Yarn, Photos and Juggling

John and I waited to open our gifts until after we got back from visiting family. So we had Christmas last night. John got me this old puzzle of a DeKooning painting. He also had prints made of a bunch of our pictures. I've been saying all year how, though I love digital cameras, I feel bad that we don't have any pictures to put in albums and show people. So he had 250 of our favorite pictures printed, from while we were dating, the honeymoon, our road trip and birthdays. It was great. And if you ever come visit us, expect to have to look at them all.

Also, on our way home we stopped at a yarn shop in Brentwood. It was kind of small, and of course pricey, but I thought you have to buy really great yarn occasionally. So here are my new yarns. (After having fun with Haydn's stuffed fruits and vegetables, I decided to make a large stuffed carrot.)


And finally, John is selling his juggling clubs online since he doesn't use them much, and they're large. But first we got some pics and videos of him in action. If I knew how to put a video on here I'd show you, but if you just look back and forth between the two pictures really fast, you'll get the idea.

Finals Week

well, I took a break from the research papers to finish grading the projects from my 2d Design class. I don't feel like taking the time to explain the whole project (again), but basically they are supposed to communicate the visual effect of a scene without using iconography (so they must completely rely on design tools). All of the projects have three compositions and some kind of movement. My classes did really well. Out of the thirty something projects, these are a couple of my favorites:



this first one shows the envious relationship of a contained force to a free one.



this all too cute example, shows natural force consuming the artificial.



this one could have been made much better, but at least design wise, he showed a dark force imprisoning a light force.



Here some curvilinear forces are overcome by jagged forces.

I may put up some more later.

Five a Day

My neice Haydn is getting a kitchen set for Christmas, so I'm knitting her some fruits and vegetables to go with it. So far I have a carrot, a bananna, and broccoli. I think these are just too cute. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but the broccoli has two little branches. I have plans for an apple and some green beans as well.

Cuckoo Clock

My great-uncle Papa Joe gave John and I this clock for a wedding gift. I love cuckoo clocks and was very happy to have it. We had to get it fixed up a little, but now it is firmly affixed to the wall of our living room. (John spent at least an hour looking for a stud. He finally found something behind the wall in this corner - though it does not appear to be a vertical beam. I know this sounds crazy - but I'm pretty much convinced there are no studs in our walls.)

Marzipan

I made these tiny little cookies at Mom's house over the break. They got lots of oohs and ahs, but unfortunately, if you eat one they're not so good. I'm making a new batch tonight. I've got some plans to try to make them taste better, and to keep them from flattening out during baking. Also, I'm going to make them a little bigger. The turkey was Tara's idea. It doesn't look as good as some of the others, but it cracks me up.

FreeStyle Crochet

Okay, I stole this from Chara. In art, I love when boundaries get blurred. And one blurry boundary I especially love is that of what used to be called high art and low art. High art (in modernist times) was supposedly higher, because it had theory and good design and skill. Low art lacked the theory. But really, art is really good when it comes out of life, out of experience. Sometimes that means it's rough around the edges. So perhaps "low art" has theory too, it's just the philosophy of the common people.

The inequity of that distinction is accepted today. A couple of years ago, the Whitney Museum in New York featured the quilts made by common black women from Gee's Bend , Alabama. I absolutely love these. Check it out.

Look at me, I'm posting!

This is John, that's right, not Laura. So this is that blogger-ma-jig that you kids talk so much about. Well, it's pretty nice, I guess, but it can't beat a good old fashioned letter followed by a modest two week wait for reply. In my day we had to sit around imagining our friend's and loved one's lives and the often-fuzzy images that accompanied them. We didn't go snooping around in their personal effects, or, as you kids say, "googling them" to find out their secrets.

Ok, so that's enough of that. So this is a picture of the latest "I heart" series of bumper stickers for our friend Warren and his truck. We put in on yesterday, but I was a big goober and didn't take an actual picture of the bumper because I could just tell he was going to catch me.


Warren, you see, doesn't like being in his office.

Good things

I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving break - to getting caught up on some reading (not just rough drafts of research papers, things I like to read), painting, sewing, cooking, hanging out with John. All of the things I really like to do. Also, seeing family, eating, and sleeping.

Sam and Daisy

I heart Windows XP

Warren has been really busy lately (because he has a show this weekend in columbia), but we made sure he was alive and well before we applied this next sticker. Also, notice, the Thomas Kinkade has been removed. Still not sure how wal-mart is.