Pisces Moon Studio

I’ve been thinking today, about the meaning of All Hallows’ Eve (aka Dia de los Muertos aka Samhain). In a number of religious observations, today is the day when we remember those who have gone before, whether that remembrance is specifically of our own ancestors (Samhain), of our family and friends and those dear to us (Dia de los Muertos), or of the company of departed Christian saints (All Hallows).

Mars, 8-28-2003
Monoprint on cotton fabric
© 2003 Carol Logan Newbill

I’ve been thinking of my father, who died four years and a month ago. I’ve been thinking of my Aunt Min, my grandmother’s sister, who was peppery and outspoken and completely delightful; I wish I’d had more time to know her and to write down her stories. I’ve been thinking of people dear to me, people I’ve never met but whose lives I am privileged to share in some small part. I’ve been thinking of the ending of the year, the perfectly beautiful weather again today, coming home in the crisp early evening darkness with Venus and Mars brighter than anything else in the sky. I’ve been thinking about my blessings and I’ve been thinking about my complaints of the past week.

The light always returns, no matter how dark it gets. The blessings always win.

Blessings on you and your family, on those who have gone before, and on those you remember.

(Some of my family photographs on the flipside.)
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This morning, while we were cleaning out the dead fridge in preparation for the delivery of the new one, I managed to cause great consternation among my lower back muscles. I’ve been in bed on the heating pad and tanked up with Advil ever since, and it’s beginning to loosen up a little. (I imagine it’s just the accumulation of Several Very Bad Days in a row; I don’t think I seriously injured anything.)

Other than that, I’ve done nothing today except read and nap a bit. Oh, and order pizza for dinner, since I can’t stand up long enough to cook.

Isn’t it odd that when you can’t get into the studio and work, that’s the very time you want to do it most?

Yesterday I said that “tomorrow will be a better day.” It wasn’t, unless you count spending $1,000 on an electrician and a new refrigerator (today) better than spending $1,200 on car repairs (yesterday).

I’m making absolutely no predictions about tomorrow.

I managed to finish one more small piece today in between aggravating phone calls. I don’t like it, so I’m not posting a pic.

I would go to bed early with a good book, but the book I want to read is in my car and my car is at The Haunted tonight with my son, whose own car is in the shop with serious, serious problems that are going to cost a lot of money to fix.

Tomorrow will be a better day. I’ll be back then.

So I am cooking again, instead.

Easiest Pantry Beef Stew Ever

1 lb stew beef, cut into cubes
� to 1 onion, diced
olive oil, about 3 tablespoons
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (11 ounce) can corn (not creamed)
1 (15 ounce) can green beans
1 cup brown rice, uncooked (not instant variety)

NOTE: The first two steps can be done in advance. I usually cook about 3 pounds of stew meat at a time, then divide and freeze it with the stock for later meals.

1. In a heavy stock pot, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion for 5-10 minutes until soft but not browned. Add the beef and brown on all sides.

2. Add enough water to cover the beef about 1½” deep. Simmer over medium heat for at least one hour, until meat is falling-apart tender.

3. Add the tomatoes and one can of water. If the stock has cooked down so that it doesn’t cover the meat, add another can of water. Drain the liquid from the corn and beans and discard; add the vegetables to the stew. Stir in the cup of brown rice.

4. Cover the pot and simmer for about an hour, until the rice is done. Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Serves at least 4.

You can gussy this up with all sorts of things. Throw in a bunch of chopped garlic while you are sautéing the onions. Peel and chop some potatoes and use those in place of the rice (simmer for about 20 minutes instead of an hour). Use fresh or frozen vegetables instead of the canned ones.

This is a fantastic pantry meal that you can pull together with very little work, assuming you’ve pre-cooked the meat. You could even bypass that step and crumble some hamburger to cook in the stock pot while you are sautéing the onions; use all water instead of the beef stock and toss in some herbs to add to the flavor. A bay leaf maybe, or some thyme. Improvise! Think of this as jazz cooking. :)

With it I made Crescent Dragonwagon’s Decadent Southern Cornbread, from the Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook. As a bonus, I have enough cornbread left over to make the basis of tomorrow’s dinner, Feather Bed Eggs, from the same cookbook.

My tummy’s happy, and so is my husband. Life is good.

Now to find some inspiration to work on those art pieces for Bronwyn…

I made French onion soup last night, and I had a fire. Unfortunately, the fire was in the kitchen.

Nothing serious — I took the croutons out of the oven and set them down on a back burner to cool, forgetting that I’d used that same burner a bit earlier and had forgotten to turn it off. Six minutes later, the residual oil on the cookie sheet went “poof” and I had a lovely little stovetop fire.

I dumped the whole mess into the sink and put it out right away, so all I had to clean up was some soot on the backsplash.

The soup was delicious, though, even without the croutons.

(Another quick soup recipe and some textile art on the flipside.)

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Last weekend I received a panicky email from the rep in Nevada who has been selling lots of my work, may the Universe bless her. She was almost out and would I please send her some more stuff to sell, pronto? She’d send me a check in return…

So I’ve been nose down since then. I also had a sewing machine crisis on Thursday which exacerbated the problem. (I do have a backup machine or three so it didn’t shut me down, but I lost a couple hours dinking with it before finally deciding that I couldn’t fix it.)

Sadie asked if the background piece I posted on the 14th has a foreground yet? Not yet, but I made a smaller version to send away to Nevada:

After I pieced the strips for this one, it reminded me of a midsummer hike along the Continental Divide from the top of Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. You start from the parking lot through a meadow of wildflowers at 10,000 feet, and then climb another 1000 feet vertically into the pine forest. (The pictures don’t seem to be on this computer; I’ll see if I can dig them out later.)

So I called it High Summer. (I should have called it There Isn’t Any Air Up That High and What Was I Even Thinking of to Try This?. But I doubt anyone would have got the joke.)

I’ve promised Bronwyn another six pieces this coming week, so I’ll continue to be busy for a while. Now that I have some new work, I promise to post a bit more frequently.

This is the background piece that I put together yesterday. My original intent was to trim the top and bottom edges to make a neat rectangle, but I really like it all jaggedy like this.

I still have a lot to do with this, so don’t think I’m anywhere near done. I just put this up to prove that I really do still have a sewing machine and the inclination to put it to use.

It should be here tomorrow, or Saturday at the latest. I need fairly intense colors on this next piece, and the acrylics on cotton aren’t doing what I want. Perhaps I should kidnap Sonji and get her to paint some for me.

Today I started piecing another background — busy work, sort of, to keep me going until the silk comes in. I also straightened and somewhat organized the studio again, cooked a beef roast for dinner, cleaned the kitchen, and decided that I really don’t like the color that the shutters and front door are being painted, so I’ll have to go buy more paint this weekend.

My life sounds so boring. At least the hives are gone today, and there weren’t any new frustrations.

… allergic to Little Miss Sunshine at the body shop.

I took my car back in this afternoon to have the final pieces replaced. The main problem, the broken panel in the door that holds the window and lock controls, is finally fixed. I identified a second problem before I accepted the repair a week ago, a missing bolt that holds the interior door panel in place. Sunshine was to have ordered that bolt as well as the replacement control panel.

Well… she ordered the wrong piece. (Why did I ever think that it would be right this time?)

“Don’t worry! Just give me a ring the next time you are in the neighborhood! We’ll get it for you and it won’t take long to put it on when you come in!”

I came home literally breaking out in hives, a response to extreme tension that I’ve only had a couple of times before in my life. Benedryl and I are going to bed early, I think… and I hope that tomorrow is a better day.