Hot Stuff

I spread some hot love this Valentine's Day with my Salted Cayenne-Laced Dark Chocolate Chips. I've had the plain chocolate version once before and I was recently reminded by a food show on TV.  But I wanted to "spice" them up a bit for cupid, so here's what I did.  Super easy, but impressive.

12 oz. Dark Chocolate Chips 

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 bag of ruffles of kettle chips

coarse kosher salt

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.  Add cayenne pepper.  Dip half of chips in chocolate and let set on parchment lined baking sheet.  While still shiny sprinkle with cayenne pepper and salt.  

Voila!

Proud Pillows

I've been stalking pillows for the last month.  At work, we're creating a line of branded soft goods beginning with outdoor & indoor throw pillows.  So every place I go now I'm on pillow patrol always aware of price, styles and construction.  I even researched the pillow label.  You know the one that says "Do Not Remove This Tag Under Federal Law," that's a pretty interesting story.  (Impress your friends at a bar with this otherwise useless information.  Story here.)

Anyway, we're working with a commercial factory that does a lot of industrial stitchery like awnings and bags.  It's over 100 years old and I'm pretty proud to work with them versus some oversees factory.  Yesterday we finished two prototypes and selected three "collections."  Here is what we came up with so far.

This is the 20" size.  The reverse is in a contrasting orange with contrast stitching.  (Love contrast, right?)

The one on top here is a lumbar with the 20" beneath it.

Even our proto-label turned out nice.  The line is called "Otter Creek Home & Garden," an homage to the creek that runs by the garden center property.

 This was the most fun.  Going through fabric to create three different collections.  According to the industry, Rust, Beige and Terra Cotta in solids and stripes are the hot colors for outdoor living.  The fabric is a high quality Sunbrella which means it won't fade and wipes clean.  Love that.

First batch goes into production next week.

Favorite Things, Tied with String

This year, instead of a card I decided I'd send a box filled with some things I like - basically a box I imagined I'd send to myself - filled with "some of my favorite things."  (Yes, the hills are alive)

 

First, I baked a little: my favorite Cowboy Cookies full of dark chocolate, walnuts, oatmeal and coconut.  Then a Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti which I like most for the contrast of the walnuts cross-sections with the dark cookie surrounding it.

I supplemented my baked goods with some Macaroons from Peter Sciortino's Bakery in Milwaukee.   I also like Glorioso's but my Macaroon aficionado Angela and I go either way and that's what she brought with my delivery from the city.

 

I finished the grouping off with Loacker's Dark-Noir chocolate wafer cookies available at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods or online.  I prefer to eat these Italian treats by placing one on my tongue and letting the wafer dissolve away leaving only a warm morsel of rich, warm chocolate.  And then compliment with a swig of coffee?  Addicting.

 

I packed them in boxes and envelopes in various arrangements.  This was most popular. 

 

This is the second shipment.  (Is that your name?)  I'd love to send more, but my two elves quit after only one night. 

Happy Holidays Everyone.

For the chicks

To celebrate summer's bounty, her new "farm" house and a new flock of heritage chickens, my friend asked me to create a postcard invite for "FARMSTOCK" -  a weekend of friends and food and good ol' kicking back at her rural residence.  We picked out wormwood, a blocky, weathered font to set the tone for the party and the property itself.

This image served as the front of the postcard printed on 110# natural linen card stock which really added to the character of the content.

Next up: bumper sticker souvenirs.

Knife, Fork, Stamp.

Cheap pleasure this $3.99 stamp was.  Even more so that it was 40% off.  I stamped it alternating in black and moss.

Reminds me of this book I love and adore.   A handy pattern for a cocktail napkin or kitchen towel to use while cooking or dining along with the book.  Can't cook without it.  A necessary accessory?  But of course!

Tool Studies

Back to the drawing board...
Had some fun sketching old tools and pairing them with words from an old bin of industrial machine parts.  Most of the script appears exactly as it was written on the tool drawers from which I copied.  Good thing there is a plentiful supply of junk to "draw" from. 

March Bloom

Will be creating a table setting titled, "Vintage Romance" here for Rooms of Blooms as well as a floral piece responding to a trio of original Tiffany lamps, two of which have never been shown publicly.  Quite exciting!  Pal, designer Victoria and I have a lot of work...this runs every weekend through the month of March.

Local coverage here.

Travel: Hard Bound

Just finished editing and uploading my book "PARIS 2 ROME." It's mainly image based, but with excerpts from blog posts as well as a daily travel log. You can preview the book and its contents by clicking my blurb.com badge.

PARIS2ROME WES...

By L. MATTHEW TROTTER

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My Ware on MyWARES

Was invited to join this site today.  Good stuff.

I'll be here

Travel-themed 4X6 postcards, 5X7 and 20X20 framed art all available for purchase. Click here for a complete list of vendors.

Amazon Adventure

Been working on an Amazon.com webstore at work for nearly a month now. It's been a bit slow coming together as I had to research the outfit and then work on it's inventory and products. It's been an adventure - if not just completely frustrating but today I had an "Ah-ha!" moment with the program and I feel as though I now really get it. As a reward (not sure if for me or the site) I spent some time today jazzing it up with this graphic I created:

Then also spent a minute filling in some of the other site information. Definitely some work to do yet, but I like where its headed. Check it out in its entirety here. And check back because it'll be updated lots in the next coming weeks.

Words on Canvas

In my junk room in a vacant apartment I have some old canvases unfinished from years ago. Every so often I visit them and rework them a little. These two contained remains of stencils - glued on and painted (who knows what I was thinking). Somewhat deconstructed, marked up and embellished with buttons - this is what they looked like when I left. The one on the left reads: "30 Men & Woman Wearing Diamonds" while the one on the right simply reads: "2 of Us." The content was determined by the random stencils that had once been in place. The buttons are not yet permanent...think I'll stitch them on. Until then, there they wait.

Signed, Stamped, Delivered...

Had some fun embellishing the outside of this envelope for my sister's birthday card. She's 30, but I ran out of stamps. The little illustrated stamps were to make up for that.

Ring In Print

A piece I created last summer in my first jewelry & metalsmithing class is featured this month in Art Jewelry Magazine. You can find it in the magazine gallery in print or here at the magazine gallery online.

Each key is mounted on it's own ring to allow it to spin as necessary; they can be lined up straight or spread open as this photograph shows.

Photos Up

Finally got the photos off the floor and on the wall.  As much as I'd like to leave them where they are, I'm hoping they'll be out on another wall available for purchase soon.  The frames turned out nice (as much of a pain as they are) but I am considering options for upgrading to an even nicer version.

Travel Series

63 Blur. 20 X20. 2009.

Roman Underground. 16X20. 2009.

Milan Rising. 20 X20. 2009

I've been working on a series of Travel photos from the June trip to Europe. Above is a sampling of the images which I had printed at ookiimage. The obvious theme is travel, but more specifically the unexpected beauty of transportation and the constant movement associated with it. Plus, I couldn't overlook the food so there's a little of that in there as well.

Metals Portfolio Book On its Way

PRESERVE/DISMA...

SENIOR PORTFOLIO 2009

By L. MATTHEW W. TRO...

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