pomegranatesandpaper

Thursday on Saturday

I am getting ready to go to Tracy Stilwell's and Linda Willis's art retreat in Rhode Island. We went last winter and had the most marvelous time. It may have been the best art retreat I ever went on.

 

I don't do well in crowds. Even as a teacher, I feel overwhelmed by a large art gathering and often lose myself in the crowd. I am more comfortable being invisible, taking a class quietly, eating by myself, and sitting somewhere and sketching before going to bed in my hotel room early.

But since I met this wonderful group of women through Art Is, i admit tht I look forward to Art Is all year and can be found going out to dinner, mingling in the vendor room, and meeting and greeting all weekend.

The Rhode Island art retreat is very different. It's just about a dozen women, held in Tracy's gorgeous home that she shares with her partner, Sue, and Tracy and Linda, The Fabric Goddess, cook for us. Can you imagine?

 

Last year, I went on my birthday weekend and the ladies made me blush with all the fuss when they made me gifts and bought me a beautiful birthday cake. So I wanted to go all out in bringing little gifties for them. You know that is a large part of any art retreat - swaps, or gifts if the groups is small enough.

Work is rather intense right now, so I knew I wouldn't have time to do anything too intensive. Micalenagela and I had just been involved in a project that involved a lot of typography and I have found myself more and more intrigued with hand-lettering. So I decided to make some Valentines.

 

Like any project, I always underestimate the time to do it in, so it became a rather drawn out affair, all puns intended. I had to take Thursday off just to get it all done (as well as catch up on the laundry, the bills, medical insurance issues, and all those boring things that are necessary but eat up all your time.

I liked doing these Valentines so much! I really enjoyed doing hand lettering and inventing alphabets for each one. It was a really good exercise in a new area of art and one that I am sure to become more involved in. I can't wait to take Joanne Sharpe's class, which begins in February. She is the master of hand lettering. I've seen her work in person and it is just bursting with color and her lettering is juicy, artful, and exuberant!

 

I apologize for the ridiculous quality of these photographs. In mid January, it's hard to photograph work during the week when you get home after dark. So I decided I would take the artwork with me to work and photograph it at lunch. Unfortunately, it was still not that bright yesterday. I couldn't find a level surface to photograph on as all the benches around the office are to close to the entrance. I didn't want a million people watching me and coming over to ask me what I was doing.

I got in my car and drove to a few parking lots over. I parked out of the sun but not in the shade. I put the artwork on the hood of my car. (A Mini doesn't really have a flat surface, I found out.) Due to the slant of the hood, I had to put it up by the windshield. Which meant I had to lean really far over. Then the wind picked up and I had to photograph with one hand and keep a finger on a corner just until I was ready to snap. Which, of course, was just when the wind picked up.

 

Did you hear me swearing as I ran across the parking lot, screaming at my cards not to go into the water as the wind whipped them across the pavement. You could have! I am sure several people in that hotel were hanging out the window looking at the crazy woman photographing the hood of her car and then running around the parking space looking for pieces of artwork.

Sigh.

 

My next big accomplishment: building a photography booth. Time to invest in a place to treat my artwork seriously. And stop entertaining the neighboring office parks!

Taking Flight

Getting out of Dodge by the skin of my teeth. Took yesterday off due to big ol' sinus headache. After the usual two-day cocktail of Advil/Aleve, Claritin D, nasal spray, and Mucinex, my head is not pounding and I can walk around without shaking.  (We are timed up here with sinus issues the way some families are time up with their periods.) The Princess is waiting for her antibiotic to be delivered and I expect Micalangela to call me any minute to say her throat is scratchy and ears itchy.

But enough!

 

I am going up to my favorite small art retreat with the lovely Mrs. Knee C and several other adorable art girls.  We are going to have fun with

 

 

chickens!

bunnies!

 

 

bees!

 

 

and buttons!

 

No - not that kind.

 

This kind!

 

Last year, we ate, drank, sewed, and did it all again for three days. The snow and ice and frigid temperatures didn't let us have much time to leave the house and see the animals. So I am looking forward to this 60 degree weekend (even if we have broken the earth, we have to enjoy what we have when we have it, no?) so we can get out a little and maybe even walk to the ocean which is just a few blocks away.

Mr. Pom graciously packed the car for me, but not after asking if I was leaving him since I had enough clothes, he said, for a year. Pshaw! Half the bag was full of fabric! The other three bags:

• sewing stuff, tissue paper, ribbons, beads, more fabric,
• magazines, journals, gouache, w/c, , and
• a bag full of surprise goodies

So yeah, I overpack. I always assume I'll have time to read all those back issues of Uppercase and Country Living UK as well as

Gotta dry the hairs. TTYL.

 

HB HB HB HB

 January. The lean days. The cold, grey days. Penitential days. More austere than Lent. More remorseful than Ash Wednesday.

All those late nights; money spent; wine bottles in the recycle bin; pastries eaten by the light of the refrigerator door; surfaces sticky with candy cane residue.

We purge, cleanse, fast, juice, run, jump, and throw out the white flour, sugar, and caffeine.

But what if you have a birthday in January?       

 

 Party and candy tray by sister Maria

What's a girl to do? (No, not me.)

 

 

 

After all, you still need to eat.

 

Yep, some people have birthdays in January.  Can you imagine? January by itself is gray enough; throw in your birthday, and well, you could just about lock yourself in a closet till May.

And just because you're in your third, fourth, fifth, sixth decade, who's  to say you couldn't use some good, old-fashioned corn syrup in pretty shapes?

Huh? Ya got something to say about dat?

It's all good, as long as you don't  mind that extra "roll".

 

 

 

 

And you can still button your clothes.

 

 

 

 Besides, we get plenty of exercise walking the dogs.

 

We teach them how to make  friends.

 

Play dead.

 

 

And all our work paid off as coming in a not too shabby second at the International Dog Stacking Trials.

 

 

Just don't forget, even dogs need to hydrate and deserve a few treats.

 

 

 

Just as you do after all this canine work out.

 

 

 

 

 

Cause you gotta have yourself a very merry birthday ....even if it is January.

 

 

 Beautiful sponge cake by sister Maria, also!

 

Happy Birthday, Mar, a little late!

 

Sunday Night or Downton Abbey Night

 

 

Busy, busy weekend. Lots of wedding prep going on, especially with The Bride f/k/a The Princess is out of town. Can't tell you what I did cause she has a way of ferreting these things out and I at least have to make it hard for her and not just plain ol' write it on the blog.

I feel like I haven't blogged regularly since....when?  So I am still doing holiday catch up posts and other trivia that I found amusing and/or delightful and never got to tell about.

 

 

 

 

Office Holiday Decorating Contest or That From Which I Am Banned By The Haters

 

Sorry for the crappy photo, but I didn't dare stand in front of my picture and use a flash to take the photo  because 1) It's supposed to be anonymous, and 2) The Haters would saying, "Did you see her standing in front of her picture taking photos?" (I am completely exonerated from any criticism about using the term, "the Haters" because our managing attorney described them thusly to me and we all had a good laugh.)

The handwriting in the background is a listing of every holiday-type dessert from every country I could think of or google.  I loved making my silly little cookie cutter picture because it was one of the few evenings this holiday season when I listened to Christmas music and drew and painted and felt the spirit of the season.

 

 

 

The Amazing Generosity and Talent of The Cookie Fairy

 

Several years ago, I wrote a blog post about how all the women in my family spent the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas baking cookies, cannoli, gingerbread, pizzelle, and other goodies, and  my sisters and I rarely have the time to do so. That year, an enormous box arrived at the house and one of my blog readers, Rachel Scot, baked dozens and dozens of cookies and sent them to us as a gift. Can you imagine doing that? I am continually floored by her generosity of spirit and incredible baking talent!

 

 

 

Each year since then, I open my door to the mailman ringing my bell and tear into a carton of beautifully wrapped red boxes filled with cookies loving made, decorated, packed, and sent. Are those gingerbread men not the cutest things??  And as you can see by the prior photo, there is always a kid waiting round the door and this time it was Micalangela sampling the cookies before I could even finish the photographs. Thank you, Rachel, as always you are a highlight of our Christmas! I hope you received the little prezzie we sent in the mail!

 

Just in Case You Thought We Ignored The Empress and The Sisters This Year

 

 

 

 

We did not. The entire family who could make it was here for dinner and gift exchange and the food was great and the company wonderful.

 

 

Since we were going away, we didn't put up a lot of decorations, but I couldn't not decorate as it is one of my favorite things. My mantel was the most decorated area other than the tree on the other side of the room. Fortunately, the yellow teapot and sugar and creamer stay out all year as do the red and green candlesticks that The Empress gave us several years ago. That great lime green tray was a little find on the Cape and in front of it is the original artwork for my Christmas card. (I still have a few cards if anyone still wants one. I hope all of you that asked received it.) Bella Sera quite approves of it all, though she prefers a fire in the fireplace. Actually, she looks like she's relaxed, but she's really mesmerized by The Sunlight, which in her Dog World is A Living Creature that Must Be Killed.

My Mermaid Knitting had to have a little fol de rol for the Christmas, though. We managed to light the candles once, but I never managed to buy other candlesticks for the empty ones. There's always next year, right?

 

The tree has been at the curb since New Year's day, but the mantel, the candlesticks, and the dining room bookcases are still filled with Christmas stuff. And probably will be to at least...Easter? And why not?

 

 

Now, I have to finish up my project get ready for Downton Abbey (do you know how many times I have typed Downtown Abbey?) As someone I know wrote online, it's so pretty that you can watch it with the sound off just to see the sets and the dresses.  I don't have tomorrow off so the weekend is ending for me. And unliked The Dowager Countess of Grantham, I know all too well what the week end is.

Christmas Past

Oh, don't worry I'm not going to do an overdue Christmas post about the holiday when I was a child. I am going to do an overdue Christmas post about THIS Christmas. Do you think that is ridiculous? I feel a little silly, but this is the speed at which I get around to things these days.

Actually, blame these two:

 

Large dog poking his nose around in my tiny studio in case I'd forgotten that the plastic bag on my desk had an apple in it. Can be found most nights on my legs with the intent to knock the laptop onto the ground lest it take away attention from the magnificence that is him.

 

 

 

This one wouldn't hurt a fly or bother an apple. But she will sit jump on the bed and lay right on top of my laptop should I dare to open it and write a post.

 

 

Don't think I'm kidding about this, friends. These dogs think they are teacup pomeranians and want to spend all their free time in my lap. 'Cept when they are digging massive holes in the backyard or shredding the contents of the waste cans or protecting the house by the power of their lungs from predatory UPS men or unsuspecting friends who dare enter the portals of Dog World.

 

Okay, enough about the dogs (Micalangela says we are turning into those people - the ones who talk about their dogs all the time).

 

Instead, I bring you our First Cape Christmas:

 

 

 

Christmas Eve morning waffles and bacon in the sunshine.

 

I made this little Santa wallhanging about 20 years ago. It has hung in every house we've lived in: Mohegan Lake, Fresno, Memphis, and New York, so I thought it was only fitting that it have a Christmas in Cape Cod.

I'm kind of digging having a 5 foot tree that comes with its own lights and can be decorated in ten minutes. Ease of operation and all that.

 A mermaid has pride of place on our tree, but the cool tree topper was designed by Mystery Man on a 3-D printer.

We didn't bring up many decorations, but I couldn't resist these giant stars.

They are from Pier I and made to light up, but they require a wire and I didn't like the way it would look hanging from the rod.

 

 

 

 The presentation of the lobsters (we couldn't find any myrrh).

 A boy being very good for Santa on Christmas Eve.

 Very, very good siblings.

 

Bella Sera and The GF share a cuddle.

The requisite Princess and The Tentacles shot, captured every year since she was three years old.

Hats were THE gift of 2011. The GF had a skull one, but somehow I didn't get a shot of it.

 

We kept the bones of our traditions - the tree, the gifts, the lobster, the family - and simmered it all down to the essence of  Christmas. We ate and slept and went to church and opened gifts; we hiked on the shore and saw our cousins and made gingerbread cookies; we went to the beach on Christmas Day in a snow shower and back to the ocean at night to look at the stars; we played board games and haunted the bookshops and read our books; we put together our toys and cooked a lot of breakfasts and laughed and laughed an awful lot.

If we could snap our fingers and transport all our family to fit into the cottage, we would. But for this year, and maybe for the last year, we were our little family redefining our traditions.

When we went to church on Christmas Eve we filed into a pew, me leading the way. Usually we take up one half of a pew, but this year, I was nudged to keep going and we took up one and a half. When we all sat down, I looked to my right and saw our little family of five increased to seven, and  looked at their beautiful, grown up faces, their hands holding their significant others, then looked at Mr. Pom next to me, his face more lined and worn than when we had to restrain two toddlers from leaving the pew, and I saw my life in a timeline that stretched from birth to now and knew that the best thing I had ever done and would ever do in my life was create this family.  I started to cry, Mr. Pom squeezed my hand, Micalangela looked askance at her brother and sister who rolled their eyes, and my tears turned to laughter.

In the words of that old chestnut,

Christmas future is far away
Christmas past is past
Christmas present is here today
Bringing joy that may last

Here Comes.....the Cake And Other Random Bits and Bobs

 

Breathing a big sigh of relief that first post-holiday week is over. Work was quiet and not too stressful. Totally unsuccessful at getting back to healthy eating, but I expected that and this week is the reality check. Absolutely lovely dinner last night at Sister #5's house for Sister #2's birthday. So sweet to sit around the table all night with the nieces and nephews, now all growing up or grown up and see their beautiful faces and have funny and fascinating conversations. Pics to come another time as I have, once again, mislaid my camera cable.

As predicted, now that the holidays are over, it is full speed ahead at Wedding Central. I am glad I waited to start it all until after Christmas as I do believe that my head would have exploded if I had tried to do both at once. I find it easier to concentrate on one thing at a time, especially as I tend to get a wee bit wrapped up in it. The shower venue is almost set; the rehearsal dinner venue is shaping up; and I am cracking the art whip to get Micalangela to work off her graphic design tuition with designing some aspects of all these invitations.

Over our Christmas vacation, we went to the wedding venue and had the "cake tasting".  Can you imagine? An appointment just to eat cake! Can I become a professional cake taster for a living? Or even for free?  I will be your cake taster, should you be in need of one. (Back in the day, we didn't taste no cakes before our weddings. I couldn't begin to tell you what flavor our wedding cake was or what it looked like except it had more than one tier and was white, just like everyone else's.)

 

This is the charming pastry chef who is demonstrating the flexibility of fondant and recommending it for fancy cakes in warm climes, but with a warning that it does not taste very good.  To the left is the hotel's event coordinator; I think she looks sad because she did not get a plate of cake. (I'm sure she's tasted them all many times.) 

 

We each received a large platter of cake to sample based upon the bride and groom's suggestions.  We sampled a very moist, rich devils food with champagne mouse and strawberries; red devil with chocolate mouse and a little pot of cream cheese frosting as an alternative; and a yellow sponge with raspberry mousse and a tourné of buttercream as an option.

Each and everyone was rich and flavorful - how to pick? What a wonderful problem to have!  It was fun to be waited on for an hour in the midst of the Christmas entertaining. We wish we had had the nerve to ask for a doggie bag as neither The Princess nor I could manage more than a few bitefuls of of such sugary food before lunch.

The chef told us all of the flavors and ingredients and was pleased to hear that we could not decide which we liked best. He quickly did a sketch of the cake that the bride and groom had in mind and then left us to enjoy the rest of the cake.   Such a handsome man! 

If we were on the Cape, I'd zip down there and beg another plate. What better than a platter of cake slices and a good cuppa to accompany the next two hours - Downton Abbey premiers for the second season! Off to watch!

 

 

 

 

Laughing All the Way

The adorable young woman who greeted us at Jingle Market

 

 

So far, 2012, easy peasy!

Work was quiet.

Lunchtime was devoted to all things wedding prep.

I made several meals on Sunday, so not only is dinner made, but they have a choice of chicken soup, manicotti, or pot roast.

The dogs are exhausted from doggie day camp and are sleeping on various beds around the house.

And,

drum roll, please

.....................................

I wrote several chapters in The Book this weekend!

 

What? you thought I was going to say I finished it?

 

 

 

Cucciolo and I put on the funny hats and laugh at  your innocence!

 

 "Finished" is a long, long way away. But I can tell you this: it's gonna happen. First draft in the can by the wedding. Yeah, you heard it here first.

(Look, here's how 2012 is gonna be, blogwise:

Either you listen to writing talk or listen to wedding talk.

Either you put up with links to handcrafted shower favors

Or you put up with inspirational quotes about creativity.

Forewarned is forearmed.)

 

It's either put up or shut up on all fronts cause in 25 years, I don't want this to be my greatest accomplishment:

 

 

 

So gotta go write before Mr. Pom gets home. BTW, I downloaded the trial version of the app that  blocks the Internet. Worked great the first 3 times, but when we had to go online to print out a plane ticket for Micalangela, it wouldn't turn off, despite the fact that the hour block had expired 2 hours prior. Fortunately, restarting the laptop worked, but I don't think I'll be shelling out for the actual version. I didn't know which one of my sisters would answer the door when she rang at 10:00 at night to use a laptop and printer!

Leap Year

(This photo is devoid of relevancy to this post but if you don't put a cute pic for your FB account, no one reads your posts.)

 

I have tried to write this post four times. The first, I hated; the second, the dog threw himself over the keyboard, demanding my attention; the third, Micalangela came home and in his excitement, the dog knocked my laptop onto the ground and it closed down; and now, I hit the wrong key and the last four paragraphs disappeared.

I think the Universe is talking to me.

I am listening.

This is the end of an 11-day vacation for me. I feel like I have been out of work for at least a month. My office actually is open today (quirk of working for an insurance company), but we had the day as a floater. I dithered about taking it. I could easily go back as we accomplished much: tree down and out to the curb; house fairly picked up; a week's work of meals cooked yesterday (manicotti; small lasagna for MM to take home; chicken soup with orzo and carrots; pot roast). But Mr. Pom has off today and he was rather low this weekend, (I think the end of the holidays and the kids comings and goings), so I felt badly leaving him.

Of course right now, he is up and walking the dogs and I am lying in bed hoping he gets back soon so we can either go for coffee or he will bring me one. He's like that. Very accomodating.

Truth is, I am going to spend the day writing. It is my gift to myself. True, I should be squirreling away my days off like a....squirrel with acorns before a hard frost. So many things to do for the wedding! Too bad today! It is for me, writing, my New Year's gift of some intentional acts that will build to a crescendo of "doneness", i.e. I Done This.

Cause I have to, it seems. The Needing to Do and The Thinking About Doing and The Avoiding of Doing have made me, in Mr. Pom's words, "a tortured soul". What the hell? I can't have that on my tombstone!

So if you see an Mac Powerbook amped up with a weary middle aged woman with a bad haircut peering under her old glasses and furiously typing, please don't interrupt, even if I flag you down and drag you by the arm to sit next to me and start showing you my year in pictures.

Which is what I did yesterday when I actually was interrupted at Starbucks by a son of my mother's oldest friend and after speaking with him, spent the rest of the morning trying to create a photo mosaic of my year in pictures. The morning was hot, I lost the trail of the story, and my  mosaic wouldn't cooperate and ended up as a squidgy trail of tiny thumbnails, so you won't be seeing it.

Off to find that appl that turns your online access off for a determined number of hours. See you on the other side!!

 

SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT AND NEVER BROUGHT TO MIND

 

 

Where are you going for New Year's, New Year's Eve?

 

I hope it's glamorous.

 

Who are you wearing?

 

 

Are you going long?

 

 

Or short?

 

Don't forget - accessories make the woman!

 

 

And the pumpkin, apparently.

 

 

Remember: a lady always needs a place to put a lipstick and a dime for the phone!

 

Though I rarely find I need to call a cab when I'm slurping homemade soup for supper.

 

And the pups and dottie angel really don't care if I fuss with my hair.

 

 

So instead of painting my face, I'm painting some pages.

 

Tripping the light fantastic will only occur if I forget to step over the Christmas lights.

 

THE Mister and I are quite happy to turn on the heated mattress pad at 10:30 (no, that's not a smutty metaphor; we literally are turning on the heated mattress pad) after seeing two movies (in a cinema and not on the TV since it's a holiday and all).

 

Don't feel sorry for us! We are as content as two snowmen in a storm and our last official holiday obligation is to say

WE RAISE A CUP OF KINDESS TO YOU AND THE DAYS OF AULD LANG SYNE!

WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!