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After our successful trip to the MFA to draw on Wednesday, Chrissy and I decided when there aren't models available we could create our own still lifes to draw... and, I must say, our first still life came out fantastic!!
We took a page from our man Melendez (see previous posts), and constructed a kickin' display with wet, lucious grapes, some nice, crusty bread (which went well with dinner later), some wine, and a really cool deer skull J had found in the woods a couple of weeks ago.
We were trying to work on our light and shadow..I only brought pencils, and my sketch is for now unfinished. But I plan to paint this too, its such a great display!
I just love the skull!!
Sunday afternoon we attended our friend R's birthday party. I decided to make summer rolls. Whenever Tim and I have made these for a party in the past, they are always requested again and again. They are easy to make, but a bit time consuming! Tim does all the slicing and dicing of the ingredients, which in Sunday's rolls included: Thai basil, radishes, cabbage, carrots, scallions, and grilled seasoned chicken thigh.
Oh, and of course the rice noodles...
I, with my nimble little fingers, then roll all the yumminess up in a rice paper wrapper. We usually use the big ones, but for this fancy party we used the cute little size. Cute and little, but much more tedious to make.
Here are a couple of them finished, note how the pretty colors shine through.
I wish I had taken a picture of them on the platter with the dipping sauces, they looked so nice, but at that point the food was out, and I was all business. Trying one of everything. Or two.
I also make R a cute pair of earrings for her birthday, this was about the extent of my creativity this weekend since I spent most of Saturday trying to take decent pictures of earrings and bracelets for my etsy store. I'm afraid photography isn't my forte.
Hopefully some pics will make it up on the Etsy site today!
So, at long last, my Etsy store is now open for business. So far I have only managed to put up necklaces, I still have loads of earrings and bracelets to get up there as well, but I already made two sales so I figured I had better just go with it!
The photos put a kink in my timeline...I found it very hard to get the lighting just right. (Especially with my cheap little camera) Finally, I had to wait for the nice weather because the best light is the natural, outdoor kind.
So, next up is the earrings...no idea how I'm going to go about that...but we shall see.
Do stay tuned...
I recently discovered through my good friend Christine that the Museum of Fine Arts has free live model drawing on Wednesday nights. How convenient, since Wednesdays are free (with a donation requested...)
It is held in different spots throughout the museum each week, which I think is great! I've added some of my sketches here...now, keep in mind I haven't sketched live models since probably art school, and that was AWHILE ago!
I arrived early so was also able to catch the Durer exhibit, fantastic prints! Also, I viewed the "Bharat Ratna" Jewels of Modern India exhibit, Toulouse Lautrec's "Cafe and Cabaret" and the Luis Melendez exhibit, which was *amazing*...although it made me hungry! I've added the Globe review of the Melendez show after this post. I also wandered around checking out all the new parts of the Museum, and some old favorites. We were evacuated at one point, so I was also able to experience the Babyheads out back. They are VERY cool! I wasn't able to snap a picture though, we had to BACK AWAY FROM THE BUILDING!
All in all it was a fun night, I will definitely go back, and cudos to the MFA for offering this as well as free supplies should people need them.
I love this city!
In the hands of Meléndez, food comes to life - The Boston Globe
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If you can get over to the MFA, check out this exhibit, it really is worth the trip!!!
As you can tell from the few pitiful posts here, I have not been too creative lately. I blame the long winter, after the holiday season my creativity sort of fizzles out. I walk the dog in the cold, dark morning, and come home in the dark as well. The couch and a good book then claim me.
However, the other day on my walk to work down Commonwealth Ave. in the Back Bay I spied some Snowdrops and Crocuses in a front yard. I felt the first stirrings of creative energy in awhile! I went home that night and started the seeds for my garden.
I've started some Collards and Kale, San Marzanos, thai and jalapeno peppers, dill, basil and thyme, Morning Glories and Sunflowers. Right into the dirt will go my sugar snap peas, carrots, spinach and radishes. Hopefully my lavender, chives, and some Perennials come back again. I can't wait!
The garden is a little forlorn at the moment, but that will change soon enough!!
All of this Garden preparation and planting of seeds has jump-started my creative energy. I've registered my etsy store to start selling my jewelry, put away and organized my new beads, and have some new ideas for paintings to add to the list of paintings I still haven't started. I have grand plans to start those paintings as well, but maybe I shouldn't get too ahead of myself AS usual....
This past weekend was my Mom's 65th birthday and she had a great party to celebrate. The theme was tapas, my favorite! Tim says I'd eat anything if it was in appetizer form...I think he's probably right.
I made delicate little crepe cones, filled with smoked salmon, julienned carrots and celery, and a filling made up of cream cheese, sour cream, cream, chives, gerkin pickles, lemon, tobasco, and capers. There was high drama when I realized I forgot the smoked salmon back in Boston, and panic ensued when there was only 1 wee little package to be found in all of Scituate. D saved the day driving out to Cohasset, of COURSE they had it! Sadly, after all this, I forgot to take a picture, but they were very elegant and tasty. A success!!
Tim made my Mom a wonderful "Carioca" cake from Pierre Herme's dessert book she bought him a couple of years ago. It had 3 layers of genoise soaked in an espresso syrup, with alternating layers of dark chocolate mouse, finished with bittersweet ganach and glazed almonds. It turned out delicious! However, I do think next time we might add more of the espresso syrup, it was so strong we were worried it would overpower the the delicate genoise, but this was not the case.
While Tim made the whole cake himself, including his home-made cake rings, I commandeered all of the decorating. (after having my wrists slapped for testing too many glazed almonds...) I think it came out pretty nice, no?
