Inspiration

"Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly."

-Kafka

Quatre

I've been away for so long...

Where do you begin when you have taken a seemingly forever hiatus from doing something?
I have a theory that I am to art as bi-polar people are to mood swings. You just cruise along all normal and stuff and then, suddenly, a manic episode where everything is moving in fast forward. That is how inspiration hits me. I get really super involved in certain mediums for a truncated period of time. During that time, I am very prolific and create tons of stuff in that medium, but if I take a break from it, or get interrupted, boom, the ride is over, back to reality. I've done it with music, writing, drawing, photography, painting, sculpting, sewing, cake decorating, knitting... you name the genre and I have probably dabbled in it at one time or another.

My family has been kind enough to dedicate one of our very few and precious closets in our tiny city dwelling for me to store all of the supplies, so if the mood strikes me, I will be ready. They also don't seem to mind when I spend a long weekend in my pj's keeping strange hours just creating one thing after another like some sort of machine until finally I am nodding off and Jon tells me that it is time to go to sleep. In that tiny closet, I have supplies to do pretty much anything. I like knowing it is there. Opening the door is unlocking the things that are always swirling around in my head.

On that note, instead of trying to detail with words everything that has been happening in my life recently, here are many visuals to show you what I've been up to:

Chewie is still the cutest doggie ever and I discovered he has a teeny mustache:

There was The Posies show at The Croc where I got to see lots of friends I have not seen in ages:

A new art store opened in my neighborhood, so I've been painting:

and I went to SXSW for the first time. Here is a video I shot backstage:


more happened, but right now I'm distracted by an empty canvas across the room...

The Ballad of El Goodo

I'm sure most of you have already heard that Jon's dear friend and band mate, Alex Chilton passed away last Wednesday. I don't really have the words in me right now to string together everything that has happened in the days since we got the news, but I would like to share with you a touching scene in a hotel room in Austin, TX.
This is Jon Auer and Sondre Lerche preparing for the Big Star tribute to Alex Chilton that happened later that evening at SXSW 2010.

The newest member of the Auer family

Meet Chewie. (He's named after Chewbacca.) Isn't he the cutest? We adopted him from the pound. He was found wandering around the city, he was not tagged or fixed.

I walked into the shelter and he was the first dog that I saw. The minute I saw him I just KNEW I had to take him home.
Adopting him was the greatest decision ever. In the last week every person in our house has fallen completely in love with him. Not only does he bring nothing but happiness, we have gotten more exercise, spent more time outdoors, and just generally more family time than we have in ages.

He's so pretty when he runs! I must have walked 20 miles in the last week and have totally enjoyed it. I love how having a dog just gives you a reason to go outside and enjoy the world every day, even if you didn't think you were in the mood. It's so easy to hole up in the house and work on art, watch movies or just generally waste time. Having a dog changes all of that. It is amazing. I've already met and talked to so many of my neighbors that I've walked past since 1997 and never had a reason to talk to. Chewie makes everyone smile with his sweet little face. He is basically a superstar!

Here is Chewie making friends on his 1st visit to the off leash park.

I was thinking about our three exceptional pets this morning. Our two cats and one dog. They were all "throw away" animals.

Buddy I found at the shelter. He had only one whisker and tons of scratches. Now he is an amazing, beautiful, and super lovely kitty. You could not ask for a sweeter lap cat!

Moo was literally left out on the street in a box as a tiny kitten. He was terrified of humans. After a lot of work, we got him inside, and now he is the fattest sweetest cat of all time.And now, Chewie. He came home, and to our surprise was not only super well behaved, doesn't bark, doesn't chew things up, but he is also potty trained and gets along fine with the cats!! It amazes me that someone just threw him away. Their loss, our gain. (As I type this, Chewie is sitting on Jon's lap getting lots of hugs and cuddles.)

Best dog ever!

Big Toothy Grin

I took a photo of my Xray to show the adult tooth that I have impacted. I've marked it in the photo. It's just hanging out there. It's very uncommon to still have a baby tooth when you are an adult, but here I am, in braces, waiting to make enough room for this tooth to come down and join the party! Only 1o more months to go! When there is enough room, they will extract the baby tooth and begin pulling that adult tooth down and into place. Right now it is hiding and can only be seen on xrays.

Here's the profile shot, just because it's creepy cool!

Naked Lemon Cake Experiment

I was experimenting with my Wilton Fanci-Fill Cake Pan today. My daughter isn't really a fan of cake because she doesn't like frosting. She thinks it is too sweet. I thought I tried to make a cake sans frosting, but still full of pizazz. I made a basic lemon cake in the Fanci-Fill pan. I filled it with Lemon pie filling and home made whipped cream. I sprinkled confectioners sugar on top and, viola. It's basically a giant, super delicious lemon Twinkie!
It is light and yummy with a surprise in the middle! I would add fresh raspberries to the top if I made this again, just to make it more presentable. I think they would taste great with this.
I was going to today, but the store was running low and the raspberries that were left looked a tad mushy. I might do this one again when they are in season!

Italian Tortellini Soup

This is what I made for dinner tonight. We have a vegetarian house guest, so I wanted to come up with a new veggie option. It was also a good practice run for the next time our favorite Brit veggies, Mark and Suzy, visit again!

Ingredients

• 4 carrots, sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
• 6 cups Vegetable Broth
  
• 2 medium zucchini, sliced
• 4 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1 mini can of V8 juice
  
• 1 1/2 cups frozen cheese-filled tortellini
• 1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Place the carrots, onion, celery, garlic, thyme and 3 cups of the broth in a 6-quart sauce pot. Heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the onion is tender.
2. Add the remaining broth, V-8 juice, zucchini, tomatoes, tortellini and beans. Heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the tortellini is tender. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Strawberry Refrigerator Cake

Here is the strawberry refrigerator cake I made for the office party yesterday. New recipe. New FAVE!

Merry Everything from The Auer family!!

This is the art we used for our holiday card this year, drawn by our lovely and talented daughter, Darian.

Black & White Cake

This is the cake I made this evening using another one of my new Wilton Checkerboard cake pans. (They were a Christmas gift from my Dad & Carol) It is supposed to be a checkerboard cake, but it didn't quite work. It still looks cool, but it is my first try.

I made my favorite whipped buttercream frosting using the new Red KitchenAid I got from my Mom & Warren.

Not perfect, but still pretty awesome and DELICIOUS!

Apple Pie

Just because it was so good!

Easy Apple Pie

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
• 5 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C.) Arrange apple slices in unbaked pie shell. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.
2. Mix 1/3 cup sugar with flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Spoon mixture over apples.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until apples are soft and top is lightly browned.

Purple Christmas Duck

I made this duck for the office holiday party. It's a duck because I wanted to use the new cake pan my Dad sent me for Christmas. It's purple because that is our company color.

Pumpkin Soup

I actually cooked down two small pumpkins to make my own puree for this soup.
It came out super fresh and delish!

Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 5 whole black peppercorns

Directions

1. Heat stock, salt, pumpkin, onion, thyme, garlic, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes uncovered.
2. Puree the soup in small batches (1 cup at a time) using a food processor or blender.
3. Return to pan, and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for another 30 minutes, uncovered. Stir in heavy cream. Pour into soup bowls and garnish with fresh parsley.

#14 & #15 of 365 Days of Photos- "Quad Snow Elf" & "Paper Posies"

Recipients Ken Stringfellow & Dominique Stringfellow

"Living on our bookshelf in Paris. Orange interior light means--nighttime in autumn."

#2 of 365 Days of Photos - "Adjust"

Recipient: Amie Simon
Sent via Twitter.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Maybe it is the nippy Fall weather, or the early Christmas decorations in the stores, but I'm really feeling the holiday spirit this year.
I decided to get started early and make my first batch of Christmas cookies. I made tiny trees with my brand new Wilton Cookie Press. (You know it was just an excuse to use it.)

I asked Darian to get started on her Santa List, and it reminded me of how much fun I used to have putting my Santa List together every year, when I was a kid.

I thought it would be fun to make one on here. Not because I'm expecting gifts from all of my blog readers, but just for the fun of putting a list together. (See what I've done here? I've managed to find a way to make a year end list without it being a year end list.)

1- KitchenAid. In Pink or Red, I still can't decide. I really have no idea how I've gone as long as I have without one. I bake all of the time and I burn through hand mixers like crazy.

2- Canon 50mm f/1.8 - for my camera, so I can get better low light shots at rock shows, and finally be able to take decent shots at The Triple Door. It is visually the most amazing club, but you can't use a flash there which makes my fancy camera uttery useless there.

3- A bunch of Wilton stuff. I want so much cake decorating stuff from the Wilton line, I could make a sub list just for that. Here are just a few of the pans I want.

1. 3D Rubber Ducky cake pan.
2. Avanti® Everglide® Metal-Safe Non-Stick Springform Pan with Glass Bottom
3. Guitar pan!!!

4- Michael's Arts and Crafts is the same as Wilton's for me. I could lose an entire day there, just looking at things and getting inspired. I would love a few thousand dollars and a week to spend there.

5- Brief Encounter DVD- I already own it, but I made the mistake of buying the DVD that only works in Europe. I want the Criterion Collection DVD.

That is really all I can come up with right now. There are other things I want/need, but those fall more under the realm of necessity, like a new mattress set, a new chair, a new Neumann Microphone (Wait, how did that get in there?) So, it's not a long list, but I'm not a girl who wants for much in this life.

The new book!!

Hot off the press! They are for sale HERE. If you buy them from LuLu, you get 3 for $27.49. They would make a great stocking stuffer for the kids in your life!

OR, if you only want one copy, I will sell them individually for $10 each +shipping. Just send me an email: lilblackcat23 at gmail.com

You're the boss, Applesauce!

I made this Homemade Applesauce.
Something about the scent of apples cooking just screams Fall and Cozy.

You can eat it on it's own, or use it in several Fall spice cake recipes.

Or...

If you eat it hot off the stove and topped with ice cream, it is one of my favorite fall comfort foods!

YUM!

#6 of 365 Days of Photos- "RAWR!"

Recipient- Lily Sommers

#5 of 365 Days of Photos- "Aftermath"

Recipient- An Lemmens

Michelle! Got your card! Thank you so much! Thought I'd keep it next to my crazy cat lady action figure, which seems perfect for the both of us!

Thank YOU!!

Now that the postcards have begun to arrive and people are starting to respond, I wanted to take a moment to thank a few people.

First I wanted to thank Darla who invited me to participate in her "2009 Wig Project" which inspired this whole project. I never really thought about postcards, but when I started putting the wig project cards together, I just kept going, and so the postcard project was born...

The other person I wanted to thank, and to dedicate the 365 Days of Photos postcard project to is Diane (My Mother-in-Law) She was the one who bought us our very first digital camera in 2005, now 5 years and 8,640 photos later, the photo postcard project was born. So, thank you Diane for being wicked cool!!

and Thank YOU people who are,have,and will be participating in the 365 Days of Photos Postcard Project!!

#20 of 365 Days of Photos - "Broken"

Recipient- Brittany Niedzwiecki

Postcard was received. Will send a photo tomorrow. It's gorgeous! Thank you.

#10 of 365 Days of Photos - "Dark Snow Elf"

Recipient - Deb Hardman

I got this fun picture from my pretty daughter, the "Snow Elf". I'm keeping it on my dresser, where I can see her every day & night.

#17 of 365 Days of Photos - "Black or White?"

Recipient - Phoebe Marie

Before i even saw your blog post about what to do, i had pinned your postcard up on the pin board next to my desk. it is filled with lovely things people have sent me. i look up at it repeatedly when i'm sitting at my desk working on things that are less wonderful.

i love this image! stunning.

xxo, phoebe marie

365 Days of Photos Postcard Project

Did you receive a postcard from me? Would you like to help me with my 365 Days of Photos project? There are many easy ways you can participate! (Technically, by getting a postcard, you are already participating!)

When you receive your postcard please do one of the following:
1- Email, twitter, FB me and let me know that it was, in fact, received. If you would like to elaborate on the shape it was in after going through the post, that would be great!

2- Take a photo of the postcard in your possession, with your cat, on your refrigerator, in your hand... with a camera or even just with a cell phone and email it to me at lilblackcat23 at gmail dot com.
OR
3- Come up with some other creative way to let me know you got it.

I will be posting all of these responses as a series on www.michelleauer.com as I send out the post cards.

Thanks for joining me in this fun little interactive art project!

If you would like to get a card and participate, you can leave me your mailing address in the comments. All of my comments are moderated, so I will not make your mailing address public. Or you can email me with your mailing address at: lilblackcat23 at gmail dot com with 365 days of Photos in the header.

Thanks!!
xom

Lemon buttercream cupcakes

I made these as well. They are what I might imagine heaven would taste like. I need a shirt that says, "I LOVE BUTTERCREAM"
Thank Jeebus I work at a large office now where people are happy to eat my baking experiments. Otherwise I'd be 300 pounds by the holidays at the rate I've been baking!

Shortbread Cookies

Tonight, I did some experimenting with infused butter. I don't know if it was a complete success, but the cookies are delicious. I think I know now what I should do next time.
I've always loved the scent and flavor of Earl Grey tea. I was using a typical shortbread cookie recipe but before I made it, I took one of the sticks of butter and melted it on the stove top, careful not to burn or cook the butter. I added 4 teabags to the butter and I let it cook in the butter for a while, and then I set them aside, off the heat and let them soak for about 10 minutes. The end result was butter with a very strong tea scent. This recipe called for 4 sticks of butter, so I mixed in the one melted stick into the 3 cold sticks, beating it until fluffy, about ten minutes.
When they baked, you could really smell the tea, they smelled like heaven, but you can't really taste it in the actual cookie. I think the next time, I will use loose tea and let it soak a lot longer and then strain it out before using it for the cookies. I don't think the four teabags were enough.
I didn't feel like messing with rolling pins and cookie cutter, so I turned these into thumbprint cookies and added a dollop of raspberry jam in each cookie. They are quite pretty, and delicious!

I own my name again...

I own my name again! After 5 LONG years of being parked and unused, the www.michelleauer.com domain name finally expired this morning & I bought it before the previous owner could renew. I updated my layout to celebrate!