Alizarine

Late Spring Update

This spring has been crazy. International travel, one-person show, looming medical test, backbreaking commission, exciting deck project--no wonder I've neglected my blog! So in an attempt to catch up and maybe not have to write a hundred thousand words in doing so, here's a little photo essay. While you read and look at the photos, I urge you to listen to Steal Away by Robbie Dupree, a song that has been on a constant loop in my head for two weeks, no foolin'.

 

(I can't get on board with the illustration here. I just can't. I don't like the way nearly all Japanese manga illustrators draw faces.)

Anyway, that song's been driving me up the wall, and I'm sorry if it's in your head too, now. There's no getting it out, like those Star Trek bugs.

 

GAH I CAN'T EVEN WATCH THAT!

Off to a bad start, sorry. Here's my update. Bun will make it better.

Last month, completely out of nowhere, a tornado warning hit while Jeff was taking a nap and I was reading. Jeff has a new app on his phone that alerts us to severe weather with a variety of sounds, a different one for every type of warning. The phone was making some noise, but sleeping Jeff and I ignored it because honestly Jeff has about 15 other phone alarms that indicate who-knows-what every afternoon (various calendar reminders and work stuff).

We eventually decided to see what was going on--the weather gave us no indication of impending doom, just some clouds, but indeed a tornado warning had been issued. Jeff scooped up Bun, I grabbed Pache and Q, and we headed to the bathroom. During the scooping process, my phone rang, and it was Melissa calling to tell us about the storm. She was in Champaign, some ten miles west of our house, and apparently actual funnel clouds were happening and headed our way. Here's one of the many photos I saw on Facebook almost immediately, most of them taken by former students who probably should not have been out chasing storms.

We rode out the brief storm with our big-eyed cats. It didn't last long and, as usual, seemed to skip right over us.

I keep meaning to write about my show in Jacksonville! I displayed my wares at the David Strawn Art Gallery during the month of April. This involved three long, 266-mile round trips in the Mazda: one to deliver the paintings, one for the opening, and one to take the paintings home. On the day of my opening, Jeff and I were up before sunrise and drove to the gallery. I gave a 6-hour workshop (watercolor still life) in the Strawn's basement classroom. I changed and put on my makeup in a gas station bathroom, and then we had an early supper with Mom, Dad, Poof, and Tyler before my two-hour opening. After it was over, we drove all the way back home, so that made for a very long but ultimately enjoyable Saturday. I've never had so many people attend one of my art shows and even managed to sell a fair number of paintings. Who knew that Jacksonville was such an artsy town?

Thanks to all of my friends and family who came to see the show. I was thrilled to see Kendra, Rob, Melinda, Kate, Mabel, Lars, Michelle, Grace, Jay & TA, and even Karen Icenogle, my high school art teacher! I hadn't seen her in a very long time, and she looked at me and said, "I love you." It was all I could do to keep from bursting into tears.

In other art news, I've finally begun work on a commissioned painting that's going to take a couple of months to complete at least. It's a wedding present from a top secret groom to his top secret bride. The wedding is in September, so I won't be able to show it to you until then, which is a shame because this painting is, in a word, bonkers. I can tell you that it includes eleven people and eleven statues, and it takes place in a gold and red art deco theater lobby. The painting is huge at nearly three feet by three feet. That was too big for my studio table, so I've moved my whole production downstairs to our bedroom where we have a large desk. I blurred the reference image on my computer there, but I think I can show you a five-inch chunk that is in fact .8 percent of the final picture.

So it's mostly that kind of thing.

Bun loves the new setup because while I work she gets to sleep on the bed and do cute things like this.

Glass Gems 3 is currently on display in Dixon, IL, at The Next Picture Show gallery as part of the Illinois Watercolor Society's national exhibition.

I've been in IWS's last three national shows. That means I'm a signature member of the Illinois Watercolor Society and can now add "IWS" to my signature on future paintings!

Jeff, who appears to be throwing down a gang sign, and my parents came to the show with me and made the day very special.

Artist and judge Donna Jill Witty presented a terrific and dramatic watercolor demonstration during the show. I am the giant black shape on the left that seems to be absorbing all light in the room--I am almost as dark as those aliens from Attack the Block.

That was such a good movie.

In case you've never seen our house, here's what it looks like. It's a American Craftsman house with big boxes added to each end and is delighfully weird. The steps in the center lead to a massive, 760 square-foot deck that we never use and is a bit warped and dated. You can see a corner of it here.

About a month and a half ago, we began taking the deck out. Parts of it were so rotten and poorly constructed that it was almost a simply-lift-with-hands-to-remove kind of situation. Soon it was gone, and now we're dealing with the fun part: figuring out what to do with all of that new space.

We're going to have a table and chairs sitting atop flagstones on the right, a fire pit on the left, dark rock filling in, and a line of lighter rock dividing the space horizontally.

Here's a shot of the Adirondack chairs and fire pit (which I spotted at Menard's, majorly on sale). We put a ring of bricks around the pit and love the way it looks.

Below that will be a rock garden that mimics a dry stream with a bird bath.

Jeff arranged a lot of that on Sunday afternoon as I was taking a shower, and when I looked at it from the living room it instantly reminded me of a brain, which was unintentionally awesome.

We'll have some black mulch and new plants down there, including a rose-of-sharon and a dwarf burning bush, along with vines, grasses, and other flowers.

Here's what it looks like so far (sorry about the bleached-out lighting situation). You can kind of see the flagstones under the table.

Jeff and I often find ourselves staring out the window at this scene multiple times per day, contemplating our next move.

I'm nuts about moss roses and have been planting lots of them. Hopefully no woodland creatures plan to eat them, such as...

Two years ago, we hosted a family of woodchucks. Last year we had foxes. This year our house has become a chipmunk sanctuary. I like to put seeds out for them, and as many as four chipmunks are eating seeds at any given time. The cats enjoy watching these little guys, especially Quixote, who gets incredibly worked up.

We also have some adorable juvie Canadian geese in the neighborhood!

On the food front, I've been trying various experiments in low-cal food that are pretty good but not great enough to merit blogging, such as:

and

And oh, my colposcopy? I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. To amuse myself during the procedure, which is essentially a super-pap, I altered Paul Simon's Kodachrome and sang it to myself with altered lyrics as Kolposcope.

 

Kolposco-o-ope! It gives us those nice bright colors, it gives us the--

You get the idea.

It was essentially no big thing and took maybe five minutes. My area of concern was miniscule, and my doctor told me everything that was happening as I looked up at the ceiling, silently humming my tune. I didn't even faint, and evidently they get a lot of fainters. The doctor told me that based on what she saw, I had nothing to worry about. Unfortunately I was instructed to have zero marital fun with Jeff for ten days afterward so I could heal properly, so that was was a complete drag.

After a few tense days, I called for my results and it turns out I'm basically in the clear. But anyone who gets any kind of abnormal pap test and has a colposcopy/biopsy at my hospital is sentenced to three additional paps during the next year, so I've got that to look forward to. But I have been assured that my test results look very good. The paps are just a precaution, and the hospital presumably has lots of big shiny equipment and snazzy waiting room furniture they need to pay for.

Let's end this on a cute note. Here's Hypatia, one of three cats who piled up on me after the colposcopy. I was recovering under the "wookiee blanket," and Pache showed a certain amount of bravery in climbing aboard, as she is afraid of the wookiee blanket.

Please come to my show!

I'm excited to announce that my watercolors will soon be on display in a one-person show at the David Strawn Art Gallery, including this brand new painting called Planets and Foil. (Info about this painting is coming soon, and I know they're not planets.) The gallery is at 331 W. College Ave in Jacksonville, Illinois, which is a small-ish college town located between Springfield and St. Louis.

The show opens on Saturday, March 31 from 6-8 pm. Want to see me give a five-minute mini talk about my work? Be there at 6:30. See the woman on the far left (photo found via Google image search)? That'll be me, and I hope one of those other people will be you.

Apparently a friend of a friend passed my name along to the powers that be at the gallery, and they invited me to display my work. I've never been to the Strawn before, and I couldn't find many photos of the gallery's interior except for the one above, but I do know the building looks like this:

I'm already crazy about this place.

I'll be giving a (sold-out) watercolor workshop at the gallery most of Saturday--similar to the one described here--and the show opens that evening. It will be a long day for me, but hopefully it will also be a lot of fun.

I'm hoping the gallery's regulars will attend the opening, and I know my family and some area friends plan to show up, including such Alizarine superstars as Poof, Jeff, Mom, Dad, Tyler, Terry, Melinda (possibly Kate and Mabel too), along with other fabulous people possibly unbeknownst to you such as Kendra, Zinnia, Chris, Jenny, Rob, Melanie, my young penpal Grace, Jay, TA, Annie, and hopefully many more people to whom I sent postcards. Bun will not be there, but she does star in three paintings, one of which I am working on right now.

And I'd love to see you! Please, if you are in the area and are the least bit curious about my paintings, come to the show. It's free!

You'd better believe we'll have refreshments including unnamed mystery snacks provided by volunteers, soft drinks, and fancy fancy wine. Come for the art, but stay for the snacks and especially the harp music that will be rocking the gallery all night long.

If you can't attend the big opening, my work will still be at the gallery during the month of April (click here for hours).

One of my new paintings, Glass Gems 3, will be at the gallery for the opening, but after that I'll need to take it home. It's been accepted for the Illinois Watercolor Society's national exhibition, which is terrific, but unfortunately there's some overlap with the Strawn show. I will replace the original with a print that will look just like it, thanks to the wonderful printmakers at Imagekind. Please visit Imagekind if you would like to purchase a print of any of my paintings--see this post for details (scroll way down).

Thanks as always for reading my blog, and I hope you can come to my show! (Excuse the bossiness of this banner.)

Eddington's Peanut Butter Eggs

I'm obsessed with Reese's peanut butter eggs--everybody knows this. It is an established fact. People who love me are undoubtedly weary of my tiresome explanations of their appeal. I wrote about the RPBE's over two years ago and quoted my friend Melinda, who crystallized my thoughts perfectly:

Let's face it: the RPBE is sort of sloppy, really...There's something almost homemade about that aspect of the RPBE.

Homemade. YES. That is exactly it. They are lovingly crafted by someone who cares about them. They are the best thing in the Reese universe. I buy them (and their pumpkin and tree hybrids) all the time and mourn them during their Easter-to-Labor Day off season.

A couple of days ago I was looking around on Pinterest--apparently there's some kind of chicken and crescent roll casserole that's electrified this mighty nation. Yes, I'm on Pinterest because I am a girl and it's fun. You should totally check out my Greatness board and admire my exquisite taste in things that are great.

Somebody had pinned a recipe for homemade Reese's peanut butter eggs, I blacked out for a while, and the next thing I knew, I was making them and live-tweeting the process, a first for me. That picture up there is not an actual RPBE. I made it. It is an EPBE!

And what do you know: they're easy and fun to make. You probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen right now. I altered the recipe (from The Whimsical Princess) just a bit for greater RPBE accuracy and added a lot of my own italicized notes. What you see here is a half batch. It made 14 full-sized eggs for me, and unless you're having a party or something, you probably shouldn't be making 28 of these.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cups creamy peanut butter <--we had store brand, very so-what peanut butter
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, soft or melted
  
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt <--original omitted the salt, but you've really got to have it because that is a huge part of the RPBE's appeal. Add it a little at a time to taste. You will know when you've added enough.
  
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk <--depending on your powdered sugar dipping technique, you may need more
  
• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips <--original called for semisweet, but I'm sorry, RPBEs are covered with milk chocolate
  
• 1/2 tablespoon shortening <--regular white Criso, not butter flavored, which I guess you could try in a pinch, but I didn't feel like screwing around with this.
  

DIRECTIONS

Mix together the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter. I used a stand mixer and was glad I did, but you could use a tough hand mixer, a spoon, or probably even your bare hands. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time until it becomes a nice workable dough. It will be just like Play-Doh, and it will be really easy to work with. Form the dough into egg shapes.

Some of your eggs might be a little on the dry, crumbly side. Those will create more accurate eggs, texture-wise (see note at the bottom of this post). But really, this dough should stick together and form eggs without a whole lot of effort on your part. I'd imagine that kids would totally get into this. Little surface cracks are okay (see photo below), but if the dough is falling apart as you work with it, you need to add more milk. I got 14 out of this batch and ate about a teaspoon of dough during the salt-tasting process.

Place in the freezer for about an hour. Do not skip that step.

Place the chocolate chips and shortening in a glass measuring cup.  Microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until completely melted, about 90 seconds total.  (You can also use a double boiler if you prefer.) Adding the shortening is weird, I know, but it's just a tiny bit, and it seemed to make the chocolate silkier and maybe a little glossier.

Dip each egg in the melted chocolate and place on waxed paper until set.

Use a skewer or similar thin pointy thing if you have them. Stick it into the fat end of the egg until it feels stable, then dip! This is where the hour-long freeze starts to make sense. It's like the chocolate wants to be on that egg. I spread it around with a spoon for a few seconds, sort of scraping off most of the excess that wanted to collect on the egg's underside.

Once the eggs are on the waxed paper, remove the skewer with a slight unscrewing motion and gentle assistance from another skewer. You can then smooth over the hole with the egg's existing, wet chocolate or add more. Or you can leave the hole as is because (a) who cares and (b) it reminds you of your cat's ass and that's hilarious.

I apologize, Bun, and also to you, the reader.

Once they are set you can trim any excess chocolate off that may pool at the base with a knife to make them look pretty.  You could also decorate them with royal icing and make a really special Easter treat.

I had no pooling issues, and as far as decorating them further goes, I yell BLASPHEMY.

You will not be able to resist cutting into one a few minutes after they've all been dipped. Just give in. The chocolate will be a little melty, like a RPBE on a hot spring day or a RPBE in a warm car. I advise you to make these in the evening, have your too-soon egg, put the rest in a plastic container and store them at room temperature. Go to bed and dream about them--I did--then have one for breakfast!

Re: taste accuracy. Jeff and I shared the too-soon egg and proclaimed it 90+ percent accurate. Somehow, that rating jumped to 95 percent overnight. Our only issues:

1. The texture of the peanut butter was a tiny bit too solid. RPBEs are slightly more granular and airy. This is unavoidable, as you are forming the eggs with your hands and thereby compressing the peanut butter. Your less-fooled-around-with eggs will be crumblier inside but harder to dip.
2. The chocolate, according to Jeff, was somehow better than Reese's. I thought it was dead-on.

SO YEAH. Just about perfect, you guys. 14 RPBEs will cost around $11 if you buy them separately. 14 homemade EPBEs will cost around $4, and if you already have most of the stuff on hand, they're basically free.

If you're still reading, I urge get on board with this. And once again, please buy my prints!

Taco and Shoe Field Trip!

Last weekend Jeff and I took a mini-mini-trip to Arcola and Tuscola, two small towns about thirty minutes south of Champaign. Mysteriously, both of their names employ the exotic "cola" suffix. Last year we read a stellar restaurant review of Arcola's El Taco Tako, and it had haunted us ever since, because it implied that the little shack was The Second Coming of Tacos:

"...the best tacos you will ever eat...every bite is perfect...culinary gold...the best goddamned taco joint in Illinois..."

"If we're ever down there, we need to try those tacos," we promised each other, and on Valentine's Day weekend, we did it.

The place was a tiny ten-seater, and we were the first lunch customers. As instructed by the review, we ordered a couple of plates of tacos (chicken and pork) from the cheerful owner who spoke about as much English as we speak Spanish. He left to fix them while we took in the kitchy beauty of the place and tried to hear each other speak over the television that was blasting a Spanish-language sports program. Jeff's looking up at it.

The walls were painted a brilliant, some would say gutsy turquoise that I just loved and liberally festooned with all manner of Mexicana.

Jeff got a kick out of the curtains in the window behind me. They were decorated with an incongruous John Deere motif. It was a cold, windy day, and I kept my coat on until the tacos arrived.

The wee tacos were indeed very, very good, and just looking at them makes me want some more. But. The amount of time that had elapsed between reading that amazing review and actually eating the food was too long. The glory of these tacos had been built up too much!

 

(ff to 7:35 or so)

"They're great tacos," concluded Jeff, "but in the end they're just tacos."

You know? It was kind of a three-note meal: the spicy meat, the interesting par-fried shell-within-a-shell, and the (fantastic) grilled onions. Plus we each had five of them, and a certain amount of taco fatigue had set in.

So we left feeling slightly non-plussed and bloated, and the tacos came back to say hi to us via a series of burps that lasted well into the afternoon, during which time we hunted for shoes for me.

 

Jeff and I will be visiting Paris in early April (hooray!!), and I've been trying to figure out what shoes and clothes to wear. It is not easy! I wanted some shoes that I could walk for miles in--but I also wanted to wear dresses with them and not look like a complete dork wearing big chubby American sneakers. My feet are huge, flat, and ducklike (wide at the toes, narrow in the heel). I can't wear high heels and walk for more than a few blocks without bitching. I can't wear cute shoes, period. I can wear boots, but I'm not sure if they're appropriate to wear in the early spring. When is it officially springtime in Paris, anyway? Can you wear boots all year? Would they be too hot? What about sandals? Would they be too cold?

So with those problems and more swirling in my mind, I set off to find the perfect dressy-but-comfortable shoe appropriate for the not-exactly-spring week of April 6. Jeff was patient as I tried on and rejected pair after pair through seven stores, most of which were located in an outlet mall in Tuscola. I found only one pair that met my comfort criteria, although style had to take a backseat. Have any of you ever heard of S.A.S. shoes?

I've worn their style-free sandals for years, especially when I was a teacher, because the foot pad was so incredibly comfortable. I believe the pads are made from a combination of Milky Way caramel, saltwater taffy, circus peanuts, marshmallow fluff, and miniature helium balloons. S.A.S. stands for San Antonio Shoes (made in S.A. Texas), and they refuse to sell their products online, so nice people like Joel, the knowledgeable man who helped me find the right size, can keep their jobs. It's adorably 19th Century. The shoes are plain but extremely well-made. I've heard the description "fug" bandied about. Some would call them Old People Shoes.

Actually they're Rich Old People Shoes--most styles cost in the neighborhood of $100-$150, and that was way more than we had planned to spend. As I tried on other, cheaper (cuter) shoes, I was frustrated because nothing came close to the comfort of the S.A.S. shoes. We thought we could try to find them online somehow, like on Ebay, but I've tried that before and failed. After we gave up, I may have admitted to Jeff that I was "slightly disappointed."

We rolled out of Tuscola and were about to get on the interstate when Jeff said, "Damn it! It's Valentine's Day!" and did a quick U-turn. It was downright cinematic. He drove us back to the S.A.S. store and bought me the shoes.

He was richly rewarded once we got home.

I mean, they're not that bad, right? They're so austere that they're actually kind of cool, right?

PS Please do not leave frustrating comments telling me that you have found better, cuter, cheaper, more comfortable, perfect shoes. My feet are freaks and will vary with your mileage, I can almost guarantee you. I've been wearing these in all week and am beginning to bond with them. Thank you for respecting our privacy during this beautiful time in our lives.

The List

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Jeff and I met and our Chicago trip a month later when Jeff said "not yet" to a taxi driver who asked if we were married. I didn't tell you about our jouney home on the train. That was when The List was born.

Amtrak trains run between Champaign and Chicago several times each day. During our three hour trip, Jeff and I were full of glee and goofiness. As I watched the snowy south side of Chicago whiz by, I decided that I would kiss Jeff whenever I saw an American flag. Because that's just fun. I eventually told him what I was up to and, to pass the time, we came up with other things we could spot and do. I had a pad of paper handy and wrote them down as we laughed our heads off, and eventually this list was typed out, laminated, and placed in the car's glove compartment for future reference. (Or do you prefer glove box? I was born into the glove compartment tradition. The more I think about it, the crazier "glove compartment" seems.)

This sixteen-item list included the following:

• Spot a cement mixer = high five
• Person wearing a do-rag = hug
• Amish or Amish-like or Amish transportation = first opportunity up-against-wall kiss
• Restaurant patron having a birthday = French kiss

Here are some other items on the list, but I'm not going to share the payoffs with you.

• Spot a representation of a leprechaun
• Restaurant sign with mascot promoting cannibalism
• "Tiny Dancer" plays in a store
• Water tower that resembles something else, e.g. a pineapple
• 4-legged animal with fewer than 4 legs
• Larger-than-life Jesus
• Someone pronounces Bono's name as "Bone-oh" or someone says the word "cockles"

...and so on. Later we added: spotter of semi/truck emblazoned with OVERSIZED LOAD gets to touch other person inappropriately upon spotting.

In the two and a half weeks between my birthday and Valentine's Day, I decided to collect as many of the items listed above as possible. Jeff had put together a little Indianapolis getaway that weekend, and I planned to roll the items out periodically. I was able to get my hands on a wee cement mixer, a little toy Amish guy, a leprechaun night light, a do-rag decorated with hamburgers and hot dogs, some cockle shells, a coaster with a three-legged dog on it, and a poster of a pineapple water tower. I put the Amish guy on the dashboard while Jeff gassed up the car before we took off. Jeff cracked up when he saw it and gave me an up-against-a-wall kiss.

Suffice it to say that this was the best Valentine's Day of my life, and we had a million laughs during the slow roll-out of Jeff's mini-gifts. On the drive back home, we even spotted an orange semi with JESUS written in towering block letters on each side. Larger-than-life Jesus!

Fun Valentine's Day idea: if you have not yet made a list with your loved one, I highly recommend it. After four years, our list is still alive and kicking!

Glass Gems 2

Fun format, eh? Our local arts organization (40 North 88 West) is putting on a contest where selected artists will have their work displayed on billboards around town during 2012. Information is here. Since I like to work with chubbier rectangles and couldn't bear to cut down existing work to fit the 10x30 billboard format, I came up with a new watercolor for the contest. It's pretty small at 5x15 inches, so the painting only took a few days to finish.

This is another take on the glass gems painting I made back in July (below), and I think it's better.

I bought a new bag of bigger gems at the dollar store and stacked them next to my studio window. You can see blue semi-rectangular shapes at 9 o'clock on several of the gems--that's the window's reflection, and it contains an overcast sky and some apple trees. The large white ovals are from one of my lamps.

This is another long-shot--who knows what people are looking for, right?--but I think this would be fun to see somewhere along I-74. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving Part 1

For most of America, Thanksgiving is four days away, but for my family, Thanksgiving was last night. I'm sad it's over! Jeff and I hosted a nine-person dinner party and had a truly great time. My parents and sister Emily (a.k.a. Poof) and her husband Tyler stayed overnight and enjoyed a 24-hour nonstop food event, and Jeff's folks and Melissa came by for the big meal. My brother Ryan wanted to attend, but he was having an oven crisis at home--long story. I missed seeing him and Shanna and Ashley, but Christmas is just around the corner.

I spent yesterday in perpetual motion and was unable to take lots of photos, so I'm hoping that Dad and Poof will email me some family/food pictures within the next couple of days. In the meantime, I thought I'd share our recipes and existing photos with you in case you came here looking for some last-minute ideas. I've blogged about these recipes in the past, so what you'll get is lots of links (at the beginning of each section) along with some comments and tips.

Turkey Placecards! This year I decided to get a little crafty with the place settings for some reason. A while ago Mom gave me a stack of Martha Stewart Living magazines that were several years old, and I found a project for turkey placecards in the November 2007 issue. The part of me that could have been a grade school art teacher felt the need to make them. I didn't have the necessary brown and red card stock on hand, but I had plenty of scrap watercolor paper, so I painted my turkey pieces. To create the tail, I used some yarn we had around the house that Nicole bought years ago. (I think she planned to make a poncho with it, as I also found a "How to Make Ponchos" book while Jeff and I super-deep-cleaned the house last week. This place is SPARKLING.)

Anyway, I added my own creative touch to this: an eye. Martha didn't want me to make one, but make one I did. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel.

 

Then I made the mistake of browsing through some of Martha's online collection of other Thanksgiving crafts, and happened upon a link for these...

Twig coasters. I don't know what got into me, but you've got to admit her photo is cute, and our yard is loaded with sticks and/or twigs. I went outside during last Tuesday's strange tornado watch/warning weather (75 degrees, really unstable air mass, windy, humid, rumbly) and gathered as many sticks as I could before a heavy downpour hit and kind of had a ball in doing so.

I made ten coasters, each of which consisted of 20-22 five-inch sticks. So that's a lot of measuring and cutting to say the least. Missing art supply for this craft: waxed twine. Who houses a constant supply of waxed twine, Martha? I'm going to have to embed this again.

 

My solution: dental floss. Ha! Our dentist gives us plenty of it! While not as rustic/authentic as Martha's waxed twine, our dental floss was free and in the house. I was able to make ten coasters using one package (roll?) of it, and I didn't come close to running out. If you like repetitive, mindless knot-tying, this is the craft for you. And the knots are just those easy, first-thing-you-do-when-you-tie-your-shoes knots. Each coaster took about 25 minutes to tie together. The first two are fun. The last eight are extremely tiresome. But I made them because we really needed coasters. In an attempt to make them waterproof and a bit sturdier, I hot glued each coaster to a square of the tough black plastic you can find on the cover of Mead's Five Star spiral notebooks (I threw out some of my notebooks while I cleaned out my studio.)

Nobody used them as coasters, of course, but the turkeys looked cute on them. Poof and I decided that they were turkey life rafts floating down a sea of gravy, symbolized by our brown tablecloth.

And now, some recipes!

Since my side of the family arrived six hours before supper, I felt the need to provide lots of snacks upon which they could graze throughout the afternoon. Such as...

Peanut butter hummus. This recipe makes a LOT, and I could've halved it and still had enough. I am crazy about his hummus, and it pairs nicely with carrots, celery, crackers, etc.

Li'l smokies. These made the kitchen smell fantastic and taste equally great hot and at room temperature. We picked at these all day and ate the leftovers for breakfast the next day.

Seasonally-spiced nuts. Sweet, salty, herby, and garam masala-y!

Roasted red pepper cheesecake. Put some of this on a cracker or toasted baguette slice and you've got The Perfect Bite. I love making this, even though it requires a 4-inch springform pan. Tip: use full-fat cream cheese and ricotta. I made yesterday's cheesecake with reduced fat products, and while delicious, it wasn't as firm and lost its shape as it set out in our warm kitchen nook.

The heavyset cheeseball. No family gathering is complete without it!

Spiced pumpkin cookies. I thought my appetizer buffet needed something sweet, and these were a smash. I made and froze the cookies ahead of time, uniced. Thanks to the pumpkin, these are so moist that they can stay uncovered for hours and still be fabulous.

Mom made her famous apple and cherry pies, which I placed on my trusty pie rack. I set it inside a Thanksgiving wreath, and this made an easy centerpiece alongside bowls of lemons and clementines.

Posole. Along with the appetizers, I gave my hungry, road-weary family bowls of posole (Mexican chicken soup) for lunch. My folks enjoyed the addition of hominy--an ingredient they remembered from their childhoods but hadn't eaten in years. Chickeny goodness!

So this was our menu, and Jeff put his turkey in the oven at around noon.

Jeff's Hollywood Turkey. A little more labor-intensive than your average turkey but extra-moist and beautiful to look at, Jeff's turkey was a hit with everybody. Follow the link for his step-by-step instructions and bonus commentary about It's A Wonderful Life.

While Jeff puttered around the kitchen, Poof, Dad, and I laughed our heads off while playing Angry Birds and telling stories in the living room. Poof has a hilarious llama story that you've got to read. I haven't seen Poof since our trip to New York, and while we never feel like we can spend enough time together, we try to have as much fun as possible when we do see each other. This weekend was no exception. At one point we were in the kitchen dancing stoopidly to Girl Talk and just plain having a blast. I love her so much.

Carrot cake mini-bundts. I like to give Poof fun cooking tasks that exploit her decorative flair when she comes over. Yesterday she iced these mini bundt cakes with cream cheese icing and leftover pumpkin cookie glaze. Some of the bundts contained walnuts, so she topped those with, you guessed it, walnuts.

Malted crisp tart. Poof also decorated the top of this blockbuster dessert with malted milk balls and caramelized rice crispies. I don't have a photo of her tart decoration yet, but video is coming soon! I will say this: she made those two things resemble owl faces and it was genius. I made the tart on Friday, and it's not as time-consuming as my recipe indicates. I've made it about four other times since that blog and have since become a lot more efficient. People loved this tart, and there were lots of "oh my god"s and looks of disbelief at its greatness. They were talking about it the next day, and I'm not even exaggerating.

Stuffing. With Italian sausage, apples, onions, cranberries, celery, and really good bread, this is my favorite stuffing and is a meal in and of itself. The recipe makes a truckload. Give it a try!

I also made Parmesan smashed potatoes by Ina Garten, peas and bacon by Tyler Florence, and orange cranberry sauce by Rachael Ray (I used the juice and zest of clementines instead). Hey thanks, Food Network! Sorry there are no photos, but I think you can imagine what those three might look like. We also had some nice Italian rolls.

Above: cell phone photo from Poof. You can see Jeff and me in the kitchen cooking up a storm. While I made most of the above recipes well ahead of time, I had to save the peas and potatoes for the last minute. And then it was time to eat!

Check out Tyler as he chows down on a turkey leg, Viking style. The meal was wonderful, and everybody sat around the table and told stories for what seemed like hours afterward. My side of the family stayed overnight, and it was like a big slumber party.

Apple dumplings. The next morning, I made everybody breakfast--I say apple dumplings qualify as breakfast. These received more raves than any other Thanksgiving item. Poof in particular went crazy for them. I was able to freeze/refrigerate each component days beforehand (glaze, dough, filling), so all I had to do this morning was peel and core four apples and assemble. I served them with leftover li'l smokies.

Hand pies. Finally, I popped some pre-frozen hand pies in the oven--two per person--and after they cooled a bit, I wrapped them in parchment paper. I put the cute little pies in paper bags and gave them to everybody as take-home treats to enjoy during the ride home. (Text from Poof later: Hand pies are awesome!!!!)

And then Jeff and I collapsed for several hours. We're making gentle dents in the leftovers. And this Thursday we're probably going to get some Chinese takeout.

My Sister's New York City Moment

Look at that little dynamo up there. Smart, beautiful, hilarious, humble, and sweet...my sister Emily. As some of you may know, her nickname for me is Pup, and my nickname for her is Poof. So I'll be referring to her as Poof, Em, and Emily in this blog if that's all right. Earlier this week we were in New York City for 20 hours, all expenses paid by....someone who wanted us to be there (I don't want to ruin the surprise).

I was thrilled to be Em's traveling companion. On Sunday night, I took a long train ride to her home in southern Illinois. It had been three years since Jeff and I were separated for more than a day, and I wished he could have come along. But he stayed home and took care of the cats--thank you, Jeff! We kept in touch via phone, email, and what seemed like a half-dozen social networks, but we missed each other a great deal. When I came home, I was touched to see the Kelly-shaped pillow-and-comforter configuration he had built on my side of the bed.

I arrived at around 10:00 p.m., but I was up again at 2:30 a.m. to go to work with Em. She's an anchorperson for WSIL-TV's morning news, and I had never seen the studio or watched the show from the wings before. A couple of hours of prep work goes into each broadcast. Here's Poof and her co-anchor Kevin working hard at 3:00 in the morning. The little sign taped to their desks says "Anchor Island."

News 3 This Morning runs from 5:30 to 7:00 each weekday, and while there's no way on earth I'd be able to read the news to its rather huge, predawn audience, Em and Kevin (along with weatherman Clint) manage to do a great job, day in and day out. Their small, close-knit crew is professional but laid-back and jokey. Everyone gets along, and Poof feels very much at home there.

After the show, Poof had a few hours of work to get through before we could leave. Again, this is the kind of job I would find difficult: calling complete strangers, setting up meeting times for future interviews, etc. But she took it all in stride while entertaining me and vibrating with excitement for our New York getaway.

We stopped by her house to say goodbye to Tyler, her husband of five years, and Cupcake, her kitty of one year. Cupcake looks a whole lot like Bun, but Bun doesn't have Cupcake's fluffy white patch. Poof improvised a song about the fluffy white patch, a little disco ditty called "Fluffy White Patch."

And then we were off to New York by way of the St. Louis airport, which was some two and a half hours away. Poof drove while I navigated with my phone's map program. We hit a bit of a snag around this bowl-of-spaghetti-looking tangle of interstates near the Mississippi River.

Luckily the phone figured out an alternate route in a hurry. Otherwise we had an absolute blast cracking each other up and enjoying extended conversations about Mad Men, snacks, Jesse Pinkman, top 40 songs, the fabulousness of going to New York on a Monday, and on and on.

Em had only been on an airplane a couple of times in her life and was nervous. Plus it was September 12, and we had each spent the day before watching 9/11 programming. But I helped her make her way through security and to the gate where our small plane was ready to go. We came up with a new tradition: during take-off, it's my job to distract Poof with the most random conversation topics I can think of, such as owls and hot fudge. I kept her laughing and gave her a hand to squeeze, and we arrived at Laguardia at around sunset easily and safely.

Our driver met us near baggage claim holding a sign with her name on it, and he led us to a sleek black town car. He reminded us of our brother and we enjoyed the ride tremendously.

We paused at a toll plaza, and I saw lots of police officers and other security types keeping an eye on things. They seemed beautiful and brave; their mere presence made us feel safe. New York sometimes seems like such an abstraction when you live in the Midwest, but when I spotted a billboard advertising the new 9/11 memorial I realized, Wow, we're really here.

Our hotel (the Sheraton Hotel and Towers) was near Times Square. The snazzy lobby made Poof make a face I've loved since she was little: her excuse me but this is pretty awesome expression.

We snagged a lovely room on the 47th floor, near the top. This was our view.

Exhausted but experiencing our fifth or sixth wind of the day, we decided to go to the pizzeria Jeff basically insisted we visit, John's, just off Times Square [Possibly the only decent pizza near Times Square, plus it's in a renovated church! --Jeff]. I had been there with Jeff a couple of years ago, and this was a great idea because look:

So good! We obliterated this pizza and talked and talked. I almost lost my voice on this trip!

Poof's big event was at 9:00 the next morning, so we got some sleep and woke up bright and early. We caught a cab to the Time Warner building by Columbus Circle. Here's a view from inside the building.

A high-end mall (and Adam and Eve sculptures by contemporary artist Fernando Botero) occupied the bottom floors.

We window shopped for a while and made sure the camera was ready to go.

Soon it was time for the event! Here's a teaser video Poof put together of the story thus far.

 

And here's why we were in NYC: to meet Mally Roncal, makeup artist to the stars. Such as Beyonce. Such as Jennifer Lopez. Mally, a celebrity in her own right in the world of beauty, has her own line of truly innovative cosmetics, and Poof has been a fan for a long time and knows Mally's products and story inside and out. Mally and her crew had put together a blogger's breakfast and invited beauty writers from Yahoo, MSN, and other big media outlets...and my sister. Em was the only YouTube personality there. Mally--who is beautiful, charismatic, funny, and truly kind--discussed her favorite products and introduced a couple of new ones as some 30 beauty bloggers, Poof, and I ate breakfast and listened from tables in a special events room of the Landmarc restaurant. At one point during her presentation, Mally paused, looked right at Emily, got excited, and exclaimed, "Oh my god you are so BEAUTIFUL!" Poof was in heaven.

About ten minutes into the presentation, Em was taken aside by one of Mally's crew; Mally wanted to demonstrate a "smoky eye" on her for the bloggers! Mally's right hand man Albee Franson removed Poof's painstakingly applied makeup and redid it, leaving the eyes for Mally to finish. (This marks the point in the video above where Poof mouths, "WOW.")

After a few minutes, Mally called Em up to her makeup chair. Adorably starstruck, she told Mally that this was the first time anyone had applied makeup on her, and Mally was like, No way! Pretty amazing that the first people to touch my sister's face with makeup also work on superstars. Excuse the poor photography below; I was videotaping all of this with my right hand while trying to take still photos with my left hand.

Mally demonstrated her products and techniques on three other women in the audience. Her talk went on for about an hour, and then she answered some questions and held an informal meet-and-greet. Mally's team had told Em in advance that she wanted to make a video with her after the event, so Poof hung back at the end of the photo-op line. And I will let this video speak for itself...here is the big meeting of the minds.

 

Seriously, how cute is that?

It was so wonderful to be able to witness this, one of the best days of my sister's life. I wrote to Albee the next day on Facebook:

Em and I are back home and still can't quite believe what just happened! You, Mally, and the whole team made her feel like a princess. That "little girl" means the world to me, and I am so thankful when people she admires treat her with love and respect and bring her joy. That's what you all did! Mally is such a heroine to Em. The mutual admiration the two have for each other was truly beautiful to witness, and I'm so glad I was there! You all gave her such profound validation for all of the hard work she's done over the past four years. She is inspired--refueled! And my goodness, the makeup you gave us was overwhelmingly generous. I am having a blast playing with it. It's honestly better than anything I have ever used, and so innovative. Congratulations to you, Albee, for being part of a very special organization!

After Em's one-on-one with Mally, which was filmed by Mally's people for we-don't-know-what-kind-of-future-use, the two put together a quick, impromptu video for Beauty Broadcast, and that will be posted early next week. Even though it was fashion week in New York and Mally had a QVC session later on, she seemed to have all the time in the world to talk with Em, as did her staff. The entire event was about two and a half hours long, from start to finish.

I was unprepared for how kind everyone was to us at this event. Fully expecting to deal with a bunch of jaded, so-over-it hipsters, I was delighted by how sweet and down to earth Mally and her team were. The compliments flowed like wine from them, including fun comments like, "Emily, we are obsessed with your ponytail." They didn't have to be so nice to the two of us, but they were. Expectations: exceeded and exploded.

After we said goodbye, Poof and I decompressed in Central Park with freaking exquisite macarons from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. Jeff messaged me before we left the event and basically said, Yeah, you need to go there. We people-watched and made gleeful phone calls to Mom and Jeff. Poof periodically stared into space, grinning and slowly shaking her head. The next couple of hours and the rest of the trip home were essentially the first section of this blog in reverse. Lots of laughs, lots of OMG THAT HAPPENED. Poof was giddy and so was I.

And finally, I'd like to wrap up this rather long blog with a few words about what it was like to walk around NYC with Em. She's got this undeniable star power that makes people want to look at her, and there's something sweetly childish about her face, especially when she pulls her hair back and especially when she's happy, that makes people want to be nice to her. Any number of people asked us if we were sisters because we share the same smile, and one sweet older gentleman at the airport told us, "No matter what happens to you in your life, ladies, never lose your smiles." Midwesterners are supposedly a lot friendlier than New Yorkers, but I truly can't remember the last time a complete stranger said something like that to me in Illinois.

I've been to New York City a few times, but the people there seemed different on the day after the 10th anniversary of 9/11. More eye contact. Friendlier. Clearly in love with their city. It was as if everyone had spent all day Sunday crying and wanted to make a fresh start on Monday and Tuesday. Any apprehension Em and I may have felt about traveling to New York around the anniversary was replaced with gratefulness and admiration.

Thank you Mally, and thank you New York!

Art Show at Culver-Stockton College

"I'm not sure why, but I just don't want to blog about my show." -- me, every day since August 23.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been feeling uncharacteristically vulnerable and borderline paranoid, and last night I finally figured out why: my paintings are on display and people are looking at them. 

Normally my paintings are safely tucked away in their owners' homes or occupying the nonjudgmental walls of our house. Until I recently framed them, eighteen of my watercolors were stored in a portfolio in my little studio, looked at by no one but me maybe once a month (to make sure they were okay).

But it's strange to know that 225 miles away, in the art gallery of a small liberal arts college, three dozen of my paintings are being seen by the eyes of strangers. Those people are reading my stories about the paintings on the title cards next to them. Most dauntingly, those people are talking about the paintings and judging them. That's just what people do. And it's going on now, and I don't get to listen to a word of it, which is undoubtedly for the best. Admittedly, I put my images up on the internet all the time and it's no big deal to me, but somehow this is different.

I don't have children, but I bet I'm going through the same emotions that parents must feel when they send their kids off to school for the first time.

Sprinkled on top of this: the nagging idea that I don't even deserve to have a show like this in the first place. Because who am I? I'm just some woman who quit her job so she could paint! Someone (I can't remember who! who was it??) recently said that having a one-person show was the art equivalent of having a book published. It's like people are reading the book that I've just started to write!

Hence the eerie silence on this blog over the past couple of weeks. Sorry about that. But now that I've been able to identify the simple problem--strangers are looking at my paintings and it's freaky--I think I can write again.

And did you see the photo up there? They put my name on the window with letter stickers and how cool is that?

Three weeks ago, Jeff and I packed 24 paintings into the trunk and back seat of the car (Jeff's 2004 Mazda 6) and took off for my parents' house, en route to Canton, Missouri. Each framed, plexiglassed watercolor was separated from its neighbors by cardboard and towels/blankets. We decided to take I-74--see the purple line on the map--instead of a more direct route to western Illinois because it was the smoothest road. I cringed whenever we hit an unavoidable bump. Would the paintings shift and scratch each other during this 300 mile odyssey?

Early in our trip west we passed this guy. I decided that his superhero name would be The Yellow Jacket.

One of my favorite landmarks on this most boring of drives is a giant DeKalb operation near Farmer CIty, which is the name of an actual town in Illinois.

That photo does not do it justice, but please know that this place is enormous. In my book, anyplace that is intimidatingly big and makes me wonder what goes on inside earns the distinction of CONCERN, as in, "We just passed the DeKalb concern." I actually look forward to seeing the DeKalb concern, and this should give you some idea of how uninteresting I-74 is.

We hit a nasty thunderstorm west of Peoria that forced us to pull over for a few minutes. Normally I love a good storm, but watercolors plus more water is a scary combination, and I imagined one of the frequent cloud-to-ground lightning strikes hitting our car, splitting the roof open, and rain pouring in and destroying my pictures. Also, we'd be electrocuted. I'm not buying the idea that cars are safe places to be in electrical storms.

After a side trip to Macomb to pick up the Mabel painting, which was being housed by her grandparents, we arrived at Mom and Dad's house at around noon. They were going to help us take some extra paintings down to Canton in their car. The weather was sunny and pleasant, and the drive was uneventful save for one hilarious carnival food idea Jeff and I had. It's too dirty to write about.

Once we found the art gallery on Culver-Stockton's very small campus, the Great Unloading began.  Gallery director Debbie Myers, a small crew of students, my pal and C-SC associate professor Terry Sherer, Jeff, my folks, and I made short work of getting the paintings into the gallery. The number of pictures emerging in a steady stream from our two-car caravan brought thoughts of clown cars to mind. Then we went right to work placing the paintings throughout the gallery, setting them on the floor. I had been given a floor plan of the space months in advance, so I was able to plan my show. I wanted to put my portraits downstairs and the florals, still lifes, and Burano pictures upstairs. Do I need to say that Jeff was amazing when it came to helping me make instant, Sophie's-level Choices when it came to my art? Because he was amazing.

Debbie and Co. then had 48 hours to hang the paintings. I didn't have to lift a finger, but I did give them a whole lot of cookies. Jeff and I were given a complimentary guest room on the building's second floor, a cute little place featuring the following print:

After looking at it for a while I Facebooked:

"We're in Culver-Stockton's complimentary guest room. The art on the wall totally says 'sex.'"

Jeff commented:

"However, the two twin beds provide a compelling counter-argument."

With two days to blow in a small town (pop. 2000) in the middle of nowhere, Jeff and I had to work to keep ourselves busy. Terry, whom you may remember from such paintings as...

...kept us amused. We love spending time with him.

Activities included:

• a side trip to Iowa City with Terry for sushi and a lecture about Haiti
• a side trip to Quincy with Terry for German food and a look at the city's beautiful homes, and
• a side trip to Nauvoo, Illinois, i.e. Mormon Jerusalem, sans Terry, who was teaching. Some photos!

Jeff looking iconic by the banks of the Mississippi River.

The rather beautiful Nauvoo temple.

Butterfly stalking.

But really, there was not much for us to do during the day, and I found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on my recreational reading because of the dreaded gallery talk I'd have to give on Thursday night. To make things easier, I had put together a PowerPoint presentation on my work and I had planned to give the talk in a nearby classroom. I spent all day Thursday memorizing what I was going to say to...the five people who would show up? None of my friends who might have wanted to see the show lived in the area, and anyway it was a school night, so I had no idea how that was going to go, either. A few hours before the show's opening, Jeff and I (mostly Jeff) hooked up my laptop to the existing system and dealt with the classroom's faulty projector.

Wondering how tired I must have looked, and instinctively knowing that no one would take photos of me during the show that I could later use to illustrate this blog, I snapped a quick self portrait in the semi-darkness.

Here's a better picture of me (taken by me in our house last month) with my apple blossoms. Hopefully I looked more like this on the night of my show.

The opening itself was wonderful, and I even managed to sell some work! Culver's president, its visual arts chairperson, and fine arts dean attended and had kind, generous things to say about my paintings. Art students and a smattering of local people were also there, along with a surprise appearance by my Uncle Ted and Aunt Terri.

I'm in no position to say whether I did a good job with my speech, but Terry told me, "You wowed them." He reported that one of the cute artsy girls said, "I want to be just like her." My parents, who had never seen me teach, were able to watch me talk about art and engage with young people for the first time, and they haven't stopped talking about it. The whole night whipped by in a lovely flash, and then it was over, and then I had to leave my paintings for a month. And then the aforementioned ennui set in.

Sidebar: I got the word "ennui" in a state Spelling Bee in 8th grade, and I spelled the heck out of it.

So here I am back at home. Bun continues to thrive--thanks everyone for asking about her. Saturday she wedged herself into a very small basket. Pardon my thumb; she wasn't in there for long.

After spending his birthday helping me schlep art all over the tri-state area, as opposed to having fun in Spain, my husband is happy to be home, too. Thank you very much for all you do for me, Jeff!

If you're in the Canton, MO, area for some reason, my show will be up until September 23. The gallery is open M-F, 9-5.

Liquid Oculus

During Bun's various health ordeals, my painting did indeed have to go on. I'm trying to create as much work as I can over the summer in preparation for my one-woman show at the end of August. Honestly, even though my numbers are in pretty good shape, I still fear that I won't have enough paintings to fill the gallery's two floors. So I paint every day. The above painting is going to be my last Burano painting for a while. Those have been a blast, but I want to focus on smaller still-life paintings over the next few weeks.

I asked Jeff what he thought I should call it, and he responded immediately with my initial idea, Under the Bridge. But that seemed too obvious, and it caused the Red Hot Chili Peppers' song to begin looping through my head--and it continues to do so. I didn't want that to happen to viewers of this painting because maybe not everyone likes the RHCPs. The song is actually pretty important to me: it was playing on my car's radio as I drove into Oregon, Illinois, to begin my art teaching career 18 years ago. (I keep track of things like that.) But I wanted something more original.

Jeff and I kept coming back to the fact that the composition of this picture, with its arching bridge, shadowy areas, and yellow-boat-focal point, kind of resembles an eye. You can see this more clearly if you look at this tiny version:

When I studied art history in college, I enjoyed learning about the Pantheon, a nearly 2,000 year-old structure that serves as the final resting place of Raphael and other legendary Romans. It's an architectural marvel that featured the first hemispherical dome. At the top of the dome is a hole called an oculus, which is the Latin word for eye. This hole lights the Pantheon's interior. The enormity of the dome is stunning when experienced in person. The oculus at its center seems impossibly bright, and the circle of sunlight travels around the Pantheon during the day.

My students were always curious about the Pantheon's oculus--where does the rain go?--and it's a great art history vocabulary word. I have always wanted to use oculus in a title, and today I finally got my chance. Sorry if Liquid Oculus sounds pretentious (Jeff maintains that it does), but I'm going with it. And naming paintings is hard!

The painting is 21"x29", which is as big as I can manage on a standard-sized sheet of watercolor paper. The small squiggles of shimmery water on the right were not fun to paint, but everything else was, especially the yummy colors near the center. I really nailed that yellow boat, I've got to say. The painting contains one highly unusual detail--can you find it?

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Did you find her? A woman's face was printed on the shiny tarp covering the boat in the lower-right corner, and I was happy to add her to the painting. I like how she appears to be gazing up at the bridge.

Lately I've been listening to podcasts as I work, and two in particular have provided me with laughs and fuel for this painting. I can't recommend Julie Klausner's How Was Your Week? and The Ronna and Beverly Podcast enough. These women will stun you with their quickfire wits and general awesomeness. I've incorporated some of Julie's sayings into my own lexicon, such as "I'm done!" and so will you if you listen. I also like to think about making her favorite food, "Noodles, with cottage cheese and salt and pepper," whenever Julie mentions it, which is just about every show. These podcasts have helped me cope with Bun's problems, the stress of preparing for my big show, and this awful, awful heatwave. Definitely check them out.

I'm done!