5+ On Friday aka What's On Your...

A slight twist on the 5 on Friday straight from Ali Edwards, who got it from her sister, who got it...well you get the point! Blogland memes have a life of their own. I ended up shortening my list.

VANITY | I don't have a vanity but I do have a dresser which has a lot more 'white' space after I cleaned off the things that don't belong there. Need to get more BioSilk which is the best hair treatment I've ever found.
PERENNIAL TO DO LIST | Clean out unwanted/needed clothes, and work on having less in the studio. Less is my One Little World.
REFRIGERATOR SHELVES | Things from the JFX Market - fresh spinach, basil and dill, and recently made Indian style split pea soup with spinach.
ITINERARY |Just back from a trip to the Eastern Shore and off to a book sale in Bethesda this weekend.
FANTASY ITINERARY | I really don't have one. I've seen most of the world I want to see, and I don't think the Silk Road will be an option in my lifetime.
PLAYLIST | Podcasts The Digi Show and KCRW Good Food top my list
NIGHTSTAND | Books and more books. I usually have one book I'm reading in bed but with the option of about 10 others. 
WORKOUT PLAN | M-W-F Aerobics at 08:30 and M-W Tai Chi at 11:30. I really don't like having to go home in between but sitting and reading for two hours is not what I want to be doing.
IPHONE |Google Maps and The Paperclipping Roundtable kept me company yesterday. Newest app is Feedly which I haven't got around to exploring.
WALLS OF YOUR FAVORITE ROOM IN YOUR HOUSE | Benjamin Moore 2159-50 Wheatfield
LAST CREDIT CARD STATEMENT | Walmart for house odds and ends, Panera for dinner on the road, and Royal Farms for gas.
TV EVERY NIGHT | Not in this house. I may watch an episode of Heroes on Netflix. Sunday is my only tv night.

5 Fact Friday - October 26, 2012

Here it is Friday and that means 5 Facts! I've never been short on either opinion or fact. "Fact" of course is often just a subjective view, but inside my big noodle, as my children called the brain, they tend to behave as facts. This, of course, is more the reader or listener's problem rather than mine! However, here I speaketh the truth.

This meme comes from

1. Chocolate for me is milk chocolate, period, and I absolutely adore the 1lb Belgian chocolate bar sold at Trader Jo's. Don't ask how often I buy one. You really don't want to know.

2. In high school, I loved debate and my specialty was extemp - Extemporaneous Speaking. See sentence 2 in the first paragraph of this blogpost.

3. The meniscus in my right knee is not only torn but pushed out of place. Shockingly so.  I now have bone hitting bone there but the surgeon and I agree that surgery is not called for - yet. Periodic cortisone shots seem to help a lot. That and Aleve may buy me time.

4. Years ago when I lived in damp, cool, northern England, I grew roses, beautiful, healthy roses. I grew them by putting them in the ground. My house was built on an old pig farm. I had soil, oh did I have great soil.  When I lived in Thailand I had orchid plants up the gazoo. Anywhere you walked, you were in danger of banging your head on an orchid.  Beautiful orchids, all very cheap, like under $5.  The moral is - garden with native plants and you'll do just fine.

5. I've started a new volunteer position, as a Student Coordinator. I'm not sure if I need my brains examined as I have learned that working with volunteers is often like 'herding cats.'  Time will tell.

If you click on that little banner in this post, you'll see some more Friday Facts from other bloggers.  Join in when you can!

5 Fact Friday - October 19, 2012

Sometime you just have to change things about, and this is one of them.  I think I will always be able to find five facts for Friday to share with you but sometimes the easy can be the hardest. So Flashback Friday is morphing into another title. (Check back with me on Monday to see what it becomes!)

This meme comes from

Will I add any images? I don't know. Maybe I will and maybe I won't. But this first Friday, I won't. btw, I used to do a lot of memes with some very talented Australian bloggers. As much fun as it was, I learned after a while that their craft work was much more handmade - think 'softies' - and most of mine was becoming strictly digital. But it was a lot of fun! So onto the subject at hand.

1. October is probably my favorite month, but it seems I am almost always traveling in September, October or November, and I never seem to have the time to really enjoy this month.
2. When I lived abroad, Halloween wasn't celebrated almost anywhere, so my children didn't have quite the 'American' experience now available nearly round the world.
3. My son, the chef, taught me how to make gnocchi but I have come to realize I really don't like the potato version all that much. Oh well.
4. I really don't care if my daily tea gets cold before I drink it but then again, it rarely gets cold unless it's the last cup of a 6 cup pot.
5. The sound of wind going through a stand of bamboo is almost as soothing as ocean waves. Well, to me it is.

If you click on that little banner in this post, you'll see some more Friday Facts from other bloggers.  Join in when you can!

Just A Minute!

Well yes, it is March already, which totally surprised me this am. That's what comes of being away most of February. The sweetie Jenaveve over at August Street started this meme, and I'll play along. I do like memes as it seems we all come up with different versions of the same basic idea.

TRAVELING - to England for over two weeks. It was a great trip, despite the lack of internet for week one (the net connection at the villa site was down) and living in just one hotel room with dh for week 2. We don't have a big house by any means but this was still a challenge for me to live in a 15x10 room. Bless dh who took his laptop into the bathroom for an hour or two when he got up at 5am each day.

READING - The Red Tent-Anita Diamant, As Above So Below - Rudy Rucker, The Black Madonna-Doris Lessing - are the ones that come to mind. I took As Above with me on the trip, finished it down near Canterbury and then saw some Flemish paintings at Buckingham Palace. Veddy nifty synchronicity.


EATING - more potatoes than I usually eat in a year. Oh those chips in England!

WISHING - I had taken more of my stuff to the charity shops before we left as it was a bit depressing to see the piles waiting to go when we got home.

GRATEFUL - that we had the opportunity to take this trip and that hairy old Sebastian was still in the land of the living when we returned. I think he just manufactured hair the entire time we were gone.

EXCITED - that my grandson got into his high school of choice and called us as soon as he got the letter.

WONDERING - if I will have any students to tutor at the Detention Center this semester.

HAPPY - that I did not have to go back to any job when we returned. Oh so happy.

So, I put the Just A Minute button up on my page to remind me to think about this subject during March and I'll take a gander tomorrow to see what the other meme players wrote.

Take 5 Tuesday

Ah, a new meme that I saw on Caryn's tweet re her Take 5 Tuesday questions. Here are today's 5 questions from Deep in the Heart of Texas's Take 5:

1. what is your favorite food/cooking website?
No longer watch any of them as I watched them go from cooking to dubious imho entertainment. Wish I could get Jamie Oliver here.
2. do you prefer to watch cooking shows or read cooking magazines?
Read cooking magazines is choice from options, but more likely to get recipes on line now
3. are you more adventersome in what you cook or in what you eat?
More adventuresome in what I eat as I don't have to forage for ingredients. With some foreign dishes, I really can't tell what it should taste like either.
4. what is one ingredient that you have always wanted to cook with, but never have?
hmmm...still thinking about this one. I'm fortunate not to live in an ingredient wasteland.
5. what is the one thing that you can not cook without?
silicone spatulas I love them!

Oh and she has a Mr. Linky so the other players can be seen. I love that feature and will have to try it out myself one of these days, months ...

I just Joined

Kirsty over at kootoyoo has started the 2009 version of the popular On My Desk. We are now into My Creative Space since we all know that creation takes many forms and in many locations. (hmmm....that does have double meaning, doesn't it? I am reading The Red Tent now, so...)

I'm in for the meme. How 'bout you?? It's Blogging Without Obligation and it's fun.

This is ...my favorite fabric store

It's terrible to pick this as I haven't sewn in YEARS but for sensual delight, I'll pick G Street Fabrics in Washington DC. It used to be on "G" Street in NW Washington, back when downtown WAS the shopping area. e.g. pre malls.



That was where I would go and get luscious material and patterns when I was a teenager. I'd come home and announce that I NEED this tomorrow night. Can you believe my mother and grandmother actually did it????? Perhaps the word spoiled comes to mind. btw, that lovely tulle and feather deal will only set you back $149. a yard. On sale now from $199. but sadly, polyester. (n.b. This is NOT one of my purchases. I was buying back in the 1960s when $10 a yard would make you faint...)

Today, if I need any kind of fabric for anything...it's usually Jo-ann's, with a coupon. I think my days of having a personal dressmaker are over. (Tho I have to say that after my years ordering my mother and grandmother around, I also had a lot of years with dressmakers in various countries of the world. Wool, Irish linen and Liberty cottons in England and loads and loads of silk in Thailand...I was much much kinder with paid dressmakers - to my now shame.)

To get loads more ideas of where to buy fabric or crafts, look at that button on the right that says This Is and you'll go off to the list at ThreeButtons. Thanks to handmaiden for this week's meme theme. (PS..Handmaiden is going to be compiling a list of all the fabric and crafty emporiums you listed in This is. Won't THAT be a treasure.)

On my desk...June 4

We have had a lot, a LOT, of ip trouble this week, making dh tense, terse, and fed up. While we had a half day without the net, I decided to redo my room. So...on my desk looks in a different direction.



The page in the center is the basis for the 6 element ATC swap I'm doing. I have moved the elements around and around and am not very happy with them. I think I may have to look for 'smaller shoes' to paste on the card. The orange was just for sizing. The cards will be white so I can print the Olympic Rings. I have an idea for altering that element to express some of my feelings about the location.

Now that you've seen my desk, I'm sure you want to see more desks . Kirsty is the keeper of the desk-list.

This is ...my pet

This week's theme comes from Two Peas in a Pod.

In reality, this is the one who owns us, but if you have a pet you already know that. If you don't have a pet, then consider who owns who....carefully. This is Sebastian, our Lilacpoint Siamese. He's "mature", 16 I think.



He was one of a pair of brothers we got from a family who were giving the two away. the couple had had 3 boys in 5 yrs, and were expecting boy #4. The cats didn't stand a chance...tho the couple had doted on them for 5 years pre children.



The two boys were inseperable, i.e. Felix would not leave Sebastian alone, and was always grooming him and fussing over him. The vet told us Sebastian was a ...gasp!..poor groomer. Well, he might have been less than diligent about his grooming but it turned out he was diabetic. Sigh. Felix flew away to live with another catlover who was desperate for a cat, and we began the twice daily insulin shots.



He was not happy when we renovated the kitchen - 14 months of bedlam.




Sebastian has now 'outgrown' his diabetes, but I believe it was the energy work I did on him. Whatever, the shots are history, and he is a happily aging cat who tolerates me and loves my dh.

This is most of his life these days.He is happiest asleep on dh's lap while dh reads. Not a shabby way of life...



There are more pets to see on Threebuttons list. Have a look at the blogroll of This is...

On my desk...May 28

Yikes, I'm not sure there will be anything new on my desk today as I got the postcards for a swap finally done, and sent out. I wanted to seal the inkjet printing and am flumoxed as to what to use. Modgepodge for paper(which I doubted but bought on the clerk's advice...)made one run, as I thought it would. I bit the bullet and used some old aerosole clear lacquer which worked but of course smelled to high heaven. I would do this outside but it was starting to rain. To quote Gilda Radner's Roseanna Dandanna, It's always somthing. ANY suggestions as to what to use to coat ink jet prints is appreciated.



And as I put most of the stuff away, I am probably going to do some 'word cutting' for collages. I love doing this and used to journal with random phrases.

So I will add the pic of the postcards that were sent. Each had more stuff on the mailing side but the addresses are there so... you don't get to see that side.



What is NOT on my desk but is now on my mind is a swap I signed up for - a journal exchange, and the topics are really quite good, don't you think?? You must mail the Journal to your partner on July 1. This will take some dedication for me. (I think it will be the green journal or the black one that will be for the project.)

Here are the themes (there are 31 in total)

* write a letter to yourself in the future
* find a photo of a person you do not know. Write a brief biography about them
* Fill and entire page in your journal with small circles. Colour them in
* create instructions for a simple everyday task (e.g. washing up, making a cup of tea)
* Write a letter to somebody you admire
* Glue a photo of yourself as a child into your journal. Write about what you think you were doing that day
* Make a list of everything you would buy with a million pound (2 million dollars)
* write an entry in code
* find a photo, alter it in anyway you wish
* illustrate your grocery list
* make a map of everywhere you went in one day
* cut out all media for one day, write about the effects (try to do this on a non work day, but if you work everyday you may continue to use the essential things - not swapbot!)
* go for a walk, draw/list all the things you see
* Physically alter a page (i.e. cut holes in it, pour tea on it, burn it, fold it etc)
* glue an envie into your journal. For one week collect items you find in the street and put in the envie. Please don't put dangerous or really dirty items in.
* Draw or list all the things in your purse/bag (the bag you carry all your belongings around in i.e. money, phone, lipgloss, hairbrush, diary. Not the one your money and cards go in)
* Write your own definition of one of the following concepts - sitting, waiting, sleeping or eating
* write an entry in your journal in really LARGE letters (free choice what you actually write)
* Write down a secret. Cut it up and glue back randomly. You could cut the letters from differant newspapers and magazines if you wished
* create a character based on somebody you know. Write a list of personality traits
* Create an image using dots
* list 10 of your habits (or all of them if you have less than 10)
* list 10 things you would like to do every day
* list your 10 most important things. Not including animals or people
* make a list of everything you buy in the next week
* write in your journal using a differant medium (i.e. brush & ink, charcoal, old typewriter, crayons, markers) (again free choice what you write about)
* Draw the individual items of your favourite outfit
* Find a piece of poetry you respond to. Rewrite it and glue it in your journal
* record all the sounds you hear in one hour
* write about your relationship with a household appliance (i.e. washer, dishwasher, kettle)
* cut a random shape out of layers of a magazine. Make a collage of the results.

Feel free to join...Journal Swap-Theme a Day. Final date to sign up is May 31st.

Other desks to spy on are at this girl's blog...have a peep.

This is: something I got, but still haven't used.

Well, after thinking about this one, and trying to narrow it down, I'll got with the one that is causing me grief. Good theme FlossyP !

This pantry


and this shelf in particular.


Some of these I bought, and some were gifts, but you know with this kind of non-basic food, you usually don't end up using the whole kit and caboodle in a recipe. And what does that lead to my lovelies??? Yes, another jar in the fridge, another jar half empty/half full, whatever you call it, it's just another jar in the fridge. I have a lot of jars in the fridge and it drives me nuts.

I had one of those plans to use one 'new shelf item' a week, but I kind of got backfilled so to speak, meaning the fridge said NO More!! I want one of these shelves cleared to use for pastas so it's time to get working on these again. I have, at least, stopped buying most of the 'interesting' items I used to buy. Well, mostly stopped buying....Food lovers who like to cook have low resistance for this sort of thing.

Want to see more unused goodies or baddies or ...check out the list at Threebuttons.

Flashback Friday 1. 08 05 23

Ah the younger, slimmer days...with my two sons outside my parents house, the house where I spent most of my growing up years in Maryland. In fact, the house I lived in until I 'went from my father's house to my husband's house.' By this point, August 1978, my father had been dead of ALS for 5 years. The summer shot was just before we left for Iran and a tumultuous couple of months in that troubled country. It was hard for my mother to see her grandchildren, esp that lanky boy on my right, go so far away - again. He was the love of her life, esp as she had time to 'mother' him, a joy she was denied when I was an infant during WWII when she only saw me on weekends - if she was lucky. Little did we know how soon she'd have us back.



Same house, but circa 1966...the year of my first marriage. It always appalled my mother that these new houses were built without sidewalks. Ah - the start of car dependent suburbia, and in suburbia then, there was nothing to walk to anyhow. Give me the urban or or if I have to, the country ...suburbs are still wastelands imho.

This is ...how I recycle

A bit late but I thought I had done this post and scheduled it to post yesterday. I guess I thought about that more than doing it. ;-) This week's theme came from Angela's Mum. Thanks Mum!

Nothing exotic here, but I think we made a really neat spot for the daily bits and scraps that end up going out back to the compost pile. We designed that pull out drawer to use Ikea Trofast bins - the drawer front is a standard Ikea one from the rest of the renovation. The cutout board holding it, slots thru two simple slots on each side of the cabinet frame. I thought of putting a door on the standard waste bin section below, but figured why mess with simple.

We use very few bottles or cans, so they aren't recycled - yet. The newspapers and most large paper items are stored in the hall closet , well the dining room closet, in a wine crate that has rope handles. (I made these all by my lonesome almost 20+years ago!!). All that paper goes out weekly including the paper that goes into a tray by each of our computers.

Fairly current magazines go to the local hospital on about a monthly basis, and I have made it a goal to go through some of my old hoards and pass them on also. I decided to go through some cooking mags and sort them by month rather than year, so I can take 'appropriate' ones each month to the hospital. If I get some that are cut up a bit too much, they can still go with a note that they are for the psychiatric section where they continue to be used for art therapy.


Other working household stuff that does not go to one of the best charity shops near us, the Lutheran Mission,

often gets put on freecycle. The problem there is I find great stuff incl boxes of magazines asking to but cut up. I often share my 'wealth' with my Artist Way group if I can.

Books that we read usually come from used book stores, and when we are done with them, if they don't go onto a friend, go into boxes to be taken to one of the biggest book sales around us Stone Ridge Book Sale . Besides the tax benefit we get, we can usually find time to go to one of the wonderful restaurants in Bethesda.

Recycling is picked up at the curb weekly but it isn't sorted, nor is there any penalty for not recycling. :-( In time that will come I believe, esp after seeing my friend in Maine's major recycling works.

I hope this gives you an idea or two...and I look forward to checking what others do to recycle. Angela over at Three Buttons has a list of regulars if you want to see more ideas about recyling.

This is ...the pair of shoes I'd sleep in...sortof

All in all, I am happier barefoot and if we didn't have an old cat who is prone to regurgitation, I'd be barefoot a lot. But this is as close as it comes....my old slippers that are wonderfully warm in the winter with socks and are soon to be replaced by Crocs. But sleep in Crocs??? not hardly.

So thank you HipHop and Banana Bread for this different one.



Wanna see more? Check over at Three Buttons for a long list of players.

This is...my favorite book

Dees came up with an intriguing subject for the weekly meme, This is...my favorite book.

I usually don't have the kind of favorite that I read again and again but two stand out in my mind. This one was a present for my 10th birthday - The Secret Garden by Frances Hogdson Burnett. I still have my copy, a 1949 Lippincott edition.



I certainly identified with little Mary and her "I Won't!" attitude. and later lived in Yorkshire and read it again there having a full appreciation of the 'invigorating' Yorkshire air. Later, living in SE Asia I could imagine Mary's early days of being cared for by servants. I know I've seen more than one of the film/tv adaptations and recently had a fine time seeing it on cable. I felt like Mary was a lot snittier in the book!

While living in England, I was happily near a library which was full of authors unknown to me, and I made some of my initial selections by scanning which one of them had a lot of books. I figured that if I liked the author I had a treasure trove; if not, I had one section already crossed off. I think that is how I first selected Laurie Lee. His Cider with Rosie became one of my favorites, read more than once while in England, and one which went around the world with me for a long time. While that copy is now gone, I now have this version which I found in a US used book store. I plan to read it again next winter...somehow it seems like a cozy, winter read to me...perhaps bringing back memories of England so long ago.



Want to see more faves?? check out the list of players over at Three Buttons who is good enough to maintain the list.

This is ...my latest discovery

Laura Brino

She's already been discovered with two cds and gigs about the east coast but I met her in a hair salon Friday. One of those random moments when you say....gosh, I need a haircut...how about just running in this one. And you have a serendipitous moment that lights up your day and makes you smile to be alive.

She is one of the nicest, most genuine young women I've met in some time. Grounded and gorgeous. Multi talented without a lick of pretension. Take a listen to her, and enjoy. I wish you could talk to her and enjoy her presence.

Oh yeah... I got one of the best haircuts I've had for a long time too. The way I remember my hair looking when it looked good.

On my desk...April 9

(click pic to see large Flickr version with lots of notes - if you are nicely nosey)

Oh look at the other desks at Kootoyoo's list instead.

Aaargh I now know why I put off doing this...too many memories, both good and painful, and the everpresent issue for me of what to do with small bits. I have done this in fits and starts all week, and thought...damn..it's gonna get done today come hell or high water! (I shouldn't say that..we've had a week of rain.)

Well there is a good bit of order actually, a batch for charity, a bunch of silver for my daughter..and still a couple of bits to clear off the table. This was really tiring, physically and emotionally. Enuf.

This is... my jewelry box(es)

Anastasia suggested this week's meme subject to MemeMama, aka ThreeButtons. Fun idea.

Mostly, I wear my wedding ring, either of two sets of earrings, a simple gold chain and one bracelet. All but the chain came from dh; the chain came from xh's trip to Kuwait. All are gold - I've never cared for silver and it never looked too good with my tawny coloring.

Sadly, this week's theme has reminded me that the rest of my jewelry hasn't been sorted out since the last time I did a clear out. Ok, the basket is out...I guess today is the day to look, organize and see what is still wanted. Find a new home for the rest. I guess this is the story of my life right now - she said wryly.

Six Things About Me

Well I've been tagged by Big Cats Emporium (doesn't that want to make you go RrrrOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!) to tell 6 things about me. Thanks Cath, since you said I don't have to clean my desk now. ;-) Gosh playgroups are fun!

I was the youngest in my high school graduating class - 15 years old.

I once swallowed a live fly whole. (I don't know why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she'll die. She didn't. )

I won a writing contest in grade school, and was published in high school. You might say I peaked out before I turned 16.

I almost never wear patterned clothing tho many of my clothes do tend to acquire cooking or eating patterns.

I spoke only Lithuanian until I was 3 years old.

My favorite food texture is rubbery - e.g. mushrooms, escargots, gummi bears, Twizzlers. I suspect this is an infantile desire for the old rubbery nipples of baby bottles. My husband asks how I can put that crap into my body, but give me a 2lb bag of Twizzlers and you've won my heart.

Ok, now it's my turn. I'm tagging BellaDia, The Vintage Magpie, The DinnerChronicles, Cinnamondaze, Cally Creates and Nesting Instincts.

Here are the rules

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

I suppose it's time to clean the desk now, huh...

On my desk... April 2

On my desk... April 2
Originally uploaded by redazadi

Ok, this is part 1...lots of sorting out to do and today is the START. Maybe if I get on a roll, there will be a part 2, showing more skin...er wood. ;-)

More desks at Kootoyoo's list .