Thankful Thanksgiving

Grateful for Family, Friends and health - this year was a quiet Thanksgiving that began with the Myopia Thanksgiving Hunt (Daisy earned her colors!) and while she was riding through the fields Dan,George and I went to St. Peter's Church to help serve their Thanksgiving dinner for their outreach. Then we came home and cooked our own Turkey and all the works - it was delicious and lovely. Daqisy made an amazing apple pie. George peeled and riced the potatoes. I made a tablecloth from a lovely heavy linen and wrote a lovely Thanksgiving poem along the edge:

For each new morning with it's Light

For Rest and Shelter of the Night

For Health and Food

For Love and Friends

For Everything Thy Goodness Sends

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tromping through the fields around Myopia, gathering bittersweet, grasses and rosehips I was in awe of the colors and bounty of the countryside. We are truly blessed.

Wilton Course III Final Cake - Daisy's Birthday!

For Course III I chose to make my tiered cake without the column forms and simply stack two cakes atop one another. It was great fun to learn the fondant roses and Daisies and the royal icing lillies. The possibilities with fondant are endless - but I'm not a big fan of the taste. It's good the cake underneath also has buttercream icing and a raspberry filling. Yummmmmm.

Wilton Course III Fondant Present Cake

For Course III we learned how to roll and work with Fondant. It is quite a challenge to drpae a whole xcake - but worth the effort for the lovely effect. This present cake was taken to Milton for Mark and Sophie in honor of their March birthdays.

Violets for Violetta

It was fun to take my newfound basketweave skills and apply them to a little Violets cake I made for my mother for a visit during February.

Wilton Course ll Royal Icing Flowers

Daisy and I learned how to make basketweave designs with buttercream and spent the month of February learning royal icing flowers - roses, Daisies, violets, primroses, etc. Daisy made the pink and yellow cake and I made the one with candles! They were a blast to make and my favorite type of flowers by far.

Note that George has a frosting smiley face on the back of his shirt.....hmmmm. I wonder who did that!!!! (DAISY!)

Wilton Course I Finale (The Wilton Rose)

Daisy and I completed Course 1 at the end of January after learning the "Wilton Rose" out of buttercream. Daisy perfected the rose and made the beautiful white and pink cake and I made the Tiffany blue cake with white roses. We ate Daisy's (yum!) and gave the pink and white one to our neighbor, Susan and her family. Susan is a landscape Designer so we thought a rose cake would be fitting!

The Wreck of the Pocohontas

Last summer we were practicing painting with greys and our assignment was to paint a lighthouse using tones of grey not using black or white. Creating grey out of colors only. We a were given a lighthouse because of the typical grey days you get - of course - the purpose of a lighthouse.

Well. I hate lighthouses almost as much as Pears and Shells (sorry, Valerie) but Valerie told me about a lighthouse that Celia Thaxter grew up on and I had fun researching her - I love her writing and art and was thrilled to hear that when she lived on the Isle of Shoals lighthouse with her father one storm was so bad that they had to bring the cow into the kitchen and the chicken coop floated away! There is also a poem about "The Wreck of the Pocahontas" which describes a terrible shipwreck off the Island one night.... well it all came together for my lighthouse painting.

Person in a Pear

During this winter session of The Garage School of Art we are working on Composition and the figure. In the first week we had to tone a piece of paper with graphite, sketch a pear, and then go home and draw a portrait of ourselves within the shape of the pear. Last week we were asked to complete the same assignment using watercolor or acrylic. I must say - it was an intriguing assignment - although my kids thought it was weird that I was sitting on the hamper in the bathroom drawing a picture of myself in front of the mirror. Valerie had told us to close the door when we did this - I guess that is why!!! I used my New YARKA watercolors that Santa gave me for Christmas. The colors are yummy.

Clowns Amok

Wilton Course I Class #3 and we worked on clowns and roses - Daisy chose to stick with the roses and so I got to use most of our clown heads. While I usually get the creeps from clowns like this it was actually fun and I went to town with clowns last night - This weeks lucky (???) recipient of the cake is Sandy, another neighbor with a snow blower who very kindly blew away the additional ten inches of snow we got this weekend. I hope he likes chocolate cake and butter cream frosting...ALOT of butter cream frosting. I must say - I have no desire to eat any of this because frosting is way to sweet for me and I usually just eat the cake part anyway.

Daisy's roses were fabulous - she made he cake for the Dixon's who took her skiing last week. Next week we do a very pretty rose cake - hmmmmmm.....who would like a feminine pretty cake? Any birthdays coming up?

365 Days To Create

I've decided that this year I am going to create SOMEthing everyday. Whether it is sewn, painted or cooked (that makes it too easy, doesn't it?) I will try to post the things I make that are blog-worthy. I spen t this wonderful snowy winter weekend making aprons for the whole family! U sed a Simplicty pattern which was very easy:

I made a smaller version for Daisy with this yellow fabric with animals all over it and green rick rack. Dan and I get his and hers editions of the same fabrics - the only difference is that Dan gets green with a bunny pocket (or a bunny-in-the-pocket!) while mine is the allover animal pattern with a green pocket. I also added fabric flowers that I learned how to make from surfing the blogosphere!

NoteBook Covers!

In the spirit of reorganization and renewal in January (Don't you just love nesting in the cold winter months?) I re-covered my address book and Recipe notebook. I learned how from a great blog: http://spoonfullofsugargirls.blogspot.com/2008/03/tutorial-quick-notebook-cover.html that gives you a tutorial on how to make a cover - it was easy and fun - I added the salt dough Bunny labels on the back which were leftovers from the Christmas Dough ornaments we made for the kitchen wreath. I think I will make some more! I also made new labels for my studio which I will post at a later date when the whole studio is whipped into shape. Today- Will make aprons for Daisy and me to bring to our cake class.

Oh Baby It's Cold Outside!

It is 31 degrees under my desk here in the studio - that is what the electric heater (under my desk) said before I turned it on. I think it is now up to 44degrees after the heater being on a little while. Whoopee!It is 8 degrees outside. The birds have gone through quite alot of seed these past few days - I am thinking we need to make some peanut butter balls for them too.
The fat puffed up Robins are glorious - doesn't this one look like she has eyelashes? I think she is quite the glamorous Robin. This weather calls for some fresh baked cookies , hot tea and a fire in the fireplace. That means I need to walk to the woodpile and refresh the supply....

Mercury is Retrograde -or - MY DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK!

We gave Daisy a Cake Decorating Class for Christmas which means Daisy and I get to go to AC Moore every Tuesday Evening for 2 hours and learn how to decorate cakes! This week we were instructed to arrive with two cakes. Daisy a 9" round, already iced in white, me a plain "Shaped" cake not iced because it would be completely #16 Star Tip decorated.

I made the cakes in the morning. I made the buttercream frosting.... I carefully wrapped up the cakes in two separate cardboard boxes.

Kids home from school - met Dad at Petco to look at Fish and Hamsters.... Arrive home at 5:30 ...Have 1/2 an hour to get kids fed and homework finished before leaving for class...

Open Door...

Cardboard cake round on the floor....Box under table.... Dogs look happy.... Rufus especially!

Quickly whip together another cake, another batch of buttercream, pull hot cake out of oven at 6:35 arrive at class 15 minutes late with hot cake stil in pan... realize that I have left shaped "Fish Mold" cake at home in the rush of re-baking.... So Daisy makes her lovely 3 flowers cake and I mix colors and hang with George who came along becaus Dan is out with clients. Daisy finishes cake. It is lovely. She has written "Mom" on it.

Get in car...Start driving home.

Here THUD

Where is the cake?

Cake has flown backwards and landed upside down in back of minivan. Bad Mommy gets mad.

Get home. Need to decompress -at least the fish cake is still safe. Spend next hour decorating fish cake. Give to neighbor as thank you for snow-blowing driveway. Hopefully next week's class will be different - except we are doing clown cakes. I do NOT like clowns....

The Matisse Project

The assignment was to paint a room, and a scene based on a Matisse study - I chose his family portrait (you know, the one where the boys are playing checkers?) Well - it grew and grew and I spent most of the summer Monday morning painting classes working on it - It turned out ok! I love how personal it is - Dan with his striped socks beneath his father's portrait and the Myopia Cigar ashtray - Daisy with Sohpie - when she was still small! George working on Legos and me, writing, drawing, watching. The Goldfinches are eating the sunflower seeds outside the window. Only Tally is aware of the viewer outside of the frame.

Breakfast with the Birds

My art class is going well - our homework for week two was to paint from a black and white copy of a Gabriel Munter painting using only primary and secondary colors - no browns or muted colors (so if the hair or tree is brown, well -wht other color could it be?) This was a really fun excercise - like a coloring book for grown ups! I decided the woman at the table should have long hair instead of short. It makes me want to paint my own version of "Breakfast with the Birds". Oddly enough - I got the curtain color dead on from Munter's without seeing it. I saw more birds than she included. What can I say?

Sophia Tasha Flopsy Daffodil

We call her Sophie for short. She is divine. She came home with us a week ago Sunday from a New England Regional Rabbit Show held in Taunton Massachusetts. We went early Sunday, expecting to just LOOK at Rabbits and, well, we (I?) couldn't resist and she came home. rode home the 2 1/2 hour car ride snuggled on my lap. She is the most snuggly floppy lovely bunny I have ever met. She loves to snuggle. Will stay in your arms for hours. Her tummy is soft and warm like a puppy's and has that wonderful puppt fullness and roundness. Her fur is like , well, baby bunny fur! She is only 3 months old. Weighs 5 1/2 pounds. Will grow to 14 pounds (that's even bigge rthan Charlotte!). She is truly a gentle giant. Henrey doesn't seem to mind he rbut Josephine thinks it was a bad idea. Hopefully this will change in time. I have them taking turns being out and about. She is very clean in her litter box habits! Check out those hoppers and fur. She is amazing. I love her so much. She makes my heart ache in a good way. Like the grinch, my heart grows exponentially when I am holding her. Yum.

The Retablo Shadowbox

I finally finished the shadowbox for Charlotte. It was tremendously fun to make - I tried to incorporate so much into the box - Charlotte as an angel with pink feather and glazed tin wings. Charlotte, regal and royal on a purple screen (retablo) with gold lattice. Charlotte (or is it the big brown bunny) with the silver footprints in the snow - you can't see the g;littering footprints in the photo but they are there. There are even some of Charlotte's ashes in that little tiny glass bottle next to her picture -with a silk forget-me-not plugging up the opening.

Henry and Josephine on the bottom - with food, hay, water, apples, strawberries and carrots - I still need to add a bell for Charlotte to play with and some shredded newspaper. I ended up not including the candles and flowers, as well as the sugared skulls. It would have been too much. I like it this way. I like the textures and three dimensionality of it. Fun to step out of the box. Soothing to celebrate Charlotte.

India Inks

Searching for Bandhini skirts on the internet. I came across the photo from a factory in India. The dyes are incredible. I could almost eat them. I want to ingest them - play with them, run my fingers through them. It is like sand art for grown ups.

I found these incredible ghanra choli - it makes me want to have a party to go to! I think Saris and tradtitional Indian clothing are so feminine. The colors are breathtaking. Wouldn't it be fun to dress like that every day.

Shrines & Retablos

I have been obsessing all day about shrines and retablos. Not in the sense of an altar to the Bunny Goddess Charlotte- but more of a memorial to her - a Dios dos Meurtos kind of things with elements that celebrate her. I have found some incredible peruvian ones on line. The Jiminez family does incredible ones. I would love to save up for one - a reward for a job well done? Which job? I was rewarded already for the Dotson project with my Ebay Oilily sweater. Maybe after I finish helping out Diane in Cambridge with her guestroom and dressing room.

I found this website/blog from a woman that does the most amazing altered books (altAred books?) - again - like Retablos, but with different found objects. maybe I'll do something like that.

Then, someday, I would like to make one for the real focus of prayer. Maybe a garden grotto too. Not Mary on the half shell or Francis with the bird seed. I wil have to think about how to do that one. I learned so much about diferent shrines when researching on the internet - the difference between Zen, Budhist, Tibetan shrines and altars. It is comforting to think of some sort of Altar where you can focus and meditate.

For now I will make a Charlotte retablo and work on an altar later!

BURSTING!

I am bursting with ideas today! Actually, have been for a couple weeks- but it has reached a crescendo of sleepless nights dreaming in primary colors a la Gabriele Munter and Matisse. I started taking a painting class with Valerie McCaffery http://www.valeriemccaffrey.com/ at her "Garage SChool of Art" in Beverly Farms. The serendipity connection to Valerie is subject to an entirely different post which I will write about another day when there isn't so much to say. Anyway - I can hardly contain myself. Truly feel like hyperventilating with so many ideas bursting in my brain. I want to do them ALL at once and am writing them down, sketching them, googling them and dreaming of them as fast as I can! where to begin?

I finished the Dotson main painting prject which has taken up the first 6 weeks of this year. A fabulous job- I will sorely miss them - I wish I ha dgotten to know them more before they were moving ACROSS the country. The freedom I was given to create was incredible. I finished the table Suday night. Shellaced Monday and Tuesday and they took it away today. Here is a picture of it - I will put multiple detailed pictures of it on my www.dancingrabbit.blogspot.com page. Anyway - My studio is relatively empty now - a far cry from two siz foot cabinets and an 8 foot table. I spent the day yesterday re-organizing my studio - putting everything in a semblance of order .I feel that I am taking ownership of it now. It is legitimate so I can truly make it work swimmingly. It is amazing how creative you feel when all your materials are tucked neatly away where you KNOW where tey all are and therefore they are not goingto be hard to find. It unleashes the juices!