Saturday, July 24, 2010

How to cram a to do list into a city filled with awesome??

There are a lot of things coming up very quickly for me in this lovely city.  One thing I really love about living in Providence how I can pack my summer with to do lists, and due dates.  Having summers off is wonderful, but I am not the type of person to actually take a whole summer to do nothing...I do not handle unscheduled time very well, it makes me bananas.

Chris is in Chicago for a convention for his work, DCI gift.  I visited there when I was checking out art schools, and was completely turned off by the crazy winter there.  That windy city thing: true story.

This week ending and weekend I have the following things pending:
-TAPA curriculum writing (Arts Integration Charter School): working on Evidence of Success this week
-tying up loose ends and booking Museum, Nature Lab and Library time with my RISD young artist class
-expose screen for printing
-finish large painting/collage work for Hive show (yes, I know I should be done by now)
-working on wnwn couture pieces (mostly the piecework of this insane skirted piece I decided to create)
-gathering up work and making more for Indie Arts Fest

When I type it out here it doesn't seem as daunting; but let me tell you: this list is no joke.

AND OF COURSE!!! There is Soundsession, and Providence Kickball this weekend to completely distract me from studio time.  Oh, and let's not forget night swimming, beach time, Carr's pond, bike rides, farm visits, and any other general awesome thing Rhode Island has to offer.  I have legit never heard anyone complain that Rhode Island is boring or stale in the summertime.

Double-edged sword.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Rhode Island Summer Perks: BEACH DAYS!

I was lucky enough to take 2 really awesome trips to beaches both Sunday and Tuesday.  Both trips were to very different Rhode Island beaches, both with their perks. 


Sunday I went to a packed like mad (I have never seen so many umbrellas in one place) beach with my dear and lovely friend Missy D.  We went to Wheeler Beach aka Sand Hill Cove.  


I harvested some snacks from the garden before heading out, and Chris packed vegan brownies that I made earlier in the week for Missy and I to snack on.  Let me tell you: brownies and the beach are an amazing combination!
Yesterday, I went on a boy trip to East Beach, a much more secluded feel with huge waves. We charmed the parking lot lady at East Beach to let us in even though there were no spaces.  She had that great Rhode Island charm and actually called Brian some colorful names.  She loved us, I know it. 

Everyone chatted about music, and Brian and I dug for little crabs in the sand, and we all deliberated on how much seagulls weigh...so if anyone wants to enlighten us that would be great.  I ran around in the waves, and got my butt seriously kicked around 5 times (full rolling in the sand on the bottom of the ocean floor style) before giving up and relaxing under the tent. 

It was a fabulous day!


Rhode Island Summer Perks: Saturday

Chris and I have a new ritual of a breakfast picnic at Roger Williams Park every weekend. 


This Saturday I begged him to follow signs for a Pow-Wow and we came up to a ton of tents and stands with goodies, and tribes gathered in full regalia! 


After a relaxing morning, we set off to a different type of dress-up, that of Providence Kickball League. I play for Ze French Revenge, as well as the Stilettos, and Chris is on Mississippi Shakedown.  Words can't exactly describe what this fun is all about, so here are some photos!
The French getting their play in order
By the way, The Stilettos won our first game in 5 years (we are notoriously known for showing more butt-cheek than teamwork). 
Another look at that epic history changing score by the Stilettos



Waste Not Want Not Educational Outreach

On behalf of Waste Not Want Not a few of the artists, including myself went to CityArts! to teach a 2 hour workshop on t-shirt tote bags to kids age 10-14.  


The students were really great, and had a fun time learning how to hand-stitch and reuse materials that would otherwise be thrown away to make something new.  A little taste of reconstruction! 


Here are some photos from the workshop!


So much fun, and they did an awesome job, most of them were sewing for the very first time!



Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Dog (and Cat) Days of Summer

Yesterday was filled with painting and other studio work, some lesson planning for a Waste Not Want Not workshop at CityArts! and cute animals with friends. 
Mish and I went to Providence Animal Rescue League to peep the adoptable dogs and kitties.  Michelle lives alone in a cute apartment near Smith Hill she named Gingerbread Manor, and is looking for an animal mascot for the place.  At PARL, there was a little runt kitty named Mini, who was abandoned in the parking lot and has been at the shelter since January, mostly because Mini is so scared of everything that she retreats to the back of her cage and therefore wins no ribbons for congeniality. 


Mini took straight away to Mish (well after a couple tries, let's be honest).  She latched onto her shoulder and gave a million trillion kitty kisses. SO SWEET!
Also, I saw a little 1 year old pup that I adore.  I may go back today and see if I can set up a meet and greet with Malomar to see if they get along!  He is a mix between a rat terrier and a mini greyhound, a little timid: but he seems like a great dog!
Just as my day reached the pinnacle of adorable, my best friend Missy came over with her new puppy Ulysses, formerly known as Grim Lord of Barkness. 
Malomar and Ulysses had a play date, and it was clear that neither of them have any idea of their size difference. They are going to be great friends! 

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Cheap (Day Long!) Date

Sunday we awoke to such great news!  The downpour from Saturday revived the garden, springing our lettuces back to life!  That is one thing that I love about growing things, the resilience of plants that lead to pleasant surprises when they come back from zombie land into the land of yum.  
In the morning we took Malomar (also referred to as "Shmiggs") to the park, for a breakfast picnic.  We had fresh plums and apricots from the Farmer's Market and NY bagels!  I brought back a ton of bagels from my trip to check out a Harlem Charter School that I applied to and spend some time with my lovely sister.
Chris made sun tea on the deck while we did some house organizing and recipe planning (my favorite part of the week is planning all meals and trying out new recipes!) 
Later that evening, I made Pineapple Gazpacho (so good), salad with raw green dressing, and we had corn on the cob with our friend Alex.  


Chris came back with Alex and ran into the house in a clown suit, super excited and dancing around.  So naturally, before dinner I took a couple snapshots of them, getting ideas for promo shots for their project, The Tower and the Fool.  I am REALLY excited to photograph them...they are recording this August. 
Alex picked some of our sun gold tomatoes for the salad, and we enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner on the deck before Chris played a show that night. 

It was a wonderful Sunday spent together, if felt like a day long date! 

Saturday, July 10, 2010

why the heck do we call ourselves a "farmily"

Family: an exclusive group of people who share a close relationship


Okay, so there is:
myself 
and there is Chris
then there is closet kitty (Cinder)
alpha kitty (Ganoushie)
adopted kitty (Claudia)
a little energetic Papillion named Malomar
and 2 fish (Oscar de la Redfish, and The Law Offices of d'Oliveria and Morgan


That's the family...and don't try to argue with me based on some crappy Wikipedia definition that I copy and pasted into this blog.  Animals COUNT!


Farm: a tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production


Okay, so we already see a flaw here.  I don't have even a tract of land, let along one that is solely devoted to agricultural production.  


I do have a deck on the 3rd floor of a South Providence building, off of the apartment that we rent.   Last summer I had a pretty successful run with 2 small raised beds on the West End, but our new place has no sunny spots for such luxury: our landlord has beautifully landscaped the whole place.   This is my first year trying my hand at container gardening: for the purpose of growing food. 


It is not going well. 


Currently, the tomatoes are rotting on the bottoms, the heirloom lettuces I grew from seed taste bitter and are getting wilted and hating life in response to the recent heat wave that has run through New England.  But man is the morning glory kicking butt.  Too bad I can't eat it...can I? 


Ganoushie ate the peas.  Good riddance, they were a shade of white I can only describe as albino.  


Chris has begun to get so serious about the garden, that when things go astray he stands out on the deck and says "oh my god, oh my god" until I run out there and ask him...and I see that that a leaf or two is wilted.  


He is off watering duty.  I just can't take it.  The garden, I tell him, is supposed to be FUN, supposed to be the one thing that is not stressful.  I wonder if I have set up this "fun" block so that when the tomatoes all get tomato rot, and the peas are sun burnt to a crisp, that I don't weep into my unemployment check that I have failed.  It is SO much easier to just call it recreation than to admit that I need these god damn things to grow