Sunday, February 1, 2009

An Artful Weekend

I confess, I needed a wonderful weekend. A mellow one, with few obligations and much creativity and fun.

I decided to take cue from Beth L. at Gathering Dust and "make time!"

First, time in the art room -- here are a few projects I completed...

The "Cloth Paper Scissors" snowmen -- if you get the magazine, you may recall seeing snowfolk on the cover an issue or two ago.

I did two as prototypes. (I did three, till I broke the head...)


I'm rather fond of them, and I'm quite sure I'll do many more over the upcoming months.

I also spent time finishing up tags for Karla's "Puppy Love" tag book swap.

I'm looking forward to seeing the terrific tags others will do!

And to top it off, I had a great deal at Kroger with fabulous prices on fresh blueberries! It had been so many months...! I enjoyed making a blueberry pie! (Along with quite a wild and zesty pasta!)

In the evening we enjoyed the musical version of "Goodbye Mr. Chips" with Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. No, it wasn't as divine as the original, but captivating and delightful in its own way. I remembered it when first released, and so did rick. It was fun to see it with more adult eyes.

Sunday Kate and I did a road trip to Trader Joe's in Ann Arbor. The flowers simply dazzled me.
As always I found lots of tasty things but my favorite purchase was a bouquet of beautiful roses!

Then it was off to Hollanders, a fabulous art/paper and stationer's store. It was hard to choose from all the beautiful papers for Rick's Valentine gift.

And then there were plenty of other lovely things to enjoy. Walls of boxed notes, racks of cards, books and magazines galore.

I didn't get one of these erasers, but I LOVED them!

Even the storyteller was captivating! How many art stores have a storyteller?

While in the area, we stopped at a new spice store and a place that had so many cool things for collage (game pieces, old photos, etc.) I simply couldn't start to buy things because I knew I wouldn't stop!

All in all, a splendid time, capped by dinner at Rick's (yummy Japanese food)!

And now, back to the regular world!

Jeanie's VERY Unmeasured Pasta Sauce

There's nothing special about this sauce and probably quite like the ones you make -- highly flavorful, though. Enjoy!

Brown about one pound of sweet Italian sausage with a small onion, several cloves of garlic and 4-6 large mushrooms, sliced.

Add about 10-12 diced (and pitted, obviously) Kalamata olives
Add 2 T. capers
Add 1 large can crushed tomatoes
Add about 1/2-3/4 c. red wine (I just wing it)
Add about 3 T vinegar
Spices -- 1 T or so of basil, oregano, thyme, whatever you enjoy
Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes

Serve over mini-penne or other pasta.

(This really is probably almost everyone's pasta sauce!)

15 comments:

Janet said...

You had a busy and productive weekend! Your snowmen are so cute. I might have to give them a try, too.

I'm envious of that paper store! It looks fantastic. I'd probably be broke if I lived near it!

BONNIE K said...

The snowmen are adorable. And I can see you going nuts in that paper store - did you know that my mother's maiden name is Hollander?

beth said...

those snowmen turned out GREAT !!

and what a shopping trip...those papers would have been calling out to me...."take me home"

Annie Jeffries said...

what a fun weekend for you, Jeanie. It's really neat seeing the snowmen especially. I saw them on the cover of my issue a couple of months back. Nice to see someone actually making something from the inspiration these magazines provide.

Unknown said...

Wow Jeanie I want to come over and do all these fab things with you - looks like you had a blast.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your snowmen they are really cool...

KRCampbellArt said...

Those snowmen are fun! I don't get CPS but yours looks great.
I LOVE Hollanders!! I took my cousin down on my last trip, first timer, and had trouble pushing her out the door! I'm going to try your pasta sauce recipe too. Looks yummy.

Beth said...

I Love the Snowmen! I remember seeing them on th CPS mag. What do you make their head out of? I am so glad you had a artful and relaxing week-end, you definetly needed it. I just bought the new CPS and Somerset's Stampers Sampler and a bead magazine. I still signing up at blogs for OWOH too.
xoxooxoxoxoxooxoxox

Mary Timme said...

Oh, I'm almost suffering from sensory overload. What a fun bunch of stuff! Good shopping.

Anonymous said...

the snowmen are great. (you broke one fellow's head?) and the pictures, the paper, the "everything" at Hollander's! I must check it out, first on Google, then in real life! I think Anno mentioned it oncce, too - you can take classes there in bookmaking, right?

paris parfait said...

Wow - so much fun packed into one day! Terrific projects you've created - the snowmen are fabulous! The flowers are beautiful and I love that a storyteller was part of the atmosphere at that store. And I'm making that pasta sauce this week! Thank you!

Shelley said...

The snowmen are wonderful! Wow. I've never bought that magazine..but I buy ALL the Somerset mags. I'll have to add on more to my list. Looks like you had a great time shopping. I never have thought of bringing my camera with me shopping! How cool. Do you get "looks" from people wondering why you're taking photos?

jet1960 said...

Love your snowmen. I saw your letter in CPS about the inspiration. Nice to know a celebrity. I want to try these, too. Maybe by this Christmas!

I'm envious of the shops you have available to you. Those papers are gorgeous! Well, maybe it's better I don't live to close to one. I'd be in trouble. And to have a store devoted to spices! Unheard of in rural Alabama.

Joanne Huffman said...

I love Holanders and haven't been to Ann Arbor for a long time. Hmmm - maybe a road trip when it thaws out more. Your snowmen are absolutely enchanting.

Joanne

Karen Owen said...

I think your snowmen are cuter than the ones in the magazine. They're just adorable.

Quiltmoose - Dagmar said...

Your snowmen are gorgeous!!!

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