More European Pics

E+T Floor Cushion Press!

Thanks to Kelly over at Tearing Up Houses for giving Ernst and Thistle some props in her latest blog entry about floor cushions (and for giving us a heads up thru etsy!!!) I absolutely love her blog subtitle: "one girl's adventures as a sort-of architect, unlikely landlord, and real estate junkie..."

It's simply amazing how things spread on social networking sights and the internet. These floor cushions were also featured in a spread on Apartment Therapy (check it out!) and I had no idea until i realized we were getting linkage to our storefront from AT (through help of Googleanalytics). I searched our name in google to find the exact article and was flabbergasted/flattered!

Thanks everyone everywhere who likes our goods! If you post a story about us, feature one of our products in your blog, or just mention our name, let us know and we will return the favor!

SUNDAY BRUNCH FOR ONE: Eating Local and In Season.

Oven ready buttermilk biscuits, topped with Duke's Mayonnaise (the only REAL mayo), farm fresh eggs and thick sliced heirloom tomatoes then dashed with salt and pepper. A side of sliced peaches, watermelon and banana nut bread, all purveyed at my local farmer's market. YUM!

NICE, FRANCE 2003

Just having some fun editing some of my recently developed pics from my Solo European Adventure in 2003! I've got an urge to travel. I started thinking of France, not because i desire to go back already (I'd rather hit the other hundreds-of-places-I've-never-been-to-but-would-like-to-visit-before-i-die such as Panama, Croatia, The Grand Canyon, Alaska, India...) but because I just got word from my mother that Grandfather Sturgis has had a desire his whole adult life (spawned by his Aunt who was a nurse abroad during the war) to travel to France with an erudite tour guide historically certified in WWI and now is considering taking it. He wants the guide to take him to all the hot spot WWI sights in France, telling a complete history through the places that war has touched. My family is against him traveling alone (he turns 89 in November) and I am volunteering my services as official gran-daddy sitter. I'm a self-professed history buff who doesn't mind (actually yearns) to learn anything and everything! Plus, wouldn't this be the perfect chance to get to know my grandfather, to have an actual conversation before he no longer exists on this mortal plane? I also forsee a good topic for a book here, or at least a short story...anyone know of any French speaking WWI tour guides that wouldn't mind a conservative Yankee grandfather and idealistic twenty-something as clients? We will pay well.

Here are some of my favorites (post-edit) from Nice:

E+T SALE!!!!

Stay tuned for an Ernst and Thistle SALE!!!!

I am restructuring the business and taking over sole ownership of E+T...Lynalise is busier than ever and moving on to bigger and better things...and I've got some new ideas in the seed stage (possibly pursuing silk screening or an additional vintage/antique finds storefront, etc), but until they come to fruition and sprout, I am having a huge E+T sale on some old goodies that I will no longer be carrying or making...That means it will be your last chance to own these limited edition art pieces, like our Reproduction Treen Clothespins (only 7 left in stock; orig. $32, soon ONLY $25.00) and our copper and brass JOIN OR DIE nameplates (going from $22/$20-$15!).

Come by the storefront and browse until then; see what catches your eye and tickles your fancy.

SALE STARTS SATURDAY AUGUST 1ST!

FIRST HARVEST: a small and simple, but rewarding local salad.

I know it's a little late in the season to enjoy fresh greens from the garden, especially here in the South, but given the fact that my vegetable garden only gets a paltry (and at a maximum) 3 hours of sunlight, I figured the heat of our summer's would be tempered by the cool shade...therefore, my late in-ground planing of mixed greens have just started flourishing.

I picked a small side salad of arugula, spinach, and mesclun to accompany yesterday's farmer's market fresh roasted beets. Cucumbers and roasted red pepper goat cheese (both from the South of the James Farmers Market) and walnuts shared the plate.

Roasted beets are EASY:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Scrub and wash the beets well.

Cut off the excess greens (which are edible). Chop beets into quarters.

No need to peel; skins are easier to remove once roasted.

Toss beets in a generous amount of olive oil and salt.

Place on aluminum foil, cover with another sheet of aluminum foil and enclose or fold over edges. Place foil on baking sheet and bake for 1hour. Let cool and skins can then be removed.

Enjoy immediately or store in fridge for up to 1 week.

My stomach is satisfied.

Blowing Eggs & Making Pretty

Easter 09 is here and seriously i haven't done a thing for this holiday since i was a wee youngin. Times are a changin' and I had a serious urge to do something festive, specifically, dye some eggs. I LOVE color and have ever since a third grade "science" class when we mixed primary colored icing together to make the secondary colors and then we ate our newly formed jewel-toned sweetness on graham crackers! (one of my few elementary memories and possibly an unexplored impetus towards my art school yearnings.)

My friend Melody and I planned a mere day in advance, when all the last minute shoppers hurl themselves with gorcery carts full of easter brunch ingredients at the checkout line. (Have i mentioned I abhor grocery shopping, which is such a shame given how much i LOVE food.) We purchased some regular ole white ones (M) and some organic free-range brown eggs (XL) to add some range to our colors but were, alas, still unsatisfied...

...Hence, the small and perfect, bespeckled and azure-insided quail egg, purchased with enthusiasm from our favorite asian mar-ket, Tan-A. I read up that they were extremely fragile so imagine my surprise when the check-out lady literally threw them at the man packing the bag. In a split-second freeze frame, one would have seen Melody reach forth trying to save the little darlings form inevitable splatterdom and my inflamed facial expression almost provoking a violent attack on the gregarious and absent-minded checkout mistress. We bought 4 dozen to be on the safe side and despite the propensity of such an instant to leave a streak of messy yolks in the bottom of the shopping bag, we made it safely home with only one casualty.

We spent the marjority of easter morning blowing the yolks from the eggs while my delectable Meditteranean quiche baked nearby. The latter part of the day was spent dying the tips of our fingers an incalcuable array of colors...simultaneously the eggs as well. As is to be expected, I kept mine in the blue and green family to match my decor. I am soon, but not yet, going to wonder if purhaps there is a chance that one day far far away I may begin to not like these colors anymore.....hmmm....impossible.

Volunteering at the Greenhouse: Tricycle Gardens

Today I started my first official volunteer day with Tricycle Gardens, a local non-profit whose vision is to create self-sustaining, organic gardens throughout Richmond. Founded in the winter of 2001 by a group of community and eco-conscious neighbors, Tricycle Gardens began as an abandoned-lot-turned-organic-garden and has since grown to 5 large and sustaining community gardens filtered throughout history city.


They offer weekly workshops and seminars (you just missed the cold frame workshop, where each participant learned to build their own frame from only $7 of pre-used and new materials) and they are launching a new service called "kitchen gardens" where volunteers (me included) will come to your backyard....We plan, prepare and plant you a garden and help maintain it until you get the hang of it. We are all working to create a greener more sustainable city, one garden at a time.




I'm beginning my tricycle garden education where sun meets seed + soil and where seedlings are born: The Greenhouse. The Greenhouse for Tricycle Gardens is located in Richmond' s Historic 262 acre Bryan Park located just north of the city. We have a varied assortment of cold weather crops almost ready to be sold (some, in the case of the lettuce, ready to be eaten): arugula, lettuce, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach.



My job was to mix some potting soil and plant two flats of lemon-lime and green bouquet basil. Easy-Peasy and done. Then i was able to snap some pics and watch Allison Mesnard feed the little darlings a fish emulsion cocktail and some root stimulator.



I was thus inspired to transplant my baby sugar snaps into 4 inch cow pots and I have stealthyly switched out my CFL in my desk lamp for a grow bulb. Unfortunately it is a rather jerry rigged endeavor and my pics do not do the process nor the plants justice. I will not taint the beautiul images of natures abundance in the Greenhouse with my paltry seedlings.

Soothing Images: Photographer Lauren Dukoff

Ugh...I am sick today for the first time in three years. I'm all soothing warm baths, comfy pjs, gentle curtain breezes today trying to recoop. Of course its freezing outside today after a nice half-week warm weather teaser when temperatures were in the low 80s. I'm nostalgic for yesterday and sun rays and the smell of spring. Here are some warm tea and sunshine happy pics from photographer Lauren Dukoff.

Ernst & Thistle: Fraktur Bird Silhouette Pillow

I decided to adjust my previous design; the five color design was a little hard to control (and a lot of paint to mix). I've decided to make a two-three color one that is more of a silhouette and I was able to make it with one stencil and some simple tape-offs.




This is my first color palette (my favorite colors). I am taking suggestions on other home decor colors for this application; any ideas?




I am thinking that the piping needs to be one of these colors to tie it all together. Either a small pattern or a solid. Still in progress. (i love this part!)

Southern Snow

A few pictures from our 8 inches of snow here in Richmond, VA. The trail i hit the day after already had mountain bike tracks on it! Its was a glorious and peaceful hour-long meander through crunching slush and flocked tree branches, scampering sparrows and kissing couples!