World Vegetarian Month

October 1st World Vegetarian Day! As someone celebrating her 20th year as vegetarian I am offering 10% off all sales in my Etsy shop throughout the entire month of October. Refund amount will be issued promptly through PayPal. For those shopping at 1000 Markets I will offer you additional gifts. I hope you will try some new vegetarian recipes this month!

I encourage everyone who is not vegetarian or vegan to try at least a day or more of vegan food. Do it for the environment, the animals and for your health!

Here is a favorite at our house, my recipe for Ratatouille.

Ratatouille

Serves 4

1 eggplant, sliced

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup red wine

1 green pepper, chopped

3 tomatoes, chopped

1 zucchini, sliced and halved

1 tsp basil

½ tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

¼ tsp pepper

· Sprinkle eggplant slices with salt, cover with a kitchen towel and let sit for fifteen minutes (or longer if you have the time). Rinse off salt and blot dry. Cut eggplant slices into cubes.

· Cook onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is soft.

· Add eggplant and remaining ingredients. Cook over medium low heat, covered, until vegetables are tender and sauce thickens.

Serving Suggestion: Serve on a bed of brown rice with a glass of dry red wine!

Upcoming Studio Tour

Quilting Arts is hosting an open studio event on October 3rd. As I love to tour studios I've decided to open my own studio up for tour. Come by October 3rd!

Whales!

My husband joined me for my last week of summer vacation. He suggested we take a whale watching tour but turns out we didn't need to. As we were enjoying the end of a beautiful long afternoon we heard the sound of whales blowing and we looked out to see three whales passing by!
I wish I had been quicker with the camera but just glad I saw these beautiful creatures. So my summer started with the eagle and ended with the whales ... it doesn't get any better!
And here's one more sunset before I start back into the clay and fiber.

Paper and Paint

I finally cooked the bits of seaweed I picked up at the beach and tried it in my paper making experiment. Because I felt bad collecting seaweed I did not pick up much; just enough to try it out. I cooked it for several hours with washing soda because I didn't have any soda ash, so it didn't get very soft. But once it cooled I cut it into small pieces and put it into the blender with some water. I really didn't have very much so added some cut up used paper that was destined for the recycle bin. With very little I simply poured directly from my blender jar to my screened frames. Below are the pieces drying. I found this batch dried very crinkled and some broke as I tried to press them flat. Next time I would be careful to press more water out when making them. I did a lot more pressing the first time round. But they will be fun to incorporate into some work this winter.I found some very old fabric paints and an old white sheet in the rag bin. Below is some of my paint play.The top left is a layer of pretty peach tissue that a friend had wrapped the giant zucchini from her garden in. (Thank you Sandra for the tissue and zucchini!) I used paint to adhere it to the sheet and then continued to paint over it. Next time I'll wrinkle the tissue so it adds some texture that the sheet alone could not have done. I continued on with the piece below and now it awaits for some netting and sewing to hold those pine needles in place. And speaking of pine needles I'm anxious to put some of my dried bits of nature into some fiber studies and pots this winter!