In the land of plenty (or too much?)

Happy Friday peeps!  We are heading to Charleston, SC tomorrow for a much anticipated visit with Chucks family.  There will lots of time at the beach spent exploring, collecting and reading. And at the house we will all share there is sure to be lots of playing board games, bananagrams, knitting and of course eating.  It's been about 8 years since we last visited Charleston and the food scene there has really exploded....so many great options for going out when we're not up to cooking.  The garden is going crazy and I am a little intimidated by the amount of produce I harvested today considering I am leaving in less than 24 hours.  So my plan is a batch of Annri's chocolate chip zucchini muffins to take with us, zucchini gratin for dinner with roasted garlic green beans and cherry tomatoes and then I think I will still have 3 or 4 of these monsters to give away.  I have a list of things to get done so I'm going to get going but I wanted to be sure and wish you a beautiful end of July!  

All kinds of making going on...

I really should be packing for our upcoming road trip to Charleston, SC but instead I am making (and re-making) things to look at, eat and wear.  Most of Monday was spent in the was spent in the studio and I worked on a few new pieces all at the same time.  I went to my scrap source for wood when we were in Chicago a few weeks back and all the block shapes and sizes are inspiring lots of new work. Most of yesterday was spent in the kitchen pickling and dyeing.  There were quite a few pickling cucumbers ready in the garden and while I wasn't quite up for canning I didn't want them to go to waste so I did a quick batch of refrigerator pickles.  I cross referenced 4 or 5 different recipes in an attempt to try and replicate Rick's Picks 'Hotties' and I think I was able to get pretty close but we'll see on Friday when they are ready for tasting.  And then after allowing these three old favorites to sit in a pile in the back of my closet for months I decided it was finally time to re-make them.  All three pieces had been white about 8 and 10 years ago when they were purchased.  At one point all three were dyed brown but I was tired of that color and so now they are all a perfect jet black. And now that they are dry I guess I really should start packing :)

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She's done (!)

Home And Garden

18" x 30"

::up close::

This is one of the largest pieces I've done and it took lots of time, patience and arm strength. A massive amount of heat fusing needs to be done layer after layer on a piece this size and so over the past few weeks I've fused and tweaked my way to this finished painting.  I have a fusing iron that probably would have done the job much more quickly but it would have yielded a much smoother surface and that just wouldn't do.  I love to see the texture and bubbles and depth of the wax and so I just took my time and worked on this a bit each day in between other smaller pieces.  The closer I got to finishing the faster I wanted to work but there truly are physical limitations to working this big.  Home And Garden is a reflection on summer, place, time and change and I really like the overall feel of the work and the idea that it is a visual story.  Thanks for reading...

A Lion's Heart

A Lion's Heart

4" x 9"

They had always told her she had 'a lion's heart'. As she found her way in the world she embraced that phrase and bit by bit discovered the courage, strength and bravery she possessed.  It is such a gift to have others see things in you.  That is something to celebrate.

All You Need

All You Need

4.5" x 4.5"

I know I was here yesterday talking about luck and everything but... at the end of the day love really is all you need, right?

xx-

Lucky charms...

All Kinds of Luck No.3

All Kinds of Luck No.4

Here's hoping your week is off to a good start. My computer is acting up and seeing as how it is almost eight years old I think I may need a bit of luck to keep it running.  A new computer is not in the budget right now and so I'm hoping to get at least a few more months out of it...fingers crossed, holding my breath, tossing salt over my shoulder, looking for four leaf clovers, wishing on lucky feathers and hanging a horseshoe for all kinds of luck.  Happy Monday ;-)

Night Swimmer

No.15::No.16::No.17

I'm spending time in the studio today working on the larger floral piece I've shared here recently but wanted to take a quick break to share these three new Night Swimmers. I finished them up last night and have to say that I am still really in love with the process of creating these lovely creatures.  Each one comes together individually but by creating them in small groups they get to  play off one another and shine.  I have a few bits set aside for the next set which I hope to start later this month but now it's time to get back to the big picture.  Happy weekend:)

what summer looks like right now...

rainy skies::night swimmers::chicken dumpling soup*

the 1st ripe san marzano::summer work::the garden

Here's a peek of what summer looks like around here this week.  The torrential downpours and spectacular lightening have been tempered with near perfect 75 degree days and both of those things suit me (and the garden) very well.  My oldest is away at a creative writing camp for the next three weeks (taking a 17 year old girl out of the mix quiets things down quite a bit) and I really miss her. I'm sure part of that is knowing that this is just a warm up for the next separation (college) which is really just around the corner (she will be a senior this fall!). Anyways, the 16 year old is at theater camp every day all day  and is volunteering some evenings here and the 10 year old just returned from a trip to Niagra Falls with his cousins and grandparents and has play dates lined up for the next few days which leaves me wide open to paint, garden and cook.  After moving and taking on major renovations last summer the pace of this summer seems refreshing.  At one point it seemed like summer was going to fly by but now that we are here with the longest day still two weeks away it feels like there is time to work and play and putter....like summer is a long stretch of road and we are cruising with the top down under starry skies.  What does this summer feel like to you?

*one with allergies or summer cold, hard to tell, but chicken soup with lots of fresh herbs on a rainy day seemed right.