Best Weekend

I am aware that sending mail is not a contest and this one would be a fixed game but this is the best mail I received yesterday. In exchange for his postcard subscription, Lasse sends me a box of vegan cookies and treats every December. When I visited him in Berlin last summer, he brought me to his favorite liquorice shop because I too love liquorice. Now he sends a variety of gelatin-free liquorice every few months. The thing about Scandinavian liquorice, is that they like it sweet but also salty. I drew myself a little diagram of my favorite pieces so I would not be fooled by the salt-centers. I sent the picture to Lasse as a thank you. He brought it to the liquorice shop and voila (or, however you might say that in german) a package of my favorite treats. The only draw back is now that I know I love each kind, I eat them so much faster. Really, those pillowy cube ones are delicious.



A great start to the weekend. Followed by this Saturday morning breakfast of cheesy fried grits with basil (you may as well call it polenta at this point) and coffee. I sometimes work at a diner that is very busy on the weekends. I never eat there on weekends. I often work on Saturdays. But this morning was all mine. I continued working on the NY Times crossword like I had nothing else to do.



But I did...these postcards are the slowest progressing. One spooky layer of lovely ladies. Let;s hope for the best for tomorrow. I'm calling it an early night.

I Can't Do It All Alone

As much as I would like to think I am unstoppable, I am tired tonight. No more homework, no drawing, no letters, no more awkard evasive phone conversations with family. Just this double batch of Irish Creme Cookies for me to share with my classes tomorrow.

Labor Indeed

Tropical Storm Lee has moms all over the midwest worrying, but here in Baton Rouge, we are lucky. The rain wasn't too heavy for too long and mostly what we are getting is a lovely and cool Labor Day weekend. No camping or beach this week, but a good chance to post all the things I have been meaning to, like these postcards I printed almost 2 years ago with Ella's help.



Also, to motivate myself a little, I made these chocolate-almond cinnamon rolls (vegan of course) to share with friend at our pre-studio brunch. We both made it to the studio and I made two batches of pulp, including this lovely blue made from scraps.



At 8 pm I was back in the print shop, drinking coffee and preparing for a few hours of drawing and sewing when I was invited over for dinner. So much for the drawing but 8 hours is still a good day of work, I mean, it is what Labor Day is all about. So I left to meet up with other studio art friends and a pile a eggplant parmesan for a full night of fun. Now back to the studio today to sheet that pulp!

Measure Twice...

This week I suddenly had a sick feeling thinking maybe that when I sent off the files for the miracle plates that were gonna save this months postcard I maybe set the images in the wrong order. I checked the files. Nope. Everything is ok. And then the plate arrived. So tiny. Too tiny. Why didn't I check the image size when I changed the resolution? Why don't I know better?




Meanwhile, I've had plenty of time to post more responses to the Keep Writing project. Including this one from an unknown sender, which makes it mysterious and great. Note the title is Sofa King Queer and has something to do with going out dancing at gay bars. In rainbow colors.

And now I am going out in this:


tropical storm to pick a bunch of basil and make pesto.

Lady vs. Machine

So the postcards are "late" every month because I set deadlines for myself that no one else notices. Some times I have excuses. Like how when I went to expose a screen for the first layer of this month's postcard, the exposure unit would not turn on. A bummer for me but something to cause my professor a whole lotta cursing as it was the first day of classes. The situation is temporarily resolved for the shop and Blackbird Letterpress, my employer and print-guardian angel, added my image to their order for a polymer plate. I should be able to pick it up soon as I finish this post.



However, in the dark room mess, my professor found my coated screen after he turned on the lights, with the transparency taped to it so we exposed it on my studio desk. I think it is a little over exposed but we'll see if we need/want another layer when I go to print this weekend. So, no later than usual and Ms. Ella D. has offered her assistance in addressing cards. Which may be more helpful than the hours of Glee I watched in June while writing addresses.



The sun is hesitant today but yesterday it shone through my new bottle of blueberry kombucha and made it the most beautiful thing in the world. I experimented, adding mashed organic blueberries to the tea and it came out lovely. A little tart, a little sweet, a little somethin'. Now I must go show my appreciation for the letterpress shop and show up for work.

It's Hurricane Season Somewhere Else

Six years later, I still try not to watch weather reports that overuse the word "extreme" and generally inflate a sense of panic, even if it is to instill a sense of seriousness in the warnings. A bunch of my friends are on the east coast now, hunkering down, baking a pie, or about to play a show. So I am at home eating everything I would put in a veggie hot dog bun as a salad:

Not as gross as it sounds. Too tired to cook for myself and since I am staying home to do "homework" I thought I would do a little research with my new vegan cookie recipe book. First up, almond butter and honey cookies. They use agave syrup but I like local Louisianan honey over that. My choice. You decide if you'll eat it or not. They came out all right. I am going to send some to a friend who is about to have a baby.

Most of my school work this week has been planning and organizing so it is fitting that I finally bound a datebook for myself. The pages are letterpress printed, a collaboration with and soon we will both have some for sale with vintage hard book covers and coptic binding holding them together. Lovely.
Now back to not worrying and writing papers.



(Note: I made my datebook cover special for myself because I couldn't choose from the books I had so I printed this chicken on book cloth and voila!)

Garden Bounty

It's been so hot that after about twenty minutes in the garden I feel woozy. Though usually I am there in mid-afternoon after waiting tables for 8 hours and I am soaked in diner grease and I feel like a baked potato in the sun. That doesn't stop me. We have red okra that need to picked every 3 days or it turns into a giant cardboard model of an okra pod. There is a jar of bitty ones in the fridge pickling right now.



Also there are tiny eggplants growing in fistfuls, spicy peppers (maybe jalapenos, maybe serrano), and three kinds of grapes. Yum! Also in the garden area are two persimmon trees and two pear trees. I have a recipe for persimmon cider. And a plan for persimmon cinnamon rolls. If only summer lasted forever.



Don't think the garden is separate from my art-making. I photographed these frozen friends, okra sliced cross-wise, this morning. Nevermind why I was up at five a.m. photographing things from the freezer. I have plans. Just you wait.