round up: summer so far

I am enjoying another wonderful summer with the kids, and I thank my lucky stars as always. The weather is cold cold cold. We've got our summertime fun list ready, and we are savoring every day. That might sound overly poetic, but that is what is going on right now, and I know how lucky I am. 

I am also juggling two LARGE commissions, preparations for my upcoming workshops, and trying to finish my papel SF website and new CV for grant and residency applications, all seemingly due on July 15th. So, still as tired as always, although trying to wrap it up by 1:00 a.m. the nights I work now.

I started writing here three years ago to document our summer together, and David and I frequently pour over these "round up" posts to reminisce about our life together (here is the archive of my first month of blogging, so sweet). I couldn't let any more of this summer get past without some photos to look back on, even if they are only dumped from my phone.

I hope you are having a great summer, too. xoxo

Stella and I get every morning to ourselves now, so nice. Also, new flowers for upcoming workshops.

 Making pretzels with a friend, a banana slug and kicking back in Berkeley with friends.

 Old shoes, a trip to Castle in the Air, regular Thursday cafe date for my computing needs.

R + D, delivering finished HEADS, working on an order of 34 dahlia headpieces!

 A cold library and bookstore day in the Upper Haight, dance party hijinks.

 We kicked off summer with four days in Point Reyes Station in the yurt we've stayed in for ten years.

Olema Valley horse trail hike, first night BBQ, sunset (and three visible planets one night). Best day.

 Yurt selfie with skylight, how Oliver plays Boggle, "The Gatekeepers of Senorah".

 Volcano painting, local Point Reyes flowers at Toby's downtown, stages.

 An amazing bounty of bracelets from the amazing Cathy Callahan, the misery of working where we eat, Charles Rennie Mackintosh for so much inspiration.

 Paper flower headpiece workshop revamp. I'm loving it.

 A Saturday lunch in the redwoods with close friends, and I cleaned the kids' room, my Father's Day gift to David.

La Urbana for the man of the hour on Father's Day.

 First pool day in Novato of the year, getting some help with my website at Makeshift Society, shelf shot.

 My hedgehog, tart plum tart at Kathryn Clark's in Sonoma, and a Slip 'n' Slide, too. Kathryn has taken me into a wonderful fold of artists including Katrina, Lisa, and Sonya, and it's been lovely to be around them and to have them to talk to about the practical and not-so-practical things.

 Devil Moose, big thumb, and a living room I spent my only free time of the week rearranging. WHY?

 A great family Sunday. Breakfast at home, then Flora Grubb and some home improvement research, then some In 'n' Out. Love This Giant is the soundtrack of our summer and Oliver and I like to dance to it. Also, fighting my first and most ridiculous parking ticket.

Tickle me. Sweaters all the time in June, another trip to Novato for a long

stretch into evening at the pool with friends. Good times. :)

round up: before winter

Clockwise from top left:

My mock-vintage bulb reflectors look great on a burlesque costume, too;

trimming;

ready for the show to start;

the mess that is our kitchen/my workspace.

Teaching in reindeer antlers;

a new take on the acorn cap;

some wonderful students at Handcraft Studio School;

final products.

Napping with Oliver;

Oliver has really dug into drawing;

a wonderful hike along the ridge of Tiburon;

Oliver helping me deliver more acorns to the shop.

 Street mirror;

two peonies ready to be shipped and me utterly demolished;

sangria and popcorn;

the antlers again.

 Hams;

frost;

Bare cupboards save for Ricola and astronaut ice cream;

morning walk shadows in the Panhandle (I miss this so much).

Oliver eating a gingerbread house;

his favorite friend;

mini-trees;

Stella finishes a 5K, with much walking, but she was very happy.

Coffees from Sunday night all-nighters, which I have just given up.

The kids had a big meltdown one night when we were away for Thanksgiving. Stella said she was so happy I had this new work, but she wanted things to be the way they used to be. Then Oliver got going, really sad and crying, asking for me to play with him more again. Then he started taking advantage of the situation while we were all huddled in a pool of tears, asking for me to never get mad at him for having a tantrum again. Nice try.

It was a touching scene and a major reality check for me. I had been staying up all night two nights a week for a couple of months. I was already wondering if I needed to go to some kind of rehab or something, because when we left for our trip I was so tired I slept ten hours in the car, then all night, then the next day I couldn't get un-groggy. Then the kids told me how they really felt and I realized that all-nighters are not the answer anymore to a big work load. That was fun for a while. But now I'm on a different schedule that has me getting work done and in bed by midnight most nights and that's working for all of us. I was a mess, though. Wow.

We have such a full weekend this weekend. Stella's winter concert tonight, a major all-night crab-fest party tomorrow night and then birthday parties and Oliver's preschool party fit in somewhere, too. I think next year we might do something crazy for Christmastime, like a "no-commitment" Christmas, where we don't go to any dinners, performances or parties. Probably not, but it sounds good right now!

Next week I'll be back with another donut pan project and a giveaway with it. Have a great weekend! 

xoxo

round up: early fall

Clockwise from top left:

Oliver's Spanish is getting good after only two months in immersion preschool;

David and I made a point of getting breakfast together last week;

the clean part of the kitchen;

late night touch-ups to the last of the original fleet of peony piñatas before I sent it off.

There are a lot of photos of Oliver in here (and me, alone, going mad). I've adjusted to having him away for four hours a day at preschool, but what I haven't adjusted to AT ALL is how much having him in preschool has shredded my day. Shredded. There is just no time to get anything done when you're working with a half-day preschool schedule. He's loving his school and is picking up Spanish rapidly. His comprehension is amazing and he is volunteering to speak it now, not like in the first few weeks when he insisted his "body wasn't meant to speak Spanish". So that's awesome, and so is his school, but I'm still reeling about how little time I have as compared to how much I thought I would have. I need to work on a solution before I go crazy.

I'm feeling a little guilty about not spending as much quality time with him of late either. I have to keep on working when he gets home a few afternoons a week, so he keeps himself busy, but I am starting to feel bad. My "work" is going really well right now, but my childrearing skills, and as always, exercise, are taking a hit. Oliver and I are still spending time together, but I don't have a lot of bandwidth in my brain right now so we're not doing projects, we're not putting our heads together on things lately and I feel super remiss. This has to change a.s.a.p.

I had a sort of big announcement to make but I thought I'd put it off a few more days as I really don't want this blog to be one big promotion of my new career in paper. So, more photos from our fall! My apologies if you've seen these already on Instagram. I've been picking up my camera less and less around the house, but I'm hoping to change that, too. Instagram is just so forgiving on my tired eyes, my ruddy complexion and my one zillion freckles, so it's hard to quit!

Ollie in a nest;

pan de colores made with milk paint at school;

walking through the Panhandle in the morning;

Oliver at Handcraft Studio School.

Every Sunday night I work all night, every Monday afternoon we nap;

piggyback ride after school;

one of three giant flowers for a bat mitzvah in Maine;

Oliver gets air.

At the bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park;

riffing (en Español) with his favorite school friend;

headed home from school for Stella's surprise party;

the tangled web game waiting for them at home.

Instagram won't tell you, but I'm trying to grow out my 90% grey hair;

shots from new Etsy listings (couldn't leave the paper totally out of it).

vacation slides

A case of astronaut ice cream for the road; gorgeous Hwy. 12 through Utah; my wrist.

It's a funny thing, sharing your vacation photos online. It's like the dreaded vacation slide show. Who really want to sit through all of that? For now, I'm just going to hit you with some more pretty pictures from our road trip. Instagram plus the palette of the southwestern landscape are a marriage made in heaven.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week! xoxo

Sundress weather; beer and quicos for motel happy hour; the amorphous bris de soleil at Site Santa Fe.

Four states at once; the sky over Austin, NV; iced coffee at the Kiva Koffeehouse. 

The amazing food; my 4th trip to Bandelier National Monument; un lápiz de color pimiento caliente.

Georgia O'Keeffe, before her husband died and she "took control of her image"; a mid-afternoon cuddle puddle;

Ollie being a grouch in the morning.

Haggling (amongst themselves); The Pantry in Santa Fe for great carne adovada; a Frito pie.

Motor lodge living; wooden ladder at Bandelier; the sky above the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.

Special breakfast in Corrales; nighttime at the El Rey Inn; dressing up.

The BEST travelers; evening in Santa Fe; a circus at Tinkertown Museum.

At the giant meteor crater we didn't see; a hilarious night; the last night.

home again

We're back from our 3,100+ mile road trip through the desert Southwest! One car, two kids, a trunk stuffed to the gills with camping gear we never used, and the open road. David did all the driving and pack-muling, the kids were SO patient, the weather behaved due to scattered rains, and it was epic. 

I've never been on vacation that long. I've been on much longer trips, but I've never just checked out like that (and it was only 15 days). It was fantastic! I have to brag about Stella and Oliver. Some days we were seven or eight hours in the car. No electronics, no books because Stella gets car sick. Just knick knacks, souvenirs and music to keep them entertained. They are fucking champs.

We stayed in some wacky places (the living ghost town of Austin, NV for starters) and ate some terrible food where there were just no options. It was such an adventure. 

I want to share our route from here to there (Santa Fe, NM) and back again and all the fun things we found. But today we rest and eat vegetables! Vacation "slides" to come.

I decided to make my Instagram account public while we were out. There are a lot of fun photos there. Instagram is fun! I think I'm liking it better than Facebook right now. I'm "sfcornerblog" if you want to check them out.

Happy Monday! Let's get back to work! :)

how to bbq an oyster or two

We just returned from another beautiful weekend away in Point Reyes Station overlooking Tomales Bay and I wanted to share this recipe right away. We learned it by eating oysters at Tony's up in Marshall several times over the years and it wasn't hard to figure out. Barbecuing oysters this way makes them smoky and sweet, and palatable to people that maybe don't enjoy the slimy mollusks raw like we do. 

We picked up medium-small sized oysters fresh out of the bay from Tomales Bay Oyster Company, but you could use larger oysters as well, just increase the cooking time a minute or two more.

ingredients

One dozen fresh medium-sized oysters

1/2-2/3 c. ketchup (in bottle)

1/2 lemon

4-6 minced garlic cloves

Start by mincing your garlic so it's ready when the oysters are.

Shuck your oysters. I use a wooden contraption that holds the oyster in the bottom of the sink so that my non-shucking hand is well out of the line of fire of the shucking tool, most of the time.

Photographing in direct sunlight is something I have very little experience with, so bear with me.

Squirt about a teaspoon of ketchup on each shucked oyster.

Squeeze a few drops of lemon over that.

Then cover the oysters with minced garlic. 

Now they are ready to barbecue! 

Hand off the oysters to your grill master to set over hot coals. We barbecued these right after grilling some meat, while it rested, so everything was ready to eat at the same time. Surf and turf!

After one to two minutes, the juices should start to bubble. Add another dash of ketchup on each, if you can stand the grill heat. It'll give another layer of smoky flavor and a bit of crust.

In about 3-4 minutes time total they should look like these and are done.

There you go. BBQ'ed oysters, good stuff. We ate another dozen raw with just a bit of hot sauce and lemon. Stella wouldn't eat the barbecued ones, but she ate two raw. Not her first, either, and she actually liked them this time! Big girl.