Nothing tickles me more than finding the things she leaves for us like the above note written in the corner of the kitchen blackboard. Tucked under the ongoing grocery list, I found that little nugget of happy the other day.
Other nuggets of happy this week? Continue reading
I bought beets at market last Saturday. I roasted them in a foil packet in just a wee bit of water at 375 for just over an hour. I let them cool, peeled them, tossed with with salad greens, goat’s milk feta cheese, salt & pepper, olive oil & red wine vinegar. We liked them. So much so I bought more beets at market this Saturday and when I suggested making that salad again today, Edie said okay. Which means she likes them I think. Dare I say we are starting to like beets? Continue reading
I totally meant to write this post earlier in the week, but one thing after another popped up and next thing you know, it’s a week later and one realizes oh, that never happened. And then, because I’m one of those people who believes that if you do something and you’re going to blog about it, you should do it in a timely manner, ie, just after it happens, I started debating whether to do it at all. Sitting here on a Sunday morning where the sun can’t quite decide if it’s coming out or not, realizing that until this stinking dining room gets done, getting this house clean and decluttered is just not an option and I really should get myself geared up just a little bit more before jumping back into that dining room project, it seemed like I should write about it. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, my friend Susan called and asked if I would help her put together an evening for her culture club. She explained that the culture club sprung out of her book club – at some point, they realized that they really weren’t reading or discussing the books, but they still enjoyed getting together and doing things. And thus, their culture club began.
Last fall, my friend Guinevere gave me some encouraging words about organizing Cville Swaps, about how it would someday take on a life of its own.
Remember when my family went away for spring break and I stayed here working? The project I stayed here working on is out on news stands now. It came out last Thursday to be exact.
What I did today.
Details coming to a local food site soon.
March madness has morphed into Assiduous April. I knew at the onset of March it was going to be busy. And then things happened…..all good things, but it seemed like all I was doing some days was adding to my to-do list instead of actually tackling any items on the list. I also found myself writing things down – I pride myself on not having to write things down. When I write things down, that means I’m overwhelmed, I have too many things going on and I need to slow down. I kept telling myself if I could just get through the month of March, I could get caught up. All of it. The house, other projects that got shoved to the back burners, time with friends, my garden…. Continue reading
I am excellent at ideas. And here’s my latest one.
A pickle subscription.
Here’s how I envision it working:
One. Customers preorder the quantity and type of pickle(s) you prefer in the spring. You would pay a small deposit and the balance would be due when you receive your pickles at the appropriate point of the season. Love my bread & butter pickles or want to have pickled okra and green beans for your Bloody Marys but don’t want to make them yourself? Did I hook your toddler on my pickled peaches? Then this is for you.
Two. Pickle of the month club. Every month, a different pickle is mailed out to subscribers. I’m thinking this would make an excellent gift. Not sure what to buy your parents or fussy Aunt Sue? How about a pickle of the month club subscription! The monthly package wouldn’t just be pickles, there would be recipes or menu suggestions (what to serve with your watermelon rind pickles or a pickled peach pound cake recipe), perhaps another homemade treat as well.
While I’ve looked into what it would take to make this a legal enterprise (a two day class offered by the state for starters), I haven’t crunched numbers on this one too hard. I hear quite a bit I should sell my pickles and I’ve come up with this as a way to do that but not extend myself too much financially or end up with too much stock on my hands. There’s still quite a bit of work to do to flesh this idea out, but this idea has been in the back of my head since last summer. Just last night, I could picture my little catalog of pickles that would go out, with pictures and descriptions of pickles. I’m thinking very seriously about doing a test run to a limited group this spring, with the idea that I’d be fully legal and ready to offer Pickle of the Month club by the holiday season this year.
So, tell me friends, what do you think? Would you be interesting in obtaining some of my tasty pickled treats, when you read the pickle of the month club idea did you immediately think that would be a perfect gift for certain hard to shop for members of your holiday gift list? More importantly, do you want to be part of the initial group? If so, make sure I have your email address.
It has recently come to my attention that I am long past due for some sort of contact-style card, a business card if you will. Actually, I lie when I say it has recently come to my attention. I’ve known for some time I need a card of some sort.
I will spare you the long version of how I have put this off because what I really want to talk about is how I have spent the last 3 days, farting around on my computer, attempting to design this sucker myself. I have this image in my head of what it needs to look like. Blame that design background, the one I worked my way through college for, the one that I thoroughly enjoyed until I realized it wanted the same large chunk of time as that my Edie girl demanded. The one that still pops up in small ways, like, envisioning this new card of mine. That one. Throw in my ability to bluff my way out of many a situation where I really can appear to know what I’m talking about, when the reality is, I have no clue. My father used to always say, if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. I live by that code. Well, that and don’t ever let anyone tell me I can’t do something because I’m a girl. Oh, and don’t throw like a girl. Which took me probably 35 years and watching my own daughter do it to understand what he meant with that last one.
In talking with various marketing and graphic folks, I heard over and over that I could design this myself. I bought into my own hype. I allowed myself to be baffled by my own bullshit. Hell, my own husband couldn’t quite understand that I had this idea in my head and I was trying my best to not just get it out onto the computer screen, I was trying to figure out HOW to make it happen on my computer screen.
It seems my photoshop skills are not quite what everyone else seems to think they are. I’m good at many things, but not at photoshop.
The whole card design involves the image of a mason jar. As I just so happen to have some lying around, I thought I could take a photo of one, photoshop it and turn it into what I envisioned. I took a shot and after two days of playing with it, was able to get it somewhere near where I wanted it, although in no way shape or form could I tell you how I got it that way. But then I realized the tiniest detail was off and since I have that design background, I realized I needed to take some more photos and start over. And then I was worried that it was going to take me another two days to get it where the last one was, the one with a line that was slightly off that probably no one but me would notice, the one that I had no freaking clue how I got it to look like it ultimately did, but it would keep me up at night knowing I had put my name on something that was slightly off. Bad design at my own hands combined with incompetence. These are the things that I lose sleep over.
So I snapped this shot today. Uploaded it. As I opened it up in photoshop, Adam Ant’s Ant Music just so happened to play on the station I was streaming.
You might not know this about me, but I freaking LOVE Adam Ant. I’m a total child of the 80’s and Adam Ant is one of the most unappreciated artists of that era. Ant Music should have been an anthem. It’s one of my anthems.
So, I’m sitting there, opening this photo, singing along to Ant Music, which was followed by one of my favorite B-52’s songs, Legal Tender. By the time they were done, I was done. The image I had in my head was on my computer screen. Never underestimate the power of good tunes to get the job done. I don’t know if I actually learned something over the last 3 days or it was the music. Talk about singing a happy little working song. Whatever it was, it happened.
I suppose after all that, I should show you the image. But on it’s own, it’s rather blah. So you’re not going to see it yet. I’ve now fallen into the font rabbit hole, whereby I spend way too much time playing with fonts, choosing just the right one. It’s far less frustrating than where I just was, dealing with the realization that I don’t have the skills everyone thinks I have, which it turns out, I just might have actually. Maybe I should believe the hype. No, the font rabbit hole is far more comforting on many levels, mostly in that I know I know what I’m doing there. The bigger debate that I’ve been avoiding for way too long is now in front of me – and that is, exactly what to say about myself other than my name and contact information. I do so many things, I could cover a business card with words. How to narrow it down to make it be the sleek thing I imagine? And in that narrowing, how to make it eloquent? Because while “Goddess of the Universe” sums it up, it might come across as just a slightly bit pretentious and I’ve heard I should tailor it to what I actually do. Which is sort of everything, although I keep being told I should focus. But with opportunities popping up in every avenue, it doesn’t make sense to focus like all the advice I’ve given tells me. The universe says otherwise and ultimately, it’s the universe I listen to.
It was so much easier two days ago when I could just blame it all on the fact that I couldn’t figure out how to do what I wanted to do on the stupid computer.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 