Happy Halloween!

Loving these very black (magical) and red candy apples from the L.A. based food blog, Matt Bites! Matt Armendariz and his food-stylist partner Adam Pearson created this very eery yet beautiful still life. Click here for the recipe. Wishing you all a very safe and Happy Halloween! (Via Ink +Wit via Tigerprint).

Trick or Treatzone!

by Treatzone


We're super-excited to share work from our Halloween-inspired show currently at The Curiosity Shoppe, entitled Trick-or-Treatzone. The show features ghost paintings on vintage postcards, classic monster silhouettes on science textbook pages, and haunting phrases printed on patterned paper – and our opening party last Friday included holiday-appropriate details like "spooky brew" and candy corn of course!

The show is up through November 22nd, but in case you can't make it in person, we're making the show multiples available at our table. We hope you'll check out our fall makeover and we wish you a very Happy Halloween!

A New Rescue

I love this print by Heather Smith Jones for the The Working Proof entitled, A New Rescue. It is a five-color letterpress print incorporating antique type with new metal blocks made from her drawings. 15% of the gross sale of this print goes to Smile Train (each Working Proof Project release donates 15% of the sales to charity). Click here to find out more and here and here for more of Heather's work.

Colour for a Grey Day

It's such a grey day here today, I thought I'd add a little splash of colour with these beautifully photographed homes from Marie Claire Maison. Top photo by Phillipe Garcia and below by Vincent Leroux.

Last Call for Submissions!

Last Call for submissions for our upcoming Holiday Market at Poppytalk Handmade. This is the last day to submit to be a vendor at our "all things gift related and holiday themed event" which will be running this year from November 23rd to December 18th/09! Send us an email along with a link to your work to poppytalkblog[at]yahooo[dot]ca with the words "Holiday Market Submission"! We will be contacting successful applicants next week.

Font Friday!

Sedona Script by Casady & Greene


Marketing Script by Dieter Steffman


Carbon Type by Vic Fieger

1942 Report

I found a nice little font site the other day in my travels called Fontex.org which features free fonts for download along with premium fonts and font resources. Here's a few I liked:

i made this for you... vol 10

stephen's been out of town and while he was gone, it finally started to feel like fall. i didn't want him to miss a thing - so i gathered freshly fallen leaves and taped a collection to our wall.

welcome home stephen!

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Candace of Sparklepower! Candace was the 122nd comment (chosen by random.org) on our Poppytalk Handmade Giveaway. We are thrilled to offer her a $100 gift certificate to spend at our online market. Thanks to all 306 commenters, it was an awesome response! We will definitely do this again and we look forward to 3 more years at Poppytalk Handmade! This blog which is a couple years older than the market (started in March 2005) is where the concept of our online market started (October 2007) and we're thrilled to be able to support the handmade community bringing our readers to these awesome artists and designers. Thank you everyone (readers and participants) We are honoured to be here!

Treat Street

I'm sure many of you get Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP weekly newsletter, and if you did today you were probably as delighted as I was to read about this adorable "secret bakery" called Treat Street. So love this. It's your friendly neighborhood secret bakery which pops up when you least expect it turning your day into some sugary fun! Click this week's GOOP newsletter featuring more about this fun pop-up neighborhood bakery and some of their favourite recipes such as these Eyeball Cupcakes (below). (Images from treatst.blogspot.com and cupcake photo by Eric Staudenmaier from "Hey There Cupcake" (Melcher Media 2004) by Clare Crespo via goop.com).

What does a rainbow taste like?

Well look no further, I think I found the answer. This cake just made me so happy when I saw it. From the blog, Whatever (made last spring for her children's last day of school). A rainbow cake - perfect for a rainy day (and we have many here). Click here for the recipe.

Via Urban Outfitters blog.

Wilco Loft

And I thought we had a lot of guitars hanging around. Loft magazine is previewing Wilco's Chicago recording studio in their fall issue (on newsstands) with great pictures and an interview with tour manager, Jason Tobias and Jeff Tweedy also online. The space is a definite candy store for musicians. See and preview the story here. Photography by Charles Harris.

Apple Cinnamon Clouds of Goodness

by Jeannette Ordas of Everybody Likes Sandwiches

Biscuits should be light, fluffy and flaky. Cloudy bits of just warm goodness topped with butter and jam, best eaten on an endless Saturday morning. I'm not from the South, but my biscuit making chops aren't too shabby. So instead of playing it safe with my ol' recipe, I tried to shake things up a bit with a heavy dose of autumn.

Apple and cinnamon are perfect for fall and are a perfect combo for biscuits, as I discovered. I used a Bramley Seedling apple which is tart and sweet and perfect for baking, but feel free to use whatever apple variety you've got. The result was a biscuit that tasted like all the best bits of fall and without much fuss.

Apple Cinnamon Drop Biscuits
2 c all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t raw sugar
3/4 t kosher salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1 pinch of ground nutmeg
1 pinch of ground cardamom
1 large apple, cored and diced
1/2 c plain yogurt
1/2 c skim milk
8 T unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 475. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the first 8 ingredients. Set aside.

2. In a smaller bowl, mix together the milk, yogurt and melted butter. Using a rubber spatula, add the wet ingredients to the dry, along with the diced apple, stirring until the mixture begins to pull away from the bowl. Be careful to not over mix!

3. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a silpat (or parchment covered) cookie sheet, about 1.5 inches apart. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until tops are golden. Cool slightly (if you can stand it) and serve with butter and jam or eat 'em up plain.

Things that start with "B"

Brownie Camera

Some awesome things starting with the letter "B" today! Just "B" cause! From Brownies to Bowls and butterfiles to bookmarks, we love these things, we think they are the "B's" knees!

Butterflies

Bookmarks

Betsy Monogram Mug

Buttons Print

Ball Mason Jar Lantern

Bowls

Birds and Key Plate

Brooklyn Chinoiserie

Betsy Walton print

Inspiration: Things I Saw Today

I was asked recently what I do for inspiration. And my answer was, because I am so overwhelmed sometimes visually online, it's nice and almost needed to just take a walk (usually it's in the rain and hard to photograph), but today it was clear and this is what I saw. I love the collision of urban and nature; it brings surprising beauty; the unexpected and most times, a mix of exactly what I need.

Happenings at The Handmade Artist

Amy from Armato Design & Press posts about gifts for someone who has everything by special ordering bespoke papergoods. Click here to read more. The folks at Sycamore Street Press are offering up a letterpress giveaway which is always fun! Click here to find out how to enter. Bella O talks about her nature inspired jewelry. And Shanna from Hello Handmade talks about their new line of holiday things!

Charming House Tour at ATSF

Loved the look of this corner when I first spotted this charming Mission District house tour in my inbox this morning from Apartment Therapy. Something about the colours (red shoes, turquoise box/silhouette, yellows) and mix of old and new. Click here to see more.

Poppytalk Handmade Giveaway!

Today we're starting our celebration of Poppytalk Handmade's 3rd year! And to celebrate we are offering our very own giveaway here. Yippie-ki-yay! So to start off, here's the deal. We love giveaways and we love'm fast! So this one will run starting today through to Thursday evening at 9pm (Pacific)! So anytime from now till then, feel free to enter. We're offering up a $100 gift certificate at Poppytalk Handmade (from something in the current "Indie Love Market") to the lucky winner who comments in this post's comments box (and mentions their favourite item in our market). Leave a second comment and the link if you tweet about it! We will pick a winner randomly and announce Friday! The $100 gift certificate must be spent before the end of our current market, November 20th, 2009. Click here to visit the market and come back here to comment! Good luck and thanks for visiting our artists at our market!

Copenhagen Apartments

Another beautiful interiors book from the folks at Paumes Japan as they feature apartments of twenty artists and designers living in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Families, couples and individuals open their homes to let us explore and admire the beauty and charm of their Scandinavian flair. See homes from Anne Black and Jesper Moseholm-Jorgensen; Sara Müllertz and Mia (fashion designer) and Jan Risager (musician).

paumes.com