Happy Valentine’s Day! Over the past week I’ve been dreaming less of chocolate hearts and more about the weather, so let’s start there. My art studio sits in the basement of the house, and the heavy Hoosier rains of spring and fall are always a worrisome time. If the power goes out or the sump pumps fail it takes a week to take up the carpets and dry everything out. Something valuable always seems to soak up some water when the water flows. Last week my loving husband installed a battery back-up sump pump that was a gift from Grampa, so even with the heavy rains I was ready for anything! On a brighter note, between the rains there were sunny, warm afternoons, perfect for biking to school. My hand-me-down bike has a big comfy seat and the traditional storage basket in front filled with the boy’s scooters and helmets instead of a small barking dog. We had nice rides home from Rogers and Binford through the puddles.
The water theme also seeped into my art last week. Over the past two years I’ve gotten into the world of Christmas ornaments, although a lot of people buy them just as all-year decorations. I set a goal of 100 last year, which I reached by making ten each month with a couple of vacation months built in. This year I’m back at it, and from the picture you can see that I’ve had water on my mind! The lighter blue was created from seven packages of Blue Lemonade mixed with ½ of package of Lime Kool-aid. When the fleece came out of the dye pot I just loved the color (and my heron friend thought it was deceptively water-like). The white fleece is Merino that I bought recently at Sheep Street in Morgantown (always worth the drive to see Nancy and Pat). Maybe after I stop worrying about rising waters I’ll get back to more traditional themes.
On a sadder note, even as the sump pump situation came under control my ancient espresso maker gave a last shudder and dumped out a cup of cold, weak … well, something. I was reminded of when Linus makes hot chocolate out of brown crayons for Lucy. This is a serious problem because my loving spouse makes me a cup of espresso every morning, usually with something tasty to eat. I quickly raced out to support the downtown economy and got a new one, and I can report that it works very nicely. Later that day my trust Kitchen-aid stand mixer decided it didn’t like heavy breads and started to whine. This isn’t good because my kids live on homemade bread (I don’t tell them what I slip in to make it healthy). My trusty neighbor Emily Leite came through with her mixer to finish the job and the bread came out just fine. Heaven forfend that I should have to knead it with my delicate, needle felting hands! Luckily it’s a major holiday, and I’m hoping against hope that loving family will think of a red mixer with lots of power as a Valentine’s Day present! Did I say RED dear?
Until next week…
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