people & style

Ever notice how people's homes tend to reflect their style of dress as well as their personalities? Yesterday, I practiced my photography on people. So far, Agnes and I have mostly shot flowers, bugs, and food. But, yesterday, we discovered people. How fun! Unlike bugs, they even talk to you during the process. My friend Iris and her husband Michael just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. If that's not worthy of a photo, I don't know what is. Awwww. Aren't they the cutest?

Iris is a great writer, but she is also a retired designer. She designed everything about their house, including the house. It is like a miniature museum. So elegant, yet comfy. Here are some shots for your decorating inspiration.

I am off to Portland to see my daughter Kelly for the weekend. Yeah. Super excited.  If I don't get a chance to blog in the meantime, I'll be back on Sunday to reveal my granola recipe. Bye, Buddy. I'll miss you.

poetry Monday

Waiting

As I lay,

dry and waiting
under sunlit spigot,
I saw the universe: the  
stars and every glory
reflected in
one
falling
drop.

My eyes

closed fast
against a light
far too vivid
for me.
     -Kimberly Laustsen

215 calorie salmon lettuce fold over

This week, at lunchtimes, I've found myself pulled into a lettuce-fold-over vortex. I am not very loyal to salads. One week they're great, the next week, I am sick of them and find delight elsewhere, and the next week, I'm back to salads. Luckily, I am not so easily bored when it comes to people. Quiet Guy has been my numero uno since 1979, when we met in the Penn State dining hall. We bonded over the taco dogs.

Anyhow, today, at the gym, I invented the best lettuce fold over ever. It was all because of our yoga teacher: the General Patton of yogis. She had us lunging from upside down one-legged stands to humble warrior to boat pose to sit-ups in record time, and that was just the warm up. At one point, we had to do sets of insane one-footed pushups. That's when yogi Patton chose to saunter around the room checking our form. How convenient for her. The class started at eleven, by which time my six-thirty breakfast  was long forgotten. I was rumbly in the tumbly, as Pooh would have said, and the harder she worked us, the hungrier I got. I spent the last half of class focused on lunch; what did I have at home that could be thrown together fast, yet taste good? Voila, the salmon lettuce fold over was born. Yum. Thank you, yogi Ruth. The class was a killer, and my body hurts, but I thank you.

Here's the recipe. Also, this baby, whilst being delectable, nutritious, and filling, has only 215 calories. You will want to try it, as this kind of dietary bargain does not come along every day. This recipe makes two generous servings.

First, assemble a six ounce can of wild-caught, boneless, skinless Alaskan salmon, low fat Hellman's mayonaise, a jar of bread and butter sliced pickles, a package of Boar's Head horseradish cheddar cheese (or regular cheddar if you prefer),salt, pepper, and several clean dry large lettuce leaves.

Mix the salmon with 4 Tablespoons low fat mayo, 1 teaspoon pickle juice, 5 chopped pickle slices, and salt and pepper to taste.

Layer a few lettuce leaves, with the round top portion at either end of the stack, so it will be oval-ish in shape.

Scoop half of the salmon mixture down the center, slice about four thin slices of the cheese, and layer that on, then top with a row of the pickle slices.

Repeat this for the other serving, or save the rest for tomorrow. Fold up the lettuce sides, like you would a taco, and enjoy!

barbed wire necklace instructions & tasty snack idea

Good day, beautiful people. I promised you a craft, and here it is, though a day late. It took longer than I expected. I'm calling it the barbed wire necklace. I dreamed it up trying to figure out a necklace that would go with a dress I bought recently. The good thing about this necklace is that it is infinitely customizable. You could make it up with just the leather, you could use one or two colors of beads, you could space the beads evenly or randomly, etc, etc. Go crazy, people. Also, this is an easy project and the supplies are inexpensive. Here is what to do:

First, get a leather garment, say from Goodwill, or from your closet. Now cut it apart along the seams. Take the longest section, and using a rotary cutter and self-healing mat board, cut very thin strips. You will need many. If you want a fuller necklace, use even more, but at least about 20 or so, depending how long the leather is. Set one aside for step four. You will want to taper the ends of each strip to a point.

Next, if you are adding embellishments, such as buttons and/or beads, gather those. Now take a strip, add your items to it, then tie it to the next strip. You should tie it with about a half inch or more of the pointy end sticking out from each end. This gives it the barbed wire look. Add any embellishments you want to that strip, tie it to the next strip, and so on. For my necklace, I added a random assortment of old buttons and various kinds of beads. I had no particular spacing pattern as I like the chaotic look. Keep adding till you use all the strips you want to include.

Thirdly, figure out how long you want the necklace to be. You need to be able to slip it over your head, as it will not have a clasp. Wrap the entire length up in loops, as you would a hose, holding the portion which will fall at the nape of your neck. Clip that portion together to hold it till the next step.

Fourthly, Get the strip you set aside in step one. Lay a two inch section along the clasped part of the loops, with an inch extending beyond it. Now begin wrapping the strip around all of the loops to enclose the entire necklace. Keep the strip flat and tight as you loop it around. You will be working back towards the extended end of this wrapping strip. Once you get to the end, then loop the end which you have been wrapping under itself, and pull it tight. Now tie this in a knot to the edge which you left extending. If you have extra leather, then snip some off, leaving ends like the other knots you have made. You are done. Enjoy!

You know how, once in a while, you strike upon a certain combination of flavors which is magical upon the tongue? That's what this snack is about. Simple, easy, but amazing. Take some sea salt pita crackers. This Savoritz brand can be found at Aldi. They are delicate yet crunchy. Slather some Laughing Cow brand Light Creamy Swiss. Now, add a dollop of pepper jelly. Prepare to swoon, as this combo is so lovely.

the art appreciators

I confess. I love people watching: the outfits, the configurations of folk, the shoes, the hairdos. Up with people!, I say. (Anyone out there remember Up With People!? They came to Penn State back in the Stone Age, when I went there, and I happened upon them performing outside. They were like the young Lawrence Welk Show. Yikes, I just googled them and they still exist...who knew?)

These are some shots of art appreciators from Saturday's museum visit. I only had the crummy old camera, as we were doing a lot of back-to-back activities, and I didn't want to leave my good camera, Agnes, alone in an overheated car for hours. Perhaps I'm a bit too overprotective. I'll work on that. Anyhow, it was cool to see all of the art lovers. We were not allowed to take photos in the special exhibit, but only in the rest of the museum. Isn't the young couple precious? And the mom/daughter pair at the bottom are walking to their car after their art infusion. I am always fascinated by how much so many mom/daughter pairs look alike, walk alike, and dress alike. Cute. Also, it is curious how similarly groups of friends and couples often dress.

 Tomorrow  a new jewelry craft and the world's best snack will be revealed. See you then, Buddy!

finally, it blooms

Super exciting news, guys. My gardenia finally bloomed! Yeah. I have been on bud-watch for like, a month or more, checking every morning to see if the blasted things would finally start blooming. I got a schweet gardenia plant in May, and it has been threatening to bloom ever since, with it's big bad buds. The buds have proven to be shy, refusing, day after long day to open. But this morning, I trudged out to the backyard, and heavens to Betsey, one of the durn things had up and bloomed. I suspect the others will soon follow. I am so proud. (Not that I had anything whatsoever to do with it, except for the wishful thoughts.)

I've had a soft spot for gardenias ever since sixth grade. That year, I moved over Christmas break from a mansion on Oakmont, PA to a mobile home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Long story. In Ft. Lauderdale, they had what they called busing for desegregation. This meant that I went on a bus into the heart of an economically disadvantaged area (though they called it something else back then, which starts with gh.) I liked the school, even if I was considered a minority. I picked up cool lingo there, like, "What that is?" and "She think she so bad." Interesting.

At my new school, I managed to make a friend: Jean Ann. She was white, like me. She was a thief, lifting lipstick from Walgreens, which was shocking to me, but, nevertheless, I loved her immediately. We used to have sleepovers on weekends. Just outside of her bedroom window was a humongous gardenia bush, which, in full flower, wafted its scent through her room as we slept. Heavenly. Thick crusty gardenia aroma: there is nothing better.

on the dad thing

Happy Father's Day. I need to give a shout out to Quiet Guy on this special day. He is a wonderful father. Before he came into my life, and before we had our first daughter, I never had a clue what the whole father thing was all about, never having had one to speak of personally. The concept of dad was just something I never thought about: a blank slot in my mind.

     I'll never forget when it dawned on me what I'd missed. I was walking Lauren around the neighborhood in her stroller, as I did every day. She was about ten months old. I was mulling over the weekend we'd had, thinking about QG holding her hands and walking behind to steady her, about him feeding her and taking such delight in her presence. Without warning, I felt the flush of realization wash over me, almost in a physical way. That's what happens with me; I wander around cluelessly for the longest on any given concept, noticing small particulars here and there, till all in a rush, my brain pieces the puzzle together, and I suddenly know the thing completely.

     One minute, I was walking along pushing a stroller, the next, I was stoppped, doubled over. In that instant I percieved what I'd missed out on. I finally knew what a dad was. This was good news and bad news. On one hand, It was nice to understand what all the fuss was about, but on the other, I couldn't help being dissapointed about what I'd missed out on. It took a few years, several in fact, to work through that but I really have. I am cool with it now. We don't always get to choose the life we're handed. But we can choose to work at making peace with our past. No matter what, we can strive to be happy, for happiness is always within our reach.

summer is for reading

Just a quick post to say Happy Saturday, Y'all! QG and I are off to the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth to see the exhibit on The Age of Impressionism. Egads, I'm so excited - been wanting to see those paintings for months.

I've been trying to squeeze more reading into my life of late. So, I'm reviving my habit of listening to books on CD: in the car, when walking, at home. I'm half way through one now, which I wanted to recommend. It is a fun romp into jolly old England, involving a castle, three spinsters, a young woman looking for past secrets involving her mother's past, and her own present and future. Oooh so mysterious, and such an adventure. The book is called The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. Like all great books, it deftly envelops you in an alternate reality and seamlessly keeps you there. But, like not even all great books, this book has the occasional line which you find pondering, turning around in your head over and over again because it seems to have been plucked from your own mind, and you want to shout, "I know. Exactly!" It makes you feel a kinship with the author, almost like that person is your friend. Okay, maybe I'm reading too much into it but that's what happens to me at least. The other good part about this book on CD is that I love, love, love the reader's voice and accent. It is read by Carolina Lee, who is Australian. She does a fantastic job of keeping the character's voices distinct. Also, every time I listen to this, I just have to have a cup of hot tea with milk and sugar. I cannot hear about London, and castles in the English countryside without needing to sip a bit of tea. It is the same thing when I watch the BBC. I am that susceptible to suggestion.

sky art

Last night, we had the most glorious skies here in North Texas. I never noticed the sky all that much before, but since taking up photography, I am practically hypnotized by the cloud and color configurations every morning and night. What is it about these sliding clumps of puffiness that is so intriguing? Don't know, but love it. If you're oblivious to the grandeur above, like I used to be, then check it out. Get your free art dawn and dusk. Here are some clouds and flowers from last evening with a few fave quotes.

Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors. - Fred Rogers 

Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart, and learn to love the questions themselves. - Rainer Maria Rilke

 The pine cone has secrets it will never tell. - Mary Oliver

Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his heart. She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both. -E.B. White (Charlotte's Web)