Quiche & Meatloaf

No, not together at the same meal! That’s what I made today, the quiche for T-Man’s breakfasts for a few days and the meatloaf for dinner tonight and then lunches. I love to cook actually. The quiche has barbequed salmon and veggies and several cheeses (garlic havarti and swiss) — yum! No pastry though. It’s low-carb. And the meatloaf is somewhat like the ones my mommy used to make with oatmeal and Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, except that it has ground pork as well as beef and garlic as well as onions. Mom never used garlic, far less home-grown garlic like mine. The cloves are little but mighty! And the oatmeal is because mom was born in Scotland. Lots of good things have oatmeal in them.

Today I finished the cherry blossom braid after attaching another yard of the green strands that create the edges. I missed the fine print (in Japanese!) where it said that I needed to make them extra-long. I could have used yet another yard (that’s 5 yards per 3 yards of the north/south elements) but I cut it off anyhow. I have enough even if I cut the knotted bits off as well as the beginning where I made a few mistakes. Now I have to do the Happy Spring! card with braid write-up and details, print them, assemble, and get them in the mail by Friday. Hah! Maybe. I did get the diagrams done with Adobe Illustrator. I’m trying to get this in the mail by Friday. Yeah, right.

I forgot to mention that last week I bought this book:


Yes, I know I’m an incurable bibliophile. I can’t help it and I don’t want to be cured. This is a great book with lots of good ideas on making jewelry pieces from a basketry perspective. Yes, I know I don’t make baskets. Hardly ever. But I love wire and pine needles and coiling and beads and I’ve already signed up to take a class in coiled jewelry with Marilyn Moore from Seattle through my weavers’ guild. (Go see her stuff — it just blows me away!) This book is by Mary Hettmansperger who is also a pretty cool basket/jewelry artist but with a different style than Marilyn. I find it much more clear and inspirational than the relevant parts of the book I’ve had for a long time, Arline Fisch’s “Textile Techniques in Metal”. The latter book tries to cover too much in one volume and is a bit dated now. The original was published in 1985 and the (slightly) revised version in 1996. When Lark Books reissued it they didn’t get Arline to revise it enough especially the photographs, which in my opinion was a mistake. It was a seminal book in its time but other artists have improved upon her themes.

So has anybody found out how to stretch time or create more of it? The days just fly by too quickly for me.