9 Moons Ago

Well, my new banner is up, thanks, in part, to the delightful stripe-y pattern provided by a wonderful whimsical artist, Delphine. I’ve been smitten with her work for the past couple of days, since I stumbled upon her site, and have been checking out all the archives and soaking up inspiration.

Besides her charming illustrations on non dairy diary, and bright, hip patterns for photoshop, she has many fun crafts which you can print out and make. I jumped into the paper crane making straight away. I used to make these a lot and forgot how to, with lack of practice.

I first learned the art back at Moore College of Art when we had students from Japan visiting. They brought us gifts of chopstick holders, and cold packs with cute and funny illustrations on them, and lots of origami paper. I remember the fun we had that week, sitting around a low table in the lounge and learning how to make brightly colored cranes.

Here is my most recent family of birds, resting on top of my mac:

Took a break from gardening today..it was too chilly and wet. But we did manage to squeeze in a game of fetch with the pups! There was yummy bruschetta for lunch, and an easy roast made in the crockpot for dinner, and I think I’ll make some popcorn for a snack! Yum! See ya later….

This entry is for Sarah, but I’m posting it for everyone because you may want to make pumpkin bread one day too, who knows?! At any rate, it’s pretty easy and delish, so why not give it a go?!

(While it’s Summer up North, we’re enjoying things like the fireplace, warm coats, soups, stews, baking and hearing the rain on the roof. If it’s too hot to cook, you can print and save the recipe for Fall!)

Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice

Preheat oven to 350ËšF / 180ËšC.

Sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs, water and spices.
Pour this mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix, just until combined. (Do not mix too much!)

Pour the batter into a well greased loaf pan* and bake 50 – 60 minutes or until done in the middle. (Test with a toothpick or wooden skewer.) Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes, then run knife around the edge and remove from pan. Cool on wire rack. Store bread tightly sealed in the fridge, for best freshness.

*When I bake this, I use a wider and more shallow pan, and adjust the cooking time to 30 minutes or so.

Well, it’s about bloody time! Anyway, here’s the post I’ve been dragging my feet on for different reasons, but rather than dwell on that, here’s my rundown of the Ken Stringfellow guitar project:

In late 2000, a group of 6 people from three countries got together in an online forum and decided to make a guitar for Ken Stringfellow, a guitarist, keyboard player and singer of the Seattle based band, the Posies, and a backing musician for several groups, including R.E.M.. Each person on the forum had specific roles in the construction of the guitar, but everyone voted on the main elements of it’s design. My husband (a friend at the time), Cameron, was the Luthier and has written about the process here. My contribution to the project was designing the inlays for the neck of the guitar. I chose a few songs that easily suggested recognizable symbols and drew some designs for posies. The selection included an sunburst for the song “Flood of Sunshine”, a couple of broken records for the song “Broken Record” (surprise, surprise), a bow and arrow which refer to the origins of Ken’s last name, and the number “23″ which has been a “mythical” number to the group. We also decided to have 23 frets for this reason when the usual number is 22. The group voted on their favourite designs and this group of sketches were the final approved batch:

Here’s a picture of what they looked like completed:

Pictures of the construction and more details are included in Cameron’s rundown, so I’ll just jump right to the pictures of the final product in use at a show we attended last year:

The guitar was a blast to work on, it sounds and looks great in concert, and we’re so glad that Ken loves it so much. And another exciting thing about this, is that the guitar is featured in a cool and funny video, which you can watch here. (Ken’s the one wearing the white tie.)

Now we’ve just got to get busy on one for the other frontman of the Posies, Jon Auer!!

Excited for tomorrow night, when we’ll meet up with Henrik and his friend, and take the tram to the city for a night of rockin’ out with the Posies! We’ll get to catch up with Ken Stringfellow once more…coo! (Yes, coo!)
Here’s a pic of Ken with the guitar that a group of us designed and made for him a few years back:

I’ll fill you in on the details of that project within the week. I’ve been meaning to for a while. (I know you’ll appreciate it, Seth!)

And that’s about it for tonight… caught up on some paperwork, cleaning and phone calls today. REALLY exciting! Hee….but tomorrow WILL be fun!

Two teeny tiny frogs on the window beside me…I say that is symbolic of good luck doubled! YAY!