This weekend, my mom and I are driving back out to Philadelphia to spend time with my sis-in-law, Lindi.  We are going to Peddler’s Village Annual Apple Festival.  I’m excited just to have a weekend with my mom and relax.  I don’t get to spend enough time with Lindi, either.  Last time we were over in Philadelphia Lindi took us to Ardmore so I could indulge myself at Free People.  In Ardmore there was this amazing store called The Farmers Market.  I fell in love with it.  I wish we had one here.  They had the most amazing floral selection.  Lindi and I bought some, but I just had to take some pictures.

Gromphena

Billy Balls

Ilex

Beehive Ginger

St. John’s Wort

I might be bringing a carload of stems back to Pittsburgh with me if I can convince the ladies to make another stop in Ardmore.  Well I’m off to the store to gather more supplies for my Christmas crafts!

Life as of late has been busy.  When is it not?  This week is crunch.  What that means in the mortgage closing industry is that in order for the loan processors to get paid, they have to close as many as they can before a certain date at the end of the month.  All month we may average about 100 closings for one client a day, but then when crunch comes… oh when crunch comes… all of a sudden these mediocre loan processors turn into these mortgage closings monsters averaging one closing every two minutes.  When on a normal day, we are staffed just right for 40-50 files a person, it turns into 80-100 files a person. 

Needless to say, I’m exhausted.  My saving grace is my ipod, Craisins, and having Tom here with me.  (Yes, he was my boss and that’s how we met…)

Anyway, I have pictures from this past weekend to post, which I will do as soon as I have 5 minutes at home to upload them.  For now… more drawings.

Since I can’t post my current softie projects, I’ll post some of my drawings that are either complete or still being worked on for the next couple days.  This one is just a random eye in a sea of swirls… when I drew it I was imagining a woman in a circus with beautiful paint on her face that accentuated all of her natural features. 

When I use stippling for a drawing, I usually have no idea in my mind what it is going to turn out as.  I just let the dots lead the pen.  The few I’ve done that have been pre-determined are not my favorites.  I like randomness and surprise when I draw.  (This is why I would be horrible for commissioned work… if you want something specific, chances are I’ll draw it 25 times and hate every single draft).  I’m too emotional with my drawing.  Is there a thing as too emotional when it comes to art, though?

By the way, I just got the Ingrid Michaelson album from itunes and I am in love with her!!  I highly recommend it.  She sings about all the simple things we feel.  It makes my so-called HUGE problems seem like nothing.. in a good way.

5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me (and most likely they don’t matter either)

1.)  I bite my nails.  On and off since I was in 5th grade when I was so viciously ripped out of my cozy private school and dropped into the barbaric world of public education.  I was 8 and had nervous issues… so sad. 

2.)  I have a horrible habit of narrating what I think would be an animal’s thoughts.  I crack myself up sometimes with the stuff that I come up with.

3.)  I used to have a crush on Boy George.  When I was about 7 I wanted to marry him.. or her… or it.  Whatever.

4.)  I crave philosophy.  I’m obsessed with Ayn Rand and her beliefs.  I’ll read anything I can if it makes me reconsider why we are the way we are.

5.)  I can make my eyes vibrate… I have no clue how I do it or how/when I figured out that I can do it, but I can.  I wish someone would video tape me doing it because I can’t look in the mirror because everything is shaking.  And I just recently taught myself to cross both my eyes, hold one crossed and move the other back and forth.  I really don’t have that much time on my hands…

A peek at another drawing wip… (I’m loving the Martha Stewart Craft Pens)

2 weeks ago my mom and I went to the Mt. Lebanon Public Library used book sale.  Within 10 minutes of being there, I had 2 paper bags filled with books I most likely don’t need, but couldn’t resist.  My first and most favored find was this:

Your Manners Are Showing - The Handbook of Teen-Age Knowhow by Betty Betz

It was published in 1946 and so reflects etiquette required in those days.  I absolutely LOVE the illustrations in the book.  They are so quirky and lively.  The verses are hilarious, too.  Here are some of my favorite excerpts…

This verse is actually a lesson that my grandfather, Poppy, taught my brothers and me when we were little.  The man is always supposed to walk on the street side of the walkway to protect the woman from being splashed by any cars that drive by. 

I guess Betty Betz was somewhat of a celebrity back in her day.  She starred in a movie and wrote a few other books for teen-agers and such.

Here are few more illustrations that I absolutely love..

And my favorite…

I’m not entirely sure what the last one is supposed to represent, but I love it, regardless!

Other books I snagged were:
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Biography of Oscar Wilde
Biography of Dostoevsky (I love Russian literature)
A handful of “rare and old” books that I mainly bought for the beautiful binding they style, but fully plan on reading them soon. 

Don’t you just love finding crazy old stuff like this? 

Literally… back to the drawing board for me.  My love for art began in 7th grade in Mrs. Rohe’s general art class.  Once I got into high school, I was much more involved with it.  I gave up doing the musicals, I gave up student senate, I gave up playing tennis… all to focus on my art.  I had drawing with Mr. Lakits.  I had pottery and graphic design with Mrs. Hakos-Hruby.  She was easily the most positive influence in my life outisde of my close family and friends.  She gave me the opportunities to teach others and she gave me the outlet to let my art and style grow freely and not conformed to her tastes and preferences.  I would spend hours after school in the pottery studio throwing on the wheel and attempting to perfect my glazing techniques, experimenting with Raku firing, and learning to sculpt a hollow structure without it exploding in the kiln.  I miss these days.  Hopefully, soon I’ll have a kiln and wheel so I can get back into this, but for now I’m focusing on drawing again.  I let this slip away for awhile so I could pursue other areas of arts and crafts.  But now it’s back.. I’ve missed it.  Here are photos of my current WIP.  The size of the bristol is about 27 inches long… It’s going to take forever to finish!!

This drawing is about 15 hours in the making…

(I apologize for the poor quality and lighting of the pictures)

It feels good to be back into what I do best.  This is the one form of art that I’ve got that is 100% totally me, influenced only by my own perception of things.  I’m anxious to get a nice collection of drawings done and have prints made to sell on Etsy.

I’m in the process of planning a funfilled weekend for Tom and I.  Saturday we are taking my parents and Anthony to Bodies: The Exhibition.

I’ve been hearing about this display for months now and am extremely intrigued.  I’ll probably come back from it with all sorts of inspiration for anatomical drawings and such.  I’m definitely excited.  The fact that out of all the cities in the world, they chose to display this in my wonderful city of Pittsburgh, I’m just thrilled.  It is displayed in 11 cities as of now, three of which are Buenos Aires, Prague, and Lisbon. 

Other attractions that we’re also blessed to have close by are Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations of Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob.  We toured Fallingwater last fall.  I am a huge fan of Wright’s organic influenced structures and the philosophy of his buildings.  However, I wouldn’t want to live in them.  He believes a structure should be formed to push people outside.  Too much time spent indoors is unacceptable.  He constructs each building with low ceilings, narrow hallways and gigantic windows.  The windows, I love.  The ceilings are confining.  I understand his intentions, but I like feeling comfortable in my home. 

Another aspect of his design at Fallingwater that made me uneasy was the fact that he built all of the furniture into the structure.  Nothing could be moved or rearranged.  I have a constant need for change and the simple layout of the room can affect my moods greatly.  Other than all that, he is one of the most imaginative architects I know of.  It reminds me alot of Ayn Rand’s book The Fountainhead.  Like Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, Wright seems to only have to look at the potential site of a structure and is able to let the land design the building itself.  Wright doesn’t fight the layout of the land, but builds with it and around it, shaping things to move with the earth.  It’s incredible to me.  The entire left wing of Fallingwater is built into the boulders that comprise the waterfall which the house hangs over.  The boulders actually serve as sitting areas inside the house.

Anyway, the point is, if you have the opportunity, go visit.  Tom and I are venturing to Kentuck Knob this weekend, (Sunday to be exact) so I’ll let you know my feelings about it on Monday.

(I feel like I just wrote an essay for a history class. **sigh**)

In my family, I have a mom and dad (of course) and 2 brothers.  My parents, unintentionally, decided to give birth to me right smack in the middle of the 2 boys.  My mom, my older brother Ryen and I were all graced with the artistic abilities.  My Dad and my little brother, Pat (who is not so little at 24 years old and 6′2″) have the business / technological abilities.  Pat is about to finish his MBA at Regent University.  ((He’s the next Donald Trump)) 

My mom plays piano and sings like an angel.  I also play the piano and occassionally the flute.  **eek** My brother plays the guitar, bass guitar and is a master woodcrafter.  When we went to visit them in Philadelphia on the way to Bethany Beach the other weekend, I took a few pictures of Rye’s wood shop in their garage.  Right now he’s building a beautiful computer desk for their office.  He also does wood carvings that are unbelievable!  I’ll have to get some of those pictures and post them soon.  I’m trying to convince him to do commission work because he is such a wonderful woodworker.

Ryen

The Plans

The computer desk unfinished

After literally hours of attempting to get to the log-on page of this blog, I finally am successful!  This is cause for celebration. 

Anyway, I haven’t posted about cooking since, well, my first post ever.  Here’s another dish I have recently come to love.  I set out to make a cream sauce for pasta and came up with a wonderfully delicious meal.  It’s a Portabella Cream Sauce.

I used Baby Bella’s and some large Portabella’s.  I sauteed them in EVO Oil, Garlic and sea salt until cooked.  Then I added 1 shot of vodka and simmered until the liquid was gone.

I let the pasta cook while the mushrooms were cooking.

When the pasta finished cooking, I drained it, put it back in the pot added a small container of light cream and the cooked mushrooms.  I just cooked the pasta + cream + mushrooms until the cream thickened, added some Asiago cheese and that was it!  So easy, and SO declicious.

And of course, as with almost every meal I make, I have to make a salad.  I always make my own dressing.  It simply consists of EVO Oil, White Vinegar, granulated garlic, lemon juice and oregano.  I always add shredded Asiago, Parmesan and Romano cheese, too.  For the greens, I use Green Leaf Lettuce, Parsley, Cilantro and Chives. 

And for the record, I bought an Herb Mincer… and I detest it!  It seriously just squished the chives until all the juice was running out of them and the chive itself was unrecognizable.  Anyone know of one that actually works??

This past weekend my family and I went to Bethany Beach to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday.  Although the weekend was fun, relaxing and invigorating, the beach left me with something to desire.  I’ve never been to a beach farther north than Wilmington, NC.  I was expecting your stereotypical shoreline experience including warming water, seashells and palm trees.  Instead… We got a beach with cold water, rocky sand, pine trees and instead of seashells, the beach was scattered with pine cones.  It was almost surreal to me.  My mind was completely confused the entire weekend.  On top of these weird non-beach things, they were restoring the beach and the entire shore was covered with giant pipes, heavy machinery and warning signs.  Here are some pictures to document it all…

My mom with my aunt and uncle’s dog, Dakota.