Tuesday, March 30, 2010

a fancier vodka & lemonade

my friend katherine posted the other day that she was looking forward to her favorite summer drink, vodka and lemonade. the mad mixologist took that as a challenge to develop something just a bit fancier for her since she's graduated from some pretty fancy schools. so, i promptly went to my kitchen, got distracted and mixed up something with pomegranate instead. so, just a day or so later, here's kat scratch fever (name thanks to the venerable katherine bontrager houlehan).

1.0 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained
1/2 oz simple syrup
1.0 oz vodka
1/2 oz cointreau
sparkling water
lemon wedge

add first four ingredients to a shaker half-filled with ice. shake vigorously until icy. strain into pint glass half-filled with fresh ice. top with cold sparkling water and give it a gentle stir. rim glass with lemon wedge and drop into drink.

now, katherine. drink a couple of these and then challenge me to another game of scrabble.

Monday, March 29, 2010

the antioxidantini

as all of us baby boomers know, antioxidants are really good for us. they fight off those pesky free radicals, although i thought freeing radicals was part and parcel of our baby boomer identity. okay, really? not one of you chuckled? i still can't get past the moniker, but if you can, go here for some pretty good information on the subject. please email me your summary and maybe the right side of my brain, which apparently is the only side that works, can digest the info and use it accordingly.

in the meantime, here's a drink that uses all pomegranate-based ingredients, except the garnish.

2 oz pama pomegranate liqueur
1 oz pearl pomegranate vodka
2 oz unsweetened pomegranate juice
long narrow strip of orange peel

pour ingredients into shaker half-filled with ice. shake vigorously until icy. strain into chilled cocktail glass. squeeze orange peel over top of drink, drop it in or use to decorate the rim of the glass, and serve.

pomegranates have more antioxidants than green tea and red wine. i actually tried mixing some green tea into a pomegranate concoction but it was nasty. go here for an npr article which includes some yummy-looking recipes.

the junketeer

i've gotten pretty much out of focus the past couple of weeks, and it's not from the mixology bucket of my portfolio career. i think i'm getting a bit addicted to the hunt. on tuesday, i took a little road trip to topeka with a couple of friends to check out thrift stores there, wednesday i spent going to my favorite thrift stores in kansas city (in one instance, a couple of times after i googled up some answers i needed), and on friday, i hit the t.n.t. sale at st. theresa's, two estate sales, two garage sales (if two card tables and a stack of sheets counts as a garage sale--otherwise, just one garage sale), then back to one of the finer local thrift stores. where i found out that on sundays, everything with a certain color tag is sold for 25 cents. furniture included. not that i'm looking for furniture. but i am looking for the goods to make aprons for my etsy store. so, even though sunday is this week, not last week, i'm going to count my sunday trip there within in this week's junkets. get it, junkets. crap. see. i'm not altogether capable. it's starting to worry me, actually. because junket really means 1. a dish of sweetened and flavored curds of milk, often served with fruit, and 2. informal, an extravagant trip or celebration, in particular one enjoyed by a government official at public expense. and a junketeer, by extension, is not someone who junks for a living, but one who enjoys the benefits of a junket. i actually wouldn't mind an extravagant trip or celebration right about now.



in the meantime, here's some stuff for you to identify. send me your pricing strategy for each, and we can talk about being partners.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

how to celebrate spring in kansas city




a tip of my hat to fresher than fresh snowcones, and a wag of my finger to old man winter who just won't leave us alone!

five users HEART me!

i finally have my etsy shop up and running, or at least up. i think it's running, although i have no orders as of yet to confirm that. do you think i'm a little anxious? after all, it hasn't even been 24 hours since i posted my first item. and lord only knows how this whole paypal thing works. money is supposed to be automatically transferred into my bank account when a customer buys something. really? i feel like i've set myself up as an easy target for identity theft by sending all this information out into cyberspace.

i have to say, the process has been fun. it's such a different approach to a life, and although i haven't started to rake in the do-re-mi, i'm hopeful i'll be able to squeak out an income. i keep going back in and refining images and terminology and shipping prices. i really don't want to undercharge for shipping, but it feels somehow unright to charge more for shipping than for the item itself. i suppose as a shop girl, i'll eventually circle in on the right combination of factors to make some money and also make my customers happy.

do you want to be my first customer? i'll throw in a little something extra if you do!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/studioduceyvintage




here are a few more pretty pieces to entice you into my shop. if you want to see what kind of bargain you're getting from me, go here. don't get me wrong, i love p.o.s.h., and they were pretty much inspirational for me. next time you're in chicago check them out.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

etsy preview

my wonderful friend kim came over today to help me with the photography for my initial offering on etsy. i am so excited to be so close to actually opening my little online shop. in the meantime, here are a few things that will be for sale. hopefully by this weekend i'll be up and running.



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

does mozart make you smarter?

something else i love? my friends. the other night i was gifted a bottle of lillet, a french aperitif i've been wanting to try. i haven't opened it yet because one, i want to share it, and two, the bottle just sits there looking so gorgeous that i don't want to disturb it. the packaging on some of these liquor products is so beautiful and classic. you know how you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover? well, sometimes i do. most of the time the covers i respond to visually have great stories underneath them. like new york trilogy, a book i picked up at the strand when i was in nyc. i suppose i should i have, but i didn't know who the author, paul auster, was, but i loved that artwork. it turned out to be this crazy existential thriller that i absolutely loved as well. so, i've found myself doing the same with liquor bottles. look at these, for instance:



aren't they pretty? all the shapes and sizes and labels. i have to say i was a bit disappointed in the godiva chocolate liqueur, left front. too creamy for my taste. i much prefer the mozart black, right front. that domaine de canton in the back? i tasted it because the bottle reminded me of a noguchi lamp. it's a ginger liqueur. for me, as the flavor travels from the front of my mouth to the back, the ginger really blossoms. i don't know how all that applies to the debunked tongue map or how you'll taste it, but it's a favorite of mine.

this combines the canton and the mozart.

1.0 oz mozart black liqueur
0.5 oz domaine de canton
0.5 oz vodka
dash of bitters
3 very thin slices of fresh ginger

in shaker filled with ice, combine the first four ingredients and two of the slices of ginger which have been slightly crushed to release flavor. shake vigorously until icy. strain into chilled cocktail glass. float remaining ginger slice on top and serve.

don't drink this before 11 in the morning. it won't make you smarter.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

reduce, reuse, send e-cards

another platform i worked on in socially aware connecting, the department where product (RED) resided, was "green." ironic as it may sound, the world's largest greeting card company has made some honest environmental efforts. the inks used to print most of the cards are non-solvent based, and much of the paper used contains at least some recycled content. the green platform was created to explore formats, paper and processes for potential application throughout the company. these cards were part of a group manufactured for the world's largest retailer, and were printed on stock made of 100% post-consumer fiber. the embossed process is also greenish in that it does not prevent the card from being recyclable.


all cards copyright hallmark cards, inc.

Monday, March 8, 2010

the dude abides

i LOVE the academy awards, cheesiness and all. last night's award ceremony was replete with the kind of breathiness and sincerity that made cynical, snarky comments especially easy for my guests and me. we thought we were quite hilarious, at any rate. maybe you had to be there. steve martin and alec baldwin were so on top of their game, though, that even if we weren't being hilarious, there would have been plenty to laugh at. or with.

of course the laughing part was helped along by (you guessed it) cocktails! misha said i made pretty stiff drinks, but actually the one i served only contains 1.5 oz of liquor. it is my variation on something called the washoe peel.

1.0 oz bourbon
0.5 oz cointreau
0.5 oz freshly squeezed blood orange juice
lemon twist

combine first three ingredients in a pint glass or shaker filled with ice. stir until slightly diluted and very cold. strain into chilled rocks glass. squeeze lemon twist over top of drink and drop into the glass.

when i was doing research on bourbon-based drinks (the russian doesn't like vodka, but that's a whole other story), i found it amusing that these booze websites require you to input your birthdate before you enter. wow. what an ironclad system. i wonder if there are similar safeguards on bomb-building websites or pot-growing websites. i wonder if i should have something like that in place to prohibit juveniles from accessing this blog. if i weren't such a risk-taker, i'd call my lawyer to find out.

p.s. i love you, jeff bridges!

Friday, March 5, 2010

what color is your greeting card?

my final assignment at the world's largest greeting card company was for mahogany and tree of life. it wasn't the first time i had the privilege of designing for these lines. the first time was ten or so year ago, and while the mission was the same, pretty much everything else was different. there were all those crazy reorganizations for one thing. (which really never reorganized so much as moved people and cubicles around and renamed things. large corporations, sigh. but i mean, really?) anyway. i loved the color and the soul and the intent of these card lines. the team, diverse in every way, was tight and happy. one of the last things i did as a member of that team was to organize a trip to chicago to gain inspiration for both card lines. i know the inspiration i gained in chicago will be put to good use!

here are some of the cards i designed for mahogany.
i hope you like them!



all cards copyright hallmark cards, inc.

oh, and the one on the upper right? a shout out to uncle sam. yes, that's a dollar bill in there to show there's a die cut on the cover. the purchaser inserts a bill into the card before sending it on to the lucky recipient. probably a larger denomination than a one dollar bill. since the card costs more than that. if someone downloads this and can find a way to create spendable money, i take full responsibility.

and remember, i can help you with your design needs! and take full responsibility for them. e-mail me (go to my profile) or post a comment.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

it's gotta be 5 o'clock somewhere

it had to happen. i've started hanging out in bars. well, not exactly hanging out--i like to call it research. so, last night i went to bluestem with a friend and tried some of the bartender's concoctions. amy did, too, so between the two of us we tasted four different drinks. i think the cocktail i liked the most is a classic new orleans drink called the sazerac. it was actually proclaimed new orleans' official cocktail by the louisiana house of representatives in 2008. the drink is made with rye whiskey, bitters and absinthe, with some other things thrown in for good measure. you can read about it here and get the recipe to boot.

is my first posted cocktail destined to be a classic, too? perhaps too much to ask, but let me know what you think. i wanted to develop a drink based on two flavors that always make me think of california--orange and rosemary. i'm still thinking of a name for it.

1.5 oz vodka (i like the 360 vodka made by earth friendly distilling co. in weston)
0.5 oz caravella orangecello
2.0 oz unsweetened pomegranate juice
2-3 dashes orange bitters
4-5 rosemary leaves

half fill shaker with ice. add vodka, orangecello, pomegranate juice and bitters. crush rosemary leaves and toss into shaker. shake vigorously until icy.

strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with sprig of rosemary and orange twist.

what does your favorite state taste like?

one of the reasons i love junking

ok, this morning when i got back from the gym, i went out to kansas city, kansas, to pick up more stuff from my new favorite junk store. as i was sorting through things, i may or may not have heard a message from above. what i know i did hear was a heavenly voice singing gospel music. a man sat down to play one of the pianos for sale there, opened his mouth and produced a most beautiful sound that somehow made me believe i had made a good decision.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

cards for product (RED)

these are images of some of the cards i designed for product (RED). i love the idea of cause-related marketing and felt passionate about making a difference through greeting cards. as you may know, a certain percentage of the sale of these cards, and all product created for (RED) by its various partners, goes to buy and distribute antiretroviral medicine for those dying of aids in africa. this explains more.


all work copyright hallmark cards, inc.

my life at the card factory

i graduated from the university of california at davis some years ago with a bachelor of science degree in design. while my focus was textile design, i landed at that greeting card company with the intention of staying a couple of years to have something credible on my resume. wow. it ended up being 7 years the first time around and 16 years the second time around, with an interlude in between devoted to my three amazing daughters. i had myriad roles there, including art director and other-titles-that-do-not-describe-what-the-job-entailed. i ended my career as a designer for product (RED), mahogany (product specifically for the african-american consumer) and tree of life (product for the jewish consumer).

i loved the collaboration with illustrators, photographers, writers and other designers. i was particularly good at creating visuals that represented the words and tone of the cards.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

where do i go from here?

after being let go in october from the world's largest greeting card company (read about it in my daughter's blog here), i faced a dilemma. while officially "retired," i am nothing of the sort. aside from the ongoing need for food, clothing, shelter and ingredients for mixing up strange and wonderful cocktails, i get bored easily. and, like others, i believe that for baby boomers anyway, the idea of truly retiring is not only unrealistic in our current economic conditions but it is anathema to our exploratory nature.

long story short, after much consideration, i am entering into what is generously known as a "portfolio career." a portfolio career is one well-described here but is basically a multi-pronged approach to a livelihood based on what you really love to do. to the unimaginative it could also be viewed as dabbling in things, but that sounds so negative. i prefer the first definition. so, what do i love to do?

i love design for one thing. i was a designer at that greeting card company and truly enjoyed being one. do you need help with your logo? do you need menus and napkins designed for your restaurant? do you need wedding invitations? do you need designs for business cards and stationery? let me help you.

i also love junking. i mean really--how much fun is it to stumble upon amazingly wonderful, quirky old things? maybe it's because i imagine so many stories in a set of dishes, savoring all the conversations that took place while eating from them. i can't very well just keep everything i find, right? that's sort of pack-rattish. and selfish. so, i am setting up an etsy shop to sell the wonderful things i find. my current focus is kitchenware, since serendipity led me to the most wonderful place in kansas city, kansas, with a most amazing treasure trove of vintage dishes. don't ask where it is because i won't tell you. and if i find something especially fabulous, i may just keep it for myself! we'll see.

finally, i love to eat and drink with interesting people. during those first few months of unemployment, one of the first ideas that popped into my head was tending bar, at least for a way to pay the mortgage. drinking is pretty much recession-proof, right? in kansas city, there happens to be one of the franchises for the international school of professional bartending. so, i signed up and am now a certified mixologist. and i take my mixology seriously! while the bartending school's focus is on high volume venues, i lean towards the "slow food" approach to cocktails. there's a huge trend toward prohibition-style cocktails, using quality ingredients, interesting combinations of flavors and loving mixing techniques. i'd love to create signature cocktails for you and serve them at your next event.

so, that's my portfolio.

this blog will be the platform on which to display those different vocations. and hopefully it will inspire you to contact me to design for you, sell you some funky dishes, or create and serve memorable drinks at your next event.