Happy Friday

Where to, Johnny?

Peace.

Summertime and...

...talk about livin' easy...

The last day of school was a half day just this past Monday.

And yet.

Already.

On the way home from the beach today.

It took us a couple minutes

to figure out

whether today was

Wednesday

or

Thursday.

Peace.

Image(s).

These are some of the pictures that I have collected over the years.
They have been hung up in my studio to inspire me.
(click on image to enlarge)

I've been thinking today about the stories we tell about ourselves.

Since I rearranged the studio a while back, I've yet to re-hang these pictures. Maybe I need some new pictures to tell a new story.

What images have you saved? Do you see what parts of yourself they speak to?









Peace.

15 Artists: Another Facebook Meme

Oh, how we love lists! These lists on facebook are like cocktail party getting-to-know-yous. The one that I've seen making the rounds lately is the "15 Albums that have stayed with you," or some such. You are supposed to take no longer than fifteen minutes to compile the list -- so no outside research! Heh. Making such a list does not appeal to me.

However, when I saw someone post a 15 Artists list, I thought it might be fun to try my own. Other folks stuck to painters only. I included photographers and one cartoonist. I came up with this list off the top of my fifteen minute brain, then searched the happy internet for images. I am a wee bit discouraged that my brain could only come up with two women. Anyway, here are some pretty pictures for you to enjoy.

Odd Nerdrum

Duane Michals

Vincent Van Gogh

Pierre Bonnard

Dorothea Lange

Paul Klee

Egon Schiele

Yousuf Karsh

Diane Arbus

Weegee

Andy Warhol

Pablo Picasso

Henri Matisse

Robert Crumb

Philip Guston

Peace.

Mojito Scones?

Okay, not really.

I used my old standby recipe, except instead of ginger & lemon, I used mint & lime. And instead of buttermilk or a yogurt/milk blend, I used coconut milk.

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt*
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces*
* 1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces*
* 1 large lemon, zest of*
* 2/3 cup buttermilk*

For the icing, I just used powdered sugar & lime juice. The girls like a little food coloring with their meals, what can I say?




Enjoy.



*I only had salted butter, so I used that & omitted the salt. I used 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (and cursed myself for not going out to the garden to get fresh mint to make a syrup or perhaps try shredded?). I used the zest of 3 limes. I used nearly 2/3 cup coconut milk & made up the rest with the juice of 1 lime.



Update: I just went to get another and the girls had eaten nearly all of them! They are a hit.


Peace.

What's In-A Name?

Sometime ago, I was making a comment at one of my favorite blogs that started out, "In the Ina Universe..." A smart friend there who goes by the nym doncjesuis, immediately saw the elegance of "Inaverse," and so inaverse was born.

Before I claimed the nym for myself, I googled to make sure no one else was already using it. No one was, so I started a blog with that name. I also made it my facebook address and later, my twitter name. A couple months later when I thought I might want to post music under that name, I tried to set up a myspace page, but it turns out, somebody had just barely beat me to it.

Today, when I googled "inaverse" again to get the myspace link, I see that somebody else has just started a wordpress blog, and they get inaverse.com as their address.

What is this urge I have to be the only inaverse in cyberspace?

How do you feel about your name(s), cyber or meat?



Peace.

Rainbow rose picture found here.

Hourly Comics

Update: I colored them! (don't forget you can click on the image to enlarge it for easier reading)...







Online somewhere Sunday I saw someone mention this, and I thought I'd give it a try. It's been a long time since I've drawn comics, and heck, truthfully, I don't think what I used to draw as comics would even be called comics by anyone but me. But that didn't stop me! Have a look (don't forget you can click on the image to enlarge it for easier reading)...











Have a cupcake, I'm going to bed...






Peace.

East Meets West Meets West Meets East

Tonight's menu
noodles in chicken stock
vegetable potstickers
heavenly salad

Lately, when choosing movies at Pleasant Street Video for family movie night, the girls are all anime, all the time.

This means that they want to eat with chopsticks whenever possible. It also means something that might surprise their Italian relatives: for the first time ever, they like spaghetti noodles (or as we call them, slurpy noodles). I have just been cooking them simply in chicken stock. The girls love to eat the noodles with their chopsticks and drink the broth from the bowl.

The vegetable potstickers are from Trader Joe's, served with soy sauce and hot sauce.

So what do I really want to tell you about?

The heavenly salad.

Oh my.

The girls like steamed broccoli, but they only like the tree tops, not the trunks. I like eating the trunks raw for a snack, but even I can't eat that many. Tonight, I decided to make some kind of broccoli slaw. I ended up with this amazing dish that made me so very happy.

Heavenly Salad

8-10 broccoli trunks, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large carrot, grated
1 meyer lemon, zest & juice
1 Tbs honey (more or less)
fresh ginger, peeled & grated (add as much as you like!)
fresh ground black pepper

That's it! Combine & inhale, I mean, enjoy. Actually, inhaling it did transport me to my mother's lemon trees in California, which took the chill out of this cold winter's day.





Peace.

Night and Day

The most popular supper this week?
Boiled baby potatoes, steamed broccoli, dark kidney beans

Breakfast this morning?
Whole wheat toast with peppermint frosting!

My oven has been broken since Monday night. When I called the appliance store, the earliest repair appointment they could give me is next Monday. I whined, "But it's Christmas!" with visions of sugar plums (or really, sugar cookies) dancing in my head.

Not to mention pies. And roasted vegetables.

As I thought about it, and as I continue to wait, I realized it doesn't really make a lot of difference to our family if the holiday baking happens this weekend or next, or even three weeks from now. While I love the idea of people all over the world celebrating the turning of the wheel of the year, with all the different religious and secular holidays they choose, I don't feel that infamous holiday scramble and pressure. The closest to pressured I feel is the need to find a place in my small house to move a big piece of furniture so there is room for the tree.

I am grateful.

The girls and I walked into town last night to visit a porcelain doll that the 9yo likes. The girls wanted to carry candles. So they did. As we walked, we started singing. When we got to the enormous lighted tree in the park in town, I realized we had been caroling, living a holiday tradition in our own way, spontaneously.







Peace.

More Pink, The Sky

looking out the window

stepping outside

walking to the corner

I slept through the night last night, awoke early, and was rewarded with a spectacular sky.

Even though sailors take warning from such a scene, I am inspired.

It helps that the pipes did not burst yesterday, that I have running water , and the sun is now shining bright to melt the ice and sparkle the snow.

What will I do with so many gifts so early in the day?





What will you do with your gifts today?




Peace.

According to facebook, this is the link to view the whole set of pictures.

Winter Is Rolling In

Though only a little snow fell here this weekend, it finally feels like Winter is rolling in.

The cold air felt good on my face this morning as I scraped the ice off the windshield.

Windshield art was born, like many of the things I invented, to console a baby. It probably started back when I needed to keep the baby in view. I would buckle her in her car seat first, then go scrape off the snow and ice. To keep her entertained, I drew pictures in the ice with the scraper.

Now, my 9yo and 7yo, who could play in the yard or wait in the warm house, instead get in the car and watch eagerly for the pictures to emerge as I scrape each window. We are often in a hurry in the morning, and I sometimes think it is silly for me to be drawing, even though it doesn't really take much longer than regular scraping. Then I assure myself that when the girls are grown, they are much more likely to remember that their mother drew pictures in snow and ice than that they were a minute or two late to school from time to time.

What art will you make today? What memory?

Peace.

Good News and Bad News

Last night, just as I settled in to chat with some of my favorite virtual friends at the Big Blue Tavern,* I discovered I was banned. I'm sure it is a technical glitch, even though I was just about to post a comment teasing our host for putting up Erin McKeown and Common Rotation with Amy Ray on consecutive nights. But I didn't post it! I mean, heck, I hardly ever even swear. I've never been banned before, have you? This is what it looks like:

Banned by webmaster. Your comments will not be added

After announcing the news to my facebook friends and killing a few brain cells over at TextsFromLastNight [full disclosure: I don't even have a cell phone!], I went to bed and listened to the rain.

It rained hard all night. In the morning, it was blustery and tropical.

I discovered I am still banned.


Today is supposed to be a record warm sunny day.

Peace.


*tavern name stolen from Libby.

Time Flies Like An Arrow, Fruit Flies Like A Banana

Me, as a tipsy hot babe
(taken 20+ years ago)

Habits and Addictions, Routines and Rituals

Was it as I was indulging my habit of wandering and looking around the house as I grind my morning coffee that I looked out the pantry window and saw this view into the garage? Or perhaps it was during the sunny afternoon routine of doing laundry that it caught my eye. Was it addiction that forced me to grab my camera? And what of my ritual of sharing photographs on the blog with you?

In the week without computer, I nearly became addicted to solitaire (the card kind), and reading graphic novels, though I did not become addicted to drawing. Trying to make drawing a daily habit has been very difficult for me. Where does creating art fit in a life committed to taking care of other people, especially when I barely keep up with all the mundane tasks involved in running a household? And how come I can make room for blogging?!

As for the photograph...

The metal angel candle holders are a gift from my mother. She had sent two when my family was two, then she was happy to find and send a third when I had another child. As soon as the seasons turn dark, we add the ritual of lighting candles at the dinner routine.

I found the 7-up bottle at one of my favorite local houses, Grave's Farm, after the brothers Grave had died, but before the house had been renovated and turned into a bed & breakfast, and the land had become part of Mass Audubon. I have a habit of searching for and saving rusty things. I found some rusty buckets and tools along with this soda bottle and some old magazines there on some of my routine bike rides past the farm. I also once drew an ink sketch of the tree out front.

I gave the original drawing to a friend, this is a photograph of a color copy

Whiskey. I'm not sure when I first fell in love with the word (and for me, it always has an 'e'). Perhaps it came from my childhood: there have been addictions in my family (but I managed to escape them). I associate the word not only with country music (it's hard to front a band named Whiskey Ina without being gifted with lots of whiskey--Ooh! I like the double meaning there!), but also poverty and passion, pirates and poets, a black & white movie of a life lived. And, heck, the Knob Creek bottles are cool.

The tea cannisters are from back in the days before the french press came to live here. Before I made coffee at home, I was mostly a tea drinker. I have the bad habit of keeping cannisters and tins, thinking I might use them for something someday. Oh, the many projects that see light only in my mind, more rusty treasures.

The spiderwebs are courtesy of the spiders.

deep thought

This is my phone
(yeah, it's kinda dirty)

Now that people know it's me calling before they pick up the phone, can I still say, "Hi. It's Ina?"

Deep Thought

down the road

I may not have a future as a blogger. I posted my longest blogpost ever yesterday, and I got the mighty mighty goose egg. It actually took me a couple hours to get that many complete sentences out, and yet I fear it is perhaps too pedestrian for the internet.

under the table

Wine and Whine

Deep thought: Wine should not be fizzy.