The third green bean...

Another studio day today, more or less. Progress continues on the greenbeans. Today I had a good go at the third bean. Inching along, inching along....

It's a TeaShanty Day!

It's always a happy day when I get to spend it out in the Shanty. I got out there fairly early this morning and got the wood stove going. That's the only heat I have out there right now, and when it's cold it takes an hour or two for the place to get toasty. But once it warms up, it's the coziest little shack in the world!

Today I tidied up a little bit, did some preliminary planning on a project, then spent the rest of the day working on my tapestry and listening to music and podcasts. Progress on the tapestry was slow today due to the quantity of unweaving I did. But it wasn't so bad, and at the end of the day I had a little more woven then at the beginning of the day.

The image is based on a photo I took of some really lovely veggies from the Farmer's Market in Blacksburg, VA.

 I edited it using Adobe Photoshop Elements.

I liked the pepper in the original image (so pretty, and tasty too!) but since this is my first "real" tapestry I wanted to stick to fairly simple shapes so I cropped the pepper out. Here's a picture of my progress to date. I've got most of the dish done, the first bean, and parts of the next two beans. That bit right in the middle gave me a fit today, but I think I'm ok with what's happening now.

And just for fun, here's a photo of my little tapestry workspace. I've got the copper pipe loom (design and instructions from Archie Brennan's web site ) hung on my all-purpose peg board. I use it for my warping board too, so I can adjust the height depending on the warp I'm winding. You can see the full-size enlargement of the image above, and the B&W cartoon behind the weaving.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you had a great weekend too!

Fuel for the creative fires

When I got up this morning I thought I'd just grab a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast. Then I opened the back door to let the dogs out. Crikey! It's cold out there this morning! And windy. Brrrr!

What a great excuse to cook up some of my home-famous Apple Cider Oatmeal. Good food fuels the creative fires. And we all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day! So, here's my recipe for Apple Cider Oatmeal.

• 1/2 cup rolled oats - not the quick cooking kind
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup water
• cinnamon

Put the first three ingredients in the pot. Cook to your desired consistency. Put in your favorite bowl and sprinkle with cinnamon. This makes a small bowl. If you want more oatmeal, just increase the ingredients keeping the proportion of 1 part oatmeal to 2 parts water.

If you try it, let me know if you like it, or let me know how you like to gussy up your morning bowl of oat-y goodness.