Apples for Georgia - my first book to be published through Penny Bun Press!

 

I am so excited to announce my first book to be published through Penny Bun Press : 

Word of the Year: EXTRAORDINARY

Many people choose a  Word of the Year (WOTY). The idea is to choose a word that will inspire you, motivate you, and create space for you to step more fully into being your best self. How do you want to show up in your life? What do you want to embody? What would nudge you towards living your life more fully?

Notes from the Atelier: January 11th, 2024

     at·el·ier

/ˌadlˈyā/

1: an artist's or designer's studio or workroom

Hello lovelies! 

Happy New Year! 2024

Inhale and exhale.

2023 was quite a ride, ...wasn't it? 

Celebrating 500 Posts! (plus a few)

 -

Hello Lovelies! 

I keep waiting for the roller coaster to stop, or at least slow down, but the days and months and years keep speeding by.

Every few years I take a look at this blog space and decide if I want to post more often and how I want to shift it to fit the current version of myself.

I recently did an exercise, as part of a coaching group, and wrote down a list of 25+ I'm proud of accomplishing. 

For a variety of reasons, I often downplay my achievements, and don't dwell on anything I've done. The next urgent matter has already come up, whether or not it's important. 

Writing down this list was an eye-opener for me and was a delightful experience in sorting through my past for things that bring a sense of accomplishment. After writing my top 25, I decided to keep going. As of this writing, the list is at #77 and going strong. 

One of the things on the list is this blog and having written more than 500 posts! 

I started this space 14.5 years ago, as a way to keep people up to date on my life and focus on gratitude as my husband deployed for the first time, less than a year after we got married.

Here we are now! We just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary, we have two brilliant kids, and are living a marvelous adventure together! 

Thank you to everyone who's been here every step of the way, everyone who's even peeked in to see what's going on, and everyone in between. I'm grateful for these morsels of your time and I am proud to still be here. 

With all my love,

Myrrh

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We will love you always, Thelma kitty. Thank you for all the snuggles.

 A couple nights ago our beloved Thelma passed away in her sleep.

She'd been struggling with a tongue tumor for a couple of months and we gave her the royal treatment until the end.

In no particular order, here are some favorite memories: 

Thank you so much to everyone who visited, cared for, and loved her along the way. 

--

Catching up on Princess Cakes - Happy Birthday Daddy!

 It's that time of year again... 

And now it's a tradition. 

I've been a bit remiss the last couple of years in updating you about Daddy's Princess Cakes.

I'll remedy that now.

In 2021, I did the Boston Cream Pie theme again. "Plant-based" food coloring lent a subtle coloring to boughten marzipan. Again the high-octane white sugar of the marzipan clashed a little with the natural sweeteners of everything else. 

The creme pat soaked into the cake making it moist and delicious. 

In 2022 I decided to try another of Daddy's favorite cake flavors growing up and made a pistachio and honey marzipan:

In spite of loving pistachio pastries, I felt that the honey and pistachio of the marzipan didn't quite work out. Perhaps I wasn't even using the right type of pistachio! 

and finally...

2023 (Happy birthday love!)

I made date-sweetened almond marzipan and added a little plant-based red food coloring to some for the flower. I liked the simplicity of the date/almond/water marzipan but I think I'll try a honey/almond one next time. The date was sticky and hard to work with and I felt like it was a competing rather than complimentary flavor to everything else going on.

This was the most successful cream dome I've done yet! 

I did kind of wing the cream dome and the creme pat but somehow I managed to pull it together and no one had trouble eating it. 

In spite of my own criticism, my love keeps asking for Princessa Torta for his birthday treat! 

Have you made anything that's healthy AND delicious lately?

Comment below! 

Beacon - woodcut book and lantern

As I near the end of my final semester at Smith, I'm proud to share two connected projects, done for different classes. The first is an abstract sculptural piece inspired by a piece of writing I did. The second is a portion of that writing, turned into a single woodcut, double map-fold book.

The lantern:

(apologies for the loud door noise) 

The book: