Seed Catalogs!!!

Seeds are ordered!!! I got them online at a place called Solana Seeds out of Quebec. I have never seen so many kinds of tomatoes. I get the totally tomatoes catalog too, and they didn't have nearly as many varieties as this place did.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but there was a kind of tomato that I saw at the Cornell Plantations Heritage Garden last summer that was like unlike anything I've ever seen. It's a saggy pear shape, very convoluted, almost like a plastic bag full of water hanging from something. So, I contacted the Plantations and a very nice guy returned my email and told me it's a variety called Tlocolula, it's from Mexico. Anyway, this place happened to have those seeds. I got six or eight different kinds of tomatoes, plus a rare melon and some purple tomatillos. I got some "Speckled Roman" and "San Marzano" as paste tomatoes, a yellow and red striped one called "Striped Boar," a greek variety called "Thessalonika", some "Striped Turkish" and another "Micro" tomato like last year only these are yellow. I also got some dwarf ones to go in the window boxes on the deck. They are only supposed to get 8-12" high. I think there are a few more I'm forgetting at the moment.

There's something about the cold that just makes me obsess about seeds and gardening. I guess it stands to reason. It was only 33 Degrees here all day with a 25 mph wind. Coming home to a mailbox full of seed catalogs totally made my day.

Life Imitates Art

A striking likeness, no? Fatty Fatty Pingu captured in clay.

Too Soon?

So, we now have over 18" of snow on the ground here. What's the logical thing to do? Start obsessing about what kinds of tomatoes to grow next summer, of course! I contacted a guy at the Cornell plantations about a kind of tomato I had never seen before that they had at the heirloom vegetable garden last summer. They were so helpful! He gave me the name and even where to buy the seeds. Very cool. It's called Tlacolula. I'm sure I will be growing some in the near future.
On a side not, I delved into the pickles I started a few weeks ago in the basement and they are FABULOUS!!!! I think I'm definitely on to something with this whole lacto-fermentation bit. I've got to go get some sleep... plenty of snow to shovel tomorrow.

It's a snowday!

Well, when you're supposed to get 18" of snow, what better reason is there to dig up the last of the carrots? These purple ones are really sweet too. I realized that the dirt in my containers was totally frozen solid, so I poured warm water over it to get the carrots out. I dug up this one crazy looking carrot which I think looks kind of cool. It probably means I have nematodes or something in the soil.

Last night I made a really good Korean carrot salad of my own creation, using that Benriner mandoline shredder I got. (recommended by Ilex) I never really measure anything, so this is a rough recipe that you can adjust however you want.

Finely shed the carrots lengthwise into teeny matchsticks. Sauce: Rice wine vinegar, sesame seed oil, brown sugar and kosher salt. Mix until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add ginger (I used powdered, but minced fresh ginger is even better) and chili garlic sauce and pour over carrots, tossing to coat. Even better when you let them sit for a day or so.

Almost Christmas?

Good News! The paint we have been scraping for a week at the Church was tested and is not lead! Yay! Of course, this begs the question of why were we scraping anything without definitive proof from an independent lab that there wasn't lead in the paint, but that's another story. So that's good.

Not too much going on otherwise. I have been so scattered lately from work projects that I just feel stupid. I was staring to wonder if it was lead paint... now I know it's just garden variety stress. I haven't done one single thing for Christmas yet. We put up a tree, and then I sadly thought to myself that I really didn't have anything to put under it. Hopefully I can get some time to go shopping, although I can't spend much. I also prefer to shop online, but now it's too late to have anything shipped, so I have doomed myself to fending my way through crowded parking lots.

I resisted the urge to buy a bunch of tile the other night. I found some awesome stuff, I just refused to let myself buy $60 worth of miscellaneous tile without any plan as to what to do with it. Not right now. I am trying to focus on one piece and buy what I need to complete that, and stick to one at a time. Otherwise it just becomes a jumbled mess in the basement, much like most of my other projects.

New Work Project

So here are two images from the Church project we just started this week. It's First and Franklin Presbyterian Church in Baltimore and it is this crazy Gothic looking plaster ornament everywhere. You can see from teh second picture the condition it's in currently... the existing paint looks like someone went and glued potato chips to the walls. We're in for lots of scraping in the next few months!

Back From Florida!

I love Florida. I know it's an endless sprawling strip mall, but there are still parts that are beautiful. And it's warm. I had a great time at my mosaic workshop. I was learning to use the hammer and hardie (essentially a hammer and chisel) to cut the smalti pieces into tine bits to arrange on the board. Smalti is basically glass that is poured into "tortillas" (Mexican smalti) or "pizzas" (Italian smalti) and then cut into tiny rectangles which you can then cut even smaller. Because of the nature of the process, there is a great deal of variation in the color and texture of each piece, giving it a wonderful textural appeal and jewel tone colors. The idea with smalti (vs. glass traditional glass tile) is that you place the pieces very close together and then you don't really need to grout the piece, so you eliminate the distraction of the spacing. That combined with the fact that you can cut the pieces into tiny bits, allows for a lot more detail without having to make the pieces themselves huge, which was kind of the direction I had been heading in. It's nice to be able to work with a more manageable size and not compromise the detail and color tonality. I had a fantastic time. It was weird for me to be on my own for a week, but I loved it. I missed home of course, but it was like I was leading a secret life for a week. Nice. Of course, I had a bit of a cold during the week, and just when I thought I was getting better, BAM! I get the flu. I think I caught it on the plane coming home. Anyway, it laid me out for several days, and of course Marc got it. We were out of work Monday and Tuesday, but were back by Wednesday. So, now it's back to the grind so to speak. I did buy a hammer and hardie and some tile from Michele, so that should be shipping here soon. Something told me they might have a problem with bringing a carbide-tipped hammer in my carry on luggage.

Finished!

The completed hippo tang... I still have to paint the back black and add the hanging hardware, but yes, it's done. It's going to need fairly substantial hardware too; it's pretty heavy. This definitely requires some wall anchors. I'm very excited though, I'm happy with how it came out, particularly the forsal fin. That was the hardest part to work out, but I think it worked the best in terms of tones and shapes.

Well, today is bleak and cool, a perfect day to be flying to Florida! Yes, In a few short hours I will be in Orlando. My smalti glass mosaic workshop starts tomorrow, and I'm very excited. I am feeling a little guilty for leaving Marc all week with a toddler with a head cold, and for spending money I shouldn't be spending, but what's done is done and I'm going to enjoy it.

And, on a side note, I out up some garlic kosher pickles this weekend. My Mom brought me a pickling crock that she had around; MUCH better than the 5 gallon plastic bucket I'd been using. I also tossed in the last of the green tomatoes from the garden, it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Mosaic Workshop in Sunny Florida

I realized I forgot to mention the good news I'm all excited about. I signed myself up for a beginner's smalti glass mosaic workshop in Orlando for the first week in December. There's a studio in Mexico where they make the glass, and they teach classes there too. However, they are all advanced classes. I emailed the woman and she teaches introductory classes at her studio in Orlando, fo r$345 for four days, all materials included. You really can't beat that. So, I figured what the heck. Job is uncertain, economy sucks, why not take a week off and go have fun and learn something new. It's my Christmas present to myself, really. It's about the same as taking a class at Clayworks, so I'll just forego next session there and do this instead. I feel like I need a break anyway. I'm really excited. I am feeling a little guilty about leaving Marc and Olive home; I just wouldn't make sense to bring them, I'd be busy doing my own thing during the day, and we'd end up spending a lot more money on a not very good vacation. Yay! I'm very excited!!!

Ghosts

Seriously, I just saw a ghost. Really. Well, not literally. I was up on the scaffolding at a bid meeting at First and Franklin Church in Baltimore. There is all this crazy baroque ornamental plaster everywhere. On one of these giant corbels I found names inscribed:

J. Bardarop
H. Green
H. Cross
Gas Fitters
April 29, 1859

I LOVE stuff like that. That is so cool. No one's seen that for years and years. What were those guys doing that day? Were they on a lunch break? Who were they? It was just one little moment that became frozen in time. I'm sure they never imagined that someone 150 years in the future (let alone a woman) would be looking at it and wondering who they were. Think about how different the City was then. The Civil War hadn't happened yet. I love that construction workers are more or less the same now as they were 150 years ago. I know I'm a big dork, but stuff like that sends chills down my spine. So cool.

Lady bug Halloween

Well, here she is in her slightly too small ladybug suit... She wasn't terribly forthcoming with the picture taking this particular evening, so I don't have a lot of great shots. But here she is, looking adorable with her little basket.

Not a whole lot going on...

I know, I have to post some pictures of the finished product. I will, I promise! I almost don't know what to do now that the fish is done. It is strangely anti-climatic. I think in the interests of finanical security, I'm going to try to find mosaic subject matter that will make the best use of all the leftover tiles I have. I have lots, I'm sure I can think of something.

Work has been worrisome as of late; it depends on who you ask, but it seems pretty precarious to me. I had begun assembling my loosely knit safety net, just in case. In some ways, I think it might almost be a good thing, it would motivate me to get out there; but at the same time, this is a shitty time to be out there trying to make it on your own. Marc is working at Center Stage this week and I'm jealous. I miss theater painting. I don't miss the hours and the pay, but I miss the actual work; it's probably the most enjoyable work I've ever done in my life.

I dug up one of my impatiens from the garden and potted it up and brought it to work. It's so cheerful, it is blooming like crazy. This is the time of year when I find it hard to "let go" of all the annuals. It hasn't frosted here yet. I may dig up another one. My lettuce is doing well, almost harvestable. I also planted some garlic too. I still have beets and carrots in the garden too. I discovered that Giant has all it's canning supplies 50% off for the end of the season. I bought some pectin and some more pint jars for jam.

I am battling the effing fruit flies in my worm bin again. I swear they spontaneously generate from bananas. The one time I didn't freeze the peels first, and now it's all infested all over again. I'm just going to leave it out until they all die. I think the worm bin may have to go live permanently in the shed.

Grouting in progress!

Finally, the black edges are dry and I'm ready to apply the grout. I use gloves and really scrub the grout into the spaces between all the tiles. This shot is the initial wipe off of grout. Once it dries up a bit, I will clean teh surface more. I don't want to mess with it too much in case the water in the grout mix softens the glue holding the tiles down. In the morning, I'll hit the surface with a green scrubbie pad. Then, I need to paint the back black and add the hanging hardware. Almost there!

Almost there!

Fantastico! Dorsal fin is done, edges are painted black, ready for grouting. We went to the Renaissance Festival today in Crownsville and I'm pretty beat this evening, so I doubt it willbe grouted tonight, but I think I'll try for tomorrow night. I'm really excited about it. Even just with the edges painted black, it has made a huge difference already. I can't wait to see what it looks like finished!

Fatty Fatty Pingu

My giant fat cat, Pingu, in all his beefy glory.

Monday thoughts

I am finally making some more progress on the fish mosaic. Olive likes to pull the tiles off the backing for me and she says, "You crack it!" as she hands them to me. I finished up the head this morning and all that's left is the dorsal fin, which I have been avoiding because I'm not sure how to tackle it. If I play my cards right, I can hopefully finish it this week. I still have to go back and pick at the thinset that's between some of the tiles from when I first started. Otherwise, it fills up the space where the grout should go, and then you'll see little bits of white between the tiles. Annoying. I'm glad I switched back to the glue. Thinset is not my friend. I just wish I'd figured that out before I bought a 50 lb. bag of it.

I am psyched about class tomorrow night. I have to start brainstorming ideas for salt and pepper shakers. So far I have nothing, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Props to my freind Marnie, who is in labor as I write this. Hang in there! I hope everything goes as you want it to.

Pictures from the wedding in Rehoboth

I finally got around to putting up some pictures from the awesome wedding we went to a few weeks ago. I just out a bunch up on Facebook tonight. It was an Edwardian themed, Edward Gorey styled event. Besides the bride and groom (the groom was dressed as The Aviator) We were hands down the best dressed couple there. I even had a black lace parasol and Marc had a cane with an elephant head and a secret flask in it. It's the little things, you know.

Rain on grass

I took this today when I got home from work; it's kid of misty out and the water was collecting on the seed heads of the fountain grass.

Snack Time

I'm still reading this book, Independence Days by Sharon Astyk. And I just have to ask this. Whose kids (besides hers, apparently) eat raw cabbage dipped in homemade ketchup as a snack? Seriously?

New Goal

I almost forgot... My new goal is to try and find something interesting to do with lentils, other than let Olive glue them to paper.

Mini pickles!

So, I stopped myself yesterday from buying a 50 pund bag of oats. Oats? Really? I'm still reading the food preservation book, and it did get me thinking. It has a lot to do with having food on hand for some sort of natural disaster where you can't go buy anything, or, if there's no power for extended periods of time, that you could still have food to eat that don't involve cooking. Hence, the oats, because, as I learned, oats are one of the only grains you don't have to cook first to eat. The things is, there's no point to buying and storing stuff unless you know you will eat it. I don't eat a whole lot of oatmeal now, (frankly, the texture of the stuff makes me gag, much to Marc's amusement) so I'd have to start eating more of it before I went out and bought mass quantities of it. I'm trying to strike a balance between practicality and all out survivalist wackiness.

I did make some more pickles the other night with those tiny mexican cucumbers. There was a bumper crop of them over the weekend, and I finally had enough to make 4 pint jars; I'm kind of excited to try them. I think they are technically melons, botanically speaking. I love them, they look like tiny watermelons. I had a thing for miniature foods this year.

It is supposed to be cold and rainy and crappy for the next few days. I told Marc if he had time today to pick all of the remaining basil in the garden and I'll make a big batch of pesto to freeze in cubes. Basil hates the cold, so this is probably it for the season. I do have a whole bunch of lettuce coming up now, but it should be fine. It's going to be cold, but I don't think it will freeze for awhile. All my garlic is up too. The garden lives on...

Marnie gave me a bunch of carrots out of her garden and I roasted them with some toasted sesame oil and salt and they were fantastico. It's really amazing how much better vegetables taste when you grow them yourself.

I had my ceramics class last night too; it was one of those nights where the alchemy is just right and I tried some new things and was very happy with the results. I made a bunch of test tiles with different colors of slip. The ideas were popping up left and right. I love it when that happens. Inspiration hits and I get some great ideas for what I want to make next.

Persimmon Failure

I've been reading a lot about food preservation lately; making the most of what you have already, etc. etc. I've been reading "Independence Days: A guide to sustainable food storage and preservation" by Sharon Astyk. It's OK so far, but she had one quote in there from someone else that really rubbed me the wrong way. It said,

"When you cook it should be an act of love. To put a frozen bag in the microwave for your child is an act of hate." - Raymond Blanc

Really? Then I must really hate my kid. You know what else? Eff You. Not all of us have time or energy to stay at home and, as my neighbor so eloquently put it, "stock their shelves with organic wholesomeness." I do what I can. And I cook. A lot. I garden, I can, I bake, I store, I recycle, I reuse. And you know what? occasionally I microwave something for my kid. It's not like I'm the idiot out there buying the individually wrapped bags of 8 grapes. So, if this makes me a bad person, than so be it. I realize I am sounding a wee bit defensive here, but come on.

I thought I was all clever last week because I found a wild persimmon tree in the park and collected a bunch of them. Feeling rather smug with my find, I planned on cooking them down into puree and then freezing it to use in jam or something else later. They're pretty small, and the seeds are large, so trying to peel them by hand and smush out the seeds by hand was time consuming and frustrating. So instead I just cored them and put them in a saucepan with a little water and let them cook down, and then put them through the food mill to get rid of the seeds and skins. This was all fine and good, and when I was done, I decided to taste it. It was absolutely horrible. It has the same effect as eating raw eggplant or perhaps the stringy part inside banana peels...that feeling that your teeth are suddenly gritty and your whole mouth puckers. Terrible. I chucked the whole batch. Maybe I did something wrong, but I decided to chalk it up as a failure and move on. Yech. I suspect that there was something enzymatic at work there... perhaps some lemon juice would have stopped it, or cooking it longer. I'm not sure, I had to go to class last night and didn't really feel like putting any more effort into it.

Class was great last night... I was having good luck with running things through the slab roller. I had a couple of leaves work out really well, and I'm going to make them into small footed plates. I also tried the circular cutout metal parts from a furnace air filter and made a square tile that I'll make into a trivet. Of course Marc's first question when I told him about it was, "So, you trimmed it so that the circles end the same way on all the edges, right?" (???) Anyway, I got a brainstorm that I might make some ceramic picture frames or frames for mirrors. I also saw a piece inthe Clayworks show that was a hanging planter with a windchime attached underneath it, which I thought was really cool. I might try something like that next. I also signed up to be the supply shop girl on Tuesday nights, which means I run the cash box if people need to buy clay or supplies, or pay for stuff to go in glaze firings. Basically, I earn Clayworks credits, which I can put towards my own firing fees, or another class next semester. Good deal, especially with Christmas coming up.

Pies Pies Pies!

I dragged Marc and Olive apple picking in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Seemed like something fun to do. We were listening to This American Life on NPR on the way up and they had a show about people who got screwed by the mortgage crisis. I was so mad that I wasn't paying attention, missed the exit, and drove us 20 miles out of our way. Nevertheless, we did make it to this orchard in the middle of nowhere. However, once you get there, it only takes 15 minutes to pick a huge basket, so I was trying to make the most of it, walking around to the different kinds of apples and getting some of each. I hate red delicious apples. I call bullshit on them; they are mealy, pithy and flavorless. Why do people like them? Anyway, Sunday I made three pies, and gave two away, but I haven't out much of a dent in the giant bag of apples. I made applesauce too, but Olive wouldn't touch it. I just started sneaking it into her oatmeal in the mornings, which she doesn't seem to be aware of.

We went to the National Aquarium on Sunday with my Mom. I haven't been there in years, and it was really amazing. I really liked the Australia exhibit; I had heard people grumbling that it was disappointing, but I thought it was great. We also saw the jellyfish exhibit, which was amazing. Olive said, "They're exquisite!" Yeah, that's my girl. :)

And we saw the tarpon, my favorite fish in the whole world!

Native plants, work woes

I did make it to the Herring Run Watershed Association's native plant sale on saturday and got all the stuff I wanted. It was a bitch to dig in that part of the yard though; it's all maple roots. But I planted one bottlebrush buckeye (shrub) and two Oakleaf pee wee hydrangeas, and I got my dwarf red buckeye, although it's only about 12" high at this point. I hope it can compete with the maple roots. I also planted the royal catchfly plants, and I added some sand to the soil to help with drainage there. I have a lot of maintenance stuff to do, cutting down the tomatoes, composting, packing up for the winter. I did plant some lettuce, but the damned squirrels keep digging it up, (little shits) so I have to get a cover for it. In a few more weeks I'll plant some garlic to overwinter.

Work is freaking me out a bit. Maybe more than a bit. We are really slow and don't really have anything looming on the horizon. We've been slow before, but it's usually because we're waiting for some project to start. Now, who knows. My boss doesn't seem concerned, so I guess I won't be either. That might not be the best plan, if you can even call it that, but it's all I can really do for right now. I realized that I really shouldn't talk about my work worries at home because it totally freaks Marc out, and I don't want to stress him out. It helps me to talk about it, but to him, it's just added anxiety. I understand that. I'm trying to just deal with my worries on my own and just try and stay positive; He's looking into going back to school for his teaching certification starting in January, so that's good.

And, speaking of positive, I am very excited about my ceramics class starting tomorrow night. Already cooking up some ideas.

My rant for the day

So, I go to the Grocery store at lunch and see a plastic package ($4.00)containing six individually wrapped bags containing 8 individual grapes. They also had packages which contained three orange slices each. They were gross, they looked like they were cut weeks ago. But really, the condition of the fruit is not the point. Is this what we've come to? Can you possibly create more useless plastic packaging to unleash on the world? Can you possibly be so careless with money that it doesn't bother you that this is astronomically expensive on a per pound level? Can you possibly be this lazy? Is it really so hard to make a kid's lunch?! Argh, stuff like that just makes my head spin. This makes individually wrapped cheese seem sensible. Who is buying this stuff?

Ahh, deep breath. Enough. So, I have registered for my next Clayworks class. Handbuilt Tableware; I am very excited. I have some ideas already for some bowls. It's expensive, but for me, having a class to go to once a week is a huge help. It gives me something to look forward to, it's a night just for me to get out, and we usually go get beer afterwards, which is fun too. There's something inherently soothing about clay, it's a wonderful stress reliever, which, if you haven't deduced from my previous paragraph, I could really use.

Things at work have been very quiet; which is hard for me. I'm just not that good at sitting around looking at stuff online (but I do anyway) because I just sit there cooking up new projects for myself. I did order some New York Ironweed plants that I found online, which should ship next week. (See above) I am thinking about getting a truckload of dirt to topdress all the beds before winter. I'll also need some when I plant the dwarf red buckeye I'm planning on buying this weekend at the Herring Run Watershed Association Plant Sale. It's great, they have online coupons for $10 off each tree, and most of the trees are $15-$25 to begin with. I think I'm going to get some more bottlebrush buckeye as well, and possibly some oakleaf hydrangea. I was looking in the yard last night, and it's not too bad over there along the fence... I definitely have some stuff to clear out, but it shouldn't be too awful. The dirt over there is just crap though. Hopefully it won't be too rainy this weekend and I can tackle some of it.

I'm such a chicken shit though... I think on some level I have been avoiding working on that part of the yard because I saw a snake over there once. Stupid, I know.

I think I have come up with a brilliant plan to kill off the flies in my worm bin. I'm going to set up my seedling heat mat underneath it, and set it out one night when it's going to frost. The worms will stay warm down at the bottom, and all the flies and eggs will be killed off on the surface. Hopefully that will work, and then I can bring them back in the house.

Ok, now I'm just rambling because I'm bored.

Silene Regia, Royal Catchfly

Silene Regia, Royal Catchfly

I just ordered three of these from e-bay for the void in the front yard. Native, (to the Mid West) and it's a hummingbird magnet. What appeals to me about these is that they bloom later in the summer, like Mid July into August, which is when a lot of other things are dying back, so it's nice to have a little punch of color later on.

I LOVE Ebay!

Garden Renovations

We saw "It Might Get Loud" Saturday night and it was really good; I knew it would be right up Marc's alley, being the consummate guitar geek and all. Even for non-guitar geeks like me, it was very interesting. There's a great scene where Jimmy Page is playing a record of "Rumble" by Link Wray. The look on his face is just like a little kid; you know he's heard it a million times, but it still resonates in him. Marc loves that song too, and it was cool to see this connection, the way art can inspire and influence other people. Very cool.

While Olive napped yesterday I did some major perennial garden renovations. I ripped out almost all of the irises, (I kept a few, and gave the rest to my friend down the street) and I dug up the yellow loosetrife before it gained any more ground. There was this other stuff which I don't remember the name of that I got rid of too... it's got greenish-red leaves that turn dark red in full sun and has small yellow flowers along the stem. It was kind of a bully, and I don't have full sun, so it was just dull green and pretty boring to look at. I just decided that I only have so much space, so I should fill it with the things I really love and get rid of the other stuff.

So now, I am thinking of what I can put there now... I want to go with more natives, like Joe Pye weed, asclepias (butterfly weeds) and New York Ironweed. I am also looking at some more Western natives like Salvias and Agastaches. Does anyone know anything about Lupines? They are supposed to be a hardy native (of somewhere) but I never see them around here, which makes me wonder why.

This fall I want to go to the Herring Run Watershed Association plant sale and get a dwarf red buckeye tree for the front yard. They stay relatively small, they are an understory tree, and they have beautiful red flowers that the hummingbirds like. I am also thinking of adding some oakleaf hydrangeas perhaps. I want my garden to be a little bit better designed and less haphazard looking; and I want to create a good area for my fountain next spring. Hmmm.

I am trying to see if I can get the money together to take another clayworks class. I really want to, and it starts next week. I'll see how things look once I get paid this week.

Now what?

So, my two State Fair ribbons are being proudly displayed in the kitchen. I still haven't deposited my $9 check yet, probably because I haven't decided what to splurge on with my prize winnings. So, I was agonizing over what to do withall the State Fair entries... I mean, they were basically opened and then stored at room temperature for 13+ days. I'm sure the judges used new spoons with every jar, right? I was looking online to try to find answers and of course they were all over the map. Some people said they never stored jam in the refrigerator, even after opening it, (eew) and someone else said they threw away anything that had been unrefrigerated for a half hour or more. (A little extreme, I think) Someone was saying that their grandparents kept mayo in the cabinet. Yikes. Anyway, I couldn't bring myself to throw it all out, so I made Marc do it. I hate wasting food, especially food I made. Better safe than sorry I guess.

One of my mosaic bowls...

Sculpture

Well, here it is. It's a little bit hard to describe and even harder to get a good photo of. This is my sculpture from my Botanical Sculpture class I took last semester. It is based on the seed cases of Hellebore plants. Instead of glazing it, I finished it with copper leaf and then glazed it and waxed the surface. The bottom photo is pretty washed out color wise, but it shows the shape pretty well. I'm very happy with how it came out in the end.

Another winner?

Ha! So Marc's Dad sent me a picture that was forwarded from Marc's Aunt & Uncle... Apparently the reason I couldn't find the peach jam at the State Fair was because it was in the First Place cabinet! No way! I just assumed it had been disqualified because it had pieces of cardamom and clove floating around in it. Who knew the judges would like cardamom?? Wow. That's pretty cool. The peach jam was the last minute entry, the one I just totally winged it on, didn't even have a recipe. I had signed up to enter back in July (you have to mail the entry form by July 31st, about a month before) and it was two days before the Fair and I decided I had to make it at the last minute. Yay!

Bored

Still bored at work.

I hope I can work on the fish tonight after Olive goes to bed. Marc's got band paractice. I've got some gardening to do... things are past their prime and ready for the compost pile. The back yard is totally overgrown. I also have to figure out what to do with the damn guppies in all my planters. I put them in there this spring to help control the mosquito larvae, and they have thrived in the dark muck of the planter reservoir. I cleaned one out last week, and where there once were 6, there were probably 20 now. Yikes. I told myself when I put them in there that I'd just let them freeze when winter came, but I think we all know that's a big joke. I can put some in the little kitchen fishtank... as pets. And some may make it to Jim's cichlid tank... as food. C'est la vie.

Pickle Winners!

Yay! The Bread and Butter pickles won Second Place at the MD State Fair! I'm shocked. I didn't win anything for the jams, which is fine; but the Bread and Butter Pickle category is usually pretty stiff competition. I didn't expect to place in that category, let alone second place. Pretty cool. I have to write to my grandmother and tell her that. It's basically her recipe, with some added spice modifications. I have to admit, I was feeling pretty smug.

I love the State Fair. I love to see all the hard work that goes into stuff... the people who sit there all summer trying to grow the perfect eggplant or gourd. They just take such pride in it, and it's nice to see. I didn't see any micro tomatoes there this year, which made me wonder if I should enter them next year. Hmmm.

I have more sculpture and mosaic pictures to put up, I just haven't gotten to it yet. I did some more work on the fish last night; I am finding this one to be really challenging. Going along, you establish a pattern and a direction for the rows of tile. But especially with a cut out form like the fish, you start to run into problems with how those rows come together while still working with the overall form. Do the rows run straight across, or follow the outside edge? It gets harder as you get to the end because it all has to come together and you have less and less space. All of a sudden, the way you have been working on it for weeks doesn't make sense. I think this wouldn't happen if I was using a rectangular board; then it's just a grid in rows across. Anyway, I will sort it out, I'm sure.

I am thinking about taking Hand Built Tableware this fall at Clayworks. My teacher from Botanical Sculpture is teaching it, and it looks like fun. I just have to see if I can afford it. I'd like to take the open studio option, but I'm afraid I don't have the discipline to get myself there to work on anything if I don't have a specific class to show up for. I had a hard enough time getting there any time outside of class this summer. I'd like to make some big forms to build mosaics on; just hand build them and bisque fire them. I have been contemplating the idea of a 4' yellow mosaic cat for the front yard.

I guess I'm just rambling now. Probably because I'm bored at work.

Mozzarella!

I made homemade mozzarella last night! Yummy. It's easier than it sounds. It's one of those things where you think it's going to be a total disaster, and then at some moment you realize it's working, and voila, there's cheese. Food science is pretty cool stuff.

Here's the link to the 30 minute recipe:
http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/page/21.html

If Olive isn't a total wreck when I pick her up tonight, I want to go to the State Fair and see how the judging went for the jams...

I was giving the mosaic fountain some more thought, but I've decided I need to finish the hippo tang mosaic first, before I start anything new. See that? Commitment. Besides, that's a better one for winter so I can set it up in the yard in spring. I decided to go back to the glue option rather than the Thinset to attach the tiles and it is soooooo much easier. Less mess, easier to control. All the tiles are level and even. Yeah, I think glue is the way to go.

Creativity switch: ON

Wow... I am totally inspired by this mosaic artist that I found today... Her name is Sonia King and here's a link to some of her work:

http://www.mosaicworks.com/

Super cool. I love the use of materials other than glass. It gave me an idea to maybe try some small mosaics with semiprecious stone beads... Obviously, cost prohibitive. Ebay has so many lovely options. I'm also thinking of trying paua shell veneers perhaps. Tres expensive, but so beautiful. You'd only need a little bit a as an accent here or there. I was thinking of maybe using plates as bases for them. Hmmm.

I'm also kicking around some mosaic fountain ideas in my head. Yeah, I've got to dig out the sketchbook tonight.

Botanical Sculpture class

Gonna try to make some progress on the fish tonight... I went into the basement yesterday and saw a painting I had started a year and a half ago and never finished. I hadn't seen it in awhile, and I was surprised at how good it looked to me. Maybe worth finishing after all. It just reminded me of how important it is getting stuff done, not just started. But, before I dive back into that, I think I should work on the fish and get that going.

I did get my ceramic piece just about done Friday... I have to post pictures of it. It's a piece I made in my Botanical Sculpture class this summer at Clayworks. (AWESOME, for anyone who hasn't taken classes there) It basically is kind of shell shaped, like a nautilus, and has no distinct bottom on it. I had to make little stilts for it to sit upright on for the bisque firing. I decided I didn't want to risk glazing it and having the glaze run down onto the stilts and have to be broken off and ground down. So instead, I "cold finished" it by painting it black and using copper leaf on it. Then I distressed it with steel wool and glazed it so it has the look of burned metal. I liked the idea of metal, but I also didn't want to lose the organic feel of it by making it too shiny and fabricated looking. This way it looks like it's a natural patination. (I'll post some shots tomorrow from work)

My other small sculpture from that class needs to be hung up somewhere. I love it. It's based on the buds of Echinacea flowers. I really love this one because it's different for me; I don't usually do things with multiple parts like this, but I really love how it turned out. This is not the greatest shot of it, I'll post a better one of it once I get it up on a wall.

7 State Fair entries!

So, I dropped everything off at the Sate Fair yesterday. I couldn't believe how nervous I was! It was a bunch of little old ladies mostly. (Shocker) Of course, nowhere on the website or entry form does it say no labels on the jars, nor that you must provide the recipe for Bread and Butter pickles. Anyway, the woman was nice enough to let me take the labels off (which came off easily, thank God) and then clean the tops of the lids off with nail polish remover to get rid of the stickiness (which they pointed out would count against me). I managed to remember most of the recipe for the pickles, although they told me it didn't need to be exact. In the "Fruit Conserve: other " category, the did go, "Ooh, 'Mango Rhubarb!' " So I think it's unique. The judging is Wednesday morning, and then the place opens Friday and you can go in and see the results. I'm not sure how that works... if they open them to taste them, then put them on display for ten days unrefrigerated? I guess I'll figure it out.

I left there feeling proud of myself for actually doing it, but also feeling like I am way out of my league. However, it's just jam. I don't expect to win anything, I just wanted to enter so I could say I did. So who knows. I guess I'll find out Friday!

Beach Musings

I just had to have a picture of this... it was in a notebook we found at the rental house at the beach. Your guess is as good as mine.

Fantasy Farming

You know, every time my job starts really getting to me I start daydreaming about moving to Virginia somewhere and buying an old farm and starting a farm of my own. I want space where I can have chickens so I can have fresh eggs, and a big field for growing lots of veggies for canning, and a place to have an orchard of fruit trees. It seems to be the hip trend nowadays; You see it in magazines all the time; People in quaint little farmer's markets, selling baskets of speckled brown eggs and beautiful squashes and tomatoes. They give up their hectic jobs in the city to go live on the farm somewhere.

Ridiculous fantasy? Yes! Have I bought into it completely? YES!

Needless to say, they gloss over the backbreaking manual labor in the hot sun required for such an endeavor. The chicken shit, having to cleanout barns and deal with stinky diesel tractors & farm equipment. Insects, rabbits, deer, groundhogs, drought, disease. All the horsemen are represented. Well, maybe not War "officially" but perhaps the horseman of Marital Strife. And how many squash do you really have to sell to make a mortgage payment, anyway? Marc has been punching holes in my fantasy world left and right. Probably because he hates chickens.

Damn.

Melon Disappointment!

So, I finally picked on of my heirloom Tigger melons that I have been coddling all summer. Aren't they gorgeous?! They're softball sized, and a lovely orange with tan markings on them. They smell divine. But when I finally went to eat one today, I discovered they are nearly flavorless with a slight raw pumpkiny aftertaste. Talk about a letdown... I am hoping they all don't taste like this. Maybe there are some that are sweeter. I hate it when that happens!

Sheesh! I had no idea how many tomatoes it would take to make sauce for canning. I had two nearly full grocery bags full of tomatoes, and when all was said and done, it literally boiled down to two jars of sauce for canning. Crazy. I guess when you see pantry shelves lined with jars of tomatoes, they must have acres of plants growing. Oh well. I got the two jars done, plus seven jars of peach jam. It was a bit chaotic trying to do both things at the same time... I don't recommend it. I make my own ground spice mix for jam which has cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon in it. I think I didn't grind it finely enough though, because there are chunky bits of clove and cardamom in it. That doesn't bother me, but it might not fly with State Fair judges. Oh well. I did get the labels on the jars and boy do they look spiffy.

102 fucking degrees in my office right now

Yes, It's actually 102 degrees. In my office. I just checked the thermometer. So, factor in 48% humidity, and it feels like its, well, really fucking hot. Unreal. This has to be against some sort of government regulation. I think I've lost 3 pounds today.

Anyway, on the note of sweltering heat, I have to go home and make jam and can tomatoes tonight. No better way to cool off than to spend a few hours in the kitchen over a vat of boiling water! Yay! Actually, I have to turn in my State Fair entries on Thursday, and I still haven't made the peach jam that I already signed myself up for. I did have Kate make me some nifty labels for the jars though... I'm hoping that will give me a bit of a competetive edge. We'll see.

As for the tomatoes, I had a pile of them when I came back from vacation, and then a friend of mine had a ton of them and gave me another huge bagful. I'm not going crazy with making some elaborate spaghetti sauce though. I think I'm just going to peel and seed them, chop them a little and add some basil to it. I can add garlic and onion and all that other stuff later when I go to cook it. Before we left for th ebeach I took the bunch of tomatoes I had and just cored them, blanched them to peel them, and threw them in a quart ziploc bag in the freezer. This worked really well too, but I will run out of freezer space if I keep that up.

I've had one tomato plant that since the beginning has looked different from the others; the leaves are wider and less lobed. Now it's finally ripening up and the tomatoes are this lovely soft pink color. It is definitely not one of the Rutgers tomatoes, so something got mixed up somewhere. It's really pretty, I wish I knew what kind it was. I think I'll save some of it's seeds for next year. Maybe I've discovered the next big thing in tomatoes.

I am hoping I can get back to my hippo tang soon, I haven't worked on it in a week and I miss it. Olive seems to be especially whiny in the evenings lately, which makes evenings tough.

I did manage to make some homemade yogurt last night, so I can have that for dinner tonight with fresh cucumbers I just picked. I used the organic whole milk I got at the Farmer's Market Sunday. Yummy!

The fish continues...

I'm off to NY for a couple of days to visit the family; I did make progress on the mosaic this week while at the Beach. I ended up buying new Thinset and starting over, which sucked, but I'll be better off int he end. I am debating weather it is better to adhere the tiles to the wood with Thinset or glue. I thought glue might be kinda cheating, kinda half-assed, which is why I thought I'd switch to the Thinset. Glue is primarily used for attaching tiles to mesh, which is then set in Thinset. But then you have to work in a mirror image, which can really be tricky. The Thinset is definitely harder to use; it's messy, and I am finding that it creates a less even finish... the tile surface is bumpier. I also don't like that you have to put a fair amount of it on, or the tiles won't stick, but then it squishes up between the tiles and you have to clean this out later or the grout won't have enough space to hold. And there's the drying time issue. It was rainy at the Beach, and the stuff was taking a long time to set up. I'll have to consult some message boards. Anyone else have any recommendations?

Also, my State Fair entries have to be in by August 24th! I am getting nervous... I still have to make a batch of peach jam. I'll have to do that as soon as I get back. That's the problem with filling out the entry form a month and a half early. I think I'm going to have Kate or Marc help me make a nice label for all the jars... aesthetics must count for something!

Thinset Set back

Argh. I should have known better than to use the old bag of Thinset that's been sitting in my basement forever. I spent 3 hours the other night setting tiles on the fish mosaic. This morning I went out and saw that the excess Thinset in the cup I had was still soft. Not a good sign. Sure enough, all the tiles started popping off a the slightest provocation. So, I decided to chalk it up as a loss and scrape them all off and start over. I hated to do it, but I'd rather fix it now or it will just make a huge mess later on. So anyway, I drove to Fenwick Island yesterday and bought a new bag, and last night I started piecing it back together. I didn't get it all back to where I was, but this morning, the tiles I did get on there are solid as rocks. So, that's good. It's so tempting (for me anyway) to be totally half assed, but I'm glad I made myself fix it. We're on vacation this week in Bethany Beach with Marc's family. It's nice to A) Not be at work, and B) to have time to work on my mosaic. Yay! I'll get some more in progress shots up soon...

Sweet Sweet Tile

I call this photo, "Composition with tile and cranky child"

Nothing beats coming home from and especially stressful and shitty day to find NEW TILE in the mail! Oh so exciting. I'm really happy with the gradient of blue I ordered; sometimes it's really hard to tell on the screen what you're actually ordering. So far I've had the best luck with a place called www.tesseraglass.com. KP tiles is OK too, however, KP tiles seems to always be out of whatever glass tile I'm looking for, I just got lucky this time. For the goldfish, they had nothing in any shade of yellow or orange available for some reason.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the fish jigsawed out and primed. I am so bringing it on vacation with me to the beach.

Ooh! and it actually RAINED today, which hasn't happened in weeks, so the garden is happy tonight.

Updates from the garden...

So, I made some awesome tomato sauce from the first tomatoes of the year... I had about 6 of them. That variety was called "Rutgers." The teeny ones in the photo are my "micro tomatoes," an heirloom variety called "Currant." How adorable are they?! Olive calles them "Tiny Matoes." I saw these in the catalog and thought, "How silly!" but they were just too cute to pass up. The funny thing is, I grow tomatoes every year. I hate raw tomatoes. Hate them. So does Marc, and so does Olive. It seems kind of ironic, but I just cook them instead. The micro ones are actually tolerable; I've eaten a few and don't mind them. They're just kind of sour, and they lack that explosive gushy slimy quality that most tomatoes have.

I made sauce with the tomatoes and sweet Italian sausage and basil. Fantastic. I also made cucumber salad with the first cucumber of the year mixed with homemade yogurt I made this weekend. It really is remarkable how much better stuff tastes when it's fresh and you make it yourself. The fresh cucumber was so sweet, it actually had a flavor and wasn't tasteless and waxy like most cucumbers you get at the store. I was having a little homesteading moment there when you say to yourself, "This is why I do this!" It was great.

Tonight I also discovered another surprise in the garden, I have a cantaloupe coming along that I swear was not there the other day. Too cute. My neighbor's chain link fence is turning out to be a great trellis, I am just trying to keep all the fruit growing on my side :)

And, last but certainly not least, the Stargazers are blooming and the entire yard smells heavenly. They are my favorite flowers; at least next to morning glories!

Hot Hot Hot

Ha! Tile for the next mosaic has been ordered! I'm very excited. I just bought the board today at Home Depot. I has wood at home, but it just wasn't big enough. I just like to work large, especially with mosaics. That's the best way to get nice gradations in color and form. It's also expensive, heavy and somewhat unweildy, but I'm not worrying about any of that yet. The next mosaic is going to be a hippo tang, and yes, I like it because it's blue and it gave me an excuse to order blue tiles.

It's also looking like I might have to make some tomato sauce this weekend... the tomatoes are starting to ripen up. I've definitely learned that there are some things that work and somethings that just don't work when it comes to this container gardening thing. It's all a big experiment; it gives me ideas for next year.

The State Fair application has been officially mailed in, so I'm really excited. I have now committed myself to at least one batch of Bread and Butter pickles and some Peach jam. I figured as many categories as I can enter, the better my odds.

It is quite literally 96 degrees in the office today. The Heat Index is reading 104. Yippee!
Off to ceramics class tonight too. Yay!

The latest project

So here it is, the new blog. I've started this blog to document some of the fun, non-baby related stuff I do. I have another blog about my daily adventures with my two year old daughter Olive (http://www.olivethebean.blogspot.com/) and I am hoping that I am able to keep up with both.

So a little bit about me... let's see. For my dayjob, I manage a Historic restoration/decorative painting company in Baltimore. We work in a lot of historic Churches & government buildings in DC and Baltimore. My job keeps me pretty busy. Although I am in no way organized in my own personal life, I have a knack for managing projects and staying one step ahead of whatever needs to be done to make sure the job runs smoothly. I manage crews on jobsites, work with contractors, and make sure everyone has what they need and knows what they're supposed to be doing. It's never that simple, but it's always different. I like working on messy jobsites with scaffolding... it's like a huge jungle gym. Currently, my husband is also working with me, running one of our DC jobsites. Surprisingly, we work very well together. (Everyone always asks me that.)

In my spare time, ha ha, I have many other interests. Usually on weekends I can be found taking on some sort of ambitious project. Lately I have been working on mosaics, and I am taking a Botanical Sculpture class. Also, since it's the peak of summer, I've been canning and making jam & working in my garden. I grow vegetables and flowers. The vegetable garden is relatively new... I have taken over part of the driveway with a patchwork of planters & pots. It is incredibly satisfying and I absolutely love it. I also draw and paint, and I like to work on the house, although fortunately most of that is more or less done.

Let's see, so this weekend I finished up my fish mosaic I had started (I'll post some pictures) and went blueberry picking with Marc and Olive. We picked over 11 pounds! I don't know what I'm going to do with all of them. My neighbor Mary and I made jam and pies last night. I have 14 jars of jam. I have ambitions for the State Fair this year... I am entering jam and pickles. We'll see. I have a feeling these people are freakishly competitive, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

So, here it is. Hopefully I can keep up with this. I am hoping it will foster my creative spirit to do more stuff. Lately, I've been feeling really good and have had lots of ideas for stuff to make, and I am hoping to keep that going. In the mean time, I guess I should get back to work.