Hike

I've been so busy this week. I keep intending to post...

John and I went hiking last weekend at some park (where was it John?) near Selmer. We only went for a couple of hours, but had a lovely time. This is our attempt at self-portraiture along the trail.

Snow

Notice the sculpture on the back porch in this one... (this is so weird, it was supWe had a very busy week with new classes starting. But we did have a lovely snow one morning. I got a few pictures of the house in the snow. posed to be a post unto itself, a las I'm short on time). A friend of ours, Bill Smith, made this for us for our wedding. Originally, the smaller copper part was exactly my height, while the thicker steel (I think) was exactly John's height. A week or so ago, we realized that it had grown! The coil has been loosened so it is now a foot or so taller than it used to be. It didn't happen recently, we only just realized it though. John thinks it must have happened all at once, because it broke some of the wood from the roof next to it. We told Bill, and he is totally baffled, because if you heat and quench (I don't know these technical terms...) metal like this, it shouldn't be able to move without being heated again. And it is still definitely very hard to move. Who knows? I think a giant must have wandered by and stretched it.

Straw Structure

Over the break, John built this lovely structure to house our straw (no it isn't a straw-bale construction, fooled you didn't I?). We have straw for the chickens and John wanted a place to store it, out of the garage, off the ground, and out of the rain. So he chopped down a tree and built this structure only using wood from this one little tree (Isn't he cool?). He then put a tarp around it, so it's a little teepee-like. But the front side is flat so that he can also use it as a target for his bow and arrow. The dog is Sam.)

Pesto!

Among our New Year's Resolutions, John and I are trying to take a more active role in our health and try to eat specific foods for our bodies needs (like MonoUnsaturated Fats and Fiber - thank you, Tara). Tara gave me an old nutrition text book of hers, which we use regularly. So in order to help us stick to this, and just for general organization, we developed a weekly meal plan (This was John's idea, I resisted for a while because I like to be uncommitted). We've developed this schedule:

Monday: Fish night
Tuesday: Asian Food
Wednesday: Italian
Thursday: Mexican
Friday: traditional meat main dish meal (like mom's chicken and rice, parmesian chicken, meatloaf, or whatever, with plain old veggies on the side)
Saturday: left overs, eat out or "other"
Sunday: crockpot day (which will primarily be soup since John loves it, and I rarely think to make it).

I make no claims for how long this will last, but so far it's been fun to plan out meals in advance.(which also helps with the shopping). We've also mixed up the nights already, based on bean burrito cravings (which are full of trans fat at Taco Bell, but good-for-you-ish when I make them). We've gotten the chance to try to new recipes that've been hanging around too, like Broccoli Beef and Pesto! (not at the same time)

Craftivism

check out this neat site I've just come across:
Craftivism

For a long time now, (as I may have mentioned before) female artists have raised the level of long time "women's" crafts, to the higher status of art. Also, much contemporary art participates in activism. This exciting site suggests the combination of the three in Craftivism!

She wrote her masters thesis on the role of knitting in today's culture, what caused it's ebb and flow. Neat-o!

breaking

I made a new carrot with some of my new yarn. I made it small because I was a little afraid of using the expensive yarn. Also, I tried felting it, but I think it needs more done to it.

We are enjoying our time off. I'm painting and sewing and stuff, and John is organizing the house. Lots of fun.

A little side note: I had a sort of, let's say, post-modern experience over the break, and I think I am finally approaching my art with a little new life. I think good things will come of this. There will be pics of new work soon.

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.)