Tasting God

Night at the Museum

Susan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:48 +0000

Are you an art museum type of person? I never really thought of myself as a die-hard art lover, but last year I joined the Dallas Museum of Art on a whim–and last Friday night made that all worthwhile.

It was one of their monthly Late Night events. Vikki and I met after work and drove downtown to the Museum. We members can park free in the Museum garage, but that night the garage was full so we had to park several blocks away in the garage we use for symphony concerts. But the weather was fine so the walk was pleasant and besides, we got to walk past this:

Check it out! Food trucks in Dallas.

Food trucks are a fairly new phenomenon here so it was fun to see them and the crowds of people lined up for their goodies. After gawking like tourists, we wandered on down past a Chinese dragon taking shape in the middle of the street (different museum, different event) and into the DMA.

Where we found this:

Chocolate shoes. Seriously. Chocolate.

Did I mention this was a fashion-themed event? We were a little early for the milliner’s hat-making class, so we went upstairs to eat here. Sadly, that night the staff appeared to have been kidnapped and replaced by people who had never eaten at a restaurant, much less worked at one. But that’s a rant for another day…and at least the food was pretty good.

Vikki had duck flatbread; I had blue cheese risotto w/asparagus & beef

We eventually escaped and ran downstairs to the lecture called “Fear and Clothing” by “culture critic” Cintra Wilson. 1 She was acerbic, brilliant, hilarious, and thought-provoking.

Cintra Wilson mid-lecture

Once that was over, it was time to weave through crowds of people dressed like Madonna and Lady Gaga (there was a costume contest) to the main event: The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier. As the live band (Brave Combo, woot!) started the dance party–at this point it was about 10 pm–we entered the world of haute couture.

Did you know “haute couture” can only be presented in Paris and must be completely hand-sewn? It was a fascinating exhibit. Not clothing…some of the, um, outfits were far from street legal…but definitely fashion. The garments (and I use that term loosely) were on dummies that had real people’s faces projected onto them, so at first you had to look closely to make sure they weren’t real. We wandered through room after room of garments, several worn by Madonna and a couple I wouldn’t have minded wearing myself. All in all, quite the cultural experience!

It was also popular. I didn’t get a headcount, but there must have been several thousand people there. It included all ages, from a variety of economic statuses, with various levels of fashion sense . . . all enjoying the museum together. Definitely worth the price of a membership!

What Did You Do Over the Holidays?

Susan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:00:40 +0000

I redid my bathroom. Now, only in my dreams can I do the kind of damage I’m watching on Bath Crashers as I type. This was a more cosmetic redo with a budget of about $200 and the help of my fearless travel buddies, Vikki & Rosemary. Here’s a before shot:

Before. Note the annoying counter clutter.

I didn’t manage to get a shot of these, but my faucet handles were this awful combo of “silver” and brass to match(?) the brass shower surround.

The hall tree used to live in the closet but it fit so nicely there....

So I found this fancy new product made for appliances that’s supposed to turn them into stainless steel. It’s a multi-step, slow, stinky process. Does it work? Wait for it.

First, there’s that counter clutter to deal with. I’ve said for years that what bathrooms need are appliance garages, someplace you can stuff everything without having to unplug it. So I decided to build one. Marc, the nice man at my local Lowe’s, spent hours (literally!) showing me how to build the thing and cutting the boards I needed. (Sadly, Lowe’s did not sponsor this post.) Then Vikki screwed the cabinet together…. and I built the door

A work in progress

I ended up with this:

Voila!

Here’s a peek at the inside. If you look hard you can see that the cabinet has no back and it’s built around the plug. Add that to the nifty holder that corrals 2 curling irons and my hairdryer, and everything is beautifully contained. I plan to add frames around the mirror on both sides of the cabinet later. Hopefully I’ll be able to change that ugly light fixture, too. Meanwhile, the nasty orange original cabinets are now a lovely chocolate brown that matches the newly painted water closet.

It used to be (yawn) white.

The stencil is the same as on the cabinet door, only here it’s a shimmery blue to match the main room walls.

Meanwhile, Rosemary worked very hard on the hall tree…

Artist at work.

which turned out like this:

See the silver?

The “stainless” finish is definitely better than the brass, but it does look painted. Since I’m generally not wearing my glasses in the shower, I can’t see the paint strokes so that doesn’t bother me a bit. I just thought you might want to know.

Someday I’ll figure out what to do with the corner windows, which offer a fabulous view of the backyard and the street. And, of course, offers my neighbors and anyone else going down the street a fabulous view of me in the shower. (Or it would, if I ever opened the blinds.) Here they are now.

It's just left of the hall tree, just right of the counter.

Any ideas?

The Elephant in the Room

Susan — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:30:24 +0000

In my bedroom, to be precise. And I do mean a literal elephant.

He’s a humidifier.

I’ve been told by more than one professional—doctor, esthetist (esthetician…esthete…esth…lovely woman who does my facials, aka Tammy)—that I should invest in a cool mist humidifier, especially in the winter when heating systems suck all the moisture out of the air.

So I went to several stores and examined my options. There were several grown up models, but this little guy offered an automatic shut off option if he ever runs out of water—a plus for us absent-minded types—he cost the same as the duller models, and, well, he’s cute.

So I brought him home. And now every night he spits cool mist out his trunk into the air. I try not to think of it as elephant snot.

I think he needs a name, don’t you?

Suggestions?

Warranty Expired?

Susan — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:06:56 +0000

After spending much of the summer battling sinus infections and bronchitis, I’m now a pink, puffy mess due to an apparent spider bite. I’m also itchy. Very, very itchy. (Oh, sorry, did I make you scratch? My bad!) This is one of the things they don’t warn you about when you ask to sit on the restaurant patio.

My doctor assures me that no matter what dread disease the lab results will say I’ve picked up, she has medication to fix it. I sure hope so. She’s a trustworthy woman, so I expect she’s right.

This all began not long after my birthday, which makes me wonder if my warranty has expired since parts of me seem to be falling apart. Fortunately, I have a direct line to the manufacturer and I’ve been assured that my model is not yet obsolete.

“So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16

$10 Challenge Winner!

Susan — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:06:34 +0000

Well, the long hot summer clearly caused more brain melt than I anticipated. While I saw some interesting entries (and got even more interesting excuses for not entering) the clear winner was Amy, who created a fabulous and elegant cake stand with $2.50 to spare.

She sent me a picture and I tried for a week to get the picture out of my email and into this post, but no matter what I tried it didn’t work. (I’m not the most technically adept person, as my office IT department will attest.)

So, drawing on my mad descriptive skills, let me paint a mental picture for you: What we have (and by “we” I mean “Amy”) is a clear crystal candlestick with a nice footed base and some detailing. (Garage sale, $2. Score.) On top of that is a clear glass plate (Wal-Mart, $1.50) with oval glass beads (clear glass aquarium rocks $4) around the edge of the plate. They make the plate look like it has pretty scalloped edges and adds a lovely touch of elegance to the whole. The end result is a pretty display piece that looks like it cost way more than a mere $7.50.

So, nice job, Amy! Your Wal-Mart gift card is on its way. And hey, if you make any more fabulous projects, let us know! (That goes for the rest of you, too.) Happy crafting!

$10 Challenge Ends Today

Susan — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:09 +0000

So how’d it go? My own project . . . well, here’s the story: as I’ve mentioned more than once in these posts, I like colored glass. In fact, over the weekend I popped into the Dallas Museum of Art where I spent several minutes leaning on the second floor railing admiring the Chihuly flowers in the window and deciding which three I’d take home, should I be offered the choice.

Since that didn’t happen, I went home and assembled this collection: Most of it came from under cabinets and the backs of closets, but I did spend 50 cents on the purple piece at a garage sale and the red glass set me back 59 cents at the Goodwill Store.

I also invested $2.71 in Loctite, my new favorite sticky substance. I’ve now repaired multiple previously broken items with this wonder glue. Well worth the investment. (The Loctite company has no idea who I am, btw, so they didn’t influence this opinion at all.)

After washing the dust off my glassy items and making sure they were all dry, I started stacking and sticking. At this point the scent of adhesive became nigh overwhelming, so I moved everything out to the patio.

Truth be told, I wanted to begin out there but was dissuaded by the discovery that a band of wasps had built a sizable nest on the corner of my patio table. This observation came immediately after a sharp pain to the back of my leg where one of the little varmints stung me and immediately before my realization that my wasp spray was inoperable. Hence the indoor workshop. Between the discovery and the final phase of the project, sometime after the art museum (I know these little details are somehow important), I did manage to purchase a shiny new can of wasp spray and committed mass murder. And no, I don’t feel guilty at all. Clearly the opportunistic insects were just waiting until the barn swallows moved out in the false hope they could rule the patio. Wrong.

Where was I? Oh yes, on the patio with my glass pieces. I glued the blue/clear/purple section to the (upside down) wine bottle and decided that as my creation was already 3 feet high, adding the red & yellow pieces would be a bit much. (This turned out to be a wise decision.)

Next, I strolled over to the shed flower bed with a metal post (not pictured) that I picked up when I decided the rebar in the picture was too short (Lowe’s, $6.09 with tax) and hammered said post into the ground, only missing the post and whacking my hand once. No emergency room visit required. This time.

Finally, once the glue had plenty of time to set, I took my creation over, pointed the wine bottle end down, and carefully threaded the bar through the mouth of the bottle. It looked like this: Here’s a better view of the bottle:

It looks blue in the picture but I promise in real life it's much more purple.

Then I went off to sit in my hammock chair and admire my glass sculpture. It looked so nice with the sun shining through it . . .

. . . for about twenty minutes.

Then I heard a crash, looked up from my book, and saw my hard(ish) work in pieces on the ground. Apparently there wasn’t a good enough bond between the wine bottle and the green vase and the two parted ways.

So that’s my $10 project story. I’m not too broken up (sorry, bad pun) by my project’s failure, it was entertaining and mostly free. All told I spent $9.89 and most of the supplies can be salvaged for another try.

What about you? Did you take the $10 Challenge? How did your project come out? Do tell! After all, it might net you a $10 gift card.

Flower Friday: Fences

Susan — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:14:35 +0000

They say good fences make good neighbors. Personally, I have a crummy fence and great neighbors, but since my fence doesn’t touch their property it’s probably irrelevant. But I digress… What I really want to point out is that a good fence also makes a great backdrop for flowers. Virginia seems to be full of fabulous fences with equally fabulous flowers…

I'm so recreating this in my backyard.

Here’s the view from the other side:

We spent the night here; more about that later.

This classic combo was at our timeshare. It makes a lovely corner to tuck in these especially gorgeous daylilies:

I don't have any this color in my yard. Yet.

And look at this sweet little fence-let:

In case you were wondering what to do with your leftover skinny branches...

Then again, sometimes a fence doesn’t even need flowers to look good:

Found this one at Yorktown Victory Center

This one is in NC at Biltmore (it might be a railing, but that's fence-ish)

Good fences, every one. (Unless that last one is a railing, I really don’t remember…but whatever it is, it’s gorgeous!)

Reminder: $10 Challenge Entries Due Tuesday

Susan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:34:16 +0000

There’s a Flower Friday post coming later today but I wanted to remind you that this is the weekend to finish (or begin and then finish) your $10 Challenge Entry.

You can do it! Just open your mind to the idea that you can be creative, picture what might be instead of what is, and as my friend Luci Swindoll says, look at life through the lens of possibility.

I’m doing a $10 project myself this weekend, so we’ll meet up with our creations in hand on Tuesday, OK? OK!

General Washington’s Army

Susan — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:42:24 +0000

Maybe it’s the former drama major in me, but I love a good “pretend” and Williamsburg, VA is full of opportunities to play. Take our visit to the Yorktown Victory Center: it’s not the official historical site, but it is grand fun.

Don't you just love a man in uniform?

We had a lovely time chatting with the Colonial Army and admiring their quarters. (Their sleeping quarters, not their change.) Captain Morris must have been out on a mission; we poked around on his desk while he was gone.

Trusting soul, to leave all that out.

As we were decidedly not Tory spies, no harm was done. I particularly like the laundry area…note that they make a point on the sign that they use soap. Clearly an exemplary establishment.

Scrub a dub dub.

On a random note, one thing they do have is George Washington’s actual tent that he lived in during the Revolution. It’s preserved behind glass, but it’s set up so you can get a good look at it and it’s quite impressive. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of that; it didn’t come out. Take my word for it or go see for yourself.

We were most entertained while there by the musket and cannon demonstration. The little boy who came out of the crowd to help fire the cannon was so well-trained he had to be told it was OK to toss the…whatever it was…on the ground. (I can’t remember exactly, but it was something to do with the fuse, I think.) No silencers on these puppies; muskets are loud and produce impressive amounts of smoke. Just imagine what it must have been like with scores of these going off at once. It must have been difficult to see who you were supposed to be fighting on the battlefield. This being a pretend, and as the Colonial Army is not currently engaged in battle, they let anybody hold their weapons. (Yes, we let the kids go first.)

Yes, I know that's not the way to hold it, but it was a photo op, not a battle.

And one final thought, from my old crush John Adams…

Flower Friday: Sunflowers

Susan — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:00:06 +0000

I don’t know about you but sunflowers just make me happy. They always look like they’re smiling.

Last year I had gorgeous multicolored beauties; some were burgundy, some were orange-y…but apparently they didn’t reseed. (Clearly another trip to Wildseed Farms is in order.) Considering the hotter-than-hades drought-ridden summer we’ve had, I’m just happy anything came up. But look, they did!

I love how they peek around the corner of the shed.

On a random note, how do you like the little bucket on the shed door? It was the only good thing that came out of a trip to Williamsburg Pottery, a place whose marketing team is wildly underpaid, no matter how much they make. Huge, impressive ad and write up–completely underwhelming experience. I got two of those buckets, one for each door, which was the only thing that kept our visit from being a complete waste of time. But I digress…

My sunflowers, bless their hearts, come up all by themselves, thrive despite the fact that I never water them and we’re in serious drought, and are just fun, friendly, casual blooms. Not only that, they’re the perfect blooms to display in my lovely new vase from Jamestown Pottery.
Happy sunflowers . . . Happy Friday!