Being Thankful Together

Connie, David, Amal...knitting talk

Brian enjoys pistacheos

Everything Serene cooks is beautiful and intricate

Mediterranean appetizers

Mom always sends flowers

When I moved to Port Angeles in 2005, the Seattle contingent of my family come over to my new home on the Peninsula for Thanksgiving dinner...We decided that day, that I would have the hosting of the Thanksgiving dinner in perpetuity. There have been menu and personelle changes over the last 9 years, but it is always a time of sharing food and stories. I feel very, very lucky to have such a wonderful family and friends...a very talented bunch of cooks, too.

David and Brian just celebrated their 8th anniversary. We first learned of Brian via his hand turkey, then he started us on themed Thanksgivings, with a photo of Hugh holding and Serene batting at the turkey Pinata David made for our Mexican Thanksgiving in 2012 featured on a PBS NextStep article on unusual family celebrations of the holiday.

Serene's meticulously-fabricated cherry tomato halves with precisely-cut fresh mozarella and herbs

I am lucky to have 4 handy brothers who help me with the work I'm not so good at

Hugh and Doug install my new locking mailbox while the sun was out

Brian and Ally take a break

Brian's choice of theme was school lunch Thanksgiving. The rest of us, the Foodies, outvoted him, and since Kim, a regular Hastings' Thanksgiving attendee, left the makings for  Baklava in my freezer when she moved to DC for work, the rest of us picked Mediterranean Thanksgiving...lots of room for interpretation. The only constants this year were the two turkeys, one smoked from Sunrise Meats and one Fresh Free Range from Country Aire, and my ginger cranberry sauce, although Serene found a good-sounding chipoltle/cilantro one, that I'd like to try.

The long  counter between kitchen and living room is perfect for laying out food

Connie brought a divided tray, so Brian could have his school lunch Thanksgiving

David, Brian

Amal, Doug

Hugh, Kim

Hugh and Connie are performing in Mary Poppins at Village Theater in Issequah, Amal had to get back to her Social Work job at Children's Hospital. For once Doug wasn't busy with aptitude testing, but Brian and David had to get home to turn on their holiday lights.

Knefe, cornmeal cake with rosemary syrup, baklava

I'm eating turkey salad for supper, and having fun posting pictures of my lovely family. Since we got our first snow down near sea level on Friday night, I'm happy that I got my studded snow tires put on before Thanksgiving. When I drove to Sequim yesterday to pick up my pieces from the fiber arts show, I was dismayed to see at least 10 cars seriously off the road on 101...insufficient respect for the dangers of speed on ice...I'm Thankful that none of the idiots ran into me.

Serene, Brian, Kim, Amal

Everyone taking pictures of the deserts

Thank you family and friends, Mom in Iowa who talked to each of us, the Chicago contingent, the South Carolina kids...see you again next year.

Thanksgiving weekend...Saturday morning...our one snowfall for the year, I hope

 

Thanksgiving With a Twist

http://www.nextavenue.org/blog/turkey-twist-rethinking-thanksgiving?utm_source=Next+Avenue+Email+Newsletter&utm_campaign=bccad2df13-11_25_14_NextAvenue_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_056a405b5a-bccad2df13-164882489&mc_cid=bccad2df13&mc_eid=53cbe1fa15

Check out today's PBS Next Avenue's lead story about unique Thanksgiving customs to see a picture of Hugh holding the PInata David made for our Mexican-themed Thanksgiving in perhaps 2012.

Serene with a full plate in 2010

Doug and Pinata, TG 2012

 Looking forward to the whole West Coast family (except Thayer) being here day after tomorrow...watch out for wet roads...lots of drumming rain this morning when I wanted to be asleep...I'm picking up the second turkey today.

On My Ever-evolving Relationship With My Art

Today I'm sending information on our themed Thanksgivings to NextAvenue

 This photo is 2009

I get up and write…it has been a habit for over 15 years. Back when I wrote by hand in hard-cover journals, from the time I was in college and swore to myself that I’d never let him censor me again, through the Seventies when I lied to myself because of him, to the Eighties, when I hid my journals so I could write freely--and liberated them, mailing the collection to my friend, Fran…they were free before I was. I switched to computer journals in 2004…my hands started to hurt, the presage of arthritis, and I could hide my writing on the computer.

Small plates Thanksgiving  2013

Lately I have been translating my scattered Heroine’s Journey 2 information into concentrated day-by-day essays, and am translating all the photos I took, much of the paper ephemera, into concrete and digital form. As I write more for public consumption, I must exercise more discipline, to organize, make observations that resonate with others, create a finished work out of raw material.

Written/drawn/pasted version of my trip...a work in progress

Leaving Iowa, July 28,2014

 

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Do I draw every day? Do I care that only 10 people out of the billions on the planet look at my blog? How important is it to an artist—to me--to have her work seen, purchased, desired? Why does it seem easier for me to write than to draw?...is putting pieces of fabric and thread together less important, because easier than drawing or painting? Latest portrait below, not finished. Scott Johns.

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I read more about writers writing than about painters painting, perhaps because much writing on visual art is dry and removed. Practice the craft daily is common advice. Anyone who is interested can be taught to manage the tools, but there is a leap of magic in recognizing what’s Good work, when to stop, how to organize.

Fiber/words/images piece I'm working on today. I don't like the framing, am tempted to leave the black stuff at top and bottom off and cut down the overall size...leave it as is and make the next one better?

Impermanence of cleanliness or perfection…change…writing, drawing, and thinking about these topics seems to be what I do.

See the new travel journal essays at my other blog: http://www.hotflashwomen.blogspot.com/

Retirement Rumination

I'll be using the laptop on the drafting table in my bedroom to do a reprise with additions of my Road Trip

We Boomers are a huge demographic, all retiring at once. There are lots of books and blogs giving advice about accomplishing this feat gracefully. I find I must endure the growing (into a different life phase) pains with my own personal ups and downs.

I've decided to use my other blog...Hot Flash Women to review my recent road trip and print up all the pictures, consolidate my writing--on computer and on a yellow notepad as I was driving--before I forget it all. 

Most recent portrait, #96 Hot Flash Woman, Sue Scott

A recent mixed media piece...was in recent Art/Word show in Port Townsend

I always have plenty of projects to work on, but then the question arises of where to store them. It costs plenty of money and time to enter shows, and then the sales are not brisk...out here, people still feel as if we are or might again be in a depression. I've always admired the Outsider Artists, who just keep making because that's what they do...I must emulate them...no more space for new fabrics or books...use up the good stuff!