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.

Am I reaching here?

I read this article this morning and it got me thinking.
I wonder…..
Are we coming to a time when the Aztecs foresaw? Is there truly a shift of consciousness happening? Are we evolving? Are some of us unable to comprehend or manage the elevation of our state of being?

I love thinking about the old tale told to me by the Calvary Christians about the Rapture. They said God would decide to ‘take’ us all at once, BAM….Gone. Cars would be abandoned, classes would loose half their students, airplanes would fall from the sky as pilots vanished. Funny scenarios to consider, maybe a bit sad too but I have always wondered about the mom on the birthing table with the unborn child…would she go and leave the baby lying on the table?

Anyhoo….

I wonder if what really will happen might be related to the aforementioned story. These people all seem to be related to the new emerging technology. Could our evolution as humans be prompted by the progress we have made in our industrialization of our production methods? Have we swung far enough to the state of mechanics that requires us to reverse engineer our state of living and re-examine our small personal existence in relation to the Earth?

Maybe as we grow intellectually, open minds and hearts to new means of communication and relating, could this be the trigger, if you will, to us finally putting into action the concept of manifesting through thought? It has been proven that we are energy, balls of nothing surrounded by an agreement to participate in a specific ‘reality’. What if we moved through that reality via these new emerging technologies and some of us could not deal with the outcome?

MAD, MAD, MAY DAY TRUNK SHOW IS ALMOST HERE!!!

So very crazy excited for this event!!!!
Hope you'll make the effort to visit us at the edge of LA.

MAD, MAD, MAY DAY TRUNK SHOW

MAD, MAD, MAY DAY TRUNK SHOW
I am very proud to be part of this season opening event. Time to prepare for the playa and visit the beach!

These amazing Etsy BRC artists are throwing down a twisted trunk show May 1st in San Pedro. There will be crafts to participate guest performers throughout the day, snacks, a de-stash area and much more!

Join us May 1st
11-6 pm
3601 S. Gaffey
San Pedro, CA 90731

Lifes' little luxuries

Wax…allow me to wax poetic! How versatile, how mutable, how expeditious!!! Fire shaping tools and patience yield such awesome results. All that and it is cheap to work in too!

Thing Making beginnings

When I was little, about 12, I discovered Sculpy, a polymer clay that allowed you to sculpt and then bake the item in the oven to harden it. I felt like I had discovered air! I made all sorts of little things, one notably getting me an A+ on my report in middle school. I did a reproduction of the death mask for Tutankhamen. Later that year, I made a special little sculpture of Chiron the centaur for my Dad, as he is a Sagittarius. I think he still has it. It never occurred to me that this was a viable way for me to make a living. What a blessing to be able to discover it!!!

Inner sanctum

The nerve center of my studio….the jewelry bench.

Ate the last Onion of '09!

Here’s my vegetable garden. I love the spring…..the ground is so rich and brown!

Last Tuesday we ate the last of the onions I planted last year. I set down twice as many this year but I have a few weeks to wait. The garlic is gone too so I doubled up on those. I want enough left over to plant in spring next season.

I planted the tomatoes today. It may be a bit late to do so but I am hopeful. This year I am focusing on mostly Speckled Romas. I will also plant some other varieties, but these Romas are my favorites.

The potatoes are doing well and I am actually pretty amazed that they are doing as well as they are. The only ones that have not really taken off were the ones that I tried to grow in a black plastic bucket.  So I dug out all the nasty dirt and refilled it with a more fluffy mixture and one volunteer potato plant to see if I could try it again in a container. Rows, hills and containers. Next, I need to get a bail of hay to use as hill mounding. I really like the idea of having a supply of garlic, onions, potatoes all grown by me in our ground. No poisons, just honest dirt.

Bitey!

My bird is loud…..and colorful…..Like the rest of my family.

Rest Life

The train to Los Angeles has a very distinct mood during different times of the day.

In the past, I seem to have ridden it during high travel times as I have always had to stand watching the very beautiful if not scary crowd going to and fro. 

Today I ride from one end of the line to the other, LBZ to the Union station. Then I hop the line to Hollywood. I get to sit and write this all the while watching the homeless dude snore across the aisle from me. It is a safe place to sleep the day, I guess, going back and forth. For the most part, the mood of this group of travelers is tired; it seems everyone is  going home. The men all slump in their seats, some read, most stare dully out the window. This is a hard town and they do hard jobs and have lived hard lives. I look out the window and see houses behind iron fences, with razor wire strung thickly across the top. There are bars on all the windows and doors too. It is wretched to live in such a completely wild and cruel place, to work so hard to simply afford to stay safe and alive.

When I first got on the train, there was one other white woman on board and she  was sitting across the aisle from me. Well, actually, she really was only technically a woman as she looked barely 18, with the rose of youth barely blooming and scarred by rough handling already. She sat staring into the void of the trains filthy floor, her body shaking, both legs dancing up & down, busy, busy knees. Her eyes were so sad, their fathomless brown depths ached with unutterable pain. I wanted to speak to her, offer her comfort, but clearly even a word would have made her hideously uncomfortable. She did not want to be seen by me or the other women; she only hoped for some one who would pay her for her time so she could get something to help the shaking stop.

I  left the train, emerging into the balmy, haze-softened late afternoon, knowing utterly blessed and fortunate I am to have been born into this life this time around.

New Horizons....

I  dropped my first waxes off at the mold maker today. I feel so unsure and giddy.

Will they turn out okay?
Will they not be clean enough of sculpts to produce excellent product?
Will the rest of the world like what I’ve made?

So many uncertainties. I feel like I am leaping into an abyss, no net, just tenuous faith. Justin is supportive, in fact he is funding these first reproductions and these first molds. I am deeply grateful for this and more than a little humbled. It is an uncustomary feeling having someone so thoroughly and unwaveringly supportive in my efforts.

I could not have conjured a more loving man.

Elves in my head

I love painting and started out with the idea I needed to be a representative artist. My early heroes were Vargas, Olivia, Michelangelo and Sulamith Wolfing. I was inspired to explore watercolor and gauche via their inspiration.

This image is in pen and ink which I haven't worked in for a very long time. I love the feeling that the fairy is a bit haggard and elderly. I always envisioned that the fey world was filled with a bunch of different fairies, not just the bright, cute sparkle-covered ones. Some were kind of menacing too in my imagination.

Potatoes of 2010

Today the row of potatoes went down and so did the beets. I felt that it was time to get them into the ground. I have waited long enough…the weather is clearly changing and spring is here.

There is a bit of bitter sweetness. Much as I appreciate the beauty of our home, the amazing view and the great relationship we have with Mario, I am ready to leave here. I feel a bit uneasy with living on the bottom of the house and worry about earthquakes…like the one we had today.

At least we will have fresh veggies until then.

The Bradbury Building

Love Blade Runner? How about that bitchen’ scene where the light from the advert dirigibles beam through the glass ceiling of that cold, abandoned building? Loved it!

Today, we were messing around downtown when J pointed out the Bradbury, giving me its movie star status. We waltzed right in and I dropped my jaw!

Wow.

Whatta building!

The wrought iron work alone is worth a peek but the tile and brick and the sheer laceyness of the whole place left me awestruck. A blinking confection of iron, glass, wood and stone. Of course in its real-life appearance, the interiors are not as dingy and cheerless as in the film; the sheer grandness is breath-taking.

This most definitely qualifies as one of my newest favorites of Los Angeles’ Secret Stash of Stunning Destinations!

Where my past became my future

I had the good luck to meet up with my old teacher, Donna , and she became my boss at Greneker, where we made mannequins. Here’s one of my sculptures. This guy was made for the Big Red Boat, that sailed in the Caribbean. That’s about 700 pounds of clay!

Lemuria - In the Beginning

What if...

What if there was a time before our recorded history that was essentially erased by a stray meteor or a massive flood?

What if?

Well, I've been poking at the legends of Lemuria, which are said to pre-date Atlantis mythos.Lemuria seems a very muzzy story that is surely not fully explored.

I love the Altantiean story and can fully buy into the concept that there were civilizations much more advanced than the Egyptian/Greco/Roman documented peoples. And I have often wondered why ONLY Atlantis.

Mme. Blavatsky and her pals, aside, the mythos of the Lemurian rise and fall is confusing and filled with conflicts and I wonder if there may be other substantiations or documentable research that has been read by any of you that is current and on going. What with all our developments as a techno crowd, one would think underwater archeology would have made huge strides!

Some of my favorite things

Some of the preeminent projects I have ever been involved with have been making scale models for the Disneyland Resorts. Often the floats we see going down Main Street in the parades are produced in other states and a model is necessary to send to the factory for the on site artists to work from. Here’s the Caterpillar as a model ...

and as the final product going down Main Street in the 50th anniversary parade.

I am always surprised by the final result. Generally in the past, I have been moving from project to project so fast that I had barely anytime to look up and see what I had made. This time when I went to see the opening night, I was thunderstruck at the joy I felt in being a part of such a marvelous team.

...and for the record....his hands and head moved, so he was awesomely creepy too!!!

Parrot endorsed Hooch

Made some Lemoncello today…well started the process, at least. It is labor intensive in the fact that 20+ lemons must be peeled to create enough essence to flavor the Everclear. It is patience taxing as the whole time element from beginning to end can last up to 3 months.

I recommend Everclear over using vodka, as some recipes recommend. The final product is by far more superior and tasty. This is my third attempt and I am feeling kinda confident that this will be one of my best batches yet. It is all in the timing, being patient, allowing the peels to soak a good long time.

Our land lord Mario taught me this recipe. The lemons are from the front yard,off a tree that has, for the most part, been organically grown. I love the fact that I make a far superior product for ½ the price for the best Lemoncello on the market.

And I am enjoying a sipping glass of it now as I write you.

Hee!

Here’s The recipe:

• 15-20 lemons - clean, unwaxed with nice clear skins Should give off a rich lemon scent
• 2 (750-ml) bottles Everclear.
• 2 to 3 cups of water
• 2 to 4 cups sugar
• A Large (2-3 liter) glass jar with a sealed lid.
• Bottles to put your final product in. I like glass bottles with attached stoppers.

Step 1: Lemon into the Alcohol

Wash and dry the lemons. Only use the ones without blemished peels or pare off any spots and the stems, ends.

Remove the peel from the lemons with a sharp peeler or fine grater/zester, carefully avoiding the bitter white pith. If you get any of the white part in the batch, the limoncello will be bitter and you don't want that!

Put the peels in a glass jar and add the Everclear, leaving at least two inches below the top rim. Seal tightly.

Leave the lemons to steep in the jar in a cool, dark a month. I leave mine for at least 2-3 months. I like to swirl the peels around in the jar to mix it up and check out the progress. The peels should be colorless before you proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Add the sugar

Heat the sugar and H20 until it turns clear and all the sugar is dissolved completely. Cool.

Put the cooled syrup in the jar with the lemons Seal tightly and return the jars back to the closet for at least two weeks. I go for a month.

Step 3: Strain and bottle

Strain out the lemon peels. A fine colander lined with cheesecloth will do great. This way you can gather it all together and squeeze out the final lemony goodness!

Decant into clean bottles, seal tightly and leave the finished bottles for at least 1 week before using.

Exercise patience….It will be worth it!

(seriously...I am not fooling here)

Finally, store the lemoncello in your freezer. It shouldn't freeze because of how much alcohol is in it and it is awesome ice cold.

Tips:

• Take your time peeling the Lemons. Don't get any of the white underbelly of the skin in the batch.
• Use organic lemons or at least ones you know where they came from.
• Make a big batch at once. (Once you share this, you are going to become mighty popular!!!)
• You can also make similar liqueurs

What to do.....

Working with my hands has always been my way of life. This is a "scooter' for Ariel in the Little Mermaid show at Disneyland.

Isn't she the cutest little Sea-horse?

Rainy days in LA.

The cool light had me thinking I had inadvertently switched the mode of the camera to black and white, but I hadn’t. This is the color of the day! Amazing!

We really have some profoundly lush theatres here. I only wish there was a way to preserve them. This building, though thoroughly modern from the 4th floor up maintained its astounding façade. It has been a sadness in my heart that so much of the coolest buildings in LA proper are now swap meets or condemned.

The fun Japanese tourist boys, who followed me across the street, were thrilled with the architecture of this building and we left them happily clicking away.

Candy is dandy....

My life as an artist and a single mother pressed me to stretch my abilities into areas where I did not anticipate growing to. I became a sculptor even though I thought I was only an illustrator. Little did I know my love for ‘making things’ in the commercial would start out as a bonbon.

Precious Cargo

I read through my posts for the last year and it appears my life has been on hold for nearly exactly a full calender year.

When I fell back in 2009, I was gearing up to produce and present a great deal of work from my bench. Now, I am looking at the exact same things with an eye for initiation into a new aspect of my growth as a jeweler: mass production.

The good part of 2009 is it offered me the perspective of my physical body that helped me become much more careful and tender with it. The one lesson my family never really taught me was to be careful with my body, to treasure it and protect it. Well, many moons down the road and injuries collected along the way, I am well aware of the fragility of my body now. It is my most valuable tool.

Just before the storm…

…I planted some potatoes plants. According to those who know, it is not so safe to plant potatoes from the ones that sprout in the refrigerator as they have not been treated to resist bugs, infection and a myriad of other potentially nasty stuff. So, I bought some “seed’ potatoes to see how this works.

My motivation to grow a product that is so common and generally mighty cheap to buy, is not for the novelty, but for the health reasons. According to an article I read , Potatoes are in the top 10 offenders for vegetables that are excessively pesticide and insecticide drenched. This translates to an abundance of these chemicals and poisons directly being ingested with each tuber.

Yech.

Painting big stuff

I studied to be an Illustrator and had a thriving faux finish/mural business for nearly 10 years. I was involved with projects that encompassed the gamut, from Broadway plays to Casinos in Las Vegas. I even had a solid relationship with interior designers that took me to mansions owned by a Saudi Prince and ultimately being featured in Architectural Digest!

How the cards were dealt

When I have been happiest, the work that thrills me is always toy sized or smaller. I love working in sculpy. Here is an example of an Alien figure made for Disneyland Entertainment.

Pretty pictures

I love the tarot. It is such an interesting means of communication, divinization and meditation. I especially love the Gateway to the Divine Tarot that I got in London last year.

And then the sun came out

My last blog was filled with such angst.
In an attempt to balance….I offer this image.

To give you context, it was an amazing day we spent in the garden. The intention was to get the weeds and leaves up and the yard tidied.
And we did it.

The place looks smashing and just in time too! The rain is drumming down outside and the tarps over the remaining weed-lets and straggling tomatoes are firmly nailed down.

All is ready to sink some fresh seedlings into the ground come March.

….as I finished my final sweep of the last of the leaves into the compost pile, Justin came out bearing this slice of sweet sunshine. Somehow, it made things all that much better, and I didn't feel so awful anymore.

Flush

Or....shall I say,studio.

When we came back from London, I needed to heal, to regroup and to figger what to do with my self. Well the healing needs to be thorough and the regrouping is taking longer than I imagined and clearly I don't know what I am to do....yet.

So I cleaned out the studio and I have spent nearly 2 full days pulling images out of old magazines, clipping articles, drinking endless cups of Tips and musing as I stare at the wicked weather. It is winter and right on cue the clouds, wind and rain have moved in forcing the issue and making me seek the shelter of my studio.

I want to work at the bench, but my shoulder pains me. It will be healed eventually and in the meantime, I ponder if it is possible for me to do things that may actually give me creative satisfaction and a financial reward. All for the low price of not selling my soul or talents to someone else? I have done that far too long and now it seems only reasonable that I explore the possibilities of my own creative vastness. Being technically proficient is all very well and good, but seriously...it is truly time for my visions to take precedence in my own world.

Here's to the abyss and all it's attendant thrills, spill, horrors and rewards.