studio 78 notes...

FINALLY!!

2010-01-07T20:06:00.010-05:00

Weather report: today was gorgeous - cool air, warm sun - probably somewhere in the high 50's. I was out in my shirtsleeves and birks. Tomorrow and over the weekend it is supposed to get cold (whatever that means). We can handle it.

After two days without Internet and not being able to get onto blogger on my iPhone because I couldn't remember my password (it is saved on the computer, so who can remember??) - I am going bonkers! I'm getting my e-mail although it is difficult to type on that itsy bitsy screen - but couldn't blog.

Tonight I discovered that the clubhouse at Century Village(where we are) has wifi, so after our Early Bird Special (LOL) I dropped Marty at the apartment to watch tv and came over here to make up for lost time. Of course, I forgot to bring my card reader over here (not that my photos are that interesting today) so - uh - no pix of this lovely place...except the living room in the apartment. I took this picture for my mother last year and nothing has changed. How thrilled are you to see this? LOL.

I had just started blogging when two people asked if I could help a man who was highly frustrated because he couldn't get onto the wifi network here in the clubhouse. I said I'd try. (this is not what I started out to talk about, but life happens).

The man turned out to be a 42 year old with special needs, as his mother put it. He lives for his e-mail and Google and had been trying for 2 days to get on the wireless, without success. They had asked several techs, including the geek squad at Best Buy to help them and nobody could figure out why. So, I sat down and finally figured out the problem (don't ask me how): Windows Vista on his computer assumed this was a secure network and required a password. I just checked "open" and "none" and voilà - he was able to get onto his AOL.
It took me the better part of an hour because then I had to make sure he could get on when we rebooted, and the mother and I got into a conversation...so that was a good part of my evening.

I was rewarded with wonderful hugs and kisses from a joyful David and his mother because I had done a mitzvah. (this word, which technically means commandment, has come to mean an act of human kindness). I just don't understand why all these techies couldn't figure it out and I could.

We slept till almost 11 this morning and couldn't believe it! Spent the afternoon walking around the Village - it took us 1-1/2 hours to walk the perimeter. Tomorrow morning, an aching Marty will probably want to walk halfway - and that's ok. In the afternoon, we have paperwork to attend to with the management office so we can get on their records as residents - and then we'll be able to pop down whenever we need to get away. I could honestly be very happy here for part of the year. We'll see.

Oh - and Fedex delivered my sewing machine this morning - how wonderful! I am going home now to open it and see if I can get something done. I will post with pix next time.

where are my clothes?

2010-01-06T00:10:00.012-05:00

Uh - they're in there somewhere. You can see the edge of my sweatshirt, bottom right, buried in scraps. Not sure I can close the bag but we'll see.I just have to find space for shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
If not, there is a Publix on every corner.

Ok, I admit it, I am obsessive about taking enough fabric to give me some choices - but I will just have to make do with what I am taking: it will force me to be more inventive. The last time I spent several weeks in West Palm Beach, my mother had broken her hip and I stayed with her till she was well enough to travel. I was working on my book at the time and spent every spare minute hiding out on the porch, printing fabrics. I didn't care what they looked like as long as I could work. Truly, work saved my sanity. It was three weeks of hell.

This time I am not printing - I have enough printed fabric for 10 lifetimes if I never print again, and I simply have to use some of it. I will continue cutting/sewing strips and will be curious to see whether it is different in any way because of the change in locale. With all the packing, I haven't had much time to work. Here's today's catch.

In the meantime, after the comments about the fabric I found and posted the other night, I decided to revisit the other fabrics I printed around the same time. Yep, it's a series all right.

Pack and Ship?
I shipped an extra sewing machine to leave there. I took it to my local, annoying, UPS store Monday. It was in the box with all the foam and stuff it had been packed with when the ebay guy shipped it from Ohio. But my UPS store said it wasn't packed well enough to survive a drop from 30 feet so they wouldn't pay if it got damaged. WTF??? I would have to repack it or put the box into another box (which they would sell me for $13.) Then, they could not guarantee t would be there by Friday. Friday??I'm arriving Wed. and want it there on Thursday. To guarantee a Thurs. delivery, $147. WHAT?? More than I paid for the sewing machine. I said "bye."

I went home, repacked the machine in a load of bubble wrap, re-sealed it and called FedEx. They picked up the box at my house and it will be there on Thursday. $56. Can you imagine??

I am obsessively checking my iPhone to see what the temps are in south Florida. Right now it is 25F outside my window and 39F in West Palm. I'm not too worried about nighttime temps because I don't think we'll be out and about too much at night. Daytime forecast for the rest of the week is 55-69 degrees (sounds dowright balmy to me) and rain for a couple of days. Should we pack an umbrella?? Maybe. If I can find room in my suitcase. Fat chance.

Working in a Series?
Just for the heck of it I decided to post all the pieces I made from fabric printed around the same time as the found one I posted the other day. All of these screenprints were layered on top of fabric I did not like. This first one was printed on a piece I had batik'd. Then I cut it and put it with other fabrics. It's about 24" x 24" (I think) and is for sale. $350.

Aftermath

This next one was also overprinted on a piece I had batik'd and didn't like. It is much improved, to say the least. Click to enlarge.

Whose Woods? (sold)

detailThis was overprinted on a badly dyed piece of fabric. It is currently hanging at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Form Not Function.
This is also for sale - contact Form Not Function for the price.

Element

detail

So finally, we come to this. It'll get done when I need a break from sewing strips.
Hopefully, the wonderful security at Newark Airport will let me through with all my electronic paraphenalia: laptop, iPhone, Kindle.
2 cameras, 2 camera chargers, 2 card readers, 2 iphone chargers (1for car) kindle charger, computer charger. What did I forget?

Time to set the alarm for tomorow morning. I will only have Internet access if I can hijack a signal. I can use my iPhone for e-mail and browsing the web but it is rather a pain to type on and I'm not sure about posting to my blog, esp. with photos. So we'll play it by ear.

when you're not looking

2010-01-04T01:20:00.010-05:00

interesting things can happen. I didn't go back to my therapy sewing till late tonight and I sewed just a few strips together before I got tired.Then, as I was messing around in the piles of fabric, I found a piece of cloth I had forgotten about and put it up on the wall.
Son of a gun - it's another piece in the series that I didn't know was a series. Well, I'll get back to it and stitch but not now because when I looked at this piece of fabric, it triggered another thought. What if I took these strips I've been sewing and turned them the other way? And what if I took the other strips and did this?That set me off on a different track, considering that I had absolutely nothing in mind when I began to sew. We'll see. But in the meantime, I have something to think about while I work. Who knows where it will go, if anywhere? But at least I'm feeling stimulated. See? Interesting things can happen when you're least expecting them.

2010-01-02T23:55:00.011-05:00

Il y a quelques semaines, j'ai cassé ma cafetière à piston favorite; celle que mes cousins France et Edmond m'ont donnée comme cadeau il y a peut-être dix ans. J'en suis désolée.

Alors, récemment,quand j'ai acheté 20 sacs de café de Cafe Britt, j'ai acheté aussi une petite cafetière de "3 tasses."

Je me demande de quelle taille sont ces tasses imaginaires? Voilà -- c'est plutôt moins d'une de mes tasses! Mais je dois dire que c'est le bon café fort.
I would continue in French (I need the practice) but it's after midnight and even this lovely coffee is not keeping my brain alert. So, back to English...and more posting about nothing.

Out and about today, driving Marty to his haircut appointment and picking him up at the bank because his car is in the body shop from the deer hit-and-run. *Note - it was the deer who hit him and ran, not the other way around.

I won't bore you with the rest of the chores, but I actually cooked tonight and we ate in. Chicken. The problem with chicken is that no matter how much of it I eat, I am hungry an hour or two later. I am not joking.

Tonight, in between trips to the refrigerator, I did some therapy sewing. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says "art saves lives"? Well, tonight I was on somebody's blog called Sewing Saves Sanity. I am testing that theory.

I took down the color experiment from yesterday and back up went the strips. I went back to sewing because I realized that you can't make anything worthwhile without inventory; i.e. sewed-together strips.
The picture I took with my iPhone because I was too lazy to get out of the chair, is terrible, so I won't bother posting it. I am almost finished listening to Beethoven's piano concerto #3 in C major and am on my way to bed.

Let's hope for more visuals tomorrow.

regular work day

2010-01-01T23:54:00.009-05:00

Other than the fact that I was able to sleep till 9:00 or so, this felt like a regular weekend day. We spent the morning at tasks too mundane to discuss, with another day of STUFF ahead of us tomorrow (and probably a second day on Sunday). The ride to the airport is booked, as is the rental car in West Palm...at about half the price it was a month ago when I first reserved it. Hooray for that! You just have to keep going back to these websites to check. Then you cancel and start over again. Twice.

Tonight I was amusing myself with color, throwing stuff at the wall that I had sitting around. Forgetting about the composition (which was not the point) and just looking at color, it works. I know why it works, and my grandmother would be proud of me. Good night!

bagels and color - what a combination!

2009-12-30T08:57:00.026-05:00

I meant to blog last night. I uploaded all these pictures and then must have gotten sidetracked and gone to bed early. Now I am dilly-dallying my morning away with this post, when I should be working on STUFF. These are whole wheat-everything bagels -- my favorites, available at the best bagel bakery on the planet, in the next town from me. Notice how dense and chewy they look (that's because they ARE). They are not over-inflated white cotton bread in round shapes, as you find in alleged bagel shops around the country. The "everything" consists of salt, sesame seeds, poppyseeds, garlic, and onions. To die for! Toasted, with cheddar cheese and tomatoes - my breakfast.

Now, back to what I was going to post last night. Because I am fresh out of ideas, I continue to do therapy sewing. This means cutting strips without rulers and putting them together sort of randomly till I have enough units to inspire me. Who knows when that will be? As I was playing with strips, I realized that my favorite part is working/playing with color. Lovely as these are, I took them down from the wall and decided to shift gears a little bit. Most of them have been sewn together, so I put them aside for later and moved on. I had sewn together a rather laid-back combination the other day and then decided they were too blah. What could I do to liven them up? I inserted this slice of really ugly fabric I had printed, which is on pg. 93 of my book. Amazingly, a skinny piece of it works just fine here!and then I thought it would be better with another contrasting strip. Yep.

What would happen if I did this instead?

A different direction, yet again.and on and on...

So now I know what happened last night. I got so busy playing with different combinations that I forgot everything else. COLOR!! Do you find it easy? Do you find it difficult? If you have issues with color, what are they? What gives you the most problems? Talk to me. I'm putting together a color workshop that I hope will be different from everybody else's and I'd love your input.

bridge game

2009-12-28T21:22:00.017-05:00

After today's foray to the doctor and the hospital on NY's upper east side for various tests, measurements, and the ultrasound, we breezed over to the East Side Drive and headed downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge. The entire trip to Jessica's should have taken a half-hour. An hour later, we were still sitting in rush hour traffic and hadn't even gotten to the Manhattan Bridge, which comes first. Here it is, in the distance.
Not normally one to shoot pix while I drive, I nevertheless couldn't resist while I was trapped on the elevated highway, faced with this gorgeous view. We're getting a little closer to the Manhattan Bridge. Aren't the colors of the sky wonderful?

See that triangle under the deck of the bridge? That's the Brooklyn Bridge, a couple of miles away. Obviously, I was moving when I shot this. I knew it would be a blur but didn't care. That shot of pale purple toward the bottom right is the East River.
These pix were all shot between 5:29 pm and 5:43 pm today and during the last 8 minutes, the sky changed from the one above to this, complete with jeweled necklaces.
The lights in the lower part of this photo are on the Brooklyn Bridge. And below, a closer view before I had to stop shooting because we were finally moving.

Going home, it took me less time from Brooklyn to West Orange, NJ despite the bumper-to-bumper through Chinatown to the tunnel. I am happy to be home.
hugs to all of you.

I spent the afternoon

2009-12-28T00:16:00.009-05:00

or at least 2 hours of it, going through my blog from day one to see if I could tag some recipes for you. Got through half of 2007 and that was enough for one day!

Thanks for all your feedback and support -I don't think I've been able to answer all of you individually, so groupthank from me and hugs, too. On the up
side, you can now find the cookie crescents and other things if you scroll down to labels and click. Ha - I think I have posted them at least twice! Ditto for the brown sugar shortbreads. I think I need a few new scenes in my act.

On the down side - I found my posts from 2006-07 much more interesting than the ones that came after. (Maybe that's because I haven't gotten to the later ones yet).

Around 5:00 I went outside with the camera because the sky was just lovely.
Here's Marty, peering and wondering what on earth I am doing outside in the dark with bare feet and a camera. If I don't pull down the shades, everybody who passes by can see me working. Oops! This scene needs no introduction. There were about 500 white-tailed deer galloping through the forest, but I missed them. (well, mabe 20).After dinner I got back to my therapy sewing and this is what is on my wall as I go to bed. I haven't the vaguest idea where I am going with them. I will just keep sewing and sewing. Tomorrow, back to the City. The problem is that the Park Ave. neighborhood where we are going is just too boring for good photos. G'night.

family weekend

2009-12-27T01:30:00.007-05:00

Today, someone unsubscribed from my blog with the reason "too many recipes, not enough art." So I guess I'll refrain from posting the crescent cookies I baked this morning. Baking=therapy. Art=therapy. Does that mean that baking=art? (sounds like an I.Q. trick question).

Although we don't celebrate Christmas, it is always family time since everyone is off. My brother Jon and my nephew Harry arrived on Thursday and will leave tomorrow. I will miss them, since we have had lots of laughs together.

Today, Hilary and Mike brought the boys to get their Chanukah gifts, see Jon & Harry, catch up with Jessica's progress (30 weeks and counting) and visit with my mother, who hid her face when I tried to take her picture because she didn't like the way she looked. Vanity, vanity, even at age 92.
Nonetheless, I did manage to get a photo of my two girls. (Jeremy and family had other obligations today).I really wish I could post a few pictures of my art-in-progress, but I don't have any. So I am signing off for the night and promise not to post again till I have some art-related stuff to talk about. It may be a while.

happy holidays!

2009-12-24T23:45:00.002-05:00

Just want to wish you all a Merry/Happy/Joy-filled day and holiday weekend.
hugs to all!

tonight's project

2009-12-23T23:24:00.014-05:00

I learned about this lovely item to my left so long ago, that the Internet was still called the world wide web, lists were hosted at universities on listservs and there were no pictures. It is a rice bag.

It is the best heating pad ever invented (although I understand you can also freeze it as a cold compress). It is cheap, takes 2 minutes to sew up (this is a piece of an old sheet) , and if you heat it in the microwave for 2-3 min., it will be hot and moist for quite a while. I don't know what I did a couple of days ago to cause a stiff neck on my left side, but ouch! Feels like a pinched nerve. It's worse when I lie down, but I must admit I have been walking around moaning and groaning about it all day long. I was just too lazy to make a rice bag to replace the one that I threw out a couple of years ago because it was too grotty for words. Tonight, I caved because the usual neck stretching exercises have not worked.

Of course, the only rice I have is expensive Lundberg brown basmati rice and I wasn't about to waste THAT. So I used a combination of lentils, wheatberries, the tiny pinch of white rice left in the jar, chana dal, and barley. Works just fine although it doesn't smell as good as all rice. But I have been sitting here for 15 minutes and it only now cooling off. I know it's a temporary fix but it sure feels good.

Jessica arrived around 2:30 , so I spent all afternoon on the couch with her, chatting away. What a pleasure! Ditto, after dinner (with her feet up on a chair) while we had our coffee and the oatmeal cookies with the big pieces of secret ingredient in them. LOL.

Before she arrived, I started sewing the piece on the wall together. Of course, once you start sewing things together and trimming, they take on a life of their own and they rarely end up exactly as you had envisioned them. This piece is somewhere around 14' x 11" and is perfectly content to sit there and keep me company.

I have auditioned a couple of tweaks but at the moment, I am finding that big green segment strangely restful.I need all the restful I can get because tomorrow, my other houseguests arrive.

Time to go reheat the rice-lentil-chana dal-barley-wheatberry bag. Maybe I should just call it the multigrain bag.

miso soup

2009-12-23T10:51:00.007-05:00

I can't make enough of this -- I'm eating it for breakfast, late night snack, or whenever. Just last night, I added to the batch I had. Is this an addiction that will soon run its course??

I am lucky enough to have stores around here that carry miso and wakame. If you don't have access to these ingredients, Asian Food Grocer does mail order.
Every supermarket carries tofu and scallions.

For 4 servings of Miso Soup : this takes about 5 minutes to make

4 cups of water
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 package of medium or regular tofu, cubed
4 teaspoons of dried wakame (pronounced “wa ka may”) flakes, a type of seaweed
(sometimes packaged as “healthy sea vegetable”)
4 tablespoons of white miso paste

1. Start boiling 3 cups of water in a pot.

2. Soak wakame flakes in a bowl of cold water until they expand, about a few minutes.

3. Add cubed tofu into the pot of water. I usually add this into the water, even if it has not begun boiling yet.

4. Drain the wakame flakes and add to the boiling water.

5. In a separate bowl, add miso paste to a cup of hot water. Whisk miso paste until it dissolves.

6. Turn off the boiling water and add the whisked miso paste. Mix well and enjoy! Sprinkle with the sliced scallions just before you eat it. YUM!

*When reheating, heat the soup while stirring until it begins to boil, then turn off the heat. The miso soup will be heated thoroughly.

Now I am going back to the kitchen to make Syrian meat and spinach pies for tonight's dinner. I used to make this with Pillsbury dough boy hot roll thingie in a tube but since I don't have any and am too lazy to go out, I will just go make the dough from scratch. Fortunately, I have bread flour and yeast. See 'ya later.

life is what happens...

2009-12-22T22:53:00.015-05:00

when you're making other plans. I think that's the expression. I was going to do studio work today. But no-o. At 7:30 am, husband calls from the supermarket (stopped to buy fruit for lunch en route to the office) to tell me he doesn't have his wallet.

No, it is not on his night table or the desk. It is not in his jacket pockets. It is not on the driveway or on the sidewalk outside our house. It is not in his car or anywhere in the Shop-Rite parking lot. Or in the aisle near the fruit. After multiple phone calls back and forth, he comes home to call the credit card companies, DMV, and Medicare.

"Did you have it this morning?", I ask. "Could you have left it in something you wore yesterday?" So, into the closet he goes - and there it is, in the buttoned back pocket of his corduroy pants. Two big sighs of relief. The supermarket employee had paid for his fruit and he called to tell her he would be by tomorrow to give it back to her. But by the end of this ordeal, he was so exhausted that he took the rest of the day off. That meant he had time to go to the V.A. office in Newark, which meant that I had to take him because he is not driving on highways these days.

Then I got an e-mail from my nephew Oliver, who is back in NJ for 2 days before he departs for Fla, San Francisco,and back to India, where he has been for a year, making art, being spiritual, and having adventures. Could I come at 3:00,pick up the book he had signed for me and bring his mother the book I had signed for her?

So, between noon and 2:45, I finally had a chance to work. I auditioned a few other fabrics, switched the layout several times, and have now sewed together a few pieces that I'm sure about. Tomorrow, I'd like to finish it and move on.

The days will be a switcheroo: Jessica's father has volunteered to schlep to Brooklyn and bring her to my house, so that frees me and maybe will make up for the loss of today.

If you want the miso soup recipe, let me know and I'll send it. If enough people want it, I'll post it. Till tomorrow...

ok, ok - recipes

2009-12-21T14:54:00.019-05:00

Potato Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Excuse me while I go make a cup of tea and get a few of these to eat while I write this recipe for you... they are that good!...ok, I'm back with 3 cookies in hand.

The original recipe is from Maida Heatter's Brand New Cookbook (which it isn't) of Great Cookies (which some of them aren't) where she calls them Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies. I have never been a big fan of oatmeal cookies - they are fine, but not my favorites. However - THESE!!! Here is my adaptation of her recipe

4 oz salted potato chips, crushed
put a bunch of chips in a plastic bag and squeeze them to crush them a bit - but they should be coarse, not fine. They should fill 2 cups when they're crushed (of course, I cheated and added more).
1-1/2 cups walnut pieces
2 cups sifted unbleached flour (I used whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 1-3/4 packed cups brown sugar**
** The recipe calls for 1-3/4 cups light brown sugar. I cut it almost in half and used 1 cup because I don't like very sweet stuff. I also used dark brown because that's what I had. Suit yourself anywhere in between.
2 large eggs
2 cups old fashioned (not instant) oatmeal
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried pitted sour cherries (I used dried cranberries but you could use cut up dried apricots, dates, or whatever. I like the tart things best, though)

1. With electric mixer in large mixing bowl, beat butter till soft.
2. Add vanilla and sugar and beat till mixed.
3. Add eggs and beat till mixed
4. Add sifted dry ingredients and beat on low only till incorporated.
5. Add oatmeal and beat to mix.
(if using food processor, move contents to a large mixing bowl to continue)
6. With wooden spoon or sturdy spatula, stir in the dried fruits and nuts.
7. Finally, stir in the potato chips. The chips should still be visible.
Line cookie sheets w/ parchment, put a tablespoons of dough on the sheet, about 1" apart: press down to flatten. Bake at 350 for 18-20 min or till lightly browned all over.

Maida Heatter uses 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie but I'd rather use a tablespoon and get twice as many cookies out of the deal. You will be glad you made smaller ones and more of them! Happy eating.

Mushroom Barley Soup
there are a zillion recipes, some of which you can find on the Internet. I grew up with a grandmother and a mother who were good cooks and Nanny never used a recipe. Both cooked by instinct, taste and experience nothing written, nothing measured exactly--adding unspecified amounts and giving this kind of advice:"if it needs salt, add more"; if it is too sweet, next time, add less," "cook until it's done", etc. While nothing was ever the same twice, it was always delicious.

Actually, in my family, this was called Bean and Barley soup and the only mushrooms in it were dried Polish mushrooms, which gave it a wonderful,smoky flavor. I never saw a live mushroom in my bean and barley soup. My mother and grandmother made it in the pressure cooker because it cooks in 20 min, and they always included a soup bone (beef marrow bone).

I use the pressure cooker, but if I don't have a bone I make it without. If I have fresh mushrooms, I'll throw some in - but if not, I don't care. The dried ones are the ones that count.
Here's my "recipe" - give or take. If you are the type of cook who needs measurements, skip this and go to the cookie recipe.
6 cups water - Put into pressure cooker or pot and add:
a few cut up celery stalks, including leaves
a few cut up carrots
5 or 6 dried Polish mushrooms
a couple big onions or a few small ones, cut up
about 1 cup pearl barley
about 1/2 cup dry lima beans (more if you want, or none if you don't want)
a bay leaf
3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced
salt & pepper
OPTIONAL
a parsnip if you have one
a couple pieces celery root if you have any
sliced fresh mushrooms
a beef bone

If you have about 3 hours, you can cook all of this on low. If not, cook under pressure for 20 min, adjust salt and add a handful of fresh dill. Soup should be thick. If it isn't, add more..but by next day you'll probably have to add water. (see what I mean?)

If you look on the Internet for a recipe, ignore all that add tomatoes or green peppers (no self-respecting Jewish grandmother would add those!) and skip any that tell you to sauté the onions and carrots, etc. before you add the other stuff. Too much trouble - just throw everything in at once!
Enjoy!
R.

cookie monster

2009-12-20T22:35:00.007-05:00

I'm telling you - today I made soup and baked cookies. Mushroom barley soup which has no recipe, but which is one of the world's best soups (at least, when I make it - LOL). Tonight I made these wonderful oatmeal/raisin/walnut/cranberry/potato chip cookies, for which I had mixed the dough this morning. I put most of them in the freezer so at least when Jessica is here she will have some goodies.

Between cookies, I played around with the THING on the wall, which is now becoming an army of things because I have split up the pieces and who knows where they will end up? This is only one of about 17,000 different auditions I have played with tonight and I am sure that tomorrow, it will have transmuted into something else. Some of you have said you liked watching my process: it is both liberating and frustrating at the same time, but I would not know any other way to work. This always allows me to ask "what if?" and to act on it immediately. My digital camera is my best friend.

after the snow

2009-12-20T11:21:00.008-05:00

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it? This is what greeted me this morning when I walked into the kitchen. Probably about a foot, but I didn't go out to measure. Instead, I grabbed the broom and went out the front door to clean off the cars as well as I could. The men with the shovels were working their way up the street and I wanted to get the snow off the cars before they got to our driveway so they could take it away. Mostly, I succeeded. Alas, I could not go out in my Birks this morning, or even my shearling clogs - the snow was too deep. Yes...I put on my boots to retrieve the newspapers and to traipse around on the as-yet unshoveled driveway, cleaning off the cars before breakfast.

And what was breakfast this morning? Miso soup! I had made some yesterday and eaten it late last night while I was blogging. Then I read that in Japan, people eat it for breakfast. Of course, that makes sense: it is hot and full of protein, between the miso and the tofu and the seaweed. So, after coming back inside it seemed logical to do the same. When Marty came down, I had to make another batch for him. We love miso soup and it is the easiest thing in the world to make. Just for good measure, my favorite scene in all the world - the first of my annual pictures of my woods in snow. Now I am going back to those minimalist blocks to see if I can make them my own. This should amuse me for an hour or two -- and will put off the inevitable bill-paying marathon that awaits me. I will weigh in later.

things I know

2009-12-18T22:47:00.020-05:00

1) I did not win the NJ $11million lottery this week.
2) I can sleep late tomorrow.
3) Last night's forecast was correct. viz

As bad as it gets in New Jersey Saturday be thankful you’re not in Baltimore. Or on Long Island, for that matter.

Barring last-minute changes in the forecast, the season’s first big blow will go easier on the Garden State than on its neighbors up and down the East Coast, bringing 4 to 10 inches of snow to northern New Jersey.

If that sounds inconvenient, consider Baltimore and nearby Washington, D.C., where residents were bracing for a blustery 20 inches, or Long Island, which was under a blizzard warning.

It is coming down and the plows have made their first few runs through the condo development. Earlier, my omingrid measured 2" vs a foot down the shore at Joanie SanChirico's house. But it keeps coming. I think a blizzard has hit Maryland-DC-Northern VA.

More things I know

4) It is good to have food in the house when a snowstorm is due.

We hit the supermarkets today with the rest of the population and now we have stuff to eat, which was not the case this morning. Can you imagine being out of these?? Without them, I can't cook. (isn't this a great graphic?)

6) I am not cut out to do minimalist work. It gives me a headache. I thought I would play with just line and color but I was so bored that this is as far as I got tonight before I took it off the wall. It could be anybody's work -- there is nothing that identifies it as mine. Bah.

7) This is better since I added some squares on the right hand side to minimize the pink. Now I can put it away.

8) Vaut mieux être riche et en bonne santé que d'être pauvre et malade.

Enough!

2009-12-17T14:43:00.005-05:00

I still have plenty of pieces from that cut-up pink and purple block but I'm done with this exercise. It seems to be a small piece on its own. I'm shifting gears this afternoon and maybe tomorrow I'll have renewed energy to work with the rest.

I'm eager to see what Rachel does with her block!

cookies and UFOs (long)

2009-12-16T21:29:00.025-05:00

Almost as good as ironing: 24 hours of baking and mindless sewing.

the cookies.
I baked half of them last night and since I had eaten almost all of these little morsels by today, I baked the other half of the dough which was, as per instructions, sitting in the fridge till I felt like baking again.

While others bake Christmas cookies, in the spirit of Chanukah I got out my little six-pointed cookie cutter and went to work. Like much of what I make, these came out somewhat lopsided and random. But these don't have to be juried in, so I'm not concerned. They actually look more like sheriff's badges than Chanukah cookies but they taste wonderful and are easy enough for a child to make.
The round ones were cut with a Yahrtzeit glass, which was not only my grandmother's cookie cutter, it was her measuring cup (6 oz liquid or 3/4 cup flour or sugar) and the glass from which she and grandpa drank their tea.

"Yahrtzeit" means "a year's time" and it is customary to light a candle each year on the eve of the anniversary of a close relative's death (usually a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, or sibling). The candle burns for 24 hours. Because the candle comes in a glass, you can imagine that we acquired quite a few of them over the years; we used them as drinking glasses when I was growing up.
I use them now as orange juice glasses. But just for the heck of it, I used one to cut out a few cookies tonight -- a nod to my Nanny. Her cookies, I am sorry to say, were never this good.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brown Sugar Shortbread
1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (recipe calls for light, I always use dark)
2-1/2 c. sifted flour (I used white whole wheat flour)

Beat butter & sugar till fluffy, stir in flour till smooth. Divide dough in half and refrigerate till ready to roll out. Roll out first half of dough on floured surface till thin, cut w/ cookie cutter. Bake 15-20 min at 300 (or 325) or till light golden.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
the UFO
This afternoon, I was in the studio, determined make this into something I could bear to look at. All that sweetness!!
Since I needed to sew, I moved my machine to a table near where I was cutting and ironing and all of a sudden, I was comfortable sewing there, as well as at home. Duh. I got quite a bit accomplished and then brought it home to work on after I baked tonight.

The first challenge was how to minimize the pink without ripping it out. I stuck the block on the wall and auditioned a few colors as antidotes. Better, but not good. This is what I brought home with me today and tonight I cut it into pieces. That was the easy part. Now comes the work. I am in the process of therapy-sewing some strips together and fishing around for some scraps so I can create some new things to combine with the PINK. You already know my process.This piece has a long way to go and will probably end up looking completely different, but in the meantime, it is keeping me occupied. Anybody want to join me?

UFO sightings

2009-12-16T00:38:00.010-05:00

In my sewing room this afternoon. Rachel and I had a play day but this time, instead of deconstructing with screens, we deconstructed a couple of UFOs Rachel unearthed and decided it was TIME.

She came armed with several candidates and we selected two of them to see whether they were salvageable. One was from 1987. We had a few "what was I thinking???" chuckles and then Rachel got out the rotary cutter and got to work on her gray and gray and gray piece. Actually, there were some tiny pink flowers in one of the fabrics, but who can tell? Here she is, working on round one.

By the end of the afternoon, Rachel had decided this thing had to be totally cut up, added to, and put back together with some of her own fabrics. So, after this audition, she gathered everything into a bag and promised to do something with it after she finishes the quilt she's working on now. No matter what, it has to be more interesting than what she started with, don't you think?
When she showed me the other candidate for reinvention, I couldn't resist asking if I could have one of the blocks to see what I could do with it. So she took it apart. and we have this challenge: she took a block, I took one, and we'll see how each of these now-identical blocks ends up. No dyeing, no painting, just cutting and sewing. Hmmm...
I am having trouble restraining myself but it's late, so I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow...

ironing is better than drugs

2009-12-15T00:38:00.008-05:00

Aaaah - I am so calm from ironing today that I can hardly stand it. This morning, I ironed sheets. When is the last time you ironed sheets? My mother sent linens to the laundry in the 1950's, but I do remember her ironing pillow cases. Maybe she only sent the sheets and tablecloths. Anyway -- I bought these wonderful 4 zillion thread-count,100% cotton Calvin Klein Sateen King Size sheets, etc. for a bargain price: two sets= a double bargain. The only thing is that they come out of the dryer more wrinkled than raisins. And I especially HATE wrinkled pillow cases. So before breakfast, I ironed the pillow cases and sort of touched up one sheet, which I had to put on the floor to do. Truly enjoyable way to start the day.

Then the plumbers came. They fixed the problem (I think) and left. They will send a bill, by which time I will know whether the leak is truly fixed.

We'll skip the dreary afternoon and fast forward to this evening, when I went back to ironing. This time, I was sorting and ironing strips of fabric in an effort to tame my overflowing bins. What a joy! Not only are the strips gorgeous and vibrant, they are organized! Ms. Closet will be very proud of me...despite the remaining threads on my design wall. I also threw all my spare blocks into a box. Better, now that they are not all over the cutting table. So now everything is neat and clean till tomorrow and maybe I can get started with a couple of ideas. Working at home this week. 'nite.

therapy

2009-12-14T00:08:00.008-05:00

If you look at this, you might think I need therapy. Wrong. This is my therapy.

It's been that kind of week: I brought tons of fabric home from the studio and am doing therapy sewing. I can print and dye and design in the studio, but I can't sew there. I have a machine there - so don't ask me why I prefer to sew at home. I couldn't tell you.
I expect more of same this week. Tomorrow morning, the plumber is coming to tell me why the ominous water spot on my sewing room ceiling has just gotten larger. Tomorrow afternoon, Marty has a doctor's appointment which will take the whole afternoon, since it is 45 minutes each way. Tomorrow night, I will sew.

Today, we went to NY to a birthday party for Ross, Nancy, and Alexander Gillman -- Marty's son, our daughter-in-law, and our grandson -- all of whom have had birthdays in the last 3 days. Plus, it's Chanukah - so we brought all the grandkids each a gift. Here are 5 of the 6 who were there. The other three had commitments and I don't know where David was when I took this. Alexander, the birthday boy, is in front. He was 8 today. Enough posting - there is not a lot I can say and it is late. Maybe tomorrow I will have something more interesting to post.

on the wall

2009-12-10T01:08:00.005-05:00

It snowed overnight but turned to rain by 8:30 this morning; a rather gloomy day and perfect for sleeping late and staying in. I did both. In the spirit of "do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do," I worked all day and till about midnight on soething I have to do. Then, I spent some time moving those same four pieces around on the wall. You know, the ones that are so minimalist they don't look like me.
This is too controlled and it feels sterile to me, despite the colors. But we shall see what develops.

Meantime, progress report on the plants in the kitchen. My poor avocado was happy until I took its picture. Now it looks like this:On the other hand, my ginger plants are growing fast and furiously.
Thus reassured that all is right with the world, I can retire for the night.

time out of hand

2009-12-08T07:49:00.004-05:00

Or maybe it's time management that is out of hand. Today, I am making a to-do list and between today and tomorrow, I need to get everything checked off. I just read something that said "do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do." The have-to list is very long; the want-to list has one item on it.Apologies to you for the bad photo, taken in a room with no lights, using my iPhone so I didn't have to get out of my chair, and apologies to Ms. Closet for the fuzz and threads on my wall she finds so distressing. The block in the upper left is just that -- a block, about 6" x 9" and I want to see if anything interesting will emerge by combining it with whatever else I find in my disaster of a sewing room/office. As you know, minimalist R not us -- and it still has to look like my work, so this is a challenge. But it will have to wait. I am working at home today and I have a to-do list to make.

winter

2009-12-05T21:49:00.011-05:00

Good grief, I hear the snow plow! Considering that it was 57 degrees yesterday, this is somewhat annoying. Huge flakes fell all day and we cancelled plans to go out - not because it would have been a problem driving, but because we are wimps who didn't want to go out in the nasty weather. It is hot cocoa weather. Here comes the plow again. Bleh. I just grabbed my camera to see what I could capture from the front steps and here is what I got as the plow went by. Nope, it's not manipulated in Photoshop - this is just as it came from the camera. Sigh...just as I thought my photographic skills were improving.There is not much snow, but it is wet and slushy and who knows what it will be by morning? Fortunately, it is Jessica's father's turn to drive Tommy and her into the city, where they will stay in a borrowed ap't in Manhattan for a week (or more??) I will miss the laughter and company. But I look forward to Jessica's return on Dec. 23 when Tommy leaves for Wisconsin to visit his family for the week.

I am debating whether to keep working or to give it up till tomorrow. This is what is on my wall at the moment.There was another square-ish bit of fabric, but it fell off and I couldn't be bothered to retrieve it. Guess that means I am done for the evening.