Ol’ Roi Tan

Lace & Cigar Box, originally uploaded by everything vintage.

Once upon a time, in my youth–as the family legend goes–my mom asked me what I was doing and I replied, “Just walkin’ around lookin’ in ol’ Roi Tan boxes.”

This could so easily be a photo from my very own studio, but I stumbled upon it on flikr. It is attributed to “everything vintage” and I thank her for letting me borrow her photo to use in my blog.

I also adore lace, hello!

I have at least one photo of a Roi Tan box which I’ll try to dig out and in the meantime, you might try to find yourself one and see what you can find inside.

on the cutting board

on the cutting board, originally uploaded by suzesque.

Fresh veggies on the cutting board, blogged from flikr in a ‘test run’.

Oh Brother

So, my brother Robbie came to visit in March/April. He lives outside Toronto with his wife of…is it 42 years??? Mercy, I think it is. They raised four darling, exciting, adventurous, brilliant, beautiful and incredibly loving children who are all growed up now and well-into their adult lives. He retired.

Yes, he is retired and isn’t this one of the greatest things that ever happened!? No longer must he catch the bus at dawn and then the train into the city, returning only after the sun has set and the dinner is done. He’s FREEEEE!! Now he’s free to create many an avatar and purchase many a Dover image without the slightest hint of giving a flying f%ick.

There are many things about his March/April visit to tell, but there’s only one for which I have documentation in the form of color photos. Well, there might be two, actually. But the Joe Indellicati caper will be reserved for another time.

THIS is all about napkin folding!!!!!! Yep. Uh, huh.

yEa bABy!!!

Hubby and I had my bro and my mom over for dinner and we cooked something or other that was good BUT when I was setting the table, I remembered that I had fairly recently purchased a little book about napkin-folding at Barnes & Noble because it was on sale and God knows I do set a nice table and yet often have wanted to augment my napkin presentations. Napkin rings I have done, like foreeeever, and of course they are nice and garner the compliments. Still, as the book was on sale for $5.98, I knew the time had come  to go to that next level.

I found the book easily–tucked away on my shelf (a miracle, really)–and sat down to fold the napkins while dinner simmered. Robbie joined right in, reading the directions to me as we laughed a lot and folded ineptly. We managed four distinct and (as you will soon see) delightful designs.

The Pure Elegance

The Water Lily

The Pinwheel

The Diagonal Pockets

We liked the last one best, and that is unlike us since it is arguably the most conservative, but I think what sold it was that we could–and did–tuck in an herb. Robbie asked and I told him the one I plucked out of the crisper was flat-leafed Italian parsley, but of course it is not. I think I grabbed some cilantro instead, but what the hell…the fact remains that it is gloriously encased.

I can’t come up with an explanation of why. All I know is that this was a joyous experience and I highly recommend that I find more of the same as often as I possibly can. One time Tess’ mom told me that the Purpose of Life is to Have Fun and she would know because she was married to Tess’ father who did, like, heavy liturgical sculptures and wore monk clothes with blood stains and stuff.

Texas in the Spring

Bluebonnets close up

Sea of bluebonnets

A Change is Goin’a Come Oh Yezit Will

What this is about is change. Changing yourself, changing myself, who can change what, and how we literally have zero ability to change someone else unless they want to change. Why we want to change or don’t  want to change. How we can change and why we don’t. I’m opening the discussion knowing full well that it all comes down to  the serenity prayer when all is said and done.

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Everything about this topic has been weighing on me in the last few days.  So what do I do? Purchase hair products, of course. On the left in the photo below, we have “Big Sexy Hair’s Blow Dry Volumizing Gel.” The only thing that surprises me about the packaging is that it isn’t phallic-shaped.  To the right we see “Nexxus Humectress Luxe Ultimate Moisturizing Leave-In Spray.” (Packaging a bit more…to the point). I can’t WAIT to try them both. I’ll be fluffy in all the right places and smooth in the others!!!!1

Today at school–and right here and now I declare that I’m finished trying to define myself unless I just feel like indulging–we had a guest speaker. She was actually quite wonderful and, by the way, was about my age and yet had a killer figure and I was excited about that only because it said to me, “it’s possible!!” She was “mature” yet cute.  But I’ll talk about that later and it’s pertinent to this discussion, for sure. Central. Anyway.

The speaker gave us a list of “Predictors of Adult Success and Happiness” as researched and compiled by social scientists whose names I don’t know. The top 10 list is as follows (only there are only nine):

Caring and compassion

Honesty and integrity

Sense of humor

Openness and lack of defensiveness in sharing feelings

Tolerance and acceptance of others’ quirks and failings

Dedication and commitment

Empathizing with others

Adaptability

Self-confidence.

Her point was that these are the concepts and qualities that we must teach. Especially in early childhood, these are the areas where we must lay the foundations for future success and happiness! Not reading, not writing. Not math, not science. Social and emotional intelligence will set the stage for future success!

As a long time teacher, I know this is true. If she had said it and I did not agree, I wouldn’t be posting it here just because an “expert” presented it publicly.  I am always skeptical about speakers and theories and “studies” that tell us what to think. It’s just that I know from 20 years experience with young children that what she says is the truth.

Of course, there is also the fact that I am a huge proponent of emotional growth, knowing oneself, exploring feelings, emphasizing relationships and working on internal change.

With the speaker’s encouragement, we talked in our small group about one particular boy who is known to all the teachers to be especially difficult. His current teachers were asking for advice. Among other things, the discussion caused me to remember that we DO have heavy influence as teachers and that is why we do what we do. We CAN affect change and that is a powerful mission and accomplishment in a life well-spent. The changes, I will tell you, happen over long, long, long expanses of time, as we reinforce essential concepts time and time again. And the changes can also occur in an instant which never ceases to astonish anyone and everyone who is paying attention.

I try to change myself. This weekend was my 35th wedding anniversary. I received a gorgeous necklace and earrings from my husband. I took photos of myself in the new finery and then I HATED most of the images. I love the potential in them but I set about altering them to suit my idea of who I want to be. Like putting on make-up, I altered the pictures with gauzian blur and watercolor magique via photoshopian transformative choices. This reminds me of some of the boys at school who are obsessed with Transformers. Wow–we want to transform into something that we are not. Is this a natural impulse? Are we trying to hide? Or is it “okay”?

What about the creative impulse to alter EVERYTHING????

Here is an image of me that I like, now that I’ve minimized the things I see as “flaws.”

I somehow love that it’s still me in there somewhere (I can see the hopeful remnants of the precious second grader before she was tainted), yet I have almost made myself go away entirely!

Inner beauty, outer beauty, the truth behind “bad” behavior in young boys, why I hide, why I continue to crave authenticity and why the hell I would let myself be exposed like this in a frickin’ blog. WELL dear reader, these are all topics to be explored further in this continuing saga. More to come, more to come.  Good night.

My mommy

My mamia is an incredible one. The best thing about her–even now or especially now that she is 90 amazing years old–is that she is so eager to learn, to communicate, TO KNOW.  I just love that about her.

When Nanc and I spent the night

There are so many things I could say about her, but I think what I’ll do is just start now, publish,  and add more entries as I can. Hey! I’ve learned a few things in my time, as well, and I know that if I try to say EVERYTHING about Wina right now, I will wither away in non-completion hell.  SO…how’s about if I just start?? Does that suit you okay? Okay.

I love that she perseveres through everything with a spring-like quality.

She has THE most gorgeous eyes ever invented.

She is THE most loving and loved person any of us know.

There is more to come but this will go out into the airways, passages, byways and pathways for all to see because now is the time.

Paula’s Pot

Last summer a good friend died. We had worked together for about seven years, teachers at a private preschool. She taught Kindergarten and I (still do teach) PreK. Paula was also an artist and we shared a love of detail, a sense of humor and, of course, a passion for art.

About 5 years ago, she and I were asked to hang a children’s art show in the gallery at school. Our school is sort of upper crust, so things had to be “just so,” but with me and Paula, things would have to be “just so” any way because we could both be considered perfectionists when it comes to stuff like this. It took days and days to complete but oh my, it was magnificent. We sorted, we organized and reorganized, we matted, we hung, we conferred, we had fun, we humbly accepted ensuing accolades,  and we bonded.

When Paula died of cancer after a long fight, my cohorts and I wanted to do something as a memorial to her at the school. Since she loved all creatures great and small, especially birds, we decided to do a mosaic birdbath in a garden on the playground. I volunteered to do the birdbath.

After my husband and I traipsed way out miles away from home to pick out the perfect concrete birdbath, the director of my school realized that our licensing agency would not allow us to have a birdbath on the children’s playground because of safety issues. I told her I would just keep the birdbath because I wanted to buy one for myself anyway. Here are some images of the birdbath:

Naked birdbath sitting in my studio.

The pedestal is very elegant, don’t you think? Just like Paula.

I picked out the pedestal and basin separately. I don’t know how I’m going to mosaic the edge of this bowl when the time comes. It’s fluted, as you can see. Maybe I’ll leave that part without tiles.

ANYWAY, after the bird bath idea was scuttled, I suggested a mosaic pot for the playground in honor of Paula. We decided to do that and place it in a little corner that birds, butterflies and contemplative humans might enjoy. I literally took at least 100 photos of my process when working on the pot, mainly because I got tired and needed a diversion now and then. But also I was remembering to think in Blog Terms somewhere in the nether recesses of my weathered brain. Here then, Dear Blog, are a tiny fraction of the images I took, proving that I CAN edit SOMEtimes when I feel like it. And I can finish a mosaic piece, which is the biggest miracle of all!

This is the pot–I think about 18 inches in diameter and, what?, 22 inches tall.

Beginning to glue on the tiles.

Moving right along….

I decided to put a white border along the bottom.

Fully tiled…nuthin’ to it!

Beginning the messy grouting process.

Close-up of tiles grouted.

Fully grouted. I used tiles that I collected along with shards from plates and cups provided by other teachers who were Paula’s friends.

~VOilA!~

I miss you, Paula

Art at Four

I wrote this in November and forgot about it. I had waited because I didn’t have pictures. Ah, well, just shows you how I need to start thinking in Blog Terms. THAT is going to be scary. Well, here’s the post, just for fun:

How interesting…well, for me anyway…maybe not for you. But today I…well, let me first explain that I teach four and five year olds. So I had created an art project that I thought they might enjoy and never mind exactly what it was.

Okay maybe you need to know. So it was a placemat for the Thanksgiving feast that we are planning. The children had painted brown paper with these wonderful iridescent paints of autumn colors–gold, russet, bronze, red, magenta, orange. Then I took the papers home and cut vertical slits in them. I also cut out strips of paper that they could weave in and out of the slits. The papers I chose were wallpaper samples, wrapping papers, construction paper, tissue paper, and the like.

The reason I’m telling you all this is because of this: I got so HIGH seeing the whole thing come together!!! I LOVED seeing how the kids responded and worked with the materials. The piquante sauce for the whole tasty experience was how the children were excited to make their own pieces and how many of them took ownership of the project. One little guy, Carson, figured a way to fold over a strip that was too long rather than trimming it off (which was my thought). Many of the children chose to weave strips into wonderful combinations that I would never have thought would work.

I remembered, in my reverie, that children work with art materials as if certainty rules the world. They have absolutely no doubts or second thoughts about their choices. All they know is how THEY do it in that particular moment, responding to the exact items in front of them and ignoring everyone else’s interpretations. How satisfying to be able to be oneself, wholly, in the creative moment.

Late Night Collage