Alicia Kachmar's Blog, page 5

Plush You, "Witch Craft" and a lot of links

Plush You! Show in Seattle

I have been part of the annual Plush You! show before (a Seattle-based show from Schmancy's Kristen Rask where artists must apply via plush samples), but I have never actually attended. Until this year! Well, *hopefully*. My health is in teetering mode once again after about 9 days of things actually looking up (gee whiz that was short-lived), so I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't get worse and I can drag this ailing body around no matter how difficult.

I had promised myself earlier in the summer, when I was much more sick, that if I wasn't totally down and out, I'd seize the day and use my credit card like a normal person (I don't really use it…) and go to Plush You. I have wanted to take a trip by myself for a while now; as much as I love people, and I do, I absolutely love to travel by myself, always have. And traveling to Seattle for Plush You means more to me this year because of what I've been through and because I included this piece in the show.

Plush You! kicks off Friday, October 8th with an opening reception from 5pm-9pm. It runs for a month, so check it out if you're in Seattle! Seattle Magazine has a nice little write-up about the show and Seattle Met Magazine has this piece up on their blog–go press! Now if that weren't enough fun for one weekend, enter gal-around-town-and-the-internets Jessie Oleson of the fabulously sweet Cakespy, a Seattle-based biz, blog and brick-and-mortar. Remember when she and I exchanged surprise macarons upon first meeting this summer in Seattle? We are throwing a little Halloween partay for Witch Craft the next day, Saturday, October 9th from 5pm-8pm. Games, treats, crafts and surprises are promised.

Witch Craft

Halloween is less than a month away now and our book is doing well! I've been visiting it at bookstores around Pittsburgh to make sure, as it's part of their Halloween displays, all front and center! (I especially like watching it get higher on the Amazon charts). I've been doing some blog interviews stemming from the book's publication and they are starting to go live. What's been both interesting and somewhat emotionally challenging in this process, however, is having to go over "my story" regarding how I got into craft, magazines and now books. Sure I was always crafty and always wrote, but both only "for fun" until I became chronically ill.

I never really thought about how all of this unfolded, the timeline, until recently, when I get so directly asked about it. I also don't think I ever quite realized how bad life and health were, and for soooooo long, how incredibly ill I was. Which is odd because, of course, I should be the one most in-the-know! When I go through what days were/are like, peruse things I've written here but mostly in journals, look at calendars with everything crossed out except doctor appointments, social activities entirely replaced by food types/bathroom trip tallies and remember making crocheting particular things during particular sick periods, I honestly ask myself a) how the heck am I still alive/how can the body withstand all of that and b) how did I want to bealive enough to keep going when the outlook was and still kind of is not fantastic. It is all so mind-boggling to me. "Live the questions" instead? Who knows…

Anyway! Without further adieu, the first slew:

-I've been a member of Cut Out + Keep for a while now. It's a wonderful UK-based site devoted to crafty how-to's and they interviewed me for the latest issue of their online magazine, Snippets. Check it out here. What I love about this interview is that I got to correspond with one of the site's writers, who is also a young, chronically-ill chick and we have energetic illness-inspired-art brainstorming sessions over email that will hopefully lead to some amazing future projects! Gives me goosebumps just thinking about them. Stay tuned…

-I belong to the Steel Town Etsy Street Team here in Pittsburgh and have loved the embracing nature of this crafty group upon moving back. Thank you, Tamara Barker for this Member Feature and book review!

-I also belong to the Pittsburgh Craft Collective–here is a Members News post on me! We are also planning a Witch Craft book/crafty happy hour, details to unfold soon…

-Back when I lived in NYC, I occasionally did some writing for Tribeca Citizen. And it was actually there in Tribeca where I began to work on Witch Craft and made all of my crafts for it, using supplies from neighborhood shops and grocery stores. So, part of the book was essentially born in Tribeca! Erik Torkells is the mastermind behind the site, and, you know, former editor of Budget Travel, Fortune, Travel+Leisure and Town & Country. Yeah, I'm only a little intimidated to have him edit something of mine haha. ("haha" at the end there is all wrong, I know). Kidding kidding, he is one of my favorite email buddies and I look forward to a future lunch with him after our single meeting last year! Here is his Homemade Halloween Q&A on the book and me!

So, um, buy the book and get crafty, okay?

Spicy Tomatillo Guacamole

One of the projects I did for Witch Craft was "Freaky Finger Food," which you'll have to buy the book (or search my Flickr) to learn more about. Well, I will tell you it has to do with dips! And vegetables made to look like fingers ooooooh. Anyway, I went through a chip-and-dip phase when I was younger. No, not really the eating part, but rather, finding chip-and-dip containers that were clever or cute or silly. I had a swimming pool one that I was particularly fond of and was just grateful that the wonderful English language allowed for "chip-and-dip" in the first place. But I digress…

I'll be gradually unveiling some of my own dip recipes here that will add some pizzazz to your Halloween festivities, though they will do the trick all year round. For this Spicy Tomatillo Guacamole, I ventured into unknown vegetable land, having never cooked with tomatillos before. My aunt Adele (who I used to help with craft shows growing up!) is known for her culinary skills in making chilis and salsas. She introduced me to tomatillos in the latter just the other week and I was hooked. After the jump, Spicy Tomatillo Guacamole.

Spicy Tomatillo Guacamole

2 avocados

2 tomatillos, husks removed and diced (about 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp)

1/2 cup plum or cherry tomatoes, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 green onions, finely chopped

1 1/2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

In a medium-sized bowl, mash up avocado insides. Add the rest of ingredients and mix thoroughly. Adjust the cayenne till you hit your heat factor preference. The above gives it a kick, but not a kill-you-kick. Serve with chips, of course.

Witch Craft–The Book!

My Ruby Slippers project from the book, and also 1/2 of the outfit I plan on wearing to all book events…or all of October even)

As I mentioned in the last couple of posts, I have a book out!!! I co-edited, co-compiled and contributed to the Quirk Books title, Witch Craft, along with the wonderful Margaret McGuire, full-time editor there at Quirk. From now until Halloween, I suspect I'll be doing *a lot* of writing about book-related things; I hope you like recipes, how-tos, pictures of me in ...

Rainbow Safety Cone Army to the Rescue!

Look what someone, someone who has never met me in person, crocheted for me during my latest hospitalization? A rainbow safety cone army, using my free crochet safety cone pattern! Jamie stumbled upon my blog earlier this year after visiting my Etsy shop. She happens to teach defensive driving skills, so safety cones are practically her co-workers. Well, she wanted to make some of these crochet cones for her actual co-workers. We eventually became Facebook friends and got to know each other t...

The body creating the person

ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code 556: ULCERATIVE COLITIS

"I've heard this is an incredibly painful disease–is that true?" It's funny the things people ask you when you're lying on an ER bed, heart monitor wires crawling out from beneath a hastily thrown-on hospital gown, fluids and a steamrolling steroid drip being fed into weak veins, a second IV line put in right after the first, and a blood transfusion bracelet "just in case." Who said this to me? I think it was the woman from registration, a...

A long way to Seattle

Seattle is approximately 2500 miles away from Pittsburgh, which works out to about half a day of flying when you take into account drives to and from airports, connections and time zone changes–a long ways away! And a really long ways away if you consider the path I took to get there. Even after I found out that I was one of the UC Success Grand Prize winners, I didn't get excited about the 4-day, 3-night trip to Seattle that was part of the prize package because I was still sick...

Macarons, S'il Vous Plait!

Surprise surprise, I am better at making crochet macarons than the real-deal edible versions. Not macarOOns mind you, but the delicate French macaron, an almond-based meringue sandwich cookie. (It feels demeaning to call it a "cookie"). I have baked chocolate and pistachio macarons, but they didn't quite turn out perfectly, the meringue tops and bottoms falling a little flat. Since making them and tasting various macarons in New York, I always meant to design a crochet version….

Not too long a...

When in Doubt…Make a Bacon Dessert?

For some reason, I have never been a bacon person. With only a few half-baked vegetarian stints and a general love of meat, especially of the barbecue/pork varieties, I have probably had straight-up bacon about five times in my entire life. And I'm pretty sure I've had good, well-prepared bacon too, and yet, I feel "meh" about it. I think it's the texture of the fat that bothers me. The few times I have prepared bacon, I find myself "trimming" away at the fat for a minute or two before...

Hoping for "a good summer full of beautiful sight, sound, and creativity"

Some time in April, I signed up for "Mail Art," an art swap organized by The Artclash Collective, which is based in Philadelphia. Participants receive four names with mailing addresses and you agree to send a piece of art (small, 2-D pieces that can easily fit into a standard envelope are the common choice, but there are no rules or restrictions) to each address that is paired with each Friday in May. You, in turn, get four pieces as well, but not from the people you're assigned to. I chose t...

A Tethered Time, A Sociable Sedentariness

It is almost amusing to have to promote the Ulcerative Colitis Success essay contest for which I was chosen as a semi-finalist, from the confines of a hospital bed, where I've been for 10 days now. 'Tis the ultimate test of remaining positive regarding this disease if there ever was one. Last year, 700 people entered the contest, 10 were chosen as semi-finalists and 5 were ultimately picked as grand prize winners. The first stat may be different this year, but the other two are the same...