Thanksgiving

A wonderful feast, mainly vegetarian (except for the turkey which C cooked on a Weber grill outside and 4 people ate.) Everyone brought food to share. There was a cranberry sauce made with dried apricots and ginger, 2 kinds of bread stuffing (though neither was stuffed into anything other than a bowl.) We had three kinds of pie for dessert. Sadly, we were too eager to cut into them to take pictures. 2 grad students from India joined us and they brought a delicious chole, chickpea dish, that was wonderfully spicy. This is a photo of the table before some of the food arrived. We were thinking a bigger table might be needed. We put the turkey on the counter by the cooking range.

I’ll be putting my stuffed cabbage recipe and the recipe for the baked macaroni and cheese here, on my Vox blog.

I remembered to take photos as I made the cabbage dish. It was way better the next day so next year, I know now I have to adjust my schedule….start 2 days earlier. Because we were such a large group, we sat in the living room as well as at the dining room table (which is in the same space to the left in this photo. I hope this makes sense.) Here is a picture of the little plush turkey that we bring out each year. It is now back in it's drawer, the leftovers are mostly gone, and things are back to normal. It was a really fun evening, and we all gave thanks.

More autumn

I heated up my kitchen by roasting beets the other day and I made a beet spread. The recipe is here.

I snapped the image of Fountain Lake while driving home from my Spanish class last week. Today it was too overcast so I'm glad I caught this. The trees and sky looked so beautiful.

It's raining, misting, windy, gray and overcast for several days. The leaves are all gone from many of the trees, including the one in our back yard. C filled 12 giant (biodegradable) bags with the leaves. The little Japanese Maple in front of our house is turning a lovely red color. I really like the shape of the leaves from this tree. Soon all of the trees will be bare, creating line drawings against the sky, a winter look is coming.

Follow up on Sunday: my friend and I had such a productive time in my studio and we've set up the next "play date."

Clean up time in the studio!

I got up early this morning, didn't come downstairs for coffee or toast, just went to work on my studio to clear away the work table. Why, you may ask, did I do this? Because my friend Susan and I are going to have a play date: parallel play in my studio this afternoon. We're going to work on our pieces for a collective book on Mail Art.

More leaves, More mitts.

I can't help myself, I just have to snap photos of the trees in my neighborhood. They are just sooo beautiful. Besides the bright yellow gingkos, there are these red trees. What are they? Anyone? Close up of leaf to help you I.D. the tree.

I, also, can't stop making mitts. I love seeing the patterns that the variegated yarns make. This color combi is quite nice. You can see what others I've been knitting at Fritzi.

Some images to share

Today was my last encaustic workshop. I loved the experience. The classes were held in Lynda Ray's studio in an old school building. It's so nice that the old building has been re-purposed for use as artist studios and office space. Can't you just imagine kids waiting to see the Principal, or lining up for class in those hallways?

Salad, FRBs and a nice view

The other night, I made a really nice salad and had to share the image of it. It was so good with different textures and flavors. It was the entire meal with some bread and butter.

Today, while driving home from my Spanish class, I went through Byrd Park and saw this gorgeous tree.

After lunch, I packed up the two Flat Rate Boxes that I'd finished filling to send to soldiers in Afghanistan. I'm an official volunteer with Books for Soldiers. Please consider joining this group or sending a donation to keep the site up and running. You can become a friend of this group on Facebook, too, but it's best to actually join and send packages or letters or postcards. It's very rewarding!

Encaustic class #2

I'm taking classes in the use of encaustic (wax as an art medium) with Lynda Ray, who is an excellent artist with the medium. Check out her site here. There is so much room for experimentation after you have the basics. It's so much fun for me. Since I haven't used this material since I was in University, I'm like a newby and am playing around, learning how the medium works. I'm not sure of how I can set up in my own studio to do this, but I'm going to think about that a lot. This is a medium I could get into.

More of our Autumn weather.

We had heavy rain for several days. It was so windy. Here's a view out my kitchen window with the rain on the screen (which I never took out from the summer and in which you can see the tears made by a scared squirrel one day.) When the rain was lighter, I took the pup for a walk, and noticed all of the different types of leaves. Today was lovely, like spring. A nice surprise after the storm.

Perfect day to knit!

It's a cold, rainy, windy day in my neck of the woods! Brrrrr...so it's a perfect day to stay indoors and knit. I finished using the wonderful Merino/Cashmere/nylon yarn that I got at the Yarn Lounge. The mitts made from it are so soft and warm. I just posted them in (or is it "on") Fritzi, my Etsy shop.
Check them out!

I, also, decided to pull out the bread maker that I have on loan from my friend, Phyllis, and try to make a corn bread. It's doing it's thing. I'm hoping that I followed the directions exactly and we'll have fresh bread with dinner.

Veteran's Day - Remembrance Day

REMEMBER the past and those who gave their lives.

You can support the troops by sending packages. Become a volunteer with/or donate to Booksforsoldiers.com

Photo image from Flickr by E12DeepBlue

Autumn views

Here are some autumn views from a recent stroll with my geriatric "pup." The Gingko is one that is odor free thankgoodness!

The view down my street shows how the trees are changing color, and the interesting pumpkin display is on the next block.

I'm waiting for the rest of the leaves to fall off the tree in our back garden.

Notice our nice carpeting of leaves so far, and this is after I've done some raking.

Fritzi, new mitts

I finished knitting several pairs of finger-less gloves, mitts, using a lovely hand-dyed wool from Plain and Fancy. I've put them in Fritzi, my Etsy shop. I love the way they look and feel. The way the yarn is dyed makes each mitt look different. It's so interesting to see how these turn out. Now, I'm starting to use the merino-cashmere mix. I've never used such good (think: expensive) yarn before. I really like the way it feels and knits up. I wish there was a word like "yummy" to describe this yarn. Maybe that IS the word!

ThinkSmall 5 and me

Here are the images of the item I entered into this year's ThinkSmall5 exhibit. It's my first tooth shrine, entitled "Cabinet de Dentiste." I've been planning to create these to enshrine my detached teeth. (I can't say lost teeth since I have them and they are NOT lost, obviously. ha ha ha) The other image is of my piece that was in the Book Art invitational at ArtSpace, which just closed. In the background is C's piece. I just heard that my TS5 piece is in our local free newspaper, STYLE, which is exciting! I'm going to leave now...off to find a copy of the paper.