Saturday, February 19, 2011

Spring in progress!

Boots- in progress, first rs painting of year.
Spring Fever!  It is beautiful outside, and warm enough that we had our first Morninglory Roadshow of the season.  It was good timing, because many people mentioned that it was their first time out looking this year- I'm calling it a trial run because we just brought furniture (no smalls) that we had on the porch or in the dogg room.  And I woke up late, so we started late, and I had to go back to the house for a barrage of stuff we had forgotten- but it was a beautiful day and we did quite well.  Plus Skippy *finally* came to pick up the bus, so that's over with.  (The bus was an abandoned school bus used for a shed at Merells.  The manz has been trying to get it hauled off for scrap forever....today was the day!).

I started a painting of an old pair of manz-boots, it's not even close to done- I have to get back into the painting groove before I can restore my one-a-roadshow habit.  There was a strong wind, and it kept toppling my canvas over, but it was wonderful to paint outside again, sit in the sun with the manz and a coffee-coke, and talk to all the stoppers by.  Then we went home and I took a looooong nap (while the manz did things like: all the unloading, including my painting stuff, cleaned up around the yard and hauled stuff to the dump, took the truck and trailer back to Dad's, checked on Merrells and a few other chores) so I am guilty of being a sleeping beauty today.  I am so glad that winter is over and outside is possible again!  (even if I claim 'outside bad', I really do love it)



Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentines Day!


It feels like spring outside, and we had parties at school today- paper bags with candy and cards, simple but the kids loved it.  It makes me happy to make them happy- and I made a Valentine for the manz, and he's busy cooking dinner.  Have a wonderful day and spread the love!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Under Glass



This was at the auction last night- a wooden tray with the butterfly and design pressed under glass.  The design is made from butterfly wings- fragile, horrible, beautiful.  If I had the money it would be in the studio now...but it was destined to be a treasure for someone else.  That's ok-

Today is warmish, springish, with the sun out and bright.  I've been baking- pineapple cookies for the manz, red velvet for class tomorrow.  This is one of my faults- I think of things that I think would be fun, memories- or fun that I want to 'do over' as an adult.  So we are having a Valentine's party tomorrow in crafts class.  I'm going over the history of Valentines day, and we already made paper-bag 'mailboxes'.  The kids are writing valentines, bringing treats.  I have the cookies, pencils with hearts on them, and the little boxes of dry candy hearts with messages on them for the winners of the origami contest.  The manz brought home some red tinsel the other day- Christmas leftovers, no doubt- that I am going to use to bedazzle the room.  I'm trying for fun... so many of the kids say 'I HATE Valentines day' and I can understand.  If they are alone, they feel lonely and out of the loop of happy couples- if they are with someone they get caught up in the cloud of expectations.  I'm trying to change that- I'm trying to get them to think of it as not being about themselves, and whether they are loved or not- but about loving others.  About creating an aura of Romance, even if you do not have a love- you can still be romantic.  Light a candle.  Smile at a stranger.  Tell someone that they are beautiful and mean it. Be a little unexpected.

I may sound...halmarkish.  But it's not about that, it's about using what you have to create a little magic in the world, make things a little brighter.  It does us all a world of good.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Perserverance

My friend Millie is sick.  She has had lymphoma for a long time, but it was dormant and now it's back.  Hopefully, after all of the chemo it will go into remission and she will be ok.  Myron (who I work with at DPI) has it- he had a bone marrow transplant last year and is much better, so I have hopes....

Life is short, you know.  Life is short and sometimes it sucks, and sometimes things are hard and unfair.  I am angry at whoever stole money from Mother, I am sad that my friend is sick, I am worried about a girl at school who has a seriously psycho exboyfriend (yes, it's been reported, but still- ) I worry about the manz and his back and him hurting so much- but all I can do is try to make things better- I love him dearly and he doesn't complain but I can tell he is miserable.

There is so much that I want to take care of- I'm a mother hen at heart- but I can't.  I can't fix everything, or even a few things.  And, as the manz so wisely reminds me, things can't be fixed by worrying about them. But I have to do something, and what I do is try to live as loud and as strong and as fast as I can.  Not in a party-all-night Lindsey Lohan way, but in a "I'm going to make a difference somehow way".  I'm here and it is my job to learn and teach and laugh and cry and make as much art as possible and write down as many words as I can. To hold on to everything I have, to my family and friends, my beloved, my child, myself.  It is our business to live the life we are given- if we stall ourselves on regrets and I'm sorrys and what might of beens- well, that is not doing our job.  And I always do my job.  And I want to live forever.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Unreasonable obsession~

Brussels sprouts, cultivar unknown
Right now, for whatever reasons, I am obsessed with brussel sprouts and pickled beets.  (yes, I'm 'fixed'- no baby cravings here-)  Seriously, brussel sprouts everyday for lunch, yesterday with horseradish.  Cold, not hot.  Eaten with my special brussel-sprout fork.  (The fork is a cocktail fork- tiny and silver, just perfect for one sprout.  It makes me feel like a giant eating cabbages with a human fork). 

Seriously, I have no idea where this came from.  I disliked brussel sprouts as a kid, grew to like them as a grownup, but only recently developed this desire for cold brussel sprouts for lunch.  Pickled beets I've always loved- since I can't bum them off Charles's mom or Bebe all the time (queens of homemade beets) I have resorted to the jarred variety.  (the canned kind taste a bit funny)

My current top 10 food obsessions are:
1. Brussels sprouts (I may of mentioned this)
2. Pickled beets
3. Mansketti (which he hasn't made in forever! HINT HINT HINT)
4 Cranberries in oatmeal (whole, frozen.  they cook with the oatmeal but stay tart and crispy)
5. Constant comment tea
6. Oranges (they are goooood right now!)
7.  Coffee with nutmeg and honey
8. Garlic bread (always, my love, always)
9. Grits with hot sausage and hot sauce (so not on the diet- but weekend food!)
10.  Cherry Coke Zero or Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi (either one will do)

It must be seasonal, this food thing~

Friday, February 4, 2011

Friday, finally


Another of my vintage valentines!  No, I don't actually have them, just photos taken at auction.  Photo-shopping is a bunch cheaper than shopping-shopping, and I still have the stuff without the clutter.  Anyway, she's cute and the card reminds me of the big scale in the drugstore next to the Lighthouse.  That drug store had the some of the neatest things- the big scale, the colored glass hanging apothecaries in the windows, and- best of all- the wooden phone booths with the folding glass doors.  Like little rooms.  And some wooden steps that separated the pharmacy from the other stuff- I remember being in there waiting on Granny Wrye's prescriptions and playing on those steps, the scale, the phone booths.  I'm fairly sure it was a Rexall, but not certain~ anyway, it is one of those Johnstown places that I'll always remember.

Funny, in remembering places Johnstown places always smell like old wood- most of the stores had wooden floors, and somewhere- Glosser Brothers, I think- had a wooden elevator.  Auntie Lou's house always smelled like wood and attics and memories.  Our house always smelled clean, or like good cooking- Daddy would always ask us "What do you want to smell when you walk in the door?"- and there it would be.

It's a Johnstown kind of day, even though it is not snowing.  It is a winter rain, hard and steady, grey and cold.  I want to stay in our house of wooden floors and memories (and hopes for good cooking- yesterday, after a marathon day, I came home and the house smelled wonderful- the man had made chicken and it felt like a Sunday), but in grim determination I am off to work in the rain.  And today I have to focus and work- group project part needs done (I *hate* group projects with a passion), proposals need written, the SACS inspection is next week and everyone has to clean  (and yesterday I got the dreaded 'by-the-way, can you come up with a centerpiece for the lunch?  It has to be school related, big enough to fit the table arrangement and short enough to see over, it would be great if you could somehow symbolize all the departments.  There isn't any funds so just use what you have.......  ok......let's see..... masking tape um...empty soda cans....newspaper...bad art......good god, it will be a miracle.)  And all the county art stuff for the meeting on Monday, and the wiki edits and, oh classes to teach and blah, blah, blah.  Which is ok because I love doing this stuff (except for the centerpiece.  Wanna bet they ask for parking signs as well? Oh, and yesterday the US Army (!) brought us ceiling tiles to paint for their recruitment office.   The army fellow was really pleasant, and happily said that the school recruitment liaison volunteered me to do this.  (did they ask? noooooo  did I know anything about this? nooooooo  Am I going to do it? yessssss, it's the army.  Can't say no to the army- seriously, it's the *army*.  They roll tanks over cars for fun- I wouldn't stand a chance).  

Anyway, I'm not really gritchy, I just have alot to do and have taken the morning off so far just to relax and read the news, drink coffee and listen to the rain.  Watch early release superbowl commericals.  Send reassuring facebook messages to my department about the humongous budget cuts for next year- (another cheerful message at yesterday's staff meeting: positions will be cut.  Those who are not 'active members of the school community' may be asked to leave.  By this, it means "You'd better make that blasted centerpiece or else!")....ok, back on track.  I've had a nice morning, and I'm enjoying writing (I love this blogging thing!).  I'm sitting at the old desk- the same one Daddy would sit at to drink his coffee and write his notes to Mother in the early hours.  Then I have to pack up and head out into the storm, buckle down and get it done, son.  That kinda feels nice, even if I don't work in a steel mill- it reminds me of old-school values: keep your head up, work hard, don't complain.  Do your best everyday as cheerfully as possible- I can live with that.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Love Letters~



Welcome to February, the love month.  It's time for heart shaped cards and roses, Valentine boxes and Washington cherries.  It's time for love letters.  My father was a great romantic- he had all the gestures down pat- the beautiful flowers, boxes of chocolate covered carmels, dinners out or made lovely at home.  Singing around the house, planting a garden, watching the birds.  But the loveliest thing of all was the notes he left mother every day under her coffee cup.  Just little things- the weather, letting the dog out, the plans for the day- along with words of love and beauty and devotion.  Romance.

I am lucky enough to have that to- a manz who sings, who brings me the treats that I love best- and knows exactly what they are. Who doesn't mind when I eat the last bite of cake, or act silly, or wear my hair all up in "Helga Buns".  Who calls me every day as soon as the last bell rings at school, who makes breakfast and makes sure the bed is turned on and warm on a winters night. 

Everyone has the potential for romance, and everyone shows it in different ways.  Be it roses or scissors, it's the time to love and be loved- and to let everyone know how lucky you are.