antipode crass nominal

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.Og Mandino

Art as Gateway Drug

Sandy's notes:  I had full intentions yesterday of hitting the studio first thing but came up witha some errands that had to be done, then some other things that had to be done, then the dogs needed attention, and another errand came up.  Then we were going to go out to dinner so the afternoon was taken up by a shower and finding something to wear but that got cancelled and next thing I knew I was cooking dinner YET AGAIN.  Dinner is a pain, no matter when it is except if I am feeding somebody besides TY and myself.  And lately any interest I may have had previously is completely gone.  EXCEPT that I 'INVENTED'  a new dessert because it was what I had on hand the other day. Not excited?  Well I made the easiest ice cream on earth and frankly it was amazing.  Want the recipe?  Here ya go:

I Scream (ice cream)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (had on hand for a Key Lime pie)

2 c. any milk (I used fat free half and half first time out)

3 Tbs melted butter

3 Tbs maple syrup (NO room for anything artificially maple!)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1  1/2 c. toasted pecans

Melt the butter in the milk -of-choice and cool.  Toast the pecans a few minutes in a dry frying pan and cool. Mix all ingredients except nuts together and refrigerate a couple of hours.  Pour into ice cream maker and process until soft-serve consistency, add chilled nuts and continue processing until they are incorporated.  Pack into a container and keep in freezer until serving time.

I Scream Again

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 c. heavy cream

3 Tbs butter

2 packages VIA Starbucks instand coffee

2 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter in the cream, add coffee powder, and chill in refrigerator until very cold. Process in ice cream maker to soft-serve stage and put into freezer to hold.  To serve, add a splash of Sambuca and a couple of chocolate covered coffee beans.  OMG...

Now, do as I say, not as I do:

(I added 1 Tbs Sambuca to the mix when it cooled and unfortunately it acted as anti-freeze and wouldn't freeze in the ice cream maker.  Don't do this.  The un processed mixture did eventually partially freeze after an overnight stay in the freezer, but maintained it's soft-serve consistency and was quite delicious if not quite real ice cream.)

I Scream Once More

Today's batch of faux ice cream will be of a chocolate variety.

Meanwhile, while waiting for the ice cream maker to finish it's thing, I got involved with a little bunch of teensy Legos and built myself a couple of parakeets:

These were in tiny little kits at Urban Outfitters a few weeks ago and the Legos were about half scale, very difficult to work with now that I have hands that work as if I'm wearing mittens.  I made the third head there in the center out of the leftover blocks.  Apparent;y nobody counts them as they go into the bag and you end up with lots of leftovers.  Cute little guys, eh?  And now I can stop coveting real parakeets at Petco when I stop in for dogfood.  

This is a tribute to Lisa and all the things we couldn't do here on her vacation in the so-called tropics.  Next time we will take dance lessons.  Watch for a set of bloomers in 'Second Time Around'.

And now, a painter who blows me away, James Nares.  Tell me you don't want to just run your hand through the paint!  These are 60-70" tall:

This is how he does it:

James Nares (British, b.1953) is famous for his nonobjective paintings that seek to capture the exact moments of their creation. He was born in London, UK. Nares relocated to New York, NY, in 1974. He is known for employing single but intricate gestural brush strokes in most of his works. Grace Glueck, New York Times art critic, describes the effect of Nares's paintings as a combination of Japanese calligraphy and the 1960s cartoon works of Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923–1997). His Modernist paintings, done with brushes he personally designs, effectively capture and record motion and the passage of a moment on canvas. His method involves repeated strokes that eventually create a precise representation. Nares attended the Chelsea Art School in London from 1972 to 1973. He later studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1974 to 1976. 

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Putin Riding his Meteor