Currently: January 24 , 2008 link

I seem to have a bit of a mushroom theme going on here so I am just going to roll with it. Here are a variety of mushroom related items:

I got this from Carrie for Christmas. It's a mushroom-shaped instrument of torture nutcracker! I absolutely love it! I have yet to test it will some real nuts. It seems like it's harder to find unshelled nuts these days, especially once the holiday season is over.

Karan sent me a link to these fantastic felted mushrooms created by Kathryn Ivy:

Those are so cute. And finally, I recently stumbled across a small snippet in a Mary Engelbriet Home Companion magazine that showed just a sliver of some fantastic stuffed (softie) mushrooms created by Tamar Mogendorff:

I just love that large stuffed mushroom. I have been trying to get motivated enough to head off to the Home Improvement Store to buy some paint and paint accessories for the Great Hall Makeover, but when I look outside at the crunchy frozen lawn it dawns on me that curling up with a book is a much better idea.

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January 10 , 2008 link

I got my grades for fall the other day and I am happy to report that I got an "A" in Figure Drawing and a "B+" in Narrative Storytelling. I am very happy. Elated, actually, as I was sort of expecting worse to tell you the truth. I have told myself that I was going to do my absolute best, but not make myself crazy and as long as I actually pass the class I will be happy. Maybe not happy, but content.

I got a Territorial Seed catalog in the mail a few weeks ago and I spent a nice afternoon sifting through it with a highlighter marking all of the interesting plants and it really put me in the mood to garden. I have spent the days since making a plan, which usually I do not do at all. I usually have a vague idea that I wait till the last minute to act on and then lament the fact that I waited too long to do anything worthwhile. Not this year people.

I started with my inspirational book that I love ever so much: The New Kitchen Garden by Anna Pavord. I flipped through it and found the garden that would best fit my plot and needs:

The Cottage Garden. I am not going to recreate this exact garden (hello peacock topiary!) it's just an inspiration. I like that the beds are not confined to squares and I like that the paths are straw. Here is my plot taken from an upstairs window and patched together not very seamlessly:

I have a lot of grass to kill. I figure that the grass under the sheets of black plastic we put around the raised beds this past summer is dead by now so I am going to start putting the plastic in other areas, and hopefully by March or April the rest of the grass will be dead as well and I can till it under. Here is my plan worked up on graph paper:

It's all very loose at the moment and not what one would call "to scale", but at least I have an idea. I do not harbor any grand ideas that this will ALL happen this year -I know myself too well- but it's at start. My favorite thing about kitchen gardens is the concept of planting flowers and vegetable together and using vegetables as decorative elements, like lining a path or border with lettuces or chives. It's pretty! And you can eat it! This illustrates the point perfectly:

I am not particularly interested in growing kale, but I like that they added the sweet alyssum to the beds. It helps control weeds and it's so pretty! I also quite like that they painted the wood of the raised beds. That would have never of occurred to me and I may have to try it. (Not this year- I am learning to control my expectations of what I am capable of actually doing.)

So there it is. I am going to try to start seeds this year which I am a little afraid to do for some reason I have quite figured out yet. I am currently reading everything I can on how to do this without buying a fancy grow light and heated seedling mats and the like. And like I said earlier the first step I can take is to start solarizing to get rid of the lawn.

I was going to talked Jaime Oliver's new show on Food network, but I pretty much summed it all up last time by simply saying "I LOVE it and I am so glad he's back."

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January 8 , 2008 link

It looks a little sparse around here, I know, but I just couldn't stand looking at that banner any longer.

How was everyone's holiday? Ours was nice and mellow, filled with wonderful friends and family. I am currently in the process of writing Thank You notes to all of the people who bestowed great gifts our way. We have great friends who are very kind to us.

I love making resolutions and I usually right them down in my journal. I was flipping back through the pages and noticed I wrote down the SAME THINGS that I did last year. Oh well! I have good intentions and I am always optimistic that this year I will be the year I get my butt in gear. My friend Les had an awesome resolution for 2007 that seemed entirely attainable, not one of these lofty aspirations like "exercise more" or "start a business". It was simply "eat more avocados."

I have been enjoying the break from school as classes don't start up again until the end of the month. This spring I will be taking Intermediate Figure Drawing and Perspective. I am quite looking forward to the Perspective class.

Let see, what else...I have been getting thoroughly sucked in to the glory that is Terry Pratchett and his Discworld Series. I am not sure how I managed to not read these books, but I am seriously hooked. Adding to that is the discovery of Paul Kidby, the illustrator for Discworld. Beautiful stuff and very inspiring to say the least.

That's it for now, just a quick update for those two of you (Hi Mom!) who still read this.

Next time I am going to talk about gardening and Jamie Oliver's new show on Food Network. Hint: I LOVE it. I am so glad he's back.

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