Fun Facts About the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 In 1987, the Neptune shell was selected as the official state seashell.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week

1. We were without Internet access for 24 hours. A call to Verizon. The tech worked for 3 hours and got us up and running again.

2. Lunch at Point Breeze with the teaching assistants. Fun group of girls.

3. First Day of Spring

4. Nice day. I washed windows and changed curtains

5. Thursday with Teague

How was your week?

Concertina Book with Hinge Binding

There seemed to be some confusion about the Concertina Book with Hinge Binding that I showed last week.

I don't think I made it clear that the book in the above picture is just the book of pages. There is no cover. The white paper is the concertina binding

Here's the book with a cover. The binding is exposed.

I like the look of the exposed binding. If that's not your cup of tea, the binding can always be covered with a strip of paper the  height of the book and wide enough to attach to both the front and back cover.

The book looking into the pages

I'm not sure what I'll do with the book. Perhaps it will make a good travel junk journal for a trip to Camp Ogunquit next month.

Whatcha Doin?

 

Mr. Spock and I were discussing glue. I know using glue depends on what is being glued. I can't seem to find a glue that is easy to work with except glue stick. Either the glue doesn't come out of the bottle because it's very thick (Crafter's Pick and Aileen's Super Tacky Glue), or it runs out and all over the place because it is very thin (Bearly Art Glue).

Jacqueline Sullivan, the instructor for the Book of Marks class I recently took had us use the Aileen's Super Tacky Glue. She said she prefers the Crafter's Pick because it is a "dry" glue and won't crack when dry. The watercolor paper in the book was good to use with the Tacky glue. She said the Crafter's Pick is getting hard to find.

The Bearly Art Glue boasted it wouldn't clog in its bottle. It lied. However, it hasn't clogged the Sugarbelle Icing Bottle, but it's very runny. Crafter's Pick doesn't come out its own bottle or out of the Sugarbelle bottle.

Glue sticks are wonderful for gluing thin sheets of paper. No fuss, no muss.

Not pictured is the tube of E6000 for heavy duty gluing of metal and stuff like that.

So you mixed media artists that glue papers and heavy duty papers like 140 lb. watercolor paper, small charms, buttons, ribbon. What glue do you use?

T Stands for Brunch and Tea

One of our favorite, local restaurants, the UxLocale has started serving tea and brunch on Saturday mornings. I've written about the UxLocale before owned and operated by Chef Elaine. Elaine used to work at the Worcester Art Museum where I teach.

Himself opted to have brunch as he does not like tea or any hot beverage for that matter. He had the Italian Hawaiian Canoe Calzone without the thinly sliced Jalapeño peppers

 I, of course, was going to be treated to a tea.

You had your choice of 3 different teas paired with the tiers on the tea stand. Since life is short, I started with the dessert tea, Vanilla Oolong

While enjoying my first cup of Vanilla Oolong, my second choice, Earl Grey came out in a French press and kept warm over a sterno.

The Vanilla Oolong was served in a little teapot. I also asked for cream and sugar. The sugar was raw brown sugar cubes and served with sugar tongs. I didn't get a picture of my spoon which was a demitasse spoon. Very cute. I had 2 cups of the Vanilla tea.

The tea service include 3 generous sandwiches: Cucumber, sour cream, cream cheese, dill on brioche (behind the gold stand), to the left: Smoked Salmon, wild-caught smoked salmon, pickled onions, cream cheese, dill, brioche bread, and to the right: Tomato Caprese, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, basil aioli, brioche bread.

I don't really like cheese and the few cheeses I do eat, mozzarella, ricotta, or American cheese need to be cooked. An exception is ricotta and mascarpone because those are the cheeses in cannoli. Cream cheese is okay as long as there is other stuff to help mask the taste/texture.  Himself had the Caprese sandwich.

The middle tier tea I chose was my favorite blend, Earl Grey. I think I had 2 cups. The middle tier offering was a blueberry scone and an orange cranberry scone served with real clotted cream and strawberry jam. Elaine spotted me when she came out of the kitchen, and she came to say hello. It's always a delight to see her. She told me about making the clotted cream from scratch. A long, difficult process, but Elaine's endeavor was so worth it.

By the time, the top tier tea came, Irish Breakfast (remember I paired the teas backwards), I was ready to float, and I was still drinking the Earl Grey  pictured above with a Coconut Chocolate Chip Macaroon. There were also Macarons and Madeleines. 

The server kindly put the Irish Breakfast tea and the remainder of the Earl Grey tea in to go cups along with the cookies.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

A Little Visit

 

A text from the Niece-in-law to ask if they could stop by. They were on their way to an indoor playground not far from my house, and the Littles had something they wanted to give to me.

Most Sundays we are home, but wouldn't you know this Sunday we were on our way out to have lunch with last term's teaching assistants?

The NIL said they would leave the item in the front porch. 

Just as we were on our way, the Nephew was at the door with two,  sweet, little plants from his Littles. Just in time for the first day of Spring. 

 I walked to the car so I could thank the Littles and the NIL. We had a nice, little visit.

D picked the light pink plant on the left while his older sister, G, picked out the darker pink on the right. The plant is a Calandiva which is also known as Kalanchoe. The plant is a succulent,  it doesn't like direct sun, it doesn't like a lot of water, and sadly, it's also poisonous to cats. Hopefully, I'm not poisonous to the plants.

The little pots are 2.5 inches and fit nicely on the window sill in the studio where the kitties are not allowed. 

Thank you to the Nephew, NIL, and their Littles for thinking of me. You made my day.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hey, Ma! It's snowing out

A wistful Calli wishes the snow would just melt. Oh, wait that thought was my thought.

Looks like mid January instead of mid March

The work of the plow guy so I didn't have to shovel

All I had to do was clean the snow off Moose

The gnomes were trying to make us believe we were in the jackpot area that got 30 inches of snow

But we only got 5.75 inches as measured from the top of Moose since I couldn't take a measurement from the walk

Fortunately, March snow melts quickly

Signs of Spring

Still snow on the back Tundra

Bulbs poking up where the oil man has to make his delivery

How does your garden grow?