Hubble Hump Day

It's Hubble Hump Day again!
Or should I just call it Humple Day?

Here's an adorable pic of the pup with our kitty, Ms. Bea.

They vie for sun spots in the house.

Hubble Hump Day

Possibly the start of a new tradition on the blog: 

Hubble Hump Day

It's half-way through the work week! 

Could there be a better time to share a ridiculous photo of my dog?

 He's kind of a monster.

A birthday gift

This was a birthday gift to a very special person in my life. It was fun wrapping it all up in sea creatures. It had a LOT more stamps covering it before it was sent.

 I used a lot of tape, so I gave directions on how to open it. Marijane said they were very helpful. It's always a good idea if something has been covered up so much.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Happy Pi Day!!

3.14!!

On Friday last week I made fresh strawberry pie for the first time! It was a nice sunny day out, and not even that cold! When it was time to cool the pie crust I opened the window to help it along! It felt like the traditional image of a pie cooling on a windowsill. Unfortunately (maybe?) my windowsill is not large enough to actually accommodate a pie.

The recipe I used was from the Brown Eyed Baker: 

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/06/14/fresh-strawberry-pie-recipe/

It calls for both corn starch and something called Sure-Jell (a type of fruit pectin) to thicken the sauce. I couldn't find Sure-Jell or any other type of fruit pectin at two grocery stores that I went to! I decided to just up the amount of corn starch a bit and it seemed to work fine!

The pie certainly tasted good! The strawberries did kind of fall off the crust after I cut the pie, so I don't know, maybe the pectin would have helped it stick together more.

the sauce...

 

which gets mixed in with a lot of fresh strawberries!

The crust kind of shrunk a bit when baked, which is interesting. You can see the little gap between it and the pan.

AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!

Valentine Making Party!

 I had SUCH a great time at my Valentine making party. I am so inspired when I see what my friends make. I think they kind of look on me as the expert, because they don't make mail as much as I do, but they inspire me to do different things with my mail art. Even using all my materials they come up with ideas for things that I either rarely or never do. 

Like cutting out words and phrases from National Geographics and making funny messages and poems, etc.

Here are a few things I made at the party:

 I especially love the Ray Charles stamp on this. That he's laughing at my friend Jordan. hahaha
Jordan appreciated this a lot and has it up on his mantel above the fireplace now.


This one is a fuzzy terrible picture because I was in a rush... but you get the idea.

As for the food... I was really happy with myself. I kind of made up my own recipe for pasta salad by walking around the grocery store and picking up red things.

The final product was delicious, red bell peppers, red onion, dried cranberries for a little sweetness, sun dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives.  YUM!

New blog

Welcome to Pie Post!

I've been wanting a change for a while with my blog.
The old name, Winnie's Girl, refers to my horse Windsong, who passed away several years ago.  Though she is still dear to my heart, I wanted a new name that better reflects what goes on in this blog.

In 2013 I made my first really dedicated artistamps and created the moniker "Pie Post" because of a concurrent burgeoning interest in making pies.

Right now, I'm really kind of obsessed with pies, and one of my post/art related goals is to start making more artistamps and finding more people to trade with.  I'll continue to have many posts about mail, but I'll also start blogging more about the pies I've made. Not just a couple photos but links to the recipe and also how things went for a novice pie maker.  Pie Post seems like a great way to get a new start and devote myself more fully to these things.

I'm happy to have a blank slate and for now at least, I'd like to keep this blog looking a little more streamlined than the last one. White feels really refreshing right now... almost as refreshing as my most recent pie: fresh strawberry pie!

See you soon,
Emilie