Metheglin, Luminary, and 50 Card Project

Metheglin Update: 

Well, something's happening. I left the metheglin in the kitchen overnight and when I came in the next morning, it was alive. It was foaming so much I took it into the bathroom and put it into the shower. That way if it exploded at least it would be easier to clean up! I was also so shocked by the drama I forgot to take pictures until a few days later. 

Here is an image of the foaming still happening, although much subdued. This was probably last Wednesday. 

By this morning the bubbles have slowed considerably and the liquid has cleared. It is quite the lovely caramel color. Dare I sample some? 

I opened the cork and sniffed. It doesn't smell bad. I went and got a straw and did the old, dip and pull method because I didn't want to disturb the sediment at the bottom. And what does it taste like?... beer. 

blech. 

Okay Okay, I'm not a beer drinker, but I can manage a pale ale and that's what this tastes like at the moment. A very pale, light, ginger beer. I still have to add the cinnamon, lemon, and raisins. That might change the flavor a little. But as soon as I have another bottle, I'm making straight mead. I've got to see what the difference is. Project for this weekend? Figure out how to bottle this up. I'm planning on letting it sit for longer than the "fortnight" suggested by Mrs. W's book. 

In related news,  I have great news on the bee front. I will pick up my bees tomorrow! This was not guaranteed because I was a real ding-a-ling about ordering them. I sent my check and application well before the deadline. We're talkin' weeks here. I really wanted my bees early so they could get a head start on everything and I might get a summer harvest of honey. 

I forgot to put a stamp on the envelope. 

It came back after the notice was put up on the website that there was only a waiting list for bee packages this weekend. I was so bummed. I stuck the entire envelope in a new envelope and wrote a pitiful message on it pointing out that technically I did mail it before the deadline. I also mentioned that if someone didn't show up for their order, I would be more than happy to drop everything and come pick them up. My bee man is the best and put me on this weekends list. I am very excited! That's what I will be doing for most of today... reviewing my notes and remembering what to do for this whole bee thing. 

Luminary

Last weekend, I got lost in the studio to edition my book Luminary. 

 It was accepted into the Guild of Bookworkers traveling exhibition, Formation. I only had the one copy and before it leaves me for two years, I really needed to make another for reference.

There are 15 pages and my goal is 10 books. They are all sunprints which is quite an ambitious project let me tell you! The sun and clouds are not exactly ideal studio mates. It's taken almost two years just to print the spreads. And of course, I already have to print more due to stupid mistakes.

I got three put together last weekend. And before I forget what I did, I want to finish as many others as possible.

 The wonderful Silhouette Cameo cutter Ann gave me for Christmas a year ago, is an absolute life saver.  It took some fiddling, but it is cutting a perfect circle in all of my spreads exactly where they should be. Big sigh of relief.


50 Card Project
I received a wonderful surprise in the mail this week. In response to the election last year, my friend Melanie did this project. 

It was a monumental undertaking funded by Kickstarter.  In spite of so much misery for the past year, she managed to find quotes and responses to the madness that were positive and uplifting. More information about the project can be found here: http://melaniemowinski.com/the-50-card-project/

You can find (and purchase!) your own copy here: http://melaniemowinski.com/product/printed-book/ 

Congratulations Melanie! It is really fabulous!

Good Riddance to 2016 - but not to the silver linings

Here we are in the final hours of 2016 and all I have to say is, good riddance! What a year. Mostly the election is what made it the pits. The lead-up was excruciating. I have an appointment on the 5th to be fitted with a mouth guard because as of October I have been clenching my teeth so badly I can't actually chew. It was really bad until I realized it was stress from the election. Then it became only medium bad. At work I actually had to make myself drop my jaw to relax. The last two weeks of the madness, I could not listen to the news and instead switched to favorite comedian channels on Pandora.
Then the election happened.
And I still cannot believe it. Every time I hear "President Elect Trump" I feel like I am in an alternate dimension and just want to throw up. All of the consequent decisions about our country's future sickens me and I am scared. I am just hoping that some good ol' boys from The GOP can wrangle things into some semblance of normalcy. Otherwise, I truly fear for what we might be in for. Seriously - Senator McCain - hop to! And good grief, where is Arlen Spector when you need him!? Uch - Oy - Augh!
This election is the reason my blogging dropped off so drastically. Much has happened and while I wanted to post - I simply couldn't find the energy. But in the last few hours of 2016 - I have. I reviewed my photos and have found the following silver linings:

1. In August my fabulous tenant made Jalapeño bread again.

 Last year she received some of the jalapeños from my farm share while she was taking care of kitties in the summer. So I gave her this years' crop in hopes she would make the delicious cheddar jalapeño bread again and she did! It is especially good with fried eggs. When I cooked with it this year I couldn't have a cyclops so i put two eggs in and enjoyed the smiley face.

2. As of September, apparently I have a new cat. 

I have been telling people I have two and a half cats. This is Butch. Butch showed up a few years ago as a feral kitty in my yard. He and Jacques tangled often so I decided he had to get fixed and get his shots. It was quite traumatic for him and in spite of the fact that he was so sweet while he was recuperating, he eventually broke out and would not come anywhere near me for the following two years.
This September though, I tried to talk to him more than usual. Eventually I left a small dish with a little food in it for him. I think that did the trick. At first he would only howl at me - in a loud and complaining tone. Eventually he let me pet him and finally I was allowed to pick him up. The epic purring gave it away that this kitty wanted to be loved. He is really beautiful, an almost perfectly symmetrical tuxedo cat. He reminds me of those wall clocks with the eyes that go back and forth with the ticker. He is only half mine because he is going to have to supplement his diet with scavenging and continued hunting of the nasty squirrels in my garden. I feel a little guilty because I'd like to keep him as an outdoor cat to catch the rodents. But he also clearly wants to be part of a family so I am considering allowing him to leave to a loving family. There are two perspective folks. We shall see...

3. My Night Blooming Cereus bloomed. Not just once but almost 10 blooms.


 I missed the first few as previously reported. But the while cleaning the garden in September I noticed a few buds. I watched carefully and as they grew I knew they'd bloom. So at the end of September, Miss Mary and I sat outside one night and watched them for several hours. The scent is exquisite and the change in the bloom is minute by minute. I've pondered why they bloomed this year after several years of dormancy. I wonder if it had something to do with Katie watching over them while I was away in August. I must consult her to see if she did anything special.

4. Throughout the fall, I've been working on editioning my book from 2015, Luminary.

While it sounds fairly straight forward, it is anything but. Ten copies, total 150 prints - but they are sun prints so there are a ton of factors. Clouds, angle of the sun, how much solution I've applied, all affect the final result. Instead of just 150 perfect prints I've done closer to 250.


It is a rather involved production.
 

Which includes trying to find the best angle of the sun. Then of course, there is always the chance that Jacques will decide to sit on them. 


Or at least the paper for the covers ($22/sheet).


5. I also knitted a lot.

 

 I made a pair of mittens for my friend Melanie who lives in the fridged Berkshires of Massachusetts. These were so fun to make and it was really hard not to post about them on my blog because she actually reads my blog! I suppose I could have posted without saying who they were for - but I wanted them to be a complete surprise. 

I also knitted a pair of Owlie socks for my sister for Christmas.

I think I have to make myself a pair of these - I love them!

And then I knitted socks with yarn Melanie gave me from her travels to Italy. These are a single skein that knit up into stripes.

Fun, fast and easy! What more could you wish for!?
I also knitted my dad a pair of navy blue socks and Ann got a pair of sea-foam turquoise with a "fish-tail" cable stitch on them. Of course - that couldn't go smoothly. The day before I was supposed to fly to California - I was madly knitting away on her second sock. I finished early afternoon, plenty of time to block and dry it. I hung it by the heating vent so it would be really dry before packing it and didn't remember it until I was on the train to the airport. I was upset that she received a single sock in her box instead of a standard pair. But alas, there was nothing to be done about it. The second sock will travel in the new year.

6. General update on Swee'Pea

Swee'Pea is also doing fine this year in spite of a bout with epiglotitis. Good Grief. That cost me a pretty penny. But he is fine and happily taking his pills and that is all that counts.

7.  My semester teaching was eventful but also fun. I had wonderful students who actually wanted to follow my directions exactly! No kidding! They all consulted each other on "now what did she say, how do I do that?" I was floored. Many wonderful final projects and simply amazing people. In the next semester I'm teaching a class the students lobbied for. An advanced book arts class which is not normally on the schedule. I am flattered and thrilled and really looking forward to the class. It should be lots of fun.
In the winter the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is located next to the college, put out their animatron dinosaurs. We can't figure out if they move on a motion sensor or a timer. Either way it is fun to watch people who haven't encountered them before, start when they suddenly start moving and roaring. When it finally got cold, someone put scarves and mittens on T-rex and Triceratops. I actually laughed out loud. So witty.

8. Christmas in California

 

My nephew got his new obsession, a trash can. Yes his very own wheeley trashcan to put everything in. 

Now. He also got two Tonka dump trucks because his mommy and I think alike and both got him the same thing. That'll learn me. I gotta consult the mommy to know if he's already getting it. We decided it was okay as he now has one for outside and one for inside - or one for later when the first one is kaput. 

At the moment, Liam decided it really was only good for sitting.  

Grandpa made him a fabulous box of stuff to open and close, switch on and off, buckle and unbuckle and all sorts of fun things.

He decided at the moment the best use for it was to stand on it.

 At the end of the unwrapping the trashcan was once again brought forth to be filled.

 

We really didn't have to do much clean up at all. Just hand him the paper and tell him it's trash. 

 

All gone!

 

At the end of the gift giving marathon, Liam and I looked at pictures and videos of him on his mommy's phone. 

That right there would be the family trademark look-of-concentration. He is clearly "one of us".

I myself received a Cameo Silhouette paper cutter.  And I cannot wait to put it into action!

9. After Christmas my Aunt Lois and I got together so she could teach me how to make Uncle Ralph's mother's Rum Cake. It is a super secret recipe, carefully guarded and only made for Uncle Ralph. When I arrived, my cousin David, who was rushing out on his way out to the airport, implored me to learn to make the cake. It's a family tradition. Well - consider it done David!

This is an all day affair - the secrets of which I will not divulge.
Suffice to say there is baking:

 and cooking:

and inspection.
(that would be Miss Mittens - a big kitty).

And it is all worth it. The cake is delicious. You'll have to take my word for it 'cause I'm sworn to secrecy. 

10. My birthday was wonderful. We started out at an incredible new-ish coffee shop, La Monarcha, Ann's fabulous idea.
My sister and nephew met us there. And he was kind of the star of the show.

 

There was plenty of trash for him to put away under Grandpa's supervision. 

 

After breakfast we went for a little walk which culminated in Liam thoroughly inspecting Grandma and Grandpa's mini van.
There were so many gadgets and switches and things to open and close. He was completely entertained for a good 20 minutes.

The day was gorgeously warm at 82°F. We headed to the beach for a few hours and consumed the obligatory In-N-Out burgers while there.
The cup became the perfect beach toy even though there was an entire bag full of other more commercial toys. 

 

The water was a bit cold and after an initial trial, Liam wasn't really interested in taking the waters again. That was fine. There was plenty of sand for him to scoop and dump, and scoop and dump, and scoop and dump. 

Wishing you all a wonderful 2017 ~ xotara

MIA again

Last July I was MIA all month for no good reason other than I had just checked out. This July I've been here workin' away on a show we installed this past week at my friend Melanie's gallery in North Adams, MA and phew! We made it! 

The show looks amazing. Four of us at work used a 1763 manuscript describing how to set up a sun dial in Philadelphia as our jumping off point for the work in the show.   

As you know I've been researching a book on sun dials at Harvard and Dumbarton Oaks. A reproduction of the original with all of the pop ups is one of my pieces for the show.  The other piece, Luminary, new for the show, is actually one I made a sketch of nearly 8 years ago. 

I've always wanted to revisit it and this project was a good reason to.  I'm really pleased with the result. 
While the results are very positive, the path there was very rocky indeed. I had plenty of time to finish everything, but no time for hiccups. I must remember to include time for those. It sure would have made my life a little less crazy.
What happened?
Oh boy - everything. On Wednesday evening I sat down to my computer to work on things and my power cord melted.  Just - fizzled - done. No more charging for my computer. This meant I could do absolutely nothing. Everything I needed to do was on the computer. So I tidied, did the fewest things I could do, and called it a night. At 3am I sat bolt up right from an anxiety dream, knew I could not go back to sleep, so headed down to my studio. I discovered I had 11minutes of time for my computer left, which was just enough to print out a few images of the "La Pratique" book I needed to hand draw for the pop ups. After printing them, I busied myself with a few other housekeeping things.

I trimmed at least one of the signatures I was able to print, after having a negotiation with Jacques first. He was leaning on the blade of the board shear, and then finally, begrudgingly agreed to lean on the square, but with his back to me. That'll teach me.

 

I went to work early, very early, the earliest the building opened, so that I could just be done for the day, go to the computer store and buy a new power cord and get back to work. While I was there, my eyes landed on the "magic mice". These are cordless mouses for your computer or laptop. Over the last few months I have developed something awful painful in my right elbow. I'm guessing it's something like tennis elbow - or carpel tunnel of some kind. I originally thought it was from knitting, but now I'm pretty sure it's from using my track pad too much on my lap top.  The day I spent in Washington DC a few weeks ago, without my computer all day, really helped my arm.  That weekend I pulled out my old mouse and used it instead of the track pad and it helped even more. But the old mouse isn't really very good. I decided to treat myself to a new mousy and oh boy, I love it. :) I especially love the cordless part. It doesn't get caught on anything. 

I came home all ready to work on my books. I had to leave in the evening to go to the West Philly Tool Library to pick up a mitre-saw and a table saw for the heavy duty table I wanted to construct with my intern on Friday morning... more on that later. When I got back home, I returned to printing the sun dial book on my ink jet printer. And wouldn't you know, my faithful, reliable, printer, suddenly decided not to cooperate anymore. It would not print on the (very expensive) paper I purchased for the books. (big frowny face). I tried everything after an hour I had managed to print two more of the nearly 100 prints I still had left to do.  Little bit of panic? Yes, a little bit. I did everything I could before hitting the sheets. Friday morning up bright an early, worked some more before intern Sarah came.  

Fabulous Sarah! When she showed up,  I attacked her with this project.
She was so helpful! In two hours we (almost literally) threw the table together. It is not a pretty table, no sir! But it works. We got my super heavy foil stamper up off the floor and I know it made a HUGE difference on Sunday night, when I was using it for my other book.  

 

After we finished the table, I kicked Sarah unceremoniously out of the house so that I could go to work and use the printer there. Thank goodness it worked! There were a few tense moments, and with the exception of the fact that I completely forgot any extra paper (to cover mistakes) everything went smoothly and I was able to print all the pages.  I also think I sort of figured out what my printer didn't like about printing my paper... but that is a boring technical story for another day.   

Saturday and Sunday were spent sun printing the other piece I was working on, Luminary.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out as well.  

Jacques was ever helpful. 

He kept an eye on things outside,

 Especially when things were developing

 and even a little bit when they were drying. 

 

I just kept working and working and finally it all came together. 

 

On Monday we all drove up to Massachusetts and on Tuesday we started installing our show.  

  

We were also in charge of installing something in the front windows.

 The Erin's and Charissa thankfully took over that job. 
In the meantime, I was frantically finishing things up. Mostly just the sun dial book which still needed all of its pop ups as well as a vellum binding. 
Working with such a view though, sure makes things easier. 

The week went by in  a blur. Quickly. I am really happy with the results of the show. It is really nice. Hopefully we can put together a few proposals for other places. Especially now that we have some installation shots. 

 And now? What do I want to do now?
I want to clean and garden. Desperately. It all got neglected while I was working. And my garden is begging for some maintenance.