her blog

this morning i tweeted/posted this picture to instagram. i had a bunch of people ask for the recipe so i just decided to post it here. its my go to recipe for muffins - its incredibly versatile and is perfect for summer fruits - berries, peaches, cherries... (but i've also made it with apples, pears and rhubarb.) 

without further ado:

MAKES 12 MUFFINS

 2 cups (about 10 ounces) fresh fruit picked over/pitted/chopped 
 1 1/8 cups plus 1 teaspoon sugar
 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 1 teaspoon salt
 2 large eggs

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk or sour cream (whichever i have on hand)
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Turbinado Sugar or Sugar-in-the-Raw

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup fruit, 1 tbsp water and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing fruit with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until fruit has broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and snot-like, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk/sour cream and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup fruit into flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy.

3. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked fruit mixture into center of each mound of batter. Sprinkle Turbinado/Raw Sugar over the tops - I kind of go overboard with this step. I like 'em crunchy.

4. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving. And yum. 

i'm busy with wedding orders and ring of the month club. i'm spending a lot of time doing research and formulating plans. i'm helping shawn get ready for his show this saturday. what i'm not busy with is regular etsy sales. some days it would be easy to be dramatic and say, "screw it! i'm staying in bed. no one cares!" but its not really true and its not really me. and then yesterday, this was on the front page of etsy.

and so today i made beautiful things.

here's three more necklaces i made that were inspired by photos i took:

i saw this sun-like mandala painted in an interesection in a neighborhood not too far from our house on friday. i was on my way to pick up a friend and drove by again after dropping her off to snap a picture. i was completely in love with the colors and the way they looked in the sun and shadows. it also reminded me how much i love portland. 

these irises were along a fence at the fielding garr ranch at antelope island near salt lake city. they could have just as easily been in my mom's iris garden. i love purple and yellow together - and its no wonder why.

saturday night we were walking home during the magic hour and although we were only walking 10 blocks, the walk took us probably a hour - because we kept stopping to take pictures every 5 feet or so. i tweeted that we were on a magical walk and natalie replied that she thought i should make a "magical walk" necklace. and here we are. this picture was taken right outside the yoga studio a couple blocks from the house. i'd never noticed this statue or that pretty colored wall before. see, magical.

i went to fishman's fabrics this week. although there are many fabric stores in portland, none have quite the selection of silk dupioni that fishman's does. nor are any of them quite as old school as fishman's is. 

i've been going in there regularly since i started making yoyos. a few of the men who work there know me by name and other's recognize me as the girl with the sewing machine tattoo. when i walked in i was greeted with warm smiles and a big "welcome back!"

so. awesome.

and wait until you see what i bought! extra pretty yoyos coming soon!

saturday and sunday were a bit of a whirlwind. there was the show and tacos. and many hugs from our friends - nancy, andy, and donovan. i hugged oliver, who smiled a lot but didn't really hug back - he's 7 months, what more can i ask for?

the show was great. we met a lot of nice people, saw many of our crafty friends from all over, and met some new ones. it was fun hearing that people had been following our little adventure on flickr and twitter. it was also nice to talk to people who wanted to talk about our move to portland and how that's been working out for us. sometimes its easy to forget (like when i'm elbow deep in yellow silk yoyos) that we are part of a large community, that's really supportive and wants to see others in the community do well. i think i can speak for both shamptons when i say we felt very loved this weekend. 

we also couldn't be happier to be with our old friends caroline and greg, who we've known since we lived in austin in 1995-96. they weren't a couple when we first met, like dave and susan in albuquerque, and its wonderful to see the life they've made together. also, they have a new kitty and ohmygodshe'ssocute!

last night, we all went to guero's for tacos and margaritas. i bonded with oliver and we laughed A LOT. this morning we all met at magnolia cafe for breakfast and goodbyes. 

i was lucky enough to get a couple of extra hours with donovan. we went to an antique store and for amy's ice cream, of course.

all in all, a near perfect few days. perfection would have been made possible by the presence of kateri and kathy. i understand why they didn't come but i missed them anyway.

there is a longer blog post percolating in my head about a conversation we had with kim & matt, (frantic meerkat & mincing mockingbird) but that will have to wait until its not so late and i'm not so sleepy.

more austin tomorrow. its nice to be in one place for a few days!

at the 2nd annual renegade craft fair in austin on saturday + sunday, may 21 + 22 from 11 am to 7 pm at the palmer events center. 

tuesday, may 10 will be the last shop update until june 7. we're hitting the road this friday for renegade austin, stopping to visit friends on the way there and back. since we're traveling with our inventory, the shops will remain open BUT we will only be shipping once a week, probably on fridays. so, if there's something you've had your eye on, now may be the time - especially since you can use the coupon code "MayFlowers" for 30% off! xo

this is our booth for craft wonderland during the three minute warning. as you can see shawn is still hard at work. me, i was DONE. setup for the show was the night before and i'm here to tell you, its my new favorite thing. we setup on friday and made a list of the things we'd forgotten. saturday, we arrived about a half hour before the show opened with all those items. pretty great. also, very VERY chill. it made for a very good start to my day.

old and new friends stopped by to say hi. i met a ton of people. we sold some stuff. we made some money. all in all, a pretty great day. 

i've been busy busy making things for crafty wonderland. i've made piles of piles of yoyos. i have to say i love making them. i love the color combinations. i love the fabrics i've been using. yeah, i may be dreaming about making them but there are most definitely worse things.