I am thankful for so very much in this charmed life that I live, but I'll mention just a few here:
The wonderful family that I married into! Their constant giving, and not necessarily of material gifts, but their support, love, encouragement, and caring.
My ever constant and loving husband of 38 years and my awesome daughter and son-in-law.
Speaking of families: our extended Georgia family, which has shared their Thanksgiving with us for the past 30 years. Here is just a portion of the beautiful table which Heather and Scott had prepared for us this year:
Heather is 4th from left: one of the wisest, most caring and fun-loving women I have ever met!
She opened their home to 25 folks this year, many who had no local family with whom to share the holiday. It was an eclectic and fun crowd! Our Kristin and Dave are in the center of the picture below.......a little blurry, but what did you expect after running a half marathon in the morning and having already shared Thanksgiving dinner with Dave's side of the family!
Scott, our most generous host, is on the left, Catherine next, and Anna and her adorable son Roman behind Ben, Roman's Daddy, is barely visible behind Rene's shoulder.
I am thankful that Barack Obama has won the Presidential election and will take office in January! With his wisdom and guidance, WE CAN, YES WE CAN!!!
I am also thankful for all of you, who take the time out of your busy days to read and leave comments here. I've grown to know so many of you over the past couple of years, and that is a great gift for which I thank you. I know that there are others who read and don't yet leave comments, but I have faith that you will soon overcome your shyness and introduce yourselves!
Another thing for which I am thankful this year, is Georgia Tech's awesome football victory over the University of Georgia! It's been a long seven years since they pulled that off last! Go Jackets!!!
PEACE
What takes six bowls and four and a half hours to construct?
Give up?
Why, my Kentucky Bourbon Fruit Cake, of course!
I was all set to begin plumping up the candied cherries and raisins last night, when we discovered that we were plum out of bourbon! YIKES!!!! Can't make a Kentucky Bourbon Fruit Cake without it, now can you? So C contributed to this year's production by making a trip out in the cold rainy night to our local bottle man. Here are the fruits being strained, after 12 hours of plumping:
fear not: the strained bourbon is later added to the batter!
I thoroughly enjoy the entire process of preparing this fruit cake (especially in my new kitchen, which I am happy to report is an absolute delight to cook in!): the chopping (1 pound of pecans), the creaming (1-1/2 cups butter, 2-1/3 cups dark brown sugar, 2-1/3 cups white sugar), the sifting (5 cups cake flour), and the beating (6 eggs, separated).
So, here's the batter, all set to be popped into the oven (275) for 3-1/2 hours!
That's just a small portion of the dirty dishes!
After the baking is complete (and the kitchen smells oh so good!), the cake must cool, and then a bourbon infused wad of cheese cloth is popped down into the center and the whole thing is wrapped in aluminum foil, refrigerated, and left to its own self for a month. MMMMMMM!
Ooooooooops: I forgot to take a final photo!!! Sorry!!!! You'll just have to wait a month!!
So, tell me, do you like fruit cake? If not, I want to know what it is that you find disagreeable? And then, please do come by sometime after December 25th for a tiny slice of my lovely concoction, for I'm sure you'll change your mind!
I did have a bit of time (but not much) in the studio late this afternoon, but still don't have enough to show. Tomorrow????
C and I have been enjoying the Two Fat Ladies cooking videos. Are you familiar with them? They are hilarious (although I am sad to learn that Jennifer has died), the scenery is beautiful, and of course, the cooking is great! Right now they are watching a bee man separate honey from the comb. MMMMMM!
With all this talk of food, and the fast approaching Turkey Day, I thought this Maxine comic from my friend Bobbie was most appropriate:
PEACE!!!!
We always spend Thanksgiving with C's cousins Heather and Scott, and it is a lovely day filled with loads of friends and traditions that have developed over the years. I have always loved cheesecake and used to make many different ones, back in my baking and entertaining days. This yummy Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake is the only one that I continue to bake...but only for Thanksgiving at Heather and Scott's!!
I like to make it a few days ahead, cool it completely after baking, and then pop it in the freezer. We have about an hours drive on Turkey Day, so I remove it from the freezer just before we leave and it defrosts just enough to be cuttable when it's time for dessert.
Here's the batter:
and here's the finished product:
It's been a very productive day, but I don't want to share too much with you just yet. Here is a piece that is exciting me:
When Dr Sock came over to tutor me in microwave yarn dyeing, we had thought that we would also dye some silk fusion, silk tops and hankies. Well, we never got to the silks, but I did pull out this piece that I had dyed a couple of years ago. Dr Sock admired it and we both thought that it would look great mounted on a piece of black fabric. Then I decided it needed some beads............so I'm working on that, but not 100% of the time!
Hope you've had a great and productive day too!PEACE!!!
It's chilly here in the South: 22 when we walked Barker this morning!
A glue gel resist piece that I'm working on:
Is it bright enough for you????
It was still wet when I took this pic. After it dries I will iron it to set the colors, then soak it in a bit of water to remove the glue gel, then let it dry, and finally iron it once more....then, who knows!
I love Garrison Keillor and always feel lucky when I'm listening to NPR and the Writer's Almanac airs. Yesterday happened to be one of those lucky days. Did you know that Keillor has a Writer's Almanac web site? Did you know that the pilgrims landed in Provincetown, MA in 1620 on my wedding anniversary? That is rather coincidental, as that is where C and I had our honeymoon! I loved his reading of Robert Fanning's poem, "A Deer in the Target".
Thanks for all of your anniversary wishes. We had a wonderful dinner out with K & D at the Depot. It was so nice being with our kids that we enjoyed brunch with them this morning!
Enjoy your weekend!PEACE!!!!
Tomorrow is our 38th wedding anniversary! WOW!!! C is one persistent devil, isn't he? LOL Anyway, I worked late in the studio this evening, and when I came inside I found these on the kitchen counter:
aren't they gorgeous?!! There's something about long stemmed roses that just wins over my heart!
I'm taking a monoprinting class on line with Susan Sorrell. In our first lesson we were supposed to do sunprinting, but I haven't seen a lot of sun lately, or warm temps for that matter, so I opted for the glue gel resist option, which I had not tried before:
In Lesson 2, we are working on Frottage (rubbing) Printing using plexiglass and collagraphs. It was quite ironic that C should return home this afternoon with 2 large slabs of plexigraph scraps for me! What a guy!!! He was surprising me, and I surprised him when I told him that they were just what I needed for this class.
I was having a bit of a problem with the amount of paint to apply to the plexiglass, but even with that said, I really like the way this one turned out:
Back in the summer, a friend on the Complex Cloth group walked me through the process of making collagraphs. I made them but never used them...........so today was a first! TaDa!!! Here is my pine baugh monoprint:
After I had ironed it, I put it on top of a texture plate and brayered some paint over it:
I also made this holly collagraph:
Here are a couple of brayered textile plates:
The above are by no means masterpieces, but I can see so many places where I will use these new techniques! Thanks Susan!!PEACE!!!!
We spent a couple of days at the condo, and woke up the other morning to this incredible sky:
you can see Stone Mountain jutting up in the middle of the horizon. C tells me that the dew point is right there at the level of the clouds, whatever all that means! I just know that the sky was very pretty and I was glad that I had the opportunity to view it!
I had a wonderfully successful trip (read: $$$) to Knitch where I purchased cashmere yarn for fingerless gloves for myself and also a scarf for moi. Later we met up with some condo friends to enjoy a Preview tour of the new Terracotta Army exhibit at the High. What a great show!!! It boggles my mind to think about the incredible technology that the people of such early times had. The detail of their work is amazing. I particularly enjoyed the etchings on their containers. If you are local and have a chance, please make a point to see this exhibit! It was decidedly cooler when we departed the High, and the wind was whipping down Peachtree as we walked to a wonderful dinner at Tap. I enjoyed their roasted salmon on a bed of spaetzle: YUMMMM! C and our friends had the mussels.........I'm afraid that no mussels will ever compare to the incredibly fresh Penn Cove mussels Gerrie and I enjoyed while in Coupeville last summer, so I don't even bother to try them.
The next morning we had a huge surprise when we went out to walk Barker: the temp had dropped at least 20 degrees from the previous morning AND the wind was still blowing fiercely. But Barker does require a good morning walk (and so do we!), so we were all better for it! We stumbled upon a yard sale (what? 34 degrees and a Yard Sale?). This group of SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) students had decided to postpone their Saturday sale because of the threat of showers (see sky pictures above) and were holding their sale in the frigid Sunday morning air! I could have purchased almost every piece that they were offering, but I was trying to control myself. I did score these wonderful concrete pieces made by Tina Han:
My first thought was how lovely they would look on our condo walls, as they are in the right color scheme (some of our pillars and our ceiling are concrete) and they are just so cool! Then I started thinking about printing with them....and how lovely the dye/paint colors remaining on them would look when they hang on the walls. Tina has started a website, which you can view here. She is a very talented sculptress and a warm and friendly young lady.
As we were leaving the yard sale, one of Tina's guy friends approached us to offer a cd of his band's music. I never did catch his name, but he told me that he is the songwriter and also plays the guitar for the group. I love the cd jacket:
We came home to enjoy another choral offering at our church: The Lanier Chamber Singers presented their concert: "My Heart Rejoices". This group is composed of professional music folks from the area, and they are quite phenomenal, performing without accompaniment and all having fabulous voices. C and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to hear them several times throughout the year.
Before I head out to my sewing room, I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures of a Pileated Woodpecker that has been hanging out around our house for the past few days. We often see and hear these great birds nearby, but aren't always so lucky to view them so closeup.
These pics are a bit grainy because I set the camera speed up and also had to zoom in. But they are still pretty good shots, for me anyway! If you go to the link of the bird, you can hear his/her call.....quite distinctive and amazing! I do love them. When they are courting, they often do a dance around the base of a tree........very fun to watch!
PEACE
When I'm feeling down in the dumps, I must always remember that a lovely day will follow. As if it wasn't enough that I had a spectacular time dyeing sock yarn with Roberta, and then received so many positive and constructive comments on the blog (thank you all!!), but then this came in the mailbag:
Not only did my Complex Cloth and RR buddy Marga send me her fabulous thermofax screen that she had used on my RR piece, but also some lovely handmade Almond & Kelp soap...handmade by Marga herself!
Oh, I wish that I could hyperlink to the lovely aroma of the soap!! Needless to say, I have put it in the bag with my latest hand dyed yarn! MMMMMM! Thank you Marga!
I picked up these books at the local library the other day:
Actually, ahem, C picked them up for me, I simply put them on hold on the computer! I am such a lucky girl to have such a willing and helpful man! I have been a Kaffe Fassett fan for many years, but this book is so dated that most of the pieces are actually coming back into style now! I like the Nancy Bush book and may have to get a copy of my very own. Kristin had talked about the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book last year, and so I was pleased to find it in our local library. There are many interesting projects in there, especially the Chevron Scarf that Kristin knit.
Here is the first layer in a complex cloth piece that I started yesterday........
wait for pics of more steps!
I love this week's cover on Time:
Oh yes: WE DID!!!!PEACE
I have had some very good sales at our church's Festival of the Arts, and it feels so good! The scarves have gone well, which always makes me happy, and then last Sunday I learned that one of my quilted wall hangings had been sold! Actually, the purchaser had had a sold sticker put on it, and she was going to return on Monday with a check for it and a scarf. I was elated, as this was one of my first wall hangings to sell, except at auctions where I have donated them. Yesterday morning, the purchaser called me on the phone to explain that she was: a. retiring shortly and will be on a tighter budget, and b. her home really didn't have a place for the piece. So, did I mind if she backed out on the purchase? Naturally, I was very disappointed, but what could I say?
My dear friend Roberta, aka Dr. Sock , was due to arrive shortly for a dyeing session, so I put on a happy face and made myself promise that I wouldn't burden her with my sad news. Well, that lasted about 5 minutes! Roberta is such a friend: she listens, commiserates, and then helps me walk through my emotional mine fields! Plus, we had the pleasure of mixing dyes and then putting them on yarn!!!! WooHoo!!!!
Here's Dr. Sock preparing her dyes:
We had soaked my yarn and her roving in a solution of vinegar and water for a half hour:
In all of the excitement and eager anticipation, I forgot to take pictures as we added the dyes to the yarn and roving, but here's my second batch after I got it out of the microwave (yes: all done in the microwave!!):
And here it is after it had been washed out and was ready for drying:
I know, I know: only I would wear socks knitted with wild yarn like that!
This is my first skein of yarn: it's a lovely blend of black, chocolate brown, and a bit of dark blue:
Barker's the perfect dyeing companion........and he wears the colors of the day well!
Roberta and I got to clowning around with my yarns:
As you can see from the above shot: a session with Dr. Sock is the perfect antidote to an exposure to disappointment!PEACE!
She opened their home to 25 folks this year, many who had no local family with whom to share the holiday. It was an eclectic and fun crowd! Our Kristin and Dave are in the center of the picture below.......a little blurry, but what did you expect after running a half marathon in the morning and having already shared Thanksgiving dinner with Dave's side of the family!
Scott, our most generous host, is on the left, Catherine next, and Anna and her adorable son Roman behind Ben, Roman's Daddy, is barely visible behind Rene's shoulder.
