Still Here!

I think that should be my new standard title for this blog, given how neglectful I've been of it lately. Can't offer up any excuses other than the standard "we been reallll busy around here."

Projects accomplished so far:

Completion of the bead-board ceiling.


Painting the floor...


Of course, a blue floor calls for a few koi...



It only got a few (three) since most of the floor ends up being covered, anyways...


The garden is also keeping us quite busy this year. At the end of March, the plants were already at the stage of growth they're not normally at until early May. Nice, but it means that the mowing and weeding and general garden care has advanced as well!


We welcomed a new addition to our household... Decimal, the cat that thinks he's a dog. Seriously. He runs around in the rain, plays in puddles, wrestles the dogs... he's crazy.


Speaking of critters, it's that time of year when the fosters start pouring in. Right now we have 5 yellow lab pups that came to stay with us on the day they were supposed to be euthanized. (Rutherford, Ranger, Radcliff, Rose and Rascal)

The poor things were terrified at first (with the exception of Ranger), but as you can see, they quickly got over that.



Well, so that's what I've been up to lately!
I'm going to be making a concerted effort to be more active here, I swear!

Done Gone Crazy

Two posts in two days? Absolute insanity. Of course, the fact that it's been rainy and gross of late....meaning no outdoors time....helps. This, while kind of pretty in it's own way, has been the scene here for too long now.

(Looking up the driveway towards home)


I shouldn't complain (but I'm going to, because I can) since it's been one of the mildest winters that I can recall, temperature-wise, but.....it's still been grey. And more grey. And more grey.

I'm ready for sunshine.

We keep getting teased by a day here or there that is absolutely gorgeous...and then it's back to black. Like an Amy Winehouse song, minus the drugs and drink. Okay, sometimes with those as well. Whatever gets you through, ya know? (don't judge me)

Anyhoooooo...yeah. Bad weather means more time spent indoors and online...and more time staying busy in the studio!

See? Another new painting from yesterday!


Things that help lighten my mid-winter bleghness? Care packages from overseas friends like http://dneese.blogspot.com/  full of kooky goodness. You know, care packages that contain things like vintage dolls from the early 1900's and cross-stitch patterns full of swear words and antique rectal dilators made of Bake-Lite!


Because, you know, no home is truly complete without a set of those. Trust me.

Other things that make the doldrums go away, or at least distract me from them, is our new outhouse. Or are future new outhouse, more accurately. We've got the ginormous hole dug for it....4ft down by 4ft by 4ft, through roots galore and rocks aplenty...we'll pour the concrete in a few days (once it stops raining) then it's time to start the construction.

We're going for wonky and askew.



And yes, we have an outhouse....and yes, it's by choice. I won't go into the long ramble about why, but I'll just say we're doing more than our part for the environment. When I'm 80, I'll move to the flush-toilet....and flush it multiple times just to make up for years lost not flushing!

All right, that's enough of the insanity. Time to either grab my book or grab my paint brushes.

Ciao!

Painting Prep!

Since we're home for a bit, I've been spending some time in the studio...on a whim, I said yes to doing the Watertown Valentine's Day Art Crawl, so I kind of have to! (this is also where the "oh crap, that's in two weeks" panic sets in)

Watertown is this teeny-tiny town (maybe 2,000 people) about half an hour from us that's surprisingly....ummm..."bohemian," shall we say. Lot's of artsy folks there. Every Vday, they shut down the downtown, fill all the shops with art, and a train of folks from Nashville pulls into town for a day of art and drinking.

Followed by an evening of even more drinking by the locals as they wander (stumble?) from shop to shop, party to party. I've only attended once, two years ago, but the after-party is definitely where it's at. Did I mention they're bohemian and kooky? And here I thought we homos had the market cornered on Fun Backwoods Weirdos! Nope!

Originally, I'd thought to do a series of pieces loosely inspired by those religious icon paintings of old...but they started shifting away from that fairly quickly, until there was very little resemblance to the original idea.





This one below (and possibly the one above) will probably get reworked....not that happy with it. It's also lil' bitty. I drink too much coffee (and beer) to work lil' bitty....which is amusing since I just bought 10 lil' bitty canvases today. uess I should practice up or something.





This one is on wood, and may get some additional 3D work done to it....thinking maybe a ring of old nails around the face or something.


And then I wanted to paint a fish...because, you know, I like fish. Goldfish and koi in particular. They make me happy. Like puppies, but scaly and wet.



Right now I'm working on some wooden abstract pieces which are...interesting. I'm not sure I'll ever "get" abstract art. I mean, I appreciate it visually...quite like it, in fact...but when it comes to doing it myself, it gives me fits. Maybe it's because I'm more drawn to the human figure/face? Maybe that complete blank slate weirds me out? I don't know.

And speaking of which, time to hit the studio again!

R.I.P. Eiko Ishioka: July 12, 1939 - January 21,2012

Eiko Ishioka was an Oscar-winning costume designer, known for her work in stage, screen, advertising, and print media, and has been called "Japan’s leading art director and graphic designer."

It's easy to see why.

Elegance and style, simplified and ornate at the same time.

Goodbye, beautiful creature.

It's Spring!

Okay, so it's not spring...even though it sure does feel like it, given that it's been in the 50's-60's here. That'll be changing on friday, when we'll dip down into the teens and lower, but for now, I'm not complaining, since it let me get some bulbs in the ground.

http://www.dutchbulbs.com was (is?) having a "buy one get two free" sale, so I ended up with about 200 bulbs, all of wich were staring at me, saying "put me in the ground, damnit!"


There were some mixed daylilies.


And a bunch of muscari....some of my favorites.


Daffodils for the field in front of the house. There's a bunch of the regular ones there already, so it'll be nice to have some variety.



And some twice-blooming, double-pink Replete daffodils.


And some double asiatic lilies.

Now it needs to be spring. For realz.

In other news, after our NYE onslaught of guests, I managed to get my studio space cleaned up, and **GASP** even painted a bit the other night! Fixing to head in there and finish up a few pieces, and get a few more prepped for the future, since we'll be home until March (yay!) and I'll actually have time to work on stuff before we head to Phoenix.

Home Again, Home Again! (and random photos inserted at random. Hence the "random")

Guess what? We're home again! We wrapped up Atlanta on the 20th, hopped in the car, headed for home, got home, rested for 2 days, hopped in the car, headed to Alabama to see Charlie's sister, got up the next day, hopped in the car again (sensing a pattern here?) and headed back home again.

Where we thankfully will remain for the next month. Hopefully.

(Door in Woodstock, Georgia)


A very quiet holiday was had....just Charlie, Ginny (Charlie's mom) and myself...no big To Do, no cooking all day, just the three of us and what was in the fridge. That, combined with the fact that we didn't set foot in even one store, well...I could go for this kind of holiday every year! We did all of our shopping online, and even better? We succeeded at a 100% hand-made holiday! It really felt good, to know that not only were the gifts made by someone (not in a factory) but that the $ching$ was going to an individual, not some corporation/big box store. I don't know if we'll manage to do the same every year, with the same amount of success, but I think it's something we'll try for.

(Mockingbird, Alpharetta Georgia)


New Years looks to be fairly busy...we're going to have a VERY full house, with 8 of our friends coming in from Atlanta for the weekend. Looking forward to playing host, but also a wee bit stressed, just because of space. Okay, "stressed" may not be the right word for it...just trying to figure out where we're going to put everyone!

(More random shoes)


Once the crowd clears out we get to start on the real fun...doing the ceiling in the downstairs. Woot. It'll be nice to get started on it....but it'll be even nicer when it's finished, as it means we'll have to move everything from the "tall part" of the living room somewhere else...and then there's the "tall" part of "tall part." The ceiling in there is 18ft on one side, 14ft on the other...which means setting up the scaffolding. Inside. I'm ready to not be living in a construction zone!

(Ooooh, I have to sit really still so he doesn't see me....but I want to take a bite....ohhhh....damnit)


I'm hoping to manage to get some Art Time squeezed in there, somewhere, before we head to Phoenix in a month. I was enjoying getting back into painting before Atlanta, and despite having brought my supplies with me down there, I never picked up my brushes the whole time. I should've brought my watercolors, probably, but oh well.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holidaze...off to see what y'all have been up to!

Good Kid (movie), Bad Kid (movie)

Sooo, over the past holiday...that one centering around over-eating and family dysfunction (if you listen to the radio/TV/whatever...our Tdays have always been pleasant as far as I can recall)...Charlie and I went home from Atlanta for an extended weekend with the intent of not doing anything. For the most part, we were pretty successful. We did end up cooking a smaller Tday meal, since the fridge was barren and we needed food for the next 4 days, and our friend John ended up coming over. But that was the extent of it....kind of nice to not be making the 10-hour-drive up to Missouri for once! Though I did kind of miss sleeping in the farmhouse from the early 1800's that we usually occupy while there. We sleep in this big old sleigh style bed on the 3rd floor with lots of quilts...the balcony looks out over cow pastures, and is quite bucolic, shall we say.

Anyhooo, no sleigh beds and cows for us this year. This year it was all about chopping firewood in preparation for our actual return home in a few weeks, just in time for the rest of the holidaze, and probably some cold temperatures. (apparently we had snow there this morning) Not the most exciting, but hey, now we'll have warmth when we get back!

Wood chopping....and movie watching.

First up was Super 8, which I loved. It was like all those 80's "kids meet an alien" movies (if you're of a certain generation, you know exactly what I'm talking about) but on steroids. Suddenly, I was 10-years-old again, watching those movies and wanting THAT to happen to me! (if you've seen it, I was the kid who liked to blow things up. It's not my fault my father showed me how to use dynamite at an early age...welcome to life in rural Texas!)

Watch it. It's not deep. It plays out completely as you expect it to...but that's okay, because that's exactly what it needed to do. Considering the fact child actors tend to raise my hackles, and not one of the ones featured here did so should be an indication on my feelings about this film. Actually, I found the young woman to be quite charming. I look forward to seeing more from her in the future.



On the opposite end of the spectrum was Conan the Barbarian. Ouch. Wow. Okay, let's just get one thing out there in the open: If you're watching ANY Conan movie, you're not looking for depth-of-character or anything beyond the most remedial/base of plots.

It needs only four things:

1) Guys in loincloths.
2) Sword-fights.
3) A monster or two.
4) A sexy woman, heroine or villianess. Preferably it's Grace Jones, though.

Got it? Good.

This new "improved" version had all those things...and it was horrible. There was none of the cheesy charm of it's predecessors. None of the goofy humor....though intensely painful attempts *were* made at humor, they failed miserably. The timing was completely off. The acting, if one can call it that, was horrible. The "style" of the filming itself was atrocious. The fight scenes were boring and overly graphic. The REAL Conan never tortured anyone...he ran around swinging his sword and hooting and hollering. This one was just mean. Boo.



We made it about 30 minutes into it...continuously saying "it'll get better"...but it never did. Eventually we just turned it off and ate more pecan pie.


***And for the record, I had my very first successful attempt at making pecan pie this year! I've tried numerous times, and it's never turned out just right. This year, it did. And I have no idea what I did differently than in times past.

Here's the recipe I used, via Epicurious. Only changes made were I used pre-made crusts (I only decided to make it about two hours before we were supposd to eat), I upped the amount of vanilla, and I pulverized 1/2 of the pecans instead of using halves.


3/4 stick unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 cups pecan halves (1/2 pound)




Preheat oven to 350°F with a baking sheet on middle rack.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round and fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang under and lightly press against rim of pie plate, then crimp decoratively. Lightly prick bottom all over with a fork. Chill until firm, at least 30 minutes (or freeze 10 minutes).

Meanwhile, melt butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in corn syrup, vanilla, zest, and salt. Lightly beat eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in corn syrup mixture.

Put pecans in pie shell and pour corn syrup mixture evenly over them. Bake on hot baking sheet until filling is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool completely.