The New World BLT

For those of you who are making moves towards minimizing meat and wheat from your diets, here is a recipe for a tasty BLT that will leave you satisfied AND with a yummy grin on your mug! The cheese, playing the part of the bacon, is a special kind called halumi, which eschews the pernicious and vain attempts of the flame to melt it. Instead, it becomes golden brown on the outside and gooey delicious on the inside.
DROOL!!!

(Image thanks to hungryhungryhusband.blogspot.com)

Trader Joe’s “Frying Cheese”
Heirloom Tomatoes sliced thin
Avocado
Spike seasoning
Butter Lettuce leaves

Slice the Frying Cheese/Halumi thinly with a mandoline. Fry well, until it deeply browns on both sides. This will take approximately 3 minutes on a med-low heat.

While the cheese does it’s thing, slice up the tomatoes, avocado and prepare some lettuce leaves to act as a wrap for all this green goodness.

Combine the tomatoes & avocado in the leafs of butter lettuce and sprinkle evenly with Spike. Now add the fried cheese, roll up to make it bitable.

ENJOY!!!

Loving Labor

I have been resting.

Yes…we moved house and I set the home basically on my own in less than 5 weeks. (This is not to say Justin did not help, he did need to go to work and this left me to handle the critical decision making process of where to place the solar oven and what cabinet the Tupperware goes into.)

Yes….I have made three coats and a vest for clients.

Yes….I am still teaching dance but only once a week and that is a joy.

But still I am resting, pooling this precious time for a new burst of pure energy.

By sheer perseverance and dogged application submittal, the odds were I would get a job or a long term assignment/contract …and rightly so! I knocked on enough doors, I tell you!  In the interview with the manager of Trader Joe’s, he said, after reviewing my portfolio, “You could work anywhere with this kind of book!” My reply was “Yes, and I want to work here!”

So, I am now working at Trader Joe’s….and I am darned grateful. There are obvious detractors, such as much more limited free time to spend in the studio and having to wash toilets on occasion, but all in all the positives outweigh the negatives.

It is a delight to have the luxury, yes luxury, of a consistent income. This is something I have not had since my tenure in Greneker. Regularly negotiating with the gas company, phone provider and utilities is not a game I relish. Thankfully, our needs are modest and my debts manageable. For the first time in many years, I feel a sense of hopefulness for myself. It has been such a struggle to do all the things I have done: I have maintained the integrity as an artist, all the while pursuing a career that would provide for me & Niles and get me through college and him high school. Now, he is on his own, Justin is self sustaining and I am set to begin a life devised around my own vision. I want to be able to care for myself well and alone.  This is something that was thwarted way back when I first married and invested as a mother. That job is over, I got the good son off into the world  with the support of my family and now, because they were so generous and supportive of me as I supported Niles, I can strive for independence without any remorse or guilt. I feel I have worked very hard for this day for most of my life.

Finally, referring back to said studio…I will now be able to pay it forward and make the investments in producing more multiples and such for my jewelry and mandala lines. I have finally found a vehicle to help me fund myself! Best of all it is a vehicle I can really invest in!!! I love Trader Joes! Of course, ultimately, this job will become de rigure and I will adjust, but for the meantime, I am thrilled and over the moon about working for such a fine company, in such a healthy, happy environment and for a cause that I believe in!

So, today I rest.
On the calendar, I only have cutting fabric, painting and shipping a vest, housekeeping chores and a trip to downtown. That should be enough for a ’rest’ day, dontcha think?

Local Library is Larger than upon Last Inspection

Didja know this bit of information?

If you belong to the Los Angeles public library you can go on-line, order up the book, video or dvd and have it delivered to your local library?

What a deal!

Our local branch library is the smallest I have ever seen and I initially despared to have a good library experiance there, but I was wrong!
Thanks to my darling friend Katherine the Great of Blue Moon Designs, I was introduced to the magic of the future. I suppose this is not the only library system that has this available to its subscribers and I love the idea so much that I tell complete strangers I meet in cafes about it, offering up the information as a gift to those who love books as much as I do.

Recycle!
Renew!
REUSE!!!!

Fantasy life

As most who know me, I long to travel.

Ok...not the kind of fantasy travel most dream of, more like wandering. No real agenda except to make it eventually from point A to point B.....eventually. This would be ideally facilitated by my large Morgan horse Max and it would involve a brightly painted yet well equipped vardo. Seriously, I am really in a fantasy here, I know, but when I was travelling with my Mom about 15 years ago, we saw something like this. We were hurtling down the highway, returning from Durango Colorado and ahead was a slow moving group of trucks. As we approached the last truck, I plotzed. It was decorated stem to stern as a Gypsy vardo....on wheels!

Hand carved woodwork!
Shingles!
Stained glass!
Bells on the eaves!

I was hooked. Done. I had the image permanently engraved in my mind and I have held this dream forever.

In the drivers-seat was a man of indeterminate age. He looked exotic in his tidy beard and feathered earrings. His mate was a plump woman with bright eyes who leaned forward as we passed to wave cheerfully. I was smitten. I wanted to be her. I wanted her house on wheels, I wanted her husband and I wanted there to be a cat in the little truck too.

My friend Christina and her husband Dore built a vardo, Calliope, recently. I am inspired by their pluck and one day....I promise you all...I will make this dream happen for me too!

Last night at the Casbah

So. this last Sunday was the last Shimmy Showcase for me as a Co-ord.
I have so much to process through and I will write more later...until then, here are a few videos and photos to check out.

Whoot! Check out the Stalker Sighting!

Etsy Stalker is a well respected Blog focused on some of the best from Etsy.
Well guess who made it to their Shadow Box for June?
Yep!
ME!!!

Movin' on UP!!!

We're moving!
YAY!
....and BOO.

We found a darling little community of houses on the N/W side of town on a hill with a peek of the ocean. Our unit is on top of the 4 car garage and we couldn't be happier. No more 2 ton fairy elephants prancing over our heads at night.

I will miss Mario though. He has a been a fair and accommodating landlord. I will miss gardening with him. I will miss him telling me tales of WW1 and his adventures on the seas as a merchant marine. I think the bird will miss the peach tree too.

The new place is cute, a little smaller and has a well tended garden. Maybe a bit over landscaped for me to do any "farming" but there is room for containers and I can live for a while with a much less maintenance yard for now. Fresh tomatoes, some basil, garlic and a few pepper plants will keep my hand in as it were. In the mean time we will have bunches of light and NO roar of Gaffey!!! We will even have the YMCA near enough to walk to.

I hope our neighbors are nice people.