MORE MOVIES + MORE PREPARING

Lots to do, but there's still time for movies!

note: not every movie listed in these posts gets my undivided attention

• Re-watched Children of Men + Closer: I had forgotten just how intense + great both of these movies were. One hits you in the gut + the other like a slap in the face. Or is it the other way around? I now have the urge to re-watch Carnal Knowledge.
  
• Duplicity: It's odd that two people can have such spark in one move + be so b-o-r-i-n-g in another. I'll blame it on the movie.
  
• P.S. I Love You: 2 songs off the soundtrack have been on heavy rotation on my iPod for years, The Galway Girl by Steve Earl + Fairytale of N.Y. by The Pogues, but I don't know what that says about the movie. Hey! The Beeper King! is in it!
• Incendiary: Michelle Williams had me bawling in 3 scenes because of her grief over the loss of her son. (Netflix instant watch)
• Boondock Saints: This one should be right up my alley, but I just could not sit through it. (Netflix instant watch)
• What Would Jesus Buy?: Watch it. (Netflix instant watch)
• Eastbound + Down (season 1): All I can say is we flippin' loved this show. In the same comedy vein as Trailer Park Boys, but sadly there is only 1 season (6 episodes). Enjoy.
  
• Extras (season 2): I have been singing Tea For the Tillerman for days. The Christmas special/ finale is next on the queue.

Before my 2 weeks of printing-related craziness starts (with now
5 birthdays + a Bruce Springsteen concert scattered in there)
I think I need to check myself into hylperlink rehab!

REPLACING PLASTIC

Any Tupperware in our house originally belonged to either my boy's
grandmother or mine + needless to say, vintage plastic is not really
great for food storage. Last year my boy bought me a set of glass
Pyrex storage containers for my birthday (he got flack from a friend for
buying a practical gift until I reminded this friend that I'm a practical
gal). Slowly but surely I'm replacing the old Tupperware + this weekend
I happened upon a great sale which will speed up the process.

At the request of my boy, this set will remain in the house.

2 good reads: Fake Plastic Fish + Life Less Plastic

Later: My mom makes comments via telephone
+ just called to also suggest Weck canning jars.
And yes, food freezes well in these glass containers,
in addition to French lidded jars.

SUCH AN EXCITING COUPLE

For the most part it looks like The Great Purge of '09 is winding down.
I still have a bag on hand to collect unwanted items destined for charity,
because every household should have one of these bags on hand.

With the $$ made from unused items we not only bought Bruuuuuce
tickets (AKA: my boy's birthday present) but also some household
items, like a programmable thermostat + a new clothes drying rack
(the last one, bought at a yard sale, broke). Eventually we want to
replace all the old windows, but for now I'm making draft snakes.

I also investigated our hot water heater + found out that the previous
owner had it set at 150 degrees- sheesh! It's now set at 125.

So there it is, our latest projects as homeowners have involved
winterizing + conservation efforts in order to reduce our utility bills
+ damn-it of that doesn't make us super exciting!
Actually, it makes us super EXCITED!

I have to thank my friend Hezza for linking The Simplest Dollar on her
blog. It has really helped bring the purging project into greater focus.

TEA BAGS

I don't like to complain around here, but it seems like more tea
companies are using these nylon tea bags, which are obviously not
compostable. When trying a new tea you don't know about this until
you open the package. Same with wine + cork corks + plastic corks.

We took our trash to the curb today + will attempt our first 3-month
stretch as of right now. So whereas this nylon piece might be tiny,
I'm looking at ALL packaging.

PREPARING

I have this weekend, next weekend + then it's 2 weeks of non-stop print-related craziness (with 6 birthdays + a Bruce Springsteen concert scattered in there).

I spent part of today preparing materials for the teacher's workshop. I've been pretty nervous about this because I've never been to this conference + I've never done a print workshop without lino blocks + carving tools. But sometimes I need a reminder that things usually have a way of working themselves out + as I've been preparing my materials, the lesson plan has come together.

GROCERY SHOPPING ROUTINE

My job pays once a month + as a result I do all the month's grocery shopping at once (with a couple additional trips for produce). I have worked out a routine with a really good friend where we go to the big Nashville city together for Trader Joe's + bulk foods shopping (we are 30 mi. outside the city). When fuel is available, we travel in her veggie oil Mercedes.

Among other holistic practices, she does naturopathic work + nutritional consulting + the first time we went on this excursion I admitted to her that I was concerned that she might judge some of my food selections (although we are cutting back on the processed foods, even if they are made with organic + good quality ingredients). She pretty much laughed at me + said that if I wanted her opinion I could ask for it, but otherwise there was no judgment. Funny thing is she asks for my opinion almost as much as I ask for hers.

Later: upon review we realized that we have been going about our shopping trip all wrong. First stop was the highest $ store, last the lowest because we were starting from the farthest store, working our way back home. A simple reversal of stops could save some $ next month. You know, sometimes things are just so obvious that they get overlooked.

BIG NIGHT OUT

My boy's boss gave him tickets to a Predators' hockey game.
The last time I went to a hockey game was in 1988, right after
Wayne Gretzky was traded to The Kings.
My boy said that staying this out loud makes me old.

Good thing I love him, even after a comment like that,
because while we were there I bought his birthday gift.
AND I found out that if you buy tickets at the venue box office
you don't have to pay Ticket Master fees (makes sense).

Now is the perfect time to thank everyone who contributed to
the Bruce ticket/ birthday gift fund by way of purchasing scarves,
books + various other items from the great purge of '09.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH (end of tour report)

The great news is that it looks like people are feeling more comfortable
with spending $ because it was a great show!

AND as you can see, the sun came out.

AND I was surprised to see a couple college friends I had
not seen in quite some time. Neither one knew I was on the tour
(I'm listed under Book Babes, but not by name).

AND my friend Claudia found out she won a grant + according to the
grant is now a "master craftsman." Of course this is something we
already knew about her + did not need a grant committee to tell us.

AND it was such a wonderful weekend.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH (10th ann. studio tour)

Like last year it rained most of the day
+ we brought our knitting in anticipation of a slow Friday

Around Claudia's studio

Inside, fibers galore!

Display of my prints (top)
Claudia's batiked handmade paper lamps (bottom)

~This is where I will be all weekend~

BURRITO

In cold weather it's hard to get Monk to do much,
he burrows in a pile of blankets + we call him Burrito.

Did I happen to mention that he used to live on the street?
We can't figure out if he is the luckiest dog in the world,
or if we are a couple of suckers.
I think it's a little of both.

LITTLE IMPACT WOMAN

As No Impact Week gets underway, it seems like a good time
to mention my year-long documentation of trash disposal.
No, I did not monitor how many pounds of what was tossed, more like

a rudimentary notation of when I hauled the city-provided can to the
curb for weekly pick-up. Unfortunately we couldn't seem to get beyond

the 2 month mark. As for July-Aug-Sept, those are the hottest months
+ with 2 animals at the time...well it was getting a bit ripe.

8 nearly-full 96 gallon cans in 52 weeks is not bad,

but this next year we are going to strive towards better

+ achieve my 3 month goal.

I did not take the No Impact challenge, but Angie

(of Babbling + Homesteading) + thousands of others did.

ANOTHER MOVIE LIST

I have been working on all my studio tour + printing stuff,
but at the moment the weather feels like we by-passed fall
+ went straight into a cold, wet TN winter.
All I reeeeeally want to do is curl up + watch movies.

• Waking the Dead: I love this movie.
• Definitely, Maybe: better than I expected.
• Shoot 'Em Up: not quite The Killer, but it stars Clive Owen + every now + then I love an over-the-top action movie. Dreadful plot, but Wanted is also good for some fun action sequences AND they can curve bullets, neat-o!
• Diggers: a good little movie with 2 1/2 people from The State + a soundtrack that includes Big Star!
• Away We Go: I saw a comment on a message board that read "wait, Jim + the hooker from Idiocracy are having a baby?" Sweet, funny, heart breaking + an old Volvo.
  
• Season 7 of Trailer Park Boys: we are sad that it's over, having some TPB withdraws, but have added many more Rickyisms to our vocabulary.
• Sleepaway Camp III: sooooo bad that it's sooooo good.
  
• Drag Me to Hell: best described as the follow-up to Evil Dead 2 (what you mean you haven't seen it yet?). Great fun + definitely mismarketed, more of a horror-comedy.
  

I haven't had a lot to show/ say lately,
but the first of two fall studio tours is this weekend,
so there will be posts to come.

THE FALL KITCHEN

AH! Fall..soup time! I've started making a pot of soup a week again, this year it's lots of vegetable based soups (the garden is still producing zucchini) with cannelloni beans, Tofurkey Italian sausages + grains on hand: quinoa + barley or couscous.

For the first time I'm trying my hand at making a broth. I throw all these veggie odds + ends in the compost pile + after listening to The Splendid Table, I realized that they still have more life in them .

And of course no soup is complete without a chunk of homemade bread. Last year I bought a bread maker at a yard sale for $5.00 + I am still using it on a regular basis (a co-worked commented that I was the only person she knew who would not stick a bread maker in a cabinet + forget I owned it). Over the course of the year I have developed this tried + true vegan recipe*

1 whole med sweet potato (the binder, bake for 1 hr until it is really mushy)
1 cup hot water
2 tbsp honey
(I ran out of honey the other day + substituted 2 tbsp of apple juice, YUM!)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups bread flour (I love this flour)
1 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seed meal
salt
1 yeast packet
Bake on whole wheat setting

*this is a bread maker recipe, which is different that an oven recipe + ingredients are listed in order that you add them to the machine, wet to dry, yeast last.

OMG* I ACTUALLY BOUGHT SOMETHING AT ANTHROPOLOGIE

It's not that I don't love the store,
it's just that it's more of a source of inspiration
for my thrift store jaunts as opposed to being a place where
I pay the equivalent of a month's worth of groceries for a sweater.

Years ago there was an armoire in the Santa Monica store
that held the reeeeeally discounted items, say 90% off.
But like I said, that was years ago.

For $3.95 I could not resist this find
+ I am currently out of the perfumed oil I normally wear.

By the way, have you been watching Man Shops Globe?

*For the record, I'm generally not prone to typing OMG.
More common would be "like, OH-MI-GAWD,"
as a joke, of course.

SWAP-A-RIFFIC!

A million years ago I signed up for the Favorite Things Swap and luckily I had a partner who also had way too much going on for the August 28th deadline. We just sent ours last week.

A big thank you to Celeste @ Nebula Designs for all my completely practical + yummy goodies.

p.s. anyone have a good sauce suggestion/ recipe for the gnocchi?

RUN, MY BOY, RUN

For the third year my boy ran our town's half-marathon, this was his second year raising money for Special Kids. He did not train as much as last year + was not feeling 100% + only added 5 minutes to last year's 2h 3m time.

PRINTING RUNS

I have a formula that I came up with over the years.
Printing of a new design consists of a run of 30.
If the card is successful the second run will be 60-90
(always divisible by 3 because of my packaging).
At one point gnome cards were being printed in runs of 120,
but I am giving those guys a rest for the time being.

Today I printed 180 postcards in preparation for upcoming shows.
90 Bon Jour (I'm completely sold out)
90 Du er min favorittperson

Monk hung out in the studio with me today.
I like to remind him that he used to live on the street.

Today was a perfect 72 degrees, fluffy clouds + a light breeze.
All the windows that will open are wide open.
We deserve it after 10 days of thunderstorms + flash flooding.
Happy fall!

THE PIER

Thanks to SF Girl by the Bay I was directed to the above poster depicting the Santa Monica Pier. I wanted it instantly, I have so many great memories of the pier, but since I am trying to restrict my spending I held off making the purchase. The deal I made with myself was if I sold something in my Etsy shop today I would buy it.
I'm happy to say I just ordered one of my very own!

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

It's gone beyond having good Dansko karma,
it's now freaky (in a good way).
$3.99 at The Goodwill. 1/2 size too big, but I'll wear thick socks.
*
I also bought Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits
on cassette because Ruby doesn't have a CD player.
It's kind-a fun looking for cassettes.

FILLING UP MY DANCE CARD

Yesterday I met with the people who are overseeing the Franklin Printing Press Project about my artist-in-residence position for the fall semester. I am taking on a pretty ambitious project for the piece I will produce. In addition, I will have to give a lecture in front of an expected crowd of 60 which makes me nervous.

I have also been asked to do a printing workshop in east Tennessee for art teachers + go into the classroom + teach 1st + 2nd graders about printing. I normally work with adults + it's been quite a few years since I've been in a classroom. No carving tools allowed for this project.

The 2 fall studio shows I participate in every year are coming up, Off the Beaten Path, in Oct + The Stones River Studio Tour, in Nov.

AND we are still going through stuff. I thought I was done, but then my boy will say something like, "I found a box of t-shirts (32 sz sm t-shirts pictured above) from when you printed all those gnome shirts." We are currently working through the eBay + Etsy piles.

BEING PRODUCTIVE

We have been super productive working on projects around the house.

One big not-quite-a-project was getting a glass top fitted for our coffee table. The purchase of this table was documented here, 3 years ago! It is my resolve to take care of these unfinished projects before we start any more.
*
This month's book club book is How Starbucks Saved My Life. Another quick read that should make for an *interesting* discussion.
(after reading this book I was glad I got it from the library + did not pay for it. It was poorly written at the a 6th grade level by a Yale graduate + basically amounted to a promo piece for Starbucks. One reaction from the group was "I felt duped." )
*
And finally, I am still laughing from Sunday's Mad Men episode,
"Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency." I have watched the
John Deere bloodbath party scene many times, it's just too much!
Am I the only one who thinks Roger has the best lines?
*

THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT

Years ago my friend Nancykins (not her real name) taught me to "un-shop," where you reevaluate everything in your cart, basket, arms, (buggy, if you are in the south) before you make your purchase. I do this everywhere I go, even in the grocery store + usually end up putting a few items back.

Last weekend I was out + about with my friend Vickie, who is also doing a major purge/ rethinking of her consumption habits. Don't ask why we went to a thrift store, but we did + even she would not let me walk out without buying the above pair of brown Dansko clogs, size 38, a perfect fit.

The Dansko thrift store mojo has not left me yet.

GOOD "STUFF"

We are spending a lot of time here,
learning the therapeutic value of a porch swing.

MOVIES WATCHED
Unborn: Unwatchable
Midnight Meat Train: Good Clive Barker gore with "Brad Lee Cooper"
Maxed Out: Scary + sad
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox: If you have ever had a bottle of Dr. Bronner's in your house you must watch this documentary!

BOOKS READ
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:
This month's book club read, good + quick
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer:
I skimmed this one, very interesting.
The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin:
Painfully amusing, but not as good as Shopgirl.

I have moved on from the Sookie series. I read the first 3 books + decided not to spend another 7 with the residents of Bon Temps.

THIS OLD PORCH

This week we hung the $20.00 porch swing my boy bought at a yard sale earlier this summer. Right now it's the most perfect place to be.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts. As I work through the stages of grief I might be a bit quiet, but I'm still reading your posts.

.

Last night Dexter, our beloved cat + the namesake of LALA dex press, passed away. He was about 16 + his health had been in decline. Our pet sitter has been taking very good care of him, staying at our house for hours with him on her lap. We came home + he was lethargic so we took him outside, sat on a bench + stroked his fur, talking to him until he died. He is now buried behind the garden.

10 years ago he was dumped in the country + found his way to a friend's chicken farm. While visiting her, he jumped into my Volvo + came home with me. My boy was out of town + I called him + said, "guess what I did" his response was "did you bring home that cat?"

He has been a good friend to us.

IN SANTA BARBARA (Friday)

(click photo to enlarge)
We all went on a hike in the mountains overlooking Santa Barbara + Montecito + ended the day at a dog friendly beach. I went swimming with my dad, my boy + the dog. Today was the best day of the trip.

IN L.A. (Thursday)

Relaxing + bumming around day. Went to a bunch of thrifts stores + bought these vintage Frys boots + 2 books friends have said good things about: The Old Patagonian Express + Accordion Crimes. There was no need for self control or much contemplation because the want was not there.

IN L.A. (Wednesday)

Funny to think that yesterday I was sitting on a beach on an island.

This morning I picked up my boy from the airport + we drove
directly to Modernica + Heath Ceramics on Beverly Blvd.

That's my boy being a robot in the Heath store.

IN VENTURA (Tuesday)

(overlooking potato cove)

The family took a ferry to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Ventura (north of L.A.) for a day hike + relaxation on the beach. On the ferry ride back we were entertained by dolphins.

my brother

my aunt, who is in town from NYC

my dad took about 50 shots + this is the only good one

IN L.A. (Monday)

Noodles with my friend Caroline (who I worked with 16 years ago) at Di Chan in Studio City. Every available space was covered with stuff + the bathroom was filled with stuffed animals, a little bit funny + a whole lot-a creepy. The noodles were out of this world.

IN L.A. (Sunday)

4 new little people in my family.
8 month old triplets + their 2 year old sister.

PICKED THIS MORNING

A bowl full of cherry tomatoes, another huge zucchini (I'll saute both with some olive oil, garlic + hot peppers + toss with rotelle pasta for dinner) + a gorgeous watermelon.

I fly to L.A. on Saturday + after watching this watermelon grow for weeks, there was no way I was going to risk something happening to it while I was gone. The leaves were wilting (an indicator that it's ready to pick) + I tell you, I have never had a better, sweeter watermelon in my life. I think the fact that I grew it makes me a bit biased + definitely invested. Unfortunately I forgot to weigh it.

MAMA SAID THIS WOULD HAPPEN

Zucchinis as big as my head (almost) are popping up left + right.
I have never grown zucchini + my mom warned me that in an hour they can double in size when left unpicked. Needless to say, we are eating a lot of them these days. No complaints.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND another weekend of adding items to my Etsy shop
(my dear friend Danielle asked me if there was anything left in my house after all this purging)

Bundle of vintage fabric (SOLD)

Vintage tablecloth (SOLD)

1950's SAISON HAPPILY MARRIED fabric
(originally intended for book cloth) (SOLD)

Some fat quarters (SOLD)

Etsuko Furuya Balance Bird fabric (SOLD)
(Oh! the best laid plans of mice + book cloth makers)

1956 Better Homes + Garden Decorating Book (SOLD)