In case anyone wants to send me their white chocolate (and marzipan), please don't. I love both, in fact I think I like white chocolate even more than dark- I lost my taste for most chocolate a while back which is a good thing. I think the problem with white chocolate is that it really bears little resemblance to real chocolate- if you consider it something of it's own, it's good again. It's particularly good when used with citrus desserts, like blood oranges or key limes in a tart- just a thin coat between crust and citrus curd. And of course raspberries.
I can remember visiting my mother all those years and she would always have a box stashed away for us to get into late at night. My particular favorite that she always had for me was sponge candy which I think was only available in Buffalo back then, maybe I just thought so, but I know I never see it anywhere else. It was basically molasses with baking soda added after it was hot to foam it up, cooled quickly so it hardens with all the holes, cut in big 2" blocks, and coated with dark chocolate. I'd eat a whole bag if not stopped, like a crazed animal. You can mail order it from Buffalo here.
We went to see 'Alice in Wonderland' tonight. I love Johnny Depp, love Tim Burton, but this whole movie was overtaken by special effects and animations to the detriment of the story. And it wasn't the real Alice story- it was a sequel, sort of Alice meets Dungeons and Dragons. Yawn. (Except for Johnny and his huge chartreuse eyes!) But save this one for Netflix. It isn't for younger kids either.
I don't think I mentioned I saw A Single Man the other night too? This one was a keeper- a retro 60's scenario where a respected college prof (Colin Firth) loses his long time lover in a car accident and his process of repressed grief and recovery. Very well done, directed by Tom Ford, a first time for him. Every scene looked like a fashion shoot for a men's magazine, all with that Tom Ford edge- beautiful and simple, while hard edged. In art theaters, not mainstream. Go soon.
Weather here still cold, with hopefully an end in sight soon- I am sure anxious to see the 70's again. I can't buy sweaters anymore here, they are completely wiped out of the stores!
Yesterday we went to the Fine Craft Fair, the ACC show that is in Palm Beach annually. There was a woman there, Kathy Wegman from Iowa, who beads stuff with her husband Tom. They use those wonderful shiny iridescent beads and cover every imaginable object.
She had a pair of old roller skates and the key covered, about 50 spools of thread in all different colors piled up, a set of wrenches, and my absolute favorite in the whole convention center, a tricycle! Not only was it covered completely in tiny seed beads, the beads were then embellished with flower beads- it was simply spectacular sitting there under the halogens- you could barely look at it for the splendor! It was $9000, and I so seriously wanted it I was gonna sit outside the convention center with a cup looking for donations! God, bring me that trike... I am visualizing... (is that working yet?)
Something tells me that my life would implode if I spent $9000 on a little unusable tricycle, but I was so tempted to write that bad check...
Other than that I only bought one thing, a cool necklace made of Sicilian volcanic rocks, not too heavy balls of dark brown (bitter-sweet chocolate) porous stuff. It wasn't until I got it home that TY noticed it looks like it's made of petrified poop. So now the gloss is off that purchase forever.
I was amazed at the number of wearable stuff booths, all of it quite nice too. I didn't see a lot of purchasing happening, but there was something to look at in every stall this time, nicely edited. One Chinese woman, Su Juan Lu, had a huge booth of black clothes hanging, maybe 6 manniquins dressed- she had devised a garment that was basically shaped like a huge circle with a hole in the upper half that goes over your body.
Then, you mess around with the drape of the bottom, then the top parts to make a gorgeous draped dress in hundreds of conformations. The idea was genius. They were made out of a lightweight wool jersey and very drapey- just beautiful on every weird body we watched try them on. She also had the same idea in heavier wool for a coat.
We also spent a long time in a booth of a hat lady from Colorado- fabulous cocktail hats that we all wanted except for the problem that no one we know ever goes to cocktail parties any more! At least not ones that you'd wear one of these cool hats to. One of them had a teapot of straw on top, another had three wee suitcases (the one I lusted for) perched on top of this saucer shaped hat. So much fun.
We found a young woman who will be someone to watch in Art Quilts- her name is Leah Evans and she does wonderful smallish quilts loosely based on maps or on microscopic organisms. When you see the work, there is a definite link between the two. We saw several purchases rolling out the door from that booth. She was smart too, she had some 3" or 4" tiny pieces, finished and complete, mounted on deep painted wood stretcher frames and ready to go for a fair price. These tiny gems were each a complete work in themselves or even better, could be hung in multiples.
And one last reference here is to the booth that had a yard long blue ribbon hanging for her work- Natalia Margulis is a Russian artist, who combines beautiful hand and machine embroideries of natural scenes and objects. The piece above was about 10" I believe and you could see every perfect stitch she took. The water is some form of shiny plastic-looking substance that perfectly shows the rocks and leaves under it. It looked like she does these on some form of water soluble stabilizer because there were several open areas in other pieces that led your eye in beyond the actual picture frame. Beautifully done.
We had a great day. Now stop me from going back to steal that tricycle.
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