Wednesday, June 27, 2007

feeling like an old fool.....

do you ever run into someone that just always seems to make you feel foolish?

You know the kind -- no matter what it is they do (even if you've been doing it longer), they do it better --

and when you say something, they have some more witty/insightful/eloquent way of saying it that makes everyone turn and look at them like you're not even in the room

you know, THOSE kind of people.....

just saying

Saturday, June 23, 2007

The 10 meal chicken -or- using everything but the squawk

Part of the daily challenge for us is to eat healthy (one of us being a diabetic and one of us fighting high cholesterol) and still stay within a reasonable budget.

One of the ways that we try to do this is by shopping smart. We almost never buy any kind of meat that isn't on sale (we refer to this as buying "used meat" -- you know the kind, its within a day of the last sale date so the store marks it down by 50% so they don’t have to throw it out).

We recently were able to acquire a very large whole chicken on that kind of special. We paid about $6.00 for the chicken, and this is how we used it:

Day 1 – its to our advantage that we know how to cut up a chicken ourselves because its usually even less expensive to buy a whole chicken than one that has been cut up (after all you have to pay for the labor of the meat cutter if they do it)

On the first day we cut the chicken up into frying size pieces. That leaves 10 pieces of chicken: 2 legs, 2 wings, 2 thighs and 4 breast pieces.

I oven fried those pieces for meal #1.

The backs and all of the giblets and extra skin go into a bag in the freezer for making into soup on a cool day. That will be meals #2 and #3.

Day 2 – the lunch meal for both of us was a piece of chicken with macaroni salad. Meal #4 from Ms. Chicken

Day 3 – lunch meal for DH was a piece of chicken with veggies and fresh fruit, making meal #5.

Day 4 – lunch meal for DH was chicken and macaroni salad, meal #6.

Day 5 – We picked all of the meat off the remaining breast pieces and made 2 pans of enchiladas. We ate half of the first pan that night for meal #7.

The second pan of enchiladas went into the freezer and will be meals #8 and #9.

Day 6 – Finished off the last of the first pan of enchiladas for meal #10.

By my figuring, that means each of those meals cost about $0.60 for the protein source.

I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to get a chicken that cheaply since the rising price of corn to the chicken ranchers will likely raise the price of chicken (and a lot of other groceries – like cereal, milk, beef and corn on the cob!) . But we’ll keep on searching out those used meat bargains!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Hot Cat Tires?!

I subscribe to a magazine that helps me sort out the art shows that I apply to. It also includes articles about doing shows, etc., including some really funny pieces about the strange things that have been seen at shows.

The current issue arrived yesterday, and I just had to share this paragraph:

A woman stopped at my booth and was drawn to the most expensive selection of art jewelry. She turned to her friend and, commenting on a high-style piece, tried to use the French fashion phrase haute couture {ot-ku-'tur}: "Now that there one? it's the Hot Cat Tire one."

This had me ROTFLMAO!!!! I can tell you it brought to mind the way we mis-speak, especially when we are trying to show off.

How about a little horsie do over (hor d'oeuvre)? [what is it about French that always trips us up? I know, its the odd spelling...don't they know what a consonant is???]

and then at our house there is the peeled cat. This came about from my husband saying as we traveled on the highway "look, someone peeled a CAP" meaning the outside tread off of a tire (you see these along the roads all the time)....but my daughter heard it as "look, someone peeled a CAT" ...... ok, maybe this is why she has such an odd sense of humor (she couldn't have gotten it from me!) and maybe this is why she has noticed that racoons laying dead by the road don't seem to have "blown up" on collision with whatever killed them (the research continues!)

anyway, just thought I'd share those odd thoughts with y'all today

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

What's wrong with American Idol?

For those of you who know me, you know that I don't do Reality TV. I find most of it to be rude, crude, boring and not worth wasting my time on.

There has been a lot of uproar this year about American Idol. It seems we can't really reward truly talented amateurs, but we can spend hours viewing, talking about, celebrating anybody that is willing to sell their soul to the commercial devil and act like an idiot on stage.

We could take a good long look at the British version of that show.

What's wrong with American Idol? Let's start with 2 of the 3 "judges" and one of them is NOT Simon.

If you want to hear what this show REALLY should be about, go listen to these two clips on YouTube.....and remember the name Paul Potts....you're going to be hearing it in the future

here

here

What we need is a show that is really interested in REAL talent not all that noise we've been hearing

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Jewelry and "Grace Notes"

Yesterday I was talking about a piece I had submitted for publication. Since there seemed to be some interest in seeing what it was, I've included a link here so you can go and check it out on my other blog.

Meantime, just a preview, here are pictures of the three newest pieces I have completed.

Tigereye Necklace

Verisite Necklace

Malachite Necklace














Yesterday a new column appeared in our local paper entitled Grace Notes. Nicely written, and she takes on some subjects that I've been talking about here.

In her column she says: "I believe language is powerful, especially poetry, that words can be weapons or gifts, that healing is always possible, and that we are each more holy and worthy than we think."

If you'd like to take a look at the whole column (and some of her earlier work too), this link will take you to her column.

Its a pleasure to see some POSITVE thought in a newspaper among all the reports of murder and war.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

papering the walls with rejection slips.....

a while back I had submitted a picture of a piece of jewelry to a magazine for consideration of publication

yesterday I got the standard form letter saying they are not interested....

{sigh}

When sending in jewelry there really are only 2 or 3 magazines, so its pretty limiting....

guess I'll send in a picture of one of the new pieces and see if they like that any better....

Monday, June 11, 2007

just where is Broadway going?

We watched the Tony awards last night.

I give it a mixed review.

Opened and closed by one of Broadway's Grand Dames, Angela Lansbury, I can't help but wonder what she thinks of the piece that swept up so many of the awards. I was disgusted by it....if I want to see that kind of obscene language and artless stomping around I could just go see a movie....

There were, however, some brighter parts of the show. The host of awards to The Coast of Utopia which is a 9 hour play series with some of the most AMAZING costumes I've ever seen.

And except for the scene from the big winner, the scenes from the musicals were great. I think I'd like to have a cast recording of the new Kander/Ebb production Curtains....it feels like good old time Broadway musical style ... and CLASS!

Friday, June 08, 2007

What is "Art"?

PBS recently did a 3 part series titled Craft in America. Because it ran at 2:00 A.M., I recorded the programs for watching later (ok, some mornings I'm awake then, but I try not to make a habit of it!)

This of course afforded me the pleasure of enjoying the entire 3 hours when I was ready (as well as being able to pause it for a break as necessary without missing any of it).

I watched the entire tape in one sitting the other evening, and it was excellent. Well produced, great music behind the scenes (I HEAR those tunes, even find the lyrics swimming through my head even when they are just background to a scene).

PBS (and most of the rest of the world) classifies the work of these artists as craft (real ART being only those who paint I suppose). I feel honored to be part of that amazing group as well.

It was interesting to hear one of the people who works in clay talk about his work as "a statement of what makes me angry", and his work reflects that, beautifully executed but dark.

My vision of my art (and a good many of the other people presented in the program) really has 3 parts:

Part 1 Can I make you smile?

A good many of my plush creations fall in this catagory. I work with fabrics and other accompaniments to create almost cartoon like animals and birds. Plush, especially at the adult collector level is much more about comforting the soul of the collector, and I tend to do this in ways that also makes my collectors smile.

Part 2 Is it beautiful?

This is what I do when I work with beads to create jewelry or other beaded things that are decorative. The search for beauty in our sometimes confusing world is what makes this more joy than work. Its challenges keep my mind working as I create each piece as a one of a kind work of "art".

Part 3 As offered prayer

The icons and the eggs created with religious symbols are made more for my need to connect than with thought of being able to sell them.

As we watched the tape, my husband commented that he did not have my discipline to work on things when we were not scheduled right away for a show.

It really is not discipline except in terms of what it is I'm working on. Since I was very young I have made things with my hands. The creative process is ingrained so deeply that I am convinced I brought it with me from the world before my birth. I can not imagine NOT making something (and it has lead me to experiment with a huge number of materials and projects).

If you are at all inclined to create things with your hands, I highly recommend you try to see this PBS series.

So, what is art to you?

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

How far is too far?

This little blurb appeared in the Denver paper yesterday morning.

Personally I think this is just a little over the line....it disturbs me that we are using these kind of product names and images to sell something....

I'm convinced that this would NOT be what Jesus would drink....and that this would bring on another incident of tossing the money changers out of the temple......

just saying.....