On the wall of my office, I have some swatches of vintage fabric tacked up. This particular sample is my absolute favorite. It makes me so happy to see this every time i shift my eyes to the left of my computer monitor. I purchased the fabric on ebay intending to use it for a sewing project. When it arrived, it because instantly apparent that I would not be putting my scissors anywhere near this gem!
The fabric is a playful mix of animals, hand-drawn alphabets, elephants, lions, clowns, umbrellas, cats, apples, prize ribbons, butterflies, marching band men, kites, ladybugs, flowers and a smiling sun. Whew, that’s quite a list, don’t you think? I often wondered what the theme or narrative is of this design. Did the designer just start with the intention of creating cute overload or did they get some specific directions from the fabric company?
It’s impossible for me to decide what I like best in this print, but at this particular moment, the cuter than cute kitties are making me smile. Love! Love Love!
This particular smiling kitty has the same expression I see on the faces of the cats that lounge among the tall grasses in my sunny front yard. Perfectly fitting for the official beginning of Spring this weekend. Enjoy!
Want to find out who the winner of our owl doll giveaway is? Watch this video!
A big thank you to everyone who entered. If you happen to be the lucky winner named in the video, you’ll be receiving an email from us shortly to arrange delivery of your owl!
Sometimes you just can’t help but fall in love with something. Lately, I’ve been crushing on pinwheels. Can’t explain how this crush came to be. It just did! But really, what’s not to love? Pretty colors, childhood memories, folded paper…it’s pretty simple.
I keep imagining an entire day spent making these twirling beauties. I want to have dozens, upon dozens of these to play with. Maybe I’ll sent up a paper pinwheel wind farm in the backyard?
After making accordion books out of vintage maps, I think the pinwheel made from map paper (pictured below, right) is the perfect companion for those books!
Heidi came across a tutorial this weekend for DIY pinwheel earrings. So cute!
So how did this obsession with pinwheels manifest itself? For now a few cute new card designs…but more designs are coming, believe me!
We have a little treat for you! 18 years ago this week, Heidi & I started Rock Scissor Paper and in honor of this milestone, we are celebrating with a fun giveaway! You could win this handmade owl doll!
To enter this giveaway you need to do just 2 things: 1) leave a comment below and 2) join our Rock Scissor Paper mailing list (on the top left side of this blog).
This giveaway is open through Sunday, March 13, 2011. A random winner will be chosen and announced on Tuesday, March 15th.
As part of our anniversary celebration we are also having a huge 25% off SALE. Use coupon code: happy18
Good Luck and thank you to all of our customers (new and old) for supporting Rock Scissor Paper!
{This giveaway is now closed. Look for the winner announcement tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15, 2011!}
How could I not pick this little binder book off the shelf at a local thrift shop? I couldn’t tell at first what is was. With all that crazy paisley pattern going on, I initially missed the gold, curly-q lettering on the cover that says “Cooking Clips”. Even without knowing exactly what it was at first glance, it’s got all the bells and whistles that make my heart sing: awesome color combo, hot pink, groovy fabric cover, great illustrations, and a 99 cent price tag!
The book has tabbed sections for salads, cookies, desserts, soups & sauces, freezing & canning, casseroles, candy, cakes & pastries, and last but not least, meat, poultry & fish. Please note the order of those sections, that’s how they are in the book! I don’t know about you but I like any book that has 4 separate sections for sweet treats.
The different sections all feature very fun illustrations printed in pink & burgundy ink on white card stock. I just love to see how the artist choose to draw each object with this limited color palette. The illustration above for Soups & Sauces is one of my favorites. Not only is the hand-lettering for the title amazing, but look how the illustrator chose to make the sauce pan transparent so that we can see all the ingredients floating around in the pot!
A pink & white plaid pot? Yes, please!
Each section has a flap pocket to hold recipe clippings from the newspaper or magazines. The small pocket is only about 5″ X 7″. Not much room for recipes. I don’t know about you but the recipes I tear out of magazines are usually a full page. I know that a lot has changed in the food and cooking world in the last 40 years, but by the looks of this book, recipes must have been barely recipes.
Here’s the one-and-only recipe clipping I found tucked into a pocket. Lo and behold, my suspicion that recipes were simpler back then is proven true!
Just a little peek at some awesome wedding invites we created for a client recently. She and her her fiancee met in the 80’s when she was a DJ at the college radio station. After years of being friends, they fell in love and needless to say, music is a big part of their relationship. The wedding was this past weekend and from what we’ve heard (and a few pictures we’ve seen) it was amazing!
Who doesn’t love to play with colorful bits of paper and glue? Something about it just brings the kid out in all of us. Crafting cards for Valentine’s Day is just the kind of fun we’re thinking about right now. We love the idea that Valentine’s Day is not just for lovers. When you think about it there are plenty of people in our lives that we should share a little love with!
This coming Saturday, we’re hosting an afternoon of card making just in time for Valentine’s Day. If you live in the Los Angeles area, please stop by and join us for some crafting fun and sweet treats!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after being with my sweetie for 19 years, it’s that pie is the way to a man’s heart! I’ve made lots of pies for him, including mini-pies and hand pies and even pie-topped pancakes, but these teeny tiny pies seemed like a really sweet way to say “I *heart* you”.
I came across this recipe on the King Arthur Flour site, where they refer to them as toaster pastries, and decided to put my own valentine’s day spin on it. To me, they are definitely more pie-like than a store bought toaster pastry, but maybe it’s just that they are so much better than a Pop Tart could ever hope to be! They are bite sized and delicious; in fact the perfect size to have with a mid-morning cup of coffee. The brown sugar and cinnamon filling is irresistible.
Sweethearts
For filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour
For dough:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
For assembly:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup chunky decorating sugar
For filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.
For dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry cutter, or your hands, work in the butter until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it, with small pea-sized lumps of butter still visible. Mix the egg and milk, and add it to the dough, mixing just until everything comes together.
Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove it from the refrigerator and place one piece on a lightly floured work surface. Roll it out to about a 1/8″ thickness. Using a cookie cutter (I used a 2 1/2-inch heart shaped cutter) cut out 16 hearts. Lay the hearts on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon milk. Using a pastry brush, brush each heart with a light coating of the mixture.
Top each heart with approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar filling, leaving a 1/4-inch edge exposed.
Roll out the second half of dough to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 16 more hearts. Brush one side with the egg-milk mixture and carefully place on top of the other hearts, lining the shapes up. Use the tines of a fork to gently press the two hearts together, sealing in the brown sugar mixture. Use the fork to poke a few vent holes in the top of each heart.
Refrigerate the hearts, uncovered for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the tops of hearts with the egg-milk mixture. Sprinkle each heart with any remaining cinnamon-brown sugar mixture, then sprinkle each with some chunky sugar.
Bake the hearts for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.
2010 has been a very, very busy year…it just flew by in a blink of an eye. Like many people, we have been working very hard and working long hours. It has been difficult to make time for things outside of the daily routine. We really want 2011 to be different. So five days into this brand new year, we are sending out some plans, some wishes for ourselves, out into the universe. Saying them out loud so that we can be accountable for making the time and making them happen!
1) More parties & get-togethers! Small, big, informal, fancy, impromptu, whatever! Looking at the calendar for this year and planning potential days & occasions NOW. Otherwise, November will be here in a heartbeat! Hoping our circle of friends might do the same.
2) Take time to teach and share. We’re thinking about some informal ways to share our skills and enthusiasm for making things.
3) Stealing more time to dream. Seems as we get older there is less and less time to explore and dream about ideas. Maybe it is just how our society is nowadays; everything is so immediate. We want to take more time just to think. And maybe, just maybe, the time to try something out without the worry of getting good at it. Let’s explore the possibilities!
It’s a small and simple list. Just the way we like it.
We are Susie & Heidi Bauer and together we are Rock Scissor Paper. In case you were wondering... we are sisters, best friends and business partners. We are so happy to have you here and hope that you will stay a while and share in our happy world!
On the wall of my office, I have some swatches of vintage fabric tacked up. This particular sample is my absolute favorite. It makes me so happy to see this every time i shift my eyes to the left of my computer monitor. I purchased the fabric on ebay intending to use it for a sewing project. When it arrived, it because instantly apparent that I would not be putting my scissors anywhere near this gem!
The fabric is a playful mix of animals, hand-drawn alphabets, elephants, lions, clowns, umbrellas, cats, apples, prize ribbons, butterflies, marching band men, kites, ladybugs, flowers and a smiling sun. Whew, that’s quite a list, don’t you think? I often wondered what the theme or narrative is of this design. Did the designer just start with the intention of creating cute overload or did they get some specific directions from the fabric company?
It’s impossible for me to decide what I like best in this print, but at this particular moment, the cuter than cute kitties are making me smile. Love! Love Love!
This particular smiling kitty has the same expression I see on the faces of the cats that lounge among the tall grasses in my sunny front yard. Perfectly fitting for the official beginning of Spring this weekend. Enjoy!
