Health Food

I bet I did something yesterday that you've never done before. I awoke to greet a new day, dragged myself out from between two spoiled dogs snoring in my bed and stood, just catching sight of a pretty red thing as it flew. Out of my belly button. It was a low moment in my sick Ambien sleepwalking history, because the pretty red thing was not a bellybutton charm...it was a Terra beet chip. And then I saw the empty bag on the floor. I had eaten the entire thing. A 5 ounce bag of Mediterranean Terra Chips, delicious vegetable chips lightly seasoned with lemon, olive oil, sea salt and a hint of oregano. And the truth is, there is another identical empty bag under my bed from a week ago when I did the same thing. It now has some dust bunnies about it, and I've been ignoring it, trying to pretend it never happened. But this bag was right out in the middle of the floor, where anyone could see my dirty little secret. I've said it before, but I must get off the Ambien. But just try it. What is worse than sitting up all night, night after night after night? While I'm confessing, and my excuse is that I've been stressed out, and always sleepwalk more when stressed, some vegan chocolate mousse was involved in last night's foray to the kitchen. (Don't knock it till you've tried it.) I've been trying no lactose, no sugar, and no gluten - and I feel better. Sweets, especially chocolate, are a necessity, so I run to Strawberry Fields in Urbana to buy several containers of Dylan's chocolate puddin'. Or I make my own. If you do not find health food completely abhorrent, you should try it. Here's how...




VEGAN CHOCOLATE MOUSSE


Melt a 16 ounce bag of good chocolate chips over double boiler. (Use vegan or real, whatever...)
Add two boxes of Silken Tofu. It will look awful, like curdled chocolate baby puke.
Use a hand mixer on it, or throw the mess into a processor, and it smooths right out.
Sweeten with Stevia or better...maple syrup. (If you like extra dark chocolate add a couple teaspoons of cocoa as well, and if you want to get really fancy add 1/2 teaspoon of instant coffee granules.) Add a bit of vanilla, pinch of salt and refrigerate. The colder the better. It sets up just like ganache. Great texture and flavor. Really. And it's healthy, right? Lots of protein. Just like my bag of Terra Chips was healthy. It says so right on the bag under my bed and the one beside my bed. 5 whole servings of vegetables in every ounce. See??? That's 25 whole servings of vegetables I had all in a sitting. Now I can skip the veggies and eat vegan chocolate mousse all week!

I went to one of my favorite bead stores with my friend Pat today. La Bead Oh in Springfield, Illinois has a gorgeous selection of all things jewelry, and they offer great classes as well. I highly recommend a trip to La Bead Oh.

I've been making leather wrap bracelets. Can't stop.

2 Days left for Valentine's. How about these?

On Clairvoyance, Age, & Unlikely Friendship

Clairvoyance runs through my mother's family. My late Aunt Gin and I have been the most recent clairvoyants that I know of, but there were always stories of others. Unfortunately, my aunt's unusual sensory perception was much the same as mine - not so good for important things, but fun and surprising to others, much like sleight of hand. As a child, I was really in tune with it, and could always win games with friends, especially at birthday parties. There I'd be, buzzed from eating all the roses off of everyone else's white lard cake, red mustachioed and Hawaiian punch drunk, with armfuls of prizes when my parents picked me up. I could always "see" the right number in my head, or draw the right straw, or card, or guess whatever was being hidden. As an adult I've lost my edge a bit, but I can still use intuition in certain arenas, horse races being a favorite. I don't indulge often, but I've done well on the rare occasion that I've placed a bet. For example, I picked the long shot Real Quiet some years back, pocketing a tidy sum and shocking my friend who attended the race and placed the bet for me. But clairvoyance is just a part of this story, not the whole story, and this story is true; I have witnesses.

I met a child named Heather about 25 years ago, when she used to show up at pick-up time to fetch her little brother Jake. (See more about Jacob Foran in my Favorite Artists at top of blog!) She had a "can-do" attitude as she lifted her brother onto her bicycle to ride up our hilly driveway toward their home. She was responsible for her brother at that time of day, and one could tell that she took her job seriously. A few years later, I met her again during the worst time of my life. My twelve year-old son Nick had died suddenly, and the cemetery was packed with mourners on a sunny August day. People were spontaneously saying a few words about Nick. To my surprise, this little girl stood and told a little, sweet story describing Nick at school. It gave me this beautiful little secret insight into my son's secret life with his friends at school, and the best thing was, it brought me the first chuckle I'd had for many days.

A few more years went by and I took leave from teaching and opened Cafe Cody. Guess who applied to be a barista? A sixteen year-old girl named Heather.

HEATHER MAKIN' PERFECT FOAMED MILK

HEATHER AND CODY PLUMP FROM A CINNAMON ROLL PER DAY

Photo Credit: Lindsey Fortney

As I've mentioned in a previous post, the cafe was just supposed to be a coffee shop. It evolved into something way beyond that, and before we knew it, we had a restaurant. Heather was with me all the way, a right-hand man. She and I could sync so well that we still laugh about times where we were so swamped, but the two of us could run that whole place by ourselves if we had to. She learned to waitress, cook and bake, and charm customers with her big smile. We had many regulars...the guys who had the same breakfast each and every morning, and hung their own coffee mugs in an old cabinet. We also had our usuals who came for fantastic espresso drinks that we made with our completely manual espresso machine - run shots 18 - 22 seconds every time! One of our favorites was Fran, a nature fellow of about my age. Heather called him her "Woodsy Guy." One day as she was preparing his latte, I sensed an energy, and when he left, I announced to the crew: "Someday Heather's gonna marry that guy." Well of course my group of teens fell apart, and Heather laughed the hardest and said, "Yeah right, someday I'll marry my Woodsy Guy." 

Time passed and eventually I closed the cafe because I couldn't handle the physical work load. It was a sad time. Heather had put herself through U of I working for me, and working a highway job at night. She received her anthropology degree and took off to trek the world. It seems she went everywhere, and did these things by herself. Hiking New Zealand, India, Thailand, Australia, and more places that I don't remember. She had many boyfriends as beautiful young girls do.

Heather and Gerardo one of Cafe Cody's cooks (not a boyfriend, but could I tell another story...)

Heather in an ice cave in New Zealand

When she returned from her travels, I was delighted to learn that she was seeking Montessori certification, and in a couple of years, we were working together again. One could not ask for a better employee or truly professional guide of young children. We have a ball together once again!

Heather is currently supplementing her Montessori education with Infant Toddler Training.

I need to make this long story short, but the title says something about age, so just a few words. Just one of my many criticisms of traditional education is the way children are lumped together by age. This just breeds a hotbed of competition, while they constantly rate themselves against others instead of acknowledging differences and helping others. There. Heather is my dear, dear, friend and she is decades younger than I am. Age doesn't matter! My father fell in love with my mother when he was 49 and she was 19 - you can bet they were the talk of the town! Age didn't matter to them either. Where am I going with this? A couple of weeks ago, Miss Heather and I did our usual Monday morning sharing of what we did over the weekend. I told her some boring stuff I did, and she replied with a smug grin, "Guess what I did this weekend?" I raised my eyebrows. "I married Fran Harty out in the woods!" 

TA DUM!!! Yay! When she called her sister to say they'd eloped, her sister reminded her of the time I predicted she'd marry him some day... Briefly, Fran, (Woodsy Guy) and Heather ran into each other a few years ago, became friends, became camping friends, and now they are husband and wife! I still get nice little goosebumps and tears thinking about how this all unfolded. Cool, huh?

MR. AND MRS. FRAN HARTY with children from Metamorphosis Montessori School, counting mussels on the Sangamon River. The Woodsy Guy is a naturalist with the Nature Conservancy.

CONGRATULATIONS FRAN AND HEATHER HARTY!

A small marriage keepsake that I made for Heather from rose bronze and original bronze. When Fran saw it he asked me to make their wedding rings. This is a tall order, a challenge, and an honor. I predict I can do it. We've come full circle.

Hooey Batiks

The next couple of posts are going to be about friendship. I was going to write about my friend Heather this week, but now that I have had a couple of glasses of Sleepy Creek Vineyards "Hen Pecked," I've realized that I'm not up to the job. So--Jill Miller at Hooey Batiks...an amazing talent. I used to pooh-pooh Facebook and still think it's a bad thing for young people. That being said, I have met some of my favorite friends on FB, and Jill is one. We usually talk chickens, and something she doesn't know is I've named a Dominique "Hooey" in her honor.
 (I bought an aqua tank with chicks and it is wonderful.)

I finally met Jill in person at the Art Festival that was held at Sleepy Creek Vineyards a couple of weeks ago. By the way, I highly recommend this little vineyard, an artful atmosphere, live music and really good wine. I was very pleasantly surprised by the flight that I tasted!!

Before I met Jill, I saw her great monkey shirt when my friend Heather wore it. Then I bought a few of her things at The Wooden Hanger in Urbana, Illinois--fantastic clothing...and nice wrap bracelets when a certain artist gets around to making and taking them to Ginny Gluege, the creative and artistic owner.

THE SQUIRREL KILLS ME. I NEED ONE.

So what I'm getting around to in my red wine haze is: Jill is a creative force and a neat person! Check out her work and buy some stuff for gifts, and for all that holiday stuff. Buy Handmade!

Hooey Batiks 

What a Nice Surprise!

After my last post about experiment with copper etching, I received an email from the editor of Beads & Button magazine asking if I would like the resulting etched pendant necklace, (in previous post), to be featured in a special edition of the magazine in November. Are you kidding? Who would say, "Well no...I don't really want the FREE publicity!!" I'm honored thrilled to be invited and can't wait till the issue comes out.

That necklace, by the way was a sample that I was trying out before I used silver or bronze clay with the copper plate. Seems they liked the polymer clay one, and that is just fine with me!

The magazine will feature my selling info and all my websites. It will be very interesting to see if my views go up. Sales going up would be a very nice thing too! Wish me luck!

AND FINALLY--Heather modeling some earrings today for the Etsy shop. Thanks dear Heather!

p.s.  Ask me about jewelry parties, wholesale and consignment. Email me for details.

I Like These Things

I'm posting things I like from time to time, in order to remind people to buy handmade gifts. In fact I think I'll just go ahead and post a Buy Handmade link right here in case you are moved to sign the pledge. Look on my gadgets and take the plunge! These are great gifts folks!

 Little Pig Pottery

Dogtown Artworks

Sushi Pot Parts

Ruth Robinson Ceramics

Wyatt Ellison

O.K So I Stole Too...

When I went on my little trespassing photo shoot--there is clearly a 'No Trespassing' sign--I grabbed a couple of poppy pods from the gentleman's garden as well. I made a mold from them and am now having fun making poppy pod clay earrings. Criminal?

So far in robin's egg blue, brown, sunny yellow,
and red.