trust yourself

on the spur of the moment, i bought some fabric the other day.  i know, i don’t buy things. but reading kaffe’s book and thinking about interiors must have inspired me to drive the mile or so to boca bargoons, where interior design fabrics are sold for a tiny fraction of their regular prices—try eight bucks a yard?-- with the idea of, maybe, finally fixing the wimpy commercial curtain panels on the front windows, which i left off working with a decade or so ago…

(the fiber space, aka living room)

the idea was to use those ordinary closeout sale ones as liners for my own panels of fabric, which i might change at will (they are stationary) but i never got there.

i got there.

thank goodness i’ve learned to trust myself, because obviously i unconsciously was manifesting this, although i did not realize it until i started taking these pictures just now…

…while i was there wandering around the towering, floor-to-ceiling displays of horizontally bolted fabric. what i did realize was that i probably should consider, at least cursorily, some attempt to tie together the good-color-but-badly matched plaid, french, linen window panel in the painting space…

with its admittedly eclectic surroundings…

 

 

 

 

 

(the painting space, nee dining room)

and the only way i would ever do that was just to throw more colors and patterns at it until i got there.

i got there.

i came up with--went right to them, pretty much, on opposite parts of the store--these:

i especially love the apple green weft on the red check taffeta, it’s what tripped my unconscious into my conscious and screamed “that one!”

 

yeah, trust yourself.  couldn’t really have done better if i’d tried. who knew i needed to wait a decade to find the perfect thing?  i’m thinking the fuller, lined flowerdy ones on either end of each window, and then a flatter, unlined hanging of the red/green to take the place of each center panel.  cut down the middle, unfinished edges, the better to take advantage of that weft…already have the stepladder out…

(mo bettah before pics here.)

more kaffe thoughts

• knitted drapes!  that's it! knitted drapes!

these were the only examples i could find on the web, not kaffe.  but…

 

• i never really noticed that kaffe is six –foot-three.  i suppose i knew he is tall, as that is natural to me, but i would have been hard pressed to say how tall he was, six feet maybe?  perhaps because michael is six-foot-three (+?) i don’t start  thinking tall until past that?

Flickr Tags: knitting

the black dahlia

finished this. still can't decide if it's the one i read before or not, it didn't seem so all through except possibly in the end.  and i have such vivid memories  of the book i DID read before, could it have been  this?  i thought it was ellroy, but i also thought i was in L.A. at the time and this didn't come out until long after i was in NYC.  it's very strange, not knowing.

kaffe thoughts

the line drawings, contours, remind me of mine at osfa a dozen years later in that journal i made there in 1974. seem to have a great deal to do with our subsequent works.

and here i am teaching 21st century children how frida’s  are put together, proportion, contour, balance with imaginary imagery, emphasize with intensity, or contrast, or negative space…when i don’t do it that way myself, nor do i believe—or was ever taught—that’s the way to do it, or even the way she did it, but because the curriculum says they’re to be tested on identifying proportion, balance, emphasis, things that can be named.

art that can be named is usually fairly inert.  but what do i know? i never had an art class, until i went to art school in 1978. perhaps that’s what they were like.  kaffe dropped out of his, after all.  i just got lucky, as usual…

when i mentioned to him that i wanted to do mosaic with elementary school kids, he looked at me as if i were out of my mind.  perhaps he was right, i don’t know.

Flickr Tags: readathon

october non-read-a-thon

begin with kaffe…

…just to take me home.

 

not doing all the readathon interruptions today, though…

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? florida
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? the next one
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? snack?
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! i’m an artist
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? i will not try to keep up with the infernal interruptions; i couldn’t get anything read!

off to read now…

 

Flickr Tags: readathon

first morning

a new porch.

a new view…

 

my old feet.

a cat.

(wait, what’s over there?)

summertime

another series of mostly pictures posts, i think.  we shall see.

i have arrived in brigadoon for the summer, not for little/middle, which didn’t have me this year, but instead housesitting gale’s house, with roommates.

 

I am Nala.

I am…                                          (she does that.)

busy.                                            (sigh.)

 

Rocket. I am Rocket  I’m still a kitten.

 

(sigh.)

that's what i love about the south....

viz. the last two posts. sterling service and food assistance. and i can't tell if the stuff i'm sweeping from under the antique welsh dresser is the termite stuff i'm supposed to be looking out for, or the stuff  Bugman throws down to get rid of them in the first place...

replacements, ltd

this is my poor silver pattern. do you think that Replacements, which needs some support just now, might be able to identify it?





it says " R   STERLING..." and then there is a hallmark: a rectangle, a circle, and a diamond...  it is a service for six, and certainly not valuable, and i DO have several pieces gone missing over the years...

at last!

restocking the kitchen with a good basis of real food! i'm excited about finding this!


the menu

 
the box

 
rendering the freezerburn

 
concentrating all the stock

 
too many frozen fresh berries +

 
4 lbs overripe organic bananas = smoothies!

 
opening the box

 
the pantry items include a caramel cheesecake??

 
veggies!

 
chicken filets, ham, ground beef, and sausage

 
and lotsa chicken for grilling.

now off to google recipes... pork sausage chili
beef sausage bangers and mash with onion gravy
ham steak with collards, rice and field peas
grilled chicken with rice and veggies
ground beef lasagne helper
chicken tenders with waffle potatoes and corn on the cob!

it will be quite the month!

on my own...

and at last i can read! no longer participating in whatever that foofraw was about, i still intend to do the marathon, just on my own. i've put down the Aubrey/maturin audiobook, which i'd had to skip back in inumerable times, since i'm really not all that anxious to make go away, and tookup frank delaney's the last storyteller, which i have out until the 28th. i want to do some reading with eyes during most of this, after all. i'm trying to figure out which of delaney's books make up the series of which this is the last (?) installment, but no joy yet; shouldn't it be clearer, if it really is a series? anyway, i have this, and i have ireland--which seems to be a standalone book?--from audible waiting for a listen, and there's a three-book bundle that contains at least one of the series books, in kindle on overdrive. i really would like to read them in order, though, if only i could find out what that was, does anybody know? in the meanwhile, i'll finish the one i began last weekend. and lunch begins to make itself necessary...

snack? perhaps they mean lunch, still hours off. lunch is loaded up to be tampa's signature sandwich, with chips, milk, and chocolate chip cookies. i swear, if you did even half the things they want to distract you with (snacks, for god's sake!) you'd never get any reading done! this read-a-thon thing must be amother one of those non-reader activities, like monday's book night? i'm supposed to be doing that, too, but as yet have found no non-readers to give away books to... these people sure do like their distractions. but what's it got to do with books or redding?

i attempted to do the first minichallange, but on the ipad, which will not post images, it is taking more time to ppost than i have yet given to reading my book, even just listening! bah!

trying dewey's read-a-thon again...

...this time with ipad.. 1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? TAMPA, FL 2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? AUBREY/MATURIN AUDIOBOOKS WIL LAST FAR LONGER TAN THE READATHON! HOPE TO GET THROUGH BOOKS 9-11, or so… 3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? SNACK? 4) Tell us a little something about yourself! SOMETHING… 5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? I’LL TRY TO REMEMBER TO POST OCCASIONALLY, BUT REALLY, IT INTERRUPTS THE READING SO, I FORGET. AT LEAST WITH AUDIOBOOKS, I CAN GO BACK A FEW MINUTES AND CATCH UP WITH MYSELF…

sunday

coming back down to normal…

here. a week of absurd online assessments during which the computers went down completely in a quarter of my classes, and sporadically in nearly all the rest, causing those kids to hurry and log back in and mark anything at random just to catch up to the rest, which would be more amusing than it is if only it did not affect my future employment.  at least it doesn't’ affect the kids yet, for which i am thankful.

drove car there and back again all week. trying to see if hi gas mileage is as good as his brother’s was, but the jury is still out.  no license plate or insurance papers have arrived yet, so he is presently doubly insured as i’m not taking any chances.

decided to knit up all the remnants of my first year’s spinning into a pi shawl, which i will finish up with cream spun on the CPW.  calling the shawl gerbera.

finished the 5th aubrey/maturin; taking a break with the weird sisters while awaiting  the 6th from the library…

and so it goes.  tomorrow will be 20 years since my mother did.

en studio

i took these today in memoriam of the spring break i was supposed to have had, now reduced to not much more than a regular weekend.  i suppose i shall pack it all off to brigadoon again in a couple of months—do you know how many times i have packed that particular watercolor off to brigadoon in hopes of actually finishing it where it started?  sigh.

it’s been a looong two weeks…

and one i really don’t wish to relive or recount, so let’s just leave it that car is at home. which is good as i don't think i will ever have the nerve to move him again, voluntarily.

he’s actually superior in some ways to his late older brother, of which, i now find i have no picture. so you’ll have to trust me, he looked just like this, only just a shade warmer color.  car is a 2001 corolla with 100,415 miles right now, which makes him nearly 60% less worn in two years younger.  i am so unnerved by the whole experience that i can’t imagine ever putting back those miles, but i must drive to work and back, and to brigadoon (and back :( albeit without ever turning left again, i’m sure.  or at least not for another three years.

still, i have four days before i have to do any of that.  late on my spring break chores, as usual.  i’m going to sit in the (stationary knitting chair awhile…

just in time!

my first handspun christmas presents!

changed my mind…

blocked out to  a bit over 60 X 6 1/2”