Art Chick Shtick

busy painting...

too busy to talk...

completato!

the colors are way off--cupcake wrapper is pink

more sweet little girls at their party are off to Earth Angels

Colette in the studio

***a couple new paintings for Jen will be posted this afternoon

Technical problems this morning:

Colette let's me know when she's not happy with my choice of brushes...she's a Japanese cattle dog (1/2 shiba inu and 1/2 australian cattledog or something like that) and always watching my brushes.  She never touches my paintings but if I don't show her the brush before I use it she grabs it.  I'm easily amused.

I do sit around painting on a cushy pink velvet sofa in a big purple room but that cord behind us is a heating pad for my back--painting is hard work!

Okay so back to work--I'll be back later with good stuff...

Easter, oherwise known as The Great Polish Extravaganza

My sister Amy was up from Cincinnati so we spent the day preparing dinner--homemade pierogies, holubki (the czech version of stuffed cabbage), ham, the world's worst deviled eggs, yeast rolls, followed by a poppy seed roll, and a big bowl of glorified rice.  Glorified rice isn't Polish, just something I eat when no one is looking.  I always get caught.

If you've never made homemade pierogies you really should give it a try--Sophia is only 11 and can whip a batch by herself in less than an hour.  They're so worth it and much, much better than the frozen ones.  Not that I've ever turned down a plate of store-bought pierogis covered with carmelized onions and a spoonful of sour cream.  If you've never had pierogies then this recipe will sound as appealing as a mashed potatoe sandwich.

Pierogies:

DOUGH:
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
a pinch of baking powder

FILLING:
2 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 cup drained sauerkraut

SAUTE:
2 yellow onions
1 stick unsalted butter

OPTIONAL:
sour cream

First of all start a big pot of salted water boiling.

MAKE THE DOUGH:  Take out your bread board and get it well-floured.  Make a pile of flour with a well in the middle.  Crack your eggs into the well and throw the salt and baking powder into the flour.  Mix it with your hands and pat it into a big lump.  Knead the dough for a few minutes--the dough should be a little sticky but not a big mess.  Let it sit a few while you go make the sauce for the cabbage rolls (you are making cabbage rolls, aren't you?)

MIX THE FILLINGS:  In a small bowl mix together the potatoes and sauerkraut.  You can add some cheese or whatever or just use sauerkraut.  Sophie always makes a few without the kraut for herself.  Tasie likes only sauerkraut and cabbage.  Just remember to mark them so you don't have your kids biting into each other's like a box of chocolates.  We use different edge crimps to distinguish the different fillings.

Now roll out your dough very thin--gummy pierogies are just gross. 

So now that you've started your sauce for the cabbage rolls you'll have an empty can from the tomato juice.  Cut the lid off the can so you have a big empty can to use to cut the dough.  If for some reason you don't have a can just use a round cookie cutter--personally I like the smaller ones better anyhow.

Use about a tablespoon of filling for each one--put it in the center then stretch the dough over and seal the edges.   Crimp them--let them look homemade with fingerprints--you want them to look like you've put some love into them.

Drop them into the boiling water one at a time--not too many at once.  They should boil for about 10-12 minutes.  I usually have two burners going--one batch boiling and one batch frying.

While they're boiling put a stick of unsalted butter in a saute pan.  Add the onions and cook until they're as brown as you like (which is about black in my case). 

As the pierogies are finished cooking slide them into the saute pan with the onions and get them nice and toasty.

To serve them pour what's left of the butter and onions on top of them and top with sour cream.  My grandmother also served a skillet of fried side pork over the top but I just can't handle that much grease--but of course it does smell divine.

If you have any questions just ask--I'll have Sophia answer you!

Happy Glitter Day!

This is an especially exciting day--it's snowing here in the blustery Ohio cornfields AND it's a GLITTER DAY!!!

One of the keys to my happy marriage is keeping the mica and glitter under control since I don't tend to stay in my studio and there's usually a trail of sparkle following me.  I like to think of it as a flurry of little fairies fluttering after me--but maybe it's just me. Bob thinks my little addiction (...you know, g-l-i-t-t-e-r) isn't good for the environment so I've agreed to massive glittering only on Thursdays.  Maybe it has something to do with him needing the weekend to get it vaccuumed up. (He thinks I don't know how to use power tools--like shop vacs and that sort of thing--heh heh heh)

A Day Alone...

(sigh)  I'm finishing paintings to send to Jen--the studio smells like warm beeswax and I'll need a big cup of coffee to get me through this afternoon.  This is not a day for Redbull.  The rain is pending.  I'm drowsy.  It's a fine day to be alone.  No kids just a big sleeping puppy to keep me company.
                                          
More paintings uploaded to the albums--I'm sure none of the dates will be accurate.  It's difficult to care about that sort of thing--it's kind of like balancing a checkbook--you know they're there so who cares when and how much.  But it's interesting to go back through these images--I can tell the paintings that were done on days when I was being crazy with all the kids at home, cozy little paintings of baby sheep (I'll be out driving the back roads of Ohio looking for newborns in a couple weeks hopefully) and chickens (I LOVE chickens!),  days when I was terribly lonesome--especially when I desperately wanted to be back in New York--and then there are the days when I was ovulating!  Seriously!  I'm at my wittiest those days.  Well. at least I find myself terrifically amusing--see "I Would Explain It To You (But There's Too Much Math Involved" for example--I still like that one.  Sophie saw that one last night and laughed--she remembered when I painted that one and now she wants me to paint one like that for her--but with her big fat cat Joe Thomas looking at her homework. I never really thought about the possibility of the kids remembering specific days that paintings were done.  I know my adoring husband Bob keeps an eye on what I'm painting--I painted cakes when I wanted to have another baby--and i tried to warn the people that bought them that they were symbols of fertility and someone would get pregnant.  Bob was so happy to send those off--he knew exactly what those were all about.  He's a clever one.

welcome to my studio!

Welcome to my studio blog--finally!  This isn't so difficult to do and i think it will be fun--starting with going through old images and uploading them into albums--if I'm making this more difficult to navigate than it needs to be then please let me know--otherwise stay tuned--i haven't looked at this stuff in years!  I hope you all like the polka dot background--it took me about an hour to figure that out.

Now to the photos...