Rainy Day Creativity

The day started out partly cloudy and it took until almost one o'clock for the partially mowed grass to dry out enough for me to get out the mower. Then, before I could get the second half of the front yard mowed, the rain began. Nothing heavy, but enough to make me decide to save the rest of the mowing for another day. With Bruce at work, the afternoon is "free for me" time...no football, no baseball...no TV at all, just the sound of the rain, the birds, and the insects getting ready for fall weather to arrive.

So I decided to start with a little culinary creativity...nothing fancy, but an easy, quick late evening meal for the inevitable Sunday Night Football game...Buffalo Chicken Sliders. The recipe is from a Kroger coupon flyer we got in the mail around Super Bowl time last year. So easy, but so good, too!

 

Ingredients: 1/4 c. butter, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup hot sauce, one rotisserie chicken (shredded) , red onion, lettuce, slider buns, blue cheese or ranch dressing, celery sticks

Heat the butter, honey, and hot sauce in a pan until the butter is melted and the honey is dissolved. Add the chicken. Heat through.

 

 Fill slider bun with buffalo chicken, top with onion and lettuce. Serve with celery sticks and dressing. You can add the dressing to the sandwich, too, if you like.

 My personal suggestion: Use Frank's Red Hot Wings Buffalo sauce. It was the "secret ingredient" in the original 1964 buffalo wings made famous by the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. Yum!

Once tonight's dinner was safely stored in the refrigerator, I decided to pull out a long-neglected art quilt that I started several years ago when I took a summer workshop at the Dayton Art Institute. The instructor, quilter Cathy Jeffers, does some pretty amazing work, so check out her website! Anyway, she invited me over to her house last weekend to pick up some fabric and other art supplies that she was donating to my art room. Wow, I do appreciate that!

While I was there, she pulled out some quilts she's been working on and then she asked me...the dreaded question...so...have you ever finished that mermaid quilt you started during my workshop???  Sadly, I had to admit to not quite getting to the fabric finish line. So today, I got out the quilt and my sewing machine...and discovered that I was not as close to finishing as I had remembered. Here are a few close ups of some areas, but there is a lot of work still to be done!

 

Actually, I'm a little bit glad that I hadn't finished the quilt because now I have a fresh take on the project and some new ideas for how I want to finish it up. Expect a progress report soon...I hope

Projects in Progress

During the last few weeks of August, I was able to work on a few ideas for coloring and embellishing a collection of silk scarves in a variety of sizes and weights. The scarves are white when I get them and the first step is to wash them all to get out any sizing or residue on the fabric. After that comes the fun of dying and painting the scarves. It's a messy task, so my goal is to have all the dye work completed before the cold weather sets in. I can easily do the hand-painting, stenciling, and beadwork in the house later with a minimal amount of mess.

One technique I'm using is quite simple, but makes an elegant scarf, especially on the heavier weight silks. The scarf is first dyed a solid color. The dye is then heat set to make it colorfast and the pattern is added using either stencils, as in the picture, or by hand painting with metallic fabric paints.

Some of the scarves are a very light weight, semi-sheer silk and lend themselves quite nicely to sponge painting techniques, which give them a watercolor appearance. This is my first attempt at adding a simple beaded fringe to one of these scarves. It's a little more time consuming, but something that I can easily do while watching "Project Runway" or just about anything on HGTV! 

 This scarf didn't quite work out the way I planned, but the result is still interesting. I first wet the scarf, then sponged and brushed the silk paints randomly on the surface. After that, I sprinkled salt crystals on the wet surface, sprayed water over the salty surface, and let the salt react with the dyes.

 

I'm thinking about adding some beading fringe to the ends where the color becomes softer...or would that be too much with all this color and pattern?

Reflections on days of summer past...

School starts tomorrow, so I consider today to be my last chance to do whatever I please, whenever I please...within reasonable limits, of course!
Of course, as a teacher, I have been "at school" off and on since early August, preparing my classroom, attending meetings, and getting things ready for another year in the classroom art studio. There's no way I would ever be able to jump in on the first day of school without at least a week or two of preparation!

Today is Monday, normally a work day, but we had our annual "Meet the Teachers/Open House" yesterday, so today is a well-earned day of relaxation and reflection.

All in all, it was a good summer for me!  June was a quiet month mostly at home with my husband, who was recovering from a knee replacement in mid-May.


Peaceful Center Hill Lake

July got off to a bang with my family's big reunion at Center Hill Lake in Tennessee, which was great fun! So many new additions to the family since we last gathered in 2011...new babies, new relationships, anniversaries, engagements...all the joys of being part of a very large extended family!



Snuggle time with Papa

Learning to captain the pontoon
















       In mid-July I spent five days with two of the best friends one could ever have. This was our seventeenth summer together...so hard to believe how quickly the years go by!

Celebrating 17 years of summer friendship!

When our summer reunions began, we were teaching together here in Ohio. Over the years, we have supported each other through moves and changes and watched our children grow up and raise families of their own. Although we live miles apart and lead very different lives, when we get together each summer we pick up right where we left off the summer before. It's like we've never been apart...truly long term friendships are a blessing!

Late July meant a quick few days at a Muse Machine advisor workshop, just a brief taste of school activities to come, before heading north for the baptism of grandson, Jackson, and a visit with my daughter and her family. Unfortunately, Papa was unable to join us because he was recovering from a second knee surgery...another story for another time!
 

     Jackson wore the family heirloom Christening gown, originally made for me by my great-grandmother out of the train from my mother's wedding dress. It was worn by my siblings, several of our children, and now our children's children! What a family treasure!

And now, my summer freedom is ending... 

 

...but it was all good!

Lions and tigers and...paperwork! Oh my!

So there I was, all excited about my new artistic venture, happily making jewelry, painting scarves, and designing my own fabrics for some future projects, when my creative train was suddenly derailed by cold, hard bureaucratic reality...aka the Taxman!

Etsy has some great tutorials to help new Etsians (love that term...sounds a little Star Trek!) get started so I felt pretty certain that I was on the right track, and for the most part, I was. This past Wednesday, I went to the credit union to open my business accounts. Simple, right? No, not so fast, my little pretty!

I had my federal EIN in hand (Employer Identification Number- necessary even if I have no plans to employ anyone but myself) , but was totally in the dark about the need to register my business name with the Ohio Secretary of State office before I could qualify for any business banking services. So back home I went, to log on to the proper website, download the proper forms, write my check for $50, and send it off to John Husted's office.

Now, I am in creative limbo, waiting to learn if my business name has already been taken by someone else first! According to the website, I should be go to go, but in these days of electronic communication, who knows?

Thanks to the advice of that very knowledgeable gentleman at the credit union, I am now signed up to take a Business Start-up workshop through the Ohio Small Business Development Center! 

Setting sail in a new direction...

The winds of change are blowing! For the past several years, I've tried to find time for my own art, all while teaching art full time. Ironically, I created more of my own art while working as an assistant principal than I have while working as an art teacher. After eight years in the art classroom, it's time to make time for myself!

When I first started this blog, my intent was to create an online journal for sharing thoughts on faith, family, and friendship, as well as ideas for long-distance grandparenting. I started a second blog, Thoroughly Artsy Mimi, for my creative, artistic efforts. It didn't take long to learn that managing both was a bit of a stretch!

So, in the interest of my sanity, my "artsy Mimi" will be joining my "modern Mimi" here on this page. I guess I will now be somewhat of a Thoroughly Artsy Modern Mimi!

Artsy Mimi

Yay! Signs of Spring at last!

Although the weather has been up and down the past week, I've spotted a few welcoming signs that spring is finally on the way. Last Wednesday, I noticed the first two of my early spring iris blossoms smiling up at me...a wonderful, cheery sight to be sure! And today, several more little blossoms added more color to the garden. It won't be long before the tulips add their pop of red and yellow to the mix.

Over the weekend, just as St. Patrick's Day dawned, I noticed a second harbinger of spring, my sweet little shamrock plant waking up after a winter nap on the bottom shelf of a plant stand in the living room. It will be a month or more before any little white blossoms appear between the leaves, but I'm happy to see that my little plant has survived to see another spring, especially since I don't have a very good track record when it comes to house plants! I bought this plant exactly four years ago this month when I saw a display in the grocery store. It spends the warm months on my back deck, then winters over on that bottom shelf. My one and only long-term success with a house plant!

As I write about my little plant, I'm reminded of the legend surrounding St. Patrick of Ireland. According to tradition, he used the three leaves of the shamrock to teach his followers about the Trinity...God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So with this in mind, my little plant with its cheery green leaves is more than just another sign of spring. It is also a sign of our faith in God, our hope in His promise of salvation, and the love of His only Son who came to dwell among us over two thousand years ago.

When the sun rises on the first day of spring, may you be blessed with the gifts of faith, hope, and the love of the Lord.

Happy Spring!

Snowy solitude...heavenly peace!

When you're a teacher, a snow day is a gift. When you know about the snow day before you go to bed, it's a heaven-sent gift! And when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep (bad cold, not a gift!), grab your camera, and snap a few photos in the dark, that's just plain heavenly.

 The first thing I noticed when I stepped outside, was the stillness. Heavy flakes of snow were still falling and hitting my camera lens, so I only took a few photos before deciding to put the camera in my pocket and just enjoy the moment.

It's amazing how many sounds there are in silence (Simon and Garfunkle, anyone?) when you take the time to listen. The first thing I heard was the sound of the birds nesting in the evergreens that dot our front lawn, a reminder that this is March and spring truly is on the way! The crack of a branch falling in the wooded area behind our house was a sudden reminder that I needed to be wary of where I stood. Heavy snow was taking its toll on the older branches in the trees and there are a few near our driveway that were precariously hoovering above my head. And in between the birds and the branches, I could hear a soft, delicate sound as the flakes settled on the bushes near where I was standing. So heavenly!

 This morning, when I woke up around 7 AM, I grabbed my camera again to get a few shots before the increasing winds blow the snow off the branches of the trees and bushes. Without the flash, the early morning light cast a blue glow over the entire landscape. So pretty to see, although I'm not sure it is quite the same through a camera lens.

 As I've said in a few previous posts, these months of winter are always tough on my spirit. I can't help but think that my gift of snowy solitude last night was a reminder from above that God is with me even when I feel most alone, that life is around me even when I feel most deadened and lifeless in spirit.

 

So today, I'm going to appreciate the beauty of this late winter "time out", thankful for these simple gifts, and mindful of just how fortunate I am to be alive to enjoy them. My wish for everyone today is that you, too, can find beauty wherever you are, whatever the weather, whatever the circumstances that surround you.