Warm puppy and less important things

 Yesterday was action packed,  riveting, things happening all at once. 

Bloodwork first at the local lab,  and the other patient there,  with her mother, was physically disabled and without speech, but was showing us on her phone her singing group in action! Raised the whole tone of the lab. What a happy young woman, great props all round.

Then artwork waiting to dry, till today, when I started on the logistics of adding the face 

I cut into the sides and top to bend around the head shape

 

Gary was back home last night, came to let me know,  and was very intrigued with the current artwork. Baffled but, as always, amazed. Hugely amused when I showed him the back of the face, -- book-mailing envelope.

On his way in, he found boxes on my step, brought them in, and later, here's the glorious unboxing, thanks to R

Wonderful yarns, Japanese hand painted, as a fabulous bonus to the gift of puzzles. 

 Very happy recipient here. Thank you so much! Everything will be put to good use.

Even the boxes, which are now in the studio area

And this is who came with Gary to visit

Billy, seven weeks old, French bulldog/ Boston terrier cross. My new granddog. He hasn't figured out barking yet. That will be fun. 

What an evening. 

Today Misfits box arrived incredibly early, around 8 am. Compare this to FedEx's anything-up-to-9 pm-who-cares.

Some of the cilantro and spinach have already been served. Remember the spare pastry from the chicken pot pie, which I froze, with extra cooked carrots, same source?

Today I thawed it all out, rolled it, now we know it freezes great

added in cilantro, spinach, carrots, last couple of potatoes from the last batch, and baked it in the toaster oven.

With a few sprinkles of the newly-arrived feta cheese, it was a good Cornish pasty meal.

Late last night I remembered about winnowing, and another couple of paper files made an addition to the recycle bin, after soaking down to almost pulp. Whenever I run out of winnowing ideas, there's always paper files.

Happy day everyone, warm puppies sll around.

Many years ago I was in the process of launching a new one-person enterprise, and was thinking about names. 

I asked my then very young Handsome Son for ideas, because you never know. I explained it needed to be easy to hear on the phone and friendly. 

He thought for a minute then said "How about Warm Puppy?" That enterprise was techie, involving adult instruction on public broadcasting, so I ended with a less warm and friendly name.  But I still liked Warm Puppy.

Enjoy your day even if there's no warm puppy.

White rabbits! Yellow daffodils! Green leeks

First day of March, supposedly also of spring by some counts, St David's Day, patron saint of Wales, leeks worn for historical reasons.

Unless they're prepped and in the freezer, in which case we break out the  daffodils

Birds are starting to wake up around my house, but Edith Holden's illustrations do it better

Yesterday's winnowing was the cutlery drawer, now clean, free of crumbs, and of an array of stainless steel tableware I haven't used in eons.  Haven't fed more than two people at once for more than eleven years.

So this collection went on Freecycle

and was requested in minutes, gone this morning,  for someone's young relative moving into first apartment.

And here's the next stage of the figure. Diluted white glue sprayed on, first coat of torn coffee filters, which will take a while to dry, then I can do more shaping. 

I think other artworks might find a place on this figure, as jewelry. We'll see how that goes. I'm also wondering if this might be a good wearer of that robe covered in embroideries.  No rush. This is like a really big embodiment of those soft sculptures I made a while back.

About the rockscape piece, it needs edges fixed but the weather, snow and frost, has stopped outdoor painting for now. It's hanging upstairs in waiting.

In other news, Handsome Son visited yesterday, helped with eating chocolate walnut cake and I asked him if he had any strong longish cardboard tubes, thinking about the armature here. 

He, true son of Boud, said well yes, but I have plans for them! He did promise me any others he might get. He's building something.

Happy day everyone! Pretend it's spring even though some of us, well, me anyway,  scraped ice off our cars this morning.

 

Salute to women quilters of color, Together lunch, next stage planning for Art Shaped piece

 Today since handsome Son is visiting I probably won't get to see Textiles and Tea.

So I thought,  before February's gone, I'd do a salute to a wonderful quilter, historian, writer, teacher , retired aerospace engineer, yes, that's the field she got her doctorate in, African American woman.

This is all on YouTube. Go there. She's brilliant.

Meanwhile in a humbler context, I found myself in mid-winnow doing what you'd expect when a lover of fiber finds roving she'd forgotten, which goes nicely with the new sari silk roving

On the spindle is the new sari silk, spun. 

And today's winnowing is yet to happen but it's decided on.

Meanwhile, the Together cookbook is in action. Page 77, Baked fish with tahini and pomegranate.

As usual, substitutions happened. Tilapia was the only available fish, and no tahini in the house. I don't like tahini, some sweet edge to it. (I pretended not to see the pomegranate seeds, but they're just a garnish.)

I also don't like peanut butter, but it's okay as a substitute for tahini in my hummus. 

So i figured why not here, too. And I have no pine nuts, but since they're just about a bit of crunch, the peanut butter being crunchy, that worked. I did have actual parsley, you'll be glad to know I didn't sub hairy bittercress, though it's growing and I could.

The book has started acquiring notes

 And here's the theater of cooking

This makes two meals and a whole fillet leftover for kedgeree or fishcakes or something.

And the sauce -- whoa Nelly, was that good. I ended up spooning a bit over the broccoli, too.  Definitely making that again. Good over salmon, I'd guess, and green vegetables.

So, all fed and ready, I got to work on the artwork head. What looked like a mask yesterday is in fact the face, and it will be attached to a head as soon as I build one.

I woke this morning wondering how to do it. I don't have paper suitable to make a head shape, never get newspapers, recycled all the packing paper, what to do.. then I remembered messing about in the roving, noting some not good for spinning, could use that. 

Then another thought smote me -- duh, batting. Lightweight, could work. I have the stuffing insides of a sofa cushion which collapsed years ago, to use. But how to make it hold up as I build..yet another thought, use tissue box found in recent winnowing. Yes! 

Plenty of thoughts, so I've started.

Measuring, head needs to be bigger

Getting there. Tomorrow I'll figure out the next bit and maybe adjust and paint the face. The head will need some sort of armature, as will  the  rest of the figure. We'll get to that.

Meanwhile happy day everyone, keep having thoughts, they're useful.

Photo AC