You Are What You Eat

With Christmas now a big box of fond memories to store away, you are probably right there with me with all your new stored Real Estate.  Talking tummy and hiney, here.  

Every year we spend Christmas at the beach, and tradition demands that I gather these ingredients from our local beach grocery:

You can see the Real Estate

accretion products piled up

here on my counter top 

overlooking the 

Intracoastal Waterway.

As the oven heats up, I am mixing like mad,

doubling up on the chocolate chips

and the walnuts, of course.

Love walnuts.

The best part

about all this work

is

you get to lick the extra dough

off your fingers when it piles up

on the spoon 

and you have to scrape it off.

Heaven.

The wait while they bake is excruciating...

And then, out of the oven

comes this loveliness.

I like to eat them while the

chocolate is still warm

and gooey

and fragrant.

And then I have another.

Because I can.

There are always paybacks for too much of a good thing, and it's now time to start paying...

because my bathroom scale has Nuclear Alerts going off when I just pass by it...

I don't even have to step on it to hear the sirens going off.

So, this is what I'll do to soothe the scales and zip my pants up again:

It's back to Brazil...this time for their Dietary Guidelines, not for Fajas.

1.  Eat Fresh, never processed Veggies and Fruits.

Include some dried beans, in moderation.

2.  Eat Fresh Fish that comes from a reputable source.

Eat roasted, grilled, or boiled chicken, made at home.

3.  Drink lots of clear clean water.

4.  Walk.  A lot.  Climb stairs.  Stretch and pull and twist and shout.

5.  Cook At Home so I can keep my food additives under control.

6.  Don't eat anything out of a box or bag - no processed foods.

7.  Eat Apple Slices, Celery Sticks, Carrot Sticks, Citrus Fruits for snacks.

If you want to take a look (and you should) at Brazil's down-to-earth guidelines,

you can view them HERE.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing recipes and tips 

with you to rope in that Extra Real Estate

without using a Faja!

Managing a Wildlife Refuge in Atlanta

We live just outside Atlanta, in a densely packed suburban neighborhood.

Fine restaurants, a rich selection of arts and entertainment venues, Pro Sports, 
and the Atlanta Merchandise Mart are all within a short drive.

Luckily, my talented Hubby has managed to make our property beautiful and serene...

we are pretty intense in our business lives and really need that calm space. 

We have a beautiful little pond for evening reflection and cocktails before dinner. 
Sometimes, however, it is not so serene.

Check out these Naughty Geese:

And this Blue Heron, who is NOT a favorite guest, because he is a voracious fish eater:

We also regularly have these enormous Snapping Turtles who move in 
and start eating everything that wriggles 
every single Spring. 

We used to catch them and release them in a nearby creek to keep them from murdering every small animal 
in our pond, 
including our Baby Wood Ducks!
  
It was classic Bad Behavior in our minds.
By hauling them off, we THOUGHT we had ended our problem.

No.
  
They came back, from miles away.  Every time.  We started marking them, because we couldn't believe they would travel that far, and land right back in our/their pond again.  
But it was true...they came "home" and so we caved.  

Now, Hubby feeds them in the summer with fish scraps, veggies, 
and the occasional freezer burned piece of red meat that I refuse to cook.  
They particularly love that.

We have a large back yard that Hubby carved out of some scruffy woods and we love that, too.  Since he can't stop himself from putting out corn and other wild life goodies, 
it also attracts a wide assortment of land critters.   
Our fave back yard Wild Life Visitor looks like this:

He doesn't kill anything, he's mysterious, and he sort of looks like Rudolph.  You know?

It took years to get the rules laid down for our wildlife and they taught us a few things, too.  Just when we all got all comfy with each other and the rules were set, 
THIS happened:

Very, very bad behavior.

And then, a herd of Otters moved in and romped around the pond in broad daylight.
Gobbling our fish, they treated this felled tree like a swing set in a playground
while they were out on recess from stuffing themselves with our carp,
bream, catfish, bass and crayfish.

See this naughty head?

And this swirl he and his girlfriend made while they played chase?

I declared war.
First up - ammo.

I have dropped depth charges, fired off Quarter Stick Missiles, 
and carpet bombed the entire pond.
Hopefully, no one will call the cops.

I have left this guy and his brother on patrol - they are motion activated, 
with cackling, blinking lights, and violent shaking of their cages.
They LOVE to be unleashed.

And no, I haven't put up our Christmas tree yet.  
I'm too busy managing a Wildlife Refuge in Atlanta.

A Message from China Brings Me Home

It is November again - a year since I have written an entry on my Blog.  Unbelievable how day to day activities add up to a year of one's life...A kaleidoscope of images and flashes of events are still alive and bright for the year of 2015, but the most earth shaking event for me this year happened quietly, as I watched a message from China bloom across my computer monitor and explode into my heart.

For quite some time, I've been deeply involved in refining my artistic skills by taking online courses from a gifted teacher and artist - Lilla Rogers.  She knows how to pull images out of you that you are surprised at, and grateful for.  So I've been drawing and drawing and drawing.  For about two years or so.

And then, she teamed up with another gifted artist, Margo Tantau, VP of Design and Creative at Midwest CBK to offer an online course in how to mock up your artwork onto Home Decor items, for presentation to Art Directors.  Like this:

Since I am all about creating artwork and Home Decor items, I did a double fist pump and was probably the first person to sign up when registration opened.  And then class started.  When the week was over and it was time to present, I was not prepared and my presentation was awful.
What the heck?

I passed it off as fatigue, since we were traveling that week and I felt disrupted.  So, on to week two.  And the same thing happened.  This was my most looked-forward to class in over two years, and I was absolutely blowing it.  I lost my confidence, the worst thing that can happen to an artist.  Then we got to the week about ceramic substrates.  

Margo posted a documentation of her trip to Dehua in Fujian Province in China,
where she had gone to take a look at a ceramics factory.  

She posted photos and a great narrative of her trip to the factory, which produced items similar to  the ones pictured above, but with more quietness. Suddenly, reading her article and studying her photos, I had tears in my eyes.  Because just like that, I knew why I was so unprepared
for presentation day every single week.

Since we were working to place our art on three dimensional objects,  my inner magnet had snapped to the process of Making the object rather than Drawing the artwork for that object.  

I had been snatched off the Planet of Drawing, and placed back on the Planet of Making.  

You see, when things like this are Made in China, they are made by people, using their hands and eyes to turn an idea into a useful object.  People make hundreds or thousands of those items.  With their hands.  See?  Hand. Made.  Each and every piece that comes out of that ceramics factory in Dehua is handled many, many times, with hands that feel and appreciate the thing that has been Made.  And that is what was messing me up.  I kept getting fascinated with the idea of Designing, Engineering, and Making an Object, and THEN making the artwork to put on it.
By then, every single week, I was out of time to make good artwork.

I was hungry to make something, simple as that.
I had been away too long from where I am anchored.
Making Things with My Hands.

I started gentle, poking around my fabric stash and tassel-making supplies:

Then I got all rowdy and started fooling around with "Mash-Up Pillows".
That felt really good.

So I moved on into experimenting with transferring some of my artwork on to fabric or wood or ceramics or oyster shells or
who knows what.
Now I am engineering, trouble shooting,
discovering my own way to do this. 

It will come, because I am a Maker of Things.

Who knew it would take a tray of plain white porcelain bowls
going into a kiln in Dehua, China
to introduce Me back to Myself?

The Way We Talked - Try Using this Word in a Sentence

It is cold in Marietta, Georgia.

Not Chilly, but Cold.

So, I am working on all of my jobs with the heat going full blast

and too many layers of clothes on.

Unlike this woman:

I came up to my graphics studio to grab the old, falling-apart dictionary

that has been crumbling on my back bookshelf

to select some pages to put in a tea bath.

Then, I started focusing on the words on those pages

and my attention went 180 degrees from what I was supposed to be doing.

Did you know that in the 1800's, there was a word that meant

Wanton-ness or Friskiness??

The word is Petulcity.

I dare you to use that word in a coherent sentence at the next office party.....

How about this one:  Pezle Mezle.

Apparently that was the phrase in the 1800's that now means Pell-Mell.

I kind of like the way that Pezle Mezle feels in my mouth.  

I can see making use of Pezle Mezle during the Holidays, can't you?

And I leave you with this:  Pettifogulize.

This juicy word meant to "use petty and contemptible tricks or quibbles".

Of course, anyone who engages in such behavior is known as a Pettifogulizer.

Know anyone like that?

I think I prefer wanton friskiness.

I do know this old dictionary will go on my bedside table for some entertaining reading.

Saved from the tea bath...

Back to work; can't sit still too long at my desk or my toes will get frost bite!

How To Loose Weight at Warp Speed

I'm serious.

Go pour a glass of water, and let me explain

while you slurp it down.

Water simply isn't on my radar screen.

To drink, that is.

My Dad had the same blank spot.

When I was little, after a pre-school checkup, my pediatrician told my Mom 

to wake me up for school with a glass of water in her hand 

and wait until I had drunk it down before leaving the room.

Chances were, that would be the last water I would drink that day.

Go figure.  I just never thought about drinking water.

Milk, orange juice, Nehi Strawberry or Peach and sweet tea were my faves,

with Mom's good coffee laced with lots of milk and sugar sometimes.

With that to choose from, why drink tasteless water?

Last year at my annual checkup, the doc told me to cut down on salt.

He said my face was puffy from too much salt and not enough water.

That reminded of my childhood, but only briefly.  

I forgot about it, and sprinkled my new favorite smoked salt on almost everything.

This year, he studied my face, looked at my BP and said abruptly,

"Stop eating salt.  Period."

And left the room.

So, okay.  I was already on a mission to increase my water intake, so I thought,

"What the heck.  I'll go for it."

I tripled my water intake, and started squeezing lemon juice on my food.

Almost same as salt, but surprisingly tastier.

One week later, I am down 6 pounds.

Serious.

That's a lot of fluid.

With a jump start like that, I'm back on my sensible eating plan of 

"Calories in, calories out".

Don't eat more calories in a day than you can burn off.

Walk every day in the fresh air,

cut down on white stuff like rice and bread,

and enjoy zipping into those jeans hung in the back of the closet.

Just in time for cold weather and layered clothes.

Sand Dunes, Sea Turtles, and High Fashion

See this?

Jonathan Saunders                                     Paul Smith

Spring/Summer 2015 Women's Ready to Wear 
by Jonathan Saunders and Paul Smith that caught my eye.

And see these little guys??

Photo courtesy Holly Beck

So, here is this,

That I designed for your Beach Cottage.

And, this:

Turtle Bay Bedding Ensemble.

Available in Basic Cotton, Linen Cotton Canvas, Eco Canvas, Cotton Silk, Silk Crepe de Chine, etc. at my Spoonflower fabric shop here .

And yes, I am still awash in the Fall Runway Shows and gobbling up the fabulous palettes and patterns being shown there - I simply can't get enough of it!

Swimming in the Milan Spring Summer 2015 Catwalk

Will you just look at this fabulous-ness?

Emilio Pucci for SS 2015.

                                                                                      

And this from Stella Jean?

This is serious eye candy, and a sumptuous teaser for the palettes and styles you are going to see in the Spring and Summer of 2015.  

Gorgeous colors and flow-y, drape-y and swish-y styles are going to permeate the landscape of the streets, restaurants, shops and parks next Spring...how lovely is THAT??

The only thing I love more than layered swish-y fabrics is the sartorial look, which is a great counter point to this look and has a flirty tension all its own...but that post is for later.  Right now, just look at these colours and patterns!

The Milan Catwalk for Spring/Summer 2015 was simply delightful.  
The palettes and patterns presented by some of my  favorite fashion designers 
made me smile out loud.  And I'm utterly delighted that although I had no clue 
what they would present on this September's catwalks, I've apparently been 
swimming in the same pond without knowing it since April.
I had started a new collection based on one of our trips this Spring, 
but was hesitant to finish it out... 
I felt like it was too "Out There" - too Saturated.  Too Landscape-y.  
Now, I can lay those fears to rest and finish those collections with a party in my heart.

Look at Stella Jean's lovely skirt and blouse: 

Stella Jean SS 2015

And...here is my Cottage Porch Collection, started in June of this year.  When I saw Stella Jean's "Houses On a Hill" walking down the catwalk, I nearly 

fell out of my chair with delight!

Now, take a look at this close-up of one of Just Cavalli's dresses:

                                                              And this serving of scrumptiousness from Stella Jean:

Don't you want to go get a big spoon and just 
eat this up??

(In my next life
I am going to be
5'10" and have
gorgeous hands
and a long neck...)  

With these lovely images in my head and heart, how could I NOT be dancing in my studio? 

Now that I've gobbled up this catwalk, 

I can't wait to get my collections finished and 
posted to my Spoonflower shop. 

Lesson learned.  Follow your heart; always follow your heart.

Now, back to working on my new Cavalli Jean Collection!

A Report on Surtex and National Stationery Show 2014

I'm bidding a fond farewell to New York City

and heading home with my head packed with images

from the National Stationery Show

and Surtex.

Like this early evening view from my hotel window:

The Shows were beautifully presented.

Hundreds of Exhibitors and throngs of Buyers

created a great upbeat vibe throughout the Javits Center.

The artwork presented was beautiful.

Here is a tiny sampling of what I saw - all images from the artists.

Artwork of Laura Lobdell

Artwork of Sandra Jacobs

Artwork of Diane Kappa

Orange, Dusky Pink, Emerald Green, Blues, Mustard Yellow

and pops of Orchid in shades from Plum to Lavender

were the Colors of the Show.

Cactus and Succulents, cute little Forest Creatures, Vintage Kitchenware,

Paisleys, Plants in Pots, and of course lush Florals

were everywhere.  Tropical motifs, including Flamingos 

were also widely represented.

Lighthouses, Whales, Anchors and Beach Scenes 

caught my eye in some booths,

and of course there were the Seasonal workhorse motifs 

in many booths.

It was a virtual Tidal Wave of art.

By far and away, the National Stationery Show had the largest crowds and the most exhibitors, including a new section of Gifts and Creative & Lifestyle Arts

and another new section for Etsy Wholesalers.

In addition to the lovely booths offering Stationery and other Paper Goods,

there were booths displaying equipment to be used in the creation of all this lovely stuff.

Waste Not Paper was packed with buyers - both retailers and artists.

Janome had a huge booth set up with embroidering machines.

There were paper scoring machines, corner rounders, and foil finishing equipment services.

Software for personalized stationery and Hot Stamping services.

AccuCut had a booth that was hard to get into - they doing a booming business selling their Stationery Die Cutting Machine, the GrandeMARK Roller.

Image courtesy Traci Ambrust of AccuCut...the night before opening.

I jostled my way through numerous paper and stock booths,

looked over the Scotch Brand booth, 

and visited The Gift It section.

Perhaps the most amazing booth was the Hewlett Packard presentation,

where they had latex printers displayed that would print on almost any substrate,

up to Billboard Size!

Bottom line, this is the best Market I've ever attended to bring artists, artisans, agents, equipment and buyers together.

If you are an artist wanting to sell your artwork for application, do yourself a favor

and start saving up now for Surtex 2015 to at least walk the show.

If you have a small business in Stationery, Embroidery, or other hand made product,

the same goes for you.

It is truly worth the price of admission.