My Blog

Photo of the Day

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:58:41 -0400

I have some old wisteria vines that I neglected to remove on on of the support beams on my front porch and wouldn’t you know it that is exactly where a little Wood Thrush . So one day after the little nest had been there for a while we carefully got our ladder and poked our camera lens into the nest to take a couple of quick shots. This is what we got.
Hopefully the insurgents will not find them when they hatch. I know we will do our best to keep them away but with this little mother who lets’ face it did not have a good choice in preparing her nest it will be a difficult task. I am hoping to get some more snaps of the little birds once they hatch. Fingers crossed.

Photo of the Day

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:50:07 -0400

Sitting here in my studio listening to the History web site regarding the civil war it inspires me to learn more on this era and what agendas where set into play during that time. As an artist I look at the styles and tools that where used in this era. Dress and the material and how it was sewn together plays a part in my mind. Currently I am looking at purchasing two books on this type of clothing. On Dover publications: Victorian Women’s Fashion Photos and Historic English Clothing , Civil War Era Fashion although these only briefly touch on this particular interest I think this would provide some fuel to the fire so to speak! I have sewn 2 different costumes for my 15-year old daughter one in the form of a cape from the 1800s and another in the form of a dress (victorian era) for her school play ,a Charles Dickens classic Scrooge that was modified to have her as the lead. Why they had to modify it well that be the directors view, we thought she could have pulled it off as a guy but..... that is an issue for another day.
Just looking on the web today you can find loads of beautiful costumes that people have made! Fantasy to re-enactments. Harry Potter, Dumbledor, S Snipe, to Victorian splendor. I would like to take some of the practices of costume design and produce something that is not dated and has no time associated with it. To create something that can be warn in any time and added to the wardrobe without it being costume looking.
Now I don’t think that I am going to do this full time but I do want to practice taking one pattern and turn it in to something that can be usable.

My Garden

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:24:56 -0400

Not to long ago my husband and I and our 2 youngest children returned home to our place in the mountains after being gone an extended amount of time to find that our home had not been taken care of like we thought it would be. That is a story in itself but the facts are that we had to literally dig our way back out of the forest that borders our home. Rose bushes had been left to take over and the leaves that had been left to kill off the grass. Nothing looked anything like what is was supposed to look like. When we returned it was in November and we would have to wait until spring to start over again. I spent the rest of the winter months getting the inside of the house back to normal just blocking out the outside. My oldest son who had gotten leave came home with his new wife and pitched in on trying to just get the dog pen in order. For days we raked in the cold and burned the leaves. Nothing but mud remained. It was so depressing. After the weather started to warm up and things started to come back, I reseeded the lawn and put down some lime to get the moss under control. Things stated to grow and you could begin to see an outline of what had survived and what was needing to be removed. I started to gain some momentum. After the first initial cut of grass after 8 months of not being mowed it started to look even better. The only thing was that I was so tired after the mowing that I did not want to return to the garden until the next cutting. But things started to get better. By the time the roses started to bloom I started to see what beauty was still there. And now I am still pushing forward uncovering it as if it was a treasure waiting to be discovered. Our leaving for such an extended period and entrusting someone to oversee our home has taught me a valuable lesson. It has made me very thankful for what we have. It has made the old saying out of necessity blooms great ideas a reality. I have used all the resources here at our home. The leaves I have turned to mulch and have made the rose beds a pleasure to see again. I have lined them with the limbs that fell in the woods and in our yard. I have used the stones to make another walk way and the list still goes on. Oh I still have to straighten the bird bath and the bird feeder that the bear took out but it is an ongoing labor of love. Moral of this story is redemption is always there you just have to work at it.

Quilt of the Day

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:19:19 -0400

Anyone who knows me knows that I go from one project to another. From one fiber to another. From one area of art to another. These past few weeks I have moved back to my quilting (always a comfort) Just something about putting together strips of cloth and creating something totally unique. What is pictured above is a quilt that I started years ago in Ireland. It was one of my first trial and error projects. Nothing about it is perfect. Oh some of the blocks managed to get all of the points just so but mostly it was just about the joy of doing it. The excitement. You will see loads of different bits of cloth and random prints This resembles nothing like the creations that have those perfectly chosen color values that are used by me today but this represents what we had in our home there. Sheets, table cloths from Christmas, bits from the fabric store (non of the fabric stores there looked anything like the ones that we have here! Spoiled we are!) Shirts etc. I was desperate to sew. I would use anything that we had around. Since the dollar to the Irish Punt (back prior to 1999 it was still the Punt now it is the Euro) was not as good as I would have liked it (for example what would cost us here in the U.S. at $8 per yard would cost us in Ireland roughly $16 U.S. dollars.
I have added some red striped ticking for the border and will put a blue binding around it. I have done a wandering quilting stitch with my Burnina. I will just use a string (bit of yarn) to tie the the quilt together on the points of the design. It will go out on the porch to keep the chill off in the evenings. It is one of those quits that you can love to death.

What’s Cook-n

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:13:41 -0400

Oh indeed what is cook-n is french toast. That delectable bit of fried sweet bread that you could gulp down in seconds but would stay on your behind for months. This is what happens when you (the cook) go on a diet that is not fond of fried carbs. A child ask for them by name for breakfast, and that is what happened this morning. So I will give you my recipe for fried carbs known as french toast.
Here’s what you need:
Bread sliced into thick strips (you can use home made or store bought) If using store bought just cut the slices in half.
Canola oil (organic)
Brown Eggs (free range)
2 tbl. sugar per egg.
2 tsp. cinnamon
cast iron skillet
one splash of half and half cream

Preheat your cast iron skillet on medium heat and add 4 tbl. of Canola oil . Leave the skillet and oil to heat while preparing the following:
I start with yesterdays bread. Since I make my bread everyday (now don’t hate me I use a bread machine) I usually have the heal left that no one wants. So I take that and cut it up into about one inch thick slices. The thicker the better. Then I set that aside and get out a medium size bowl and crack 1 to 2 eggs and whisk them up. Add 2 tbl. of sugar per egg and then whisk them again then pour a splash of half and half. Finally 2 tsp. Cinnamon and then wish until well blended. Now take and soak your cut slices of bread in the mixture and then add the soaked bread into the hot oil that you have preheated in your skillet. Keep a careful eye on your bread so not to burn and turn when browned. Now after both sides are browned and toasted to your liking place on wire wrack lined with paper towels to drain. Serve warm.
Serving variations:
If you want to omit the sugar you can and use power sugar sprinkled on top or maple sirup