smart mama

the BEST quiche recipe

2011-12-19T12:29:00.001-08:00

Well after a few requests this weekend here is my quiche recipe- it came to me by way of my friend Lisette- I have modified it a bit so here it is in it’s current incarnation. It is perfect for lunches, brunches, and all manner of parties- and you know how I love parties! And sorry no picture- I ate the last piece for breakfast this morning…

10 eggs

1 -16 oz container low fat cottage cheese (don’t be scared/skeptical it’s part of the secret success of this recipe- and makes it healthier)

10 oz. or more of cooked finely chopped broccoli

½ onion chopped- I generally use purple or green onions (1/2 c)

6 oz. honey ham- from the deli finely chopped

½ c. milk

6 oz cheddar cheese

3 slices of swiss cheese – cut into tiny pieces

3/4 t. pepper

½ t. salt

(it is very substitution friendly if you want to change the meat, cheese flavors, veggies etc)

Best all the ingredients together- pour into 2 unbaked crusts. Bake at 375 for 35 min cover with foil. Then remove foil and cook a remaining 20 min or until center is firm and knife comes out clean.

I usually make it with pie crust but sometimes I make it with a hash brown crust instead (using frozen shredded potatoes (brush lightly with butter. salt and paper and cook for about 20-30 min before adding the egg mixture on top)

My favorite pie crust which came to me via jennifer tooley

5 c. flour

2 c. Crisco

1 T. salt

2 T. vinegar

1 egg

Cut shortening into flour & salt with pastry blender. put egg and vinegar in cup measure. Fill remaining space with very cold water. Mix together. Add the liquid to flour mixture. Mix it just until you can form a ball. Roll out between layers of wax paper. Makes 5 crusts.

How to make a Shaun the Sheep cake

2011-11-27T17:25:00.001-08:00

So here is my tutorial on how to make a Shaun the sheep cake (you could easily replicate it in smaller form for cupcakes and using premade frosting eyes).

I decided this would be a fast easy cake for my 4 yr. old’s birthday, which inconveniently falls a few days after thanksgiving- and I was right- probably the easiest cake I have ever done.

So I made my favorite almond pound cake in 3- 9” rounds (that’s what a batch makes but you could have just as easily used 2-8” pans or a Bundt pan and it would be fine). While the cake was baking I melted down 1/2 a bag of wilton midnight black colored candy melts. (this was much faster and easier than making black fondant- and tastes as good) I created a template for the head and ears and legs and eye centers. I put he melted chocolate in a decorator bag with a wide round tip so I could pipe it out.I slid the templates under the wax paper so I could make the chocolate shapes the right size. Piped the out shapes with the decorator bag and let the chocolate sit until hardened. I then made up one batch of my favorite buttercream frosting. I trimmed the top layer so it domed more on the top and then assembled and frosted the cake. Then I placed the face on a stuck mini marshmallows into the frosting all over until the entire things was covered (it took less than I bag of mini marshmallows) then I cut a large marshmallow in half and added the chocolate center for the eyes and and places the ears on and legs in. 9I also piped out my sons name in chocolate which I will stick up out of the top when we serve it.

Apple Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

2011-11-11T18:30:00.001-08:00

I know apple cake sounds like a dark horse- but honestly I think this is one of the best cakes ever… it’s a famous fall treat at our house-it is so soft and has such full flavor. Allen often requests it for his birthday.

2 cups of sugar

1 c. oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2 T. vanilla

2 eggs

1/4 c. lemon juice (I use fresh)

1 t. salt

3 c. flour

1 1/4 t. soda

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

3 1/2 c. apples finely chopped (I use granny smiths 3-4 BIg apples or else like 6 smalls)

Combine sugar, oil, vanilla, eggs, lemon juice and salt. Beat well. Add flour soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and mix well. Fold in the apples. Bake in a greased floured bundt pan at 325 for about 50 min or until the center comes out clean (I usually make a bundt and 4 small bundt cakes) Remove from pan and cool.

Cinnamon Icing Glaze

5 Tbsp of butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. vanilla extract

+/-2 Tbsp milk (to desired consistency)

Mix butter and sugar, add milk, vanilla an cinnamon. Spread over slightly warm cake.

would you like to touch my coat?

2011-11-11T05:53:00.001-08:00

…because I will let you.

So the other week when I was in California for the VBF conference, I decided to kill the few pre-conference drizzly afternoon hours shopping alone across the street at fashion island (well first I had lunch at PF Chang’s -where these 2- 70ish “orange county women who lunch” at the table next to me struck up deep conversations and ending it by insisted on buying me dessert- but that’s another story for another day – you know how funny random events follow me…)

I was perusing forever 21, yes I know I am 35, (it does fall to the “teenage store” category but I love to go there for fun statement pieces). I was looking for something colorful when I walked by the neutral section, mind you I never look in this section because with fair skin and blonde hair such colors make me look naked or dead. And I do know color well enough to know what I can pull off and what I can’t. This coat looked so soft -- I touched it, and yes it was soft, REALLY soft, REALLY REALLY soft, I hesitated but the walked past thinking imagining the palor of my skin next to it and generally I make it a point to only purchase flattering clothes.

As I circled back through the store I saw it again. I was curious so I slipped it on. It was heaven in clothing form. The inside was lined in the softest satin and it was warm. Given that I live in frigid New England, I knew no matter what it looked like on me I was buying this coat if for nothing else then to wear it in the privacy of my own home for utilitarian use and my own pure sensory enjoyment. You could work out every childhood blankie attachment issue wearing this coat. I looked in the mirror and to my shock and elation-- there is a specific color of champagne that I can pull off.

Being in the early stage of impetuous clothing infatuation, I had to wear it home on the plane, well my relationship with the coat quickly grew into a passionate love affair and I have been hard presses to tear it from my body. This coat is very charismatic, its pull is magnetic. People on the flight were petting me, even the airline workers. It has become a joke among friends who immediately reach out and touch it and compliment it. Yes, this coat and I are a serious item.In a short period of less than a week the coat has already achieved legendary standing and is known by all. We’ve analyzed it’s polyester composition, its ability to be dressed up or down, it’s coziness, it’s bargain value. The conversations end with me pleading that they do not walk but run to their closest forever 21 to ensure their own jacket happiness find one of their very own (that is unless you are someone who will get upset when random people touch you). Ahh to be a woman in love… with a coat.

(and no forever 21 didn’t ask me to post about their clothes this coat earned this blog post of its own merit)

life is always better with new pillows

2011-11-08T07:56:00.001-08:00

I knew it was time to recover my white chair pillows when I noticed my 3 yr old had done a lovely contour line drawing on one of them with an ink pen. I ran across this fabric (reverberating stripe by paul smith for maharam) on modern fabrics 2 weeks ago and knew it was perfect for the job. I decided to pony up today with my best cowboy sewing skills and get the job done. I must say the room looks much better with these hot little numbers on each of the red chairs. I love how it picks up the colors in the volumes, NY, (I can’t figure out where this is going in this room but I want it somewhere) and bus paintings in this room.

Garlic and Bacon Green Beans- Metro Style

2011-10-13T15:35:00.001-07:00

After spending a week in the provincial town of Svay Rieng which has a rather limited repertoire when it comes to meals and restaurants. I returned to Phnom Penh craving a really good meal. Cue lunch at Cafe Metro. The first thing I ordered was a great frozen drink with raspberries and orange sherbet because if there is anything you always need in Cambodia it is a cold drink. And then I spotted this gem on the small plates menu… garlic and bacon green beans-- they were the best green beans ever. I also had some amazing Australian beef sliders. So I came home determined to make my own metro style green beans. (yes, I love recipes with a story)

Here’s how it goes…

1 1/2 lbs. of fresh green beans, washed and trimmed. Steam them until tender.

Meanwhile, cut 2-3 strips of bacon into small pieces. Cook it over medium heat in a medium sized skillet. When bacon is mostly cooked but still soft, add 7 cloves of freshly chopped garlic, and sauté together for about 2 minutes. Add the green beans and toss them together with bacon and garlic. Season with black & white pepper and coarse kosher salt.

Future additions some pinenuts or almonds.

Not a bean remains in the house…

warning: you might find this offensive

2011-10-12T10:15:00.001-07:00

The other day I came home from shopping and tried on a dress for my husband (this dress)…

“What do you think?” I stand a few feet away.

He looks up, “Are you going to wear a sweater with it?”

“Huh?”I question “It is a sweater, why would I wear another sweater with it?” I was quite proud of myself for finding a warm, comfortable, practical dress, suitable for New England winters.

“Well, it’s just A LOT of STRIPES,” he said rather seriously.

“Stripes?” I ask incredulously.

“Yah stripes, it’s just… well it’s a lot of them,” he responds in a sort of warning tone.

I am lost in the logic of this conversation. After watching Visual Acoustics together this week, a fabulous documentary on Julius Shulman’s photography of modern architecture and I totally thought we were on the same aesthetic wavelength.

“Is the wearing of stripes visually assaulting? I mean is wearing numerous stripes in close proximity to each other impolite? I have never heard this too any stripes thing before—really?”

He is serious.

Maybe using contrast with such wild abandon is akin to conspicuous consumption—like driving a super gas guzzling vehicle?

Or maybe he was thinking it was like a strobe lights and afraid it would cause people seizures and wanted to be sure I was ready accept responsibility for my actions?

Do you think this flagrant use of stripes makes me I look like I am stealing style from a chunky zebra?

Are we really talking this dress?? I liked it…and I think this stripe thing is crazy talk.

I am guessing it’s part of some engineer ethos, “Be reserved, and above all else don’t wear too many stripes.” Being married to an artist, well I guess he never knows when I might get wild and try to pull a striped fast one on him. Maybe we should stick to a simple pass/fail system or go back to the ranking system implemented after this incident. So tell me are my stripes offensive?

catch me

2011-09-24T15:46:00.001-07:00

http://pivotboston.eventbrite.com/#m_1_100
October 4th at this event in Boston displaying some of the domestic series. It’s almost sold out—so last call for tickets.

Cambodia bound

2011-09-08T04:15:00.001-07:00

headed out on another operation smile medical mission- this time to Cambodia- here are the latest works from the studio

the boy who lived

2011-08-18T18:57:00.001-07:00

sorry harry potter this nickname belongs to my 3 yr old (as seen here riding his beloved steed ‘Pokey’)… while you might think this makes reference to the fact that he was born with a blood clot that occluded venous drainage from his liver and required weeks of injections with anticoagulants to save him-- in actuality it has reference to the fact that he dumped and smeared 1/2 a pan of red jell-o on my studio carpet and is still alive to tell the tale (or rather have it told by his mother, on her blog)

176 volumes

2011-08-18T05:41:00.001-07:00

I did this piece over vacation earlier this summer. Mixed media on 30x40 canvas. I decided to be simple and start naming these pieces based on the number of books on the shelves…

if you’re patient

2011-08-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

Well today I stopped in at the mall to pick up another $4 pair of sunglasses, after mine faced an ignominious death-by-porta- potty, at the town beach earlier this summer thanks to my youngest son. When I spotted this shirt. I knew I had to get it- see many years ago (circa 1993) I had this friend gwen, who lived on my floor in my freshman dorm, and I always coveted one of her pairs of pants—they were white with butterflies on them. I always wanted to borrow them because, well they were just so cool but given that she was petite (probably about 5’2”) and I was 5’10” wish fulfillment was not in order –unless I wanted to sport some ill-fitting high waters.

So the moral of this beautiful story is if you wait long enough your dream for butterfly clothes might come true or else dropping your sunglasses in a port-a-potty might be some sort of wishing token like coins in a fountain.

Ps if you too coveted gwen’s pants you can find the butterfly shirt at charlotte russe—and I bet you won’t even have to sacrifice your sunglasses to the potty gods to get it…

just wanted to go on the record saying

2011-08-16T19:39:00.001-07:00

that people should give playlists better titles… like…

“makes me feel sappy and nostalgic for being 16 and slow dancing with boys”

“makes me shake it while I cook dinner”

“I hope none of my neighbors hear me listening to this cheesy music—because really I am not a cheesy person”

“things I listen to annoy my kids”

“songs that help me stay up till 2 am painting”

“dang it I don’t care what anyone says I really like the Bee Gees”

or at least those were accurate descriptions for some of the thing is was compiling on spotify the other day… after all I am all about descriptions and creativity (and verbosity). I have a long tradition of creative naming. In college it was a tradition, amongst my roommates, that all mix tapes included the name Jermaine in the title—(after a basketball player who always needed my help in freshman physical science class). Suffice it to say lame people title their playlist things like “work out music” or “love songs”. And if you are a playlist titling novice you can always fall back on “play it again, jermaine”

(and yes that’s me cutting the rug with my 3 year old at my cousins wedding last weekend- I was also going to start in on why people over 30 are afraid to dance but I’ll save that for another day…)

so what are your playlists really all about?

press

2011-08-16T06:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks to design mom gabrielle blair for her kindly press - Leslie Graff, domestic series. I have to say it brought so many compliments and kindly emails to my inbox it made my day. The internet was nothing but love today!

this picture is the way i want to remember mothering

2011-08-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

yah we all know it’s not like this all the time, but the best moments are—and that’s what I want to remember!

Actually --The look of elation probably has to do with the fact that I found the bottom of my new yellow swimsuit (only 2 weeks old)which had gone AWOL. It disappeared. I waited for ransom demands, they never came, I offered up rewards—no one came forward with information. I searched my whole house for 4 hrs (oh ask my husband it was a tense, thorough operation, all family members were impressed into service). As you can see it was a cute suit and I was not about to see disappear without a fight… my search included under sinks, every drawer 3x, broom closets, pantry-- you name it I looked there—I have sons I never know where I will find anything. After I gave up all hope I found it the next day- as I was carrying things to the attic. Yes it was 9 1/2 feet in the air in a tupperware cake tender top on a high cabinet in my laundry room. Obviously I did not put it there- and it did not get there by any natural means. If I had to make my guesses as a veteran mother of boys for the last 10 yrs I’d say it’s lycra spandex nature probably made it a natural candidate for slingshotting- oh tell me I love them!

scenic views

2011-08-02T18:00:00.001-07:00

In all of the chaos of motherhood you sometimes need things to look at that aren’t easily messed up…

Here are some of my favorite spots to look at in our house…

dining room shelf of abstracts

family room back wall, 1960s slat table and arc lamp

stirring things up with vintage mirror and tiered tidbit tray

cherry chairs with volumes piece

go big or go home

2011-07-26T11:21:00.001-07:00

when I was growing up my cousin used to joke about the mini shrine (collections of their children's pictures) that his and other parents displayed in their homes.Well I know he will be proud that I am taking it to a whole 'nother level. Yes in lieu of bad elementary school pictures my kids will get 4 foot tall gouache portraits of their heads on wood panels. I may have to pay future therapy bills for the megalomania/cult of personality issues I am spawning in my progeny with this larger than life project. But honestly I think they are outrageously fun- 1 down 2 to go… and ps I love my kids!

can I take a picture of your house?

2011-06-21T06:24:00.001-07:00

Well recently I have wanted to do a series of paintings of houses, I guess another series exploring the intimacy of our spaces isn’t much of a stretch after my domestic series. For the past few months as I drive around I find my self staring at the windows of house. Something about the spaces we dwell in, they are pragmatic, sentimental, private. The echo the the spaces of our minds holding all our thoughts and emotions.

The problem is to paint houses you need study shots. I was afraid walking around taking pictures of houses in my small town might get me booked as a peeping tom and give our otherwise generally unoccupied police something to do. So to avoid such unwanted escapades, I decide to make somewhat awkward introductions to my fellow townspeople. So last night after dinner I drove down by the center of town. I knocked on people’s doors, handing them a business card “Hi, I am Leslie, I live here in town, I am an artist. Your house in charming and I was wondering if I could take a few pictures of your house to used as references in a new series I am going to paint”.

I have to say all my interactions turned out to be lovely. Once they understood what I was doing…. One woman admitted to saying the rosary when she heard someone knock on the door. Then we got into a discussion about ants and diatomaceous earth and she recommended I read some of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s short stories. Another woman at first thought I was soliciting commissions, but I explained no I didn’t intend to sell them to the owners of the houses at all. She then invited me in to see a painting they had done of their house years ago and actually asked if I would paint a portrait of her dog. The owner of the yellow house- was worried because it was under renovations and wasn’t done yet. Even just talking to these few people and taking pictures gave me a more intimate view of their lives and reminded me that it is only a mere moment that moves us from strangers to people connected.

Compositionally I want to play with the angles and parts (you know how I love to chop things off!) and vantage points. Exploring color, flattening out shapes and shadows. As I painted this one last night it felt a little like Wayne Thiebaud goes painting with Edward Hopper.

Ancient Egypt Birthday Party Plan

2011-06-19T17:13:00.001-07:00

So my son decided he wanted an ancient Egypt theme for his 6th birthday party. So this is what we did. He invited 8 friends. We designed cool invitations with an Egyptian hieroglyph scene and printed them on gold paper. We found these archaeologist hats at iparty and rubber snakes at Wal-Mart and made pyramid favor boxes from 12” square sheets of paper from Michaels- which we filled with candies and small Egyptian figures from the safari limited ancient Egypt tube for the take home party favors. So here is how the party went down including all the games and activities. As the kids arrived they used our wooden blocks to build pyramids and cities out in the studio room. My 10 yr old son had designed an Anubis robot for the party and programmed him to chase the kids round- so the 6 year old boys were most impressed with that. Then we moved the kids into the dining room where I had set up the tables with individual cupcake decorating stations. Each child got to decorate 5 cupcakes. Each place had their own cupcake box, and plate of decorations. I piped out of chocolate Anubis heads, scarab beetles, vipers, eye of Horus, and ankhs and also filled candy papers with spoonful's of various sprinkles- gold, silver, chocolate, rainbow.The adults frosted and let the kids decorate them. Then we moved on to the cartouche station I set up in the breakfast nook. I spray painted canvas boards with gold paint then used a hieroglyph translator to write the kids names in hieroglyphs on the boards, they then decorated all around with feathers, gems, titles, pom poms, fabric pieces and some foam Egyptian shapes I got from oriental trading company. When they finished this we moved into the family room room for the mummy wrap game- we divided the kids into pairs, one was the mummy and one was the wrapper. They had fun using 2 rolls of tp to make their mummies and each pair wrapped differently. Then we went out in the yard for the Nile relay. We had crocodile grabbers which they used to pick up a jewel and run it down to a bucket of water. They then dropped the jewel in and used the grabber to pull out a long snake which they ran back to the start with. Everyone got to do 2 rounds. then we came in for tomb treasures memory. I put a bunch of Egyptian things on a tray we looked at all of them and they tried to memorize the group. Then we covered it with a blanket and they had to remember all the items. (We did have scarab beetle hot potato and duck duck goose variant pharaoh, pharaoh, mummy- but ran out of time) Then we had lunch, present opening, and cake & ice cream featuring the king tut sarcophagus cake. We decorated with gold balloons, yellow and black streamers to make pyramids. the party playlist included king tut (steve martin), walk like an Egyptian, the Theme from the mummy (instrumental) and some Arabic music. The kids seemed to have a fabulous time and most of all my 6 year old told me it was exactly what he hoped for! I highly recommend it for a party theme there are so many fun things you can do with it. For a full how to make a king tut sarcophagus cake tutorial you can read my post here.

(I do recommend moving the kids from area to area for the party it always helps with the general management of excited kids and you don’t loose a lot of time in the changing gears and set up)

How to make a King Tut Egyptian Sarcophagus cake

2011-06-18T17:58:00.001-07:00

My son requested an Egyptian theme for his 6th birthday party and wanted a king tut cake-and no not just the head—the whole sarcophagus. So I printed out a good image as a reference and attempted to craft one. here is my tutorial--

I used one batch of homemade pound cake. ( I would not recommend attempting to make this with a box cake mix or anything too soft) I cooked it in 3 mini loaf pans, one large loaf pan and one small 3” round cake. (I also made one extra mini loaf than I made two small squares with – as when my kids have a really fancy cake they want the candles stuck in some mini cake not in the big one)

I lined them up on my giant turkey platter and cut then to sculpt the general form. Then covered them in buttercream frosting and draped the entire thing in gold marshmellow fondant (mixed brown and yellow wilton colors to tint) I then sculpted the rest of the layers of fondant (hands, head dress, crook, etc.)

I then painted the entire thing with gold pearl dust mixed with clear vanilla extract. Then I used black, cyan,a deep prussian blue,(mixed cyan and black) and a red violet to pipe on all the details with a super fine round tip. I took some liberties to simplify some of the details- because well it deserves just so many hours of my time and I am not a perfectionist. you can see here the finished project. I made the mini ankh and eye of horus cakes from the scraps as the mini “candle cake”. I used fondant tools and bamboo skewers to achieve fine texture and details. I have to say though he was very pleased with the finished project…

all I can say is if my son ever doubts that I love him I will pull out this picture to remind him- only extreme mother love- can drive me to spend an afternoon crafting a 2 foot long, 3-d sculpted, gold covered, king tut sarcophagus cake.

SVU show

2011-06-12T17:32:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday at 10 pm I loaded up 30 paintings and headed down to Buena Vista, VA for SVU’s education conference. Thursday night I arrived and hung all the paintings before going to a delightful presenters dinner at the Knights. Friday I got to enjoy a wonderful collection of talk s and delicious food and a fabulous performance of man of La Mancha and stayed up late talking to my great friend Liz. Friday brought more delicious food and workshops and socializing. I spoke Saturday afternoon about my paintings. If you want to listen to my talk you can hear it here. All I can say is it was wonderful. I loved meeting so many people there, as well as seeing old friends. I had a wonderful response to the pieces. While most people would come up and ask why no heads, one woman’s first comment was “thank you for not painting the heads because it makes it so it could be me” (I was so excited and said – yes you got it!!), she later told me that seeing them gave her a feeling almost like narnia- she wanted to step inside and relive things gone by. Another man told me how one of piece really began to stand out to him and couldn’t look it without tearing up remembering times with his mother. It was so interesting to hear the reactions and connections of people of many different ages. I can’t believe the feeling of accomplishment and relief I felt finally completing the series and showing them.

really I am almost there

2011-05-29T20:19:00.001-07:00

so I am 4 days away from debuting the domestic series at SVU. Tomorrow the 30th and final piece will be done (I can’t wait to finish it—its one of my favorites already)… but here are the others I have done recently

“milk and cookies”

“easy as pie”

“it’s lovely”

“I’ll wash, you dry”

in the final stretch

2011-05-14T18:00:00.001-07:00

of the domestic series that is… here is “hanging it on the line” it is 19 of 20 in the domestic series (one left to finish in this group and 4 left to finish in the mothering series) I am cramming to get done before education week at Southern Virginia University, the first weekend in June. I will be speaking on Saturday. Yep all thirty pieces will be on display (that’s more than 250 sq feet of paintings) ! I know I can’t believe there are that many paintings either??!!! I am excited to see the series wrap up. When I first started I thought I’d do 12-15- HA!

I actually cant wait to see them all in one place. And I highly recommend coming to the conference. be expecting the final pieces shortly!

chucks

2011-05-10T18:12:00.001-07:00

last saturday I felt the uncontrollable urge to paint some pop art- hence 24x30” black converse tennis shoes. I think I’ll put them in one of the boys bedrooms

volumes on white

2011-05-07T15:52:00.001-07:00

well this is my latest piece- I have had a great time with this series- although my husband watches me do them and says it in no way looks fun. Truth be told these pieces are best appreciated up close. It is mixed media- layers of acrylic, tissue, painted tissue paper. So there is a lot of play with transparency and translucency and every book is different. But there is much of adhesive and cutting tiny strips which is arduous but fun.

Come to think of it I think I forgot to post the other pieces in this series- such is my life... so see them below

volumes on white 48x48”

volumes 30x40”

volumes on shelf 10x20”

small volumes 9x12” on cradled hardboard

in progress

2011-04-12T17:42:00.001-07:00

I started a new piece 2 weeks ago, but life has been too crazy to get back around to it...I wanted to do some new looser pieces- so this is 2 sessions of painting so far on this piece. I have enjoyed being more loose than I was on the domestics- which is much more my natural style- maybe life will settle down enough to get it done—sometime…

Cupcake Class

2011-04-11T19:02:00.001-07:00

for the past 4 weeks I have been teaching after school enrichment cupcake class. this year we did pretty simple designs given this is 2-5th graders. I am happy to see it wrap up because I have made 500+ cupcakes over the last month! anyway if you are looking to figure out how to make panda cupcakes, octopus cupcakes, monkey cupcakes, lion cupcakes, tiger cupcakes, robot cupcakes, bunny cupcakes, easter basket cupcakes (also cute if you add sugar wafers cut in half to make 4 basket sides- mine got eaten before i got a picture- monster cupcake got eaten as well), butterfly cupcakes, fish cupcakes, frog cupcakes, pig cupcakes, dog cupcakes, and sheep cupcakes- you can see them here-sorry I don’t have time for full tutorials- if you have any questions on what I used to make them drop me a comment- the icing eyes I get from country kitchen sweetart. I also get my cupcake boxes from brpboxshop- they are great.

bus domestic

2011-04-03T18:03:00.001-07:00

I have to say this is one of my favorites so far. Probably because the colors pop beautifully on my new gray family room walls and because it has special significance. People asked how I got the shot. Well it just so happens one of the people I used to visit teach 9 years ago in Virginia drives a school bus (thanks A.P.!) and she gracious agreed to park it in her driveway so I could get the study shot. But what’s even cooler is that this bus is from the county where I used to teach school- (yes that’s cut off in the painting but I know what the bus really says) yes back in the day when I was Miss Whyte 1st grade teacher. I taught at a darling rural school and every afternoon we’d walk our classes out to the bus. All the kids from other classes would say hi and hug you as you they walked by. We’d and wait while they loaded on and then wave goodbye to all the kids as the 4 buses pulled away.

Now I am on the other side waiting with my 3 yr old from the bus to come afternoon to return my 2 boys from school. (although truth be told when its snowy I wave to the bus driver as he drives past and stay in the warm confines of my entryway! )

when you’re home alone on a saturday night

2011-04-03T17:50:00.001-07:00

then you might as well paint the city that never sleeps…last night I did this detail from one of my favorite photos I took in New York City 2 years ago. I was there for a conference and we went a day early, took the boys out for Turkish food at Akdeniz and to the MoMA- it was one of those days that just hangs perfectly in your memory. It absolutely beautiful as the sun was starting to set and all the lights were coming on. I’ve never painted a city scene so it was kind of fun little project.

here is the photo that inspired it..

winter break

2011-03-01T05:03:00.001-08:00

winter break…oxymoron I known, there is no break in winter in New England. We have plenty of winter, and the word “break” for me is generally problematic-- given my hyper-productivity tendencies. Still with a week off school, we decided on a last minute whim to got to Virginia for the week. I got some painting done (another one 2/3rds done), we got to go to the really good library, the picasso exhibit at the VMFA, spend time with family, eat ukrops donuts, and walk around with no coats on (thrilling in itself). Sadly while we were there one of my parents chickens died, Rhonda Warbler, (they have 3- this one was the one my oldest son had named) so he went and picked our a new chicken, nighthawk, a black araucana and is excited for it lay blue/green eggs. We also got to stop in and see my paintings at the fulfill the vision show in Washington, DC.

now showing L. Graff

2011-02-07T14:10:00.001-08:00

In case you are in the DC area, The Fulfill the Vision juried art exhibition is running at the Washington DC Temple Visitors' Center through Sunday, March 27. It has about 100 pieces in it form about 80 artists. Three of which are mine… (any many thanks to my fabulous friend rose datoc dall for her delivery service).

you know your mom is an artist when

2011-02-06T19:03:00.001-08:00

your house is filled with stacks of paintings like this… YES this weekend was the annual art shuffle in which I move everything around. My 3 year old goring to a little bossa nova amid the moving mayhem.

olive trees

2011-02-06T18:50:00.001-08:00

You know my art changes like the seasons. I start new series, generally give it a good run and move on to something else. in fact it is that freedom to explore styles, instead of feeling confined that keeps it fresh. Sometimes I go back and revisit the series later, but its never the same I have been different things in between, experienced different things. You may remember a few years back I did some olive trees, reminiscent of my summer in Jerusalem, well my recent trip to Jordan made me want to get back to the series. So here are some recent pieces…you can see the influence of some other series in this piece…

allegory 30x40” and lone 18 x 24”

label challenged

2011-01-17T06:36:00.001-08:00

In keeping up with current social media I feel the need to be on LinkedIn…trouble is I can’t define myself enough to finish my profile. Our society likes you to be one thing. well you are allowed to be 2 things sometimes like a coffee shop barista/struggling actress, or a hip hop artist/reality TV star

But child life specialist/former college faculty/former elem school teacher/artist not so much. See the problem is the connections those spheres are generally very different. And also choosing one seems to delegitimize the other. So how to prioritize?

If I say artist, my educational career feels shot through the heart and dumped in the toilet, if I say child life specialist my art feels like some mere housewife hobby conjuring Bob Ross happy trees images

1. Which do more people know me as… child life specialist based on patient census contact. Now If you go for internet hits artist will win.

2. Which earns more money- hourly… art—ironic huh-- let this be a lesson to all your parents who attempt to encourage your children to be responsible and dissuade them children from pursuing art careers.

3. Which have I invested more in… well given the cost of graduate school (okay I had a scholarship- so I have probably spent more on paints now)

4. Which am I better at…umm I don’t know? you decide…

It has be thinking deeper about our outdated linear, hierarchical, single track view of career paths, a topic I will save for discussing later.

so I guess I am destined to be LinkedIn’s Sybil?? given I read a disturbing article the other day in Scientific American Mind on the links between artists and schizophrenia—-

sometimes to amuse myself I make things out of cake…

2011-01-16T20:57:00.001-08:00

yah I do this on occasion. I can’t do it everyday or it gets tiresome but when the mood strikes, kitschy edible sculpture projects have bizarre appeal. My cousin dean and his girlfriend jenny created the very cool short film Marcel the Shell which (by now I expect you have seen if you are internet savvy). Marcel made it into the Sundance film festival this year.

So in honor of the accomplishment I made this for our Christmas dinner party. I crafted this marcel the shell cake out of cake and fondant. Poor smart son #3 developed this deep attachment to the cake and kept asking for marcel the rest of vacation and expecting me to make more of them…

well in case you ever need to know how to make marcel the shell in 3d cake form. You start with almond pound cake cooked in small loaf pans for the shoes, a 6” round (cut in half and remaining half used to build out the 3-d form of the shell, and some mini cupcakes (for the ends of the shells) You need a batch of buttercream frosting and a batch of marshmallow fondant. I crafted this while watching 1/2 of the movie White Christmas (a requisite holiday activity).

Really it was pretty easy and fun… to which you will probably respond in your best marcel voice “oh yah compared to what??!!”

2011’s not quite resolution

2011-01-16T18:04:00.001-08:00

well I am not really a hard and fast goal setter, crazy I know. I don’t do well with resolutions because well I am not the most disciplined person in the world and I actually detest overly structured things- they suffocate me (I know so surprising to hear this from an artist). Also because fundamentally I disagree with being so set on one path that I don’t take advantage of other things as they arise. I always prefer to do “end of year evolutions” instead of new years resolution (that is where I go through what I accomplished in the last year and say wow that was a great year—plus it is so much more reaffirming). I love the unexpected way opportunities and experiences unfold. This year I am semi- breaking my own no resolution rule and setting a goal of kicking out 50 paintings this year? can I do it—not sure, but it sounds really fun. So far this year I have done 6 and 3 (1/2s) and its only the 16th of January… so we’ll see what this year holds.

One of the pieces I completed this past week street view 30x40 acrylic on canvas.

this morning I stayed in my pajamas

2011-01-07T12:50:00.001-08:00

till 1pm and painted these while simultaneously playing ancient Egypt with palmer… and then to celebrate our fun morning we made a delicious 3 layer white cake with silky chocolate buttercream frosting… (okay I did a few small productive tasks in there too, but honestly not too many)

yesterday I was thinking about color and when I woke up I was channeling hans hofmann and couldn’t do anything else till I worked it out. Its crazy how your thoughts, emotions, & conversations spit themselves out in the form of paintings… it’s a strange form of catharsis and continuation…you somehow capture and concrete a given feeling, thought, or experience.

delicious

2011-01-05T13:24:00.001-08:00

I finished this piece for my domestic series before my trip to jordan and somehow got too busy to post it.

I forgot

2010-11-19T04:33:00.001-08:00

to post this one as well- “all clean” the 4th piece in the mothering series. 30x40”

for you only

2010-11-17T18:05:00.001-08:00

a few months back my friends darling son stopped me at church and asked- “Sister Graff- would you ever paint ME?”I knew this was because I had done this painting of a girl that his mother had that resembled his sister. Well how could I respond to this sweetest most earnest questioning request and so I said yes. (also maybe he was just preying on my mother guilt for middle children—they so often just get sandwiched in and you always worry about them feeling special). Now you must know I hate portraits--- I will not do them for love or money or even blood relatives! It seems strange for a woman who has spent the last year painting figures- but really legs are easy and especially painting my own legs 20 times -- I pretty much have them down. B the truth is generally portraits stress me out and make me grouchy. So I finally got around to doing it. I just did something quick- gave myself a 2 hr time limit (here you can see SS#3 helping me paint the background.

But nothing beats the ear to ear smile I saw when I gave it to him. He ran around the church parking lot with it and was the cool kid in the family for that moment. But the best was his thank you note which included a lovely portrait of yours truly. He selected which image he wanted to draw from with his mothers access to my Facebook photos. I must say I was most impressed by the detail of my toes, wedding ring, and shoes and even the legs and fabric of my family room ottoman. And his enhancement of my figure would make any Brazilian proud. And if you see the big brown man around tell him I am waiting to be paid for this in chiclets or indian food.

and to darling C- XO always-- love sister G!

In other news

2010-11-17T17:33:00.001-08:00

I am headed back to Jordan in December on another medical mission with Operation Smile and I couldn’t be more excited Jordan has to be the most welcoming place I have ever been, my friends there are like family. I can’t wait be back in the land of mint lemonade, great hummus, and fatoush. I have been making way too many visits to the salvation army and savers for playroom toys—my husband should be glad this is my worst shopping habit! I painted a giant mural for the playroom wall. My toy suitcase is almost totally packed- and I mean PACKED- (no one can fill a suitcase like me). I spent a few hrs. today sewing scrub hats not one or two but 17. This is an excessive number I have a hard time doing anything on a small scale or in small quantities. My motto is the more you have the more you can give. And I am already planning how to bring homemade cake and cookies in my roller bag carryon- because you also know I love to feed people. So stay tuned for more jordan exploits.

picking up

2010-11-17T17:20:00.001-08:00

Well the 5th piece in the mothering series is now done! This is set at my parents house this summer using my youngest son, my favorite gray shoes, and the vintage tinker toys of my childhood.

So this means the mothering card set is now for sale.

oh and if you aren’t a fan on FB already well then be one of the cool kids and hit like…

an accounting

2010-11-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

Well I feel I really should give an accounting of where I have been the last few months- October found me in NYC . I was presenting at the vascular birthmarks foundation conference and running psychosocial support sessions, attending a fundraising gala, and also a board mtg. This meant the family got to tag along for NYC weekend. Which always rocks (I mean the food in NYC alone is reason to get me there) Akdeniz Turkish Restaurant is my boys favorite as well as late night strolls through time square for Jamba Juice. I was set to go alone to NYC because #2 son was sick the day before, but the next morning he was miraculously well and so being the good mother I turned around at the train station, cancelled my ticket and drove home, madly packed the boys, and loaded up the whole family so we could go to NYC together- this however did mean sacrificing my planned trip to the Guggenheim- but I was glad to have all my boys there with me. (but really any mother who willfully gives up a weekend in NYC alone probably needs to have her head checked).
I also went to the power of mom retreat - a fabulous weekend with an amazing bunch of women! Which included driving to and from with my friend Whitney, and when we get together we have the best discussions, creative brainstorming ever. A fabulous hot tub evening with my friend Margaret, Jamie, Anne, and Chrysula. Surely the at Wentworth-by-the-Sea hot tubs rarely encounter such a group stellar of moms thoughtfully discussing politics, religion, social issues. The sessions were great and I loved getting to talk with so many other really wonderful moms.
We also had my parents come visit as well as some other friends from Virginia. This also facilitated me reorganizing every closet in my house and both attics.
And november well not quite sure what I have done in november- it is the 17th of the month and I have barely taken a breath. I am still cranking away at early morning sem. (hence the bags under my eyes). Just shipping off 6 paintings to Singapore and just finished another pre-Christmas deadline commission. Filling orders for card sets. (all the domestic series, organics, mothering, and mixed media) Just taught a 4 week after school painting class for the boys school. And the in between spaces have been filled with drs appts, dentists appts, parties, showers, piano lessons, the blare of trombone practice, laundry mountains, cookie baking, hosting play dates, and 100 other sundry things in case you though I had just been sitting around eating bon-bons…

my story

2010-10-17T18:29:00.001-07:00

Well seeing as I reached 15 in my domestic work series- I decided to switch gears a little and round out the mothering series to 5. This is piece number three in the series and piece number 4 will debut shortly- it is about 2/3rd of the way done.

I will indulge you in some sentimentality regarding things in this piece even though with this whole series. The last thing I want is sort of cheesy sentimentality assigned to them. This is mothers rocking chair, the one that she read to me in, and yes this was one of my childhood books of Raggedy Ann and Andy (wow children's literature has come a long way in 30 –odd yrs). The basket on the side is actually a wicker Moses basket I got in Turkey as a little girl and kept my stuffed animals in and the blankets on top were made by my great grandma.

on color…

2010-10-17T18:21:00.001-07:00

Okay so I kind of have a thing for color, okay make that a major crush…I love to play with it. How colors look next to each other, the seemingly endless variations of shades—it’s intoxicating. The emotions that come from various combinations. So here are some new pieces I have done lately-- a mixed media piece-- urban, 12”x 36”. I love mixed media even though a lot of people have a harder time relating to them as they are generally really abstract and non representational . They are really great exercises in composition, balance, and movement. And here is a piece I did this weekend returned to my chain garden series- one I haven’t painted in in a while. I was so interesting though because this one is definitely different from the others in the series. Its’ funny how you sort of change as you go along and can’t go back to being just the same. It makes me appreciate the uniqueness of each painting that can never be duplicated.

Chain Garden Structured, 30” x 40” x 1 3/8”

ode to town beach

2010-10-17T18:18:00.001-07:00

This was my summer, every afternoon watching my boys splash in water,fight over turns with the yellow inner tube, dig deep holes, and try to catch fish in their nets. We passed so many afternoons on that sandy stretch on a lake known to all the locals as “town beach”. It is one of the most sublime pleasures of small town New England life. Here is a painting of my 2 year old this summer at the beach. My remembrance of the blissful moment for childhood summer.

all sorts of comings and goings

2010-09-20T10:14:00.001-07:00

since i last wrote…

school started

we now have another piano player

and trombone player

our latest round of tadpole shrimp died

we’ve has two visits from family (this is one of my favorite pictures of the boys with cousins)

I have taught a few weeks of sem.

the boys have built a fort in the woods with the neighbor kids

i finished 2 commission paintings

first round edits on an essay

all the back to school paperwork

eye, dentist, and drs appts.

phone calls, bills, cleaning,

yah that about it

summer slipping away

2010-08-19T20:33:00.001-07:00

i can feel it slipping through my fingers like sand. i hate this time of year. as a mother i love the unstructured-ness. i want to drink in ever last drop of sun before the winter comes. it is hard to believe that in a few months i will wonder if i can ever be warm again, that it will be dark long before dinner.

in a few days school will start and the magic of summer will evaporate into the routines of life. crowded out school supplies and halloween costumes.

i always love the line from the song stolen by dashboard confessional

“i watch the season pull up it’s own stakes, and catch the last weekend of the last week, before the gold and the glimmer have been replaced another sun-soaked season fades away”

it captures the feeling of this time. i am already mourning the loss that is to come.

domestically speaking…

2010-07-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

here are the next two pieces in my domestic series and here are the rest of the guest posts I wrote for shabby apple…which will tell you everything you wanted to know and more about this series and maybe a few personal secrets about me…

domestically speaking:origins

domestically speaking:motivations

domestically speaking:from the studio

domestically speaking:on life

shabby apple feature

2010-07-13T14:42:00.001-07:00

Well shabby apple, approached me a few months ago about being featured on their blog. (who doesn’t love their gorgeous classy dresses) Anyway they wanted to highlight my domestic series as they were launching a new line of vintage inspired aprons. So I am there all week (4 part series), posting about why I got started in this series and what it means to me, and also some tasty little tidbits you might not know… so head on over and check it out. They are also running a pie baking contest in conjunction with my feature (winner gets 15 domestic cards and a 20x30” print of their choosing from the domestic series).

Back

2010-07-10T20:51:00.001-07:00

I am back—back from Utah, back from the segullah writers retreat, back in the studio, and back to my hectic pace of life…

Vaca recap-- I ate (lot of places- ruths diner, tin angel, cafe rio, fresh twist, red mango, malt shoppe, el azteca- need i continue?) I flew, I drove (fast –i might add thanks to the new black dodge charger the rental guy gave me), i shopped, i wrote, i laughed, i partied with family and friends, i museumed, i aquariumed, i movied, I dug (fossils), i hiked, i talked (alot), i played alumni, i created, i bonded, and i slept (a little)

What’s cooking? well I just found out an essay I wrote is going to be published next spring (so that means final rounds of editing!), about 10 new pieces in the works in the domestic series, an upcoming feature and giveaway on the shabby apple blog, a couple painting commissions, and drafting 2 new essays.

Now through all that in with summer fun, sugar cookie making, town beach, tennis camp, piano lessons, and mom life and you have a full plate.

stay tuned…

so about those German chocolate brownies…

2010-06-10T18:47:00.001-07:00

Our story opens with an almost-full pan of deliciously decadent german chocolate brownies tucked in my fridge at 7:00pm. When the neighbor boy who had joined us for dinner noticed this bad toxic burning smell in our house. Everyone goes searching for the source room to room to room -decides its coming from the basement. No visible flame, fire, or source, but terrible smell & some smoke. Slightly nervous kids all take off outside into the rain afraid the house my suddenly combust, and begin running wildly in the yard. i calmly call the non-emergency fire number and tell them it's not a real fire but something is up and how would they feel abotu comign tot take a look. The fire dept comes, full truck and sirens (any excuse to use them in a small sleepy new england town), and the police too. Smart daddy-o and firefighters standing around in the basement trying to solve the mystery. Serious detective work, thermal imaging - much theorizing. Enough for a science crime show-- final determination rain leaking in through a vent makes it into the water heater picking up material along the way that made it highly conductive. Totally burning out wires inside the hot water heater!! (theory proven- the copper wires are no longer existent—totally evaporated!) Playing the genteel, charming hostess to my small town fire dept. (there should after all be refreshments even in times of fire crisis) meant pulling out my fresh pan of high octane gourmet brownies as a polite offering of love for my local community fire and police personnel, the remainder were then spotted by neighbor children who had turned out to play on the truck and promptly descended on the pan like vultures to carrion flesh--declaring "Mrs Graff these are the best brownies EVER!" As the trucks left the kids turned to a then led to a fantastic game of capture the flag in the yard in the rain, and we grown ups caught up with the various neighbors. As the night settles—I smartly relax in a bath with the remaining hot water, not sure when we’ll have more of that—and ponder the the remains of the day-- one small bit of brownie left in the pan, a pile of wet clothes, a stack of dishes (from finely chopping chocolate, gently whisking in eggs and sugar, carefully boiling the heavy cream, gently roasting pecans all afternoon), a house that reeks of burnt wires & a dead hot water heater! That my friends is the adventuresome tale of the german chocolate brownies -- I have been dreaming about making for 3 months!)

so if we’re not friends on facebook…

2010-06-04T05:39:00.001-07:00

Well this is what you are missing…actually I thought it would be funny to pull highlights for last months status updates (because i have been to busy to blog these small tidbits give a great rehash of the month)… i know i could tweet but brevity is not my strong suit—i need the full range of generous 420 characters that FB provides…so here are this months highlights:

for thousands of years,millions of stubborn 2 yr olds have tried to tell their moms they know a better way to put on the underwear...but in the end they all break down and put one leg in each hole and realize backwards and inside out is less comfortable...so learn from history -- son! also putting your legs through the... sleeves of a moroccan soccer jersey does not make it into shorts! 5-22-2010

think i must be losing my sense of empathy and compassion--it is strangely enjoyable to feed bugs to my sons venus flytrap and watch them clamp shut on their prey 5-20-2010

crafting 5" mini 3-D yoda out of cake and fondant-- this better win me mom of the year!because mini yoda-eyelids could only = mother love or else mental instability! 5-18-2010

conversation of the week--my 4 yo: "Mom, if you wanted to talk in Jordan you should just get a C3PO. He knows all the languages!"
me: "Oh great idea son, I'll should pick one up before my next trip :)-- and it would be really cool have to have in the playroom." (obviously 3 months after my trip my lacking arabic skills ...are still troubling my young child -- but gold star for a very creative solution) 5-14-2010

husband is so blinded by love he agreed to reupholster 2 chairs for me (so either after 11 yrs I have still got it-- (or he's more of a sucker than I thought-- poor guy with pliers pulling out hundreds upon hundreds of staples) but happy to report first chair is now half done! 5-13-2010

so my husband just said - "how come there are so many hospital shows and no shows about engineers..." My answer-- "because honey... it's too hot... a bunch of guys laying out PCBs and checking tolerances, modelling things at their computers, & sitting in project meetings- I don't think the public is ready for that kin...d of excitement yet- maybe in a few years..." 5-7-2010

kids if you are going to stamp all over your bodies with my self-inking date stamper- you really should at least set the date right... credit to my 2 year for thinking to stamp his belly and soles of his feet and to my 4 year old for stamping his own forehead! 5-5-2010

has finally gotten smart and remembered to look out the window to be sure there was no wind before putting on a skirt this morning...5-3-2010

featured…

2010-05-30T20:09:00.001-07:00

a shout out to my domestic painting series in this issue of Latter-Day Woman.

yurt-a-licious

2010-05-29T18:52:00.001-07:00

The other week Allen came home and told me he had Friday off work which I took as—time to get out of town! I always wanted to stay in a yurt (and while mongolian yurts are scarce here I was pretty sure I could scour up a camping yurt to fulfill my craving). My Google search led my to frost mountain yurts All I can say is it was perfect—in a word yurt-a-licious! and I swear it’s 100x cooler than regular camping.

Friday we trekked up to Brownfield, Maine to the yurt (brief detour via Bo-mar hall and Sundaes at the Beach). I chose the most secluded yurt with mountain views- which meant trekking in all the gear half a mile by cart down hilly paths, but so worth it. The yurt was fabulous, pristine, and so nicely equipped! I came armed with a list of things we could do all weekend but nothing was as fun as relaxing at the yurt. We just spent the our time playing in the woods, relaxing in the hammock, sitting around the fire, and enjoying the views. The boys busied themselves catching toads, searching for ladyslippers, climbing the bunks, and practicing for olympic javelin with sticks.

Allen & I stayed up and enjoyed the peaceful starry night. Well all slept beautifully and comfortably and cooked a delicious big breakfast. The weather could not have been more divine. The yurts owners have all these boats for their guests to use so. we loaded up a big canoe and drove 2 miles down to Lovell Pond and put in there. We paddled across enjoying the most peaceful water and glorious views of the White Mountains. The boys got out on a beach and roamed around. #3 son was so relaxed he fell asleep in the canoe. #1 had his dream come true by finding/catching a maritime garter snake (while in Maine). Sorry so many pictures- but words couldn’t do it justice! Definitely one of my top 10 favorite family outings of all time! I can’t wait to go back and try it in the winter as they supposedly have the most fabulous cross country skiing, snowmobile, and snowshoeing (with pre-warmed yurts!)

All I can say is – do not stop- head directly for a yurt in Maine and you won’t be disappointed!

want a slice

2010-05-25T18:57:00.001-07:00

Well I finished the next painting in the domestic series last week, here it is in time for summer.

zoo day

2010-05-24T05:33:00.001-07:00

birthday celebration

2010-05-23T20:05:00.001-07:00

For my second son’s fifth birthday we decide to do a family outing as his party. He invited his best preschool friend and his family to go play miniature golf and go out for ice cream with our family. So 11 of us made our way through 18 holes and way to many strokes to count. There were water traps (nothing like a bunch of boys scooping balls out of waterfalls with nets), marvels of astroturf engineering, and no end of crazy vanilla ice cream.

How to make a 3-D yoda cake

2010-05-19T16:21:00.001-07:00

My son requested a 3-D yoda star wars cake for his 5th birthday. I was tempted to do a full size (like my 3-d R2D2 cake) on but then decided it would be cooler and simpler to do a mini 3-D yoda. So I made these yoda cupcakes. You could do just the heads if you wanted to make enough for a whole party. So here is a yoda cake tutorial . It was not that hard.

What you will need:

cupcakes 2 regular size and 2 mini size (I even used box mix cupcakes, usually for cake sculpting i use homemade pound cake so this was fast and easy)

frosting (any color)

fondant: green, tan, brown, tiny bit of white (homemade or store bought this was done with homemade marshmallow fondant)

Airhead candy or piece of rope licorice (optional)

1. Unwrap two cupcakes and frost them top to top. do the same with the minis and set it aside.

2. For the body. I rolled out a rectangle of fondant in dark brown for front of tunic. i took one air head candy cut in half and draped it across to provide a good support for the arms then sculpted 3 fingered hands and attached them to it and feet, tucked under edge of cloak. then I rolled out a long maybe 9” rectangle of tan and draped it around pinching underneath at the arms.

3. For the head I rolled out a circle of fondant and covered it (see green image below) then added the raised sculptural relief. brow bones, nose, cheeks, head.

4. Rolled another piece of fondant and laid it over top. so you have a smooth clean surface but the feature structure from the layer below. then using fondant tools creased and diveted the face.

5. for the eyes I took very tiny white balls and placed lids on top and bottom then stuck into the eye sockets.

6.I used a popsicle stick and stuck it through the body and attached the head to it for added security.

7. finished product was delicious! Here it is on 6” stacked cake with chocolate buttercream and class set of cupcakes!

all the coolness North Dakota can muster

2010-05-09T18:14:00.001-07:00

Springtime in 4th grade in our town brings one thing—the state fair. The community turns out to see the posters and displays and all the fourth graders dressed up as something or someone form their state. Well my son’s good fortune brought him…a lucky draw…the great state of North Dakota.

There is nothing to north Dakota, really. NU-thing. In fact the more I have read up on every bit of minutiae about North Dakota I am convinced that we should give North Dakota away. Like you know those small island countries, who’s nations are in jeopardy with the threat of rising sea level with global warming?? They can have North Dakota. Really any Americans out there willing to put up a fight for North Dakota?? anyone? anyone? Didn’t think so…

My son came home telling me about all the cool things his classmates were dressing up as. A Pepsi can, the empire state building, Marie Osmond. Our neighbor even made a life size crab trap to fit his son, who was lucky enough to draw Maryland.

Alas, North Dakota gave us nothing to work! I mean the highest peak- white butte—is actually not even a mountain just a large limestone rock out in someone's private field and it takes less than 30 to climb to the top. Natural resources- seriously lacking. Famous residents… well you know when Lawrence Welk is your states favorite son – you’re digging deep. We thought and thought about what he could go as. There were some dinosaur bones discovered there? Maybe a paleontologist? they do produced the most durum wheat for pasta? A giant piece of penne? it is home to Minot Air Force base and 150 nuclear tipped inter-continental ballistic missiles. While I thought this would be cool I was afraid the whole weapon thing was a violation of the school handbook—no weapons policy and we might make the 6 pm news for showing up at school as weapons of mass destruction. (Although let me take the time to share this little known fact- which is that if North Dakota were to secede it would be the 3rd strongest nuclear power). So we settled on Lawrence Welk.

While we were short on 9 year old sized leisure suits but I did my best to slick his hair back (unsuccessfully- seeing as he lacks the fine, easily combed over, thinning hair of a 70 yr year old) craft a quadruple Windsor in his tie, arm him with a baton (okay so it was a Chinese food chopstick), an accordion, a bubble machine, and teach him to say “Wunerful, Wunerful”. I told him while the kids might not fully appreciate his costume. The adults would laugh- pop culture icon. I showed him some youtube clips of Myron Floren kickin’ it on accordion and quartets singing in matching dresses and he roared with laughter. I told him truly no one under the age of 65 can stomach the show—it went of the air as it bordered on cruel on unusual punishment.

Sure enough his teacher was, as a child, was subjected to weekly Lawrence Welk viewings at her grandparents—and appreciated the true cheesiness of his choice. i told my son this great motto-- if you can’t be cool- be funny!!

Friday, he came home beaming. Saying our choice was perfect. The bubble machine was a big hit and everyone crowded around his desk constantly. In fact, in a mere 2 hours he burned through a whole bottom of premium bubble solution. in fact it was such a hit that on the bus the kids were even drawing lots to see who could win the “Accordion Music Rocks” sign complete with iconic images of Lawrence he had taped to his desktop! (He did however save the plastic sheet protector the sign was in agreeing to to give the winner only the computer print out! )

Unfortunately he is seated in this picture and you can’t see the accordion or the sign—and yes we did wrap his foam board in sparkly paper we though it might help lure in the crowds like in Las Vegas or at least it’s flashing iridescence would distract from North Dakota’s utter lameness!

aspens- variations on a theme

2010-05-03T05:27:00.001-07:00

So I realized I forgot to post there- I did them all about 2 weeks ago. I used to get very bogged down in the painting process trying to decide which colors to put where—there are always so many options. About two years ago I finally realized the best way through it was to let myself explore all the options- so that is what I did with the aspens. Different foregrounds, backgrounds, roughly the same composition. It was fun. the navy night aspens are one of my new favorites (the navy is the most delicious paint color ever- by maimeri)

tour my studio…

2010-04-20T18:22:00.001-07:00

So lots of people ask about my studio. So today you get the 411. As luck would have it when we happened upon our house and it was being built the builder was building it with 2-2 car garages. At the time we had a 1 baby and couldn’t foresee the need for such garage space- so we nixed the second garage and just had them put windows instead of garage doors and leave it unfinished. A few years later we decided to finish the space which was 24x24 with enormously high ceilings (you may remember the photo a few posts back of me sheetrocking in my 3rd trimester) so we changed the first floor bath and made a separate laundry room, a studio and playroom. I love the studio for its big open space and storage. There is an art closet, art cabinets, bookshelves, a desk, a table, my favorite storage bed which doubles as a couch(an literally has dozens of canvases stored underneath it), my favorite red chair, my giant black mirror, kids easel, my easel, two windows, & a door to outside. The IKEA shelves which hold my paintings are mounted over my head but still 4 feet from the ceiling- which makes storing paintings ideal!I have about <20 straight feet of them along the front wall. The studio does not always looked this organized—(but today you get it post spring cleaning). Especially if I am on a creative binge… or the playroom contents are spilling out through the french doors…

I love my studio. I have spent many hours here- usually night time hours (when i actually get to paint). So many great memories in this room and is one of the favorite rooms in the house- not only for me but for everyone who comes over. The view is constantly changing (you know this if you’ve ever been here). In fact one of the lines most repeated in my studio by various friends is “hey that’s new!” Truth be told really like to paint on the floor not an easel- so I usually spread out drop clothes and can be seen crawling around with my palette and paints. so that’s the grand tour folks… any questions

cheap fun

2010-04-19T19:33:00.001-07:00

Well as you can see my children occupy themselves with simple things. A tarp, a backpack, and some strings. Then they take turns with the neighbor kids running around the yard with their homemade parachute—I think they secretly hope if they get up enough speed it will lift them off the ground. I caught them dropping the backpack of the back deck (about 11 feet up). I think it was a test run- I reminded them that this is not indeed a real parachute so I don’t want to see any children attached to it going over the back deck railing!

you didn’t know me when

2010-04-11T20:05:00.001-07:00

So I have been going through old picture files since getting my new computer. And these were some I found that made me remember earlier days.

me 1979-age 3 on a galapagos turtle me april 2005 cutting sheetrock 35wks pregnant with #2 in my now studio

october 2005 with #1 and #2 at the disco bay house

march 2006 #2may 2006

feb 2007

january 2008 with my third son

Catch me this summer

2010-04-07T05:19:00.001-07:00

I will be at the Segullah Writers’ retreat and hosting the evening Studio Art night in Utah this summer! So come and create with me—get your friends to come too-- it will be a great time!! The writing conference will be amazing as well! It really is for anyone who wants to write/likes to write and I can also provide my guarantee the company will be divine. Many of my favorite women will be there! So come party with me for a day. You know it will be fun!

Trying to get back on my game

2010-03-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Slowly getting my groove back. key word slowly. Because in the last two weeks I have been sick twice. And oh how i hate to be sick, anything that cuts my productivity=arch nemesis. First with this terrible stomach virus which left me 4 lbs lighter in 36 hrs- by the end of three days eating maybe 400 cal a day I was ready to eat a small village. Then when I was finally better I was slayed down by this terrible respiratory infection. Last night I totally could not breathe- you know that total panic air-hungry feeling. So if you call me today don't hang up it's really me behind that voice! Despite feeling most miserable for the last 8 days or so I have perservered in getting a few things done: 2 paintings (new one in the domestic series and commission piece for rebecca menzie), wrapping up a few small projects and the town ed foundation dinner dance, mystery reader, Wayne Thiebaud art project for preschool. I have also been on a three week straight sem. teaching marathon. So lots of life has been falling through the cracks. So barring further plagues maybe next week I'll hope to be back on my game. Right now I would be very happy to find myself on a tropical island with a book, a swimsuit, a clean bill of health, and some of that jordanian fresh lemon with mint.

Why I go

2010-03-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

If you talk to anyone who does Operation Smile Missions they will tell you how addicting they are. Once you go you really can't stop going. It was the hardest thing for me to give up doing when I had little babies at home. One of the fringe benefits of them growing up is being able to go again. In fact if I were very honest, I think one of the saddest things for me would be to think I could never do them again. (So I am glad that isn't the case) I would practically realign the stars if I had to in order to continue doing these throughout my life. I always hope they won't suddenly be flooded with child life specialists and not need me!!

It is amazing how close you get to people in a week and a half. Also how quickly you adapt to a new environment. By the end of the trip it all feels natural. You are used to the intensive schedule, the food, the people. It's like you reach a new normal and it feels like home? In fact you have to remind yourself you don't really live in a hotel in Jordan and won't be at the Vinaigrette at 5:45 for breakfast the next week. I was also talking to my friend Jamie (a NP from Texas) and my friend Heather (who is an OR nurse from UT) we all agreed these trips are like pressing the reset button on your world. There are so many things I take from going on these trips.

1. You get to immerse yourself in another culture finding it's flavor. It reminds you we (Americans) don't have the corner on the market of all good things.

2. You are reminded that happiness doesn't come from things.

3. You realize how easy it is to bond with people who live half a world a way and whose lives are very different from your own especially when you are all coming together for a single goal. You gain so many friends.

4. You gain a great appreciation for your health and the health of your children and your access to medical care.

5. You realize how a few people coming together can create a big change in the lives of others.

It's funny because you always get comments from others when they hear you are going, telling you what good work you are doing, but really in a sense it almost feels selfish to go. The experiences are so rich and personally rewarding you sometimes feel what you receive from it is greater than the benefit the children receive from the surgeries.

Yes, I am already getting my suitcases packed for the next one. I figure realistically and logistically I can only do about 1x a year now...I wish I could do it again tomorrow, but home duty calls and my family is my first love. But already dreaming whats next? Egypt? India? Bangladesh? Ethopia? Although I'd easily go back to Jordan in a heartbeat. I have never gone back to a site I have done a second time and that would be a fun experience.

My family really is so supportive. People always say, "Your husband's okay with this--?" Especially when I told them I did 4 missions the first year we were married. He doesn't get threatened by it. He knows it's important to me, and I wouldn't be the woman I am if I didn't do these things. He knows how passionate I am about it and supports me 100%. And my parents support me too, my mom came to help Allen with the boys (who by the way got seriously sick in my absence- which actually made me feel bad about being gone however cleaning up after 5 days of sick kids- secretly glad I missed that) and if you know my mom you know my house is now cleaner than ever and my freezer is filled with dinners and (seriously I should take a picture) over 30 homemade lunches in containers for my husband. I also returned to blissfully happy children. I have spent the week reassimilating into life, catching up on all the mail, bills, school papers, everything else that went on hold for 2 weeks.

There is a certain let down factor when you are done. It always feels kind of like a dream. It's sad to see it end. To know that in reality you will likely not see those families and people again. You go from being so busy and focused and connected back to ordinary life. It take a week or so to sort of recenter yourself back in your everyday world.

The rest of Jordan

2010-03-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

First of all these posts might be long and tedious, but I have to record the trip...I would try to write it in a more interesting or humorous way but I am still so tired my brain isn't yet to a level of functioning that can be interesting, creative, or humorous.... yes --no jet lag going, but as you can see it's killing me on the way back-- 4 am anyone?...really I even dream in Jordan (complete with people speaking arabic- if this tells you how tired I am my subconscious can't even remember where I am -- or that I don't speak arabic-- maybe it's trying to tell me I know more arabic than I think-- shokran? afwan?) also it's about time for the new blogger editor to get the spell check feature??)

Day 6 (surgery Day 3) Day three was another full day of palate surgeries. So lots of 2-3 hr procedures. It makes the progress of the day feel a little slower- especially by about the 3rd case of the day. By this time too post op is full of patients from past surgeries so it's usually one of the really busy days of the week. Sometimes you feel like the pied piper when you walk through post op because a stream of children start following you around in post op. The students who helped me so much during screening were visiting a school, and orphanage, and a refugee camp as well as following kids through the surgery process so I was pretty much on my own. Dusty, the clinical coordinator was excellent. She kept things running so smoothly. We had an excellent system worked out with the charts and dbl checking patients as they went in. I did try to write my name in arabic on the playroom wall -I asked if it looked like a 5yr old's arabic- they told be no- It looked like a 7 yr old's so that made me feel good.

Marty, on of the pedi anesthesia docs and I started to plan ahead an ciculate a time to meet up for anyone who wanted to go out. When everyone heard they decided to plan a team dinner, which was great so we went to Marsa Beirut. I should've taken more pictures. Because the architecture was amazing (you know my love of modern architecture) So gorgeous. Again we had course after course after course of the most delicious food, all family style. We ate for a few hours. I felt bad though as some of the team had to go back to check on a patient and the post op team wasn't able to come.

Day 7 (surgery day 4) This was the last full day of surgeries so another fairly full day. This trip had very few primary lip repairs. Most had already had their lips done and needed their palates repaired, or scar revisions, we were also doing nevus and burn patients. This night I promised the pre -post of nurses I would wait for them for dinner because they hadn't been back in time for dinner for the last two nights. Hasan and Abdallah two of our favorite translators (they are medical students in Jordan) offered to take us out around Amman (Abdallah has a hilarious "bachelor doctor" sign on his car- I promised to give their numbers out to cute single girls headed to jordan). The last bus arrived in time so Jamie came with Amanda (student sponsor), Lisa and Taylor (the students), and myself. The other people opted to stay home. The guys were so nice and drove us all over Amman, They took us shopping at the Mecca Mall (and really we were lucky because we were the only people who go to go shopping on the trip- thats how busy we were) they even negotiated for 10 minutes to get us into a closed store. We got to join in the party after a Jordanian soccer team win (they was much honking, singing, flag waving) and they made reservations for us for an absolutely fabulous dinner out at Rajeen. They also told us alot of about the history of Jordan and the culture and customs. We ate so much of the most delicious food, I couldn't even eat breakfast the next day I was still so full. They we sweet and hospitable and wouldn't let us pay for dinner, despite our best efforts to sneak the money back to the them in cards (this involved a quite a comical event involving 5 of us in the hotel elevator a trying to sign cards and it turning off while we were in it and going up and down to the same floors and opening 3 times on the same workers who couldn't not figure out what all these american women were doing covertly in the elevator). All I can say I every evening on this trip if you were with me something funny/memorable happened and there was alot of laughing!

Day 8- Surgery day 5 (shorter day) The surgery schedule is lighter the last day and then it's time ot pack up and pack up the ORs. It's always a sad day because it means the trip is over.Really I get teary eyed when I take down the playroom. As I throw away the signs where all the patients signed their names, where we recorded the high scores from our playroom basketball games, and all the personal notes from people wishing us well in our work. We had some adult cases later on the schedule so we finished up with the kids fairly early. I did have the best soccer game in the outer or hallway with a 9 yr old boy. I made tape goals on the floor. One of the fathers was quite disapproving of such wild riotous behavior in the hospital (and tried to let the air out of the ball) but I assured him I was allowed in fact this was my job to keep the kids calm and happy and comfortable and engaged in developmentally appropriate activities. It was a really fun game especially when I fell on the floor and the 20 parents couldn't help but laugh. (it was really funny). They made knafah for us at lunch. It's this really interesting pastry-- it's cheese on the bottom then this orange colored cake on top soaked in a sweet syrup and sprinkled with pistachios (it sounds odd but actually really good- a mix of sweet and salty).

After we got back I went to the Food City with Khadija, the most delightful anesthesiologist from South Africa. I bought fun foods and drinks to bring back for my kids. (of course some lion bars as I got addicted to those when I was doing study abroad in Jerusalem and Egypt) That night was the final party. A bunch of the girls came to my room to get glammed up for the party. So I was dolling out clothes jewelry, curlers (set of 5 dual voltage curlers- these are the secret to fast hair on intl trips), and makeup for the occasion. I really am not glamorous on missions but I was voted the glamorous one... I just bring lots of black that was you feel more glam than you really are.

The final parties on missions are the best, it's just the best celebration of the friendship and work of the week. There is always a ton of picture taking, food and hours of dancing. We tried some dubya dancing- can't say I totally mastered that but I can still still get down and party. It's so fun to go dancing in other countries. Every country has it's own style- kenya, siberia, the philippines, morocco, you name it- different cultures use different rhythms and dance from different parts of their bodies- it's always fun to watch (like middle eastern is more up and down and shoulder based). So a late night getting back from the party.

Final day- Team Day in petra. Friday we left early for Petra it's about a 3.5 hr bus ride from Amman. I never realized Petra was so big. Everyone is used to seeing the pictures fo the treasury but not much else. Really we spent over 4 hours hiking and still didn't get to all of it. And how it's all carved out of the rock- well it's really amazing. As an artist I can appreciate it alot (probably because my attempts at sculpture carving from plaster blocks were quite pathetic!). I remember going places like the temple of karnak and luxor in egypt and think how hard it would be to carve such giant things, because if you mess up it's ruined. Still when compared to petra that feels minor (a statue is one thing if oyu mess up you can get a new chunk of stone, but when it's all carved out of one wall of stone- that would be tough. There are horses, burros, camels. I think they camels like me especially- after riding them in Turkey, at the pyramids in Giza, and for a few hours up mt sinai on a camel- I am cool with them.

We rode the bus back to Amman and quick changed clothes no time for a shower and headed straight to the airport. I must say the security in the airport is thorough in Amman- 3 rounds, 2 xrays, 2 full body pat downs, full carryon searches. Still even after 8 hours on a bus 5 hrs of hiking, and smelling like camels jordanian hospitality still shines through and you still get winked at my at least a few of the passport guys...who remind you that you are always welcome in Jordan. All I can say is after only 5 hhrs of sleep every night. I was out before the plane took off from Amman. I got a middle row all to myself. (shh down't tell I even wore my pjs on the plane-- I don't think anyone could tell- they were gray microfleece pants) slept through all 4 movies.and woke up just before JFK. Made it it through customs said good byes and boarded my plane back to BOS. I was greeted by my boys bearing their newly earned pinewood derby trophies and a giant "we missed you mom!" sign on the door!

Jordan Continues Day 3-5

2010-03-08T04:03:00.000-08:00

The good part of being up at 3 am, with jet lag, is I can use the time to work on the huge task of writing all about my trip. I wish I couldn've done it as I went along but, I was already getting about 5 hrs of sleep a night so keeping up the blog became non-essential. To see a bunch of pictures from my trip you can go here. I can also tell you there are pictures of me on hundreds of phones all over Jordan. People were constantly taking pictures of us, pretty funny.

So Jordan=rain. Well at least while we were there. It rained I think 75% of the time. Which they tried to tell us was unusual and that really the amount of rain we had while we were there was more than in 15 yrs. But it was good to see the sun when it came out. They also have amazing instant fog there! You'd look out you window and in 2 minutes the densest fog would set in.

Day 2 continued- We had dinner at vinagrette-- the resteraunt at the Al Qasar where we stayed. (Can I just say I do love the Al Qasar- the nicest of any hotel I have ever stayed in on a mission- I am afraid I will go soft after staying there... satellite TV, comfortable clean beds, endless hot water, really nothing but love and kisses for the Al-Qasar and staff-- and even the intersting security procedure entering the hotel!) It has a gorgeous view of Amman. I love city lights at night. I must say two thumbs up for the chicken and mushroom crepes as well as the creme brulee. Also I have give a special shout out to the bartender at Viniagrette who at breakfast every morning would make me the best hot chocolate with frothy milk (although he couldn't understand why we liked to drink it in the morning-crazy americans). By the end of the trip he brought it to my table at 5:45am without even asking!)

Day 3 (day 2 of screening) started early. We screened 208 patients (well that is how many went through pre-screening). Again each of those with about 3-4 other people- so lots of people in a small space! However this day it was a more steady flow so it felt a little less chaotic. We screened Palestinian patients who had made the trip over the border to come and were staying at a nearby hotel as well as more Jordanian patients. One of the great tasks of screening is to be sure the toys don't walk away. I did pretty good except for a few puppets that walked away as well as pieces of large foam puzzles. Not quite sure why you'd want a large foam puzzle piece or what you'd do with it but none the less the fish and sesame street puzzles both lost pieces. Again much more coloring, chain making, bubble blowing, ball playing, parachute, throw me a bone, jenga, and puzzles for the cast of thousands.

I also sorted all the child life boxes that got shipped with cargo- separating out cloth dolls, stuffed animals and the random toys that get mixed in. I have to say there were a few unusal items in the boxes- like scantily clad barbies (which we quickly put away as they would have been highly culturally insensitive. Also these very bizarre ronald macdonald makeup kits for children which included ketchup like packets of flourescent orange hair dye- which was I am sure exactly what the anesthesia team would've loved for me to use on the kids pre-op.)

We had a big team dinner that night at Jafra. It was a cool old building. I of course got the coolest seat at a fish table. Yes it was this giant round vat with fish swimming in it with a plexiglass top. We had the most delicious dinner- course after course after course, after course really --Like over 14-15 different dishes and drinks. Also Jordan has great drinks- their fresh juices are fabulous- especially fresh lemon with mint- yes it's green and doesn't look like anything we drink but it is delicious- it's like a subtle mint flavor followed by the best fresh lemonade- a must have and something I will definitely have to try making at home this summer! Also they have sodas named "Linda" and "fizzy wizzy" as well as black currant fanta. Jafra served the best after dinner hot cholate which felt like you were drinking a belgian choclate bar. Food is served family style and I love the communal atmonspeher of the meals. There was a musican so much singing by our Jordanian team and our first introduction to the infamous OSJ chant "Operation (clap clap clap) Smile, Operation(clap clap clap) gives you a smile" only fully appreciated with and arabic accent.

Day 4- Day 1 of Surgery- We were running 5 tables, 4 general and one local. My playroom was set up right outside the OR. The space is kind of small and there was water that dripped down from the ceiling in the middle of the room so you had to be careful where you sat. Also the lights didn't work until the last day-so you can imagine my surprise and excitement when they turned on the last day. One day I was playing basketball in the dark with one of the kids and wishing for flashlights or glowsticks.

I have to say I had the best translators and helpers ever on a mission!! Operation Smile Jordan is well established in country and really it made my job so much easier. My poor translators though- get so used to translating the pre op teaching speal. I am sure they can all, in their sleep, demonstrate with my teaching puppet all about the masks, the ivs, tongue stitches (for cleft palate cases) and even rectal tylenol.

During surgery week, my day is spent prepping all the kids and playing with them until the last case goes on the table, then I clean up the playroom, pack everything up for the supply closet and then go check on the day's patients post op and check on the newly arriving patients for the next days surgeries.

Really I have the best job on the team because I get to get to know every single patient. Especially on a relatively intimate mission like this one where we did only did 104 cases. I play and talk with them for hours during screening. I talk to each one of them and their parents before surgery. And they get so excited to see me after surgery because I am the fun one. I am the one constant person through the entire experience. While I also have the dirtiest job (crawling around on dirty hospital floors amid markers, playdough, and toys), the most chaotic (me+prescreening area =800 people) and the most schlepping (try packing an entire playroom for this many kids 6 mo to adolescents in 50 lbs.) but it's also the most personal.

Amanda, Lisa and Taylor and I went across the street to a chinese resteraunt for dinner because it was getting late and it was recommended on a list in our hotel room and said there was a discount for operation smile. The meal proved to be quite comical, there was the part where they were dustbustering the table, a bad lost in translation experience involving my name badge being taken back into the kitchen where the entire staff discussed for 10 minutes, then taylors name badge, and dicussion of an all you can eat 15Jd offer (not the offer we were talking about) and ending with a round of complimentary chinese tea, which was quite funny becasue it was the exact same tea they had given out earlier. Peking certianly goes down on the list of memorable dinners.

Day 5 -- day 2 of surgery

The hotel was about a 35 minute bus ride back to the hotel. They would leave in 4 different shifts, as people finished. This is little tricky though because everyone isn't back all together. I got back to the hotel and planned to go out to eat, but I worried people were alone in their rooms with no where to go but upstairs. And as the child life specialist, the psychosocial and emotional needs are my responsiblity I decided that applied to the rest of the team as well as the patients so I embraced my role as the love boat social director and asked the front desk for a room list of all the op smile team and went door knocking inviting everyone who was back to go out with me. You know how I like a party! We rallied a nice group and Omar, who is originally form Jordan agreed to be our guide. So we walked a little ways from the hotel to a resteraunt. Where we had the best fruit smoothies, fruit salads, lebanese fajita wraps. So I decided I wanted ice cream, and the only offering was in 1 kilo. I asked if this indeed was 2.2 pouds of ice cream and omar assured me it was. So I decided to order it because when else do you order it by the kilo? Well the waiter then said just for me he'd give me an extra half a kilo- not sure what I did to merit such generosity and so he said he'd bring me every flavor they had. So he arrives mith my 3.3 pounds of ice cream and we all dug in attempting to identify all the flavors of Jordan. which ranged from cantaloupe (that took some sleuthing) to arabic, to galaxy, to blueberry cheesecake, and many others. It was a night of many laughs (thanks also to the movie The Core which was showing on Dubai one channel before we left) and it earned me the nickname Mrs Ice Cream from Ammar one of the Post/op nurses as word of my ice cream excursion became legendary.

The rest of the week to follow- as I am sure i'll be up early again tomorrow night!

jordan arrival

2010-02-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

I'm here thanks to long legs and the ability to sprint a good 30 international gates at JFK. My layover was supposed to be 2 hours which I knew could make it tight, but nothing like stepping off in a different terminal and hearing last call for your flight (my flight to JFk was 1.5 hrs late). The flight from Jordan was actually very mellow and I slept instead of watching the 4 movies and was most thankful for the empty seat next to me, bose noise cancelling headphones, and unisom.
Our hotel in Amman is very nice, certianly the nicest of any mission I have been on. Operation Smile Jordan is very well established and has so much support, they have done a great job establishing a really robust incountry program. They are very enjoyable to work with. I WISH MY ARABIC WAS BETTER

It was great to sleep in a real bed. I realized though I probably didn't need an alarm clock because the call to prayer sounds at 4:30 and 4:50 and Ic an't fall back to sleep after that. I am used to it from all my travels, but the here it is very beautiful and ethereal sounding, especially mixed in with the sounds of rain.

Breakfast delicious was on the top floor of the hotel with a gorgeous view of Amman. The screening set-up changed due to the rain (they are usually out under tents and with over 177 kids we screened today - each comes with about 3 people so in a very small space there were probably around 8000 people packed it. Not good for those who like personal space. So there was much ball tossing, jenga playing, bubble blowing, of course I am the favorite because I come bearing toys in all their varieties. So many really darling children. Tomorrow will be the second day of screening more Jordanian as well as Palestinian kids who have crossed the border for this. The wireless internet at the hotel is a bit touchy so I can't really upload good pics now but I promise you'll see them soon!
Everyone is so welcoming, and you have to love the way blond hair always makes people stare.
dinner and shower are calling (really I probably need to lysol my entire body too!)

now that that's behind me

2010-02-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

I can go to Jordan...yes 3 days and counting.

I have been dying to do this painting since I did the study shot at Christmas. I switched it up going horizontal and going bigger-- the shot really needed it. It's 36"x48" so alot to undertake in 5 nights of painting, nothing like a deadline to make you work. Best thing was that it was winter vacation week so I could stay up until 1:30 am painting with no real consequnces the next day. Needless some serious music grooves were required, I think I went through every song on my playlists even breaking out some Barry White and classic Stan Getz bossa nova. (I would also like to take this time to praise great sound- thanks to the Bose products in every room in my house. That alone would have been reason enough to have married my husband -xo-let alone his spontaneous dishwashing, and laundry doing) The painting was also witness many olympic medals-- half pipe anyone?

I was afraid to leave it partially done because there is an necessary short term memory log that is required on a painting- of what you mixed to get what, and what proportion of maimeri navy, golden smalt, and winsor newtons payne's gray I used to make the skirt color. Deep sixing that info on a 2 week hiatus could equal disaster. Love the backlighting in this piece. Insider tidbit for this shot I again shoved my two year old into the 6-12 month jammies (they were just the perfect cut and super pale ice blue color) and the food in the bowl -- m&ms-- yep mom had to go hardcore to get full cooperation for the shot.
Oh and you catch me on Segullah today talking about Wielding Power

switching gears...new painting series

2010-02-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

I know, I know I am not done with the domestic series yet, but I couldn't resist changing gears for a few nights to start on this mothering one. (I made the rule so I can break it!)So here is the first one in my mothering series as seen on the sparkly new easel.

A story behind the shot, this is the crib at my parents house that they've had since my childhood, and a quilt my grandmother crocheted. It is smooth color blocks of yellow, white, and aqua-- so very cool. The baby is actually my two year old squeezed into a pair of 6-12 month jammies (quite comical)

As I approach this series though I am struggling with how to do this series without it feeling overly sentimental? I am hoping the more stylized nature of the technique will help. I want them to be interesting and make people think about domestic connectionss but I don't want them to feel like posters of puppy dogs (you know the "ahhh thats so cute factor") which things that involve babies often engender?

Looking at the photograph is making me think I need to change the skirt a little- it's making my backside look a little wide-like a bad pair of jeans. As the unfortunate model for all the shots (as anyone who goes to knows me can tell you they see these outfits and shoes regularly), I don't want to be remembered in unflattering ways...

getting ready...10 days to Jordan

2010-02-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

So in 10 days I leave for Amman. It's finally starting to sink in, as the suitcases and piles begin to mound in the corners of my room. I am trying to keep my boys out of my toy stashes and plan clothes for 65-70 degrees (something I haven't felt in a few months!)

I check out our hotel and wow- it looks so nice. Accomodations on medical missions are not usually very deluxe and can in fact be quite primitive as in limited water, single bulb socket in the ceiling). My most memorable accomodations from a past mission was the Hotel Kunste in Kenya. The windows did not shut all the way (not good when you are in a malaria risk area) and I was always afraid someone or something would come in through the windows at night. I had to sleep under deet soak mosquito netting- which also takes some getting used to. Think negative 3 stars on a US scale. The only decor in the room was a book order poster (each room was different, michael jackson, kittens, island scenes) hung 10 feet in the air so you couldn't reach them or steal them even if you stood on the bed. In the Philippines, we slept in the hospital which made for interesting accomodations (so convienient to walk down the hall to the the patients) I do miss their great mangos and purple yam ice cream. Siberia wasn't bad it except you couldn't flush toilet paper and I was 10 weeks pregnant with my first son so I threw up in alot of Siberian bathrooms (something I prefer to never do again). Morocco was good, both hotels, the one in Agadir catered to european tourists and hard really bizarre evening variety shows, the one in Marrakesh was quiet and had a beautiful pool, only it was too cold to swim, and the side benefit was nightly midnight cockroach squishing. Luckily you are so exhausted at the end of the day you can sleep pretty much anywhere.

I am also looking forward to the fringe benefits of some good middle eastern food. Something you know I love after living in Turkey and studying abroad in Jerusalem and Egypt.Also it will be neat to see Petra and some of the sights of Jordan.

Tonight I showed my boys this clip from a past Operation Smile Mission to Jordan. So they can envision where I will be. I also started dreaming of where I'd like to go on my next medical mission (I know I know I need to get through this one first... but I am thinking Indonesia? Bangladesh? India?)

Then I read from the operation smile blog about the volunteer teams they have in Haiti helping now. Tonight's entry was especially heartbreaking. As I read it to my boys it helped them see how their cupcakes for haiti project really will make a different those 4400 pounds of rice and beans will feed alot of people, as the entry highlighted the shortages of food and water. It was especially hard to read as they wrote about a 4 year old boy with burns. I saw two very similar cases of severely burned babies when I was on medical missions in the past, babies who couldn't survive due to infections from the extensive burns over their entire bodies. I will always remember those mothers and their babies. It was such a poignant reminder of the realities of life and the needs around us near and far.

So my thoughts for valentines day... share your love, whenever, whereever, and with whomever you can. There is always someone's life you can change for the better.

XO- les

domestic #11, painting playlist

2010-02-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

morning paper, acrylic on canvas, 30x40"

You know me and my painting playlists. I need music when I paint- it keeps me going late at night So every so often I give you my current favorite painting playlist picks...here's this weeks list:

1. Movie Screens- Meese
2. Straight Away- Mat Kearney
3. Promises- Badly Drawn Boy
4. Crawl - Chris Brown
5. This Is The Last Time -Keane (you know it wouldn't be a painting mix w/o some Keane)
6. Long Walk Home- This Day and Age
7. Sleeping to Dream- Jason Mraz

domestic #9, domestic #10

2010-02-09T09:44:00.000-08:00

I bought myself a new easel my way of congratulating myself on getting the 10th piece in this series done. Also as a matter of necessity. I am floor sitter and actually I love to paint on the floor. I know that sounds crazy- and If you catch me really late at night I sometimes paint half lying down. I love having flexiblity to move around the canvas easily and I think it comes from being in early childhood I am drawn to the floor like a magnet. But my knee (which has hardly any remaining cartiledge) is not liking it- so I am going to attempt to force myself back to easel working...we'll see how it goes...

I am in love...

2010-02-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

They came.

For those who weren't watching last season, I'll re-cap. Smart mama's glorious long red couch has been a witness to her almost 11 years of marriage. Fading dramatically from the sun, sagging under years of love from 3 active boys. Now considered geriatric in couch years. Smart mama searches desperately to find what she wants. She can see it in her head-- no one makes it. Finds a great couch in architectural digest--it's perfect-- research yields it was custom made- dead end. Apartment Therapy is enlisted in her cause. She turns then to the sofa company in CA (and with the help of hannah, our design consultant) she customs designs her perfect couch for a steal (really less than alot of ugly couches).

Necessary factors for design:

-can't be too low (I am tall)

-clean lines (not a frou-frou girl, I have bachelor tastes when it comes to lines)

-want low wide track arms (that feel like an unobtrusive extension of the couch, utilitarian, doubles as a casual extra seat at parties)

-long (won't even consider anything under 86")

-no skirt or place for things to hid under it

-neutral fabric (found a fab charcoal boucle which was exactly what I pictured in my head)

-must be 23" or greater seat depth

-must feel sturdy like it can last in a house of boys

-no back cushions (husbands one dying request, less things for our kids to pull off)
-mid-century nods

My kids are drawn to them like magnets. They are perfect platforms for reading, rolling around, lounging. We bought two, so allen I could each have our own! I love that we designed them- they are us! (believe me it required arduous hours of measuring, sitting, and drawing) but it was worth it all-- and I am am sold on custom- don't know if I can do pre-made ever again...

so here's to love, which brought about almost 11 years of marriage and the need for new couches (which are reason enough alone to stay married for a decade!)

Cupcakes = 4,440 lbs. of rice and beans for Haiti

2010-02-04T05:24:00.000-08:00

You know how I love global causes and helping my boys see they can have a part in greater good across the world. Well when I heard about Cupcakes for Haiti that Lynette Austin put together in Northern Virginia I thought hey that’s something I can do. But life is crazy right now, as in really crazy, as in leaving for Jordan in 3 weeks, working on 2 painting commissions, seminary, town meetings, seft dance donation solicitations, trying to wrap up my domestic series, and emails flooding my inbox like that scene form harry potter where the letters fly in from every opening to the house. So it would have been easy to ignore the thought and inspiration, but when you feel the urge to do good things—you do them.

While I knew I couldn’t pull of something grandiose I knew I could do something. Lynette and I chatted on the phone (thanks to Rose Dall for hooking us up) because I believe in learning from those more experienced, her experience and wisdom was invaluable. After we talked I said ,”That’s it I am going to do it!” Because you know if there is one thing I can do it’s make cupcakes and frosting and my sprinkle collection is legendary. (Maybe I will will it to the Smithsonian when I die). I decided to keep it small scale and make the focus involving my kids and our neighbors. We had 3 days from the time we secured a location to get it pulled off.

So we made cupcakes- lots of cupcakes- hundreds of cupcakes. My 4yo old is a master of the hand mixer. My 2 year old also fought over full mixer control and mastered the job of “beater licker”. Smart mama mixed giant triple batches of fresh vanilla and chocolate butter cream frosting (now you see why 7 qt mixer is an essential element in our home). Smart daddy-o covered trays and sampled frostings. May I also caveat the only thing I had to buy at the store was eggs (all the other things for this were already in my food storage shelves!)

We made posters (can you believe I actually learned how to make posters with chalk pastels in college) We invited friends and neighbors over for a family night decorating party. We love inviting people to our home and especially when we are united by a great cause. It was really great to have a project that the kids could have fun with even at ages 2-9. We had infinite variation of cupcakes, frostings, and sprinkles which made for a beautiful and alluring display.

In my preparation I wondered how we would package them, and then an idea struck punch cups-It was perfect they fit in nicely. You wrap the tops with cellophane and they look gorgeous, travel well and don’t smash- so may I recommend that for any future bake sales with cupcakes!!

We set up in the breezeway of Goretti’s a locally owned store, which was so kind of them, because it is Feb in New England (high on about 33 degrees. And for 4 hours my kids, and our friends the Jones and one of their friend manned the table. We were overwhelmed with the generosity of the community. People leaving money without taking anything. People paying $10 for a cupcake. In fact it went so well Christy and I were taking turns running home kicking out 5 more dozen cupcakes and 3 dozen more cookies! It was deeply humbling to see the goodness and concern of others.

I was so touched by the remarks of some of the people who stopped to talk to our kids. One woman teared up and said to the kids, “I know you are giving from the heart, Jesus is proud of you”. Our kids felt powerful. They beamed when we sold out an hour early! As we sat at the table we talked about the difference that this could make, and how if no one stepped up, no one would get help. It’s so easy to think someone else will take care of things instead of sharing in the burdens of humanity ourselves.

They counted up with glee the hundreds and hundreds of dollars that had been shoved in the donation can. (We are donating it to Food for the Poor and interdenominational humanitarian supply agency.) We calculated it out and with the money they made it will purchase 4,400 lbs of rice and beans for people in Haiti! (Food for the Poor has a feeding center there where they are providing hot meals).

A testament that by small a simple things great things can come to pass. The power of kids, cupcakes, and a community that cares.

2010 Edition of the 14 Days of Valentines Smackdown Challenge

2010-01-30T06:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's that time of year, the time you have waited for. I am happy to announce the 14 days of love challenge is back. That means 14 days of loving behaviors. You can do it for your kids, for your spouse, for your friends-- cause they "can't get enough of your love". (cue Barry White) While there are "50 ways to leave your lover" there are over 250 ways to love your lover- so here is the list 250 ways to say I love you in case you are "all out of love"-ing ideas.

Because the "what the world needs now is love sweet love". So bring your A-game cause smart mama can out love you anyday of the week. (You also know I can talk a little smack to get some healthy competition going).

Last year we had quite he impressive shows of loving behaviors. And this year I want to see more!

And there is a prize...if you succcessfully complete the challenge and return and report via blog or email you will be in the running for a set of my domestic cards.

And well if you live near me you can get int he spirit in person as I will be teaching a loving behaviors class at my church on feb 9th-All are welcome-- if you want more details you can contact me.

Also I am posting at segullah today about why valentines day...so catch me there

"I wanna know what love is, I want you to show me"

XO, smartmama

because boys can have cool rooms too...

2010-01-26T04:31:00.000-08:00

All I can say is decorating boys rooms is tricky. I don't like juvenile stuff and I like it to look different than every copy pottery barn (because it always feels like slight variations of the same thing for me) and even finding fabrics is tough. I finally got in gear though and got my 3rd son's room changed from the cowboy nursery to this (he's 2).

I love these ODDA beds from IKEA (I always buy twin beds in sets so there is an extra bed in the room), as as I am one who loves storage space and hates to look at extra stuff, came up with this idea to fit two 36", over fridge cabinets below each bed. They are super deep and provide tons of storage. Also my coolest innovation is that the beds glow. Yes I had this vision for them from the very beginning. So each bed has LED lights below them. Connected to footpedal extension cords (which are hidden at the far wall end of the beds). So turning it on illluminates the underside of the bed. They love to lay under them and bask in the E.T.-like other worldy glow to read books and play, and it'a an awesome built in night light he calls it "the glows". I made the curtains (lined with blackout- as you know I have a deep love for hotel blackout curtains) The sheets are delicious 400 thread count from target and match the bluish gray walls perfectly. The comforters are reversible black/gray, the mirrors are 2" thick squares bound in rolled newspapers, the art is mine, and the license plate that run the two long walls of the room are courtesy of my best friend Shelah. The room feels sleek, clean, airy and modern and hass quickly become everyones favorite reading destination!

Interviewed

2010-01-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

for the Mormon Women Project. This fabulous project is the work of Neylan McBaine (who is so delightful, we bonded on the phone as my 2 year old sprayed the kitchen with water and dumped out hundreds of train pieces everywhere.) Don't spend so much time reading my interview because well, you already know about me and really I'm not that exciting. But spent your time reading the interesting profiles of the other featured women. I love biographies, the rich stories of people's lives. Add it to your reader so you can read all the upcoming interviews....

corresponding style

2010-01-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

my new set of domestic cards are in...

it is the first 5 pieces in the domestic series

stirring things up
a piece of cake
soft & clean
who's there?
cleaning up the mess

The cards are white 5x7, with matching evelopes. Attached are 4x6 matte photographic prints. Each is hand signed and hand titled and in it's own clear sleeve. ($12/$14 shipped).

they are good for many things, not just letters, in fact if you buy enough you can wallpaper your bathroom with them...

if you want a set hit me via my website contact page

shoot!

2010-01-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

Well nap time thursday was slated to be an art & artist photo shoot, (somehow I forgot to post aspen expanse piece to my gallery site -ironic- given it's the hugest painting in my house) but in all my furniture moving I knocked my camera to the floor and prompted shattered my lens. The morning turned from shoot into "Shoot!" Then again the silver lining in this cloud is that as long as I was forking it out for a new lens I might as well get a better one...(on it's way)

A friend saved me in the mean time sparing me a loaner lens. Unfortunately the delay meant I left the room in disarray until the next days nap time when I could try again. I wanted a lineup of all the finished domestic pieces in a row (so I could see my work thus far, pat myself on the back and feel motivated to keep going) but this means needing wall space <20 linear feet and serious wide angle! When the series is done I'll have to line them up at warehouse or half a football field for a full panoramic shot.

Also the next time I scheme so gradiose a series. Please remind me to...

1. Not to paint so big

2. Not to paint so tight (I am not naturally tight- I am naturally really loose so tight takes alot of restraint, and intense focus for me to paint in a more regimented way)

3. Choose to set my sights lower than 12-15 pieces for the series

4. Give myself more than a 6-8 mo personal deadline for such an undertaking (especially amid devotedly mothering 3 young children, teaching early am seminary, being the blog editor of Segullah, and the 50 other things on my plate)

5. Choose simpler paintings that take less than 20+ hours to complete

6. Don't be passionate about it's message because, that way when it gets hard you can abandon the series and not care.

I CAN DO IT! (positive self talk)

A Himalayan sense of accomplishment

2010-01-14T12:55:00.000-08:00

I am generally not a procrastinator...
Actually though putting things off can sometimes be a good thing. Like recently, I did this with laundry until the mounds of clothes were in a word...epic? mammoth? nay Himalayan. (This is after all one of the things I like to chronically put off-- because it has no deadline and I thrive on open-endedness. (This is why I made sure to have 3 weeks worth of underwear and plenty of clothes in college.)

See as I realized today, had I done this in a "load- per-day" timely fashion, it would not be a monumental task. And were it not a monumental task, it would not yield a monumental sense of accomplishment upon completion. The process of reverse-entropy on this scale is truly impressive, a sight to behold. Cubic yards of twisted robot bedsheets and footie pajamas artfully transformed into neatly folded piles spanning my entire family room (please note full usage of the 400+ sq ft) turning it into a mini scale version of the man-made world archipelago in Dubai (PBS documentary watchers anyone?) Then hefting the baskets upstairs (thats how my arms stay cut- with loads like this if I keep it up they'll probably better than when I played lacrosse).

Revealing this to the public may paint me in a less than glamourous light, but I promise no one was injured in this stunt, no real neglect. No one was forced to go naked or wear dirty clothes. While my husbands drawer now has 16 more pairs of socks in it, he was no worse for wear. The sock count runs around 5 dozen pairs, so as you can see I could have drawn out this laundry strike shenanigan even longer. (This might also give insight into why I insist upon very spacious, deep drawered dressers?
It also meant letting my kids shuttle the baskets from the laundry room to the family room and dump them out- something they love. Nothing like achieving Mach II maximum velocity with a slick plastic basket on polished hardwoods given a good 50 foot straightaway.

We tried to see how tall of a mound we could build, had a rousing round of king of the laundry mountain. My 2 year re-enacted what seemd to be scenes from Lawrence of Arabia with a blue tea towel on his head. Something this big called for a party, so mom put on a movie (arise joyous shouts from my TV- limited children) They are cursed with a mother with a child development background seeks to create some cultural growth restriction and therefore my kids don't watch TV much. (Don't get me started on the correlations between violent media and behavior or marketing influence on children- thats when former college professor smart mama pops out, wearing her studious looking glasses and instantly descend into journal and statistic-speak-it's not pretty- just be glad you never had to listen to me lecture for 6 hrs hours straight. )

So don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, unless it's laundry because you might miss out on a party and a Himalyan sense of accomplishment!

I am Spartacus or rather "Art"acus

2010-01-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

Domestic series is finally continuing after a forced holiday hiatus. The new lamp piece, while almost done, is forcing me to channel my inner Spartacus. Must conquer! Seriously the light glare on the midcentury pecan wood, like being a a ring with a fierce lion. (You didn't know I could get gladitorial about that did you-- these paintings should know not to mess with me, I always win especially at scattergories)
I have painted it 3 times and still don't like it...so obviously the oafish slave guy from Thrace is currently pounding "Artacus" with a spiked metal club (not well verse in the lingo of ancient roman weapons).

After this I have 5-6 more to go before I switch to some mothering pieces. I have already done the studies for them and I am dying to get to them, but again I must call upon my inner Spartacus' steelly resolve and determination to not jump ship but see out my first project before going to the new series. (see I knew all those Latin class hours in HS I spent watching Kirk Douglas would turn out to be life changing and inspirational) Also on the radar are 2 commission pieces to get done in the next 2 weeks (those involve money now so they should take more priority bu they just aren't as fun)

Currently I rate my busy-ness on the "time- to- reply-to-emails" scale (like the how many minutes to hold for customer service) which is currently about 3 days (and thats for messages under 2 paragraphs only). This week I start doing my artist-in-residence program with a local early childhood program. (dining room table= supply drop zone) I love exposing preschool children to great art as well as eally helping them understand and engage in the process of art making/art thinking. One thing I found so interesting in my readings for my masters thesis was the path of children's creative development and how it really bottoms out by middle childhood if not given supportive/appropriate art experiences. I am always surprised by the resistance I face from adults and even other educators with their "traditional and "product" expectations. Tomorrow I will delve 3 year olds into the exotic world of Henri Rousseau. Which the thought of those orange tigers makes me think some chicken tikka masala might be in order to round out the day.

Speaking of preschool art, I loved it when I picked up my son from his preschool the other day (shaving cream/glue mix) snowmen on the wall. His wonderful teachers who share my philosphies, laughingly assured me I'd be able to easily spot my son's on the wall. While most of the others were fairly straightforward- face only- my son had covered his with dozens of colored beads! Ahhh, I was so very proud to be the mother of the beaded pavé snowman, becasue plain white snowmen seriously that's so last season!

So listen out tonight... if you hear shouts of "I am SPARTACUS!" echoing through the snowy New England hills you know it's just smart mama wielding burnt sienna and paintbrush victoriously, okay maybe just determinedly over the brutish pecan dresser.

entertaining to a different degree...

2010-01-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

Scene: Christmas Vacation dinner party at my aunt and uncle's.

Guests: aunt and uncle, uncle's daughter and husband, one of their sons, Dean (who directs and edits films) and his girlfriend Jenny, one of the cast members of Saturday Night Live, my uncle's ex-wife, my parents, and our family. Reggie and Hoby (dogs).

As the luck of the place cards had it, poor Dean and Jenny, got stuck not at the grown up table but at the kids table with me, Allen, and our 3 boys. (As we are the closer generational equivalents) Although in thier minds, this was probably taking the "just treat celebrities like normal people" thing a bit too far.

Really they are very delightful and excessively affable but, as NYC dwellers, I am sure they are used to a more thoroughly fascinating crowd (as comic as my children's dinner table antics maybe).

A simple a run down of the following words illustrates the dichotomy of our lives

after-parties (them)=hip weekly dinners with SNL cast after the show
after-parties (me)= me with a headache after 2 hrs of smelling vinyl and stale air at one of those warehouses filled with giant, bouncy house inflatables for preschooler's birthday parties

driver-(them) someone to drive you to swanky parties at secret locations
driver-(me) me in the minivan which desperately needs vacuuming and has boys names graffiti ed in the accumulated dirt on the side-panels, passing pretzels to the backseat.

Funny- (them)- a great SNL skit that 6 million people watch or editing a good episode of Food Party for IFC
Funny-(me)-my child procuring cake with a lacrosse stick, me envisioning MacGuyver like ways to escape when locked in my bathroom, using my emergency supply of pleather in my attic, pan-handling on the side of the mass pike, my parents thinking I was not mature enough for really sharp knives (part 1 & part 2)

Our dinner of Yorkshire pudding and prime rib was interspersed with enjoyable discussions of NPR fund drives (hold out for the good donor appreciation gifts I say- don't be a sucker for the tote bags!), reminiscence of memorable school projects, the recounting of our recent lego Guggenheim creation, and missives on food, cooking, & New England life (jenny is native of my fair state).

At one point, amid peas with pearl onions and roasted potatoes, as my boys played with Reggie the dog, we talked about the proclivity of young boys to use everything in a way which is dangerous or destructive (or at least potentially so). I recounted my recent blog inventory of the top of my fridge, resting place for all such confiscated items.

Dean said, (In polite dinner party conversation form) "You have a blog? I want to read it!"

At this point I choked on my water.

"No--really it's just a mommy-blog" I back peddled-- quickly. I really hadn't meant it as a "oh I have a blog" but it rather it slipped out in the course of the story. The recent years up-shift in activity and responsiblities have left my writing languishing as well as often un-spellchecked (I am a publish in rough draft form kind of girl-- too busy to revise- you know I am always doing 500 things at once). It has become this random compilation of recent paintings, my harrowing motherhood escapades, shameless shows-offs of my progeny and their projects (ewok gingerbread village anyone), and something occasionally mildly thoughtful or funny.

(note in the course of the conversation I also learn Jenny's sister is a food writer/blogger and her dad is a poet, who publishes in the New Yorker)

I know my place though. Not a top ten blog read, (it may hold a certain voyeuristic suburbian mom appeal like the people of Walmart site). I should have said it's entertaining to a different degree- and I use the word "blog" loosely.... It's amusing to my friends... Surely the 19 followers in my sidebar stands as a testament to my mass popularity (hey maybe I should do a giveaway just to followers to pad my numbers a bit!). In defense of my "high celebrity" blog status I will provide the following supporting evidence)

exhibit A. Actually most of my 19 "followers" are not IRL friends but are indeed strangers.

exhibit B. Most of my most beloved fans/commenter's (aka real life friends) are not "followers" just catch up via their google reader (maybe because I made some disparaging remarks in the past about term followers sounding Jim Jones-esque)

exhibit C. My stat counter log and meager blogher ad revenues (wait those stats probably come only from other suburbian moms reading my how to make an R2D2 cake tutorial for their kid's party)

exhibit D. I have actually had people in public recognize me from my blog and once even had someone ask to come over to a mutual friend's because they heard smartmama was going to be there and wanted to meet me(my 5 minutes of blog fame).

I brought cards with prints of my new domestic paintings on them as holiday favors (I mean at least being a artist who paints headless women engaged in domestic tasks probably buys me a little space in quirky artist department which makes room for some "allowances". Maybe next year if they are lucky they'll get a seat at the grown up table and a self-published compilation of the best of smart mama...

(really Dean and Jenny always a good time- such a nice evening, and maybe I should sculpt some golden award for your endurance of dinner at "the kids table"!)

in the works

2010-01-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

Well as many of you know I am a child life specialist by profession, which means doing psychological preparation & therapeutic play with children in hospital settings. My absolute favorite thing that comes with that is being able to do medical missions for Operation Smile. (You can read more and see pictures here from some of my travels to Kenya, Philippines, Siberia, Morocco.) I have done many missions in post, mostly before having kids, but this year with no "little" babies I decided it was time to dust off the suitcase and expedite the passport for another adventure.

Going on medical missions profoundly changed me. It has changed my sense of place in the world and the way I use my resource and for this I am always grateful. As it looks now, I be spending 10 days in Amman, Jordan this year on another medical mission. So I am madly mentally preparing and will soon be literally packing a playroom in a suitcase. I am actually really excited to do this as a mom because this time my kids can be involved in the preparation and the service (even though they won't be able to go with me) I am excited to go and bring back pictures to my boys and show them how the things they sent helped others.

My job is to oversee the psychological, emotional and devolpmental needs of all the patients. Screening usually take a few days. Many children wait in line all day with hundreds or thousands of people just to be screened for surgery. (As I can attest merely standing in line for 10 minutes with my boys at the post office can be rather harrowing- let alone a good 5 hours!) Then the day of surgery, they spend the day in the playroom, NPO, waiting for their turn. I have all ages from babies 6 mo or so all the way up to teenagers. Many of these children are very anxious especially in an environment surrounded by strangers. The play and teaching about the surgery goes along way to alleviate anxiety and make the experience a positive one for them. We use play to provide a developmentally support environment, to provide distraction/alternative focus during stressful times and procedures, to help children understand in a developmentally approrpaite way what will be happening to them, and it breaks the language barriers as the teams are very international and we require interpreters for communication. For many of these children having facial deformities and visible differences has made them the object of teasing or shame.

You can support Operation Smile in many ways.[And if anyone would like to donate any supplies I do have a "wishlist" of things (as do CCLS for the many missions OpSmile does all year- we bring all our own stuff- I can you link you up with others you ever want to help) that are always welcome and really appreciated on missions (mini Slinky's, puppets, finger puppets, bubble wand necklaces, water tubes, doctor kits, stickers, mini suction cup ball hoops, jenga, to name a few). Being limited by space and weight makes it challenging. (I also have a few small projects kids/families can make if you are looking for a service project (beading kits, cutting strips for paper chains, etc) Please feel free to contact me email is on my profile page]

on animal movies and christmas trees

2009-12-27T18:44:00.000-08:00

I'll admit it... I have a fake Christmas tree. Yep, I don't do real Christmas trees, while that seems like a mockery of authentic Christmas decor, I am not entirely ashamed. Because as I see it, it's really more practical and economical.
1.I can set up before Thanksgiving, should I so desire (as i did the year I was pregnant with my #3 son who was born the day after Thanksgiving)
2.It requires no special trips to get other than a jaunt up the pull down stairs to the attic.
3. I can go on vacation and when I return after 2 1/2 weeks it's not a mess of dried up needles.
4. One time purchase
5. Easy set up/consistent size.

You see the list of pros goes on. But really the biggest reason is, I get depressed by real Christmas trees. Don't get me wrong they can be pretty, I sometimes envy my New England neighbors who go to our local town farm to chop their own it see so quaint and quintessentially Christmas. While I marvel when they are majestically lit up and decorated and steal piney sniffs from their presence in neighbors homes. I hate nothing more than the day after Christmas scene -- unbought trees in those "set up just for December tree lots" all sad an unused, unwanted, and waiting to be disposed of. Maybe i'd feel better if i wrote a list of 100 things to do with unused christmas trees? (I know they get recycled) But they worked hard for years to grow big and pretty and then their best wasn't good enough. I feel for them like the last kid picked in PE class.Seriously, it makes me want to cry. I have to turn away. The waste of the trees, it's sad to me like injured animals. (I know, I know, I am anthropomorphizing the trees too much)
Which brings me to the second thing I don't do which is animal movies- yep no Benji, Black Beauty, Lassie for me, even Land Before Time or An American Tail, despite being fictious and animated, they make me cry. I know the animals don't really get hurt in production but it's knowing that somewhere there are other animals in the world that are cold, lost, hungry, or suffering that makes me sad....this is probably also why I cannot commit to any pets beyond brine shrimp.
So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from me and my fake tree while I always welcome gifts...just don't give me any Benji movies.

sometimes things surprise you

2009-12-14T06:42:00.001-08:00

-like my 4 year old saying he really wanted "white paper" for Christmas. Really if there is we thing we don't lack for in this house it's paper in all it's varieties.

-that encouraging youth/young adults to explore careers is actually a controversial topic? (my recent segullah post)

-that when parents bring their kids to "a decorate your own sugar cookie" table they feel absolutely no urge to help their children use reasonable quantities of toppings or feel any obligation about the mess they leave behind. (yes I manned this table for 2+ hours at the school ornament day- encouraging creativity is one thing but downright wastefulness is another)

-that my husbands meeting got cancelled last night a delightful 4.5 hr reprieve

-that you actually want to eat vegetables instead of treats at the ward party (Yes I am that old)

-that someone in Tehran is "google-ing" me? (I really don't think I know anyone in Tehran)

-or how hard it is to clean tracks of glue stick off your dining room table

any surprises for you lately?

Gingerbread Star Wars Ewok Village

2009-12-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Every year our quaint New England town (pop 8000) does a Christmas festival, trolleys take you through the town and stop at all the local farms, businesses, and churches. For some festive local food and activities. The schools do a gingerbread house display. The last two years I've been too busy but I promised the boys we'd do something fun this year.

As an artist, I am not the type to do the regular gingerbread house (I will readily admit a love of kitschy edible things). Honestly though, how fun is it to go to a gingerbread house show where they all look the same. I just can't do the matching candy canes by the door and gumdrop roofline. So I brainstormed with my three boys and they decided it would be fun to do an star wars gingerbread entry so we made an edible Ewok village from Return of the Jedi.

We wrapped a wooden base in drk green wrapping paper and cellophane. The trees were made from rice krispie treats (formed in plastic cups) coated in chocolate. The bunker is made from hershey bars, andes mint cookies, and oreo straws. The trees are made of mini cones and fruit loops. The green candies gummy frogs, Mike and Ikes, spearmint mints, green m&m's, watermelon gumballs, green lifesavers. Also included tootsie rolls, pb cups, black licorice.

The edges are done with mint oreos. The ewoks, R2D2, & C3PO are made of fondant. (C3PO's chair is made or pretzels lashed together with fondant and has a graham seat.

How to Make Edible Oreo Chocolate Mice

2009-12-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

Some of our favorite Christmas stories involve mice. Like Gingerbread Mouse, T'was the Night Before Christmas, and Santa Mouse. So we decided to make some edible mice. I have seen them made with maraschino cherries before but I knew my kids would not like how the tasted so I made up these.

How to Make Edible Chocolate Mice

Ingredients:

Wilton premium candy melts- I like the dk chocolate (but you could make a cute family of mice using the white and milk chocolate)

Double stuff Oreos (or the holiday ones)

Licorice

Hershey kisses

Sugar eyes (I get the icing eyes from Country kitchen Sweet art and use them for lots of projects (or you can pipe on frosting dots)

Sliced almonds

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl.

2. Cut the licorice into small tail length strips

3. Carefully cut the bottom 1/4 of the Oreos.

4. Affix the tails by sticking the licorice into the frosting between the two cookies.

5. Use a small spatula or knife to coat the two sides and top curve of the Oreo. Place on waxed paper to set

6. While the chocolate is still melted. Attach Hershey kiss at the base.

7. Place on almond ears.

8. Use a dab of frosting to attach eyes.

They would also be fun for a nutcracker themed party (the mouse king) or Twas the night before Christmas reading or as an homage to our favorite Santa Mouse. We also made mouse cupcakes to go in some T'was the night before Christmas themed designer cupcake sets. We placed them on cupcakes with Santa cupcakes.

Pig Cake and the big 2!

2009-11-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

My #3 son turned 2 today. I can't think about his birth without remembering all of the drama and complications at the end of my pregnancy. I still can't believe how blessed and lucky I am to have him!

Today we celebrated with a pig cake. (I could not for the life of me think of something really fun and exotic for a 2 year old. I stood there in the kitchen with cakes baked and frosting made and still had no plan. So I thought what is fairly simple and can be made in less than 10 minutes? I give you the pig cake. (8", 6" and mini round"- stacked) We were also in the middle of selling our station wagon today so that caused a little interference! I love this boy though- He is always good for a hug and lots of kisses! I totally love my cute line-up of 3 fabulously fun boys! What a lucky mom I am!

ironing it out

2009-11-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

One more painting done before I start full swing into holiday madness. This makes 7 in the series now, and 3 more in progress. I think I will make a dozen by february. Then on to my next series. Then Number #3 turns 2 this weekend. Then it's a steady stream of Christmas preparations. Decorating. Gingerbread house making. Chain of lights. Ornament Day. Parties. My #1 's birthday.

Monday night we filled a white board with all the things we're thankful for. a wonderful life and friends and family to share it with. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

modern architecture kids style

2009-11-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I have posted about my boys- they are getting so big. I measured all of them this week and they are currently coming in at 55 1/2", 44 1/2" and 34 1/2" respectively. Eek! Sometime its as thought you can feel your mothering years are slipping between your fingers.

#1 is buzzing through 4th grade and just finished making a replica of the National Archives in DC for school. He has been engineering various playground games such as "hill ball". He has been practicing lots of new songs on the piano and knows so many things I don't about fish and the standard model.

#2 loves preschool. I actually went with him 2 days last week and we let the kids grind wheat with a hand grinder. I went back on Friday, big mixer and all and we kicked out 5 loaves of homemade bread for snack. He is helper extraordinaire and has his bed made perfectly before breakfast every morning!

#3 smothers you with loves and kisses. Likes to grab ears, play ball (mean arm) and read Curious George Goes To The Hospital and A Visitor for Bear many times a day. A likes to play with his toy "NA-mas" aka Thomas and race through the kitchen at the speed of light on his plasma car.

Well this week they called me out to the studio to show me their creations with wood pieces. SS#1 designed this modern house complete with solar panelled flat roof and courtyard with fountain (love the detailing- really I would live in a house like that. It looks just like it fell out of the pages of dwell). He then borrowed my camera to take some more artistic shots of his creation. SS#2 then showed off this fabulous modern airport with wood & glass pieces!

How to make lipstick cupcakes

2009-11-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

Looking for a glamourous cupcake idea for a girl party? Here are some lipstick cupcakes for a make-up makeover party.

So here is a quick how-to-tutorial

1. Frost the cupcakes.

2. Sprinkle the edges with pastel confetti (I get mine from country kitchen sweet art)

3. Tint fondant dark pink, light pink. and purple.

4. Form a long snake out of the dark pink about 1/2" diameter. Cut into short segments on the diagonal.

5. Roll out purple. Cut into small rectangles. Shape over the lipstick.

6. Roll out light pink. Use a pizza cutter to cut thin strips to add detailing.

(You are probably wondering why I- mother of 3 boys am making lipstick cupcakes... well I auctioned off my services making designer cupcakes at our town ed foundation dinner dance last spring and the woman who won requested something for her daughters party. Hence the pink girliness-- I also used an extra to make a cute little cake for one of my friends daughter who one remarked that I always had soft hair and shiny lips- have to love kids compliments) So "Sister Shiny Lips" came through with a surprise treat today! Moral fo thta story- tell me my lips are shiny and you might get a cake...

stirring things up

2009-11-15T19:17:00.000-08:00

The latest in the domestic series I kicked out the end of last week- I was on a roll. (Trouble is after a really good groove, everything else feels kind of tiresome and like a letdown) Sadly even about 24 hrs after finishing a painting the thrill of the accomplishment is gone. I told my husband I think I am an accomplishment junkie...some crazy creativity addiction (constantly needing a new fix, and it just doesn't last like it used to- laughing at myself)

Digging the citrus colors and 10 pts for you if you know which room in my house is actually pictured in this painting!

Incorporated in this are the following interesting items- stainless bowls (wedding gift- and was actually holding all my kids Halloween candy when the photo study was taken, I knew it wouldn't show given the angle) orange canisters from my local salvation army, white dress I bought in Puerto Rico with my husband a few years ago, and a yellow apron I sewed a few years back. Also props to me for my work in assembling the cabinets and helping cut and lay the cool linoleum tile back when the room was being built.

dare to design part two

2009-11-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

I was surprised but also delighted this week to hear one of my dresses made the "final 15" in the shabby apple dress design contest. (My friend Whitney's design (#9) also made the top 15). They had hundreds of submissions and many were really fabulous designs. So you can head over to shabby apple's blog and cast your vote for your favorite-

Which will of course be mine (wink wink!) Only one vote per person.

who's there

2009-11-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty productive week. I got my portfolio site revamped a bit so you can go and peruse at your leisure. I also finished two more pieces in the domestic series (both are 30" x40") and I have 3 more underway. My goal is to have an even dozen by April. I think I can do it... (I know I won't have as much time around the holidays and with teaching early am sem every other week. I have to be realistic abotu my time -- even though april seems like forever away! Secretly I am hoping to be done by february) I am really enjoying this series though- and combining my professional training with my art. When this set is done I have two other mini-series I want to do but I am trying to let myself see this series through before getting distracted. Right now I have too many ideas and too little time in the studio. Still I am trying to churn them out before the ideas leave and the groove is gone.

dare to design contest

2009-10-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Shabby Apple is running a dress design contest. My friend Whitney, approached me about helping her create her drawings for the contest and encouraged me to enter as well. You know how I love creative projects and collaborations so I agreed. It was exciting to watch vague ideas turn into finish concept drawings. (I wanted to do more, but this month has been busy x10 and my creative brain is still preoccupied exploring my domestic painting series and designing my custom couches I ordered this week and hasn't been able to fully devote itself to this task.)

I designed dresses I would like to wear. I am 5ft 10" and what flatters me most are simple clean lines that are classic. I don't go for lots of frills and embellishements.

So here is my dress design for Shabby Apple dresses or well a few designs...

"Black on Black" is my favorite. This versatile day to evening dress has a wide scooped neck, cap sleeves, back zipper, bust darts, true waist, and bias cut gentle a-line skirt. The slightly irregular circles are appliques in a nubby textured black fabric to create interest, detailed with contrasting white top-stitching (double rows). The dress fabric has a touch of spandex for nice fit and gentle give. I also posted it's b-side variation sketch with a higher wider neckiline, slim below the knee trim pencil skirt and ultra narrow sash front tie for a more pillar like sillouhette.

"Atomic Energy"-This retro inspired dress came out of the domestic series of paintings I am working. The series is intended to make a social statement on the generational shifts and devaluation of domestic work by juxtaposing contemporary images with period pieces. I would love to have this dress to wear for one of my painting studies (like the one with pink cake- p.s. 4 more giant paintings are in the works!). It is an atomic era minty green, with a wide fold-over citron/celery colored contrasting shawl collar. Side zippered with seams fitting through the bust a true waist bias cut skirting for gentle A-line hitting just below the knee.

"Lavender Fields"- This dress came out of my love for light cotton summer dresses for everyday wear and my love of light lavender. It is lightweight cotton with a stand up straight collar with button front. with pin tuck detailing, an easy tie back sash and the skirt has gentle tucks for a nice ease out for comfortable fit.

"Tint and Shade"- Maybe it's the artist in me but I love contrast. I love any combination of the crisp essentials, black, white, and gray. This dress has a crisp white stretch shirting top with princess seams, a long generous, fold down shirt collar and cuffed sleeves with keyhole and button detailing. A black slimming wide waistband and 4 panel fitted charcoal gray skirt. Back zippered. Cotton/spandex blend.

"Navy Nicely" This summer dress hits at the base of the knee. It is navy with clean white contrast detailing. It has a back zipper, true circle neckline and opposing arc high waistband in white contrast. The skirt is 5 panel construction pencil style with back slit. It has short sleeves with contrast band and a keyhole and button detailing. Cotton/spandex blend.

domestic series continues

2009-10-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well here are art and artist shots of the next two pieces in my domestic series both are 30x40" and I have 3 more in the works. I'd really love to do a series of 10-15. The red one is titled Full Plate and the pink one is titled A Piece of Cake. I am enjoying painting them and the challenge painting in a different style brings. As a someone who used to teach family studies at the college level it's fun to create art that relates to my academic loves of the study of family life and roles. So on to dish-washing and laundry I go (both in paintings and real life).

I love piece of cake piece because doing the preliminary photo involved actually making this amazing triple layer pound cake (known as best birthday cake) which made my whole family excited. So I guess this also qualifies it as a certian form of performance art or an event. The cake let me use my favorite late 1950's cake tender which I bought on my first ever trip to maine and looks so cool with my fav breakfast nook mcm mirror (the one my husband cracked while hanging). My friend Jenny can take credit for the muffins under the cake tender, which we made in a day of mass cooking, and the tea cart joined our household after we were married 10+ years ago, we got it from my Uncle Alan's mother Rose, after her death. And yes might correctly recognize those as the FLOR carpet tiles in my dining room. Both aprons were made by my great grandmother (although slightly modified in the paintings). So the really fun thing is the paintings are loaded with sentimentality and connection.

On another note I am quickly becoming aware of my lack of heels and yes my husband will be picking up a great mid century bench this weekend from a craigslist score- look for it coming soon to a painting near you.

1.a baby who is talking all the time 2. supportive friends 3.70 degrees in october- a New england rarity

and this is why you should keep pleather in your attic

2009-10-18T09:43:00.001-07:00

So the other day I asked my boys what they wanted to be for Halloween. My oldest decided a Jedi and my second decided he'd like to be an ewok. We realized we could actually get some good mileage out of an old elaborate monkey costume (for the ewok body) by simply removing the some elements and adding others.

Mom to do list:
make jedi tunic and robes
sew a wicket the ewok orange hood
alter monkey costume

Thursday night, I decided there is no time like the present, may as well get this halloween costume sewing party started. I used my notebook during the town building meeting for the new high school that night to calculate fabric yardages and make mental patterns. This while weighing out the architects A,B, C, and D plans (D is the only really good plan at a tidy 68 million).

So friday morning, after the preschool drop off we made our way to Jo-Anns.To add to the day I had my oldest tagging along because he had been sick the night before.

Here is where I stop to say a few words about bathrooms and Jo-Ann's - while no mom likes to take her kids ot the fabric store, many moms must. And in fact the reason I am patronizing the store is because of my child and my maternal love (in the form of homemade halloween costume), and when my child urgently needs a bathroom, I am told they don't have one- well actually they have 2 but they don't work- I sort of hoped he'd get sick or someone's potty-training child would have a problem right there on the floor to show them what an unwise thing this no bathroom thing was. No I am not vengeful- simply a realist and believe in the necessity of bathrooms (I don't think thats too much to ask in our modern world) and well if you can't provide a bathroom at least give me a some woods --I an dig my own latrine...

But I digress, we headed home and had 1 1/2 hrs remaining of preschool time. During this time I managed to craft the ewok hood, cut the jedi robes and tunic. We then drove back to preschool to reclaim son #2. Drove home and while #3 was catching 20 winks int he car I completed the entire jedi robe and tunic. At this point my son asked where the boots were he wore he previous year. I thought they were in my closet but alas they must have made the cut in a recent goodwill sort and were gone. Panic began to setin - no self respecting Jedi would be found wearing sketchers with his robes. Well have no fear-smart mama and her attic full o'supplies is here. I pulled down the attic ladder, climbed up and returned in 30 seconds descended with black pleather. So yes without a pattern or previous experience, I manage to craft knee high faux boot shoe covers and have them all sewn in under 5 minutes before my baby woke up from his nap.

The jedi costume looks exceptional if I do say so myself. So good that he wanted to wear it around and had to be a fashion show for the neighbor and the Ewok, well all I can say is in perusing pictures on the internet- it's the best ewok going. I even managed to find leather string and long cream colored beads (left over from a neckalce #1 son made during a tipi visit with native american dan at school 2 years ago. Which I disassembled and recreated to be that hood embellishment worn by wicket the ewok.

If they were giving medals that day for minorly important mothering tasks, I totally would have been in that middle spot on the podium. I am sure there was divine intervention in the accomplishment of homemade costumes in sewn in 2 hours or less. Too often the decision to make your child's halloween costumes often changes your title from mom to sucker... but this year I get to keep my mom title. That's "super costume sew-er mom" to you, boys.

1. costumes made 2. attic with pleather 3. when the stars align and you get stuff done!!