While there are still mountains of dirty snow lining the streets, the large cake on my deck table has shrunk to this size. Maybe by April...
Sunday (was it only yesterday??) was one of those days when I didn't feel like moving. Nonetheless, I made barley & mushroom soup and decided to tackle the NY Times' recipe for scones, which ran on Wednesday. While the Times rarely lets me down on recipes, this one just wasn't fabulous. It was ok, but my goal in life is to make a scone that is as delicious (or almost, anyway) as the scones at Joyce Bakeshop, in Brooklyn near the corner of Vanderbilt and Park Place. I never visit my daughter without stopping for scones and taking them home with me (if there are any left by the time I grey there). So, not satisfied with yesterday's batch, I searched for another recipe. These look more like it, but I haven't had one yet. Saving them till later.
I've been in a funk for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that nothing I throw at the wall pleases me. I took the gray strips to my studio but can't get there till Wednesday to work on them.
That left me with another try at the pink piece I started last month and took off the wall. It's back in process and much better since it has less pink (why do I bother with pink at all??) but it is still not speaking to me.
This is where I left it when I took the pieces down and put them away.
8 comments:
Patterns are no fun. Come on, you will all of a sudden strike upon something and the creative juices will flow faster than you can sew! I am a scone lover also, but mine always seem to some out dry. Let me know when you come upon a recipe you like. I think I will have to go home after work and bake some now that you have scones in my head! SO glad you missed the snow like we did in northeast Ohio. The sun has been out all day and that alone makes me feel better even though it is very cold. Hang in there!
I am glad that the snow didn't reach us either in Connecticut. Enough shoveling for this season.
Well, it is my birthday, a big one, and I am really feeling blah, can't get going. But I know that persevering through the blank design wall provides a breakthrough. When I tried paint by numbers or any other such fixed pattern, when I was done, it was like so what? It looks just like the box, big deal. But when some thing pulls together, order in chaos, it is magical. I will take the magic over just marking off the checklist any day, no matter how gray.
I know what you mean....paint by numbers is SO much easier. But it holds so little reward for some of us.
I like your pink piece. :) I think it's the orange in it that i really like.
I WANT to do some work like you do with the strips but I keep thinking I need to have more tone-on-tone solids to do it and my stash is just chock-full of patterned fabrics. I'll dig through your blog for examples, but do you do much with patterned fabrics?
Funny, I was never fond of paint by numbers... too messy, and I was never very good at staying inside the lines. Finger painting was much more satisfying for me! And as far as I'm concerned, the pink strip set is gorgeous! I love bright, hot pinks combined with oranges and other colors... guess it's all a matter of what floats your boat, huh? Hopefully, your funk will pass soon, and Spring just has to be on its way to you by now!
Thanks, Rayna, for another inspiring blog post. I am trying to let "freedom ring" in my quilting projects now. It is sometimes very frustrating, but reading your blog posts always encourages me to keep trying. Just put something together and throw it up on the wall and take a picture. Great advice that I am trying to follow. I do love your work!!!
My trick for scones is to slightly freeze the butter and use a cheese grater instead of your fingers to break it up and incorporate it into the dough I totally understand the angst of creating an original piece but that's the only way I want to work these days.
Your scones LOOK good, hope they taste great as well. I have to say, though, that as I was scrolling down the post, after seeing all that snow, my first thought when I saw the two top scones was that you were snow dyeing!! Hope you're feeling more with-it soon -- maybe you need to pick up something entirely different for a while. Have a good week and be well! xoxo
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