Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is fast approaching for all of us in the U.S.—woohoo, I do love this holiday of rejoicing and eating. A while back, I started thinking about that age-old Thanksgiving question “What are you thankful for?” and here is one of my answers, in a card:

I know that we all don’t say this enough, you can never say it enough. I am thankful for all of you reading this blog, and for my amazing friends and family who are always there, no matter what, and for all of the people I see who are making life happen, because they are inspiring me to make my life happen. I mean it! If I ever doubted that people are out there to support me, my recent wedding (see this post about it) proved it to me, big time. I mean people came out of all corners of the country and worked like crazy to make my wedding happen. It was amazing.

I have often been asked about where I get my ideas for art, and I have to say (and have probably said it here before) that most often I make things that say something I need to here. This is one of them. So get off your bum and thank someone. Give them a call, send them a letter, text them for gosh sakes. Or you could send them a card!

These cards are now available in my shop—great for Thanksgiving, the holidays, or any old day of the year!

October Love

The weather here is so fine—I wish I could put some in an envelope and send it to you, but this is the best I can do—greetings from by back yard.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day and appreciating the out of doors, rain or shine.

On Tying the Knot

I promised a photo from our wedding once I got them, and here you go—there I am, in the white dress just after tying the knot. The handsome fellow on the right is my new husband Mike.

We got married in a beautiful park on the edge of the golf course in Aspen, Colorado, where my immediate family lives. The weather was absolutely stunning that day, after a week full of rain and gray skies. Family and friends came from all over the country to join in a whole wedding weekend of events, including a couple’s shower, rehearsal dinner, wedding day, and day-after breakfast.

Some especially unique wedding tidbits:

[disclaimer: I got a bit long-winded below---I won't be offended if you don't read every word---but there might be some interesting thoughts on alternative wedding ideas for those of you getting married soon]

1) The park we are in for the picture above was our third ceremony location site! Months before, we had reserved a park in downtown Aspen, but when we got there the week before the wedding and finally got to physically stand in the park, we realized it was too loud with downtown traffic, and to be honest, just not what we had imagined. So, we switched to a park a few blocks away (a cute little park with a little grassy hill), only to find out (two days before the wedding and thanks to Mike’s mom who saw “No Parking on Saturday” signs in front of the park) that they would be doing construction on the street in front of the park on the day of our wedding. Many calls later this info was confirmed, and my sister and brother-in-law (Aspen locals) suggested the park above (Tot Lot Park), and that saved the day. The park has a beautiful view of the mountains and was very quiet and calm. My main lesson learned was “be flexible.” The day turned out so beautiful, despite the last-minute changes.

2) All of our “wedding services” were done by family! How lucky we are to have so many creatives in our family! We had the reception at my parent’s restaurant with catering done by us (My dad in the lead, along with various other family helpers, us included), my mom did the cakes (we had two–chocolate, chocolate and carrot), my cousin Rose did the flowers (she actually does wedding flowers professionally), and my Aunt used to be a portrait photographer, so she did the pictures. Also, my brother-in-law’s father was our officiant (anyone can marry you in Colorado). It was wonderful to have people who know us doing all of these things! It really gave things a personal touch, and I loved going to the reception and seeing the food that we helped make and the tables that we helped set.

3) Mike and I both walked into the ceremony at the same time with our parents. It was important to me to emphasize that this is a joining of our lives, not me being given away to Mike.

4) E.E. Cummings made an appearance at the wedding—the lovely Era and Jaja read this beautiful poem at our ceremony. It meant a lot of me to have poetry, and two of my favorite poetry lovers in the ceremony.

5) We had a very informal reception set-up. I put this in here for anyone out there who is planning a wedding and is torn between wanting to have an informal/non-traditional reception and feeling they’re supposed to have a full sit-down dinner. My parents’ restaurant is on the small side, so we tried to keep the numbers small–we had about 60 guests. Still, the inside of the restaurant is not big enough to accommodate that many people, so we split tables between the inside of the restaurant and the patio, which we tented in for the occasion.

We did not have assigned seating, and all of the tables were smallish–many were set for 4 people, with the highest number of seats at any one table being about 8. We had two buffet tables that changed throughout the evening from appetizers, to a pasta course, to the meat and vegetables (lots of salads and a whole pig, in addition to fish, prime rib, and grilled vegetables), to desserts (including lots of cookies and two cakes—no tiers or traditional wedding cake—just wonderful, delicious cake).

The whole reception had a very relaxed feeling with lots of movement. People had time to eat and time to circulate, and then we naturally progressed into dancing on the patio (which was so much cooler). Mainly, we wanted an intimate family feeling, and we really had that. I think it’s important to decide what your priorities are and to let go of other expectations (or what other people will think) so you can let yourself have the wedding you want.

6) We wrote our own ceremony based on other ceremonies we read. This is not that unusual, but I will say, it was more meaningful to me to have picked the words. The ceremony was very short and simple, and also very organic—no music, just some kids ringing bells to announce the beginning. I remember thinking, “It’s so quiet” as we walked in. I don’t think I even noticed the audience. The ceremony just flew by. I really think the part that had the most impact on me was the readings—having people we know read things that mean something to me really felt special. In addition to the E.E. Cummings I talked about above, we had Mike’s step-mom read Kahlil Gibran’s chapter on marriage from The Prophet.

7) I did not wear make-up and I did not have my hair done professionally (I mean, I barely have any hair!). I did get my nails done, and I wore a cute headband with fresh flowers on the side (any brides out there with short short hair, feel free to contact me, and I can describe the headband better). I really wanted to throw this comment in here because there was some pressure on me to wear make-up, but I never wear make-up, so why should I wear it at my wedding? Is the groom wearing make-up? This is a very personal choice, but I just wanted to say to anyone out there like me who does not want to wear make-up at her wedding, have courage—just say no! You will look just like you’re beautiful self without it.

Now, I will tell you the one reality I realized, at least for me in the form of advice for people getting married in the near future: chances are, there are going to be some challenging bits, especially in negotiation family relations. It’s going to feel a bit crazy and stressful. People will say it is your day, and it is, but there are also a whole bunch of other people there, and they want to share your day with you. I’ll admit that both Mike and I got stressed at times, but in the end, it was exactly what we wanted, and we were happy that we stuck to our guns on the things that were most important to us (like keeping it small and family-oriented), and let go of others (like our ceremony location and many wedding traditions that weren’t so important to us).

Edible Escapades

A view of my breakfast for you this morning. One of my predictions/hopes when I started planning to quit my day job and do art full-time was that I would have more time to do other things I love: like cooking. Well, this weekend that hope began to come true, as I embarked on one of my first edible escapades on Sunday afternoon. After ripping out half of the recipes in the October and November Gourmet magazines, I decided I would make some muesli and yogurt for my breakfast this week.

If you’re unfamiliar with muesli, it’s a type of breakfast cereal, kind of in the same vein as granola. I’ve made granola before, and the main difference I can see is that muesli is looser—no clumps from gooey honey mixtures. In fact, I thought it was easier to make than granola for that very reason.

I got my recipe from page 123 of the October 2009 Gourmet, called Kajsa Alger’s Muesli from Kajsa’s menu at her restaurant Street. The recipe doesn’t seem to be online, but here’s a quick version:

2 cups rolled oats and 1.5 cups puffed millet as the grains, 1 cup raw almonds chopped, 1 cup raw sunflower seeds and 1/4 cup flaxseeds as the seed component. You just mix all of the above together with 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp cinnamon. Then you add 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup light brown sugar. Then you toast it for about 20 minutes, until golden brown (on two foil covered and lightly oiled cookie pans) at 350 degrees F. The recipe says to add 1 cup dried currants and 1 cup chopped pitted dates as the fruit after toasting, but you can see by the picture above that I deviated from that—I left the fruit out (I’ve had problems in the past with rock hard dried fruit in granola—I think the grains suck the moisture out of it), and I just added some raisins before eating.

Muesli is one of those things, like granola, where you can really put anything that you like in it. So I plan to experiment, but the above recipe is pretty yummy!

The other component of my breakfast is homemade yogurt. I went through a cheese-making phase a few years ago at which time I found Fankhauser’s Cheese Page. One of my first dairy-related escapades back then was homemade yogurt, which was quite fun and pretty easy. So, I’ve embarked on a little food science fun again as you’ll see from the four mason jars of yogurt above. The process is so simple—you take some milk and add a little yogurt to it (introducing the yogurt bacteria), and then the bacteria works away to make all of the milk into yogurt. The only challenge is getting the milk to the right temperature, but you will be well rewarded when you open your mason jars at the end and see that you have turned water into wine (or milk into yogurt). And imagine—a whole gallon of yogurt essentially for the price of a gallon of milk!

There’s also a great recipe on Fankhauser’s page for Labneh, a Lebanese soft cheese made from yogurt. It’s so simple—you just drain the liquid off the yogurt and voila, it’s cheese! So if you make all of that yogurt and then wonder, “what am I going to do with so much yogurt?” you can make a great soft cheese. Last time I made it, I mixed the labneh with some garlic and spices and made it into a great cheese spread.

Happy experimenting! More good eats to come, I promise!

Life as an Artist: update 1

Since this is my first week as a full-time artist, I thought you readers might be interested to see how it is going. Granted, this is only a partial week (I returned from vacation on Tuesday), but this week seems to be a good week to start sharing this experience with you.

If you’ve been following my blog, you may have read this post a few months ago when I announced I would be quitting my office job to do art full-time. Since there are so many creative people out there, many who are wondering what it would be like to do their creative pursuits full-time, I though it would be fun to try and document this experience more specifically than just the occasional mention in a blog post.

In answer to this, I will start making some “life as an artist” updates (all tagged “artist life”) on a semi-regular basis. To clarify, these will not be about the business and logistical side of things, although I might mention such things on occasion, but they will be more about what it really means to make this shift, from my very personal perspective.

First, I would like to say that returning from vacation this week was a totally new sensation for me—I was actually excited to get back home and get to work! What an amazing feeling this was, after many returns from holidays where I found myself dreading my return to work, almost (sometimes actually) to the point of tears.

In fact, the entire experience of this week is so new—one of my main dreams was to have enough time to really pursue creative ideas, and also time to breathe, as I always felt like I was doing double-time when I was working and doing art after hours. I find myself having to teach myself how to relax into the time, how to not be in frantic mode—trying to cram every creative idea into small windows of time. I find that this whole shift is so much more than a career shift—it’s a life shift—a letting go and slowing down. Learning how to let things happen.

While there are still many, many questions about how this will all work out, especially financially, right now I’m feeling pretty good. I’m looking forward to so may new things in the coming weeks. Next week will mark my first full week as a full-time artist, and I’m excited to see what I learn about myself and what this new abundance of time brings out.

The picture above is a pretty good idea of what I’m doing in my art work right now—I have lots of ideas for both art and art business that have been in my head for many weeks, especially as I prepared to make this shift to full-time. I am a major list and note maker. Little scraps of paper everywhere. The list though, is a good point of questioning about the “slowing down” I mentioned above. I often struggle with whether lists make me more or less frantic. Sometimes the act of making a list can feel like a huge weight off my brain, but sometimes the act of having an existing list can make life feel frantic because there’s a never-ending list of things to do. Right now, I think lists are helping me—especially with this new expansive time it’s nice to have a reminder of new things to work on. As always though, I continue to evaluate what things work and do not work, especially when learning how to manage my time as a full-time self-employed person.

In other news, happy weekend! I wish I could put some of this weather we’re having in an envelope and send it to all of you. It’s gorgeous fall weather here—the kind of weather where you want to take long walks in the sunshine, crunching leaves. I’m glad to have returned from vacation to this. I hope you all are having lovely weather too.

The Oaxacan Adventure

Hello! I’m back from my wedding and honeymoon! Yay! I’m glad to be home and getting back into my art, but first a mini-recap . . .

Unfortunately, we were not as multi-taskingly gifted as we had hoped at the wedding, and did not take any good wedding-y shots, so I will have to wait until I get access to some photos to share a view of that with you. I will say—the wedding turned out exactly as we hoped! So much family, great friends, amazing food and laughs! It was quiet and small and really a great celebration of who we Mike and I are, and who we are together. It was a moment in my life where I felt beyond gratitude to my family—people came from everywhere and did so much to make the day happen—so much personal hand-made effort went into everything, from the flowers to the photos to the food.

We did take photos on our honeymoon, otherwise known as “The Oaxacan Adventure,” a two week trip to the Oaxaca (wah-ha-cah) state of Mexico. We spent one week in the city of Oaxaca, and one week on the coast in a town called Puerto Escondido. Here are some brief highlights. Try and guess what we spent the majority of our time doing . . .

me drinking from a giant goblet of fruit juice at Cafe Alex in Oaxaca.

Monte Alban, an ancient Zapotec city very near the city of Oaxaca

Ancient art at Monte Alban

At Playa Manzanillo in Puerto Escondido

Clouds over Playa Zicatela (a beach famous for surfing) in Puerto Escondido

As you might have guessed, lounging and eating bookended our sightseeing on this trip. Monte Alban was really extraordinary—it was amazing to imagine people walking around there 2,000 years ago. I have to say though, even more than soaking up culture, this trip was about relaxing, and relax we did. The coastal area we visited, Puerto Escondido, was actually quite humid this time of year (I’m talking pretty much instant sweating when you are outside), so we spent a lot of time chilling in the water and taking afternoon naps in our cool studio apartment that we rented. Having time to lounge and think about nothing without any schedule was just what we needed, sprinkled with good food and poking around of course.

I will be back tomorrow, and hopefully with art, as now I can really launch into doing art full-time!

See You on the Flip Side

Well, the time has finally come!! After a full year of thinking about and planning our wedding, we’re leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Colorado (from California) for our wedding in my hometown, Aspen. I have to say, it is absolutely frightening and exciting. As with everything, there seems to be that pull between fear and joy. Mostly, I’m hoping to really appreciate this time that I’m going to spend with family and friends that I don’t get to see very often. Also, I’m praying for stellar blue skies and fall colors in Colorado, and hoping to make peace with my fright about being in the spotlight for the entire wedding festivities.

After our wedding on September 26, we will head off for two weeks in the Oaxaca, Mexico area. We haven’t been on a real vacation in a couple of years, other than visiting family, so we’re so very excited to lounge about. I will attempt to post some pictures of the wedding and wedding prep at some point next week, or in between wedding and honeymoon, but I can’t make any promises—I have a feeling there will be much excitement and chaos the whole time, with little time for blogging.

You might also note that this means I will be away from my shop as well. I will be back on the blog and in the shop on October 14, so any orders placed between now and then will be shipped by October 15.

I’m really looking forward to sharing stories and pictures from the wedding with you because so many wonderful creative family members and friends will be participating. In fact, we have covered pretty much all parts of the wedding with family help, so it should really feel warm and fun!

See you on the flip side, or perhaps some time in between!

Free at Last, and the Public Library

I think the public library is my temple, my church. It feels like a holy place to me—so many voices whispering across the quiet rows of books.

Today was my last day at my office job, and while I could be talking about that milestone, instead, I feel like talking about the public library, how it fills me with a quiet rejoicing, an endless sense of possibility. Maybe it’s because the library is more concrete—it is what it should be—something that you can depend on, a safe place. On the other hand, endings are hard to talk about because they are never what you would expect them to be. Even when you want the thing to end (you’ve been praying for it to end), it’s still disorienting.

You may be asking yourself, “what do libraries and quitting your day job have to do with each other?” The answer is, exactly nothing, except the fact that today was the last day of my day job (the final tether was snapped, allowing me to become a full-time artist) and to celebrate, I went for a quiet afternoon in the public library: collecting books (I praise you Mary Oliver, I think I’ve fallen in love), reading magazines, and in general, breathing in that buzzing amount of knowledge and thought that hangs in the air above the stacks.

Before going to the library (my first act as a free woman), I had a nice lunch with my now former bosses and coworkers. They were just so nice, as they always have been, giving me a twinge of guilt for not liking the job better, or at least accepting it while I was there. This does not nullify the insanity of the job, or the insanity of me being in the job (as I was so, so, painfully wrong for it), but it’s almost sad in a way when you wish to run out of the building cheering, and jump on your bike like a bandit, and never look back, but instead your office takes you out to lunch and gives you gifts. I am thankful that they were so kind, but my conscience didn’t feel like I deserved it.

But now, I am free at last, and tomorrow marks my first official day as a full-time artist. Can I hear a hooray echoing out across the blogosphere? Technically, I’ll be leaving this weekend for my other big transition this Fall—getting married, so the rest of this week is going to be more of a tying up of loose ends than a beginning of a new career. But stay tuned as I am most definitely going to fill these next three days with as much joyful creativity as possible. I will be back tomorrow, with something creative, but will be announcing later this week a three week holiday for wedding and honeymoon.

Solo Exhibit and Giveaway at Etsy Stalker

The wonderful Beatrice of Etsy Stalker has put together a beautiful solo exhibit of my work, including an interview and giveaway to help me celebrate my soon-to-be new-found freedom, doing art full-time! Woohoo!

Go visit this post to have a look-see and enter to win a set of three prints of your choice from my Natural Patterns Alphabet series. The winner will be chosen at random next Sunday 9/20, so get on over there and enter!

Double the Shows, Double the Fun

Hello there! Well, I just wanted to let you all know about two shows I’m doing this Saturday evening (September 12, 2009) in Sacramento, CA, in case you’re in the area.

I’ll be showing selections from my “How to Save the World” series of drawings at A.w.e.a.r., a women’s consignment boutique located at 2400 21st Street in Sacramento. There will be an opening from 6-8 pm, and my work will be up through the beginning of October. I will be at the opening from 6-7 pm.

I will also have a booth at the McMartin Realty art/craft show at 2031 K St. This event goes from 6-10 pm and has a great variety of art and craft vendors, and often live music. While I’m away at the other opening, my fiance will be manning the booth, so stop on by to see us both!

One of the drawings from my “How to Save the World” series, that I’ll be showing this weekend (and prints available in my shop):

Yay for shows! Happy Friday!