Dispatch From LA

i made stew. then i ate it.

i only thought i'd made stew before.  i hadn't actually.  

fortunately last week my dutch oven cookbook arrived.  i read about it over on POSIE GETS COZY.

i've been getting cozy with posie for a long time so when i saw the book recommendation i assumed she left it just for me.  i mean i know she has other readers, but i doubt they all have brand spanking new orange dutch ovens.  like me.  i just bet they don't.

i was very pleased with the weird foil tip the recipe mentions.  any chance i get to do something strange whether in cooking or other life areas i seize the opportunity.

so i got my foil and i started seizing.

i did.

this is what happened.

i'm aware that a big pot of brown stew may look less than appetizing, but...

it was very extremely intensely wonderously delicious.  

it was all that.

just in case you were wondering.

and if you come visit me on facebook i'll give you the entire recipe.  instead of half.  

drawn in

i am extremely persnickety & miserly when it comes to art books.  this one is unputdownable!

which.  is why i endeavored to sit at the kitchen table in the sunlight, drinking coffee with the slider open, reading every word, poring over the photos.  today.  hello sunday. 

new flowers from the market.  a fresh tablecloth.  mild winter air circulating in from the open door.

a cat with his winterpaws

a captivating book

with pictures!

beef stew bubbling away in the dutch oven.  must push pause button.  must push it now!

here & there

this & that

Aslan

the streets were filled with sparkly sunbeams as i drove home to start my 48 hour vacation.

the porch was all golden and full of promise.

a halo of light spread out over the roof of my little cottage on the little hill in the middle of the big metropolis.

home to roost.  home to a lounging twinset of cats, one almost finished travel journal, stacks of reading, a quiet house with no talking, and no being talked to, a bedful of pillows, a red flannel granny gown gettup, a new dutchoven cookbook, and a delicious winter rain that is beginning tonight.   (claps hands and squeals)

In other news... go HERE and read about Aslan the sweet pupper who's trying to find his way from Afghanistan to Virginia. A very worthwhile cause to support I think.  You who love animals will enjoy reading about this.  Sara, a bloggy friend I happen to adore, is at the center of the story.  I'll be mentioning it a lot in the coming weeks as money is raised to bring Aslan to his new home in America.  

PHOTO OF ASLAN FROM SARA BERRY'S BLOG

You can also read about The Afghan Stray Animal League HERE.  They are doing good work to help save animals in Kabul.

I've put a widget up in my sidebar if you'd like to contribute.  

update:  100% of the money to bring Aslan to America has been raised.  thanks for all of your donations!!!

This post was approved by the missus.

a calendar with every day uncrossed

here. a small sliver of poem.  to go with the glimpses into my travel journal.

taken from New Years by Dana Gioia

because sometimes i like the little bites better than the whole piece.

But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,
This tiny fissure where the future drips

Into the past, this flyspeck we call now
Be our true habitat? The present is
The leaky palm of water that we skim
From the swift, silent river slipping by.

The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.

sunday at moss cottage

feeling a lot of this...

because i'm working in this...

oh joy!

still stumbling around in the dark on facebook with my friend beavis.  if you have any tips i know you'll share them.  like for example do you put all of your blog posts there automatically?  hmmmm...

thanks laura for the social fixer tip.  {you'll want to use it on me when i get better at words with friends and start posting my high scores every 5 minutes.}  

an unexpected really cool thing is seeing what so many of YOU look like - the ones without blogs.  putting names to faces.  that's nice.

i have a big loopy grin on my face reading your comments & suggestions on my 49 things list.  i'm pretty sure i will get everything done this year.  every single far-flung outta sight thing.  but if not it's okay.  the main thing is peering inside and seeing all that's possible winking back at me.  i always did like the possible better than the actual.

also turns out i had 2 things about my new dutch oven.. over which i am CRUSHING.  madly.  you can make things in here!  and they taste really good!    dutch oven recipe links?  please share.

so i have a new #14 involving an orange grove.  and since i take relaxing very seriously it involves laying down.  

tulip porn carol turner facebook & buck moss

thing #1:  i started a facebook page.

 wait.  i mean i TRIED to start a page vs. a personal profile or whatever but my efforts met with failure.

 so i had to go the personal route.  my friend beavis was doing it.  

 highly intelligent conversation snippets between beavis and i:

what is the like button for?

what is the talking about button for?

let's friend each other.

what's the subscribe button for?

where is my wall?

okay well maybe you can see my wall, but shouldn't i be able to see my wall?

where do you post at?

what do you mean it's hidden?

why is it called a wall?

you mean if i accidently update my profile picture 900 times everyone will know?

you are unfriendable.

because i can't figure it out! that's why!

did you friend all the people who friended you otherwise how did they know you were there?

try to friend me again.

go take another screenshot my wall does not look like that.

thing #2:  paging carol turner.  carol turner.  carol turner.  email me i've sent you 5 emails.  fix your mailbox first though so when i email you back you'll get it.

thing #3:  FULL TILT BOOGIE is still on sale.  there is one scholarship class available thanks to carol lyles shaw.  if you have hit the skids and don't have a red cent to your name, but still want to take a journal/bookmaking class...email me PRIVATELY with a brief message.  i'll get in touch with you by january 15th with all the deets.

thing #4:  ROD is still on sale.   

thing #5:  i took out my macro lense and did some tulip exploration.  those saucy tulips!  ravishing aren't they?  they are from a bouquet my sister sent me for my birthday last week.

thing #6:  found 2 shots of buck moss from july... on the camera i used with the macro lense.  

taken about a week before he died.   so long sweet boy. 

49 Things

I mulled over my list all week and added new things every day.  brimming with big ideas.  that's me.

...to do before i turn 50

1.  learn how to crochet

2.  rent a tandem bike and ride along the boardwalk with sister

3.  ride in a helicopter or little plane

4.  make an instagram book

5.  discover a little town in the middle of nowhere.

6.  explore it.

7.  pick strawberries

8.  go on a lot of walkabouts to see what’s what and who’s who

9.  go visit joyce in carpenteria

10.  go to pink’s hotdogs for a martha stewart dog

11.  go spend the weekend with d.e. & o.e.

12.  attend at least one solo reading retreat (two is better)

13.  make a new friend

14.  lay down in the middle of an orange grove and stare up at the sky

15.  fly to chicago and see suzanne

16.  find a new european city to explore

17.  find a new mexican town to explore

18.  roadtrip to the lost coast

19.  long weekend in san francisco with lianne!

20.  plant a catnip patch in honor of cookie

21.  say yes more than no

22.  teach another online class

23.  practice sketching on the ipad often

24.  form an itty bitty local journal group

25.  or at least think about it

26.  swim in an ocean or sea

27.  fry some chicken

28.  paddle a boat somewhere

29.  wink at people in cars that pull up next to me

30.  paint

31.  cook lots of one-pot meals in my new orange dutch oven

32.  drink more red wine

33.  spend time in the garden

34.  dance

35.  plant a lemon tree

36.  eat some catfish

37.  do handstands in the ocean

38.  find a dentist who is not an asshole

39.  have a mammogram

40.  set up a facebook page

41.  sign up for an online nikon class

42.  eat more superfoods

43.  go on a hill walk in portland

44.  pet a llama

45.  float on my back in the carribean

46.  spend the night on a train

47.  plant sunflowers!

48.  use up all the wood panels in the garage

49.  make an issu magazine

 

where i turn my photo booths into a video

5 Years In 5 Minutes from MAM on Vimeo.

5 years.  1500 photo booth photos.  i have no good explanation for this.   except to say... i send my sister LOTS of pics.

 

 

a white slate of possibility

there is an inverse relationship between my enthusiasm for playing WORDS WITH FRIENDS and my skill at said game.

if you are one of the unfortunate scrabble playing souls who has gotten stuck in a game with me.

i'm.  sorry.

i know it's like playing with a 6 year old.

a kind friend who is 200 points ahead of me told me i just need practice.  then she asked me what letters i had and suggested some moves.

instagram i just can't quit you.  i'm stuck.  it's your own fault for making the crappity crappiest crap photos look way less crappy.  which is why i'm taking the pics with my tiny fuji point & shoot. 

the embroidery above are budapest flea market finds.

speaking of...if you want to borrow my instagram button (i made in photoshop) and use it to link to your own followgram page please feel free!!!  

thank you for the birthday wishes.  and for coming here and visiting.  and caring about my latest creative hijinx.  you're nice, i like you.

i'm working on my 49 things list.  taking my time.  here are my 48 things from last year.  i'm not a natural list maker, but this one is sort of fun to do.  there are plenty of things i didn't do, but i'll still use my giant mental eraser to clear it all away.  start fresh with a gleaming surface for my 49th year.  a white slate of possibility.

if i can just stop playing bad scrabble long enough...and making instagram photos.