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A response to last week's Illustration Friday prompt. I came up with a multiple choice test-probably not the most original idea, but it's what I kept coming back to. This is a charm for a cloth bag. I used a floor sample tag I had for the base. Hope you pass the test!
This week's Inspire Me Thursday prompt was a tough one! I spent time reading about Action Painting on Wikipedia, I looked at work by Jackson Pollock, and for some reason got stuck on the idea of dribbling paint and being abstract. And I created two Works of Something (rather than Works in Progress!) that I didn't like at all. Part of the problem for me is that I spend a lot of time painting with one year olds. They are the "stars" of spontaneously created art in my opinion. Which of course, lead to a lot of thoughts about what is called art, how art is created, how we value art.... For now, the thought that sticks with me is how important it is for children to take the sense of themselves as creative beings into adulthood with them. It really reinforces the idea of process not product for me. And that's when this prompt clicked for me. I started thinking about what spontaneous process I enjoy, that I actually do all the time.
And that would be dumping an assortment of colors on a surface and smearing them around with my fingers. As usual, it was a lot of fun. I did have to resist the temptation of scratching images into the paint layers, because I was trying to keep it image-less.
Still, I looked at this and thought-this isn't done.
So I gave in and went to my scrap drawer and pulled out a couple sheets of old magazine text. When I pick out text, I usually go with whatever text I read that first attracts my attention. I cut the text and a page number out and glued them on. It still didn't look done. So I started looking through my photos until I found one that seemed to work with the text I'd chose. I printed it out and transfered on top of my paint. Then I scanned it in to the computer, played with filters until it looked right to me. And ended up with this:
What was interesting to me is that this process was spontaneous for me. I didn't plan out what text I was going to use or what photo I wanted to use. I just kept adding layers until I had something that said something to me. It was all process for me as I worked, with very little thought to what the product was going to look like when it was done.
When I went back and looked at the quotes by Jackson Pollock on the Inspire Me Thursday site, I decided maybe I didn't stray too far from the theme.
"Painting is self discovery." Jackson Pollock
Such an incredible day to be out in the garden! The dogs are completely worn out and I am too.
For the most part I dug out the space for the peas and then got the pea seeds planted. This year I'm planting "British Wonder," "Amish Snap,"and "Cascadia." I really love peas so I need a lot to eat fresh, plus some to try freezing. I may also try drying some.
On the agenda for tomorrow is starting tomato, parsley and lettuce seeds.
It just feels really good to know that home grown fruits and vegetables are on their way! Harvesting some sorrel will be the first crop, teeny tiny leaves are forming. Probably will thin and eat some of the garlic too.
Total time gardening: 2 1/2 hours. Total time sitting in the sun with my gardening books: 2 1/2 hours.
Just finished reading Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's convinced me even more that eating local, or even better growing my own, is the best option for feeding myself.
Also been looking at Path to Freedom's challenge to eat what is home grown. It's another call to plant a Victory Garden.
What's really been on my mind as I think about what I've been reading, is how I can eat local this time of year. I went to get local carrots at the co-op on Saturday and they were all gone for the year.... I'm down to being able to buy apples, pears, mushrooms, turnips and potatoes. And what I've preserved.
This year has given me a really good sense of how much I need to preserve if I want to be able to eat local year round. I need to be able to pull from what I've stored for choices in January, February, and probably the beginning of March. I'm making plans to can more applesauce and to dry more corn and cherries. I'm thinking about what crops to plant more of so that I can preserve the excess. I probably could have used a few more tomatoes-since my canned supply will need to get me to July.
Here's my breakfast of applesauce (apples from my tree), locally made bread with locally ground flour, honey, and butter I made with local cream. No compromises here- it's all organic too. The next thing I'm reading is In Defense of Food by Pollan. It's another very interesting book.
One of the things that I loved about my house when I moved in was how the light moved through the house.
One of the joys I've discovered by being more conscientious about turning lights off, is how enjoyable the shadows and the sunbeams are when overhead lights aren't on.
One of my celebrations for the month...I've shaved another couple of kilowatts of my electrical usage. Last month I averaged 11.4 a day. I've been working hard on remembering to turn the computer off instead of letting it sleep. I've also been only using the speakers on my computer to listen to music, rather than hooking up to the speakers on the stereo.
And that leads to one of my sacrifices. There is definitely a difference in sound quality. Ah well, the sound quality coming from my neighbors is excellent. Now if I just enjoyed more of their music....
This week's prompt for Inspire Me Thursday was "Illusion." I decided on the illusion of freedom a car represents....
This is a photo I took about 25 years ago. I scanned it in to the computer and then added some filters and tinting for this image.
The car belonged to my father. It was old when he bought it in his 20's, older still when he took my brothers and I for rides when we were kids, and is around 80 years old if it's still around somewhere (it was sold when I was in college). Kind of amazing to compare it to the car of today. 
Today Sharon at Casaubon's Book wrote about the importance of establishing Victory Gardens to meet the needs and challenges of our current world situation. This is something I feel very strongly about and want to support. I started organizing some of my thoughts about blogging about my garden back in November, but haven't done too much due to the time of year. It's still too early for me to do much in the garden (until next year anyway, starting to work on my four season garden) other than plot and plan, but it's getting close.
One of the things I'm thinking about is to not just having fruits, vegetables, and herbs for seasoning; but also herbs for other uses. Calendula is great for steeping in almond oil to use in hand balm recipes. This year I'm going to dry my mint for tea. It's good for cranky tummies. I'm also going to try making my own rose water from my rugosa roses. I should be able to use the rose water for cooking or as an astringent. Another herb I'm growing is comfry. Recently I've been reading about using it in compost (Gardening when it Counts, by Steve Solomon). And I'll definitely be growing lots of sage for the bees.
Pretty soon it will be time to start tomato plants indoors and start peas outdoors. I'll start lettuce and cole crops and radishes. I'll have sorrel to nibble on and rhubarb to cook soon too. These types of things really are the basis of a victory garden. But I think it's good to plan for a few useful herbs too.
Apple cake anyone? Today I used the last of the apples that I had from my Mom and Dad's trees. I made a yummy cake from Chocolate and Zucchini (from the cook book). Made me think about portion size a lot-it's super rich and a small piece was all I wanted at one time.
I'm also reading Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. That made me think about portion size plus a whole lot of other things! If I hadn't already been going down the "buy local" and "grow your own" road, reading this book would have convinced me.
Funnily enough, this is the week I bought my first non-local vegetable since last spring. I bought some organic kale from California. There were no local greens to be found and I forgot I still have some broccoli pesto in the freezer that I had made. Darn! Ah well, it's a good reminder to stick to the grocery list. At least the other impulse item was local, a baking potato. I was picking out a few smaller 'Yukon' potatoes while the clerk was putting out potatoes and the idea of a baked potato just seemed so yummy. Since I knew I was going to do some baking, I decided to get one. It's amazing how different the texture of potatoes can be, depending on the variety.
The rest of my purchases for the week: nuts, dried fruit, milk, cream for butter, ground pork (not local), canned salmon (locally produced, caught by a local fisher, but Alaskan salmon), oranges, carrots, beef (almost local) and some spices.
From the pantry: stewed chicken, onions, pickles, tortillas, beans, tomatoes, eggs, dried corn, apples, flour, and sugar.
Here's my menu for the week:
Sunday: Chicken cacciatore (chicken from the freezer)
Monday: Burrito (potato that I baked Sunday, plus beans from the freezer, and kale)
Tuesday: Cassoulet (chicken from Sunday, plus beans, plus sausage)
Wednesday: Frittata (last of the potato, and kale)
Thursday: Pasta with sausage
Friday: Salmon cakes
I'm overlapping ingredients a lot this week. The potato is large enough to be part of three meals. The chicken will be a part of two meals, possibly three if I decide to add some to the burrito. Because I've already froze it once, I'm going to try to use this batch of chicken up this week. I used the pork I bought to make sausage. I had it for lunch today (with a bit of the baked potato) and will use it in two of the other dishes. I'll also freeze some of it for later. The salmon is a bit of an experiment. I tend to mostly get previously frozen or fresh, but I wanted to try the canned to see if it would be a good possibly for stocking up. I think this summer I need to get my parents to show me/help me can some salmon. What they've done in the past has been very, very good.
I did also make desert this week-chocolate cookies. It will be a challenge to use portion control with those!
For the Inspire Me Thursday prompt this week I did an altered photograph. This is a photo of a doll that my great-grandfather gave my mother. My mother gave it to me when I was a child to play with and I still have it.... I have always loved her face.
Here's my response for Inspire Me Thursday this week. I have a little spring fever....
Recycled materials: old glass and text from a vintage magazine.