every-single-day

Studio View and a give away.

Although this photo clearly shows just how dirty my studio windows are, I love it just the same. It shows a photo of my fathers mother, a bowl my mother bought for me, a fun chicken measuring tape with egg pull and a photo of David and I when we were on honeymoon. Great color and very cheerful.

This is a test post, I am trying to do it from Flickr. So lets see if it work.

I made the switch and love it. The learning curve of the piece is large and so I will be doing sloppy things for a while... You'll forgive me right?

I sorta feel like I have lost alotta readers and want to see who is out there; if I have lurkers and comment posters both. So here is a give away fat quarter, made by myself using soy wax and monoprint techniques with Procion MX dyes.
Post a comment saying you'd like to win the piece and 7 days from today I will mail it out to the winner.
and um.. (added this a little later...) I will do a drawing of the folks who commented to make it super fair.
Click on the photo and you'll go to the flickr site where it is slightly larger.
How about it?

a day in the life

My design wall has this reminder by Woodrow Wilson and I like repeating this statement to myself. The chicken footed fairy doll rests near the statement and reminds me to have fun, albeit with a wistful expression.

And what post would be complete with proof that my hands are getting quite dirty on a daily basis.

Since David and I have been living separately, I am on a mission to eat well and introduce myself to new foods and enjoy cooking. So I made a batch of Kasha Mushroom Burgers loosely based on this recipe. And, of course, you need a great roll to eat great burgers right? So I used the 5 minute rustic bread recipe I talked about in the last post.

I found this new 10 minute bread recipe and want to try it.

It snowed perhaps 4 or 5 inches yesterday and I need to go shovel (for joy!), there is a new video in the P.O. Box and I would like to pick it up and prepare for a nice night in.

whoas and prezzies

David came home for the Martin Luther King holiday, which was awesome. To be able to hug, touch, hold and talk to my husband is a good thing. But then, as needs to happen, he went back east. I was fine, till later in the day when I visited the bedroom for something, and the fact that we wouldn't be sleeping in the same bed for some time hit me.
I have been cooking. Wanting to eat new things, introduce new recipes into the diet. So making veggie pizza was the adventure that brought me out of the blues last night.
On 5-minute artisan bread, sauteed onion and kale with miso, garlic and soy cheese.

The other thing that helped lift my spirits was this:

A russian shool bag, sent to me by Lisa Chipetine.

It fits my paintbox perfectly, has several very interesting features, like the plastic portfolio window, pen and pencil holders, and elastic bands to hold... paper? A book?
I am almost all moved into it. I may need to make myself a new long thin purse to hold my girlie things, but that is the price of fashion, no?

Mad Scientist

Being alone in a carvernous studio day after day, mixing and toiling over bubbling stews can bring a person to the point of madness. It may look bright and sunny in this studio, but Dr. Mellser has not seen the light of day for one hundred years. The glint of satisified insanity shines from deep within.

So, much work is getting done. Stuff is all over the place, it feels good.

At night, when I am not writing, I have been knitting, something I have told myself I can't do. A few years back I got angry at my inability to obtain proper gauge. But then, I got myself up and running on socks before making many scarves or hats, before loosening up, and trying to understand gauge.

I am making Dashing, a free knitty pattern. To really solify the the addictiveness of the whole deal, I am now a member of Ravelry.

The addictiveness is partially why I stopped knitting in the first place. It isn't like I don't have enough creative projects to do.

This last

This last week has been a bit of a challenge. David came home for a few additional days from our holiday visit back east, which was great! I love being with him, in our home. But we look over at Monk and his bottom left fang is dangling by a thread. We bring him to the vet and start pouring money into fixing up his teeth. Poor little guy.

Arrow on the other hand just needed a blog feature and wanted to show off his prime real estate, the view out the window, overlooking the arial path to the bird feeder. Imagine him chirping in anger that those flying things would dare fly anywhere in his vicinity.
This week about 18 inches of snow fell. Shoveling has been a blast-oh yeah! The alternative septic tank motor blew out and my good friend got in an accident on her way over to pick me up for a fun dinner party. Broken ribs, injured neck.
My friend is such a good sport. She is happy to have walked away with her life and her husband, knows it will only be time that makes her feel better. I love listening to her gentle voice say these things. She is a very special person, indeed.
All of this while I am trying to settle down, focus on writing my book and learn to live alone for the time being. Even with all these life happenings; I am doing good work. Nothing I can show, you'll have to read the book when it comes out, but I feel satisfied with the work I am creating.
So please say prayers for my buddy! I haven't asked her if it is OK to say even this much on the blog, so I will not write out her name. But I would love for her to feel well wishes from far and wide.

Here is an image of the completed Matchstick Mary set.

Time to fess up!

I went over to the blog today to see what I'd posted about last and it was so long ago, it got gobbled up by the archives. I am sorry about that.
My Christmas Holiday went well. It was frenetic, a little bit of Brooklyn, a visit to Connecticut, back to Brooklyn and then David and I came home to Arizona. The best part of it was that I got to spend so much time with David. The worst part was that I didn't get down time with my folks, it was holiday hectic.

I haven't been posting pictures of my creative exploits here for a while and I am happy to say, it is because I have been writing articles, contributing to exciting publications and I have signed a contract to write a book! 144 pages devoted to the techniques I use to make my art. Yeah!!
The hard part is, everything that I make for the book needs to be fresh and new and unseen by the public eye. This means I will need to be vague about what I post and what I am making.

In other news, our cat Monk had a little dental emergency this weekend. His lower left fang was dangling from his mouth. We brought him to the vet and he had to get his tooth extracted. He is home and happily drugged. He is never quite as lovey as he is tonight. His eyes are blurry and do not focus on anything in particular. He is being very �lappy�.

So there you have it.