HAPPY NEW YEAR!

THE GREAT PIZZA CRUMB DISASTER

So, I am in the kitchen making myself a healthy breakfast (read: pizza crumb cake, which comes in a pizza box, hence the name.)

I cut myself a piece and lovingly place it on my plate, when the lid of the pizza box hits my water bottle and knocks it over.

The plate becomes a wading pool, my slice of pizza crumb is now floating! I quickly grab the crumb cake, pat it dry, put it back into the pizza box and continue mopping up the rest of the water.

After cleaning up said mess I decide that perhaps taking my breakfast back to the computer isn’t the most intelligent idea, so I decide to just eat it standing at the counter (like all good, normal, well adjusted people do).

I refill my water bottle and place it carefully on the upper counter, safely out of the way of all disaster and continue to prepare the crumb cake.

All of a sudden, and without any prompting on my part (hitting, touching, knocking, tapping, nudging, etc.) the bottle, eying the now semi dry pizza crumb, gives a slight chuckle and executes a perfect swan dive onto the counter below, glug, glug, glugging its contents over the pizza crumb once again.

I can only surmise that the bottle wanted that last piece of crumb cake for itself!

Moral of the story: even soggy, pizza crumb is still delicious!

Doug

Doug was confused; nobody told him he needed ears.

sighing as an Olympic event

if sighing was an Olympic event, i’d bring home the gold!

i say this with a great deal of pride, because i learned from a pro. my mother was an Olympian too. (i think it’s in the genes.)

and don’t think i mean just run of the mill sighing. i mean sighing that falls into special and distinct categories:

there’s the ‘exasperated sigh’,

the ‘i have the weight of the world on my shoulders’ sigh,

the ‘i can’t believe you said that’ sigh,

the’ i’ve had enough of this’ sigh,

the ‘exhausted sigh’, you get the idea.

each and every one is different. and each and every one is distinguishable from the other.

it takes years and years of practice to perfect the art of sighing, and i’ve devoted myself to this pursuit in earnest.

Just ask my husband!

reflections

people say they started their blog to connect with friends and family in ‘cyberspace.’  

cyberspace…… a mystical concept to me, of things just ‘floating and zooming around out there’ (much like energy and time.)

so here’s a theory…

in a twisted, seriously skewed kind of way, maybe that’s why i started my blog. to connect with my parents. to let them know what i’m up to and that i’m doing okay.

too serious? too demented? oh well, these thoughts zoom through my mind and occasionally leak out!

i guess i just miss them, especially this time of year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

may all your Christmas wishes come true!

just playing in the studio

'looking for Hitchcock'



i can’t do that

but I can do this.    



i find myself lamenting,”why can’t i make graffiti canvases like alias burke?”
“why can’t i paint colorful collage sheets like traci bautista?”

“why can’t I draw like tim burton?”

and the answer, of course, is because I’m NOT alias burke or traci bautista or tim burton.

I am me. and my art reflects that. no matter how hard I try, i still show myself in my work. and that’s a good thing.

ok, here’s an interesting tidbit….

the other day, husband was telling me about a couple of customers he had that day. in the course of the conversation i asked him how old they were (it was pertinent!)

this was his reply……

“ our age, 60.”

(i’d like it noted here that husband is older than i and even he hasn’t hit sixty yet. so where this was all coming from i can’t even guess!)

this was my response:

BLINK

but in my head this is what i was thinking……

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

no! no! no! no! no! no! no! no! no!

i am nowhere near sixty! (ok, chronologically i’m closer than i’d like to admit) but in my head, where i am, i just got out of my twenties (ok, thirties.)

it reminded me of the scene from parenthood (the movie) where dianne wiest says: “i’m not old enough to be a grandmother! i was at woodstock for christ sake!”

so…..where do you stand in the time space continuum chronology? do you feel your age? (and i’m not talking aches and pains here people) i mean in your head, your heart. how old are you really?

meet the boys



'Spike'

'the original nice guy'



'Sourpuss'



"ho hum, life sucks, woe is me"





'lecherous Leon'

I think his expression says it all.

pity visits

this is what the kids call it when they come to my blog to trigger the stat counter to make it look like somebody is actually reading me!

bwahahahahahahaha!


awwww, aren’t they sweet! lol

i have a ‘history’……. (air quotes included)

since the great medical adventure of 2010, every time i go to the doctor, any doctor, no matter what the reason, they refer to me as having a ‘history’.

(even the dentist said it!)

now because i have a ‘history’ they seem to think they have a free ticket, cart blanche, for every medical test know to mankind.


i swear, they see me coming and their eyes turn into little dollar signs!


she has a ‘history’ and insurance !


“cha ching”

getting sentimental

this star was the tree topper of our very first tree together, husband and i. thirty four years ago! holy cow!

every year it gets a place of prominence on our tree. just a little cardboard star covered with aluminum foil. but it is more precious to me than one made of gold!

meet mary lou

about a million years ago, when i was growing up, i knew the schmidt family. they had seven kids, all with names that began with the letter ‘m’. michael, mark, mary, mildred, martha, monica and mary lou, the youngest.

the first thing mary lou ever said to me when we met was: ‘hi, my name is mary lou. i’m adopted.”

i have fond memories of time spent in their midst. their house was always a fun place to be. something was always going on at the schmidt’s.

i remember they tried to teach me how to do 'the boogaloo' and 'the jerk' (and failed miserably!) and mrs schmidt made the most delicious doughnuts i’ve ever tasted!

the minute i drew her i knew this was mary lou.

meet mary lou……

random thoughts…..

 i have trouble working in a journal. i know, it’s all the rage. but i just can’t seem to bring myself to dirty up those pristine pages.      
(i love to make journals; i just don’t like to work in them!)

now give me a blank sheet of paper and i’m off to the races!

go figure. maybe it’s the permanence of the binding. maybe it’s the left-handed thing.

so, my solution is to work on loose pages and when i fill them, i’ll bind them into a journal!  ha! so there!

looking for faces

i've been practicing…..they look awful, but practice makes perfect! ( i’m hoping practice will make them at least acceptable.) lol

 

 i have an idea for a painting, but i need a face. hopefully one that isn't horribly grotesque! we’ll see……

Cold snap

This cold snap has me actually looking forward to my next hot flash!

self reflection

someone asked me the other day…….
what kind of artist am i? folk artist, grunge artist, graffiti artist, girly girl artist, sketch artist?

i keep trying to find a label for myself. But i can’t.

maybe that’s a good thing. maybe i should stop trying to label myself. maybe it gives me more freedom to explore.

(and what is it with always wanting to label people? ……. sheesh.)

cold weather always makes me want to bake

and by cold i mean it’s 41° here in sunny southwest (sub tropical) florida!

and i’m shivering in my many layers of socks and sweatshirts!

but smelling the yumminess of my dh’s favorite coffee cake helps to warm me up. (not to mention the heat radiating from the oven!)

banana sour cream coffee cake

1 ¼ cup sugar

½ cup chopped pecans

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)

½ cup sour cream

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

stir together ¼ cup sugar, pecans & cinnamon; sprinkle ½ mixture in a well greased bundt pan. beat butter at medium speed until creamy. gradually add remaining cup of sugar. beat 5 to 7 minutes until light & fluffy. add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. add bananas, sour cream & vanilla. beat at low speed just until blended. combine flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt. fold into butter mixture. pour ½ batter into prepared pan. sprinkle with remaining pecan mixture. top with remaining batter. bake until a wooden pick comes out clean, 45 min. @ 350°.

enjoy!

christmas cards

decided to go a whole ‘nother way! lol

FINALLY done! whew!

working on my Christmas cards

and i just can’t seem to get it right.

do you ever go through those periods where everything you touch just turns to 'doo doo'?

(bah, humbug!)

in my head i have a list

in my head i have this list. of things i never thought i’d say. i add to this list periodically.

it all started when the boys were little and i said ‘don’t run in the house.’ of course being a relatively new mommy i didn’t know you had to add ‘and don’t skip, hop, jump, twirl, roll, etc.’ you get the idea.


as the years have passed ‘things i never thought would come out of my mouth’ has grown to include not only silly, funny, weird, gross, and improbable, but now i’ve dipped into startling.


and it’s not such an unusual thing to say, it’s just that it startles me every time.


it startles me to state my age. i’m not sure why this phenomenon occurs, except that i don’t think i ever expected to BE this age. it’s not particularly old, and i don’t mind being this age.


it just startles me every time i hear the words come out of my mouth.


So now i have another thing to add to the ‘list.’

HAPPY TURKEY DAY

too neat to create

just did a MAJOR clean-up (for Turkey Day.) since i was on a roll, i decided to clean/neaten up and ‘purge’ the studio.



now it’s too neat to create! i’m afraid to mess it up!


i think i’m one of those people that can’t create if things are too tidy. i need a bit of chaos! not too much, just enough to spark that idea that’s been percolating in the back of my mind!


okay, let’s face it, i’m just lazy and don’t like to clean!

candyland and competition

i am totally uncompetitive (or so i think) and here’s why……



growing up i went through the usual game playing stages, a.k.a. ‘the candyland phase’


i was obsessed with it. played it every day (which also brings up the question, how did my parents ever let me live, but that’s another post entirely.)


i played mostly with my mother, because when i played with my father, he creamed me. i mean he killed me, decimated me, obliterated me.


i distinctly remember one game he had me in tears, (he was VERY competitive, which is probably why he was so successful.) and i remember my mother’s words to this day ‘oh, for Christ’s sake jack, let the kid win once in a while’.


and i remember thinking, ‘she LETS me win?” and then LIES about it? no, not possible.


but maybe, just maybe i wasn’t the greatest candyland player that ever was. maybe my mother WAS letting me win, hmmmm. intriguing thought.


and THAT”S why i’m not competitive, (or so i think.)

what Janome and i made today

here are a few pics of what i made today on my new baby.

$$/gift card holders for the Alliance gift shop for the holidays.

 for the little girl on your holiday list, a mini purse with magnetic snap to hold your endowment (just big enought to hold a gift card or a nice crisp bill.)

 there's nothing like a fuzzy flip flop to perk up a boring monetary offering!

and what better way to give a Starbucks gift card than in a mug.

and when the $$ has all been spent they are ornaments to add to your Christmas tree (or chanukah bush.)

my new baby

it always happens, doesn’t it? just when you are in the middle of some project, poof!

my baby died on me. right in the middle of working on some stuff for the Alliance (of course!)
so, off to the Husqvarna Viking hospital she went. (it was bad, parts fell off! i think she’ll be there for a while.)
in the meantime i needed a backup plan.
here she is. Viking’s little sis, Janome. isn’t she cute?






just a basic work horse, but she has some tricks up her sleeve for such a base line machine.

so far, so good. not a big learning curve and i’m off to the races!
i’ll post some pics of what we made together soon!

"Some people make the world more special just by being in it."

thank you everybody! (and you know who you are!) for being there for me.

now back to our regularly scheduled program

(i hope.)



i’m hoping things settle down now and i can get back to making messes and making THINGS.


so here’s to hoping for some wonderful results to post in the near future!

when negative is a good thing

negative has such a, well, negative connotation

except when it’s biopsy=NEGATIVE

WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i wanna be famous

when i was 16 years old i thought i was going to be rich and famous. okay, maybe not so much rich but i was sure i was going to be famous. a famous writer living a bohemian existence in Greenwich Village or some other ‘cool’ place. living in a loft, penning deep and honest truths that just had to be told. having affairs, never marrying.

well, you get the idea.

suffice it to say, none of that happened.

but i still want to be famous.

i was thinking about this the other day, when my son said something that just knocked me off my feet.

he said, ‘you’re badass! you don’t realize just how tough you really are!’ (talking about the way i face what life has thrown at me lately. not earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination, but trying at times.)

and a light bulb went off in my head.

i AM famous…… maybe not in the textbook sense of the word, but famous in the sense that i am a significant role model to my family. to my kids.

that’s fame enough for me.

meet shiny, twinkle & flasher….

i guess I’m destined to be a cartoonist not a ‘fine artist’

lol



what would you do if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?

i think of this lately.

i’ve always tried to live my life telling the people around me how I feel about them. How much i appreciate and love them and the things they do for me. to point out that i value their strong suits.

but lately it seems more important.


so in that light i want to say….


to my friend that never forgets the days i am to have some sort of ‘procedure’ and then never fails to call me before AND after to make sure i’m okay.


who listens to me in gory detail even though she is afraid of needles and doesn’t want to hear the details.


who lets me vent when i need to.


who listens to my diatribes even though we are at politically opposite ends of the spectrum.


who patiently listens to all my unsolicited advice and never says a discouraging word.


thank you. thank you for being there. your wings are definitely showing!

not bad if I do say so myself, lol

I find that I’m ‘seeing’ things differently since doing

'the art of silliness’ online class by Carla Sonheim.

(my interpretation of Carla Sonheim’s book cover)

“lol”

this arrived today!

and we haven’t stopped laughing since!

 i guess it accomplished its mission!

thanks Deanna! only you would think of this!

hahahahahahahahahahaha!

haven’t been making much lately…..

haven’t been feeling up to snuff, so haven’t been making much lately. how about a pic of something old…….

I was honored to have a whole shelf of my own for my 'stuff' at the
 Alliance for the Arts gift shop in Ft. Myers in March.

grandma’s blue beads

these are my great grandmother’s blue glass beads. it’s one of the things she brought with her when she emigrated from England in 1910. they’ve taken on a magical quality for me over the years. sort of become my talisman. i find myself holding them a lot lately.

Anybody out there……..?

Anyone….anyone….…Bueller?

ODE TO THE FAN

The fan
The fan
What can one say about the fan…?

It’s perfection in motion
So breezy
So cool
So perfectly aimed
The unqualified tool


The speeds are not random
They are flawlessly paced
One for ‘plain’ flashes
The others for ‘baked’


By day
It sits
Alone on the floor
So solitary, serene
So plain
Unadorned


But at night
In the dark
It dons
Its superman cape
And becomes the hero
The ‘Vanquisher of Nape’


What can one say?
About this domestic device
Without it
I’d resort
To sleeping on ice!

look ma, I’m drawing!

  

(and you can even tell what it is!)

it’s the end of the ‘art of silliness’ online class by Carla Sonheim. 

i had a blast! i highly recommend her classes to anyone who thinks they can’t draw, or even skilled artists who just want to put a little ‘silly’ back into their art. http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/fall-2010-online-class-registration-open-2/