shining egg

one day i'd like to go to the farmer's market with only my camera - and no plans to shop for food.  it's hard!  taking pictures and choosing produce and taking pictures and paying farmers and taking pictures and keeping track of children.  hard, but so so good.

tonight we made a delicious dinner: grilled tuna steaks on toasted buns with garlic-lemon aioli and sliced tomatoes, green beans sauteed in garlic and onion, pesto pasta with chunks of mozzarella cheese.  and for dessert, i made shortcakes to go with the black raspberries we bought this morning at the market and the vanilla ice cream hiding at the bottom of the freezer.  we ate on the porch.  and in between dinner and dessert?  we took a walk around the neighborhood.  perfection. 

hope your weekend was grand!

this summer i will

i have been meaning to make a list like this ever since i saw one of shari's lists ages ago.  (why, oh why, has it taken me so long to actually do it!?)  here goes.

this summer i will:

* pickle something (have you seen what leya's been up to?)

* build and light a campfire

* pick-my-own peaches

* make cobblers and crisps and even a buckle out of the season's fresh fruits and berries (and eat them for breakfast)

* tie dye something

* take after-dinner walks as a family

* eat breakfast on the porch

* jump off the diving board

* go camping

* catch fireflies 

* make tea from the lemon verbena and the mint growing on our porch

* step outside first thing each morning and last thing each night

i will also open the windows and brew iced tea and not worry about bedtime and rent a kayak and go to the pool all by myself while the kids are in camp and paint sunflowers and keep the freezer stocked with lemonade ice pops and make a bracelet.  

and i will inhale this season, deep and long.  i will devour this summer like it was a peach-plum crisp.  because the days are already getting shorter, and i want to live it all before i blink and there's a chill in the air again.  

oh summer, you are the season of unfolding.  the season of ripening.  the season of bounty.  and i love you so.

bits

 

this morning i was printing on the porch in the shade.  listening to a perfect summer mix.  enjoying the breeze.

a few things to share with you.  (i feel like i'm channeling heather today.)

* these pictures of rachel's are making me itchy to paint.

* and this picture of abby's has been very much on my mind.

* brian's photos at this joy + ride.

* i am in love with my new necklaces from abigail percy.

* shanna's post has been front and center for me since i read it earlier this morning.

* carving stamps.

* three new guests at habit.  (how did it get to be july!?)

* and i've decided to have a milkshake today.  it will probably be malted.

been sitting in the sunshine

i forgot to mention that we were going to the beach.  there was all of the business that goes along with the end of school, complete with potting plants for teacher gifts and a kindergarten play and spirit day and the like; and there was a visit from grandparents; and there was a photography job; and there was that first week of summer vacation when everybody feels as though they've been set free and acts accordingly; and then we were off to the beach for a glorious week in the sunshine.

it was a perfect way to jump start summer.  it was a much needed break from the rain.  it was a joy to be with family and watch cousins play together and take showers outside and paint in the sand and sit and watch the waves.  

and now we're back.  we're unpacked except for my backpack which is half-full of sand that i just can't bear to shake out.  i'm making these cookies to pack in lunch boxes for the first day of camp tomorrow.  i have a long long list of things to do in the coming weeks - things that i'm looking forward to sharing - things like painting and printing and goccoing and printing photographs and possibly printing note cards and making prints of paintings and possibly a fiber project.  and a big game of capture the flag.  and a whole bunch of barbeque-ing.  and lots and lots of seashell-sorting.  and there's more, too.

but first i'm going to take a deep breath.  and make a peach cobbler.  because it's summertime.  at last.

a few thoughts on echoes

today marks the beginning of our second week of the summer is... series at echoes.  have you been over to visit?  it's hard to know, now that we've turned off the comments.  i feel really good about the decision to turn the comments off - in hopes that you'll enjoy the four pieces together without feeling any obligation to comment.  (of course, if you want to comment, you can always click over to flickr to do so.)  in any case, without the comments, it's hard to know whether you've been visiting and whether you've been enjoying the series so far.  (have you?  i hope so.)

i'm enjoying echoes immensely.

 

i love collaborating with my talented friends.  i love the feeling of being immersed in a project that makes me feel like it's summertime (even before it really is summertime).  and i love thinking about what summer is for me. 

 

this summer, i'll be printing my echoes using a variety of monoprinting techniques.  i'm excited about the printing (i've been playing with monoprinting over the last few months, but have only recently had any success in achieving the effects i was hoping for), and also that my pieces for this summer's echoes project will be a series of sorts.  add to that the joy of printing on the porch in the sunshine, and it's all so good.

two final thoughts on the subject.

the first is that we hope (we wish, we want - really and truly) that you will join us in this summer of echoes by creating our own small artworks that capture bits of what summer is for you.  of course, photos are artworks - but we hope that you will pick up a paintbrush or colored pencils or crayons (or even a sharpie marker!) and make lines or colors or marks (or even words!) on a piece of paper to illustrate in some way what summer is for you.  and then!  and then we hope (and wish and want) that you will add those small artworks to the echoes flickr pool so that we can enjoy and appreciate and be inspired by how you capture those bits of what summer is for you.  (and so that we can feature your echoes pieces in our friday posts)  so play along, won't you?  it will be fun.  i promise.

and finally.  the icing on the cake for me?  i found this in my mailbox on friday:

 

heather's echoes this summer are postcards, and the first one was written to me!  and mailed to me!  (along with some other goodies!)  lucky lucky me!

standing on a fancy bench in a flouncy skirt when there is so much work to be done

it's the last week of school.  summer is brewing.  grandparents are arriving for a visit.  the beach is beckoning.  i have lots to type about here - mono-printing and camera lenses and table linens and more, but it will all have to wait while i cram in the last moments of painting before the floodgates open.

echoes summer

it's june, and there's something happening at echoes.  

it's been quiet over there since we finished up our thoughts on process back in january.  but summer is where it all started at echoes, and we're excited to savor another summer together again.  this time, with a twist.  or two.

this summer we'll be exploring the theme, "summer is..."  and we're inviting you to join us - inviting you, encouraging you, hoping that you will - by posting your own interpretations of "summer is..." to the echoes flickr pool.  (read the pool rules to learn more about what and how to post there.)

alicia, heather, rachel, and i will be posting our own work on the echoes site on mondays and wednesdays, and we'll be posting four pieces from the flickr pool at the site each friday.  i do hope you'll play along!

i can't wait to get started.  i love summer (you know that, right?).  and this is going to be fun.

saturday morning in the woods

 

in process

it's thursday.  i know this.  i keep reminding myself everyday this week, so that i don't get too mixed up.  (just to make matters worse, my kids have no school on friday.  so today feels like wednesday and like friday all at the same time.  yikes.)

it occurred to me,  while swooning over rachel's dish photographs earlier this week, that i've been so busy preparing for the show that i haven't shared anything i've been working on lately.  

it was a twisty train of thought that brought me to this place - rachel's photos reminded me of the bottles and jars i've been painting, and tara's photos reminded me of the horizons i've been painting, and then i remembered that i haven't posted any new work lately, and then i thought about all of the notes i've been taking and sketches i've been making and things i've been thinking about my painting and how i haven't shared any of that here.

so i thought i'd share a tiny bit today.  

after i finished my work for the show - back in march - i found myself somewhat adrift creatively.  i had been working toward the show for so long, that i wasn't really sure where i was going when that work was finished.  that was hard - not unexpected, but hard - being adrift.  and so i played - with monoprinting, and india ink, and my oil pastels (which really feels just like coloring with crayons, only grown up - i love that).  and i played with landscapes, and i played with flowers, and i played with bottles and jars.  

all of that playing was really really good - like exercising muscles in my brain that i had forgotten about.  all of that playing was frustrating, sometimes, too - i like knowing where things are going, and the wandering takes me out of my comfort zone.  but it's good, too - the wandering.  because that's how new land is discovered.

so i've been wandering, and playing, and discovering.  it feels like some ideas are starting to gel, and i'm really looking forward to exploring those ideas further.  and in the meanwhile, as long as the weather cooperates, i'm planning to paint outside as much as possible this summer - because i'm absolutely not finished with the horizon.  

bits from a long weekend

it's tuesday.  but it feels like monday.  i'll be mixed up all week.

it was a great long weekend.  sticky and summery and good; and pretty much all i have to show for it are a few table shots.  and a few bits that i don't want to forget.

* we have been planning to cook an "asian food extravaganza" (those words belong to b. - he's been asking for months) for a really long time.  including make-your-own-sushi.  this was the weekend.  in the end, the kids didn't love the sushi - something about the texture of the seaweed being different from what they're used to - but it was fun to plan and fun to make and everything else was delicious.

 

* sesame noodles supreme was on the menu, of course.  thank goodness i blogged about it way back when, so i was able to find the recipe.  (though it turns out that i have been, ahem, neglecting my blog categories, and i had to search google to find it!  which worked like a charm.  that was pretty funny.)

* everybody had a dish (or two) to make as part of the "extravaganza."  i made fortune cookies.  i had done it once before, a long time ago.  it was fun, and easy.  and writing up the fortunes was the best part.  i will admit that i used the internet when writing the fortunes (and i'd love to link to the site, but now i can't find it.  sorry.), and they were a hit.  the cookies were tasty, too.

* we ate outside three nights in a row.  the weather was perfect.  (now it's cold and rainy.  oh well.)

 

* we planted our vegetable garden, and our herb pots on the deck.  last summer (when we were renovating) we didn't plant the garden, and i really missed it.  not just the growing of our own herbs and veggies, but the act of tending the garden.  monday morning, after breakfast, b. asked if he could go out and water the plants.  of course.

* d. built a fire pit in our back yard.  he scoured the woods behind our house for rocks, brought them to a little corner of the yard with the wheelbarrow, and set them up in a circle.  the pit needs a few things still (like some digging, and a grate), but we had our first fire saturday night and it was delightful.  friends.  s'mores.  a guitar.  perfection.

* sunday night my friend naomi brought homemade ice cream sandwiches.  chocolate cookies with peanut butter ice cream.  monday night was my brownies a la mode.  those were highlights.

* i remembered that i do have another tablecloth.  it doesn't match anything anymore, but it was perfect for throwing over the card table on the deck.  we've had it for years and years, and i do love it.  i'm thinking of turning into a picnic blanket at some point.  (after i deal with my sewing machine issues, but that's another blog post entirely.)

* what else?  there were morning walks.  and playdates.  a sleepover at bubbie's.  there was sunscreen.  and sawing.  our outside speakers are fantastic.  my friend julie made a delicious gazpacho.  i started a new book.  we had brunch with dear friends visiting from out of town and it was as if they had never left.  there was (half of) a game of harry potter clue.  and there was lots and lots of pandora.

it seems like there was so much more.  and nothing else at all, really.  which is the sign of an excellent long weekend, in my opinion.  

now, it's tuesday.  and tomorrow will be wednesday.  and then it will be the weekend again before you know it.  also excellent.