Paper Bicycle Printables: 'Infinite Love' Valentine

"Similar to my love for donuts - my love for you is infinite". If that's not true love folks, I don't know what is! Continuing on my holiday/sweets theme I decided a donut card was essential to my printable collection. Now I'm hungry...



The printable version of this card makes a 4"x6" folded card! If you print it on some heavier card stock it will look super pro! I promise!



Download the printable version here, and share this donut greeting with your friends!

Repeating Recipes: Mile High Lasagna

There's nothing more delicious than an Italian dinner, and lasagna is king of foods! It's an easy recipe that produces a ton of food, and a lot of left overs (depending on how many people you decide to share it with).






Download available soon.

Repeating Recipes: Happle Bagel Sandwiches

When I was in second grade, we made a cookbook full of recipes of things that we (as second-graders) could easily make with a little help from our parents. Happle Bagel Sandwiches are a concoction I still turn to in a pinch for a quick and delicious lunch.


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Click here for a full sized downloadable recipe card!

Repeating Recipes: Maryland Crab Dip

You might be thinking to yourself, "what is this crab dip you speak of?". Well, I'm glad you asked! It's only the most delicious concoction of cheesy, melty, crabby, goodness. It's also a Maryland specialty, and like any Maryland crab dish this recipe contains a healthy dose of Old Bay. I'm not sure if you can find Old Bay in the stores out here in the midwest or in other places in the world, BUT you can buy it online here, so don't fret.


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Download the full-size, printable version here!

Daily Pattern: Pie-Making

Topic: Harvest

I like to think fall is another good reason (excuse?) to make desserts. I tried making a pumpkin pie from scratch, and that didn't really work, so I think my next attempt will have to be an apple pie.

Daily Pattern: Tiny Apples

I tried to think of a Macintosh/Apple pun for a title and then thought maybe I wouldn't do that. Autumn is (finally) in full swing, and lately my art-making is influenced by that. One of my favorite things about autumn is that apples are in season and they are delicious and oh-so versatile.

Daily Pattern: Ice Cream Overload

Patterning it up! This piece is a guilty pleasure. I know my pattern arsenal is almost all food related, and probably 80% of that is desserts. Ice cream is so cute and pretty, though. My sister and I used to have a collection of dolls that had dessert-themed clothes and furniture. I was thinking of the banana-split vanity when I made this one.

Daily Pattern: Balanced Breakfast

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I don't always have it, which may correlate with my fondness for it; a day where you can afford the time to sit down and eat something hot in the morning is a good day.

Daily Pattern: Oranges

Knock knock. (who's there?)
Banana. (Banana who?)
Knock knock. (who's there?)
Banana. (Banana who?)
Knock knock. (who's there?)
Banana. (Banana who?)
Knock knock. (who's there?)
Banana. (Banana who?)
Knock knock. (who's there?)
Banana. (Banana who?)

Knock Knock. (who's there?)
Taisha's pattern!

Joke is courtesy Jesse Riggle.

Daily Pattern: Breakfast Dots

Taisha is crazy about cute patterns, she even sees them in her breakfast cereal!

Daily Pattern: Doughnuts for Cara

"This pattern is dedicated to my friend Cara. I chose to make a doughnut pattern because doughnuts always make me happy (just like she does!) and she seems to have an unlucky history with flat tires and always driving around on doughnuts. "

-Taisha

Daily Pattern: Happy Days

Because I'm French when I think of snack food I think American food, like hot dogs, milk shakes, and all we can see in the TV series of the 8O's. It's a kind of exotic to me!

-Marie

Daily Pattern: Birthday Candles

A few of my favorite people have birthdays in the summer! A cupcake for all of you. I'll have one too, in your honor.

Daily Pattern - Hot Dog

It's still hot and muggy here in Minneapolis and it's now almost 3am. It's cooled down a little, but not enough to relieve us of the stickiness. I was thinking about summer. It's a season I long for when it's snowing, and a season I hate when it's upon us. When I was thinking of our topic today- I thought about hot dogs. I haven't had a hotdog in what feels like forever, but it's one of the things I think of often on hot, sticky days. Every summer we have a grill-out in the backyard and hotdogs are always invited. These days I'm even welcoming fake hotdogs. (Not like a regular hot-dog could get much more fake than it already is...)

Daily Pattern : Sushi

We had some Japanese food tonight from Fuji-ya! A couple of us got sushi (so good!)
I know our topic for today was fish... this still counts, right?

Daily Pattern: Variety of Forks

There are too many types of forks, and not everyone knows how to differentiate them.I usually use an universal fork, but I like to consider all the variety of flatware.
-Ira

Daily Pattern: Wedding Cake

Express your love with food, my friends. I was pleasantly surprised by today's topic because I already had a whole bunch of ideas for wedding patterns. I decided to go with my favorite, which is the kind-of-whimsical food-related one.

Daily Pattern : Vegetable Gardening

Next week starts the beginning of our crop share! We're buying from Turnip Rock Farm and we can't wait to start it. Chris, Francesca and I will be hauling a whole bushel of goods to the studio every week. I'm thinking we're going to have to learn how to cook one of these days. (I guess I should speak for myself - Chris, Francesca, I'm sure you're great cooks) I'm thinking we'll get to eat some of these vegetables! I'm crossing my fingers!

Nashville, Day 2

I had some early morning meetings to attend to with my new colleagues and then just an hour to walk around a small part of town. I found a cute 2 block radius that had ice-cream shops, great local delis, bookstores, and paper shops. Here are some of the cute stores. I grabbed some lunch at a place called Fido, which is a pet-shop-turned-cafe, and then shopped for a second. I really liked my stay in Nashville. Everyone was friendly, it was green and spacious, and if I could have had just a little more time, I'm sure I would have found some more, fun places.




An adorable paper shop/ stationery store called Social Graces








Inside Fido






The view from my window seat in Fido


My delicious Melted Mozzarella sandwich and Roasted Red Pepper soup








Great vintage signs everywhere


Pangaea, a cute boutique


Window Display and reflection of Pangaea

I drove my rented Mustang back to the rental car return after spending an hour or so in this little part of the city. Nashville, I am impressed. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit again some time soon.

Paper Bicycle NYC Trip

We're back in Minneapolis after a quick trip to New York City for Surtex and The National Stationery Show NYC!

We were there less than three days (only one full day), but we tried our best to have a good time when we weren't at the Javits Convention Center, walking the floor and taking classes.

We got there late in the day on Saturday. After stopping by out hotel to drop off our things, we made a beeline for Megu, a swank Japanese restaurant in TriBeCa.

The restaurant itself was gorgeous and the food was pretty phenomenal.



















After that, we headed to St Marks to visit an amazing psychic that Lindsay always forces everyone to visit (I don't know the name of the place, but her name is Ann Marie and her shop is opposite the TKettle on St Marks...). She's been scarily accurate and has totally changed the life of at least two of our friends and seriously rattled a few more.

Unfortunately she wasn't available so instead met up with Victoria and got bubble tea at TKettle some hot dogs at our favorite NYC hot dog place, Crif Dogs.











On the walk home we grabbed some cupcakes at Pinisi Bakery, just 'cause.





Sunday was dominated by Surtex and the Stationery Show. We arrived at 8:30 am and left around 6:30 pm. Photography isn't allowed, but needless to say it was visual overload. We took turns walking the show floors and attending various talks of the conference program. A big thanks to everyone we met at the show, everyone was super nice and cool.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Kinokuniya, a massive Japanese book store. Francesca flipped out over the original art by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, and the rest of us just flipped out over all the cute, cute stuff.

After that long, long day, we headed back to St Marks to take another shot at seeing the psychic. This time she was in. I won't spill any details, but her record for being eerily life-changing remains completely intact. I will just say there was trembling, tears and 1,000 yard stares for a few hours after the reading.

We got some Ramen from a nearby shop, which was super delicious. Poor Taisha doesn't like Japanese food as much as everyone else, so she just settled for some Green Tea ice cream.









And since we were near the TKettle again, of course we couldn't pass up more Bubble Tea.



We were all exhausted, so we retired to our hotel for a fun night of PATTERNS! and tarot card readings until 4 am.





Well, Franceaca and I just traded turns in Fruit Ninja trying to claim the top score.



The final day was a short one. Lindsay and Francesca headed back to Surtex for one final conference. Taisha, Mary and I took a trip to ABC Carpet.





Before we re-grouped to head to the airport, we stopped at a little diner for some non-asian food, for Taisha's sake.





So that's that! A whirlwind trip summed up in a bunch of pictures. There's a whole bunch I'm leaving out, but that's ok. Don't sweat it.

I'll leave you with one subway photo, since we spent about 40% of our time in NYC down there and it feels a bit under represented...