“Mary Onette.”

What I do

I decided to make my own since I get the “ghost” reference constantly and the “playing in the mud all day” reference too. Plus I couldn’t find one for ceramics

Snow Day!

So school was cancelled today due to a few inches of snow and slushie roads. Awesome. I can deal with one snow day. In fact, I’ll relish in it! I just don’t want EIGHT snow days like we had last year.

When I was younger and on the other side of the desk (student), a snow day meant wasting as much time as possible. Minus a couple snowballs thrown at my brother, I would put forth little effort in removing myself from the couch. It’s a whole different ball game now. This snow day was like a second Sunday. A redemption Sunday! A day to get done all the things I should have gotten done yesterday! I tried to be as productive as possible!

First I worked out. Then made coffee and breakfast. Showered. Washed and dried ALL of the laundry in the house and put it all away. Picked up a little around the kitchen and living room. Went through tons of paperwork. Woke up Dave a few times. Plucked my eyebrows. Lit all the candles. Blew out all the candles. Ate a small lunch and then a snack. Baked a cake. Made salad to go with dinner. Blah blah blah. I felt like I had to get all of that done before I did what I really wanted to do, which was paint.

I spent 3 hours painting an 8″x10″ for my friend Jessica’s sister. It’s of her dog and son. She commissioned me to do it.  Here are my two reference photos:

Here’s the sketch plus some background paint:

And the finished product:

I think the composition is decent considering I combined two photos. I’m fairly happy with it as far as a small painting of a boy, a dog, and a sucker goes. But I’m not so sure about how close the likeness is to the actual boy. I mean, he’s beyond adorable and adorable is not my specialty in painting! But hopefully she’ll like it. I had fun doing it. Especially painting the dog!

Soon I’m gonna work on a self-portrait inspired by Frida Kahlo. Also I’m going to have to work on some ceramic sculptures soon for my upcoming joint show in August!

Yay productive snow day!

I will leave you with a quote from one of my students.

One says to the other, ”Ben, if it weren’t for art, you’d be in jail right now.”

I never heard the other students reply because I was laughing so hard!

Movie Weekend

I rarely get the chance or have the motivation to watch movies. I’m not someone who is quick to say “I have ADD” but I defintely have difficulty with sitting on the couch for 2 hours. I like to move my hands or my feet or be constantly stimulated by something interactive. I like watching movies I’ve seen a million times because I can follow along while crocheting or doing something else to keep me busy. Also, I watch a lot of tv because I can get up during the commercials. I guess you could call it “watching.” I turn the tv on and listen off and on while I paint, do dishes, or other things.

All this being said, I will rarely put on a movie on a Friday night when I’m home alone. I’ll turn the tv on and do something. But if Dave is off on a weekend night, we’ll most definitely be watching movies. This doesn’t happen that often and I enjoy it very much! I love being in our house, I love our pets, and I love cuddling.

This weekend was pretty typical. Friday night Dave had a gig and I stayed home. I did some school prep-work on my laptop while the tv was on. Don’t even remember what I watched! I also cleaned the house a bit. (It still needs more than “a bit.”) Saturday I went for a run, ate breakfast and then picked up Jac and her little friend K. and went to Jacqlyn’s for Valentine crafting. After crafting I dealt with my mom’s/my cats and then picked up a pizza. I’ve been dieting for 3 weeks and craving pizza since Day 1. It was so not worth it. Everytime I’ve “cheated” on my diet it makes my belly ache. Probably because I’ve been eating more healthy and nutritionally balanced than I ever have before. Whenever I had a banana split on Friday I thought I’d just die or explode or something. I still managed to stay under calories on both Banana Split Day and Pizza Day.

What wasn’t so typical is that after pizza and salad, we watched movies! I didn’t even fall asleep until the 2nd one! Yay me!

1st movie: The Fisher King. I really dug this movie! Dave’s been talking about it for years. I even tried to find it one year for him for Christmas. It’s one of his favorites and I can see why. He’s really big on “the meaning of life” type stuff. The movies started off kinda weird and silly, but it defintely won my heart over. Any movie where there’s two quirky people who fall in weird love is great with me. Jeff Bridges was classic as usual as an eternal screw-up seeking redemption. Robin Williams plays a crazy guy who is not so crazy after all. An he’s defintely at his peek in this movie.

2nd movie: Sabrina. I love Aubrey Hepburn, but who doesn’t? Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of my all time favorite movies. Sabrina is one of Robyn’s. So we thought we’d give it a try. I love the wardrobe, the cars, and the language of fifties movies. Hepburn was wonderful in the movie but it was hard for me to believe she’d fall in love with either of the leading males. I found Humphrey Bogart’s character robotic and William Holden’s a little doofish. All in all it still had me engaged, but not my favorite.

Sunday came and we had plans to go to the matinee of the new Daniel Radcliffe movie.

3rd movie: The Woman in Black. I dug the movie. Again, the wardrobe and art direction were a big part of why I liked it. Also, I think part of the objective of this movie was to get viewers to admire Radcliffe’s dashing good looks. Half of the movie was close-ups of his facial expressions. Which is not a bad thing. It was a horror/suspense movie and they did a good job capturing his emotions. I was on the edge of my seat a few times. Dave loves this type of horror flick: one without a bunch of computerized special effects. And I do too. But my favorite type of horror flick is the kind where you are legitimately scared because it could happen to you. (See, The Strangers.)

Now it’s Superbowl Sunday and that’s when all the good tv stuff is on! The Puppy Bowl, awesome Discovery documentaries about Dragon fish, and Sex in the City marathons! I wouldn’t even know what teams are playing in the Superbowl if it weren’t for a couple of ladies talking in the movie theater bathroom. So instead of football we’re taking advantage of the wonderful programming on AMC and watching yet another movie! This must be a record weekend for me…

4th movie: ET. The possibility (a very high one I believe) of life beyond our planet facinates me. This is such an amazing movie. And it is pure childhood nostalgia for me right down to the Reese’s peices. When has anyone made another movie about aliens that is so funny, serious, touching, and human? So many alien movies are just jokes. This movie is beyond heart warming/heart breaking. Classic. I mean, we all just wanna go home, right?

First Asian market experience/ Chinese Buffet on Houston Street

Today was a day I will not soon forget. I made my first ever venture to the Asian market over on Midland. Dave had gone to this particular market about 2 weeks ago when he was preparing for his first attempt at Hot and Sour Soup. Since Dave did not have to work tonight, we decided it would be a perfect night to try the soup again. The first batch was nice, but not quite the same as it is at China City on Towson. Dave says he’s been searching for a great Hot and Sour Soup recipe for years. We always rave over it when we go for Chinese which is not often. He’s got me hooked on it and now I’ve tried it at many Chinese places around Fort Smith. China City’s is by far the best. It’s just spicy enough, just sour enough, and has the oddest Chinese fungus I’ve ever seen/tasted (not that I’m a foreign fungi expert or anything).

As we planned dinner for the night (talking about it on and off again for several hours. These things have to be mulled over to be perfectly complicated, ya know?) we decided to make several other dishes including chicken egg rolls, veggie stir fry, and General Tso’s Chicken. This is classic Kara and Dave. We get excited about things. One soup dish turns into a Chinese buffet. At this point we had  to go back to the Asian market.

I have to say I was under-perpared for this. (If I wasn’t prepared would I be “underpared?”). Let me just say I am so glad I live my life on a sensory level. Call me a pagan or hedonist whatever you want, but I loooooove my senses. Touch might be my favorite followed by Taste. But I am an artist so Vision is right up there. Asian Market was total sensory overload for me. Just like going into IKEA. Or a really cool independently owned art supply store. One of those experiences where you want to whip out your camera and document the whole experience but are so overwhelmed your hands barely work. I’m pretty sure I walked around there with my mouth opened and only saw about 20% of what was there. I’d hyper zoom on one item and just couldn’t see the forest for the trees! And the trees were AWESOME! And weird. Really weird. Which is my favorite. Highlights were: Weird chopped shrimp parts in a jar, more bamboo shoots than there are green beans at Walmart, Cutesy packages for candy what-nots, weirdo baby green bananas, beautiful produce including some odd ones I’ll have to go back and investigate, Ballerina Tea, THE CUTEST TINY MUSHROOMS EVER, and a liiiiivee squiggly dog pile of crabs! Gosh. When Dave pointed out the wiggling crabs to me I almost lost it. I’m suprised I didn’t hear, “White girl squealing on aisle 6… again.” Except I was squealing with excitement not terror! That was one thing in the store that I did not use my sense of Touch on. That’s all I can remember because like I said, I couldn’t possibly work a camera in that place. I was asking the lady in produce questions about the bean sprouts and she looked at me like I was crazy. Dave chummed it up with the cashier and he was very nice to us. I will totally be visiting again! I don’t know why I hadn’t gone before.

Since I didn’t have the sense to put my senses down for a moment and to take pics, I am documenting our cooking and eating experience instead!

Dave did a lot of the prep while I was driving Jean Jean home. Earlier in the day I stopped by Saver’s to buy some containers to make candles with. But that’s another blog post… I bought a few cute tea bowls and we ended up using them for tea! I’m going to make some for us whenever I have time in the studio someday.

I’m not the best cook in the house, that’s for sure. But I do enjoy labor intensive tactile food making! That’s why I like baking pies and making spanikopita.

Post-fry…

“I just have the feeling this is going to be a transcendent experience,” says Dave. While I like the tactile process, he likes the conceptual. He told me today he likes making soup the best because it’s like a puzzle.

Dave plated it nicely!

Huge, homemade, yummy dinner! And no need for forks! That’s one way to end a week of dieting and exercise! Can’t wait to weigh in tomorrow. Ha!

Meanwhile I’m wondering when it was we stopped making Mexican food all the time. Oh well. Tonight, I didn’t even miss cheese!

“So what’s your blog?”

K: “What do you mean ‘What’s my blog’?”
D: “I mean what are you blogging about? What prompted you to start a blog?”

Mainly my grandma. The things she says and does. She’s hilarious and I want to remember these good times because I know they will not last forever. There’s also the fact that I hang out with teenagers all day long. That makes for interesting stories for sure. Also I’d like to document the crafts and art I make/am making/will never finish. And I have two idiotic animals that I live with. Never a dull moment. Then there’s food. Oh, food. My musician husband fancies himself a pretty darn good home cook. And I agree! And I love to eat! Probably too much. But life is much more fun when you eat semi-large amounts of yummy food. So blogging the recipes and photos of the recipes Dave tries and invents might be fun too. Also, I go on adventures sometimes. I’m an amateur hunter, a part-time wench, a former burlesque performer, an aunt, a sometimes kayaker, and hopefully I’ll be a mom sometime soon. Yeah, I think this might be the perfect time for me to start a blog. I think my life is pretty interesting. Even if it’s only interesting to me. And even if the interesting parts just come in short spurts around the boring parts.

…

Today I picked up Grandma (or as she is known around town, Jean Jean) from dialysis as I do every other Saturday. She asked if I would take her to the grocery store and I obliged. As we walked around the produce section we came upon the “Pick 5 Produce.” Customers have to pick 5 pre-packaged groupings of produce (My favorite is the guacamole pack…comes with 2 avocados, a head of garlic, a tomato, and a lime!) to get the discounted price. Grandma had only picked 4 and we were trying to decide which would be the last one to make it into the basket. I pointed out the prepackaged popcorn balls and how odd it was that they were in the produce section.

G: “What? Do you not like popcorn balls?”
K: “They’re okay. I’d rather have regular popcorn that’s not all stuck together. Just think it’s weird that they put them in the Pick 5!”
G: “Well, I’m getting some.”

I loaded the trunk with her groceries as she got into the car. When I sat down into the driver’s seat she says with dissappointment, ”Ohhh. The popcorn balls are in the truck.”

K: “Oh. Did you want to eat one now?”
G: “Well, yes! And you’re gonna eat one too.”

She said this so matter of factly that I knew I didn’t have a choice. I had to eat a popcorn ball. I was pretty hung over and starving at the time so again, I obliged. What you’ve got to realize is that she had just got through telling me how NOTHING tastes good to her and she doesn’t enjoy eating anymore and how she has no appetite these days. Also she told me that since her blood sugar had been pretty high, she’s been REALLY good lately and not eating anything sweet. Before I tore into the popcorn ball, I read the ingredients: corn syrup, sugar, etc. Heh. I then took a bite of the popcorn ball, and dang, it was delicious. We reminisced about how long it had been since either of us had a popcorn ball. DANG it was really good. Could have been because I was hungry or maybe just because I was sharing it with her.

When we got home, we took things out of the fridge to make room for new food. She pulled out a pie and made me taste it. I asked her who had been eating it, and it was her. Then she ate another popcorn ball. : )