20 February 2014

Inspired by an orange teapot...

 

This month's color for the ROY G BIV photo challenge is orange. All week long, sun was predicted for today, so I planned my orange-themed activities/photos around the forecast—& then woke to pouring rain. As I went about my day, I continued to hold out hope that the fairly constant drizzle would eventually give way to the sunshine that was supposedly still a possibility.

I went to the plant market in search of orange freesias, but came home instead with primroses in a delightful new shade of fuchsia-y/orangish-red, an orange ranunculus & yet another clutch of Paperwhite bulbs...probably the last of the season. I baked scones (recipe here), worked on my latest letters for ALaW (described in the last post), then prepared afternoon tea (which included a custardy orange curd-cream I made yesterday). Because, you see, the plan for the orange edition of ROY G BIV all started with my new teapot—a "terracotta" Le Creuset 1.3L (which turned out to be a much sunnier shade of orange that gradually deepens to red toward the base).

I have a number of favorite tea cups & mugs, including one that's a sort of taupe color. The other day I noticed what I thought was a lovely juxtaposition with the new teapot, so I decided I would contrast orange & a touch of red with warm, deep neutrals as my starting point for the "orange"-inspired photos. Unfortunately I wasn't able to realize all that this idea entailed because of the lack of sun (my experience is that every time I take photos without sunshine I will be inclined to retake them, so I generally don't bother).

Fortunately, though, I found another path. Orange played a big role in my most recent ALaW letters (the design for the one at the top of this post, 'S', was inspired by the teapot-&-mug palette), so at least there was something to "build" from. I had also photographed a beautiful pile of clementines with leaves one sunny day earlier in the week, & then serendipitously came across a photo of some orange tulips today. I put these together with a couple of photos I took on my way home from the plant marketit turns out that Ferragamo's shop windows featured backdrops in varying shades of orange that went remarkably well with the tulips & clementines. I am always amazed how little things like this end up working out...

Scattered among the photos I've mentioned are also a couple from this drizzly, gray afternoon, which at least was cozy & cheerful in the studio. When she heard me cursing the bad lighting, my daughter suggested I post them as black & white images. In the right situation this could have been an option, but of course orange was the whole point today. In fact, considering how much orange surrounds us, orange pretty much feels like the point of every day! I can't imagine a life without orange.

 








 


*

 

In the last post I had wondered about what I might use the little ALaW boxes for; I found that several of my lovely organza tea bags fit perfectly in the orange, red & taupe box (below). You can also see the Blood Orange & Strawberry Spread in the glass beaker in the background—& on the scone—though it came out more of a lemon-y color, which is made even more so due to the lighting.


 


The design above was inspired by 'B'.
{More details about this project in the previous post.}

 

*

 

And here's the recipe for the Blood Orange & Strawberry Spread (click to enlarge). It began as a blood orange version of lemon curdwe have six kilos of tarocchi at the moment!but because I used some whole eggs (instead of all yolks) & no lemon juice (but added strawberries), it's sweeter & more custard-y.

 


 

*

 

The ROY G BIV photo challenge was conceived by artists Jennifer Coyne Qudeen
& Julie Booth in 2012. Guidelines are here if you'd like to play along in future; March's color will be YELLOW (followed by GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, etc.).

 

16 comments:

  1. A rich and yummy post! You are certainly surrounded by this month's color! Love what you're doing with the ALAW letters this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment, Julie...deciding what to do for "orange" was almost overwhelming considering how many of our things are orange! But also much fun to pay closer attention to the colors that make up my days...
      - Lisa

      Delete
  2. That orange teapot is so bright and delightful. Thank you for that recipe. We don't get blood oranges in Bangalore so I'm going to substitute them with just regular oranges.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by for a look, Maya...I am just about to visit your blog & see your "oranges" too.
      I'm sure the custard-cream-spread would be just as delicious with orange oranges. The blood oranges do bring a little tartness to the recipe, so you may wish to substitute with a little lemon juice... Enjoy!
      - Lisa

      Delete
  3. What wonderful, cheerful images despite the gloomy drizzle. I love those little boxes with their letter design. I somehow missed them earlier in the month and what a pleasure it was to find them now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Margaret...I'm glad you enjoyed the bit of cheer I found via this month's ROY G BIV challenge - not what I had in mind, but always interesting to see how things work out in the end!
      - Lisa

      Delete
  4. Goodness what a trove of treasure here! I will be back - your work is amazing! -sus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome Susan, and thanks for visiting...I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed what you found!
      - Lisa

      Delete
  5. You have a wonderful selection of 'orangey' photos here, despite the weather. I'm especially attracted to your graphic designs on those boxes, and would love to taste the custard, but I'm too lazy to make it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for leaving a comment, Sharmon. Sometimes I find it can be enough just to read about a recipe, and dream about how it might taste! And you never know...one day you may be inspired to try it out (or even find an orange-y custard in a shop somewhere!).
      - Lisa

      Delete
  6. That was aright and beautiful blog post Lisa - lots of serendipitous oranges, tasty oranges and gorgeous oranges! The recipe looks delicious too. Hope orange continues to brighten your drizzly-grey days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Fiona, and thanks for stopping by for a dose of "orange." We've had some lovely days since this post, and for that I am grateful! But more rain is on its way... I hope you & Barrie are keeping well down under!
      - Lisa

      Delete
  7. Wonderful photos! A treat for the eyes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jill! I'm glad you enjoyed the orange-themed/inspired photos. It's delightful how orange can bring some warmth to a winter day...
      - Lisa

      Delete
  8. The blood orange spread sounds completely delicious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for having a look! (And yes, it was quite delicious!)
      - Lisa

      Delete

Thank you for joining in on the dialogue; I appreciate your comments!
{Sorry about enabling word recognition, but I'm hoping it will alleviate the spam.}

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...