Lemon Ice Cream with Shawl and Shibori on top

The shawl I made with Camilla's  Twist and Twine Yarn 

I am wearing as I snap a photo of myself into the mirror over my

kitchen stove. You ask why I have a mirror in my kitchen?

My grandmother told me, when I was about to be married, to always hang a 

mirror in my kitchen to remind me that this is what my husband sees when he

looks at me, and if I want a long marriage. . . be happy with what I see.

I love this shawl. It makes me like a little of what I see.

For a real treat visit Camilla's blog to see her new restaurant

and all of the beauty of Montana at

http://www.freerangechik.blogspot.com/

just because she is really a nice person.

From my garden the above dahlia shines in my kitchen. 

My cup runneth over! The new cup I bought in Asheville.

Remember? This is the photo I showed you before.

Here is another shot of the shawl in progress.

I swatched the yarn so many ways to see what I would do with it.

The color is lovely and it is different with unusual stitches. Here it pools

into larger areas of  color. I like this a lot and will do something with this, soon.

I love the sense of color Camilla chooses to express. I have enjoyed her

Magnolia Handspun for the past couple of years. She is discontinuing this

yarn. I am practically out of stock of this, myself. Sad. It was so much fun to use. 

I made Lemon Ice Cream from the China Moon Cookbook.

It takes 1 1/8 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice,

the zest from all of the lemons (I used a special zester tool)

2 cups sugar and 4 cups of half and half plus

a pinch or two of kosher salt.

You grind the sugar with the zest in a food processor or blender for a few minutes,

then add the juice and blend well. Stir in the cream in a large bowl.

That is all!

It is the most delicious Ice Cream Ever!

I served this in green carnival glass with a Pepperidge Farm

Milano chocolate cookie.

Yum 

Barbara Tropp really knows her stuff.

I love this cookbook 

which was out it 1992.

I visited her bistro China Moon when I lived in SF

The recipes are amazing.

On Indigo Shibori Day:

We had chicken with cranberries and pecan salad 

on lettuce in croissants sandwiches

Caesars Salad

a huge tray of fresh summer Melon

Lemon Ice Cream and Milano Cookies

drinks

and way too much fun

outside under the umbrellas on the deck.

Just before you ad this into the ice cream maker you let it sit and

stir for a little while to mingle the ingredients.

Freezing. . .

Frozen and ready to eat. I like it right away after freezing rather

than containing it and putting it in the regular refrigerator freezer. It gets

too hard and the texture is not as nice.

Shibori Indigo dyeing was the activity of the day.

We had a great time and can you believe this???

I forgot to take pics because I was having so much fun.

Thoughts Become Things?

Thoughts become things?

I am doing the Beyond Layers exercises, the funny thing is that I thought it was going to be about using layer in photographs and textures and hints and that sort of thing. It is, but it is much much more. It is turning out for me to be a vehicle for change for one thing. . .
Sometimes, my goals are so high, for me, that it is already set up to be way too difficult to achieve anything even close. I set goals. Do you?
The past couple of years have been tough going staying on the paths I set for myself. Not really because of circumstances but because of the way I choose to think about life. I get caught in a trap that I set for myself when I was about 4 years old. Now that is really silly, I know.
I have some sorrows that I can not change. Those things I try not to think about because they are problems that I can do nothing about. When I was four I decided to be the fixer of the family. Can you imagine a four year old being equipped to deal with helping grown-ups feel better? I thought if I thought a thought it would happen. So I went around holding my breath trying so hard not to think some thoughts. Can you imagine? Magical Thinking is what that is. I know better, now. I know that I was a really smart kid and critically observing of everything and everyone surrounding me. So I thought that if I tried really really hard that I could do something about these things. Ha,
It has taken my whole life to finally realize that that is a waste of time. It just isn't going to happen.
I am back into where I left off more years than I care to tell.
I am listening to Laurie Anderson, again. I am listening to the Dalai Lama, again. I am planted firmly in my traditional beliefs, as I always have been, but, I am opening doors, again.
My dad used to always say that all steeples point up. I believe that is true. But, I am very open to being a spiritual kinda person. I am a very spiritual person. A place of worship does not even need to have a steeple, either. For me anyway. I am open to respect for what others believe. We are all human beings after all. I say just let it be.
I do not believe in coincidences at all. When you are ready the teacher will appear. I learn so much from the kids I teach. I am learning from a lot of gals and guys in cyberspace. It is really funny to me that that is even possible. This keyboard is an avenue to a world out there. It is an avenue to find the things I must need to hear.
I appreciate what is going on on the internet. It is something to think a lot about. And I do!
I feel more like a philosopher sometimes than a visual kinda person trying to create something worth while. I have to laugh how open I have become with telling anyone who reads this blog exactly what is on my mind.
Lately, I have not had as much time as I would like to do those sort of things. But, summer is like that when you get slammed by mother nature over and over. This weather thing is something to recon with, for sure, I have strong thoughts about that, too, but later.
I want to have many friends, no, I have many friends. I share what I know. I have so very much already, material things. I want to know what makes people tick. I am doing art about that.
I think about Yoko Ono and how I tried to sing along with her. My sister thought I was crazy when we were in Amsterdam. She wanted to catch the next plane home. I think about how some artist just keep on going and going. I am going and going.
Now, these thoughts are all things, right?
No pics today, though.

Life Joy

In preparation for the indigo day at my house on Wednesday: Joy for sure is in my heart. It is always the little things that make me smile. I am sharing this experience that I have watching green and yellow turn into blue upon the fabric that has been manipulated by stitching and folding, Shibori.
The magic happens when the air hits the fibers. Blue Blue Blue
I love blue, like the sky, like my fences, like the reflection in water of a clear blue day.
Lunch under the umbrella at the table with good food and friends, like I say, it is always the little things that make me smile.
I will share some photographs after the event.
Yoshika Wada is the person who sparked my interest in this technique a few years ago at Arrowmont.
T. May was there and she inspired me to be loose in working with fiber. Nancy Crow was by my side when I was stung by a yellow jacket on the courtyard outside the classrooms. I saw her later in NYC
when I was visiting my good friend Sue Wall and Rhoda Lenvinson was there, as well.
That period of time was full of life changing moments for me. I was building a foundation for my life as I know it now. The Dalai Lama talks about what happens if you build a foundation on ice and what happens when it melts. That year I was surrounded by rocks.Am I happy about that!
I count the blessings in my life, everything I need, I have. How fortunate to be able to share it all.

School starts next week, I am looking forward to setting a few hearts on fire for the creative experiences that can be ours.

I am still working on my new blog, I fit the time into this crazy schedule of mine.

I wish for you a beautiful day!

xoxoxo

Make it happen

One day, in Paris, I watched a little lady let pigeons land all over herself. That has never happened to me!
I watched a little girl with a straw hat run through a playground with nothing else on herself. That has never happened to me!
I walked fifth Avenue in NYC with Sigourney Weaver stopping in one shop after another. It was fall, it was dark outside and no one ever bothered us. She bought a Norma Kamali silk dress with shoulder pads. Now I see her on a current TV show where she is probably running for President. That has never happened to me.
I am in the mood to make something interesting happen, how about you?

I am randomly picking images from my hard drive. I do not know what is coming up. I wonder will it make any sense or relate to anything I might say?

Nope!

xoxox to you

It is here?

 

Unraveling

A few weeks ago, we had that big storm that left us without power for a week.

Lightening struck so close it shook everything. The power went in and out for a few minutes.

Well, I discovered when it came back on that it played with electronic items in my home and studio.

It didn't exactly kill everything, it just messed around with it. That is even harder to deal with, I think.

It took a while to realize why my e-mail wouldn't work and other programs. It has taken me time to unravel and fix everything. Our television is like this too. I am afraid to find anything else.

So, I took some time to think.. . .

I realize that I need a change. . .but one of my own choice.

I am in the process of starting a new blog.

Without Residue inspired by Rilke.

It will take a while to set it up the way I want it to be

So, please bear with me 

We have had a bear here again, and I cant't help but be confused. How DO you spell bare or bear?

as in bear with me? just kidding.

I have so much to tell you that has happened in the past few weeks.

I am sure it will all come out, eventually

I have not been able to visit anyone of my friends online for all this time.

I will play catch up and that will be fun.

This is before blocking when I had just a few stitches to go.

And so it went like this. . .

while technology was busy driving me crazy

I worked on this shawl

in the evening.

I wore it in Asheville NC

last weekend over a sun dress.

Yes, it was a little chilly.

I love the yarn, it goes so well with

my pastel colored sundresses.

I wonder how many stitches there are?

So, Hello to everyone, again.

I have missed you all.

xoxoxo

What is done is done

This is where you can find me:  http://withoutresidue.blogspot.com/

This blog is being retired soon.

xoxo hugs to all.

Soon I will be having a picnic here at my home for quite a few children that they might

see what I do here, in this place.

My home is my happy spot, my King's X, my sanctuary.

This is where my studio lives.

Later, this summer, I am hosting an indigo dye day for a group of adults. We will explore

shibori techniques utilizing PVC poles and pleating.

I met a wonderful woman in Floyd, Virginia, the day after the big storm.

Sometimes I believe in fate. She was playing music in the dress shop of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Taj Mahal. "Gone Fishing" was the song. She teaches Appalachian studies at the college there.

Listening to her tell it, I found anew an interest in this region where I live.

It was a very GOOD thing.

I am all into embracing the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

The mayor of my town

made me think about the fact that this is what it is,

this town, I mean.

There have been three filming crews here lately doing documentary videos which will be seen on

television, soon. 

On to my other

items. . .

This is a visual portrait of me.

Beyond Basics assignment.

This is how I see me.

Using Kim Klassen's epiphany texture

As I see it. . .

what I do is who I am

Is how I look. . .

Have a day to remember!

xoxox

Look What Happens

Just when you think you have it all figured out. . .

this will work for this class

and

that will work for that class

and

don't even think about wasting time. . .

your are prepared,

right?

this is when the xxxx hits the fan. . .

You know. . . I AM a trouper!

for sure. . .

then

the wind blows

this wind blows like no other wind blows

no power

no lights 

no water

no phone

no nothing

for a week

it is high high humidity

and high high temperatures

but

I find beauty, anyway.

I took pictures of the damages

on the blue ridge trail

came home and the road. . .

our driveway

covered in huge trees.

Have you ever had to dig your way out of a hole?

My great aunty M used to say

that a house will die

if no one lives in it.

My great aunty Elsie

used to tell me that when I see the leaves on a tree

flip upside down

that rain will surely come

soon.

It will 

it did.

10 days later. . .

I stuck this linen fabric (above) upon the wall with stick pins

of an abandoned home.

It is dead, for sure.

But, to me, it is beautiful.

I printed a photo I took onto the linen.

A beginning for a work.

We shall see?

Hugs to all of you!

Now I have to play catch-up!!!

"Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divination, perhaps we would then endure our sorrows with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent." 


Rainer Maria Rilke


Yesterday, I began the first page of my embroiderer's ledger with enthusiasm and that great feeling of beginning. That is such a good thing. always to be a beginner. I learn that while teaching my class of little one's and when I am visiting with my Mom.
I had to stop working on the ledger, to go to the center where Mom stays, now. I took her for a drive to Blacksburg, Virginia, to buy her some lipstick and we had a sweet time sitting outside eating lunch at Panera's.
I picked this restaurant because I have to help her walk and she can not do that very well, anymore, and to show her the blog Karenruane.blogspot.co.uk  on my Kindle Fire that has wi-fi. She loved seeing the work of Karen. My mom is losing her memory and is confused, sometimes. She is blind in one eye and has lost her sense of smell.
This past year has been filled with so many sorrows, sometimes I could hardly bear it all. But, the good thing is that she is so happy, now. The center is just wonderful and they are well equipped to deal with the physical and mental disabilities that Mom has. They take her to concerts and even the Senior Olympics. They helped her stand-up while she putted in golf competition. She won an award for her putting. The funny thing is that she never did that before, in her life, she just watched my Dad all the time.
So, you see, if I would have known, I would not have hurt inside, I would have experienced the illness of my mom with anticipation of the newness.
When I returned home in the evening with my needles, the package of yarn that my honey picked-up at the post office was on the kitchen table:

So, this is a snap of my morning coffee with the beautiful tools

and materials I have to work with today.

Let not your heart be troubled, and even if it is

there is something hidden in all of that.

Just wait upon it.

See?

xoxoxo

Make Good Art

You know, I question myself a lot
I just wrote a bunch of stuff and deleted it
while it was disappearing
I noticed how amazing
the visual image was
and
that that in itself would make a great video. . .
Tools are important,
not to change the subject, but,
they are.
Above is a tool I found once
that someone a very long time ago
used to grind corn or something.
Tools today are beyond anyone's wildest imagination.
I think about this a lot.

This link to a speech given to graduating students
entitled "Make Good Art"
is something I wish I would have seen
a long time ago.
You simply must watch it.

Tools again:
I need to buy some needles.
I do not want to stop doing what I am doing
to go to a store.
Maybe someday,
what I need
will suddenly appear
as soon as I think of it.
STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED
IN MY LIFETIME
LIKE
THE
INTERNET

Things In Common

Today we are contemplating things we have in common
for instance
what it feels like to be a comment junkie
or
 is my art good enough
or
should I just do it anyway
who cares
do I care?
do you care?
do I do it just because it is fun
or
can I just not help it if that is all I want to do?
It must be important to me
one way or another.
Is it important to you?
Do you like to see if I see
what you do?
I like to play
around
with
what
I
see!
It makes me see
even
more.
I then want to see
more and more and more
Look at what I did
SEE?


 

Beyond Layers assignment for this week
is above.

Ok I am switching gears back to embroidery ledger
now.

xoxoxo

The Detour

"The fifteen-year old daughter of a friend once addressed the old Jung as follows: "Herr Professor, you are so clever. Could you please tell me the shortest path to my life's goal?" Without a moment's hesitation Jung replied, "The detour!"

Richard Kehl  quotes this in Silver Departures - Quotations to set the mind traveling

So, here I am again, off onto another adventurous detour.

Once, my husband and I were on our way to Lake Powell in Arizona,

we had come the back way over the Three Mesa area of the Hopi

reservation and came to a road that would be a shortcut to save hours

of drive time. So, we turned off that road onto the new road.

I could see it on the map. (I always slip into a passive voice, hmmm)

So, here we are driving a brand new Cutlass Supreme down the middle

of a dry river bed when coming our way were three Indian cowboys

riding on their horses when they stopped to ask if we were lost.

Well, no we were not lost. . .was this not the new road?

You see, I am such an optimist.

Of course, I will never hear the end of this!

It is a super highway, now.

Anyway, back to the detour idea. Starting today,

I am taking a class online, to compliment my detour into embroidery.

I know for sure that this is truly a road worth travelling and it does

complicate  my life, a bit, at this point,

but hey, who knows?

Is this just another jag in the road that is getting me closer to my destiny?

below are some shots I have taken of things I work on:

I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

xoxox

Meditation on the color GREEN

Just 

B  R  E  A  T  H

In the mix

the three above photo's

+

a little type

This week has been extremely busy

I am working on

Sothia shawl

Robin Ulrich

using Twist and Twine

I ordered more yarn for Katriel shawl, too.

Not to mention gardening, cooking, 3 Birthdays, visiting Mom,

photography, embroidery, Fathers Day,

Reading Fall of Giants,

visiting friends, whew. . .

I hope you have a weekend

filled with sunshine and happy days!

hugs to all of you!

Foto Friday

I keep working on embroidery and knitting and gardening

and painting fence and and and

photography experimentation.

I wish for you the warmth of the sunshine

the crispness of New Mexico Air

the blueness of this morning sky

the blueness of my periwinkle fence

and in the details of seeing every little thing

joy

Have a nice weekend xoxox

Ten Things

The Beyond Layers Experiment with Kim Klassen is something that makes me

realize again and again that just like everything else you will

get back exactly what you put into any effort.  We are to share

10 things that one might fear so here is my list:

1. That my fourth grade teacher was right when she told  my Mother that I am consistently inconsistent. I can change that, right?
2. That I will not have twenty million things to do every single day.
3. That I willingly, lately, share way too much.
4. That I willingly, will not share way too much.
5. That being a teacher that I do not take every opportunity to make a difference.
6. That I spread myself too thin when it comes to doing the very best I can.
7. That I can not decide what to do with the yarn pictured above because it is so pretty.
8. That I might swatch myself to death. For those of you who are not knitters, a swatch is when you try out stitches to be able to gauge what exactly the yarn will do when knit with particular needles, etc. It is important so that you will get the correct size in a garment or whatever.
9. That Jiminy cricket will stop telling me what to do. That I know that Jiminy is really just human and makes mistakes, too, and that I loved him, anyway.
10. That I will not live long enough to do all that I want to do or experience.

I was to do a black and white photo and I added the Oh My texture from Kim Klassen.

Again, I am not satisfied with the photo, but, I will try try again.

I hope you all have a very wonderful day! xoxo

Snaps

Working this past week has been filled with experimentation and 

frustration and satisfaction. Is that not the way it goes when one

is in the push me pull me mode?

As usual I am working on twenty two things at once.

But, when I stop to think about it . . .isn't everyone?

Control seems to be an issue for the week.

Machines. . .the culprits.

My computer has been acting up and the internet connection has been 

in that mode, too. It seems that Thundershowers have something

to say about all of that.

The mystery of it all!

Above is something I am thinking about at the moment. The layering

of time and space in life as I live it.

The fear that I will not have enough time to do all I think of doing

is always in the back of my mind.

I have a lot to say, I guess.

What I do when I just follow wherever something leads is more than 

I could ever want in my wildest dreams.

But then I am left with editing and making choices. . .We all know that is not my strong suit.

Just let it be, for now, just BE.

Two things at once.

Two things, again.

Hope you are having an interesting week.

xoxo

Just In Time

Hunting and Gathering

for

a new work

Beyond Layers

I find it is such a comfortable feeling

to be integrating

elemental ideas

considering possibilities

making it work

wondering

where it will

end

If I already knew the answers

I would never do anything

Hope your weekend

is more than interesting

xoxo