Guess who came to brunch and afternoon social time today? Pepper, Rhonda, and Lindsey!
Rhonda has a new passion: baking her own sourdough bread. This is quite a process, and I can assure you, her devotion is delicious.
Some more of their tasty contributions to our charcuterie brunch.
Lox, avocado dip, jalapeno dip, toasted and salted okra chips, sprouts, tomatoes, salami, and four cheeses.
They also brought watermelon, and we provided carrots, celery, and berries. (Look at the yummy bread on the left, ready for its dipping sauce.)
I cut up cucumbers, bell pepper, and radishes to go with the Ranch dip.
And made some chicken nuggets, also tasty with the Ranch dip.
It was a feast and hours of great conversation, storytelling, and laughing so much. We needed this catch-up day!
I think it was Thursday night that I finished reading and editing the fifth book in the Neverending Saga. I left some places with big circles around them marked as “fix this” because I either wanted to seamlessly delete stuff or rewrite it. Which I did as I input my edits yesterday, then printed it. Weird thing; with all that cutting, I lost a page yet I added 400-ish words. Math is weird.
Taking a break before I revisit the sixth book and make decisions about the seventh. I understand blogging about this is boring. Sorry.
Today I worked on a couple of paintings, and because I was so preoccupied yesterday and today, I didn’t realize some calls or texts weren’t reaching my phone. Sorry about that, too. Tom was nice enough when he got home from his volunteer gig to take my phone to our carrier storefront (second time he’s done this; same problem), and this time, it seems to be fixed.
As is usual with me, I over-poured paint. I had too much left over to be willing to waste it. Sometimes I’ll cover my palettes with tape for later, but I finished what I was doing and probably won’t paint again soon. Then I remembered I had several packages of 2″x2″ canvases–TINY! So I unwrapped those and used all the leftover paint to lay down base coats for some future project.
Clean palettes; wee canvases ready when I figure out something to do with them.
A story about art. I only started exploring this kind of creativity in the early 1990s, first painting T-shirts, then doing ceramics. And along the way, I did some pretty awful stuff, and if I could, I’d take it back!
In time, I began to share some stuff on my LiveJournal/then my blog (which linked to FB and Twitter, two outlets I no longer really use), and people wanted to buy it, which was shocking. Then I’ve gotten some commissions over the years that I was happy to do, and there were times payments for those might be all the money I made for a month or longer. I’ll always be grateful for people who likely didn’t know they were helping me pay vet bills, power bills, etc.
I’ve also gifted a lot of my art, and that can be weird. Some people never acknowledge receiving it, and it’s awkward to be like, Uh…did you by any chance receive a package from me?
I remember the first time someone told me a recipient had thrown away a painting of mine. Yikes! I’d rather have a gift I created returned to me than go to a landfill. I could either repurpose the materials or maybe find it a better home. I’m not sharing this to shame anyone–I seriously doubt anyone who’s done that reads my blog these days.
I appreciate every kind word, every purchase, every gift acknowledged. I create because it makes me happy, whether it’s writing or painting, and while I wouldn’t have turned away wealth or acclaim, that’s never been a motivation for anything I’ve done, so that’s a good thing, right?
Anyway, as I looked at the wee canvases, I was reminded of a mixed media piece (titled “The Kids Are All Right”) I did a dozen years ago for a friend who IS one of those people who expresses gratitude and shows kindness (as well as being someone who has made me laugh my ass off since 1977). So maybe these will end up as part of a larger piece similar to hers; who knows.
They could work for either bottle caps or wee Spirograph flowers.
Recently, a Beach Boys-related account I follow on Instagram posted this commercial from 1987/88:
In late 1987, I was enjoying my job as a tech writer/editor and planning a wedding. I don’t think I owned a TV, nor was I Barbie shopping, so this mash-up of two of my favorite things (Beach Boys and Barbie) passed me by until I saw the Instagram post that immediately sent me scouring online sellers. This arrived late last week.
It’s not often a Barbie in an opened box comes with all the accessories, but this one miraculously did. For example:
Barbie’s sun visor and “flying disk” (probably couldn’t use the Frisbee® trademarked name) were still in their unopened plastic wrapper. They came with instructions for how to apply “labels” to both. And yes, the labels were also there.
In the same sealed package that held Barbie’s beach bag, hairbrush, socks, sneakers, and sunglasses.
The box also contained the original additional materials: a way to join the Barbie fan club, the World of Fashion that catalogs other Barbie accessories for sale, a disclaimer about Barbie’s earrings being unsuitable for small children, and a Barbie comic book sharing “The Treasure Map” adventure of Barbie and some of her friends!
This was already quite a wonderful find, but that it included the playable (at 33 1/3 speed) record (with some extra Barbie punch-out photos) was fantastic! The song probably featured no Beach Boys other than founder Brian Wilson singing all the parts (and doubtless playing most of the instruments, too), and Brian’s writing credits were shared with his manipulative, controlling therapist of that time and the therapist’s fiancee (later, wife). There’s a lot of history packed into that little record. I haven’t tried to play mine because I don’t want to risk damaging it.
Here’s a look at those treacherous earrings. I’ll get the rubber bands out of her hair (those things harden and eventually crumble, and I use less harmful plastic bands–they may weaken over time, but they don’t damage/stain the doll’s hair).
This provides a look at Barbie’s pink camera, still strapped around her arm. The cellophane tape that secured things inside the box, like the camera, has long since lost any adhesive quality, so it’s amazing this camera never fell out and was lost (since the top of the box had been opened). Somebody kept this on a shelf for a long time.
Other dolls were sold in the California Dream line, and here are some fun facts about them. (No reason to discuss the well-known Ken; and I have several similar to this one from 1981 and 1991.)
California Dream marked the debut of Teresa, Barbie’s Latina friend. Teresa still continues to be one of Barbie’s most-often recurring friends and has been represented by more Mattel “friend” dolls than any other except Christie (also shown here), Barbie’s African American friend who was introduced in 1968 and after many versions, was discontinued in 2005/06. In February of this year, Mattel produced a 55th anniversary Christie. I have at least seven Teresa dolls and many AA/Black dolls (Ashi, Shana, Nichelle, Nikki, and Barbie), and my Christie dolls are 1981’s Sunsational Malibu Christie and 1992’s Glitter Beach Christie.
Barbie’s longtime best friend Midge, seated, first appeared in 1963 and hung around until 1967, then re-emerged in 1988 with the California Dream Midge shown here. Midge later married Alan and began having children in the controversial “Happy Family” line. In 2013, Midge appeared again as a teenager who moved to Malibu on the webseries Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, the whole “Happy Family” line possibly one of the first toy products to be “cancelled” over consumer protests. 😉 I have at least six Midge dolls, but the only Happy Family dolls I own are Midge’s parents, called only “Grandma” and “Grandpa.”
Post title is a quote from Madonna, as Susan, in the film Desperately Seeking Susan, a movie I still enjoy and watched again as recently as some point during the pandemic. This post that showed up on Instagram is what made me think of it, and I have a similar story to share.
It was likely early in 2008 when I made a small shopping list and went to Kroger. This was at the point when I was having such severe back pain (later diagnosed as caused by swollen disks and hairline vertebral fractures) that I wasn’t able to do much. It was also during the last few months of my mother’s life, when she was getting hospice visits in her residential care home, was admitted to hospice for a short period to provide respite care to me, and then was admitted permanently to hospice before she died in June.
I was also under deadline to turn in my second Coventry novel, which my editor blessedly extended to take some of the pressure off of me.
Clearly, I was under a lot of stress while dealing with physical pain. One of the things on my shopping list that evening was Velveeta (TexMex queso night!). Though I had a few of my items in my cart, I couldn’t find this on any shelves or in any dairy case, and I was leaning on my cart, taking as much pressure off my back as I could, until I froze in the way pain can have of making a body lock. Tears of frustration and pain streamed down my face, and a Kroger employee who’d come from one of the back rooms to restock something saw me. He immediately came to me and helped me to a patio table display so that I could sit down. I knew I sounded stupid when I said, “I can’t find the Velveeta.”
“I know where it is; what size do you need?” he asked.
Then he took my shopping list from my hand, handed me my purse from the cart, and took the cart and the list through the store to find everything remaining on my list. When he came back, he helped me up, pushed my cart to check-out, and grabbed a bagger to make sure I had help out to my car.
Of course I thanked him profusely, still crying as I can do when someone’s kind when I’m already in melt-down mode, and thanked the cashier and bagger, too, for their help.
His actions that day are often the reason I notice other people showing patience and kindness in similar situations. There may be no videos of those moments on social media, and if anyone even shares a story (as I’ve just shared mine), there’ll most often be cynical and jaded comments along the line of, “Things that never happened!” as if people are never kind to strangers. I think even believing in kindness makes us more likely to see it and show it.
Fourth book is read, edited, printed, done. Starting that same process on the fifth book today. (ETA: Fifth book edits did not happen.)
Not sure if you remember these six 8×10-inch paintings using spirograph “flowers” I colored to represent the first six books in the Neverending Saga. They hang over the windows in the writing sanctuary.
Colored some more of the flowers in preparation for painting a few much smaller canvases. Added a nickel to this photo to provide a sense of the tiny scale.
Looking forward to seeing what happens!
ETA: All cut out now and awaiting their destiny. =)
With this kind of heat, it’s easy to stay weird. Takes too much effort to be “normal,” if I could even figure out what that is.
Picked up some different-for-me-shaped canvases during errands yesterday. Might paint when I finish reading/editing/doing a little bit of remaining research for the fourth book. =)
An attempt to order new glasses didn’t work earlier this week (though I did pick up other stuff I needed or wanted), but today, I had greater success! Hopefully will have new glasses in about a week, and the headaches I get after I read and edit on or off the computer will go away. I’ve downloaded a couple of ebooks I’m looking forward to reading at some point.
It’s weird to realize I haven’t worn eye makeup since the beginning of June. I haven’t driven at night in more months than I can remember. I haven’t driven myself in any direction too far from our neighborhood since surgery, probably a half-dozen times. Debby doesn’t drive, so Tom and Tim have picked up slack, and Tim has been without a car twice during that time.
Requires a lot of logistics, especially since all the dogs except Pixie have needed varying degrees of vet care (even if just annual checkups) or grooming services. And Debby, Tom, and I have all had routine doctor appointments in addition to all my eye appointments.
Finished editing and printing the third book in the saga, and am well along in the same process for the fourth. While all that’s happening, my brain is busy looking forward to writing the seventh book.
Eva says your glasses size can match your courage or your face. Guess which she chose…
Barbie’s sun visor and “flying disk” (probably couldn’t use the Frisbee® trademarked name) were still in their unopened plastic wrapper. They came with instructions for how to apply “labels” to both. And yes, the labels were also there.
It’s weird to realize I haven’t worn eye makeup since the beginning of June. I haven’t driven at night in more months than I can remember. I haven’t driven myself in any direction too far from our neighborhood since surgery, probably a half-dozen times. Debby doesn’t drive, so Tom and Tim have picked up slack, and Tim has been without a car twice during that time.
