Glass and Feet

Another painting by ME! And a few extras

Good day today, for one that started not so well. Husband and I BOTH had weird dreams last night and early morning. We defrosted our chest freezer this weekend, after spending weeks eating out of it, and last night we were finally down to one 4 lb pork roast. I found a recipe that would use ALL of it and didn’t require a lot of prep - Honey Garlic Roasted Pork from the delightfully named Lord Byron’s Kitchen webpage.

Basically, cut it into cubes, add big slices of onion, olive oil, salt and pepper and cook for an hour. Then add a CUP of honey, 8 cloves of garlic, and red pepper flakes and keep cooking. So, thinking it’s the garlic and honey. Delicious, I’m still eating it. He is boycotting. His loss.

Retirement is funny. I realized this morning that I’ve started to group errands so I don’t do them all in one day. I stretch them out so I can enjoy them. (And get out of the house and interact with humans. Husbands don’t count.)

Today was FOOT day - new walking shoes and a pedicure. The walking shoes were on sale - YAY! Then the saleslady told me I had really high arches and needed the $49 dollar inserts. BOO. But I bought them, I don’t want to wreck my feet this late in the game.

We had such an interesting conversation. First of all, she was a GREAT salesperson, knew her stuff, measured my feet, checked the fit - a very pleasant experience overall. Then we started talking. She asked what advice would I give if I could provide a piece to everyone. I said Don’t eat sugar or seed oils. She said, you can’t avoid those, they’re in everything! Agreed. You have to cook all of your food from scratch - which, happily, I now have time to do.

Her advice was to meditate and live in the moment. Then we segued into auto-immune conditions, life choices, life coaches, and why we’d both be happier in a small town where you couldn’t hear sirens all the time or your neighbor’s stereo. She’s thirty, and still hasn’t decided where to go with her life. I gave her the name of a great life coach, Jessica Colp, and recommended she avail herself of the free half hour initial call. She gave me the name of a great endocrinologist in town. Win, win.

I get it - when I was thirty, I felt like there was a party somewhere in the world, and everyone knew about it but me. I left my job at the District Attorney’s Office and joined the Army as a JAG Officer, direct commission. I knew NOTHING about the Army. But it seemed imperative to make a huge leap out of my comfort zone. Some funny stories about that another day. My time qualifying on the grenade range remains a classic.

Next, a pedicure. In case you’re interested, I went with Mistletoe - a dark sparkly green frost. Hey, it’s Christmas and Santa Claus Red was just a bit too predictable.

ANYWAY - on to the art.

I wanted to paint this blue vase. I bought it in Germany near Nachtmann’s Crystal Factory. A big display store called the Glashuette was down the street and, in addition to Nachtmann’s crystal for sale, they also had an onsight artisan who blew and shaped the glass items right in front of you. I grabbed this one the minute it cooled off, I loved the Carmen Miranda vibe of the thing. Can’t you see an aggravated Carmen with her hands on her hips?

Sadly, the Glashuette is gone. Every time I had a visitor, I would take them to this little place, peruse what was on offer - and buy something, normally. Crystal, vases, etched glasses. Gorgeous stuff. Bonus, from the parking lot you could see the crane’s nest on top of the Rathaus. The little town, if you’d like to visit, is called Neustadt an der Waldnaab. I could take guests crystal shopping in the morning, then make a circle home via Flossenburg Concentration Camp and the Waldsassen Basilica.

Huh. Maybe I’ve been grouping errands longer than I realized.

I added in the sauerkraut vat, I liked the toned down clay next to the bold glass. And I managed to put it in front of a bookcase. I love books, so why not? The bookcase was harder than any other part of the painting. I had to figure out how to get the sharp corner of the wall, and then recess the bookcase across the hall. Tougher than expected.

Here’s the progression.

I gave you that last photo to show one of the first AHA inspirations I’ve ever had. And one of the most exciting. I kept looking and looking at the vase, going from the painting to the actual set up and finally realized, Hey, there’s a pink/lavender stripe at the bottom, not blue. So I swished it in and, voila, the whole painting came alive. The little Carmen Miranda vase almost danced, she was so excited to be the center of attention. This one has pride of place next to the mantel.

I didn’t quite manage the bookcase depth, but it works - you focus on the blue vase. If I’d nailed the bookcase, the focus might have shifted.

Yeah, that’s the ticket. It was a deliberate artistic choice. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.