Food from my Garden CONTEST

My garden has been supplying enough dino and red russian kale for three families a week and plenty of spicy radishes I finally figured out how to use, I've been slicing them up thin and putting them in quesadillas and omelets. I've been waiting and watching two broccoli heads develop and they are pretty close.  Any ideas of good recipes to use them in? Leave a comment with a recipe idea and get put in a drawing for a free 8 x 10 print from the garden!

What Are They Thinking?

The caption contest is back!

Add a caption in your comment and win a free card with a funny animal picture!

Bike Art and Woods and Nature Photography at Fairmout Arts Crawl

The Arts Crawl in Fairmount is Sunday, April 17th, from 2-6 pm and I will be at 2014 and 2015 Fairmount Ave. with two shows: one of Philly Street Bikes at Fairmount Bicycles and the other, Walk into the Woods at Wellpoint Oriental Medicine. The whole exent is amazing with street performances, artist demos, bike rentals, free food and drinks, free Thai massage and Acupuncture demos. The whole hood is filled with art, over 70 artists and all the shops are open. It's a great neighborhood atmosphere.

Take the 33 bus from downtown and get off right at 20th and Fairmount or ride your bike over and get a tune-up while you are there!

Orange Bike and Shadow, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

Greyhound Station, Chinatown, Philadelphia

Red and Blue Bikes, Chinatown, Philadelphia

Write in Your Caption Below: What Are They Thinking?
The best caption wins a free card of the image and caption, so check back to see if you won!

PHOTOGRAPH GIVEAWAY:

Giveaway Day Has Arrived!

And the Winner is...............

Paintingpam!

Congrats! You'll be getting a free 8 x 10 photograph of your choice from my etsy shop, www.allisonostertag.etsy.com

You can follow Pam at her blog: http://paintingpam.blogspot.com

I went old-school and put everyone's name on a piece of paper, folded it, put it in a bag and asked a unbiased party (Emily, my coworker) to pick a name. Sorry for those of you who didn't win, but I was really excited by the response so I'll be doing this again soon! Check back for more info! Thanks everyone who is now following my blog! BTW, I would have held the drawing at noon, but we had an office meeting until 2!

FREE 8 x 10 PHOTOGRAPH GIVEAWAY!

I'm giving away one free 8 x 10 Photograph of your choice, and you can choose from any image in my etsy shop that is 8 x 10 or larger! All it takes to enter is to leave a comment someplace here on my blog (any posting)! When you leave your comment, be sure to mention you'd like to be included in the giveaway! The drawing will be in two weeks and I will notify the winner by e-mail.

Square Peg Artery & Salvage Holiday Shop In Liberty Place at 17th Street

Suare Peg Artery & Salvage has a second shop open for the holidays

in Liberty Place! The entrance is on 17th street between Market and Chestnut streets

next to the Westin Hotel entrance (or you can walk through the mall toward the 17th street exit).

They have lots of cute clothes (I think I spotted a cute screenprinted button up for a guy friend), jewlery, cards (like mine above!), candles, soaps and wall art including some cool square paintings/thread collages and my photos!

See, that's the Westin drive through in the background of my Love Park photo.
Stop by and buy local! I went here today, then strolled up to 13th street between Walnut and Pine where there are some awesome little shops with many cute gifts, flowers, cards, wrapping paper, housewares, ornaments, furniture and you pass Blick art supply and West Elm on the way! I had no money, but I'm window shopping for the future.

Tonight from 7-10 pm at Studio 34 on Baltimore Ave. at 45th street.

I donated a print that will be in the silent auction!

Featured on Zombie Penguen Art Blog Wednesday/Thursday

Check out the great interview and my photos on this blog that features different artists! Thanks!

www.zombiepenguenart.blogspot.com

R8 Train Today

The Genius Of William Eggleston

I found William Eggleston's website after a visit to DC's

National Protrait Gallery and American Art Museum.

I bought his monograph "The Democratic Forest" a decade

ago after a photography teacher at University of the Arts

brought a copy into class.

New Neighborhood Photo Series

I've been walking around photographing with new eyes with my new camera and shooting in amazing light in my neighborhood. Click on the photos to see all of the new ones.

New Etsy Treasury with My Red Leaves Rising (center bottom)

John Heinz Wildlife Refuge

You probably haven't heard of it or you haven't been there, but John Heinz is an awesome nature space in Philadelphia. A large round trail surrounds a lake and surrounding wetlands are home to great blue herons, egrets, barn swallows, owls, wild turkeys, shore birds, ducks, geese, plus the woodland trails and birds like black capped chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, goldfinches. They keep a list at the desk of birds sighted that day. They have a huge education center that won many awards for green and sustainable design and they have nature walks every weekend. You can bring your dog, use the new wheelchair accessible part of the trail across the boardwalk/bridge, or hike all the way around, which takes quite a while, especially if your stopping to look at things on the way, which I recommend.

Today I stopped by to drop off my photographs at the gift shop (stop by and support the refuge!) and take pictures. The sky was beautiful and the winter takes away the foliage and the big birds, but you can suddenly see the architecture of the trees, the fungus growing on decomposing trunks, the rocks on the beach, the seed heads of dormant plants and the icy water reflects the blue sky.

Philly Made Crafts Holiday Sale

I'll be at my last (I think) Holiday craft sale at Studio 34 Yoga this Sunday from 1-6ish at 45th and Baltimore Ave. I'll be selling new photos (gardens, animals, parks), new cards, Philly card sets to buy for your friends or send to far away relatives, magnets and original paintings! Scroll down to the item on Vix Emporium and Made in Philly sale.

It will be great!



Then I'm running off to the Mill Creek Farm fundraiser at the Ethical Society on the Rittenhouse Park square. Five Philly Etsy team members donated items to their silent auction including necklaces, card sets, framed photos and vegetable prayer flags. The event was great last year with plenty of free food, awesome auction items like acupuncture, dinners, art, etc. and live music and free beer. Tickets start at $20 and it's from 3-7 pm.

Beets! Free Food!

I stopped by the community garden today and I was planning to drop off compost and look around, but sad the season is ending, but when I got there I saw the beets! They were huge and there were these 4 ready to pick and scores of other ones will be ready now that these biggins are out of the way! And I was at the store this morning trying to decide what root veggie to roast and luckily I didn't get beets. I totally forgot I was growing them. I picked some thyme and lemon balm while I was there and I was feeling so happy I have a garden and I can get free food when I need it from the garden. Of course, I'll be tired of beets after I eat these, but it's still cool.

I've been thinking about ways to make the community garden more friendly and functional and fun and today I was thinking we should name each block of beds so people can say where their plot is. I was thinking letters, but you could also name the blocks after cities or states and you could name the paths. Like you could have the block Los Angeles and Rodeo Drive and New Orleans and St. Charles Ave. We have a fantastic community garden (18th and Wallace Streets),.

Next weekend (Nov. 8th) I'll be at the The Philadelphia Independent Craft Market with these new items:

Philadelphia Zoo

Pre-Halloween Weekend at the Zoo: I'm working on a book of the zoo's creatures and I shot some more last weekend. Each page of the book will have a collage of images of the same animal to show their behaviors. I'm going to start selling them at the Book Paper Scissors Artists Book Fair November 22 at the Free Library. I'll have several books if I get busy working (Art Cars, Art Teacher).

Penguin in the Lagoon

Mr. Gorilla Checks Out the People

Mr. Polar Bear Takes a Nap

ETSY.com Philly Artist Treasury with My LOVE photo

Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA

This weekend I visited Chanticleer with my family and we took a quick tour in the bright sunshine, but the garden is really wonderful. The gardeners are given the liberty to make changes to the beds and create furniture which includes painted pairs of Adirondack chairs to allow visitors a view down the hills.
View down the stairway into the tennis court garden.

The cutting garden and vegetable garden with two men talking on a bench at the end of the path.


Lilly pads on the pond.


Succulent plantings on the hill.


The ruins in the center offer great framing devices, creating windows onto the woods.


They'll only be open until Oct 31st when the season ends. They are on Church rd. in Wayne, PA.