Trends

When you've lived as long as I have, you've seen your fair share of trends. Every generation thinks what they come up with is the latest and greatest, however, these days I think trends last a shorter period of time than ever, don't you? Viral one day, gone the next.

After my last post, as I had to go to the dry cleaners anyway, I decided to get smart and head into Ross to see if I could find some new shoes for gardening. When I began taking photographs in earnest, I discovered that my sandals didn't always cut it in some of the places I roamed. After an intensive search to find something other than tennis shoes I found my beloved Pr!vos made by Clark. Thinking about trends, I remember when the first velcro tennis shoes came out and my boys loving them so much. Of course, they were young. Now, they wouldn't be caught dead with velcro, but the same can not be said for their Mother. The new shoes were perfect, somewhat stylish, comfortable and slip ons with a modest velcro strap. Blushing here....

I began wearing them everywhere and if you can believe it, I got more compliments on those shoes than any pair of shoes I've ever worn. After several years of this I noticed they began looking not so spiffy any longer ; I had to resign them from public wearing. A gardening shoe was born!!

Is it any wonder that my feet got so grungy?

Ross had just what I was looking for--a slip on and cheap, as in $12.99. When I think of the money Bill and David spent on the trendy Ed Hardy clothes it makes me cringe!! I'm pretty sure this means the Ed Hardy craze has passed.

Silly me thinking that someone would notice my poorly kept nails at the funeral. That would have been quite difficult in the crowd of hundreds, as in maybe 700? It was pretty incredible as I knew it would be; when someone young dies there are many, many guests, including bus loads of fraternity brothers from FSU.

I'm wondering if I witnessed some new trends at the funeral. (see link to story about him)

• Shorts and flip-flops
• Guests arriving 45 minutes into the service
• Barely audible singing despite massive crowd
• Video presentation
• prayer read that a friend sent on facebook
• talking about hits to the Caring Bridge website (15,000)
• clapping after each person gave their remarks
• standing ovation for the deceased

and that my friends is when I made my exit. Note to friends and family: when I die, a standing ovation will be quite unnecessary even if it is trendy.

To go along with the new shoes, I finally began using the beautiful garden gloves given to me by Jane, Tom's mom, from Kew Gardens. I don't know about you, but when I receive such a nice gift, one from a ROYAL botanical garden no less, I find it hard to mess them up. Finally caved and am so glad that when I put in three trays of plugs early yesterday morning, my hands remained very nice and clean.

The back yard grass, such as it is, has given us fits. Despite new sod when we had the pool done, the area has looked ghastly for a long time. Much of what you see is the dirt I spread over the new plugs, hoping for a miracle!

I never left the house yesterday between gardening, photography, cleaning and a little painting. I don't know why, I just felt like getting out a few canvases and seeing what I could do with them. I used water color paints which I know probably isn't what you are supposed to do however, what the heck, I'm no painter which means rule breaking is a given.

I had this blue, green and white thing going which even I could see wasn't enough. I kept putting colors on, using the straw on the right to smear and, in general, mess with the paint.

Purple!! Too much purple! Looks like purple fish in the sea! After watching the Gehard Richter video I posted a few weeks ago, I've been intrigued by his scraping technique. Scraping is my word, he may call it nudging the paint for all I know. In an effort to use what I have in the kitchen I found this handy little tool from the Pampered Chef which allows you to scoop up a bunch of chopped vegetables at once. Great for making chili! And as it turns out, not so bad as a tool for making art.

Now that was fun. While it and another one, much wilder, were drying, I mowed the grass and all was right at the Peck home. Except for Bruce's absence of course....

Besides the paintings, I was working on a photograph of --surprise, surprise, some daisies!! As if I don't have enough in that category. Eventually they made their way onto my desk to keep me happy while I'm blogging.

After supper I crawled into bed to continue reading a new novel by Julian Barnes who is the polar opposite of Anne Tyler, that's for sure. According to the critics, I should be enjoying the book more than I actually am. Happily, while out today, I picked up Anne Patchett's new novel; I have high hopes.

Before I got to the library however, I stopped at an estate sale on the newer part of our street. Talk about trends, you should have seen the wallpaper still hanging from the early 1970's. An elderly couple made it their home for the last nearly forty years with what appeared to be few changes throughout that time. In many ways it seems sad to see whole lives of possessions sold off that way, don't you think? At least in this case, the folks are still living, just moving to be closer to one of their daughters in Arizona. It took all of about two weeks for the house to sell to a young family with one child and one on the way. Slowly but surely, the neighborhood is changing demographics.

Despite what I said about it being sad, I am happy to have found some fantastic Vera napkins which appear to have never been used. Cost--50 cents.

I can never see anything Vera without thinking of my own Mom which makes me wonder what will remind my children of their mother when I'm long gone. According to this , Vera began doing art work at her kitchen table in 1947. How about that?

So I didn't get the manicure done the other, instead a heavy work out with scrub brush and soap had to suffice because Helen was off for the day. I'm calling right now to see if I can become more presentable before Bruce returns although don't expect me to come home with trendy blue nails....

Bursting at the Seams

Good morning, good morning, the best to you each morning! Credit for that little ditty goes to Tony the Tiger. Remember when?

I have so much to discuss today, not to mention loads of photos to share, I hardly know where to start.Let us begin with the sewing metaphor I used for the title. I didn't realize how much I missed sewing until recently. For the better part of my life I spent some time each day sewing; sort of like I now do with photography. I guess you'd say I get obsessed... Anyway, I like both the mechanics of sewing, and the creating part. Some clever folks can sew without a pattern, however, that's not me. Instead, I pore over the pattern catalogs, marveling at both the cost, and some of the hideous patterns. Every now and again one catches my fancy; I'll buy one, or maybe two, when they are on sale. Hobby Lobby had McCalls patterns for $1.99 this week rather than the posted price of $12-$16, so shopping I went. Rather than the "sacks" I've been making, I bought a blouse pattern with a collar, darts, and buttonholes to test my sewing skills. As I was tying the ends of the darts last evening, which I learned  in 8th grade Home Ec, the words of that teacher ran through my mind. She said, and I quote, "You'll never learn to sew." Little did she know.

Matching fabrics to a pattern is great fun to me. Furthermore, I now have the greatest sewing table of my life. What's not to like?

 

This is a pretty wild cotton fabric, which by the time you read this will be pretty close to a blouse. Searching through Mom Peck's sewing box, I found buttons to use and black ribbon, which I've applied to the collar already, and soon will be on the little sleeve cuffs and possibly down the front. Haven't decided yet.

Speaking of Mom Peck, I showed you the Christmas cactus in bloom, now her little Irish Shamrock is doing the same. 

Aren't they adorable little blooms? I hope she is happy that I've been keeping her memory alive through both her sewing materials and plants. Apparently, we were more alike than I used to think.

Which is to say we both had "life sustaining skills." Although there are some things around the house I'm not super skilled at, I can do most things to maintain life. I won't list them all here, but I do think some people are moving back to the basics of sewing, cooking, baking, gardening, you get the picture. Which brings me to this piece from NPR: Trending 

Wouldn't you know it, after reading that article--I'm seeing the word trend/trending everywhere. While eating this for my supper Wednesday night

I perused a Nordstrom catalogue filled with the use of the word "trend," most of which I didn't care for. Too bland for me--all taupes and grays, colors which I don't think anyone really looks too good in.

Making your own chicken noodle soup is terrific because you can fill it with all the noodles you want! Using the leftover stock I made for the gumbo, I boiled the noodles and carrots, dumping them in with the chicken. Nice. I had it because I wasn't feeling super on Wednesday. In fact, I had errands planned, but the bright sunlight was more than I could handle. It seems that my corneal abrasion was either not fully healed, or is what is called, recurrent corneal abrasion. Seriously, even with my sunglasses on, I had to shield my eyes while outside, and it still hurt like the dickens. Because I neglected to get Baxter food in a timely manner, he was completely out,  I had to drive to Whole Foods, sunlight or no sunlight. While there I saw this bouquet of my Mom's favorite flower which I thought was very cheerful with that deep, deep yellow and green for that matter.

Before I left for WF, I heard serious bird chattering outside. The ROBINS were back. Because my eye hurt so much I couldn't chase around trying to get in position for a shot, so all the evidence I have is in this photo.

Could be any kind of bird, but I know it is a spring visit from a robin. :)

Bill came by to use my printer before his interview and I persuaded him to let me take this shot.

I do so wish Bill would smile for my camera! So far I've no update on how things went. I do, however, have some excellent news regarding Jonathan. Around noon yesterday while I was dropping off the tax info at Olga's house, my phone rang. Excitedly, Jonathan said he had a temp job at the University of Texas Law School, which thrills me to no end. Once they work with him, they won't want to let him go! Interviewing that morning, he was to start after lunch.

Speaking of jobs, the word doesn't fit me exactly, I don't quite know how to describe my current money making operation. I will update you a bit on that front. Here's the newsletter link, which to date hasn't brought me any new business, but it's still cool: Schmidt Design Studio

And here's the Church Street building window, which is difficult to photograph, however you'll recognize my pieces by the colors:

Because of the early market closing on Sunday, Bruce, in an effort to keep the produce people from losing their shirt,  bought a FLAT of strawberries even though he would be gone for most of the week. You and I know I'm not that big of an eater so what's a girl to do? Give them to the neighbors! Which I did, but still there were tons. After freezing a bunch of them, I found a recipe for Strawberry Nut bread online. The batter doesn't look so great does it?

The loaf, on the other hand, came out quite nicely, despite my removing it from the pan too soon:

Which brings me back to the trending article. Before using the online recipe, I got out a few cookbooks, one of which was my 1951 edition of The Joy of Cooking which contained any number of strawberry recipes. As you may know, the author was quick-witted with her descriptions, with this one too good not to share:

"Formerly we had a short intensive strawberry season. Now, like poor relations, they are always with us. No longer a thrill, just an everyday "happenstance" that leaves us unmoved." Isn't that maybe an apt description of modern life and it's trends? Nothing is much of a thrill anymore....

The 1933 Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, on the other hand, had not a single strawberry recipe included, presumably because the season was so short, they were mostly eaten out of hand?

As far as my eye is concerned, between an extremely early bedtime on Wednesday night, generous applications of my cream, and drab gray weather both yesterday and today, it feels considerably better. Now, off to the kitchen to have some of that strawberry bread with a piping hot cup of tea.

I warned you I was bursting at the seams!