New Sheets

I love new sheets!
Here are the latest,
after their first bath,
in front of one of my oil paintings
in the fading afternoon light.

bursting

My sweet plants are emerging from their winter rest with color, texture and fragrance. I love the just emerging buds of the Cornus mas. Such delicate bloom has to be appreciated up close with the blue sky of a crisp cool day as the backdrop. These beauties (Viburnum bodnantense Dawn, Crocus, Cornus mas, Hamamelis Arnold's Promise) exhilarate me to no end.
Thank you lovely beauties for the happiness you exude.

xo

Bias Tape

With ready made bias tape in short supply this handy tool makes bias tape construction a breeze. Yards and yards of tape used up a bit of that fabric stash that i am trying to whittle away. I'll show you what i used it for later.

pam

© All rights reserved
my own pattern
cotton crochet, needlefelting + couching
lining from an outgrown oilily dress
dedicated to a friend that was a crochet expert

Latest Birdie Basket

When it's cold outside the sweet little birdies are hunting all over for bits to keep them going. I like to see them close-up, so I put up my wire birdie baskets, full of black oil sunflower seed, to keep them happy. This birdie basket took all day to make. But it is a very meditative process to make a basket. In my father's opinion the lowest occupation on the totem pole was the basket-maker, and there were threats that if we didn't do well in school we would turn into a basket-maker. I however think it is a beautiful avocation to sink hours into, and wouldn't he laugh to see me now enjoying it so much.

Yesterday there was a line-up on the tree branches while each birdie took their turn in the basket. Spotted towhees, house finches, Oregon juncos, chickadees, nuthatches and sparrows take to the queue. Some days the nasties come by: pine siskins. They are meanies. They fight with each other and scare the other birds away. But none clear the basket faster than the stellars jays. With their size and squawk all others scramble to get out of their way.

Today marked a new level I will go to to try and rid myself of pain: acupuncture. Only one of the needles hurt (in my neck) going in. I was surprised that the one right into my forehead didn't hurt. Towards the end of the season the bottom of my feet felt all tingly like they were electrified. Maybe it was the chi flowing through my body at last. It seems that acupuncture allows your body's energy flow to be restored. When I lived in San Francisco I always wanted to join in on the early morning tai chi that was practiced by the dozens in many city parks each day. But off to work I would go watching the rhythmic flow of synchronized bodies from my seat on the Muni bus. After my kids were born I did enroll in a tai chi class for a year and felt great after each session. I should have kept with it. But there was something fundamentally genuine about those groups in the park, back in San Francisco, through the fog or drizzle, no matter what, those older people, wrapped in black Mandarin jackets, would get themselves out and together each and every day, as opposed to a second story community center room under florescent lighting in Oregon.

Tussie Mussie

Just a tiny bouquet to say thank you.
I just love finding little jewels in the garden this time of the year.
The witchhazel smells sooooo good.
And what a happy yellow it is!

Sun Seeker

No matter how small the space, if there is sun to soak up then that is the place to be.

Watching the Snow Melt

I love having a bit of springtime inside this time of the year.
The forced narcissus bring a sweet air to the kitchen.
They seem to be looking out the window thinking,
"I'm glad I'm inside today!"

Decorated

Of the 243 rabbits entered at the 4-H show today who would have ever guessed
that the little visitor to our garden, that we nourished back to health would, in just one month from when he was found him in our vegetable garden as simply skin + bones, would today win Best of Breed (receiving lots of praise from the judge!) and be in the final 15 rabbits in the Best in Show. Our sweetie deserves lots of cheers for visiting us that fateful day knowing full well of his potential in our loving embrace.

Free Rice

While exploring on my son's computer I ran across a cool site that he had bookmarked. It's called Free Rice. It's a vocabulary game that earns donations of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Take a look and expand your vocabulary through various difficulty levels and help others at the same time. Sounds almost too good to be true.

Happy New Year!

Still Blooming

After hard freezes, snow, pounding rain and wind these tough gals just want to keep blooming at the end of the year: camellia sasanqua 'setsugekka', viburnum bodnantense 'dawn', kerria japonica, rosa 'the fairy', jasminum nudifolium, prunus 'accolade'. They're inspiring for their fortitude, and a welcome foreshadowing of spring.

Wishing You A Wonderful New Year

Go out and get some exercise, eat well, laugh lots, tell people you love them, give to the less fortunate, teach someone something that you are passionate about, plant a tree, kiss a bunny and smile because you know you are beautiful. Peace.

Brule

Each year I make a new catnip mousie for the wild one. She chomps on that thing like it is a real critter. Then she gets worn out and tucks in for a long winter's nap.
What a lovely holiday! Snow falling all day long adding that extra touch of holiday cheer to our day. We finished our high caloric intake day with creme brule. I don't think I will be hungry again for three days.

Fluff

Ahhhh, it feels good to sit down after baking all day. First up were dinner rolls, then creme brule, then I needed to use up all those egg whites so meringues followed in the oven. The house is nice and toasty with the oven going all day. Time to sit down for some tea.
Cheers.

Ho Ho Ho

This cookie baking season I had a revelation. In the past my sugar cookies never held the cookie cutter shape very well after baking. They always seemed to ooze out of their shape and get quite flat. I always wondered how my favorite bakery made cookies that had such crisp edges compared to mine. Thank goodness for grocery sales, because one brand of butter was ridiculously inexpensive compared to my usual brand and so I purchased this other brand for my holiday baking. Well, what to my wondering eyes should appear but perfectly intact shaped sugar cookies so happy and dear. Yay! I'll never go back to my old brand of butter.

Blocked

Early this morning a big bang was heard at the front of the house. Birds crash into our windows often, so I looked for tell tale feathers on the windows, and a body on the ground. But nothing could be seen until I looked out over the porch roof where an immature goshawk was splayed out on the roof. Alive but stunned, its legs were horizontal on the roof. I watched as he gathered his composure and after several minutes he hoped up onto the talons of one foot, the other tucked up under his body. Did he break a foot? His cadmium yellow leg beamed in the morning light against the black roof. His head pivoted back and forth to gage his surroundings. Such a range of motion for that majestic profile! I retrieved my binoculars to get an amazingly close view of the creature. His banded feathers, that beak, the tail feathers helping to prop up his body, oh so beautiful in his unfortunate state. Then it was time for Nini to head out the front door for the school bus and the sound of the front door slamming and her presence gave him such a start that he mustered all of his strength and took to flight right above her. Glad he was able to fly again she gave me a big smile. Good luck birdie and look out for windows!

This is the first year I haven't made linoleum cut holiday cards in probably twenty five years. I had a design all created and purchased a block to carve, but I just didn't have the energy to expend on the carving. Pain has just zapped my inner resources to create. I feel so weak and a shell of my former self. Am I a hundred years old? It feels like it. Tomorrow marks the solstice and is an important marker for my psyche. It means the return of light. No more sliding further into darkness. Perhaps my pain is amplified by the season of cold, damp and dark. Tomorrow it should be better.

Fresh off the Sewing Table

Sometimes I'll find a scrap of fabric and it talks to me. It tells me what it wants to be. This furry scrap wanted to be a bear with a pretty scarf. So off I went to fulfill the scrap's destiny. The pillow behind the bear was recently made from fabric that my mom brought back from China maybe twenty-five years ago or more. Could there be a truer red?

Nobel Peace Prize

First Wangari and now Al. Yeay!

Read Al Gore's acceptance speech.

Sustainability?

A link from Treehugger directed me to an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollan (an author I admire!) called, Our Decrepit Food Factories. Aside from the alarming struggles that bees go through, amongst other relevations, Pollen focuses on the over/irrelevant use of the word sustainability . This has been a source of irritation to me for over two decades how the use of sustainability, without regard to its essential meaning, is used as a badge of affirmation and elevated status. Michael Pollan is well qualified to speak to the issue and he draws in disparate examples to make his point, as he did so well in the novel The Botany of Desire. Back in my younger designer days there were architects that latched on to the term with such a firm grip that seemed so disingenuous. Today the term has come to have no meaning when our local main street streetscape plan is labeled sustainable. When the the shopping district will be ripped up from end to end, costing millions of dollars (adding 20 years of public debt to the tax roles), and requiring massive amounts of new materials for the redesign of the perfectly functional existing street the term is a joke. Labeling the design sustainable seems to brand it with a healthy honorific glow beneath it's deceptive appearance.

to all

Country Wreath

Only two ingredients this year: variegated holly + hawthorn berries. I love looking around the garden to see what inspires me from year to year. Most years the wreath starts out with a redwood base (oh the fragrance!) and lots of ornamental evergreens are added, but this year I thought I'd keep it super simple. My wreaths are never the perfect circles like you see sold at the grocery store, but hey, this is a home made country garden wreath with character. Good thing I bought some new gardening gloves since the holly prickery leaves and those four inch hawthorn thorns are not something skin wants to come in contact with, YIKES!
I'm surprised that the Crataegus berries are still around. The robins swooped in one day and devoured the Ilex berries, the gorgeous purple Calicarpa berries, the white with a blush of pink Sorbus forestii berries (such a lovely sight in fall with their scarlet and cadmium orange leaves against the white droops of fruit), and the lovely orange Sorbus alnifolia berries. The birds have left the Pyracantha, Rosa, and Crataegus berries for now. I think they are waiting for their sugars to ferment a bit longer for some nice ice wine flavors for a new year's treat. While hanging the wreath at the front door I saw the peregrine again. He took off after a meal in a hurry. Hope it wasn't one of my sweet song birdies that visit my feeders.

Nutcracker

I don't think there could possibly be a better production of the Nutcracker
than by the Pacific Nortwest Ballet.
I looooove the Maurice Sendak stage sets!
What a treat!
I wish I didn't have such a yucky cold right now, so I could have enjoyed it more thoroughly.
Thank you Miss Nini for taking all of us.

Crash

Our tree crashed to the floor in the middle of the night
and some of the prettiest ornaments were smashed to smithereens.
This is just a fraction of the broken glass everywhere.
Oh well.

Let The Decorating Begin!

the signal flags say, "merry christmas"

i love getting out my favorite toys around this time of year. i would play with these for hours on end while growing up (must have influenced my interest in urban design!). whenever i find new tyrolean wooden pieces i just can't resist adding a few more to the village collection.

Happy December!

I love snow!

Thanks

Ahhh, so much yummy food to enjoy in a warm house with healthy family all home for the holiday...that's a lot to be thankful for. Happy belated Thanksgiving to all!
Our new bunny is inside enjoying some running around time. And he has a name that passes the approval threshold of the 4-H bunny girl. She wanted a Spanish name for him so the name that I came up with, Carlos del Huerto, was met with surprising glee. My husband prefers the first name that I gave the little albino, Fred. Fred/Carlos's fur has become much softer now that he has good nutrition. And he is no longer skin and bones as he was found in the garden. Oh, "del huerto" means of the vegetable garden, where I found this little sweetie.
The best part of Thanksgiving is all the left-overs that make for hearty munching for many days with little effort. Yeay. I could go for another piece of Marionberry pie. Wow the crust was perfect thanks to the baking skills of the bunny-girl. She even cut out pieces of crust in leaf shapes to decorate the top of the pie. How festive and beautiful. I'm a proud mama.

Latest Knitting

My latest knitting project is a wisp of a sweater. It's an old Rowan pattern and is made of mohair and merino. The pattern is simple but knits up in a manner that I have never employed before. The merino knits up on a large circular needle and when finished with the row the stitches are slid to the other end and the mohair is picked up again for three rows on smaller straight needles. It will be a cardigan without buttons.
A light spring or summer sweater.

Visual AIDS

The Visual AIDS Postcards from the Edge exhibit is coming up on World AIDS Day, December 1st. Here's my submission for this year.
It's called, "You Found Me After All These Years". I had to give up my white New Zealand rabbit when I went away to college, and when I found a young albino rabbit in our vegetable garden last weekend it was as if my bunny had returned to me after thirty years.

This postcard has a crocheted mohair skirt, needle felted wool hair, cotton batting bunny and cotton + linen applique. This is the third year I have made a postcard for the annual show.

Halloween in a Greedy World

No one ever trick or treats for UNICEF anymore!
Why?
What ever happened to empathy
towards the rest of the world
on the night of total indulgence?

All of our pumpkins were home grown this year and what a crop is has been! We have quite the stash of roasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkins must have been a revered crop for the Pilgrams. I looked up the nutritional value of those seeds and the protein, fat and calorie content is enormous. What a perfect food machine. Ours will become pies, cookies, muffins and bread.

The Visitor

I looked out the window on Sunday afternoon and saw a little white bunny munching away in the vegetable garden . I went out there right away to try to catch it and to my great surprise it allowed me to get close and pick it right up without any kicking or biting (I'm the bunny whisperer!). He is a young ruby-eyed white something or other (if it's a pure breed it could be a New Zealand). I put up a sign in the neighborhood and called the local animal shelter but no one so far is missing him. He is so sweet and gentle! He came to the right garden to be loved instead of eaten by coyotes.

A Peek in the Garden

Can You Guess What Cities?

Some favorite places.
Oil on canvas.
Each 4 x 4".
©

i migliori a roma

For the November show at Gallery Fraga I made this piece called, "I Migliori A Roma". The theme for the show is five (for the gallery's fifth anniversary). My piece is about my five favorite places in Rome (Pantheon, Palazzo Spada, Campidolio, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza del Popolo). I love maps and have wanted to paint maps for quite some time. This map is in silk, cotton, nylon and rayon however. Il Tevere, the river, offers some orientation to the map along with hints of major roads, parks and Il Vaticano.
Happy Anniversary Kathe + Jeff! Cheers.

Wow, It's Been A While!

Now that I am taking my medication regularly I am back to my regular old self again at last! Gee, it has been quite some time since I have felt normal. I hate taking medicine and so I wasn't taking it consistently, not an effective way to manage pain. So happily, I return to the living again. Funny how inspired I have become since regaining my old self. For the past months I felt so void of inspiration and lust for creativity. But it's back in a big way and I am ready to cook, well, make stuff rather.
Here's what I finished yesterday:It was made without a pattern and in an improvisational mode. Just sewing away and seeing what happens next.Here's the other side that has a zippered pocket with more Kaffe Fassett fabric (ooh that is delightful stuff) as the lining.
The saffron harvest is ongoing. There is something so enchanting about plucking the stamens out of a crocus blossom and then watching those crimson threads stain a pot of risotto.
Before this glorious sunshine disappears I am off to plant some grape hyacinth bulbs imagining their fragrance in spring.

Year of the Pumpkin

It is one fantastic year for pumpkins. Quantity, size, color...it's all there waiting for pies, bread, cookies, and carving. Shown are cinderella pumpkins that ripen to nearly red in ideal years like this one. This is Pistacia chinensis....oh isn't fall delightful!

i fiori del oggi

Questi sono i fiori dello mio giardino.

Last Friday

I started this post last Friday in the midst of exploration of the inner workings of my left boob.

Under the florescent rectangles on the ceiling, in a windowless room of extraordinarily cohesive drab colors, I wait. Another is told she is fine and come back in a year. I wait for the same conclusion.

On the way over, on the ferry and on the walk up steeeep Seneca Street I listened to the soothing voice of Brenda Dane from the podcast Cast On. Interspersed with delightful music Brenda's weekly trek through the world of knitting eased my anxiety as I maintained a quick pace up the hill to the hospital.

Escorted to the radiology room the technician took a quick peek and changed the paddles from normal to small due to the pancake profile of my boob. And then the stance: grab the bar with the right hand, cheek pressed against the machine and then the panels are dialed in closer and then the squeeze until I uncontrollably utter, "ohhhh!" Such a squeeze! Hold my breath. The picture is taken and I'm allowed to breathe again. But wait, the image is all white. Try again. Yet more squeezing. Same result. Then another technician is called in to help figure out why the machine can't read my boob. They decide on manual exposures instead of automatic and the result is far better after a third smashing.

Then the machine is twisted on its side. I'm instructed to put my arm out like I'm swimming (nice thought right about now) and the clamp comes down again until I can't take any more pressure. A man must have invented this torture for women. There has to be a better way than to smash my boob until it is in extreme pain.

So with the films seemingly good for review by the the radiologist I am sent back to the waiting room until the conclusion is made. Cancer or no cancer I'm waiting to hear. I am ready for either one. In the tiny windowless waiting room, with three other women, we all wait. There is a steady stream of women into the changing stalls, stripping their upper half and donning a striped gown, tied in the front. I make a big happy bow on my gown. I'm sitting in the oddest elevated chair and joke as I enter the room, "oh good I get the high chair". Joking in this environment isn't exactly what these women want to hear right now. How long will it take for my results? I'm told to keep my gown on just in case. In case? Should I start another Cast On podcast? Will it be another hour? The thought of Brenda's voice helps.

I didn't sleep very well last night, as usual, and when my kitty crawled up on me I started to pet her and the pain in my chest seemed to melt away. I guess I need to bring my cat with me wherever I go for pain relief. Maybe that's why Paris Hilton always has such a blissful look on her face, because of her little dog companion. But does she still carry that pup around anymore? I thought I read that she got rid of it.

And here I wait, with two women now. One was escorted away for her films. What will be the result? But what I really want to know is why I have gripping pain in my chest.

I've got so much catching up to do. Lots of pieces have yet to be started for my November show. There seems to have been a never ending stream of needs in the last couple of months.

And then my name is called and I'm given the come here finger signal. I think that can't be good since I heard another woman's all clear diagnosis right in front of everyone else. The technician said the radiologist described the polka dots on my film as "probably benign". This is not quite what I had expected. I wanted to have a black or white conclusion. Not a "probably", that leaves reasonable doubt. They want me to come back in six months to see if anything has changed. So in the mean time I live with do I or don't I? Uncertainty. I want concrete conclusions, no kinda sorta maybe. And now over a Chinese chicken salad, next to a scrambling three year old, I just want to cry. Cry about my boy I left at college yesterday, cry about uncertainty, cry just because I'm tired.

Forget crying how about a mood swing by trying on a designer dress. And it has to be one of the most gorgeous dresses I have ever tried on. By Nicole Miller. I felt dreamy. Perfect colors. Soft luxurious exotic fabrics. And that dress, that lovely dress, melted away my anxiety and mad me feel fabulous. Thank you Nicole.