cookies

These look pretty good, right? Lovely spirals of cranberry filling in buttery dough

to liven up the holiday cookie tray. Except that they don't taste good! I spent way

too much time mixing, rolling, chilling, slicing for the mediocre results. This recipe

won't make the "holiday standards" list.

Okay, so in sharp contrast - our cookies look, well, not as spirally, pretty as

Mary's - but they taste VERY good. It's Grandma's gingerbread cookie recipe

and it rocks! I don't know that she ever made traditional Mr. T cookies, or

decorated a Christmas Mushroom Cloud, but I know she would approve of our

own Christmas cookie decorating tradition. You have to look closely, but

some other treasures are ET, Rachel's annual version of Tiny Tim (with webbed,

frog foot) and the ever spirit lifting Yule-time Hand Grenade.

Chycks Choice.8

I took several photo's for Recycle the other night, and liked this one as well. It is of a

glass bottle bottom that I found when we dug our foundation for the house. It had been

tossed out by the owners of the farmhouse that had been built on the spot more than

100 years before. Now that's recycling!

I'm hitching a ride on this train......the little pieces of white with chinese characters on them are from a vase that I broke and "recycled" to the mosaic pile. Its good to have a sister who makes mosaics. It takes the sting out of that moment when you break a favorite piece.

recycle

some little gift tags that I made out of a Trader Joe's bag and a CD envelope I saved. Now if I just had some gifts to hook them onto!

Some empty booze bottles from the recycle bin. Not as artistic, but it sure was yummy.

cold

Several years ago, I saw an article about a watercolor artist who started her

paintings by freezing the paper and paint to get these beautiful, feathery ice patterns.

I didn't pay much attention to the process and it turns out it is more involved than

just putting a wet piece of paper out in the cold. I tried a few different variations on

the amount of water, paint, time and this is the best I came up with. I would keep

trying, but it also turns out it is really uncomfortable to be messing with water out

in the freezing temperatures!

Tilly agrees with the frickin freezing temperatures thing. I've been

thinking all day how to show all this snow as being COLD. Poor Tilly,

sacrificing for art once again.

print

turns out the word print has a lot of meanings-- print as in letters and writing, print as in relief-printing , lithograpy or photography or, the one I've chosen here, a design or pattern. This is a piece of antique fabric in the Russian museum that I liked.

When Mary picked the word Print, I thought of the blue Italian hand printed wrapping

paper we got at a stationery story years ago. When I dug out the roll of it, there was

the blue, and another sheet of green. Sweet!

Chycks choice.7

No, I didn't paint this.....wish I had. It is called "Spring" by Kees Van Dongen. We saw it in the Hermitage last week along with several other of his paintings that I also loved. What fun to "discover" a new painter!

When I saw this painting I was reminded of the beautiful Lupine behind my parents

house. We were there last spring when fields of it were in full bloom. Some artwork

just sends your mind into a snapping popping flash flood of memories and images. This

one did that for me, dogwood blossoms, spring days, peace and quiet.

Quote Day 1

Okay, here is a new element for our little Dyppy Blog we've got here. We

both like interesting quotes and I thought it might be fun if we took a favorite

and each did a little something with it. So today is Blogger's Choice on quotes,

but another day maybe we'll take the same quote and each do a different art take

on it. Here is my first installment of Quote Day.

deciding everything is falling into place perfectly - as long as you don't get

too picky about what you mean by place. Or perfectly. -Brian Andreas

I have been on a mission to clean some closets and cupboards around my house lately,

and this quote is exactly how I've been feeling. I suppose having four teenagers in the

house also makes a person much less picky about what's perfect, or in it's proper place.

This is one festive looking entry! The quote that prompted this collage piece......"I am proud of active, ugly art. Let the eye have little place to rest....no neatness. No tidiness. No easy pleasure." Ivan Greenberg

Pink

first grapefruit of the season.....is it a coincidence that the favorite "diet" breakfast food hits the market the same time as all the holiday goodies?

Nice color... not so Christmasy, but I'm sure we'll get to that later on!

December

I am choosing to try and tame my "inner Grinch" this Christmas by seeking out the things I like about the season and avoiding or minimizing the ones I don't. Easy to say on Dec. 1--I'll let you know how it works out!

Well, My inner grinch is alive and well, thank you very much. I had my

kids take down Christmas light today! I suppose I should have had them

take the flips flops off the roof while they were up there.

Russia

This is a photo of a painting in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Its an incredible

museum of Russian art just a few blocks from the Hermitage, another incredible

museum of art from the rest of the world. For me, this image is a nice representation

of the combination of the rich cultural, historical and artistic history of the city and

the stoic nature of the people. (The umbrella is pretty accurate too, if you happen

to visit in November!)

My favorite picture from Rachel's photo's. It looks beautiful and intricate, but also kind

of dreary and stoic - which is about what the whole population of Russia sounds like

from Rachel's stories. I like the juxtaposition of the details against the misty background.

An amazing trip - I wish I had gone along!

Door

Really more of a gate than a door, but beautiful either way.

A pretty door from Montreal. It loses something when you can't see the 20 feet above

the door covered with ivy. Amazing.

Café

This was Sydney's pretty cappuccino in Italy! We had wonderful pastries and coffee at this cafe, and I bought a beautiful bottle of Balsamic Vinegar here, and I still use the little bottle.

Pretty Sydney and her pretty cappuccino at the Singer Cafe.

Church

Mary, Rachel and Syd were in Russia over this week, so I assume all Mary's entries

will be from that trip. Here I've included a couple of mine from other trips and a couple

of Rachel's pictures from St. Petersburg. This is the back of a church in Montreal. It

was a very rustic, weather beaten church for Sailors along the waterfront. I was

moved by it's simplicity and humble grace.

And in stark contrast......the iconic "Church on Spilled Blood" in St. Petersburg.

Statue

We climbed to the bell tower of St. Isaac's at dusk to look out over the city.
Pretty dramatic.

Okay, this is one of the strangest statues I have ever seen. I hope I didn't steal your image

Mary, but I couldn't refuse. Rachel's story was interesting as well. She said the tour guide

told them that this was a very accurate depiction of this guy. I hope he meant just the face!

chycks choice.6

(photo from Minneapolis Star Tribune)

This is a photo of Carl and Bill Larson, ages 95 and 98, eating krumkake and drinking coffee at their family farm.

Their story is like something straight from Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon". They are the epitome

of his "Norwegian Bachelor Farmers". They have lived together on the family farm raising prize-winning

Belgian horses their entire lives except for three years when they served in WWII. Last week Carl (98) died

out working on the farm, and when he didn't return home, Bill (95) went to look for him. He fell

and suffered exposure from spending the night outside, but is fine now. They made me smile and cry!

I had loaded in a snarky picture to illustrate the kind of snarky day I was having, but alas,

all that snarkage for nothing. (and who could be snarky in the presence of Bill and Carl.)

Since my first post this morning, the washing machine has been delivered (and works).

The mammo is over with and was "good to go," and my attitude has improved greatly.

So - a new picture, one from Frost last monday, that I took out in the driveway, in my

jammies, at 7 am. I'm sure the neighbors just shake their heads with wonder at what kind

of strange stuff goes on at "that house across the street."

silk

There really is nothing like it--even in a photo you can tell its the "real deal".

I've had this lovely pile of hand dyed silk ribbon in my studio for about 4 years. I

knew I would finally find something to do with it!! Good thing I kept it. Any idea's for

a gallon container of Beach Sand?

tea

This isn't even close to the little painting I had in mind when I got out my favorite ceramic tea pot this morning. C'est la vie.....

So, in lieu of coming up with my own idea, I have just done a riff on Mary's I've been

trying to learn more about brushes, patterns and masking layers in Photoshop... it

doesn't look like it, but I learned a lot working on this one. All the colors are images of

loose tea... cause you can't really tell on the little image.

Advil

All Hail, Saint Ibuprofen. Our Lady of Perpetual Inflammation.

Amen.

Frost

Frosty leaves are one of the coolest things to take pics of... interesting from every angle.

My "point and shoot" photography skills are really not up to the challenge of capturing the early morning sun sparkling on the frost. But the dog and I had a beautiful walk and my camera hand is nearly thawed out again.

chycks choice.5

I missed using this journal page on "orange" day, so I'll make today orange.2.

Okay, I can do Orange, Too. I love the steam from the tea. Mmmmm.

little

Its not obvious without a point of reference, but this woodcut is just 1"x 1.5" . It

qualifies as "little".

Along those same lines - these guys qualify as little, right up until one jumps out of the

nest toward your face, then you realize they are bigger than you thought. And how in

the world do three of them fit in that nest? So, I guess, it's the nest that qualifies as "little."

shadow

In general, I don't have alot of good things to say about the short, dark days of November (can you say Seasonal Affective Disorder?)--but the low angle of the sun does make for good, dramatic shadows.

Pod

I love the dark smoky colors, the sheen and the twisted shapes in these pods. I wish I had

just reached out and picked them. At least I had the presence of mind to snap a quick pic.

and in stark contrast to the dark smoky colors check out the wild vibrant colors of these

walls

thinking about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I think this one might have a few more than 20 anniversaries under it's belt.

chycks choice.4

Today's creative efforts were spent doing a little logo stamp for a friend.

Today's creative effort for me had much more to do with Closet Bin

Solutions. But seeing Monkey Do, made me remember some of our funny

monkey pictures from Africa. Here's a favorite.