Getting Organized

Getting organized always seems like a great goal for the beginning of the year. Sometimes it's a challenge however, to know where to begin. This year I'm starting with a new goal of cleaning off the desk and keeping it clear. Here are a few of the tools that I've decided to use.

Of course the standard pencil holder is good and then they are all contained.

 A paper planner. I do use my phone but like the visual reminder of a paper planner.

The third thing is file folders. With many transaction, personal documents and art related documents, there is always paper around. Files are good. And well labeled files so I don't have to search very far.

How about you, what are your organizing goals for 2017?

Honey for my honey

As a child I loved it when my mother served us honey. As an adult I'm learning more about honey and like what I see and really appreciate the fact that you increase many vitamins and minerals when you add honey to your diet. According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, one tablespoon of honey contains 64 calories, 17 grams of carbohydrates, plus trace amounts of vitamins and minerals including vitamin C, iron, zinc and selenium. It's also a benefit to the plants because the bees pollinate the plants when they collect nectar from the flowers.

Raw honey can contain pollen which may not be good for folks with pollen allergies but when honey is processed a team of researchers from Utah found that in the processing, nutrients were not removed from the honey but it actually increased the mineral content and the antioxidant qualities of the honey. 

Now honey can have a regional flavor and that flavor will depend on the flowers that have been used for the nectar collection. It never occurred to me however that honey is an animal product and is not considered vegan. 

I think I'm going to buy some different types of honey the next time I venture out to the local farmers market. I wonder which one will be my favorite kind? If you have a favorite, let me know and I'll try to find it also. 

Parents

I've been thinking about my parents lately. They have both passed over, so I am now the "older generation" in my family. Here they were with my oldest. Picture taken some 21 years ago. She looks pretty happy to be in the arms of a loving grandma. 

Selling my mommy's house part two

 The city of Tukwila hired a contractor to replace the storm drain alongside mom's house. It took three weeks. Here are some rainy day shots of the day they took the big hemlock tree down. Iplanted that one when I was in the 6th grade after a trip to Camp Waskowitz. Back then, they stopped the schoolbuses alongside I-90 LET THE KIDS OUT, and we used our lunch milk containers to dig up seedling trees (with a spoon, I recollect) and we got to bring them home to plant them. That neighborhood has quite a few trees of the same era. This one had to go, though.

Selling my mommy's house

My dear mother died and it was up to me to sell her home. This took quite some time, as she and my father built the home and in 1965 moved in, raised four kids there and kept quite a bit of "stuff".
The city of Tukwila also had plans to repair a storm drain that ran through her yard. It took several months of planning and cleaning to get the home ready for market.

Here I am with my mom before her cancer took her to the other side.

Driving in Seattle

Sometimes, driving is just so beautiful, and then there's a bump.

Tell the Truth

Here the art group we call BRAART (bra means good in swedish).

We did a project with the theme "tell the truth".

Blog post here: BRAART

Ida Applebroog

Ida Applebroog, an artist who is 81. Check this out. I wonder why I am interested in women who make art well into their 80's...My auntie Karin has inspired me by starting to paint in midlife. She is 87 now, and still painting.

The Boundaries of a Breakup

Facebook and how to get or lose your "friends"...interesting article. Ok, it's an old article, but I just found my note on a scrap of paper, and wanted to share it here in November....so here it is!

Shopping and Real Beauty

This is the most wonderful thing I've seen recently. I was in a shop, women looking at sale racks, men rushing past, looking tired, and in the midst of this swirling retail therapy, this little princess was looking at her image in the mirror, adjusting her tiara, and twirling. I recalled my daughters asking when they were this age, "How does the new dress twirl?"

That was the measure of an excellent dress, one that flew all around you when you spun.

Murketing

Rob Walker writes for the New York Times. He writes about marketing that works now. You can hear him interviewed here on a radio show...



Consumers. Identifying with ads, identifying with what we own, buy, desire...interesting thoughts.

Here is a drawing of brocade fabric I started on the final day of Margaret Davidson's class on drawing drapery.

This drawing I worked on for about six hours on day two of the workshop. Margaret is an excellent instructor!

How fun was this? Super fun. Gary Faigin's book, the Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression is the basis for his class. Above, notes on the board from day one of a five day workshop. GAGE is the school that Gary started with is wife, Pamela.

Color Creativity

Dyeing Fabric in a friend's art studio took a day and many pieces of fabric. Some of us painted the dyes onto paper, others dyed fabric. Much fun, thanks Karen!

Gluten and Goodness

I have a couple of friends that eat gluten free. I am often concerned about what to feed them, just meat and potatoes, vegies? No bread, no pasta, no soy sauce?????

A recent ARTICLE about her talks about her sweetie, the chef, as she calls him. He was so enamored by her and her food restrictions, he turned the bar where he works into a gluten free menu. Can it be true? He cooks here, according to the article.

I just started reading the gluten-free girl by shauna ahern, so here is a link to her blog. She takes pictures of the food she loves, because she considers it art.

Holiday Traditions

Gingerbread houses? Not at my childhood home. I was born a few days after Christmas, so the birthday cake idea seemed silly after overeating from Thanksgiving through Christmas. We started making "candy houses". I think it may have started with gingerbread, but my mother didn't care for the flavor of gingerbread. It was a tradition got to help stick the candy on, with a thick fast drying icing. I got to rip the candy off and eat it on my birthday. Eventually the cardboard boxes we made the houses out of became a sturdy, wooden house, including a wooden yard, and a wooden fence, and...of course, an outhouse. (including the opening door with a crescent moon on it). One year my father brought this contraption home from his cabinet shop. It has survived all the years (40 or so) and all the candy stuck on over foil.

What is your holiday tradition that has survived?

Girlfriend Saturdays

Patricia had a great idea recently. She and I have been walking on Saturday mornings for about 16 years as a way to keep in touch while having busy lives. We recently started helping each other out after the walk for three or four hours.

One Saturday she announced, "I need a wife". Don't we all, I replied. She elaborated with a list of tolerations she was meaning to get to in her house, and yard. We agreed to spend every other week helping each other. We can ask for any task, as big and messy as they come, and we set to working right after our walk and a snack. There is usually a lunch break, too, and then we are off to whatever the day has for us, gone our separate ways.

So far we have organized paperwork, put together storage shelves, and done guerrilla gardening. Here is a photo of us after 4 hours of intense gardening. The perennials were chest high, and (!) there were weeds. Now...ready for the winter and coming spring.

Thanks Patricia!

Rejection.

almost happy

Happy is what I am trying to paint. This one may make it. Satisfied. Happy. Thoughtful. She knows a secret, perhaps, as most girls do...

Accept the News

Here is an image I worried over and now I think it's done, although I occasionally paint over things I don't like.

Last night, it looked like a creepy person. Today I think it looks like someone who has just heard some news that shocked them, and in the very next instant, they blink, and accept the news and decide how to react.

Laughter or tears, I wonder.