In My Element!

Yet another delightfully busy week!

Bright & early breakfast tomorrow at Fred's with John, then nip across the river so he can rig up hangers on the looooooong poster.  

On our way home, will have him drop me off at a bud's to pick up her car (with her) for a spin up to Doylestown for a lovely lunch at Knight House, followed by a ramble through the Michener's  Offering of the Angels, from the Uffizi Collection.   Return everyone by 5:30 p.m., then dinner with an older friend at 6:00 & coffee at 7:30 with Karen.    

Then, it's off to Lambertville with another friend on Thursday for a ramble around Your Show of Shows (okay - ours).  

Back on Friday for another settin' on the porch spell outside the gallery, inviting passersby to write the name of someone who matters to them on a strip of brightly colored paper, to be fashioned into a link & forged onto the INSPIRATO paper chain (which will be on display).  Making more WISH boxes - offering for free, although welcoming contributions to Lulu's Rescue & Tabby's Place.  

When I can squeeze it in, will do B.A. Bounty baking & concocting on Thursday & Friday.  This week's menu of offerings ~ a dozen Whoopie Pies, a dozen diy cupcake fixings, a dozen each Mango Mango and Pomegranate & Pineapple ice pops, and introducing chilled grapes in an easy-to-hold bag as well as fresh pineapple on a stick.

In my element!!  

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Last week was PACKED with activity.  Thursday was filled with making Whoopie Pies & vanilla cupcake blanks & ice pops (Mango Mango & Cranberry Pineapple).  At Lambertville on Friday from 2-6 p.m. (very successfully, I might add).  


Realized while I was there that my diy cupcake decorating supplies needed to be refreshed ~ ~  as I was commemorating the 1/2-way point of the farm market by charging 1/2 off all my wares & wanted to make sure every topping that might be desired was available; restocked rhinestone tiara supply, along with gummy worms, got new soccer balls (small wrapped chocolates instead of the Wilton sugar decoration), refilled over half the containers.  


Glad I did, as everything sold out - with exception of three Whoopie Pies (much to John's delight).  Am glad I took the "loss" - people seemed delighted with my customer appreciation gesture.  And some folks who'd never had one of my Whoopie Pies or ice pops felt free to experiment.  Win-win!!

This week - back at Lambertville, from 2-6.  Shelved the idea of having people make matchless WISH boxes.  But they LOVED what I came up with - set up a small table, with brightly colored pieces of paper, then ballyhooed passersbys to be part of the art show by signing the name of someone dear to their heart & a word that comes to mind when they think about them.  It was a BIG hit!  Will get the links connected in time for this week's linger.  And craft more WISH boxes to have available - no charge, totally free, although contributions to Lulu's Rescue & Tabby's Place would be appreciated (we raised $8 - my goal is to be raise at least $100 to split between the two).

Already started the Mango Mango ice pops (will start the Pomegranate Pineapple tomorrow).

Life is good, albeit busy! busy! busy!

Matchless WISH Boxes

Yup, that's going to be my first "Friday Porch Sit" project!  


This Friday ~ ~ matchless WISH  boxes!  Will have the semi-prepped materials with me at this Friday's Meet the Artists at the Gallery at the Bank of Princeton/Lambertville (10 Bridge Street, about three buildings down from the bridge, on the left).  Emptied them out of their matches, painted their "drawers" pretty colors, and have pieces of art paper & embellishments & ribbon at the ready for decorating.  Oh - and strips of paper with quotes about imagination & creativity & being for folks of all ages to pick to use as their wish slip,  writing their heart's desire on the blank other side, then tucking it away until the time it happens!


Might even whip up some mini cupcakes & have a pitcher of something refreshing at the ready - we'll see.


FUN!!!


Some favorite quotes include:

 “By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” Nikos Kazantzakis

Held in the palms of thousands of disgruntled people over the centuries have been ideas worth millions – if they only had taken the first step and then followed through.”    Robert M. Hayes

.“Behind all creation is silence. Silence is the essential condition, the vital ingredient for all creation & all that is created. It is a power in its own right. The artist starts with a blank canvas – silence."  unknown

Off the Hook

John is a happy camper - he doesn't have to pretend to be doing artwork on the gallery's front porch, something he was totally dreading since it would be a total sham.  Figured that I'll be there, so why should he bother doing something that's a total waste of his time?

He'll still be there, available to walk folks around the gallery while I'm porch sittin' & craftin'.  Different craft each week to do with anyone who stops by.

Makes waaay more sense.  And a grumpy Budgie would NOT be fun to have around!

INGENUITY

When I set about making INSPIRATO, I enlisted my Facebook friends, asking them to share with me the name of a non-family friend along with one of their qualities.  It seemed a good way to get contributions to the paper link chain that built off the Healing Chain that I made for Mom many years ago, crafted from blessing & healing quotes contributed by her devoted e-mail dist list friends.  


I never ever thought that I'd be one of those named friends!  But someone did - along with ingenuity.   Well, I was as surprised as when Nita long ago gave intrusive as one word that described me to her!!  And it's been just as enlightening.


When Nita used "intrusive" to describe a primary quality she associated with me, others scoffed.  Not me.   I paid close attention.  


What about me struck Nita as intrusive?  It was important, because "intrusive" captured the very sense  that  essential others seemed to feel about me, too.  Far from scoffing, her one word utterly engaged my attention - and investigative powers.  And, in time, a possible "how" behind her  feeling I was intrusive revealed itself.


Well, I was even more gobswoggled when Suzie used ingenuity.  
Utterly unclever me?  
ngenious?  


At first, I scoffed - she must be thinking of someone else.  I never ever saw myself as having the least bit of ingenuity.


Then, Thursday came.  Thursday, when we arrived at the gallery to find the New York poster fallen to the floor.  Between the weather being so beastly humid & the gallery's self-healing wall, and the weight of the large foam core-backed poster, the tape we normally used was a total wash out.  But we couldn't nail anything into the foam core & it could take forever for glue to dry if we attached a hanger that way.  Strip of wire-wrapped foam core, attached to the back with Suze Weinberg's ultra strong crafting tape.  And it worked like a dream!  


Then, Saturday came.  And I looked at how Danielle & Co. had set up a protective ring around the alluring-yet-dangerous pit, using the bee garden stakes & yellow cording I'd picked up - all on deep sale - at A.C. Moore, not wanting to put myself at risk of being sued if someone took a tumble into the ground dimple.  After several Bryn Athyn Bounty's worrying that someone could get hurt, I'd come up with a solution - remember the bee stake I'd gotten for Adrian & Ryan - and knew, because of John working there, that they were on sale.  No big whoop, to me - just looking out for my own interests, as having it "protected" would help protect all of the vendors if someone did take a nasty tumble.  But I never ever thought of spotting the potential problem & coming up with a low cost, whimsical-looking solution as ingenuity.   Just seemed like good old-fashioned common sense.  


"Hey, I am blessed with ingenuity!"  What a total DUH! that I never ever realized it before.  It was ingenuity that made me won me praise & "Employee of the Year" honors in the corporate world, whether coming up with Brand Voice Bulletin or finding fast, effective ways to solve a human resources manager's big problem or getting a difficult Medical Director to approve out-of-network care for a baby in danger of losing his eyesight.  Earlier this year, it was making an off-hand comment in an e-mail to a potential key contact that John's an artist.   This summer, it's how offering "decorate your own" cupcakes & making Mango Mango ice pops during mega hot weather hit me as ways to help engage younger Bounty customers while increasing my sales!  What seem like no-brainers to me might strike others as ingenuity.  Go figure! 


It's going to be fun, thinking back on all the things I thought of as just practical, looking at them through the eyes of , "Was that obvious or ingenious?"  


Amazing, what I've learned, thanks to our art show.  Serendipity, indeed!!

Unexpected

Marianne wasn't at the bank today, so wasn't able to finish up the display case & John's paintings remain unhung.  But all turned out very well.  John had a chance to get frames for two more pet-traits ~ Rennie in a 5" x 5" number; an cat with huge blue eyes in a non-standard 9" x 12".


The young lady who sits where Marianne once did (before she moved up into her new office) was quite taken with the city posters & quite downcast when she heard they were not available as prints.  (They are prints of a poster John did for a private client, so are not ours to reproduce.)  


It was great fun to walk into the gallery & see the matted prints with Mim's artwork & quotes that I selected/laid out!


Although we don't usually connect with each other, sent both Kerry & Whitney links to this blog, in case they're interested in the goings on.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!!


The 5-day forecast still shows Friday as overcast, but no rain predicted.  That would be so grand!  It hit 100F today ~ but not as bad as yesterday, which wasn't as hot but was horribly humid.  So happy that weather is a non-issue to us at this point, since the pieces are all at the beautifully air conditioned gallery!


Well, it's not an issue to John.  Must admit is is to me, as there's a lot of baking on my horizon, between the opening & Bounty.  Busy  busy busy!  But that's to BE expected!!

Once Upon a Time, In a Gallery Not So Far Away...

...Paintings of trains & houses & cats & dogs (including one very special dog named Fred & one very special cat named Max) leaned against the warm beige walls, waiting for the artist & his wife to set them in their places of honor around the room. 


In a display case at the end of the small gallery, brightly colored objects - boxes & books & a pair of creativity pom poms, brilliant pen & ink drawings by a sister, a pink hippo made long ago by a student whose own children are almost grown, a pin made by the artist - wait to be set out on the glass shelves..  The kite that's usually on the wall behind her as she types at her computer is now on a lower display case shelf, its playfully written spiral of  soaring words waiting for an arrow-shaped Post-it note to spotlight where the special cat scratched a hole in just one word - curiosity. 


The bank hasn't opened yet.  There's still a hush in the building, the only noise the sound of the traffic outside, cars going to or coming off the bridge spanning the river.  


The paintings wait, the objects wait, their anticipation building, waiting for the magic to begin. 

Well Named

Serendipity so beautifully captures our experience putting on our art show, opening a week from YESTERDAY.  We're scheduled to set up Monday afternoon & are pleased with how much we're both enjoying the experience.  

Not sure, when the opportunity first presented itself, how it would turn out.  Turns out it's presented itself like so most of the best things in our lives - opening up naturally, without great effort.  In its time.  That's how it's played out, right to this "Oh, my gosh - it's almost here!" moment.

Looking at the gallery walls yesterday, we wondered if we'd have enough of John's work to fill them - then, on the way home, we dropped off cards to a longtime client, who gave the Budgemeister three prints of posters based on John's artwork.  And we figured out a way to get them framed without too much $$$  (they're large AND a non-standard size).  And he figured out how to display the "Aspects of Home" pictures without fuss, bother or additional $$.

Everything seems to be clicking together nicely.  Right up to arriving at the gallery as Marianne was pulling out - she recognized the car & hot footed it back, so we had a nice meeting in the parking lot!!  

Life is good - and graced with every type of serendipity!

INSPIRATO

Getting down to work on my paper chain, INSPIRATO, for the upcoming show.  A chain of yellow & goldish links,  the yellow forming the connectors, the goldish the links bearing the name of someone special to a friend's heart, along with a quality they embody to that friend.  The chain will be fashioned so the goldish links face forward, with every honored person, every quality on view.

Wordy, yes, but with the intention of eliciting feelings, not thoughts...

Thank heaven for little swirls!

Great video on how to make easy 2-color frosting swirls!

Nunc Licet

My part of our art show is entitled, Thinking outside of the... That was the right thing to dub it at the time;  now, I'd call it Nunc Licet - now it is permitted.  

Our art show - Serendipity - is a visible expression of the joint & separate journeys John & I have been on over our lives.  It visualizes in ways I didn't imagine our very relationship - different styles, different perspectives, different everything, but at the same time together, each made not complete by the other but more, more adept at expressing our deepest loves & interests.


Now it is permitted - it thrills me, thinking about gathering in one art space everything that will be there, including the fabulously unique wedding dress that Brenda drew forth from a hand-embroidered, banquet-length table cloth and examples (incorporated into my own pieces) of Mim's wonderful drawings.  The two of us, but extending beyond to family  & friends.  And welcoming everyone to be part of our experience.  Sort of my own little DisneyWorld, if you know what I mean.  (If you don't, I can't explain it.)


Now it is permitted...  Always remembering that while it's now permitted, the ONLY one who can do, can make it so, is me. 

Been too hot to write...

Oh, to have air conditioning!  Wait - there's a window fan unit that will be perfect in the computer studio window.  Thank goodness!  Will make working in here at night less hellacious!  

Cupcakes are ready for tomorrow, both DIY "blanks" and a small assortment of minis (too hot to do a lot), plus some whoopie pies.  Through whipping up my big new goodie for tomorrow's Bryn Athyn Bounty farm market - ICE POPS!  With temps set to soar past 100F, seemed a merciful treat to include in my standard fare. (The weather is supposed to stay in the 90s through Sunday ~ they're toying with us, promising temps in the 80s next week;  alas, no real rain on the horizon for another 10 days.  And it's only early July!)

Hoped they'd be refreshing, but am utterly delighted with how downright tasty they are!  Enjoyed the Green Tea & Mango; now working my way through a Cranberry Lemonade & Pineapple.  Just peeled off a pineapple chunk - deelicious!  Anchored with club soda, letting the yellow shine through.  The differently colored layers look snappy.

The two coffee varieties - Vietnamese (espresso with sweetened condensed milk) and Mexican (espresso with light brown sugar, milk, cinnamon, almond extract) - are straightforward, no layering.  Ditto for the lemonade. 

Looking forward to doing Bounty tomorrow, but mega excited that two weeks from TODAY is our show opening!!  Curtain up!  Light the lights!  We've got nothing to hit but the heights!  Starting here, starting now, baby everything's coming up roses!!

Almost forgot - gotta go down & check to see if the pops are ready for their lolly sticks!!


UPDATE ~ Vietnamese Coffee is taking A LONG time to set.  Through it into the blender with a about a cup of ice cubes.  Hey, it actually tastes even better!  Here's hoping it sets up faster.

Metamorphous

Interesting, how my INSPIRATO project goes from emotion to words & back to emotion.  Hadn't fully envisioned that when it first came to me, but it's how I'm processing turning it from concept into reality into (hopefully) an emotion-touching part of our art show.

Words are what we come up with to best describe the feelings, thoughts we experience.  Their ultimate use is to return us to wordless feeling, sensing, awareness.

Not, it's interesting, knowing.  Knowing is limited.  Today's knowledge is outdated by tomorrow's events.  My hope is for the Inspirato chain to transcend knowing & knowledge, evoking & touching something closer to intuitive energies.

Opted OUT of making the chain out of art paper paired with neutral-hued card stock.  Instead, will use all brightly-colored card stock, alternating a link with a name/quality with a blank link, so that none of the pairs are lost to view.  Will get the paper today.

Next question - straight-edged links or fancy cut?

Fascinated by its metamorphous from a stirring in the mind to vague concept to clear idea to design to...

Brightly Dawned Her Wedding Day!

Yesterday was Amy Brickman's wedding to Ivan Maddock.  And I missed it.  Bushed after Bounty, I waited too long to get the cupcakes up to Artist's Gallery to do both that (which had to be my priority, as I wanted them there before the gallery opens today) and go to the wedding (special music at 5:30, wedding at 6).  A sad decision to make, but a wise one.

As sad as I was to miss the event, it was uppermost in my mind throughout the afternoon.  Was driving past our most beloved farm, outside Doylestown, swinging past horses grazing on our left & sheep sleeping under trees on our right, when the sunlight shifted from clear to a glorious golden, transforming the pastures into something magical - looked at the time & realized, at 6:29 p.m., it was just about when Amy & Ivan would be coming out of the cathedral, happy happy happy at being husband & wife.  Special unforgettable moment for them, special moment for me.

Totally joyful the weather turned out so much better than had been forecast.  It was hot in the late afternoon, but not muggy.  And the storms that devastated parts of Virginia, D.C. and New Jersey the day before had stayed well south of us. It was fine weather for the wedding, the brief gathering afterward on the cathedral lawn, the reception at the Lord's New Church.  So happy for everyone!

Amy's wedding inspired me to come up with an unusual present, something for the bride on the occasion of her wedding, but NOT a wedding present.  Will ask Amy for the names/contact info for the 10-15 people (men & women) who form her closest circle of friends/support folk.  Will ask each to trace his/her dominant hand (left or right) on a piece of card stock-backed pretty paper, writing down a NON-wedding related wish for her, along with his/her signature.  Paper punch each at the "wrist" then bind them together with a spring-clasp metal ring.

Am making one for the art show, for me.  Good practice run.  Interesting, thinking which people I want to include.  John, of course.  Dave, Candy, Emily Jane, Karen, Beryl, Molly, Lisa, Hannah, Nora, Richard, Linda (music group), Linda (Bach), Mary O., Drew, Carolyn, Suzie Snyder, Tom Rose, Kelly, Erin, Mim.

Hope both will be priceless treasures for myself, for Amy.  May every day of her life be as full of sunshine & unexpected fair weather as yesterday!