Saturday, November 26, 2016

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“As a leader, your word is only as good as your last promise kept or broken.” 

Today I ended up with a very long rant, so have used a tiny font so you can skip all of it and get on to the art making part without this distraction.  skip to the second line of stars like this~
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This is me making Thanksgiving Dinner, a ghost of my former self dealing with the leftover nuts. Yeah, it's Saturday and I am STILL putting stuff away-  stashing the plastic and paper mache and ceramic pumpkins and replacing them with cheesy silver balls from Michaels.  And yes, those are plastic wreathes on my front door.  
Because I say so, that's who.

I could spend $1500 for a fake pre-lit tree or I could spend $150 for a real tree and then buy enough lights for it, which, while stringing them around the new tree, would dislodge all needles to stick up in the tiny groves between the floor boards.  OR I can ignore the whole tree-thing.
And that's where I stand this year.  I am too old to INVEST in any more Christmas stuff that must be stashed 11 months of the year.

I spent 40 years doing it up big for Christmas, buying gifts, making 10 different decorated cookies to give away, throwing parties for the office, the neighborhood, our friends, the kids.  Hell, I made 6' topiaries out of boxwood.  I decorated the house with amazing things, never the same each year.  I made dough ornaments for the tree, and a scale replica of our Victorian out of gingerbread.  And I cooked Christmas Eve dinner, left halfway through to attend church, race back and finish making dinner for 12 people, usually a crown roast of pork.
And though I am not a church-attending person, I look back on those Christmas Eve services as a respite from all the work I did-  a chance to sit and listen to music.  I'd drift off every year, recharging to go home and finish the prep.  

OK, that's how I feel about Christmas.  Today before I go to the studio, Iwill remove the full sized wooden crocodile from my living room since it doesn't scream 'festive', take down the Indonesian 2' rabbit and stick him in the closet because no garland fits his neck, and take out the collection of steam punk birds on wheels.  No one will notice because I simply replace this shit with shinier shit with fake snow on it.

Alright, here's the truth-  I am a nonbeliever and was always celebrating just the SPIRIT of Christmas, not the religious part.  I was happy with a smile and greeting, didn't care about wishing people a Merry or Happy.  I hated the creche set up in front of Town Hall, but didn't blink an eye with them set up on church property.  I didn't like Christmas parties for the kids at school, that was time to be working, not partying.  Time for that at home, not on the taxpayers dime.
Have I said enough?  Yeah, I know I have.  That should cull the herd of readers immediately-  OK to laugh here..., I am.  So from now on, with all that said, I will return to the (ir)regularly scheduled program:

But first a few words about Thanksgiving food disasters:
As usual I knocked myself out with new ideas for Thanksgiving, but lost it on some of the Old Ideas-  i.e. I used a whole wheat flour for piecrust-  bad move. I was in a hurry and grabbed the potatoes off the stove before they were finished so they were crunchy, and then I made a Verducken, which is a parsnip stuffed into a sweet potato which is stuffed into a butternut squash and then tied all up to roast an hour and a half. Served with mushroom gravy.  Took most of a day to assemble and out of 8 slices there was only one gone, but half remained o their plate at cleanup.  Never again.  Next year it's back to green beans with purchased fried onions.  And whole wheat doesn't thicken gravy very well at all  Both these ww items were discovered too late to go fetch regular old white flour. But I OWE myself a new pie soon, not he gravy so much, thought it tasted interesting with Angry Orchard Hard Cider.  Oh well, Now I am drinking the cider at an alarming clip.
here- ****************************
Needless to say the studio work has suffered this week but I did get one piece entered into H2Oh since it screamed out as not working with the other 10 pieces going to the quilt museum.  Probably doesn't have a chance but if I don't enter the only thing I have to enter, how will it ever get in?  YesterdayI climbed the big ladder up to where the Sono tubes are kept-  on top of the bathroom ceiling.  I pulled down 5 I think, one of them was previously used and cut way down but fits a few of the quilts headed up to the show so it will work,  I think I can fit the rest into 3 more tubes, but need to go to Home Depot to grab more plastic sheeting to wrap in-  not a problem when there is only one or two but to wrap 11 quilts takes a whole lotta plastic!  I told a friend that I am wearing a hoody and dark glasses and a baseball cap to check out, know I will be arrested for buying burial supplies if there is any murders committed within the Palm Beaches!  

Additionally I got the printer AND the computer to work together long enough to make new labels for all these pieces-  had to cover up 4 old addresses from work over the years!  Feels good to get them all done similarly, like a set!  I got them fused on and today I'll do a quick stitch around to make sure they stick. 
Now I guess you earned an ART PART for wading through all that. Today I have picked a series I happen to really like-  guess its the hard pointy, unhuggable aspect that appeals, don't judge...  I ama fan of the rusty nail. And I think you will be too.








While in college, artist John Bisbee was scavaging in an abandoned house looking for items to incorporate into a series of found-object sculptures when he kicked over a bucket of old rusty nails. To his astonishment, the nails had fused together into a bucket-shaped hunk of metal. He had an epiphany. Bisbee has since spent nearly 30 years using nails as his sole medium to create geometric sculptures, organic installations, and unwieldy objects from thousands of nails that are hammered, bent, welded, or fastened together in a seemingly limitless procession of forms. His mantra: “Only nails, always different.” He shares with American Craft, “A nail, like a line, can and will do almost anything. What can’t you draw with a line? The nail is just my line.”


But in this case I think it does!
, going to push publish now.  Be back soon!

2 comments :

Janet W said...

Totally agree about the Christmas stuff. I spent too many years with Martha Stewart occupying my body, so yesterday my 36 year old daughter put up the tree for me. She was thrilled to see the old ornaments and Christmas decorating is finished. No garlands, wreaths, tablescapes. Such a relief!

Susan said...

Yep, absolutely agree. Doing the demands of other's expectations is over. Haven't put up tree/decorations for 5 years now and a few years I took all the stuff to Goodwill. However, my inner child has to have the fudge. And I make my Auntie Mary's lemon curd to give away and the son-in-law's chocolate sauce. Got to keep the hair cutter and doctor's staffs happy. I like to make it, but better to not eat it all...

I remember using whole wheat flour for pastry once. It was similar to the ick I got using a gluten flour substitute a few years ago.

Happy studio time and all the best for after the solstice, Sandee. Thanks for all the fish..