Go Cook Something

I recently started a food blog. www.gocooksomething.blogspot.com

It's something that I've been thinking of doing for quite some time, in fact I had purchased the domain name gocooksomething.com a couple of years ago, and it has been pointing to my webpage ever since. When I figure out how to redirect it to point to the food blog, I will. But for now, I just wanted to let everyone know that it is up and running and I am having a blast writing it.

It's not so pretty yet, I need a banner and possibly a new design for the content, but I am loving it!

Check it out if you have a minute!

Boston Handmade Represents at SoWa

On July 12, just one day after the Boston Handmade Somerville Marketplace, I was at the South End Open Market.

I had done this show twice before, both times with BH. The first was the October show last year, and the second was this June.

July 12th was different. I was alone. Even though I was alone, there was enough BH at the show to make me feel at home. I had Marla of SeaGlass Things across the aisle and two booths down from me, very comforting to have her in my sights at all times.



I had Chroma Lab almost directly across from me in the next row over. Tony from Chroma Lab manning the booth.



Alicia from Chroma Lab was helping her neighbor Fussy Gussy, when I got the opportunity to take some pics. I love this booth!



Betsy of Stonehouse Studio was there, too. I had to look for her as she was not so close to my booth, but there she was!



I thoroughly enjoyed the day, especially later on when my hubby and friends arrived so that I could walk around and check out the other vendors (and take the pictures).
My friend Suzanne took this one of me in my booth.



I have 4 more SoWa dates this summer before the next Boston Handmade show on October 18th. I am really looking forward to them all.

Rusty fetches

Scott and Rusty playing Rusty's version of 'fetch'.

Jumping through the hoola hoop. He really likes the hoola hoop.



He's a cool dog when he is not biting people. So cute, too!

The best fortunes ever!

Scott got take out chinese food the other night. He got two of the best fortunes I have ever seen. He is so proud of these fortunes, I don't think he will ever throw them away.

Click the picture to embiggem, if you can't read them small.

Fireworks and Fire

The only fourth of July fireworks we saw were from the dock at Nick and Julie's.
It was so beautiful and simple.



A little bit of July 5th early morning.



It seems as though someone (JulieS?) threw a glass into the bushes.



Good times were had by all.

SOWA Sunday

Come visit me this Sunday at the South End Open Market.
July 12th from 10am - 4pm. Free admission and free parking!

Shop the handmade market and the antiques market. While you are there, pick up some fresh produce from local farmers and freshly baked bread from local bakers...mmmmm... fresh baked bread!

Two other Boston Handmade members will be at the market this Sunday as well. Betsy from Stonehouse Studio, and Marla from SeaGlass Things. Check us out and show your support for local artists!

It's a great way to spend a Sunday!

BH Somerville Marketplace

Boston Handmade Somerville Marketplace. Saturday, July 11, Union Square, Somerville. 3pm - 7pm.

Come to Union Square on July 11th to support YOUR local artists

Our July 2009 outdoor fair will feature work by Massachusetts area artists, craftspeople and artisans associated with the arts group Boston Handmade and Etsy.com: helping people make a living making things.

Boston Handmade promotes local independent businesses and individuals creating one-of-a-kind and limited edition handmade works in small studio environments, not factories.

More than 25 artists, artisans, and craftspeople will be showing and selling handmade jewelry, clothing, accessories, housewares, art, photography, toys, and sculpture along with hands-on craft demonstrations from The Common Cod Fiber Guild and The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts

I'll be there, so come find me!

I'll be sharing a tent with my sister Kathy of wellerwishes.etsy.com we are both very excited to share space. This will be our first of many shows together I am sure! Come visit us on Saturday afternoon.

Happy 4th!

Independence day. That's what it's all about.

'Independence' has renewed meaning to me these days. It's a HUGE word that says a lot.

Freedom, Liberty, and Happiness.



That said, Scott and I bought some goodies tonight to fulfill our desire for some pineapple vodka. As soon as we get this started, it should only take a couple of weeks to be good to enjoy.

Happy 4th!!!

Starshine...when you gonna find me...

January First

I have become engulfed with this blog about Jani, a six year old girl, January First. Jani has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, after years of doctors, tests and prodding. Her parents are having a most difficult time with her healthcare since there is no place they have found yet that will take a child under 16 with her disorder. Jani is 6, and has a baby brother that Michael and Susan have to look out for, and Jani has extreme violent episodes.

This article published by the LA Times is basically a 5 page crib note into the life of Jani, Michael and Susan. It had me in tears at times, as did the blog.

If you have a moment, please read what you can. I hope that the more of us who are mentally healthy who learn about mental illness, the more research will be done for the mentally ill, if that makes sense.

Thanks for your attention.

JP First Thursday Artisan Fair

Boston Handmade at the JP Artisan Fair. Thursday, July 2nd 5pm-8pm. That's tomorrow, folks!



Exhibitors at this show include:

Kerry Hawkins Photography, fine art photography
Jen Paulousky, Blue Alvarez Designs, designer knitwear
Beth Brennick of Elizabeth Brennick Designs, clothing and accessories
Lucie Wicker Photography, fine art photography
ChromaLab, painted furniture and clocks
and me, Nancyrosetta, unique jewelry

Jamaica Plain First Thursdays
Curtis Hall, 20 South Street, Jamaica Plain, 02130

Rain or shine. rain=indoors shine=outdoors.

Hope to see you there!!

More masks and other oddities

from Dad's house...

Dad's collections

My father is not only an artist, but a collector of art and other fun things. It's always so much fun to visit his house in Utah. Here are a few photos I took while visiting with him last month.
He is an avid mask collector.


Tin motorcycles.

Spurs.

Skulls.

And tin cans.

Short, sweet overview of BH at SEOM

Sunday was wonderful. Even though it rained cats and dogs in the morning, and sprinkled in the afternoon, I am so happy that I didn't cancel. I thought of it.

I was positioned between a stranger selling flowering cacti bouquets and Linda Branch Dunn. Check out Linda's etsy store and blog. Linda was a pleasure to keep company with. I am so happy to have had this time with her, and I hope that we can be neighbors at a show again sometime.

Perhaps my recent lack of interaction with people who do not work in a hospital setting, or who are not patients may add to my conclusion that Linda is awesome, but Linda is awesome! At one point after the rain stopped and we opened up the wall that separated us from the torrential drips, I noticed that there was a fabric collage facing in my direction. The placement of this artwork was such that the general public walking by could not see it...at all. It was facing me, at the back of my booth.

This quote by Emily Dickinson really spoke to me. Sounds corny, but in my situation, it was undeniably appropriate.

Later in the day, I looked over and saw this fabric collage along side the first one.
I only got the closeup of this one sadly, it's equally as beautiful as the first in it's entirety.


When we started breaking down for the day, Linda asked me if I would be up for a trade. I was. I opted for a handbag that I had been eyeing all day. She wanted some earrings for gifts. Even though I love the bag I traded for, I wish I had traded for the collage with the Emily Dickinson quote on it so I could hang it in Dolly's room.

SOWA Sunday

Another Boston Handmade group show!
June 14th, 10am - 4pm. Free parking!
Come out on Sunday for some great shopping, I'll be there.



You can also visit The South End Open Market website for more information.

I hope to see you there!

Progress...?

I find myself getting angry with mom the last few days. She has been showing signs of surrender, which will seriously seal her fate if she doesn't watch out. I worry about her level of commitment to heal. I worry about her ability to do so.

Specifically, the lack of movement on her strong side (left side) is particularly shocking to me. Even a week ago, she had been squirming to get comfortable. Now, she sits scrunched down with her feet awkwardly positioned until she can get some 'boosting' help (which she won't even ask for unually). I fear that she is becoming comfortable with the success of her first hurdle (the swallowing/eating) and that she thinks that this is enough for now. It's totally not enough! She also will try to get you to feed her with the spoon, or put the cup to her mouth to drink, or change the channel on the tv, even though she can do these actions herself (and has multiple times). She seems to be settling into the comfort zone of a 2 year old.

It's not enough.

Her care coordinator called me yesterday to make an appointment about what her care will be after leaving Spaulding. We had that appointment in Dolly's room today, with Dolly present. I'm not sure that she fully understood the conversation. I was shocked that this conversation would take place so soon after her arrival, but it was based on her progress, and these prognosis will be a biweekly discussion until the end of June at best. We will have to decide on a sub-acute rehab to which she will be transferred after her discharge from Spaulding. This can be postponed, if she makes some good progress. I hate to have to make this decision since I am not ready for her to leave Spaulding, but this is the way of recovery...you either make progress and they keep you going, or you don't and they put you in a nursing home. The latter is not what mom wants, we have talked about it.

I need her to make some more progress.

Changes

It's really amazing how your life can change in a split second, for better or worse.

Since my mother's stroke, I have been beside her taking care of her moral, her needs and rooting her on to recovery. Each day brings new challenges and sometimes we take steps backward in the hopes of moving forward. It's been physically and emotionally draining.

I have finally realized that my own needs have not been being met. Scott and my cell phones got shut off last week... thankfully since mine is attached to my hand these days, I caught it right away and they were working again in less than 10 minutes, but seriously, things like this are not acceptable at all. I haven't been to a supermarket since before I left for vacation on May 14th. I am out of moisturizing lotion (among at least a dozen other creature comforts) and there is no food in this house. Things around here need to change.

I am going back to work tomorrow morning. I need to resume my schedule back to where it was before the stroke. I hate to leave my mother for such lengths of time during the day, but she is in one of the best rehab hospitals in the country and I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

One Red Bead

On May 17th, 2009 my mother had a massive stroke.

I was in Las Vegas when I heard the news late morning of the 18th, having just arrived in LV about 12 hours before I got the call. Needless to say, our vacation was cut very short. Scott and I took the redeye that night back to Boston. We arrived the next morning, retrieved our car and went straight to Brigham and Women's Hospital where Mom was in the neurological ICU. Later that day, Anna arrived from SLC. Julie and Kathy had been with her since she was found on the floor in her condo (approximately 18 hours after her stroke). The window of stroke reversal opportunity was well closed by this time.

She spent 7 days in that same ICU until she was moved into a shared room on a different floor. She spent 4 days in that room. Today, she was moved to Spaulding Rehab Hospital. She is our little miracle. We hope she is Spauldings miracle after they are through with her.

She is lucid beyond reason, aware of her surroundings, and very talkative.
My sisters and I are contributing to a blog chronicling everything she and we go through in her recovery. Please visit One Red Bead the blog about Mom's recovery.

Wedding Rings

Anne Marie and Rob are going to be married on May 23rd. They commissioned me to make their wedding bands (an honor that I will not soon forget) and I decided to take some pictures of the process.

I started out with half round wire for the rings, 6ga for Robs, and 10ga for Anne Marie's. I cut a length that gives me a little play room in case I mess up with the stamping...which did happen on Anne Marie's (10ga is tiny to stamp on, especially wobbly half round wire).

For stamping and general manipulation of the metal, it needed to be annealed first. This process makes the silver molecules loose so that they will take a stamping much easier than if this step is skipped. I actually had to anneal these rings many more times throughout the process.

I stamped on a hockey puck (from my nephews bar mitzvah...don't tell him!) so I didn't mar the outside of the wire too much. The wire gets a little funky when you stamp it. This looks awful, but no worries, it all works out in the end.

After I got the insides of the rings stamped with the inscriptions, I use my ring mandrel to eyeball the length of wire I need for the size of ring I want, and saw it away. Then I formed the bands around the mandrel to get them sort of roundish so that I can solder them closed.

I shape the bands as much as I can turning the cut ends in to form somewhat of a straight edge to get ready to solder. The 10ga was easy, but the 6ga definitely needed some more annealing. I couldn't even move it anymore from the position it is in the photo above, even with leverage! So annealing I go again...

After the soldering, there are some solder spots/pools left on the metal, I have to file that off, inside and out. I also filed into the edges on the inside, making the rings very smooth, and comfortable for always and forever wear.

Here is my fancy ring mandrel, isn't she pretty? I use a rawhide hammer to make the ring a circle and then to size the ring, hammering the ring down, turning the mandrel all the time until it is at the correct size I desire.

Now it's time to sand, sand, sand...and then polish. My mandrel has sizing grooves that leave little marks on the inside of the rings, not to mention all the other accidental tool marks from the forming. I start with #80 sanding paper, and work my way down to #30 finishing paper. In sandpaper terms, that might be 320 grit to 600 grit.


It's a lot of work sanding the inside and outside by hand, but the results are wonderful. When the finish is desired, it's time to polish. I am using tripoli to polish these rings to a mirror shine, inside and out.



Here they are finished.


These were really fun to make, I hope to be asked again!

Paws New England Charity Concert

Band Gig has another charity concert tonight!
This time it's for Paws New England

Once again, I have made a donation to the cause for the raffle. This little dogbone necklace...so cute!

Doors open at 7:30pm $10 donation at the door.