02.07.22 Time in a bottle...or a jar

My Giant Microbes Covid, February 2022

Do you remember when and where you were when you first heard about Covid?

I do.  

I was at Chuy's - sitting outside because the weather was nice 

- not because being outside was safer - 

on the last Friday in February of 2020.  My husband and I were having dinner with my niece (an emergency room PA in Seattle) who was in town for a professional training.  We were talking about cases of a weird virus that was showing up in the Pacific northwest...

...we now know that was the beginning of what has become two very long years of dealing with this pandemic.

All the ingredients for morning glory muffins

Time has been very strange during Covid - and I'm marking it in ways that would never have occurred to me before - in particular, the consumption of baking supplies.

I've always cooked, but until the pandemic, I've never been much of a baker...the occassional batch of chocolate chip cookies, brownies from a box, and challah (but I made the dough in a breadmaker).  Like so many other things, that's changed.

There were two baking camps in the beginning - sourdough and banana bread.  I was definitely in the latter group.  

Samin Nosrat's focaccia with salt and rosemary

Like most folks, I started by using up the bananas I had in the freezer. Then I moved to muffins - and began adapting recipes - changing up the fruit, and adjusting the flour mix...flour that I started getting mail order, ten pounds at a time (remember there was a flour shortage!?) and have been ordering ever since.

But, what struck me the most, was the rate at which I was going through spices!  

I looked back over two years of Penzey's orders - I've used 4 cups of cinnamon and over 3 pints of vanilla - and have acquired bottles of numerous other spices, the most exotic of which is probably cardamom seeds.

I'm also going through dozens of eggs, and pounds of pecans - because in addition to a couple dozen muffins every three weeks or so...

Niloufer Ichaporia King's cardamon cake

I'm baking Samin Nosrat's focaccia with wheat flour,  a cake that Food 52 touted as Alice Water's favorite dessert...and next month for my husband's birthday...a German Chocolate cake. 

Turns out baking really is theraputic...

it's hard to be in a bad mood when the kitchen smells like butter, sugar and spice...

or when you turn the cake out of the pan and it looks just like the photo with the recipe.

January was a rough month for me, and I definitely responded to the stress by pulling out the mixing bowls and turning on the oven...which is just fine as long as I balance all the sweets with healthy meals, sourced largely from the farmers market.

Honestly, February hasn't been much better so far...it's still cold, and we've had an ice storm (although not like last year)...but we are headed towards spring, and hopefully to the end of this Covid wave.

Until next time.

01.10.22 Happiness Blooms

Fresh flowers AND tomatoes in January

I don't like winter, never have...

it's cold,
it's dreary,

and January is the month that my Mom died, 20 years ago.

I usually pretty grumpy about now.

But after the warmest December on record...my favorite local grower has flowers, and there are tomatoes at the farmer's market...so here's hoping we don't have another winter like last year.

Anyhow, since I promised in my Thanksgiving post to write about flowers (and it's my goal to return to posting something once a month even though I'm not back in the jewelry studio)...here you go!

The very first Petals Ink bouquet - June 2018

I discovered my favorite local grower - Petals, Ink  - at the Mueller Farmers Market several years ago. My first purchase from them was a small bouquet in a hobnail milk glass vase.  My daughter was moving into her first aparment in California, and wanted a vase to take with her...she really liked this one. 

At the time (in 2018 - the before times), trips to the farmers market were a fun outing, but not part of my regular routine. 

I wasn't doing a lot of cooking - we were too busy enjoying our empty nest - I was at the jewelry studio my husband was riding his bike almost everyday.

In March 2020, all that changed.

With grocery shortages, and curbside options few and far between, the Sunday farmers market became my primary source for meat and fresh produce - and it has definitely been a silver lining in the dark clouds of the past two years.

The bluebonnet bouquet - March, 2020

It wasn't too far into that first pandemic spring that I saw the Petals, Ink booth had returned to the market, and in addition to lots of fresh food, I started picking up flowers every week.  I also started following them on Instagram. In March, just as things were warming up, they posted photos of spring bouquets with bluebonnets, available for delivery...so I ordered one.

It might sound silly, but I realized having flowers in the kitchen (where I was spending way more time since we were eating three meals a day at home) made me happy - really happy - every time I looked at them.  

When they started offering a weekly CSA (community supported agriculture) subscription for flowers...I signed up right away.

Bonus heirloom mums - Nov 2021

Starting in the spring of 2020, I picked up my flowers from their booth every Sunday until the season ended...and in 2021, I signed up again.  Initially, I was going to continue picking them up at the market - but circumstances changed, and they switched to contactless home delivery.

For 32 weeks - from March to November - I would get a text message mid-day on Saturday with a photo of my delivery in front of my house.  It was a highlight of my week, and without question one of the most important acts of self-care I took in 2021.

Then, to my great suprise - while I was in St. Thomas with my high school girlfriends - I got a message from my husband, that the "flower ladies" as he calls them, had left a bonus bouquet (and the sweetest note) at our door.  He put them in a vase, and they were waiting for me when I arrived home from my wonderful trip.  

Around the same time, I had also received a wonderful gift of flowers from a friend - but they weren't fresh - they were Legos!  I resisted the urge to open the box immediately, and instead waited until our daughter came home for a couple of weeks at the end of the year. She and I built them together, and put them in another hobnail vase that came from Petals, Ink.

The Lego bouquet

I'll keep the Lego blooms on my table until March, when my subscription deliveries begin again...except for this week...because I have the anemones.

The past two year have been rough, but they haven't been all bad, and they certainly have taught me some life lessons...not the least of which is do things that bring you joy.  

No matter what life looks like going forward - I know that I will continue to spend time in my kitchen; cooking with fresh ingredients from the farmers market, and keeping flowers on my table.  I only hope that I'll be sharing that space with family and friends again, sooner rather than later.

Until next time.

12.27.21 So good! So good! So good!*

In late February of this year, as we were all beginning to schedule our Covid vaccines - and held out hope that the pandemic would soon be over - a group of us who have been friends since childhood began planning a trip to mark our 40th high school graduation. 

At the time, we couldn't imagine that not only would Covid still be raging, but that we'd be facing a new variant. As the year wore on we planned, and hesitated, but fortune smiled on us and we were able to be together.

A little over 48 hours after returning home from Thanksgiving, I was traveling again.  Arriving at Austin-Bergstrom Airport at 4 am (the first time I'd been in an airport in nearly two years) to spend five days with a group of women who had not all be together at the same time since we were 18 years old.

arriving at Cyril E. King airport in Charlotte-Amalie

Masked, vaccinated, tested and approved by the authorities in the US Virgin Islands, we took off to spend five epic days together in Saint Thomas.

Three of us, who had gone to college as well as high school together, first caught up in Atlanta, and a few hours later we were all in paradise.  The decades between our last visit and this one seemed to vanish. 

Our choice of St. Thomas wasn't random - one of the members of our girl tribe, along with her husband, owns Ciao Bella Charters - and lives on the island half the year. 

A glorious day on Ciao Bella!

She helped us arrange condo rentals, set us up with a great taxi driver, made dinner reservations and planned our itinerary...all we had to do was enjoy! 

Our day on the boat was spectacular - I had never been to the Caribbean before - but everything you hear about it is true! The weather and scenery are beautiful, and the water really is blue!  We snorkled at Honeymoon Beach, ate lunch in Maho and soaked up sun like folks who have been locked inside for two years.

We ate amazing fresh fish for dinner every night, and made a day trip to St. John where we took advantage of incredible duty free shopping...this is where jewelry finally comes back to the blog...

At the St. John Ferry landing

We took the ferry from St. Thomas to St. John, and as always, I was looking for two things - artisan jewelry, and a tea towel - I found both. 

A couple of blocks away from the ferry landing we found Bamboo Studio, a local jewelry company with both a beautiful store, and a studio with large glass windows where you can watch their artisans working at their benches.  Immediately, I knew this was where I would find my jewelry souvenir.

The "Ciao Bellas"

Before we entered the store, my friends asked what was going on in the workshop.  I pointed out the silver wire hanging on the walls, the casting equipment, the benches covered with hand tools and flex shafts hanging nearby.  It was so fun to share my knowledge, and encourage them to choose pieces that were made on St. John by skilled craftspeople.

Most of my friends chose hook bracelets, which are symbolic in the Virgin Islands...but I'm not a bracelet person...and I found two pendant charms that I love, and my crew agreed are "so me".

The smaller pendant has "waves" surrounding a blue diamond, symbolizing the hurricanes Irma and Maria - that struck the Virgin Islands in 2017 - and from which they have largely recovered. The larger pendant says "KEEP LEFT", because although they are US territories, cars drive on the left side of the road (as in England).

Double entendre pendants
from Bamboo Studio

Looking at the two pendants together - it struck me - not only do they represent the Virgin Islands, but my political leanings as well.  I'm always pushing people to keep left and work for a blue wave!

Some people say "you can't go home again" - and I certainly don't want to go back to high school - but I am so glad to be reunited with this incredible group of women.  There are no words sufficient to describe the love and admiration I have for them.  Five days together was a salve to my soul after two very difficult years.

I came home rested and renewed - ready to deal with whatever life has to throw at me - because I know I'll be seeing my friends again sooner rather than later...

...and of course, my new tea towel is my kitchen.

The blog is indeed back - although I'm still not sure what the frequency will be - it feels good to be writing again, and I'm hopeful that 2022 will be a safer, healthier and more productive year for all of us.

Until next time.

*from the chorus of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline". It became the theme of our weekend, and we sang it a lot!

12.13.21 Thankful

The view from our rental house on the Galveston Seawall

On March 13, 2020 - 21 months ago today - the world changed forever when Covid-19 first impacted my life.  News about an unknown, very contagious virus had been circulating for a couple of weeks.  

The previous week, the City of Austin had canceled South by Southwest, and on Friday the 13th my husband received a message from his employer not to come to work on Monday; that his company would be working remotely "until it was safe to return to the office".

He's still working from home.

There was no way for any of us to anticipate what the next two years would look like.  It turns out life during a pandemic is exhausting, frightening and isolating.  

Even for those of us who are fortunate enough to have homes, jobs and families to sustain us, the last two years have been hard.

I haven't written a blog post in more than 6 months, because frankly I ran out of both the energy to write and things to say.

With vaccines, and now boosters, the world is starting to open up - a bit - again.  I'm still not back in the jewelry studio - I don't know when that will happen, especially now that we have Omicron - but I am feeling renewed enough to sit down at my computer and blog.

Sunflowers and chrysanthemums at the beach house 

That feeling - wanting to write and reach out - has been sparked by reconnecting with family and friends, and doing it outside the four walls of my house.

Three weeks ago we were able to spend Thanksgiving with our adult children and my in laws.  

The following week, I had a fabulous long weekend with a group of women I've know for more than 40 years.

This past weekend, I caught up with friends from graduate school who I hadn't seen in person in two years.

Next time, I'll write about the girls' trip...which will actually have jewelry references in it!  This time, you get Thanksgiving.

For decades, my mother in law has gone all out for Thanksgiving, starting her planning weeks in advance and cooking for days before everyone descended on her.

Her home, while lovely, isn't big enough to accomodate all of us overnight, so in the before times, I would book hotel rooms nearby.  None of us felt comfortable with that arrangement this year, so instead we rented a historic house in Galveston, where we could all stay in one place.

To ensure things went smoothly, my husband and I arrived on Sunday - a couple of days ahead of everyone else - to get set up.  

Things that used to be simple - like grocery shopping - have become more complicated. Covid has changed the way I do these things - to minimize my contact with people I don't know - in large part because Texas' lack of leadership has refused to allow local governments to put safety protocols in place.

Fortunately, I was able to schedule a curbside pick up ahead of time, just like I do at home.  Because I wouldn't be in my own kitchen, and didn't want to spend all my time cooking (and we certainly weren't going to ask that of my mother in law), we ordered our holiday meal to go from Goode Co. BBQ in Houston.

Melamine beach plates and Goode Co. Thanksgiving dinner

On Monday I made my grocery run, and I was able to find a local florist to get flowers for the table - something I have come to love during the last two years at home.  A locally based friend recommended the Galveston Flower Co. The staff helped me arrange a beautiful bouquet that we enjoyed all week.

Side note - I've been getting flowers delivered weekly through a floral CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and it has been one of the bright spots in a dark time.  The flowers, and the folks behind them at Petals, Ink, are definitely worthy of a blog post...I promise I'll write one in the coming year.

The rest of our crew - kids and in laws - arrived on Tuesday, and frankly we could have simply had turkey sandwiches and it would have been a great trip!  However, we didn't have to settle for sandwiches - we had quite the spread - smoked turkey, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, potatoes au gratin, rolls and of course, pie.

It's not a trip to Galveston without Gaido's

We stuffed ourselves silly all week.  In addition to the traditional Thanksgiving meal, we squeezed in Tex-Mex and fresh seafood at Gaido's, eating outdoors when we weren't at our rental house.

It all went by far too fast, and we are once again scattered across the country - my kids on both coasts and us in the middle in Texas.  But the week left me thankful for the time together, and hopeful that we will be able to find ways to return to seeing each other - in person - regularly.  

If that means booster vaccines and testing before and after travel, sign me up.

I hope you have been able to find things to give you strength and carry you through this challenging year.  I'm glad to be writing again, and grateful to everyone who reads my posts.

Until next time.

06.07.21 College Daze

I know it's a cliche to say "where does the time go?"... 

but it is hard to believe that four decades have passed since I went off to college! 

A few weeks ago I got a box in the mail from my alma mater - the University of Virginia - as part of our "virtual reunion".  Our actual (35 year) reunion was cancelled last year due to Covid, and although many of us are getting vaccinated, and students will return to Charlottesville in the fall, this year's events (for classes ending in 0,1, 5 - that's me - or 6) will be held online.

I certainly put my formal education to use in 30+ years working in public policy, but what makes my connection to UVa so strong are the experiences I had with the people who became part of the fabric of my life.

I'll start with my college roommate, Kerry, who has made multiple previous appearances here on the blog...most recently in October, 2019 when we had a girls' weekend in Chicago and went to the UVa-Notre Dame football game. 

We met when we moved into the dorm, and have been in almost daily contact since.  Before there was Facebook, or email, or even cheap long distance - we stayed in regular touch the old fashioned way - with letters and snapshots.  She's the reason I got onto Facebook, so we could share pictures of our kids.

Anytime I need a lift to my spirits (not just in the last year through the pandemic) she's there...and she's the one who suggested we have a mini-dorm reunion on Zoom, since our real life reunion was cancelled.  She and her husband are some of my favorite, most spirited Wahoos, and I can't wait until we can see them again in person.

Closer to home (lots closer - about 10 minutes away) is my friend Dorsey.  We met taking religion classes together (she was a major, and I minored) and reconnected in Austin.  Unbeknowst to me, she had moved here right after graduation as well, but our paths didn't cross for a couple of years. We ran into each other one night in a restaurant - and have been in touch ever since.  

The restaurant she ran for years was in my neighborhood, and always a favorite.  These days (and for the last decade) she has been running an urban farm and guesthouse.  When the pandemic hit, she was no longer selling her eggs and produce to Austin's many farm to table restaurants, and began offering them online to friends and neighbors.  My weekly visits to pick up eggs, greens and veggies has been on of the truly bright spots in the past 15 months...I can't overstate the joy of seeing a friend in person...and now that we are both fully vaccinated, hugs are back.

There are so many more people - here in Austin - and around the world that are only part of my life because our paths crossed in those short four years we found ourselves together as students at UVa.

While it would certainly be lovely to return to Charlottesville, I'm looking forward to the online programs that the University has put together for next week...and I'll be wearing my UVa jewelry while we Zoom.

Until next time.

05.25.21 Cookie sez...hello!

After more than 30 years of having a critter or a kid (or both) around the house...it was just to quiet after MoJo left us, so we have a new furry family member.

Meet Cookie.

We adopted her from the Austin Animal Center not quite a month ago, and she has settled in nicely as the cat about the house.

When I decided I was ready for another cat (and it didn't take long), I thought I would probably adopt a slightly older cat - under two - and didn't really plan on bringing home an eight week old, two pound baby...but that's exactly what we did!

We met her on Sunday, she was spayed on Monday and came home with us on Tuesday.  She was pretty skittish at first...and found a place on the kitchen bookshelf to hide, but it didn't take her long to figure out that as humans go, we are pretty acceptable.

Her extended family sent her all sorts of wonderful welcome home gifts - a climbing platform, a bunch of toys filled with catnip - but her favorite things are champagne corks (a carry over from MoJo) and a cardboard box.

I was told - in no uncertain terms - that the occassional post on social media was not going to be enough kitten content, so I succumbed to peer pressure and created an Instagram account for her.  She's Cookie the Whale Nosed Cat, because of the shape of the mark on her nose.

I'm not sure creating a second IG account was such a good idea, because I'm actually trying to get back to posting jewelry on a daily basis on Facets of Myself...but it's done.  Even if you don't want to follow Cookie's account, she will definitely show up on mine, too.

She's full of life and energy - and has already brought us so much joy - but she does take up a lot of time, which is why this week's post is both a day late, and on the short side!

However, now I'm caught up, and I need to get to work writing more!

Until next time.

05.10.21 Ingenuity...and inspiration

Photo credit: NASA/JPL

Recently, I had a burst of creative thought, and allowed myself to start thinking more seriously about returning to the studio. 

A few weeks ago, when NASA shared the first photos of the Ingenuity helicopter's shadow on the surface of Mars, I was awestruck...and immediately saw a compass rose.  I can't help but think this was intentional - as it is a universal symbol for travel and navigation.

It's also one of my favorite cut outs to put on the back of a pendant...so much so that I made one for myself with an incredible rutilated quartz and gold prongs.

2019 was the year I built up my inventory, did three holiday shows, and I felt like I was ready to make the leap to jewelry.  I closed my consulting firm at the end of the year, and I was ready to take my work to the next level...and gold was going to be a big part of that...

2020 started off great, with multiple custom pieces, and I was signed up to take a three day class working exclusively with gold, but then Covid happened, so the class did not. 

Although I have sold a few pieces in the past year, and I'm grateful to everyone who has bought something, I've still got a lot of inventory in my Etsy shop. 

Metal prices are going to have a big impact on just how much I am willing to make for inventory...the price of silver is more than 50% higher than it was a year ago - $26/ounce versus $17/ounce. 

The cost of recycling scrap (which is how, at least in part, I paid for more metal) has gone up too, exacerbating the issue.  Prior to 2020, I could ship scrap metal back to Rio Grande and they would purchase and recycle it, and any amount, and I would receive an account credit.  There's now a $50 charge for recycling, so I have to consider both how much metal to buy, and reconsider how to reclaim the value of my scrap.

So, rather than jumping back in with both feet, I think I'm going to wade back in slowly. Rather than immediately renting bench space, I'll go back to open studio.  Instead of adding to my Etsy inventory, I'll focus on pieces that I want to make for myself, or as gifts, and custom pieces.

Before I start anything new, I'd like to finish this two stone pendant that has been languishing in my jewelry tote bag for over a year...I'm so glad I was able to finish MoJo Sez before he left us.

Maybe I'll return to the theme of space and travel...I have a beautiful piece of red rosarita that would be perfect for an Ingenuity cut out...since I've already done one to celebrate landing on the moon.

Whenever I return, and whatever I work on, I promise to share it - here and on Instagram - with all of you.

Until next time.