Storage Solutions

Over this lovely weekend, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen since Michigan days: we exchanged about two sentences before she said "Oh my God you haven't changed *at all*. Did you watch Eerie Indiana? Foreverware..."

And there we were, straight back into our regular pattern of chat. A treat.

Ah, Foreverware: "Vacuum-seal yourself for 8 hours a day and keep the wrinkles away..." Eerie Indiana was so kooky-with-gusto.

And it had Elvis in it. Can't beat that.



Meanwhile, amongst the chatting, a little girl took some pictures with my camera. There were oodles of faces (none of whom I asked permission to use their photos, so all of those omitted for now). But humans aside, I enjoyed her more random shots of life above and below and around. Nice colours & textures :-)

I'm resisting the urge to start streaming Eerie Indiana in earnest. Back to my day's To Do Guide...

Sweet thoughts

Caller: "You're the nicest person in the world. And you spell your name right."

Me: "Well, I can't really take credit for that. My parents filled out the form..."

Caller: "You're wonderful. They've done such a good job of raising you. Tell your mum and dad that when they die they'll go straight to heaven. You're the proof of the pudding."

(And quite apart from the myriad reactions to that...)

It got me thinking: if I was a pudding, what pudding would I be... 

Tough call. Something chilled certainly - unless I was a delectable profiteroles served the warmed chocolate sauce... maybe a slice of zesty key lime pie or a dish of raspberry & mango sorbet; a serving lemon cheesecake perhaps...

Hungry now. Ready for something decadently treaty!

Summer Colours

Loving the non-humid weather... energy boom! After the oddly autumnal couple of weeks, little pockets of flowers around the Cottage encourage belief in summer :-)

I meant to post this a few weeks back: the dramatically lovely stage curtain from Noel Coward's 'Hay Fever' in The Gate. Never have I been so happy for intermission to continue...

And this, the single chilli that my little chilli plant produced this year. That little bundle of heat spiced up some zesty lemon & coriander hummus :-)

Life soundtracks

The EverFab Beatles demonstrating why music matters :-)



Been a nestley day in (as in, day of nestling, rather than a day associated with Nestlé). Little black cat is getting around on three paws, and seems 'herself' except for the limping. I'm concentrating my efforts on trying not to fuss over her.

I think I'll nip out now and get her some treaty milk. In a nonchalant kinda way...

First class

One of my favourite images from Sunday's March for Marriage in Dublin. Such sassiness; such pride. Delightful.

All that glitters...

Photos from the weekend's course in jewellery making, run by the fab Clare & Laura over at twojewellers.blogspot.com.

Day One was about getting used to the basics. We started out sawing and drilling copper - mine ended up being a little plaque that will hang outside someday and go a lovely verdigris. Yes, the design is made up of those random swirls I doodle all the time, teased outwards to create nice curves.

We played with some effects: if you put metal sheet through the Squodging Machine with some netting or material, the resulting textures are lovely. I did a little triptych which took on a lovely effect after going through the Squodginator with some plastic netting. (The idea is that it will be threaded with copper wire and will hang from some worn, textured little old branch).

And we tried our hands at soldering: this ring was a rectangle of copper Squodged with plain muslin cloth.

Day Two was going to be all about silver. I was trying to figure out what to do, and it happened to be a full moon... which made me think of a pair of moonstone earrings that I never wear...

Apparently, it's called Upcycling :-)

I made a ring and a pendant: cutting out silver circles and hammering them into cup shapes with little wave edges; making teeny settings for the moonstones and soldering on.

It was an easygoing learning environment with great teachers and lovely company. And sparkley results - boy, when that ring catches the light, it's a little glow-ball!

Delightful :-)

Harmony

Courtesy of the Harvard science folks: order turning to seeming chaos to order to chaos... It's all a complex, beautiful dance; we just sometimes can't discern the pattern  :-)



You can read the background over at:
openculture.com/2011/08/pendulum_waves_as_kinetic_art

And I had just bought ham for my cat. She deserves a treat, I thought.

It takes me hours to put it together.

I come home, and there's a little downy feather on the sofa. At some point later, I notice a downy feather in the kitchen. As I unroll my yoga mat, a couple of feathers glide along the floorboards, and come to rest by a pile of feathers.

I pull back the sofa to reveal a mass of feathers. And their Owner.

Sigh...

How she wangled that bird through the cat flap is beyond me. Anyhoo, time for Disposal Duty.

Eeuwww.

The Sandmen

Sand Swallow

Walking through the courtyards of Dublin Castle the other day, we came across a group of men sculpting enormous sand sculptures. As ya do.

Duthain Dealbh (which translates from Irish as 'Fleeting Sculpture') work in sand, ice and snow, and seem to come to Dublin Castle every few years to transform its environment.

Their work is a beautiful conversation between dynamic strength and super-transitoriness. You take it in, glancing overhead to see if there's ruthless rain threatening...

They had some images up of earlier shows: in 2009 they did 'The Four Elements' in Dublin Castle; this lady must have been amazing to see coming into form...

Antique Earth

Surprising, thrilling, wacky. And very treaty.

Daisies and Lavender and Chester

Yaaaaawnny stretch... another delightful restorative yoga session.

Well, this week has just zipped on by.



At Chester Beatty



In a backpack somewhere is a little camera waiting to be downloaded, but for now, here's a couple of iPhone pics from a very lovely Saturday. Me at the Chester Beatty library (note to self: a Queen of Sheba fridge magnet also awaits in that backpack). And below, a lavender margarita in NoName Bar (which I consider to be named 'The Sign of the Snail'). The photographer's caption was 'Waiter, there's a picture in my Margarita!'



Those photographers don't miss a trick!

I had a gin daisy after that, but by then we were talking tech and not playing with it.

Alrightey, time to curl up :-)