Mission District love

I arrived in San Francisco yesterday and spent the afternoon with my friend Rachel, who moved here two years ago from New Jersey.  I'll be at her house till Friday morning, when I head for Berkeley.

Today was her turn to gallery sit at CityArt on Valencia St, so this morning we walked over there and along the way, my camera was hard at work.  I told Rachel they could blindfold me and drop me and I would know immediately which city I was in.

=

Rachel  lives in a neighborhood adjacent to the famed Mission District, where we spent the rest of the afternoon.  While she sat in the gallery, I went out for a walk around the neighborhood - a vibrant urban section that is just the kind of place I love.

This gorgeous building was obviously once a movie palace; now a parking lot.  A parking lot??

As I walked, I looked for a place to have lunch -- there were a million choices.  But it wasn't till I saw this sign in an arcade on Mission Street that I knew I had found it. Pupusas!!!  Salvadoran - made to order, and simply fabulous.  Jessica and Tommy introduced me to pupusas, which they discovered in an outdoor foodmarket in Brooklyn some years ago.  There is a Salvadoran restaurant in my town which has good pupusas but I had not had them anywhere else (or in ages).  

It was a lunch counter and I was the only Anglo in the place: a good sign.

San Francisco (or at least this area) is an outdoor visual treat: murals everywhere and plenty of delicious graffiti.  Just seeing it all has made me want to get back to work!  Color!! Bold Graphics

As Rachel and I walked home, these murals below were only a few of the ones that decorated the fences and garage doors in an alley.  My phone was dying from using the camera, so I couldn't take pictures of all of them.  But this will give you an idea of the Mission beautification project.

Enough for today.  Tonight, out for a French dinner with another friend from New Jersey who just flew in to attend a wedding.  Have to go get pretty:-).

wordless or speechless

Seen at the park over the weekend.

Seen in my driveway this morning.

yawn...

Getting up early tomorrow for a flight to San Francisco. Spent the week working on the dining room table's pile of family photos, trying to make order of chaos.  So far, no luck and I will have to throw everything into boxes and haul them into my sewing room when I get back.  Among the old photo albums, my parents' ration book from WWII, my father's draft notice (and his deferral, thank goodness), and lots of other goodies. I am putting them into a notebook.

My car was making terrible noises over the weekend so I took it into the dealer for service. It needed a 45,000 mi checkup anyway.  As I predicted, there were a few things that needed replacing and/or adjusting. All is well, but I did rack up a lot of miles on my credit card...

 The bright spot of the day was a visit from my friend Jennifer, her son, and her beautiful 3 month old daughter. They came for lunch. Ooooh - I loved holding that little bundle while she slept.  You forget how little and precious they are because they grow so fast.  Just look at the love on Jen's face as she holds her sleeping baby.

In the meantime, my formerly sleeping baby has morphed into this teeny bopper in training.  We face-timed tonight (she is in Wisconsin visiting her Nana) and compared our pedicures.  We both have blue polish on our toes:-)). 

That's my girl!

Short post - I need to hit the sack so I can make my plane tomorrow morning.  Next stop, the west coast!

I love my iPhone

 Um - originally, this was supposed to be a strictly art related blog. hahahahaha - so much for that.  Art and life are one -- although, since I haven't done any art lately I am beginning to wonder what is happening with my life. Ah, well. I have decided not to worry about it.  I have not been in the studio, have no idea what I am going to do next (besides revise my color class) and you know what? it's ok.  Life is too short.

This is a non-sequitor.  Who out there does not love his/her iPhone?    Pretty much forced into buying one several  years ago (2009?) in Houston, when I lost my charger (or rather, couldn't find it) on a trip -- it was the least expensive alternative at the AT&T store in Houston (my flip phone was so old they didn't make a charger for it any more, OF COURSE) -- I bought the iPhone 3, kicking and screaming, for $99.  After my husband died in 2011, I traded it for an iPhone 4, which I still have.  No need for Siri or a higher resolution camera - I am happy.  Not ready to trade up at this point, but you never know. I am rather wedded to the charger for my old iPhone and highly resent having to deal with the new one. Bah!

Last weekend at the farmer's market I spotted this odd looking vegetable. I forget what it was, but it doesn't matter because I didn't buy it.  Can anybody identify this?

Ok, now that I am past that -- on to this week.  I have been walking every day - sometimes more, sometimes less.  Watching what I eat (except today and I don't care) and we shall see whether I become 20 years younger and svelter in a few months.  Do not hold your breath, o dear readers.  I am not holding mine.  But exercise can't hurt.

Today started as an ordinary day.  Paid bills,went for a walk around the complex that burned enough calories for me to have a Ritz cracker and still come out even;spent 2 hours sorting out my mother's financial mess. As I was almost home, my daughter Hilary called to say she was at her friend (since 3rd grade) Jen's house and they invited me over to hang out in the driveway in lawn chairs. Since I hadn't seen Jennifer in a couple of decades, I hightailed it over there.  Meantime, Jennifer called her parents, whom I haven't seen in even longer and they came over to see me.
We sat in the drieway drinking Prosecco to celebrate, and had the best time!! 

Ya know - there are some people that it doesn't matter how many years go by, you pick up where you left off and it is wonderful.  Here we are in Jennifer's driveway, having the best time!  Jennifer's father took the photo.

l-R Lois (Jennifer's' mother), Jennifer, my daughter Hilary (in sunglasses)and her mother.  cheers!  It was great, even though I didn't have my makeup on and was slouching.

So now, here I am at home, late - awake, happy, relaxed, and looking forward to the weekend and whatever it will bring.  Tomorrow, another day at home dealing with THE STUFF, packing for my trip to San Francisco (yay!) and hoping the cool/dry/perfect walking weather will hold.  I love the tank of autumn in the air while the trees are still green.  Do you?

staring into space

After dinner tonight I went to the park and walked a couple of miles in an effort to do my body some good.

I am actually so tired that I have not moved from my chair & ottoman in several hours (except to make some vanilla frozen yogurt in an effort to give myself some energy.  It failed to do so, but the yogurt was delicious. I put raspberries and mango on top.

 

While I was sitting here vegitating, I thought I'd check out Jessica's FB page and was delighted to see some pictures from Fire Island last weekend.  

 

I posted for the first time in eons and was deluged with messages. How nice!  I also discovered that two babies arrived while I was away from FB and I missed those events. Tsk tsk, bad me. Will have to be more diligent about checking Facebook. The world goes on without me.

I did admit that I've been spending so much time cleaning up the physical, financial, and legal messes my mother left for me that I have hardly had time to post here, never mind Facebook.   So please indulge my absences.

The weather here continues to be hot and muggy and rainy, but the other morning it was lovely and I looked out to see 3 bambis, very close, chomping away at the grass in the yard.  They stopped and stared at me, but the minute I raised my iPhone, they ran like the wind. This one didn't go too far, but he stood very still when he got to the edge of the woods, here.

                                The view from my deck as they scattered.  Cheesh, they are fast!

Today was a day of errands - bank, surrogate's office, blah bah blah.  I did stop at the wonderful Fairway Market that opened recently about 1/2 hour away to buy a couple of pounds more of the Santo Domingo dark coffee I love -- and oh, yes, I voted in the special primary election in New Jersey.   The polls have been closed for a while now, so I am going to check the news and get some rest.

Color, Color, Color

It is rare that I sit down to blog mid-afternoon, but I am taking a break.  It is also rare that I am home all day, spending time in my sewing room at the semi-cleaned off cut/iron table. This is no great sacrifice, since it rained for part of the day and is quite humid again.

I spent the day tweaking/fine-tuning/revising/revamping/redesigning my color wheel-less class, Fearless Color. Still not done, but it did give me the opportunity to fondle/feel/organize/play with a whole bunch of 5" squares of solid colors. Ahhh....

I also cut some skinny strips of neutrals, just for a change.  Each packet of squares has  1 each of ROYGBV.  But here's the challenge: since we are thinking in color families instead of color wheels, there is variation not only in value (light-dark just in case you've been on another planet) and in how pure or greyed-down a color is. 

I noticed something interesting in the color packets I bought for this class: there are lots of greens and almost no oranges -- true in every value and range and assortment. Hmmm...this did not make my life easy, but every packet is different and random and it should be interesting when we start to work with them.

Lots of people are interested in taking a color class, but everyone's needs and experience are different.  Because I work on a purely intuitive level I have never had trouble with color choices.  But as long as I am revising/revamping etc. this class, I would really be interested in what stumps you about color choices (if anything) and what your dream class on color would include.  Of course, there's not a lot we can do in a one-day class (which seems to be what most guilds want, sadly enough) - but as I edit the longer class, I'd love to have your input.

In the meantime, I have accumulated a huge bag of strips of various sizes and OMG, have to use/give away/ some of these before I do another thing.  This is only ONE bag. don't ask about the bins and boxes. 

Rosh Hashanah is coming up right after Labor Day: maybe I should think about starting the New Year with a relatively clean slate.  We'll see.

Finally, this sign was in the rest room in Greenwich Village's Caffé Reggio last weekend.
Meant to post it on wordless Wednesday but forgot I had taken the picture.  HUH??  I'd like to know what they had in mind.

Ok - that's it for now.  Feel free to comment about what you'd like in a color class -- I'd love to hear it.
R
 

caffeine and sugar

A recipe for staying up late?  Well, so far the caffeine seems to be wearing off -- but it is quite late (or early, as the case may be).

To distract myself from all this estate stuff during the day, I have been treating myself to a re-org (for a change) of the sewing room.  I spent my nights emptying the rolling bins where everything  was buried under everything else; sorting, and then putting them neatly into 7 lovely stackable drawers.

 LOL - these were hand-me-ups from my grandsons, who have outgrown the Ninja Turtles and pajamas that previously occupied the containers.   What didn't fit there is going into the stackable rolling bns and other plastic boxes. 

Lo and behold, as I dug, I discovered an entire bin of my hand-printed fabrics.  I wondered where they were.

 A drawer for Handloom Batiks and a random other Indian batik or two.

 Wow! I actually have a drawer of black& whites and neutral prints.Who knew?

                 And a place for my non-Usha batiks and a miscellaneous fabric or three.

 Now, of course, the trick is to find the time to actually use some of these beauties. Before I can do that, however, I need to deal with the horizontal surface that purports to be my cutting/ironing space.

 

That remains for tomorrow.  Fortunately, I can sleep late because I don't have an appointment in the morning.

the deer ate my daylilies and other adventures

The deer spray was reapplied but apparently the deer are getting used to it -- or it was washed away by the deluges we have been having in Northern NJ.

Every last beautiful flower - Bambi Food. Grrrrrrrrr.

 So where have I been for the past week?  Let's see...Three days with my daughter, Jessica.

 Last Wednesday I went into Brooklyn to help with the last-minute packing at Jess and Tommy's place.  They were moving on Thursday, but when I arrived on Wed. it was hard to believe it would be possible.  Two people who work full time and can't take time off to pack except nights and weekends have a problem on their hands.  Suffice it to say that I spent the day packing the kitchen and then realized I could not go home because they needed me to help at night and in the morning, before the movers came. Then I remembered that I had parked in the commuter spaces at the mall where there was no overnight parking, so I frantically called NJ Transit and mall security and told them my tale of woe (family emergency) hoping the car would not be towed or ticketed.

I bought a couple of amenities at the local Duane Reade drugstore and slept on the couch in my clothes. We were still packing when the movers came.

Fortunately, the move was only two buildings away, so they didn't need to pack the truck.  I sat on the stairs inside the front door of the building to make sure no random people came in who didn't belong there.  I read an entire book by Adriana Trigiani while I was sitting there.

The apartment has been under renovation for the past 6-8 weeks.  It was a complete disaster with great bones, 1400 sq. ft, 2 bedrooms/2 baths, and lots of closets.  It looked pretty good a couple of weeks ago, while it was being torn up.

Hard to tell with all the boxes, but it looks light and bright and wonderful now.

Friday, I met Jessica at the stone yard in NJ so they could template the countertops for the kitchen. Then we went to the Design Within Reach outlet sale because she is looking for new furniture. She didn't find anything she loved, but I (who was not looking) came home with four new chairs for my kitchen at a 75% discount off the original price. How could I leave them there?? They are fun and soooo comfortable, and they replace the random falling-apart chairs I had. I would have bought four different colors, but they didn't have a selection I liked.

Now I will have to get the kitchen painted and the powder room repapered. I have rolls of wallpaper sitting in the closet for 5 years; I don't even know if I like them any more.  But they are going up as soon as the weather gets cool and I am home long enough.

Saturday and Sunday, home at last (no ticket on the car!) and apart from a walk in the park, sat and read and did nothing else all weekend.  This week, working on lectures and classes -- and spent today at the apartment sorting through books.  I was cataloguing first editions/signed and unsigned; 19th century books, and organizing them for the antiquarian book seller who is coming to look at them on Friday.  A signed book by Eleanor Roosevelt (only 250 copies printed), a signed biography by Theodore Roosevelt, and many other names you will recognize if you have literary interests: Erskine Caldwell, Edmund Wilson, Somerset Maugham...and others. 

I am exhausted. My new purple-framed eyeglasses are ready and I plan to pick them up in the morning.
Meantime, beauty sleep, FWIW.

Wednesday-Thursday

Wednesday afternoon I went into NY City to meet my cousin for dinner and to hear Maya Chaimovich speak about her amazing quilts!  Maya, whom I met a few years ago at QSDS, is an immensely talented Israeli quilt artist with a unique voice.When I heard she was having a solo show at the City Quilter Art Gallery, I knew I would have to go.  Happily, I was home in time from my trip to attend.  My cousin, who knew only that quilts covered beds, was fascinated with Maya's quilts and the whole art quilt movement.

The exhibit will be up until early August, so if you can get there, please do.

Maya Chaimovich Quilt. Photo: Courtesy of the Art Quilt Gallery NYC
PHOTO GALLERY (1 IMAGE)
The Art Quilt Gallery NYC
133 West 25th Street
New York, NY
United States

Maya is a warm and generous artist who spoke and answered myriad questions from the audience. Her quilts are very personal and to hear the story behind them is to add another dimension to her beautiful work.  I was happy to see her and of course, I prevailed upon my cousin to take this photo.  What a pleasure!

It was beyond HOT and HUMID yesterday and on my walk from 39th St. to 25th St, I had to duck into Macy's to cool off.  But it was worth it!

Thursday 
 today - hooray!  Still sleeping off the time change - woke up at 5:am (what???) and at 10:am, was on the couch, napping.  So weird.  Anyway, by the time I had lunch I had revived and was working again on my "working in a series" presentation.  While writing comes easily to me, organizing does not -- so I am working on a flow of information -- tweaking what I have and updating it. ARGH.

This afternoon, a trip to the eye doctor and prescription for much-overdue glasses.  I have a blind spot in my right eye, so my vision will never be 100%, but a fine-tuned script will help.  A trip to the optician made me glad I am still working. OMG. Sticker shock doesn't begin to say it.

Dinner, leftover (homemade - yum!) sausage and peppers that I had stuck in the freezer before I left, and some of the divine tomatillo & avacado salsa I made earlier in the week.  Jessica brought some last weekend when they came and I simply had to find the recipe.  On the internet, of course.  Where else?
Needless to say, I tweaked it - adding more lime juice and I forget what else.  You need to taste it and adjust.  FABULOUS. I have been eating it all week.  Made gazpacho at lunch and threw in some of this on top. Ahhhhhhh.

Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa

Throw into food processor:
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup onion, minced very fine
2 serrano chiles, deseeded, minced very fine
1/2 pound tomatillos, husked, rinsed and quartered
1 ripe avocado
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

serve with tortilla chips, jicama, red pepper and radish

Enjoy! Perfect with homemade margaritas on a hot summer night.

heat and dust

I returned to the hottest NJ summer in eons -- temps in the high 90's F and humidity in the same range.
There are all kinds of heat warnings for old people (over 65) to stay inside this week.  Hahahaha.  I am going into NY city this afternoon to the City Quilter Gallery to see the exhibit of Maya Chamovich's quilts and hear her gallery talk at 6:pm.  Afterwards, I am going to dinner with my cousin Rahla so we can catch up on family stuff -- so I'm looking forward to it, despite the heat.

They say you are not supposed to water your plants in the morning - that evening is better.  But it is so awful that I am doing both.  My postage-stamp garden looked so much better a couple of hours after I soaked it, that I had to take pictures.  Before I left for Oregon I sprayed the daylily plants with anti-deer stuff and it worked!  I didn't expect that these late-bloomers would wait for my return, but they did.  The daylilies and echinacea look splendid to me.

Also, before I left I brought all the herbs upstairs to the master bath, which has a skylight. They did very nicely and now I am bringing them out again.  Such lovely basil!  I am drinking water with ice, lime, and crushed basil and it is divine.  Better with gin, but since it is so hot I am drinking water to stay hydrated.  Aren't I good??

More later or tomorrow, depending on how tired I am when I get home from walking several miles of city blocks later on.

Modern, modern, modern

This morning, before leaving Sisters, OR, Jean drove Laura Wasilowski, Amy Walsh, and me to Five Pines to look at 35 of the quilts that had been at QuiltCon.  They were hung amongst the trees and wildflowers in a beautiful setting and it was a treat to see them there.  I couldn't photograph all of them but here is an overview of what is happening in the "modern" world.

Cool, huh?

Sisters is a wonderful place to teach and a super place to take classes. Now, as I sit at SFO waiting for my Red Eye flight to Newark, I am feeling mellow and happy at having had such a good experience.

It is almost time to walk to the other end of the terminal to catch my flight (don't ask -- a two hour delay made me miss my connection out of SFO and I hope to land in Newark at 7:am.  Even more, I hope I can catch a couple of hours of sleep on the way.

xo