My Latest Artwork

Not to mention the seeds that came out of 'em - I roasted them in olive oil and seasoned them with salt, garlic, and chili powder.

The top guy is actually my dad's handiwork.

This is what happens when I go job hunting.

I come home with an obscene amount of books.

I realize that this is fairly tangential from the intended subject matter of my blog, but nevertheless: today I found out that the maximum number of books you can take out from the local library at once is 35.

(I only have seven library books out but that's going crazy since it's me we're talking about. I just had to ask at the counter to make sure I was safe - turns out some people read a LOT. And I've always been slightly envious. It's not that I'm lacking interest, because I'm interested in quite a lot of things, as my selection above probably tells you. I just really don't have the attention span required to be a "reader.")

But man it feels good to check out a pile of books.

Also I applied for another job today. Cross your fingers...


EDIT: I am now immersed in "Arabic: At A Glance" and it is kicking my butt so far. My goal for this week (other than to acquire gainful employment) is to demystify this language, at the very least. I have done some lessons on Rosetta Stone already, but I am still pretty lost, and I think repetition and writing things down will help me immensely.

This and That

This has been a fairly eventful week - I've been applying for more jobs and venturing further into the crafting frontier, not to mention doing a bit of traveling around NY state. No source of income as of yet. Hopefully that will come together sooner rather than later... In the mean time I've been keeping busy making things like these quilted coasters. I personally have something of an aversion to (more or less) unnecessary items like coasters, but I think these are kinda cool-looking and hopefully someone will want them or be able to use them. With the help of some family members, I dug up a good amount of fabric with great colors and patterns. The craft sale's in November, but I'm still trying to decide if I can produce enough to justify getting a table.

I also got some exciting mail this week:
The fall issue of The Flow arrived, and I spent a solid five minutes staring at/drooling over that chandelier on the front cover. Good stuff. It's too bad the magazine only comes out with new issues quarterly, cause I eat it right up.

Speaking of eating, I just want to share with the world that I made hummus for the first time ever this evening and it tastes spectacular. I think the reason I'm not so much into baking, but very into cooking is that I dislike measuring things. I will occasionally work from a recipe, but if I do I doctor it relentlessly and dump in lots of miscellaneous things until it tastes exactly how I want it to. Or close. To this particular hummus I added (beyond the basic chick peas, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and cumin) sun-dried tomatoes, plain yogurt, chili powder, rosemary, tahini, whole sesame seeds, and salt. It came out a very nice orangey color because of the sun-dried tomatoes, and a near perfect consistency with the occasional un-blended chunk of tomato. Awesome!

Blast From The Past

Last night I went over to my friend/senior-year-of-high-school-glass-teacher's house to catch up and make some beads. It was awesome to see her again! (She literally changed my life. I probably would not have gone to Alfred, had the best four years of my life, or even been an art major if it wasn't for her.)

She has a Bethlehem Barracuda torch and a Nortel Mega Minor. (I used the Barracuda even though I was only making soft glass beads. I did test out the flame capabilities though, and I bet that thing could melt some good sized boro.) The Barracuda is the torch I started out on in high school.

The beads I made are hopefully going to go toward a Christmas Tea & Craft Sale in November. It's still up in the air whether I'll have enough sellable stuff. I'm sort of low on ideas, and I don't really have the means to make jewelry other than hemp, so if you have any ideas please feel free to comment. I was thinking of making little quilted coasters or something. I want to make more pendants too. I'll have to see if next time I visit G I can work boro, cause I bet those would sell.