The Great Winnowing Goes On

If you've been following the gripping saga of my getting stuff outta here, you'll know what's up.

New readers start here, to quote ancient magazine serials. Since I'm hoping to put this house on the market in the next couple of years, and move to a rented condo, yet to be found, but preferably ground floor overlooking anything but a parking lot, and not in an old folks place, things have to happen.

It's probably not a coincidence that my art career is moving away from painting, drawing, printmaking, largely into fiber arts. I'm at a general crossroads. Changing work projects, home, moving on to new skills, all seem to go together.

My ambition is to reduce the contents of the house gradually to just what I want to move with. Better to do it in stages than in a stressed out rush.

The studio is the hardest, so much good material, paper particularly, framed works galore. And changing media leaves a great moraine of materials from the previous medium.

So here we are:

Awaiting Handsome Son's assistance in carrying down two flights are four categories, garbage (small) thriftie (to be bigger) recycle (biggest) and donation to younger artists, which might be collapsed into thriftie if no takers.

 Recycle

 Thriftie

 Garbage

Donations to younger artists

Note: the garbage bags are just for transportation. The contents will be dumped into appropriate places, the bags home again where possible. Trying not to add plastic to the waste stream.

And just to encourage myself, here's the result of the deciding and hauling:

This worktop was a solid mass of fabric scraps, now become a single manageable crateful. And the containers cluttering the windowsill, gone, too.

This area had almost disappeared under a mountain of paper and cardboard, now reduced to items I will use. The surfaces you see were buried.

Everywhere I look people are doing this. Possibly a national self care movement, in view of the dismal political state of affairs.

Anyway, it's therapeutic, not least because it unclogs your creative flow when you can find what you need. And have room to work. It's always the work surfaces that vanish first.

And looking further ahead, it  will simplify the stresses of selling and renting.

At least that's the plan. Pot of tea next, and bread baking since I am, shock, horror, Out of Bread.

Visiting artist at work

Kira, visiting next door, trying out her new sidewalk chalks in a great space.

Alphabet up to J, then she skipped on to letters she liked better.

Go Kira!

Merry and peaceful Christmas everyone who celebrates.

And a happy and peaceful Wednesday to our friends who celebrate other festivals. Happy Hanukkah, which falls alongside Christmas this year. I saw a lovely Kwanzaa display today. And we don't forget that Christmas was once a pagan festival and for some of us it's still celebrated that way. In fact the Christmas tree is really a pagan observance. So let's all enjoy it all.

My decorations are small and quiet, but you'll see old favorites, three creches, felt stars, tiny stocking stuffers from handsome son's childhood, a woven star on top.

However you celebrate, alone, in a small family, in a crowd scene, I'm sending waves of good will and thanks for our interactions this year. Enjoy, and remember to show good will to yourself, too.

Great clearing happened and happy shopping too..

Handsome Son's birthday gift to me was a block of time on Saturday carrying, sorting, hauling, stuff all over the house. Emptying cabinets I can't get all the way into, that sort of thing.

Several hours, stopping for one tea break. Much stuff at the dumpster area for anyone to pick over before the haulers came today. A carload to take to the thriftie this morning.

He ended up by springing for a pizza which he collected and served. It was a great gift. I cautioned him that I may ask for a repeat in a few weeks, as a Christmas gift..

So today I went to the thriftie two towns away, but the usually heavy traffic was fine, the thriftie was manageable, emptied my  car,and I even did a bit of shopping.

$7.99, cashmere twin-set. My Christmas outfit. To go with my pearls ( not thriftie) which  come out on festive occasions when I might want to clutch them. 

I think I'm going to be in costume as the respectable murderer in an Agatha Christie mystery, who wipes out half the village before the detective catches on.

Crumpets ahoy!

They're great, not hard to do, but they take a long time to make.

Mix warm milk, sugar and yeast. Wait five minutes. Beat in flour, salt, for ages. Leave to rise. Another hour. Stir in baking soda and water. Wait another half hour. Then fry, using these rings for shape, five minutes per batch.

So you need to spend time on this one. It's not something to whip up in a rush. Today I'm ready to have crumpets for tea.

Then a couple of neighbours are going to get a breakfast kit for Christmas: pot of homemade marmalade, couple of crumpets. They don't know this yet.

As you see, a birthday has happened again.

Seems no time since the last one.
 

This beautiful bouquet arrived from sister dogonart, looks and smells wonderful, totally raises the tone of the place.

And looking back over the the year that just sped past, it's been a lovely one.  Losses of friends, at this age sad but not too surprising, balanced by new friends, that was a surprise and a great bonus.

Some art honors and awards, and best of all, new learning.

The adventures in paper piecing have been so much more than I expected. And I have plans for some interesting work in silk to come. 

Meanwhile I'm receiving greetings and just having a good time!

To my fellow Sags, you know who you are, Quinn, Mary Ann, Elaine, Gary, Janee and friends, a happy birthday to us all!

Favorite Christmas movie

This is the time for the annual viewing of The Bishop's Wife, the only Christmas movie I never get tired of, from the skating scene to the magic sherry bottle, to Debby throwing a curve in the snowball-fort fight.

So on my tiny upstairs TV, I watched, sipping my golden milk. Perfect.

Shortbread cookies, very seasonal

Just watching Last Homely House, and Kate was baking shortbread cookies, rolling like pastry, and using some semolina.

I knew I had semolina in the freezer, so I thought I'll try that. Found the semolina was way past its sell-by date, dumped it. But I'd got the butter warmed and the regular flour sifted, so I soldiered on anyway.

I had refreshed my knowledge of fractions, because the semolina to regular flour is one to two. My recipe, different from Kate's, asked for two cups flour.

So my personal math, involving how much flour is one third of two cups, came into play. I got it figured then found the semolina was a nonstarter.  Oh. So just two cups then. Fiiiiiine.

And here's batch part one, on shiny baking tray

Batch part two, on dark baking tray. These browned better, as usual, always happens when you use a dark tray.

But they're good. Shortbread is funny, in that it's very pale even when baked, doesn't get that brown finish.

Rolling out like pastry worked fine, if you don't want to press the dough into a pan then prick and mess about making it into breakable parts.

So these will go out for Christmas.

Marmalade acting as orange sauce

Marmalade all cooled, nicely set, and in the fridge, here it's in action, as a sauce on a slice of banana/peach bread.

Though we use it on toast, it's actually a great tangy sauce on meats, chicken, ice cream, anywhere you like an orange flavor that's not too sweet.

To be shared with neighbors who will eat it on toast and who will incorporate it into real cooking.

Storm prep, marmalade making

The first storm of the season is here. So I'm making marmalade. There is a connection here, bear with me. I can't get out, so I may as well get on with the long planned marmalade making. Since I don't have access to Seville oranges, I use the Mamade mix I got from the UK.  It makes very good marmalade.

See containers and lids boiling merrily in the background.

Usual process, though, add sugar, water, boil then simmer. Test. Taste. Restrain yourself from spreading the lot on bread with no delay.

This is half a batch, since I didn't have enough sugar for the lot. This will be shared around various neighbors and friends. Handsome Son might like some, he still has to get back to me.