shining egg

30 november

oh november.  whereever did you go?  

i've enjoyed being here (almost) every day this month.  i've enjoyed the exercise, i've enjoyed your company and your comments.  i've enjoyed making note of things and sharing them.  and i'm delighted to have the record of my month to refer back to - like in the early days of this blog.  (i'm pleased, too, by how easily i was able to let go of those two missed november days and carry on.  growth, i tell you.)

and now, on the cusp of december.  the hanukkah box came out of the basement yesterday, and there are dreidels all over the living room floor already.  i'm in a state of disbelief that this year is coming to an end in 31 days - it seems that time is moving at fast-forward speed lately.

sigh.

thank you for keeping me company here this month, friends.  i'll be back tomorrow - molly and i have something up our sleeve for habit next month, and i'm looking forward to sharing that with you.  until tomorrow, then.

29 november

we've done a good bit of hiking lately - it's been such a mild autumn (surely, those words are the harbinger of a dreadful cold spell), and we've been taking advantage of it.  just last night we hiked in the dark with a group of counselors from the kids' summer camp (you would be hard-pressed to find a better bunch of people), and late this afternoon we hiked again with dear friends.  i often bemoan the fact that we don't live in a more beautiful part of the country, but when i get out and really look, it's pretty beautiful after all.

i'm making a list of winter hiking essentials in hopes that we'll continue to hike through as much of the winter as possible.  do you have any suggestions?  keep in mind - please - that we're talking about short hikes (not more than a few miles) with children.  but if you've got tips for hiking with kids in cold weather, i'd love it if you'd share them.

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in other news, the winners of the tiny prints are:

I love the seaweed. I love thinking about all that goes on in the ocean and how see only a part of it. I've been following since habit. I love your work! Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by: beth | Wednesday, 25 November 2009 at 07:49 AM

Thanks for continuing this giveaway...your little prints are just precious. I like the barnacles the most.

Posted by: Lisa | Sunday, 29 November 2009 at 12:02 PM

lisa and beth, if you'll send me your mailing addresses (shiningegg AT yahoo DOT com) i'll send out your prints!  thank you all for commenting - i really do wish i could send prints to each of you.

and one final reminder: tomorrow is the very last day to shop the golden light collection.  don't forget to type the code THANKFUL at checkout to receive the discount.

28 november

at least i know there are a few of you out there who think about setting the table like i do.  it's a comfort to know that i'm not alone.  this is a photo of friday's table - the runner looked lovely, but boy did the table get messy.  live and learn.

and, um, in the sweet laziness of this four+ day weekend, i lost all track of time and date and forgot to close the comments on this post.  i'll leave them open now until sunday evening, when i'll close them and pick two winners at random.  sorry for the delay.  i hope you're enjoying this long weekend as much as i am.

27 november

so about that table.  (warning: if you are a person who is not interested in the mundane details of setting tables, you should skip this post entirely and immediately!)

on monday morning i was moaning about needing a new table cloth.  i only have one cloth that fits my table when the table is fully open, and that one cloth is blue and stripey and well loved and stained like nobody's business and doesn't match anything in the house anymore.  my white hotel cloth - also beloved and badly stained finally developed holes and was moved to the basement to be used for scrap fabric if i ever get myself a new sewing machine.

i had a picture in my head of our thanksgiving dinner table - with a solid cloth in an autumn-y color, napkins with wooden rings, and glass hurricanes filled - some with chestnuts and others with cranberries - lining the center of the table.  but i needed to find that autumn-y colored table cloth.

so i was moaning.  when my mother reminded me that she has oodles of my grandmother's and great-grandmother's table cloths in her hall closet.  i did a little inventory - there were two golden yellow cloths which would have fit in perfectly with my mental picture, but in the end i picked a lovely white  cloth with open-work, adjusting my mental picture - i was suddenly seeing a table full of whites and glass and silver.  simple and lovely.  only when i got home i discovered that the cloth was too short.  

at the last minute, i replaced my hotel cloth, and laid that on the table underneath of my great-grandmother's open-work cloth.  i set the table with our white ikea plates and my grandmother's silver and the bulk glassware i bought many years ago and keep on a high-up shelf in an out-of-the-way closet for just such occasions.  it was simple, and it was lovely.

and for that splash of autumn color - and in homage to my original plans - i filled jelly jars with popping corn (of which i had an abundance in my cabinet, for some reason), placing one above each plate, taped name cards to skewers, and stuck those skewers into the jelly jars to create place cards.

i set the table on wednesday afternoon - a habit picked up from my grandmother early on in life - and so i got to enjoy the scene all day thursday.  it was lovely.

and there you have it, more information than you could possibly have imagined about my thanksgiving table-setting adventure.  (tonight, for our family friday night dinner, i'm trying a bare table with only a table runner for the first time.  don't tell my grandmother - it somehow seems like going without pantyhose - she wouldn't approve.)  

{in other news - if you're having trouble leaving comments on my blog, would you let me know?  several people have mentioned that they're getting error messages when they try to leave a comment.  i'm trying to get to the bottom of this, and would love to know if you're having the same problem.  many thanks!}  ETA: turns out the problem is not unique to this blog and typepad is working on it.  sorry if you're having trouble in the meantime!

26 november

glorious holiday.  contrary to the note in my file, five pounds of potatoes is not enough (when you use yukon golds and mash them with roasted garlic and butter and salt).  lunch on thanksgiving is not a necessity - unless you're less than ten years old.  caramel sauce is heaven.  babies are cute.  brussels sprouts might be my favorite vegetable.  i forgot to make the whipped cream, but nobody seemed to notice and i didn't even remember until this very minute.  i do not like sausage in my stuffing.  jellied cranberries (even organic ones) from the can are a guilty pleasure.  cornbread and salty butter make an outstanding combination.  anything and salty butter make an outstanding combination.  i love pecan pie.  simple tables are lovely tables and i loved our table tonight.  (i could do a whole post about tonight's table, and i might.  consider yourselves warned.)  somebody else polishing the silver is a great great gift.  peppercorns in the coffee grinder make perfect pepper for the shakers on the table (thanks to my neighbor for thinking of that).  spiced nuts are dangerous.  the boy asked, "can we have this for dinner every night?"  i have so much to be thankful for, so much.  abundance.  family and food and gratitude and love.  glorious holiday.

25 november

today was a busy day.  i marketed, again.  there were just a few things i forgot yesterday, and when i went to the market at 9 this morning it was a zoo already.  (i'm embarrassed to admit how relieved i was to find out that my market is open tomorrow until 2 - i hate worrying that i've forgotten something and knowing that i won't be able to get it.  embarrassing, but true.)  i picked up the turkeys (2 small turkeys instead of 1 larger one) from the farmer around the corner.  i found a super long table cloth and washed it and set the table.  i baked two pies.  i peeled and steamed four pounds of sweet potatoes and mashed them with eggs and melted butter and cinnamon and topped the whole thing with brown sugar-y goodness.  i made caramel sauce.  twice - the first time i burned the sugar, but the second time it was extraordinary and i can't wait to drizzle it over everything tomorrow.

tomorrow will be equally busy.  cornbread and corn scones and brussels sprouts, not to mention the turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and place cards and i might have to make a second batch of caramel sauce because it is that good.  and children and aunts and cousins and an uncle and a baby.  muffins for breakfast and i'm sure i've forgotten something at the market.  and dishes, plenty of dishes.

i adore this holiday.  the food.  the gratitude.  that all around me, people are celebrating and cooking and feeling thankful.  i love being in the kitchen with people i love.  i love sitting around the table with people i love.  i love the long lazy day and the early dinner time and the smell of garlic and onions throughout the house.  i love the candlelight and the color palette.  i love this holiday.  everything about it (except maybe the dishes!).

wishing you a marvelous thanksgiving - whether or not you celebrate this particular holiday on this particular day - i'm wishing you a day filled with good food and love and plenty for which to be thankful.

24 november (and a second gift)

i missed another day.  it was a grump-y one yesterday, so it's probably better that i kept my mouth shut.  in the end, i ate a baked potato with salty butter and shredded cheese and put myself to bed, and life looked brighter this morning - even through the clouds and the rain.  

today began the countdown to thanksgiving dinner.  i've marketed, rolled out (using my great-grandmother's rolling pin) two pie crusts, set those crusts into their deep dishes, and left them in the fridge to wait for fillings tomorrow morning.  i've got pumpkin muffins cooling, and ingredients upon ingredients lined up on the counters.  i've got sweet potatoes to peel, brussels sprouts to trim, and a table in desperate need of a cloth (the one i was planning to use is too short!  oops.).  but that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

tonight, before i get buried in the beauty and the chaos of this beloved holiday, i want to say thank you.  thank you for your support of my little shop, and for your kind words of encouragement about my work.  thank you for your orders and your comments - they are so very much appreciated.  truly.

in my last post, i promised a second gift, and here it is.  if you read that last post, you know how very blessed i feel to have had the opportunities i've had during the last year to show and sell my work.  in so many ways, those opportunities came about because of the encouragement of this community of bloggers and friends.  and so, as a(nother) way of saying thank you, i'd like to give away two tiny prints from the golden light collection - one seaweed print, and one barnacle print.  if you'd like the chance to receive one of these gifts, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post letting me know which one you'd choose - seaweed or barnacle (and feel free to say hi while you're at it - if you're so inclined, i'd love it if you'd say hi, too!).  leave a comment on this post before friday evening, when i'll close the comments and choose two random winners.  i wish i could send prints to each and every one of you.  really, i do.

and now i've got to go find myself a super-long table cloth.  hmmmm.

22 november (and a small token)

so you know i've been feeling grateful lately.  thinking a lot about the little things, and about the big ones too.  about health and family and friendship.  about little toes and determination and misspelled notes and people who understand.  about the power of deep breaths and patience and not saying a word.  about the moments when things flow and about the lessons to be learned in the moments when they don't.  about time.  about persistence.  about calling.  

and i keep coming back to an awareness of my great good fortune at having been able to call myself a working artist this year.  it's tiny, in the scheme things, i know, but i keep coming back to the fact that i got to see my paintings hanging on the walls of a beautiful gallery.  that the response to my work was so positive.  that so many of those paintings are now hanging in new homes.  that i got to send note cards to so many of you, and tiny paintings to some of you, too.  

and since this is all new for me - my first solo show, the first time i've ever made any of my work available for sale - i feel exceedingly fortunate that the response of so many has been so positive.  that your response has been so positive, that your feedback has been so encouraging.  i feel exceedingly fortunate.

and so, in light of the fact that i've been feeling such a keen sense of gratitude lately.  in light of the fact that i believe in giving back.  in light of the fact that your feedback and encouragement have helped guide me in so many ways.  in light of the fact that this week we, in the united states, will celebrate the thanksgiving holiday.  and in light of the fact that this is the final week for the golden light collection, i will be giving back this week - two gifts from the collection.

today, the first.  starting now, and for the rest of this week - through 30 november - i will be offering a discount in the shop: 20% off when you enter the code THANKFUL at checkout.  there are still three tiny paintings available.  there are note cards and photographs too, of course.  and all of it will be 20% off when you enter the code THANKFUL at checkout.  (i sound like an infomercial, don't i?!)

the second gift, tomorrow.  or maybe tuesday - depends how many thoughts on gratitude i feel pulled to share between now and then.

21 november

are you bored with me yet?  it's been three weeks of daily (minus one) posting and i'm afraid you might be getting bored.  when i started blogging, my brother asked me who i was writing for - who was my audience?  i remember answering, at the time, that i was writing for myself, to myself.  and i think that was true, at the time.  but as life evolved here - as people started reading and commenting, things shifted and we were - we are - having a conversation of sorts, right?  things shifted, and i wasn't writing only to myself anymore.  most of the time.  but this month, with all this posting, i've had to put aside my questions about whether each and every post is interesting enough, important enough.  i've had to put aside my questions and rely on the fact that the exercise is meaningful in and of itself.  that the writing, the making myself write, the finding a subject and doing something - anything - with that subject, has value.  and so here we are on day 21.

yesterday's post about gratitude - and your responses to it - have me really thinking.  about gratitude.  about the importance of naming the gratitude in an effort to invite more of it into my life.  about how so very much i have to be grateful for.

today, another list: lying in bed until 8.  a super deal on a sandy koufax baseball card.  lego flowers.  eggs with runny yellows and toast to soak it up with.  buckyballs.  mozzarella, tomato, and pesto on health bread - shared.  walking the trail on a november day.  more frisbee.  four of us under one roof.  dinner with dear friends.  colorful nail polish.  mint chip ice cream.  bedtime.

tomorrow, more thoughts about gratitude.  and a small gift.

20 november

this day started out full of tension and frustration - a situation at school that had me tied up in knots.  but i found the guidance and the grace to address it and release it, and i feel so much better tonight.

i haven't even begun to focus on the thanksgiving holiday, but i notice lately that at the end of each day i'm silently recounting the many things for which i feel thankful, and today is no exception.  the sun was shining.  the girl worked hard and succeeded on her first spelling test ever.  the sense of pride and accomplishment on her face after school.  an afternoon alone with my boy.  dear friends who graciously let me invite myself for dinner, even though their house is under construction.  the company and caring of those friends, and others.  my brownie recipe.  premium ice cream.  the good fortune of friends.  the beauty and inspiration that surround me everyday, even when i find it overwhelming.  that the gentleman behind me in line at the grocery store offered me his bonus card because i didn't have one.  unlimited long distance calling.  cut flowers.  health.  my family.  that we are warm, that we are well fed, and that we have each other on tension-filled mornings and on sunny afternoons.  we have each other.