Story Time

 The holidays are a time for family and cooking those special dishes everyone loves and waits all year to get. It's also the time, at least in my house, for the annual Christmas eave gourmet dinner. 
The Children when they were small and adventurous, would badger the chef until you'd break and tell them what was on the menu, my ex, or have fun with them by playing "Can you guess?" That would be me. I almost miss the constant kitchen traffic and queries of "What cha' making?"

When The children's father would cook it was lobster, crab or Prime rib. The first year we got live lobster and let the kids race them across the kitchen floor, with much laughter and joy. This is where we learned the lesson of "You don't name what you eat" It makes it hard to cook and eat them later.
The ex was all "More for me!" but I could see the the look of betrayal in the eye's of my child. 

They ate only the sides that year, of which there was plenty but that isn't the point is it?

Speaking of those sides, of garlic mashed potatoes, a large salad, Buttered broccoli and a cheesecake of which only the flavor changed from year to year. The ex had definite idea's on food.

I on the other hand liked to experiment, and for the most part my family would eat my experiments happily, no complaints, no leftovers. Every once in a while the food gods did not smile on my efforts, usually when I was not feeling well or was distracted beyond the usual big dinner, 3 kids and a husband variety. Those disasters didn't happen very often and when they did they were pretty epic.

Like the time we had to ditch the Beans because the child didn't realize the can of mushrooms should not exhibit an attitude when opened, it spit at him, and he threw them in the casserole anyway. Good thing he mentioned this behavior before we all ate!

The time I over cooked the shrimp and we could have played table tennis with them, they were so chewy. Or the year the oven door decided after 40 years it had had enough and fell off, dumping the entire roast duck A'la Orange on the floor. Breaking the pyrex, splattering lava hot orange sauce and duck parts  allover the kitchen floor my arm, one leg and leaving a divit in the linoleum, to remind us all to be very careful when using the oven. The same oven the ex swore up and down he had fixed and I must have "Done something to" the last time it flopped open after the loose spring finally broke. I had been holding it closed with a wooden spoon to bake for a month before the supposed fix. needless to say it didn't take.

Disasters aside, I'm a good cook and I like to try things I have only had or made in the restaurants were I worked before marriage. The year I decided to make Greek Youvetsi Arni a lamb shank stewed in tomato sauce served over Orzo. Roasting anything well takes hours and people get hungry, and by people I mean my family, so i decided to make a few side dishes and appetizers as well as the annual Christmas cookies, so the kitchen was a right mess. We had my ex's sister and friends over so there was even more confusion and noise,  extra children and glasses of wine. Every time I would take cookies or crab cakes out of the oven, they would disappear, so I was getting a little crabby. In order to not starve before dinner, I was hiding a couple of whatever in a cabinet, it kept them out of the blast zone and safe from the ravening hoards. 

I used to cater weddings and business meetings so I know how to feed a crowd but nothing keeps up with pre-teen stomachs. I had prepped most of the cookies stuff the day before and the dinner was pretty straight forward, hunk of meat in tomato sauce and herbs in large roaster in back of oven 3hours and your done. the rest was scoop on trays bake and serve. everything was labeled, except the salmon roe.

Between the making and the baking and the whipping of things the roe got pushed to the back of the counter, where one of the kids wanted to know what the pink stuff in the bowl was. Being busy I assumed it was one of mine and told them to try it and find out. Them not being one of my children, they did.
Ruining the joys of Terramosalata for them forever after. Though possibly teaching them an important lesson, Grown ups are not to be trusted.

Some day my stove will come

** Rant Alert *** Rant Alert **

 So my hypothetical stove,

That we bought July 14th

Has a new delivery date 

Which has been moved back,

 Again

From the original of August 14th, 

Which is why we bought the stupid thing in the first place!   It's availability.  In august.

 to August 28th,

 September 11

(I know, great date huh, what could go wrong?)

 and to now September 28th.

Now, I was willing, to buy a stove I knew they didn't have until late august, that seemed understandable, given the supply line issues the country is experiencing.

But this is getting ridiculous

It begs the question; Why are stores selling vaporware?

Why are they allowed to sell and promise items, in their stores, that they clearly don't have on hand?

Why are we, as consumers, letting the big corporations get away with this shit, with nary a whimper?

 frankly folks, I am desperate for some over easy eggs,

That I don't have to go outside and make on a camp stove, is that really too much to ask?

Dealing with life in the time of carona

That's all we need, right, a way of doing things. A way to think or behave, until we have more information so we can improve, the way we think and behave.
Something that has always made it easier for me to create, is to think of a person I am creating for, or the story I am trying to tell.    I have always been good at telling myself stories, of finding a fabric or a bead or a picture, that triggers something and I can see what it will become.
It is an integral part of my creative process and my stories have dried up.

All this uncertainty in the world, the dangerous, not danger, we all seem to be in. The News reporting, with its constant reiteration of what we have already heard, might be peppered with some new fact but it just as well might be the same as yesterday.
The constant pronouncements of, "Nah! It'll all blow over and we can get back to normal, tomorrow!" Coming from a WH, where we have been programmed to think the best news comes from and is right now betraying our trust in it, on a daily basis. Is only adding to the uncertainty we all feel.
The worry that our loved ones might get this and they might die but maybe not.
We now all live in a Schrödinger world

I know the science behind this Novel Corona virus. I understand it is brand spanking new and we have no immunity to it, which is why we should be taking all the precautions we are taking.
I also understand how, in this day and age, we feel we as a society have progressed so far, our science is so advanced, we should have come together and fixed this by now, right?
I mean whats the use of all this advanced technology, if we cant just whip up a cure at a moments notice?  TV cop shows and Hospital dramas tell us daily DNA analysis and labs come back within the hour and the crime or disease is solved, by the end of the show. Magic!

 And there is probably where we get all caught up in, what we think we know, about how science works. MAAAAP! No. That is TV science, there for the entertainment of you so our heroes keep you coming back, week after week. Real science takes time.
Real science it hit or miss, mostly miss. If we are very lucky and some much smarter than I am person, hits on the solution, It will still be months before there is a solution. Any pie-in-the-sky reporting or pontificating from the podium on a daily basis o0, will only make you more anxious than you need to be.

Right now our monkey brains are overloaded with, Danger, Danger, Danger Will Robinson!
And we are all quietly panicking about ourselves, our loved ones, our friends and our world and there is nothing we can really do about it. Because as advanced as we have become and as smart as we all are, with the amazing technology we have at our finger tips. We are still just monkey's.

So after all that what is my solution? How do we stop the panic? How do we cope with this new scary world? My way might not be your way but I go find something else to pay attention to.
Something not news.
Since I cant seem to find the brain-space to read or sew, I garden, clean the house, again.
Listen to music, I watch TV or waste time on you tube. I try to give myself a break from the nagging at the back of my head that keeps telling me, I'm not doing anything useful or worthwhile.
Mostly because none of us are doing anything useful or worthwhile either, it kinda takes some of the edge off not creating. So give your monkey brain a rest, and give yourself a break.
After all when was the last time you were told you could help save the world, by staying home, doing nothing?

Life in quarentine or for my own mental health

I may not post for a while. Anyone who is a regular here knows this happens from time to time, when I get overwhelmed with other things to do or loose the mojo to do. It's a thing with me.
I battle with a mild form of Anxiety and depression that I don't tend to advertise because people (not you guy's, you're great!) are judgey. I just don't want you al to worry if I drop off for an extended period. I'm OK. I hope you all are OK too.

When life gets overwhelming I self-isolate (convenient, no?) and retreat into the things that make me feel better. I sew and binge-watch, or garden or read. I have cultivated many, many hobbies to cope with being overloaded emotionally or mentally.
I think we can all agree the news lately is worth a bit of whelming.

I try to keep politics and religion out of my blog but it seeps in from time to time, again those of you who come here often, pretty much know my proclivities. I am an Atheist Leftist.
I have received a few comments that I have erased for being nasty and hurtful. I don't expect everyone to agree with me and I don't expect everyone to fall in lockstep, with every idea I espouse.
I can handle dissent and I welcome debate but there is no space here for abuse.

Funny, how people who accuse you of being a snowflake, that can't handle a different opinion are the first ones to rant and rave when you challenge their beliefs. I have no place for that in my life anymore. My step-father was abusive in many horrible ways and my ex was a narcissist so I have done this already, I won't allow it here.

I apologize to anyone for whom I have offended with language or ideology but I will warn you all

That Is Who I AM

I do swear like a sailor, (and if you think I'm, bad you should hear my mother) though I do try to tamp it down in public.
I will speak my mind and it won't always be politically correct.
And if someone deserves it, I will tell you why you are incorrect and why I think this.
I like a good discussion on many subjects, a bit of argumentation is OK but the minute people stop listening to each other you are no longer in a discussion, that is the minute the discussion ends.
I refuse to apologize for being myself, I did that for 45 years. I'll not be doing that anymore.

I felt the need to get all that out into the world of my blog.

More thoughts-It gets better?

Yeah, life as we know it has gotten very simple and very complicated at the same time, so we are in a pattern of waiting. Waiting is hard on a human. Anticipation even worse. Then you throw in uncertainty in government and you get a witches brew of antsy unhappy people second guessing every decision and snapping at who's left at home.

I have said this before and it bears repeating, I am afraid of my government. Before even when I hated who was in charge and I knew they were wrong, there also seemed to be enough people out there who had our back, who would stand and be counted, who would be that voice of reason.
While yes, we have those voices out there now, there seems to be less of them, more muted this time, less strident.  The government, more unhinged and willing to throw the country away, remake it in their short-sighted, self-centered image, full stop.

The deluge of contradictory information coming out of the government and the media does not help anything. I worry now that saner heads will not prevail. That those with selfish agendas will lean toward those with religious agendas and create an evil, to potent to put down by simply voting it out. The fault lines this time are not as clear as north and south, they are muddy, sneaky and deep.

Those in charge talk but I am watching what they do and it is at odds with what they say.

And now we are all stuck in our homes and that same government is trying their damnedest to take what they can, while we are distracted. The DOJ wants to strip us of habeas corpus so they can throw who they want in a deep dark hole with no recourse. The senate is trying to fleece the taxpayer of hundreds of billions with no oversight, under the auspices of "relief" but the wording  blocks us from knowing, to whom they will give it

Local municipalities are begging the government for aid and being told, to fix it themselves, when the resources to do so, are still locked up under control of a wh unwilling to cede it. Its the equivalent of telling someone, to fix a bridge and then locking the tools in a shed.

It is no longer a case of could we/should we. It is a case of we can but we won't. It is become evil. Malevolent and if it was unconscionable before, it has become untenable now.

With us all stuck in our homes and Isolated. To the worriers amongst us who know, not only history in general but our own in particular, this is a very uncomfortable place to be.
To strident a call to action sounds crazy, like an over reaction, to those who still trust that the government has rules. To little and we are in the same uncomfortable place, only sharper because our conscience will not willingly let us be silent for long.

We know the government is taking advantage, we understand the stakes, we are trying to fix the bridge with out the tools, we simply don't know what else to do.

These were my thoughts last week, I didn't post them because I thought, wow, that's too dark.
Too depressing in a time when we are all, probably, at least leaning towards depression.
But do I feel any better this week? Well, good question. What has changed in a week.

The president has become, yet again an international embarrassment and a domestic impediment.
I am no more inclined to trust the government, than I was a week ago. The republicans are showing us, in vivid detail, the depth of their contempt for the average american. When they show you who they are, believe them. Key democrats are a glimmer of hope and have managed to pull an emergency bill out of the pork fat but how long will their spine last?

Several Governors are being the leaders that we need. Loudly proclaiming their willingness to do what is necessary, despite the financial consequences.  They are the soldiers on the ground for this battle. They are the ones we should listen to. "All politics are local" or so the saying goes. And since we have no help coming from the big G government, we must look to the little g. This makes the scope of all this a little more easy to comprehend, maybe.

I am still pessimistic but the fatality of it seems to have passed. Still locked in, same as everyone else.
Trying to look at things in a more, what I have, as opposed to what I haven't.

So my advice, if you are feeling helpless and claustrophobic is, do something. Even if you have a million and 10 backlog of old projects that need finishing. Start something new.
A new project always makes me feel better. It's full of possibilities. Pulling things out of your stash to coordinate, picking a pattern, working on it and that feeling of accomplishment, when it is done.

I challenge you all out there who read this, go do something new.
It doesn't have to be big, in fact start small. Do something that can be done in a day, a table runner, a pin cushion, a needle book.  Just give yourself a kick-start.
Then you can go do one of those many UFO's, you have laying around.
I want you to feel that "I have accomplished something" good feeling.

Life in the time of Corona Virus

It seems we are all headed to the same place for a time, confined to our domiciles in fear of the virus now sweeping our country. I am fortunate in that  live in a more rural area and getting out of the house for a walk and some fresh air is easy, peasy. I also have plenty of projects to keep me busy from quilting and other crafts to getting the garden ready and a spring clean (Oh no!) if absolutely necessary.

I understand being mewed up at home seems an untenable situation right about now but we have all sorts of newfangled things we can do and share, from our public libraries to virtual garden and museum tours. Social media has made it so much easier to share with family and friends and keep in touch.

So instead of struggling against our shackles and railing against the tyranny of A shelter in place order, we all take stock of what we have been putting off because we didn't have the time to do  it before.

 Maybe time to catch up on all those books I buy and never have enough time to read.
Or all the project books I collect and never seem to have enough time to do.
All the stash I accumulate and never seem to use.
All the movies we have to watch and never seem to get around to.
All the chores around the house that never seem to get done.
It seems I have a plethora of things to keep me occupied.

So why do I feel this urge to break out and run away?
It might be the little rebel in me that hates to follow the rules.
That chafes at the whole idea of a mandatory confinement.
Its that mental thing we do as humans in which it is fine for us to stay at home doing nothing but binge watch the newest tv show but the minute someone tell us "YOU MUST" we all revolt in a fit of "You aren't the boss of me!" like the 5 year old, we still sometimes are.

I'm a homebody at the best of times and spend much of my time in solitude, not speaking to anyone other than the cats. So this is not all that different than a normal day, for me. Other than the addition of my dear husband, who no longer needs me to take him to the bus every morning or be picked up at night. We spend our days in not dissimilar ways from before the virus came to town.

I think we are lucky in that. Those who's lives are busier with Children, friends and family may have a much harder time with the solitude of Quarantine.

We are all in the same boat here, piecing together the what and how from available information has become easier and at the same time difficult because of our media and social networks. not to mention the conflicting and erroneous information coming from the government who is supposed to have a handle o this and so very apparently does not.

I have no answers either, only suggestions. Listen to the experts the scientists and epidemiologists, they say this will get better if we all stay home and limit our interactions with others.
It may go against every doer and shaker out there but it is what has worked for china which is on the other side of this so far.

Introverts unite! Separately in your own homes!

Be well my friends

Grumblings

Yes, the time for the over commercialization of christmas is come. It is now unavoidable.
Every store you walk into, be it a malls hoity-tioty specialty shop or the bodega down the block has put the relentlessly cheerful christmas music on frenetic. As though every one want's to hear "little drummer boy" for the thirty millionth time this season. Grump, grump, grump!

Now before you all go and label me the grinch, let me explain; much of this yuletide grousing comes from years of working in the, aforementioned, mall.
Where as a mere worker bee you are expected to bear the brunt of Whitney, Celine and Mariah et.al. belting out christmas cheer for all their worth, on minimum wage, for 7.5 hours a day, no overtime. Whist being battered and abused by the rudest and most clueless shopper of them all, the last minute guy (sorry/not!/ if your him but really man, you had all year!) with a BIG smile on your face.
Generally by this time turned into the travesty of a grin by dozens of LMGs impatiently scurrying for the "Perfect" gift for the most important persons in his life, that he could only manage the 20 minutes before christmas to think of shopping for.   -.-
I hate this guy. He likes to think himself busy.  Try being a mall drone 9pm christmas eave.
It sucks donkeys........., well you know, I don't think I have to enumerate here. Those who have been there sympathize, those who have not try and that's good enough.

You probably won't be surprised that I celebrate solstice as opposed to chritstmas. To many years of having a higher power shoved at me by well-meaning relatives. I do however believe in Faeries.

They are only with us for a very short time and you have to appreciate them while they are here.
They don't have wings and they only seem tiny and delicate.
They do however have small grubby, sticky hands and cookie breath and their laughter will melt the badness from your heart, every time.

Happy Holidays

Hawaii Shop-Hop part 2

 Still loving this mode of stain glass window quilting!

The ladies who chaired this committee should get a solid round of applause and a hearty handshake for picking some really beautiful fabrics!

Though I will warn you, the fabrics for the Strings shop are , In my never-to-be-humble opinion, kinda lousy. 
None of the greens or blues match any of the other colors within the set so keep your scraps!

the Strings" panel

The Sand colors did OK blending

as would the grey rock colors have but I wanted a more cohesive look to my blocks so I used the rest of what was already in the "lava" kit


 and with all of these I did supplement what we were given in the kit because, me!

The Panels get trickier and more fussy if you follow the course I took to put them together.
Which I heartily recommend because if you start with the beautiful bottom left one with the bromilliads and hibiscus you will be very sad, as it is the fussiest cut of them all!

I did have to fiddle and trim on each block it became more and more needful as each one got more and more complicated.

If you started with the flower block you may just give it all up as too dificult because this one is.

But it is so choice when its all done!

fussy cuts trimming and even had to replace and add a few pieces that that weren't there.

I'll need to drag out my old war horse from pasture to finish this up into a flimsy.

I hope she doesn't hold her retirement against me and decide to stop working all together! 

that's all I need anOther machine in the shop!

Oh, another thing about piecing these together, be sure to Iron the foundation to the WRONG side of the fabric! I oopsied that one in a few places. Shh! Don't tell!

where did the summer go?

Benny RIP 11th may 2015

Until this weekend our weather has been inordinately nice.

 I am not used to all this sun

Wait, what?Is she complaining about nice weather?
                                      Yes I am.

So it just takes 6 years for you to become attuned to your new environment to the point that you're complaining about the weather like a native. Huh.

That I lived my first 45 years in Chicago, this makes me a little giggly.

Now, I know I haven't bogged anything since June, this is due to many things.
The death of my cat Benny, a visit from my dd#2 for a month, in which we did a lot of sight seeing and the moving in of my son to figure out his life post army.

my little helper

 Phew!
I was prepared for the daughter and son invasions but Benny's death threw me.
he developed an inoperable cancerous tumor, poor baby! he wouldn't eat and dropped 2lbs in a week. so we had to make the difficult decision to put him down.

Anyway it has been a little difficult to get back on my hobby horse with all the hoo-ha.

I did finally finish Julys cqjp/bjp and have been teaching a class every second Tuesday on embroidery and cq, which bless me has kept me more or less on an even keel.

I love my ladies!They make me giggle. Last class we all ended up singing campfire songs, now given that I am the youngest in the group and was able to keep up, this also makes me happy.

 anyway, the July CQJP/BJP is fly stitch and lots of blue

which goes with the weather we have been having.

Lots of beautiful blue skies

I did a folded 13mm silk ribbon  tacked with little blue teardrops
(my wish for rain)

I'm rather pleased with how the upper right seam treatment came out.

BJP July

 and the little brown bug in the lower right hand corner is for my BJP portion.


here is the whole thing finished

my sweet boy Benny

wrigley field 100 year anniversary

I lived here!

I grew up living 3 apartments down from wrigley in the 70's-80's.
back when it was little house in the barrio and we were practically the only Caucasians for miles who were crazy enough to live there.
that "c" shaped building with the arrow is where i grew up in a 3rd floor balcony apartment.

the apartment with the check mark is the one we young neighborhood punks used to climb up, to watch games from the roof. we had a perfect view over the left field bleachers.

the old manual score board

I once got knocked off my bike by a pop fly over the left field wall by Bobby Bonilla (I don't actually know for sure but it was a good enough story to get an autograph!)

that was back in the day, when the score board was still run by dan,dan the number man who changed all the scores by hand, on big wood boards. he'd let a few of us punks up to help him the day before  or the day after to make sure everything was organized for the next game.

he paid $2 + a coke and a hotdog and if you showed him your report card with good grades, he'd let you stay and watch the game from the board!






and being punk kids we would park cars in the unaffiliated lots at the end of the block before the "Official" parkers got there to and charged $5 to park 'em. we'd get 4-5 cars before we got run off the lot by the older kids.

that would give us enough readys to run to Yum-Yum Doughnuts (X marks that spot) and get a burger and fries, for each of us and $ left over to get candy later.

we'd go "car surfing" to get there so if any of you all parked behind wrigly on clark between wellington the Yum-yum ( because boy did they pack 'em in!) and came back to dents and scratches on your car, sorry ;) !
 oh! and if you were ever in the hood at night to see the bleachers lit you would know them as the ICAGO UBS cause no one ever fixed those lights in the 70's!

the land of Fairie

I must say i'm rather pleased with this block!

All the elements turned out to be just right. Not too heavy, even though I used a lot of big motifs.

Thats the challenge, though, isn't it?

As your technique evolves, to challenge yourself to use colors and elements that you normally would never put side-by-side.

to pick something so glaringly off and make it work within the confines of your block.

I try to do this with ever new project, challenge myself with color, technique or style.
I find it helps me with design choices and makes me a better artist over all.

 

what have I been doing?

well there's a story there.


 A little story.




I've been making purses.

 lots and lots of purses.

I've dubbed them Saddlebags.




 i road tested them on my 17 year old by making her a star wars themed purse.




she could put all her stuff in it

while she bopped around the city for the summer with friends.




 then it turned into a school bag that holds all the stuff that she doesn't want to get smooshed in her backpack.



 so it's been thrown around used as a pillow, sat on, thrown in the wash, dragged on the floor and generally beat up and tortured



 then she thought I would be able to sell them at the annual Christmas bazaar at school. so I set about making a few out of material I already had on hand.


 I made a promise to myself I was not going to buy more fabric for future projects I was never getting to, no matter how amazing the fabric was.


so I had a backlog of fabric to choose from




I sewed and sewed and eventually ended up with 35 fun and unique bags to sell at the bazaar.




I also took some of my cq stuff. I got lots of compliments and questions about CQ which are nice





I didn't sell any thing.






so now I have lots of Christmas presents and new items up in the ETSY store

and a rather cynical view of bazaars.

happy valentines day!

 I am working on my february BJP project but I've run out of plane white beads to finish it, so I have to wait a day or so till I get the car again. poo!



but I have a bunch of little things close to completion.










Hearts that I want to make a wall hanging out of and a little piece, I think,
I may cut in half and use for 2 cell phone/dream purses, and a few other things
I need to finish and put out on Etsy.








not that any of them are ready for this V-day! *sigh*

just goes to show I need to start on holiday things far in advance of said holiday!
Live and learn! I am not as proficient as I though I was!






I still get stuck halfway through a project and can't seem to think my way out of the corner.







I need a new brain, this one is defective!














oh well, enough complaining, if I am to get anything out for Ostara, I need to start right now!

sewing and coughing don't mix!

looks like a cqshop barfed on it!

Ok, so, walking pnumonia isn't fun, especially over a holliday!
I have been trying to plug along through a stuffy nose, shaky hands and coughing myself insideout.
my friends sewing and coughing don't mix!

ort's jar

half the time you loose your place and the other half you loose the needle, it's just badness.
I'll live, that prognosis is good, though I'm still coughing, it doesn't make me want to take a nap anymore!)

I got my FFT RR#16  block back and is it lovely!
I'm just going to add a thing or two and it will be perfecto!
I also worked on the changes Gerry suggested for the blue/brown block
(Isn't she the greatest!)

I added a fan to the yawning empty brown space and added a birds nest with two glass lampwork beads, I got in my monthly embellishments package from Eveningstar designs.

those are great if you need a random stash boost!
Carolyne sends out a selection of ribbons, lace, beads, silk ribbon, buttons, charms, silkies and all sorts of fun stuff!


it's totally random and a lovely little surprise in your mailbox once a month!

I get nothing for promoting BTW.
I just love her cqclubs and she is a lovely person to have gotten to know over the years.

we put up the tree this weekend and it looks fabulous like it does every year! it does need one more string of lights though, i ran out of them at the top of the tree so when they blink the whole top goes dark!
I started a stocking for my DD she requested I make her a new one this year, in apple greens with a turtle on it! so far so good!