serendipity

doggie knits

"Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole."  --  Roger Caras

This is not a naughty dog whose sneaking a snack from the dining table, but a model wearing the latest in canine fashion.  Corinne Niessner of Lucky Penny Hand Made is the designer behind these fetching garments.  

I first met Corinne 14 years ago.  I owned a yarn shop and she loved to knit.  My beloved schnauzer Gerttie was the official store greeter, so when Corinne offered to knit her a dog sweater I didn't hesitate to say yes! Photos of Gerttie in her gorgeous cabled turtleneck are somewhere buried in a box, but trust me, she looked adorable.  Gerttie thought she did too as no one could resist coming over to give her a pet (and the occasional treat). 

Yesterday I caught up with Corinne at Knit 1 where a book launch was hosted in honor of her new book Doggie Knits.  It was great to see her talent so beautifully laid out.  I have to knit up one of her hat patterns for the Monster Pup (aka Josie the Papillon).  She would look too cute in one with her big fluffy ears sticking out.  I doubt she would wear it for long, but it's definitely worth the photo op.

An extra bonus for me was catching up with a few other folks from my yarn store days.  Corinne is featured on the far left. 

guerilla furniture

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."  - Pablo Picasso

Only at the Greater Fulton Market may you be absolved of your sins. Write your sin with chalk on the blackboard and you too may receive an apple and a pad with which to wipe your hands.  It was silly, but I enjoyed the interactive quality of the installation.  The installation was, by the way, on the back of a rental truck.  Actually, the entire exhibition was on the back of a series of small rental trucks.  

A friend had invited me to join her at the "The Guerilla Furniture Market."  Though there was plenty of beautiful furniture to see, I was more fascinated with the people watching.  You had the hip and chic, workmen catching some free beer and artists enjoying the warm weather.

I was reminded of Wicker Park 20 years ago, though a bit more industrial.  You have to mind the forklifts hefting pallets of produce and other food goods here, there, and everywhere.  

 

Looptoped

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."  --  Diane Arbus

To borrow the phrase of a friend, I am "looptoped."  I had such a good time that my cheek muscles are tired.  It was a night filled with laughter.  Prior to the performance I had been a bundle of nerves that now I miss the adrenalin rush.  Photos taken by my friends Sara Peak Convery and Sandi Gunnett will soon be posted.  Their assistance made the night for me.  I couldn't have handled the crush of people without them, let alone have taken the photos.  As a taster of the events, check out this newscast.  There is a brief interview with me.  Sandi and her son are also featured.

This morning Sandi patiently taught me how to use certain mechanisms on my little point and shoot camera.  Afterward we went to a local Korean market where I tested out my newly learned skills.  I have fallen in love with the "vivid" mechanism!   

I love the name of this drink - Let's be bitter.  It's a coffee drink.  I had to buy one for the name alone.   And yes, it is indeed quite bitter.

masterpiece

"Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."  -- Pablo Picasso

The masterpiece is by my nephew.   Children's art is amazing in both its simplicity and intensity.  As is typical of a 6 year old, his colors are bright and the shapes are bold, but what I love is his sense of depth and scale.  Is the bird flying above the flowers near the frowning sun or is it walking along them taking in their delightful fragrance?   And look carefully, there is a blue hummingbird zooming in on the sweet nectar of that red flower.  Like the hummingbirds dancing in my summer garden, its a blur almost unseen.  My nephew may have won the honor of seeing his work at a district art fair, but what makes me most proud is seeing how much of his heart is in what he made. 

working vacation

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by nature for herself..." 
    --- William Shakespeare

A working vacation.  I took time off from my preparations for Looptopia for an escape north into Wisconsin.  Despite the storms, the scenery as you can see was lovely.  I needed to get out of the city and the narrow confines of my routine. 

I was there to work with Rick, a maestro of welding. 
  I redesigned my throne for Lawn Nation to have a copper back and arm rests and as I haven't done welding in over 20 years, I had to ask a pro.  I was fascinated.  He made it look so easy.  There weren't the huge tanks with which I had learned, just a small torch, welding wax, silver / lead welding wire and copper tubes. 

His pal Lucky did the wood work.  I couldn't believe it.  Between the two of them, the whole thing was made in under 3 hours.  It goes to show you what can be done with the proper tools and some know-how.
   
Afterward Rick and Carol Lou treated me to lunch at the Lakeside Diner.  Aahhh, a beer, some fettucine, good scenery and lots of conversation, I was indeed on vacation.

stitching gene

"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary."  -- Mary Kurtz

My bed is a colorful assortment of family memorabilia in textile form.   The quilt was made by my great grandmother.  Great Grandma was known for her crochet work.  I own over 100 of her doilies, tablecloths, arm chair covers and collars, so the quilt was a surprise.   I brought it back from St. Louis where it had been in storage since the mid-1990's.  It is a simple monochromatic scheme and entirely hand stitched.  I know I shouldn't be using it, but I love it so much that to keep it wrapped away in a trunk seems a insult to all her effort.  She made quilts to be used.  I figure when it wears out, I will make the remnants into a teddy bear.

My godmother loved to needlepoint.  She is the one who taught me.  Most of the smaller pillows were made by her.  She worked everything from pin cushions to fireplace screens.  My bathroom is graced with a stepping stool worked in a design to match her den's wallpaper.

Tucked behind the teddy bear you can see the tips of Winnie the Pooh's ears.   It is one of the few textile objects made by my mother.  The stitching gene seems to have skipped her.  It's funny, because even my brother enjoys needlework.  He proposed to his wife with a pillow he stitched with the words "Will you marry me?"  It was used to hold the rings at their wedding. 

My own segue into the needlepoint began with the purple pillow worked in bargello at the age of nine.  I still love working bargello and am scheming to recover a small chair in my living room where Monster Pup shredded the upholstery.  It's a good thing she is so darn cute.   Fortunately she is an older and wiser pup.

a girl named Lindsay

"A name with meaning could bring up a child,
Taking the child out of the parents’ hands.
Better a meaningless name, I should say,
As leaving more to nature and happy chance.
Name children some names and see what you do."
    -- Robert Frost

Does your name define you?  Is it a marketing asset or liability?  Several years ago I read Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit.  One particular chapter discussed names.  Is your name unusual?  If not what would you use?  I laughed.  I was having a tough year in the art world and figured my luck would change with the change of my name.  Lindsays, after all, were becoming as common as mud.  You know this to be a fact when you walk into class and find that 1/2 your students share your name.

So, hmmm.  Who should I be?  I was scrolling through the font list and came across Gigi.  It's the font just before the one I typically use - Gil Sans.  Gigi.  I liked it.  A romantic name of a robust girl.  As a joke, I wrote a friend an email in my new persona.  He thought I was nuts.  I believe unstable was the word he used.  No not unstable, just trying on a new name as I may try a new hat.  But Gigi soon lost her luster after passing a porn shop with the same name. 

Three years later and I am still seeking the perfect name.  I like Lindsay.  It is a family name dating back centuries.  For that matter, my whole name consists of family names dating back centuries.  A quick search at the Social Security website and I learned that in 1984 Lindsay was the 36th most popular name in the country.  This explains why I walked into a room full of them.My middle name isn't much better.  In 1997 it was the 65th most popular name given to girls. It also seems to be a favorite for Labrador Retrievers.   

My paternal grandmother, better known as Grandma, never liked her name.  I think Beatrice is lovely, but she always told me it was the name of a boring old bitty.  Recently I learned that she had been given two middle names.  I don't know why she kept it a secret.  I like them both - Clara and Cornelia, especially Cornelia.   

I am partly jesting here, but part serious too.  Many women don't change their names upon marriage as they have established a career with it.  To change it means more than a hassle at the bank to order new checks, it means confusing clients and colleagues, losing business.  Conversely, many Hollywood actors over the years changed their names to those easily pronounced and remembered.  My daughter has had several name changes over the years.  For her, a name means connection to family an establishment of roots.  For a person who has been adopted twice over, I can see why a name carries such weight and importance.  Guess which name she took?  Yup.  Lindsay.

So I guess I will always be a Lindsay, one of many thousands, but to my daughter, I am the one and only Lindsay, her mom. 

matriarchs

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."  --  Anthony Brandt

Family history has been on my mind.  Mom collapsed just before the holidays.  Fortunately the defibrillator inserted with the pacemaker last spring worked as intended.  Three hours after the collapse she was out dining with friends rather than in the hospital. 

In my family and within the circle of my mother's friends, you are introduced to others by your family affiliation.  "Oh, you know Suzy Q.  She is the niece of John Q who grew up down the block from your Aunt Mary."  You are only who you are as determined by your placement within the family tree.   With every brush of illness, my mother's placement as family matriarch becomes more tenuous.  My grandmother died just 7 years ago.  I still think of her as the matriarch, the go-to person for everything and anything.  Difficult to consider myself as the next in line.      

The women on both sides of my family are pillars of strength.  That's Great Grandma Obermeyer as pictured in New Mexico, circa 1905. Look carefully past that smile and you will see a gun slung across her hip.  While in St. Louis, I cleaned out a closet for my mother.  In it was a trunk that my paternal grandmother had given me.  It was filled with doilies, quilts and a few more striking family pics.  I especially loved the one of my father at 6 with his front teeth missing.

Yesterday I packed up the photos and shipped them to my father.  He has become the family genealogist.  With it I included a tablecloth from Yellowstone Park, circa 1940 and his Stetson.  I think I look rather fetching in a Stetson.  Just another urban cowboy.

graduation

"Life is unsure. Always eat your dessert first."  -- Anonymous

Those are words by which I try to live by on a daily basis.  With a baker in the family, there are a more than a few choices.  Check out the ones above from Sweet Pea's graduation reception.  Graduation is an event, but graduation from pastry school has a banquet beginning with dessert! 

Yes, Sweet Pea is done.  She was grinning from ear to ear when she received her certificate to a standing ovation from her peers.  The last 6 months have been both incredibly difficult and exhilarating for her.  I was the proudest mom in the room as I watched her pose for a photo with the head chefs.  I kept thinking of the other week when I demolished part of her chocolate sculpture by accident.  She didn't blink a tear.  She just shrugged.  That's been her attitude all the way through school.  As keynote speaker Chef Ina said, pastry takes courage and passion.  My daughter has both in abundance.  Two days after graduation she is back in the kitchen working at Zelda's where she is an intern.

Meanwhile, I have been savoring the first few days of vacation.  It started with a late night wine and crepe party followed by a massage the next morning.   Ooh, la, la -  a morning without an alarm.  Yesterday I woke up gradually with a cup of coffee and a caramel (okay, 3 or 4) while reading The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith.   It's a very civilized way to live even if I do say so myself.   

canstruction

"Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work.  Someone would leave. Someone always leaves and then we have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos." -- Snoopy

Charlie Brown was my best friend.  I don't remember his real last name, just that his first name was Charlie, so I called him Charlie Brown.  He lived next door to me when I was no taller than the kitchen counter. 

One year for my birthday he gave me a Snoopy as big as me.  When Charlie moved to London, Snoopy kept me company.  We had tea every afternoon.  Charlie sent me a post card several months after he moved.  My first Snoopy, my first friend, and my first postcard.  I don't know where he is today, but I still remember Charlie Brown 37 years later.

Snoopy moved from my bed to my daughter's where he lived until just a few years ago.  I hadn't thought about Charlie in a long time, but saw this image and the memories came flooding back to me. 

The image is of a sculpture made entirely of canned goods.  Engineers, architects, and designers compete yearly to create "canstructions" that eventually make their way to various food pantries and soup kitchens.  Art with a heart, my favorite kind.