I’ve always been a fairly ambivalent about celebrating the New Year. The whole countdown thing seems fairly contrived and the celebration at midnight… meh. And making resolutions?  Total cliche and basically a institutionalized set up for failure. I do like champagne though, so… not a total party-pooper.

This year has been a little different though. My life changed so dramatically in the past year, I really needed a mental stop sign to remind me to focus on the important things. Of course its not really a stop sign, its maybe more like passing GO (minus the $200? I’m clearly not so good at the metaphors). Point being, this year I am finally coming around to this New Year thing. I am ready for a fresh, energetic start. I’m ready to lose a few things (pounds, really. Talk about cliche), gain a few things, change things up. Here are a few of my New Things for the New Year:

1. I acquired a Nordic Track yesterday. Yes, it is sort of a dinosaur in the exercise world, usually the sort of thing people are trying to remove from their basements rather than haul in. But I’ve got at least 2 or 3 seasons of How I Met Your Mother to get through, and I do not intend to watch them on the couch.
2. A wacom tablet has finally entered my life. It is pretty ridiculous that I’ve been doing computer graphic work for so long without it, but things are going to change!
3. I bought a new pack of needles for my serger and I’m looking forward to doing some sewing.
4. Also picked up a couple books of scrapbooking paper. Mostly because it’s pretty and fun and I had some Christmas money and a little extra time at the craft store… but I would like to put together our wedding album.
5. This last one isn’t really me, but baby made it through the worst of cutting her two top front teeth yesterday. So tonight, maybe, we will sleep… at least for a little while.

List it Tuesday is an Artsyville project.

 

 

This is a website I recently finished building, for the wonderful Maggie Sherman of One Of A Kind B’n’B in Burlington VT. It was designed by Linda Provost (also of Burlington). She and Maggie came up with the design and sent me PDFs, and then I rebuilt it as a website. It’s usually fun to work this way: I am challenged to figure things out that I might otherwise avoid.

One Of A Kind is a gorgeous little place with a truly spectacular view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. And Maggie is an absolutely terrific person and a fabulous artist. I first met her when I visited the B’n’B to interview her for my Degree Project at Burlington College. She was really enthusiastic about my project and the ideas I was working on, which was so gratifying, and I have since learned that that is really her approach to life – great enthusiasm, a marvelous sense of humor, and art, always art.

So if you ever find yourself in Burlington, check out One Of A Kind and meet Maggie.

We traveled West to East today. Getting up at 5:30am was rough – dark, cold, goodbyes to be said. Baby thought it all a grand adventure, and it is hard to be grumpy, even early in the morning, with a laughing baby spitting raspberries at you.

I took this picture as we left the crazy beautiful Arizona landscape behind. Don’t the mountains sort of look like thick, wrinkled desert skin? So dead, but still so alive.

I intended to match it with a Virginia shot on this end as we came in for landing, but they de-iced the plane before we took off from our Chicago layover and the orange gooey streaks stayed on the window. Just as well, at this time of year the eastern vista is somewhat grim.

It is cold here and I miss my parents. But it is good to be home.

We began the new year with a short walk in the desert just before sunset. My parents and their little dog, Baby and C. and I along a little dirt road. It was chilly but bright and the cacti stood tall against the blue Arizona sky. We drove the desert loop road afterwards, stopping for photographs as the sky darkened and the sunset intensified over the mountains.

On the way home we stopped for a sushi dinner. Willow created a conceptual art piece – “Avocado Everywhere” – which we all admired. It included a performance aspect with guest actress The Waitress. Very impressive stuff.

 

Have you ever had one of those moments where you can almost comprehend how incredible life is? I remember it happening once in first grade. It’s the only time I can actually remember vividly – I was sitting sideways on a little wooden chair in our classroom and was suddenly overwhelmed by the knowledge that I was actually alive.

It is so easy to get caught up in the general day-to-day humdrumminess of life as usual. So often I find myself frustrated at where I am, feeling like I have let myself down and don’t know how to get to where I want to be. I’m not even sure I know where I want to be, which doesn’t make me feel any better. And paying any attention to world events doesn’t exactly life the spirits.

I have been thinking lately about the person I want to be, and how I need to adjust my personality and outlook in order to be that person. I want to be positive and bright, and in order to make that happen I need to lose some of my cynicism and really take the time to remember the magnificence of life. To look around and notice what is good.

So here are 5 things I think are amazing right now. Maybe I will make this a weekly post.

1. My baby girl. Of course I have to start with her. She is incredible: strong, smart, funny. The very essence of the miracle of life. My daily inspiration to be a better person.
2. The way Things Work Out. They do, though sometimes they don’t work in the way you would expect and it can take a while to accept and understand.
3. Family. My family in particular, including my husband’s side. No particular reason at the moment, they just generally are and it is good to remember.
4. Caffeine. I can feel like absolute crap, and then I drink a cup of tea and the world is rosy. Caffeine is powerful.
5. The night sky. Nothing puts things in perspective better than staring up at a clear night sky. We are living in the country now and the sky is amazing.

What is amazing to you right now?

I am so Thankful this year.

It’s been a huge, enormous, whirlwind, turning our lives inside out and upside down sort of year. But in this case I think we were actually turned right side in and top side up and now we are, maybe, starting to get to where we are supposed to be.

I thought things could only get better after the first week, but apparently that was optimistic.

Report: 1 feather stamp, blue ink. Various sketching, dismal. Small amount of stitching. Some cooking/baking, but hardly beyond the normal day-to-day.

So much of my identity is tied to being an Artist, being Creative, so it is unnerving as well as annoying to discover how little time I actually have in which to create. Or, truth be told, how little time I make. Because the time is there, right? It’s just how I am choosing to use it.

For me, perhaps, joining this challenge is a reminder that in order to keep this part of my identity alive I really truly do need to make space to create.

Well, thus far I have not done so well with Art Every Day Month. I have done a little better with the doing than the blogging, in that I have really made an effort to do something creative most every day. And sometimes that something has been unrelated to work, which is awesome. There’s not been much actual art, but I think food is acceptable. And I’m going ahead and including some nursery design as well because it felt good to do.

Here’s what’s happened:

I did some non-descript sketching. Pfft. Nothing worth showing or even thinking about, except to remind myself that I need to get back in practice.

Pumpkin Mousse. Mmmm… This stuff is pretty awesome. Like whipped up pumpkin pie. I used this recipe sort of, except I used vanilla pudding instead of butterscotch (sort of by accident but it was good!), about twice as much pumpkin and cool whip, and I added nutmeg. I served it in crepes for a big breakfast, but I really preferred it straight up in a bowl. The photo is horrible but I’m including it anyway…

I also made some delicious apple sauce. Nothing too creative there, but I added apple cider to it and I think that made it extra rich and yummy. And so very Autumn.

 We put together the baby’s crib. I’m calling that creative because it inspired me to get the nursery looking good. Still waiting on the mattress and I want to change the drapes, but it is really starting to become a sweet space.

My one little satisfying project was this needlefelted star for over the crib. It is small and simple but it makes me happy.

 And that is week one for me. It can only get better from here.

It’s November… Art Every Day Month! I’m going to give this a try again.

OK. Now I have one hour and 17 minutes to make something for the first day.

These days… oh these days! Autumn in Virginia is something special, I tell you. And I lived in Vermont for 8 years.

In Vermont, Autumn was glorious but came with a sense of impending doom. You always knew, somewhere in the back of your mind, that Winter was coming soon. Spring is the season of celebration in the North. In the South, Autumn means sweet relief: the overwhelming heat and humidity are replaced with golden days, cool breezes, and insanely gorgeous forests.

Plus, cool weather = soup, sweaters, and apples.

We went apple picking last week at Carter Mountain Orchard. Located on the same mountain as Jefferson’s Monticello, this pick-your-own orchard is definitely a tourist hot-spot this time of year (on weekends, traffic up and down its steep, gravel driveway causes traffic jams on the road below). We went on a weekday. Still busy but not insane.

I intended to turn our apple haul into applesauce for when Baby starts on solids, but decided it would be better to use organic fruit. Carter Mountain practices “pest management”, which we are not entirely clear on but seems to be more balanced then regular generic apple growing but still definitely includes pesticide use.

So, I made apple crisp.

And then I made it again because it was delicious.This time we remembered to get ice cream and it is possible that bowls were licked clean. And then I made individual serving apple crisps for guests at the Inn. They were gobbled up in record time. The guest who had previously declined a hot breakfast at all that morning changed his mind (they smelled amazing) and split one serving with his wife. And when that was gone, they decided to split a second as well.

Now, I am fairly certain that apple crisp is just a seriously good idea in general and I can’t exactly take credit for any sort of experimental cooking creativity here. But, in light of my recent grand successes in the field, I will add a few thoughts to the internet apple crisp archives:

1. Butter butter butter! As is generally the case in life, a decent amount of butter is a good idea here. You can cut it back, but why would you?
2. Apples. We picked fuji and that’s what I used at home. They were great, sweet and firm. At the Inn I used a variety including macintosh and gala. I liked how the fuji kept their shape instead of getting super mushy, but that’s sort of a personal taste decision.
3. Many recipes call for flour. I’ve used it in the past, and I included it in batch number one this year, but then I forgot it for the rest and I actually can’t say I noticed a difference.
4. The apple peeler/corer/slicer dealio* is a fantastic invention. I have the kind that clamps to the counter. The suction cup type seems to be more readily available, but I have been told that those are sub-standard and basically an exercise in frustration.

 

Apple Crisp

9×9 baking dish

Ingredients:

5-6 decent sized apples
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups brown sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 Tbs cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Peel, slice and chop apples – pieces should be roughly the size of a quarter. Toss apple pieces in lemon juice and white sugar.

In separate bowl, stir brown sugar into butter. Add oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and mix well.

Pour apples into baking dish. Crumble oat mixture on top.

Bake for roughly 30 minutes, until top is nicely browned. The longer you bake, the more your apples will cook down. Just be careful not to burn the topping.

Serve hot or cold. Ice cream is highly recommended.

*link contains my amazon affiliate code.