Uh...various

When I get emails asking if I am ok, I know it is past time to post.  Honestly, I have been too busy and/or too tired. 

The last few nights have been late, but not as late as the last umpteen, when I was up till 2:am watching all the episodes of Masterpiece Theatre's series (ex post facto).

I am not a tv watcher -- not even public television. EVER. But someone recently gave me a gift subscription to Hulu + and as I was scrolling around on my iPad to see if I would ever use it, there it was -- Season I.  Curious, I clicked on Episode 1. Instantly addicted, I spent the next bunch of nights (and days?)- printing and watching Seasons 1 & 2. Then I had to switch to PBS.com to watch season 3, which is available there only till March 3, when it vanishes and won't be available till July (or some such) on Amazon.com, exclusively.  

Thank goodness I finished watching the last episode g so I could get on with my life!  Have I been busy? I steamed and washed another 10 of the scarves I am making for my college reunion class.   I'm 4/5 of the way there.  I have been back in the studio, printing more of these.

I made the front of a fabric postcard destined for an auction at Sisters Outdoor Quilt Festival in July.  It felt good to get back to sewing and I suspect I will finish the rest tomorrow or Friday. *Monday update - by the time I am posting this, it is all done.  One remains to be made.

Over the weekend:  Saturday was Miss Emma's birthday party. She is now officially three years old. Of course, she had to read her card -- and not to brag, but when she opened it and I asked her where her name was, she pointed directly to it. Really, she did.

  We drove in because, living in Brooklyn sans auto, her parents needed my car to pick up the balloons and cake and be transported to the party location, which was not their small rental apartment. After spending all day with a horde of three-year-olds, we went back to the apartment and my other two kids, kids-in-law, and 4 grandsons arrived to give Emma her gifts and hang out. 

We got home pretty late and I realized immediately that I had left my iPhone plugged in, charging, at Jessica's.  So it was back to Brooklyn on Sunday to retrieve it. ARGH.  But we made lemonade out of lemons: the El Anatsui exhibit was at the Brooklyn Museum, about a 5 minute drive from Jessica's apartment.  It had been on my to-see list, so this was the perfect opportunity.  If you are anywhere within driving distance of NY City, you have to go to see this exhibit!! Drop-dead spectacular.  Here are a few of the highlights that are not on the website.

He started as a painter, then worked in wood.  These can be arranged many ways.

We couldn't figure out what these bags were made of.  Paper? Nope, metal printing plates.  They are so large you can walk between them -- there are many more in this installation and they are amazing.

I think this was my favorite piece.

El Anatsui's work is made so you can get right close up to it.  Furthermore, his work is so flexible that it can be arranged any way the curators decide to arrange it.  These can lids were rolled up in another part of the exhibit and looked very different from the cones below.

All these beautiful bottle caps are connected in a way that allows them to drape.  

Is this gorgeous, or what? Somebody should be wearing these to the Academy Awards.

This is the first exhibit I've been to in eons where the guards did not threaten to shoot you if you got too close to the work.  You could almost put your nose up against these vivid materials.

After the exhibit we stopped at the famous Junior's for pastrami sandwiches and their famous (and overrated, IMO) cheesecake.  Another tiring but adventurous day in NY and I cannot tell you how inspired I am by this fantastic exhibit.  

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am driving to Warwick, NY to give a lecture/trunk show in the morning.  Leaving early, since I have no clue where I am going or how to get there. Mapquest on the computer gives me one set of directions; on my iPhone, a second route, and Google Maps gives me a third way to get there.  Great.  I am leaving a bit of time to get lost.