Behold...

The Bacon Maple Donut!!!

courtesy of The Nickel Diner in down town Los Angeles.
this morning I had to get up at the crack of dawn to drive my boy downtown so he could hop in a van and drive north for a few gigs with his band. Because I was up so early I figured I deserved a treat. Enter The Bacon Maple Donut from Nickel Diner. I'd had a donut hole sample last time I was in there with friends but figured it was time to go for the whole thing!

It was delicious! The thing is, the bacon is super smokey! So that combined with the sweet maple frosting makes for a yummy combination! I'm a little on the fence about the actual donut...it was weirdly chewy but all is forgiven with the addition of the toppings. I also learned that they make the donut fresh! Below the donut in the take out container was a little bit of gooey goodness and bacon crumble that I couldn't help but scrap out and devour!!!


here's my donut with some Ricotta scrambled eggs and more coffee!
I try to make thing well rounded if they aren't at all healthy :)


If you're in the area and you like bacon and you like donuts I highly recommend you check it out. At $2.25 a piece though make sure you bring enough green to indulge. I've heard about this whole Bacon Maple donut combo for a while (there a place in Portland that makes another version) and it was cool to try it out finally. Totally yummy! Not for eating all the time but an excellent novelty food!

this weekend is Artwalk downtown so don't forget to come by, say hello and check out all the cool artists!!!

~~Art Walk at the Brewery~~
Saturday November 1st and Sunday November 2nd 2008
11am-6pm ~2100 North Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90031

The Brewery Art Walk is a twice annual open studio weekend at the worlds largest art colony. Each Art Walk, over 100 resident artists participate. During this event, you will have the opportunity to see new works, discover new favorites, speak with the artists and purchase artworks directly from the artists at studio prices.
I'll be showing at Theory Labs again with 6 other fantastic artists!
Admission is free and so is parking. Come support LA’s finest artists, take home some great works and and dine at the on-site restaurant.

Unique Los Angeles

I'll be participating in this great sounding show in December with My Friend Roze!
Pencil it into your calenders for loads of awesome handmade gifts!

Unique LA

December 13th & 14th, 11 am – 7 pm
California Market Center, Downtown Los Angeles
110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90079

$5 per ticket
(children 10 and under are free)
50% of ticket sales benefiting a local arts-based charity for kids (TBA)

---

UNIQUE LOS ANGELES is an exciting two-day shopping event that showcases independent design talent at great prices. Just in time for the holiday shopping season, the event brings together over 150 of the best designers, artists and merchants. We believe in supporting the community, we thrive on individualism, and we hope to introduce independent design to the masses. Whether you’re a hipster, a soccer mom or a tween, at UNIQUE LOS ANGELES there truly is something for everyone!

Clothing & Accessories • Stationery • Jewelry • Housewares • Artwork • Ceramics
Gourmet Edibles • Plush Toys • Books • Photography • Screenprints • Plus more!

Designed to foster and support the creative community, while also stimulating the local economy, the show’s mandate is to bring over 225 independent vendors to the masses, all under one roof. On top of shopping the wide variety of offerings, the event boasts exciting Extras & Amenities: the creative and interactive DIY Lab, the Cali Café, and a comfortable Lounge area.

sunny days

The Village Venture Arts & Crafts Show this past Saturday in Claremont was loads of fun!
It was a great day, lots of people came by to say hello and the town of Claremont is sweetie pie cute!!!

Amanda Lockrow and I arrived to set up our booth before dawn!!! got every thing situated and then enjoyed a beautiful day talking with people and selling our wares.
I treated myself to some cookies from Some Crust Bakery and lemmie tell you, YUM!
I'm gonna have to stop in whenever I'm in the the area! It's a super cool bakery with great coffee and loads of yummy snacks!

Friends were selling at the same fair so we all made mad dashes to each others booths to check everything out. The Village Venture show is by far the biggest I've been a part of. I tend to prefer a smaller amount of vendors with fewer import goods but it was an interesting day.

After the tear down and repacking of the fair we all needed a stiff drink and some nourishment so we headed over to Walter's where I had a delish Afghan dish of Cardamon chicken with this yummy mixed pilaf with all sorts of tasty things in it. YUM again.

Thanks to everyone that came out! It was a great day!

just a reminder!

~~This coming weekend!!!~~
Claremont 27th Annual Village Venture Arts & Crafts Fair
Saturday October 25th 2008
9am-5pm ~All of Downtown Claremont!

20,000 visitors are expected to attend this years Village Venture.
Autumn’s largest Arts & Crafts Fair in the Inland Valley Over 450 booths will fill the tree-lined Claremont Village with Unique Art, Original Crafts, International Foods and Entertainment.
I'll be sharing a booth with a wonderful jewelry designer Amanda Lockrow
http://www.amandaklockrowjewelry.com/
Free admission, You can take the Metro on the San Bernardino line to Claremont from Union Station. It's about an hour trip.


I read something this morning coming off the Indie Biz Chicks blog that I thought would be awesome to reprint.

"

The Best Advice I Ever Got

by Crissy on October 24, 2008

Wendy Piersall from Sparkplugging is asking people what the best marketing advice was that they received when they first started their business.

I could type something out about starting a blog, participating in social networking or something similar….

Instead, I’m going to tell you something that goes beyond marketing.

When I first heard these words, I was shaken to my core. The light bulb went off and it was my Aha Moment.

Here goes:

“No one is going to hand you the life you want on a silver platter. You’re going to have to go out there and make it happen for yourself.”

From that moment on, whenever I think about a goal or a dream, whenever I think about something that I’d like in my life, I know it is up to me to make it happen.

Do I really want it? Do I want it enough to do whatever it takes to accomplish it?

Life takes action. if you sit around and wait for the perfect moment, you’ll never do anything or go anywhere.

if you’re waiting to promote your business because your website isn’t as perfect as you want it to be, well, sit around and wait forever, because it’s never going to be perfect…

If you’re waiting until after the holidays to send out a press release because you’re going to be really busy, well blah, blah, blah and more blah.

You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t make both.

If you want it, you CAN make it happen. You just gotta’ get up and off your butt.

Now go do it!!"

fall winds

the wind is back up again! because we live up in the hills against the mountains it's sweeps down and rattles all the trees and everything else that's not nailed down.
i've been reading this great book

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It's and interesting take on what would happen if humans suddenly dissapeared from the planet. not killed by disease but suddenly dissapeared without time to stop any of the machines or power down factories. most of the things in our world that are most dangerous to us have all of these fail safe measures in them that mostly need to be triggered by humans. and even after that...once things have powered down due to lack of electricty, in merly a century most of the facilities themselves will be at the mercy of rot and decay. some of the most interesting sections in the book look at areas that have been left alone by humans and how they have begun to restore themselves to their original state. an island in greece, the dmz in korea and the forests of northern new england.
A thought provoking read!

Check out this website featuring some great knitting projects
Cocoknit
i'm particularly partial to this great rag bath matt!
i'm gonna keep an eye out for the rags to cut up to make one!

All the info about Fall Shows!

buttons galore!
getting things in order for upcoming shows!

Upcoming Fall show info:

~~This coming weekend!!!~~
Claremont 27th Annual Village Venture Arts & Crafts Fair
Saturday October 25th 2008
9am-5pm ~All of Downtown Claremont!

20,000 visitors are expected to attend this years Village Venture.
Autumn’s largest Arts & Crafts Fair in the Inland Valley Over 450 booths will fill the tree-lined Claremont Village with Unique Art, Original Crafts, International Foods and Entertainment.
I'll be sharing a booth with a wonderful jewelry designer Amanda Lockrow
http://www.amandaklockrowjewelry.com/
Free admission, You can take the Metro on the San Bernardino line to Claremont from Union Station. It's about an hour trip.


~~Art Walk at the Brewery~~
Saturday November 1st and Sunday November 2nd 2008
11am-6pm ~2100 North Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90031

The Brewery Art Walk is a twice annual open studio weekend at the worlds largest art colony. Each Art Walk, over 100 resident artists participate. During this event, you will have the opportunity to see new works, discover new favorites, speak with the artists and purchase artworks directly from the artists at studio prices.
I'll be showing at Theory Labs again with 6 other fantastic artists!
Admission is free and so is parking. Come support LA’s finest artists, take home some great works and and dine at the on-site restaurant.


~~Felt Club Holiday 2008~~
Sunday November 16th, 2008
11am-7pm at The Shrine Auditorium Expo Center
700 W. 32nd Street Los Angeles CA 90007

Felt Club is an annual indie craft fair featuring the best and brightest of today's creative scene. The carefully juried shows highlight a wide variety of handmade goods, including handbags and jewelry, baby gifts and paper products, clothing and housewares, one-of-a-kind plushies and original artwork.
I'll be sharing a booth with wonderful jewelry designer Rose Braunstein
http://www.myfriendroze.com/

Hope to see you!!!
miriam dema

shop update!

I finally updated my shop over at Etsy!!!
All the recent prints are in there as well as the woodland pennants!

miriam dema shop

go check it out!
things have been selling pretty often so i think I have to go to a regular shipping schedule. I updated my profile at the shop, all prints and such will ship on Thursday afternoons!
If you need something sooner just message me or email and of course I'll do my best!!!

I've been working on some new prints and ideas! Driving around the valley last weekend I was inspired by all the old cars parked in front of peoples homes. I've always enjoyed old cars living and being driven so much more that a fancy fully restored car languishing in someones garage (sigh...for those of you that know me - guilty - my daily driver is a Ford but I also own a beautiful restored VW that lives at my parents garage, maybe some day soon I'll be able to drive it around Southern California!) but I took a bunch of pics last weekend and started these really fun and simple images of cars with color blocks. A few of my frinds have old cars I should pester for pics so I can imortalize their cars instead of just strangers cars!


also working on some experiments with Half tones which is very exciting, we'll see how that goes!

woodland pennants!

here's how the pennants turned out!
each set consists of six flags sewn to five yards of bias tape.
there is about 48 inches at each end to tie up the backyard or in a child's bedroom

I'll be posting them on etsy soon. Each set will be $40.00