Birthday Art Museum Tour of Inspiration.

I love museums. I love museums. Always have, always will. 

The problem is, no one I know has any interest in museums whatsoever. 

I usually take myself to museums, unless it's my birthday. Then I ask for company.

December 14th is my birthday and I asked to visit the Cameron Museum about an hour and a half North of us in Wilmington, NC. 

http://cameronartmuseum.org/

This is the first exhibit.

                       Art From Flour: Barrel To Bag

Rusty metal stencils.#RustyLove These would look good on my wall. Used to stencil cotton flour bags in the 1800's.

Metal stamps for burnishing wooden crates of flour.  We could fire those up at the studio and recreate some history. I'm  thinking vintage signage. 

                             Advertising and marketing art.

Dresses  and quilts made from flour sack material.

Next exhibit -Art of Illumination

"The Art of Illumination 2016 Exhibition reveals the unique hand-built completed lanterns from over forty artists across the country."

I'd love to do a lighting project, upcycle challenge down at the studio. Lighting seems to be one of my favorite upcycles. Check out the chum pot lighting blog here.
Fisherman Inspired Chum Pot Lighting

Unbound Narrative

Final exhibit and my favorite

Excavated books, " Oh my! "

Mountain side carving excavated from a book .

Illuminated excavated book art.

1897 Sears Catalog excavated.  

Included in this video is a set of Encyclopedia Britannica that have been lovingly carved and looks to this Coastal Bohemian,  to resemble south west canyons, or the Grand Canyon . Either way it is stunning to view. This was certainly my favorite exhibit .

Can't wait for the new exhibits. I finally talked a group of friends into a visit. Yeah me!

I hope this inspires you in your creativity as it has me. 

Have a Happy Holiday and New Year.

 Don't forget to follow along on Facebook , Pinterest , Google +, and Instagram . We love when you share and comment and get right into a good ole conversation. Please do.

Michele Michael 

Greek Butter Cookie Recipe Kourabiethes

Printable Recipe

This is a very special cookie to me and my inner child. We , my inner child and I used to enjoy these when I was a child. I used to visit all my aunts in Astoria, ( They all lived within footsteps of each other . Yes I know, totally Big Fat Greek Wedding!!), and as I visited each one they would hand over these lovelies. So from house to house covered in white powder I went. Each one made their cookie a little different and I have taken the best of what I liked and tweaked the recipe.

The pictures below will help you understand the steps better. I suggest printing the recipe and then looking through the photos.There is a little extra work to use the clarified butter but it makes a simply amazing cookie.

 I'm showing the thumb prints here and the height and size of the cookie.

This photo shows the tinfoil with sifted powdered sugar with  hot out the oven cookies placed on top. What happens is the warm cookie begins to absorb the sugar and sweetness. Remember this cookie has very little sugar inside and it comes alive with the powdered sugar.

                                                                      Sift more powdered sugar on top of  the warm cookie. 

 These cookies are fragile and I like to lift them with my tiny cookie spatula.

                                                             Yes that is a colander and yes I use it to sift powdered sugar.

Happy Holidays

Michele 

Cookie Bohemian