look more gourd-like inside.

I ended my day by eating a Nutella crepe by Crepe Tyme (yummy) and buying this unusual photo book by Domestic Bias:

It is folded in a form of origami.

The seller said that all the pictures on it are from vintage books.

This is the back. I think the whole thing is really cool. I cannot wait to put some photos in it!

Tradition

Aw…. The Bite of Seattle! I look forward to it every year. Mainly because of what they now call “The Alley.” It is a small area of “The Bite” that has somewhere between 7-8 restaurants that get together and serve a sample of one of their specialties for a reasonable price all on one plate! This was what they had this year - Mmmmm....

Food shown above in no certain order: Prawn-stuffed halibut (Portage Bay Cafe), Ancient Roman Meatballs (Al Boccalino), Crispy Duck Cake (Andaluca), Gazpacho (Salty's on Alki Beach), Mini Steak Sandwich (The Daily Grill), Slow Smoked Pork Butt w/ Sweet Corn Chow Chow (Dahlia Lounge), and Marion Blackberry Sorbet (Gelatiamo). All of these tasted very good to me!

A portion of the price paid goes to the Food Lifeline, an organization to stop hunger.

I started going years ago when I was a kid, and my aunt invited my family to it. Back then, it was called “John Hintenberger’s Alley” (a well known food critic). Then it turned into “Kathy Casey’s Alley” who I think is another food critic. Next it turned into “Tom Douglas Flavors of America.” I guess they realized they needed to stick the word “alley” back into it because this year it was called “The Alley Hosted by Tom Douglas.”

For awhile, it was traditionally just my dad and I that would go there every year. My sister was a very picky eater back then, and my mom does not generally like “fancy foods.”

However, my mom was the only one able to make it last year, and this year she came with my sister (who also now looks forward to The Bite). She is willing to give me the foods she does not like, which makes it even better.

Last year and this year’s bite were very different from each other. Last year it rained continuously. It was about wet dogs and drenched park benches.



This year, dogs were discouraged from coming (as the internet site suggested), and there was hardly anywhere to sit!

Along with The Alley, there are a few concerts playing and several other food booths around, sharing select items for a price. There always seems to be something really different to try. One year I tried “Alligator on a Stick,” which did taste like chicken, but very dry and kind of tough.
My dad complained that if it were cooked right it would taste totally different, even though it was the first time he had tasted alligator as well... I thought it wasn’t bad.
This year, my sister and I tried coconut milk served in coconuts. They LOOK really cool. But what is inside them is pretty nasty by itself. After drinking all the milk, you can scoop the coconut and eat it. I was surprised when after I scooped some out and put it in my mouth it was slimy! Ew! It was so disgusting! We both ended up throwing them away before finishing them.
I appreciate coconut milk because it is in many good recipes, like in Thai food. I even like shredded coconut. I just do not like the taste of fresh coconut at all! No matter how cool it looks to eat one.

What Takes the Cake?

For the past couple of years, I have tried out cake recipes that I haven't made before for my sister's birthday. Last year I made these yummy cupcakes:

This year I wanted to make a Red Velvet cake! I have searched for YEARS for a decent recipe of this. I have tried out several versions, including one you can now buy during the holidays from the store, but none of them tasted quite the same.

The first time I had Red Velvet cake was in kindergarten. Jimmy Englar's mom brought these red cupcakes that I just loved. I ran home to mom and asked her if she could make them for me sometime. She had no idea what I was talking about. Red cupcakes that sort of tasted like chocolate cakes, but not really. She thought they were just chocolate cupcakes with red dye, but they are not.

Years later, my dad brought home a Red Velvet Cake he won at an auction. It was the same taste as I remembered! So I asked him to get the name of the cake. I searched in the stores and recipes everywhere to duplicate it, but nothing tasted the same.

Finally, this year, Dad won another Red Velvet Cake that came with the recipe! After tasting it, I decided that this was closest to the right one. I made it for my sister's birthday. By the next day, two of them ate over half of the cake I made! It was definitely a hit!

Hmm... these guys look familiar...

For those of you who already know me, you know that I am a long-time fan of the comic Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson. I was excited to find this illustration drawn as a tribute to the former comic strip, by Nina Matsumoto of Space Coyote (as posted by NeatoRama ).

The image is a cross between the comic itself, and caricatures of the philosophers it was named after (John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes). The print is available for purchase here.

Cool Tunes, Cool Covers

I went to my hometown for the long weekend, and was browsing though some of my dad's record albums. I have a good size collection myself, but the music is limited to just a few groups/singers. My dad has a variety of good albums - he has such good taste! I never thought of buying the same albums because he always had them. Now that I have been gone from home for quite awhile now, I miss hearing the old tunes. Sometimes I still hear the more popular songs on the radio though.

Here are a couple of records that he has that have really cool covers:

Supertramp: Breakfast In America. Cool because it takes several white kitchen dishes and food items to make it look like New York. The waitress with a cheesy look on her face is supposed to be the Statue of Liberty. The orange color creates a great contrast as well. It is awesome. I love this cover. The music is quite humorous too, so the cover suits the music inside.

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours. Love the music. I love dance photos, probably because I really used to love dancing and took classes for a short time when I was younger. A couple of my favorite dance movies are Center Stage and Strictly Ballroom.... oh, but I guess that kind is off the subject, but that is how I am sometimes.

As I was browsing looking for the album cover images, I found this spoof! At first I thought it was just a funny drawing spoofing only Fleetwood Mac. However, it is also supposed to be spoofing two characters from the Harry Potter series, Professor Treelawny and Professor Snape! Whoever illustrated this did an awesome job!