She’s using The Force.

The Force of cuteness, that is.

Happy Monday!

XOXO,

A few weeks ago, I discovered the ultra-cool Society6, a company that produces and ships fabulous art products on behalf of the artist.

Society6 is like a candy store for art lovers. You will swoon at the offerings.

So what’s the biggest draw? Awesome iPhone cases and laptop & iPad skins.

Check ‘em out below.

iPhone Cases

Protect your iPhone (fits all iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS and 3G versions) with a one-piece, impact resistant, flexible plastic hard case featuring an extremely slim profile. Simply snap the case onto your iPhone for solid protection and direct access to all device features.

Find my iPhone Cases here.

iPhone & iPod Skins

Skins are thin, easy-to-remove, vinyl decals for customizing your iPhone or iPod Touch. They are made from a patented material that eliminates air bubbles and wrinkles for easy application.

Find my iPhone & iPod Skins here.

Laptop & iPad Skins

These skins are easy-to-remove, vinyl decals for customizing your laptop . Zero air bubbles=one happy Net surfer.

Be sure to check out the “Model” drop-down menu on each item to see the full range of devices, which include the iPad, MacBook and PC Laptops in a variety of sizes.

 Find my Laptop & iPad Skins here.

Art Prints, Framed Art Prints & Stretched Canvases

If you’re looking for something to adorn your wall rather than your MacBook, you’ll find it in my Society6 shop.

Find unframed art prints in a range of sizes right here.

Check out my framed prints here. Eight frame flavors to choose from!

And finally, you’ll find high-impact stretch canvases right here.

Surround yourself with art you love. Share it with friends. Decorate that gadgetry. And be sure to order ASAP for your holiday gifting!

XOXO,

There comes a time in every young woman’s life when the ol’ blog well dries up, and blog posts veer into bottom-of-the-barrel territory.

This is not one of those moments. Because today, I am fully disclosing crumpets in all their British gastronomic glory! Certainly this warrants a resounding “Huzzah!” from the peanut gallery – that’s you, my faithful reader. And yes, I use “reader” (singular) on purpose.

Warmly described as jolly good tea party or brunch fare, the crumpet is a moist, rather doughy cousin of the American English Muffin. Please note that nary an English Muffin can be found in England or its Kingdom counterparts – a puzzling subject for another blog post altogether. Let’s not get too overwhelmed with our cultural breads here.

Crumpets are round, similar in texture to the English Muffin, but spongier and porous with bubbles. Wikipedia likes to compare their texture to North American pancakes, but I have my own beliefs. They are further explained as savory griddle cakes born of flour and yeast.

Process

Preparing a crumpet is an elementary matter, and unless you have a sordid history with toasters, I can recommend the following procedure:

1. Select a crumpet or two from the bag by first removing the twisty tie or that hard plastic bit that serves the same purpose. If dealing with the latter, please note that it is physically impossible to do this without snapping the hard plastic bit in at least two pieces.

2. Insert crumpet(s) into toaster. Select the slightly-less-than-charred or corresponding numeric setting. Depress the lever. You know, the toaster lever.

3. Wait in slobbering anticipation. Beginners, wear a bib as a precautionary drool catcher.

4. After the toaster has launched the crumpets from its fiery coils, smear them liberally with Lurpak (that’s butter, y’all). The butter, by the way, is mandatory. I hate to cite Wikipedia again, but this just slays me:

“The butter may be omitted, but a phrase very commonly associated with crumpets is ‘dripping with butter’.”

I love the rather ominous undertones of that warning – that perhaps the omission of butter might upset the linguistic balance of British life as we know it.

Which it indeed might.

So don’t skip the butter.

You now have a glorious (dripping) buttered canvas for all sorts of sweet spreads. I recommend strawberry jam, but I hear Nutella is divine (but hey, Nutella is delicious even on Doritos).

According to modern British lore, a mysterious edible lubricant called Marmite is often used at this stage of crumpet prep. Again, I’ll save this 8th World Wonder for another blog post.

Results

I hate to spoil all the thrilling build-up, but I keep circuiting back to one word describing the crumpet flavor experience: juicy.

Okay. Juicy isn’t exactly a flavor, but it’s a word central to the crumpet experience that sets it apart from any American breakfasty bread thing I can think of. Juicy.

And it tastes a bit like French Toast. Just a hint of it, but saltier.

And here’s some slang to share with your posse: the word “crumpet” is sometimes used to refer to an attractive woman, often as the phrase “a bit of crumpet.” Saucy, eh?

In the hopes that my single-reader fan base will one day explode exponentially, I can’t explicitly recommend using that term in your daily dialogue this week. I can’t have anyone issuing blog-suits on me for recommending saucy language. Or juicy language, even. But there you go.

XOXO,

 *Crumpets enlarged to show texture.

Ain’t got nothin’ but love, babe

Eight days a week.

-The Beatles

XOXO,

Gift Certificates

Just in time for the holiday season, gift certificates are now available in the Bailey Aro Photography shop on Etsy! These are a wonderful gift idea for the art lover in your life. Gift certificates can be purchased here, and they are available in $25, $50, $75, $100, and $150 amounts. 

Custom amounts are also available starting at $25, so please contact me if you’re interested.

To purchase a gift certificate, first register on Etsy (if you aren’t already – it’s free and easy!) Simply add the gift certificate to your cart on Etsy and follow the payment instructions. You do not need to provide a shipping address. Simply provide your email address.

Within two days of payment, you will receive your gift certificate via email as a PDF. You can then print it out and deliver to the joyous recipient!

Holiday Greeting Cards

You can now spread the love this holiday season with the following message: “Peace is possible only by true love.”  The image on these greeting cards was captured in the Everest Region of the Nepal Himalayas, the message scrawled in red paint on the whitewashed side of a Tibetan Buddhist stupa. 

This particular card is now available in sets of four. Use them for your holiday greetings, or give them as gifts! They are blank inside for your own personalized message. They are also suitable for framing.

Click here to see the larger print version of this image.

XOXO,

Here I am, typing to you from a cozy pub apartment in the rollicking Welsh countryside. It’s like coming home in some ways, but in other ways I will always be just a little bit dopey and out of my element in the UK. The laundry detergent bottles feel fun sized in my jumbo-accustomed American hands, skim milk here is actually 2% in the US, and vitamin D rarely comes wrapped in a sunshiny bow.

Instead of daily (or even weekly) sunlight doses, we have Horlicks: a malty powder that, when stirred into steaming milk, yields a beverage not unlike baby spit up. But it’s loaded with vitamin D, so when the sun hibernates, I guzzle it with cheer.

So far I’ve shopped at IKEA (my first trip ever, in any country – gasp!) for cheap apartment furniture. I’ve built some of said furniture and especially admire my tall, rickety wooden shelving unit that may collapse at any upset.

I’ve been to Cardiff, the nearby capital, which is a lovely energetic city of young professionals. I’ve nearly lost my bowels as a car passenger on the constricted lanes surrounding our teeny tiny village. Driving these lanes requires a kamikaze attitude and a full tank of gas. The lanes are no wider than a Mini Cooper in some sections, with hedges over 12 feet tall. When two cars meet, they slam their brakes abruptly and engage in a staring contest until one driver decides to reverse for several feet or miles until the road widens.I will soon learn to drive here. If I indeed survive, I will promptly transition to Formula One.

I’m also bursting with an assortment of Welsh fun facts.

Wales boasts the world’s longest place name of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch at 58 letters. It means, of course, “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave.” It is so long, in fact, that it has seriously knocked this paragraph’s formatting off kilter. 

Oh, and Catherine Zeta Jones is Welsh. As is Tom Jones. Isn’t that unusual? (It’s not unusual.) You will only understand that joke if you were around in the 60′s, or are a giant nerdball like me.

XOXO,