Margie Livingston

Posted on December 9, 2010 by jeannie

I’ve been writing and thinking about Margie Livingston’s recent sculptures this week.

And then somewhere along the line, I started flipping through her old paintings. I realized with a jolt that I already knew her work! In fact, she and I had met in the back of a shuttle van some three years ago at Miami Art Basal, where because we were ridiculously crunched together (I was pregnant with Christian at the time), we struck up conversation and exchanged contact information. At that time she gave me a small book of images of her work.

Such an odd coincidence. Now we are pleasantly emailing back and forth and I’m getting paid to write about her upcoming show at Luis de Jesus Gallery.

Here’s an interesting vid from her website www.margie.net.

Posted in art, art basel miami | Leave a comment

The Wonderful Wallaby

Posted on December 6, 2010 by jeannie

Many moms ask me where I find the time to knit. Well, handwork is one activity I CAN do when I’m hanging out with Christian – so I knit all the time, even standing in line at Disneyland. I do find, however, that Christian (and most other children I know) objects when I sit at the computer or try to read. It’s no surprise, if you think about the quality of presence your husband has when he’s on the computer – even if he’s in the same room – it’s like he’s not there at all. Christian likes for me to be around, in mind and in body, so I reserve computers and books for when he is sleeping.

I love this little black and white sweater I knit for Christian this summer. It’s the first thing I’ve actually finished for him. I highly recommend the pattern, which has instructions for sizes toddler size 2 to XXL men. I first heard about it from my friend Jaimie and couldn’t believe how adorable it was when she knit one up for her son Ryan. You can see the one that Jaimie knit at her blog here and Ryan’s adorable friend Willow is wearing one in purple here. Jaimie first discovered the wallaby pattern through this post at the purlbee blog here. The whole thing is done on circular needles and knits up FAST.

Jaimie made me a xerox of the pattern, which was very sweet, but I felt guilty after reading the pattern and discovering it was written by a mom. I swore that if I ever got around to knitting it that I would purchase the pattern properly. I did just that when I finished my first wallaby, and I got the sweetest note back. The pattern is by Cottage Creations and I bought it at iseespots.com here for $7.50.

Only thing is, that I made the sweater too small! Or I should say, just barely big enough. So, Christian wore this sweater every day for about a month running. Now it’s been washed a few times and even smaller.

I hope to get just a few more uses out of it during our upcoming winter camping trips.

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Giving Thanks at Jalama

Posted on December 3, 2010 by jeannie

Camping at the beach is always a treat in SoCal. To the coastline I say: I love your bone structure.

No cell phone reception for 48 hours helped me stay focused on the moment.

My husband was content and my son was deliriously happy just being outdoors. So, I was happy.
We spent all of Thanksgiving day hiking along the coast. We brought shovels to dig holes. Christian climbed dunes and jumped down. Over and over and over again.

A wild sea lion came to watch. Can you see his head peeping out at the edge of the white receding wave? Christian WAS being pretty entertaining and he probably smelled like salami from lunch.


I love campfires. Chad started both our evening fires with the flint/magnesium kit Sierra got me as a souvenir this summer. Chad’s scraping the magnesium into a little pile and then making sparks with by scraping a piece of metal across the flint. This is his first attempt. He got a blaze going impressively quickly.

I love s’mores too – we did a pretty good job of working our way through most of a bag of s’mellows.

Everything we ate was exceptionally delicious. Thanksgiving dinner was happy pork chops with grilled veggies. The famous Jalama Burger at the camp store and grill was so good that I wished we hadn’t brought so much food camping! We’ll do major holiday food when my parents come to visit at Christmas.

Way out in the ocean, we could see several oil rigs. The blops of tar on the beach were slightly menacing and we took care to give them wide berth.

While the reviews on tripadvisor.com complained about locals who would pay for a week of camping, but just leave a car to hold their spot until the weekend, this strategy worked for us; we basically had two campsites to ourselves the entire time – despite the fact that the campground was completely booked. (It’s very popular with dog owners, surfers, and fishermen.)

It was chilly though. Nothing like a bit of brisk to make you feel alive.

Posted in camping, family, holidays | 2 Comments

Letter to Christian at 2 1/2 years old

Posted on December 3, 2010 by jeannie

Dear Christian,

You’ve cast away aside your diggers and trucks for your brand-spanking freshly whittled bow drill fire kit, that your dad made for you tonight.

As you tell me in this video, you are “Evan” and you are teaching making fire.

You are also obsessed with light sabers.

and guns.

and swords.

Apparently anything can become a light saber, gun or sword. Got a wine cork or toilet paper roll? Then you’ve got a light saber. Got an L-shaped puzzle piece or rock? Then you’ve got a gun. Got a piece of bamboo driftwood? You’re good to go with your pirate sword.

We’re rolling with it, but making sure that you park your longer sticks out on the porch. And it’s important not to point guns at people but at targets and antique cans (as your dad’s taught you). And no JUMPING ON THE BED WITH SWORDS!

Love,

Mama

Posted in Christian Holden | 1 Comment

The Hoopla about the Em Dash

Posted on November 27, 2010 by jeannie

Who the?

What the?

In my recent book project with my photographer friend, Ellie, I learned a thing about en dashes and em dashes, as separate from hyphens. I brushed up on the topic by reading a discussion thread at painintheenglish.com.

“The hyphen is used to hyphenate compound words and between non-continuing numbers, e.g., phone numbers.

The en dash is used to “connect continuing, or inclusive, numbers — dates, time, or reference numbers.” [Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 5.115]

The em dash is used “to denote a sudden break in thought that causes an abrupt change in sentence structure.” [Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 5.106] When typing, it’s common to use two hyphens for an em dash. In HTML, you can also use the entity: “—”.”

I also learned that while in Word, an em dash is automatically generated by using two hypens, that you can make one manually on a PC by pressing Alt + 0151.

“An em dash is ASCI character 151, so Alt+0151 (on the numeric keypad) inserts it.
An en dash is character 150, so…

In Word on a PC, an en dash is CTRL + the numeric key pad minus sign, and an em dash is CTRL + Alt + numeric minus sign. This does not work in other programs.”

and

“On the Mac, if I type option + shift along with the dash key I get an m dash. If I type option and the dash key I get an n dash.”

Interesting, and useful for those of us who often have sudden breaks in our thought processes.

Posted in writing | Leave a comment

Meeting Mulefat

Posted on November 22, 2010 by jeannie

The flame! The sacredness of fire is never more obvious than when you see it burst into existence with a bow drill.

Life has been so busy that it’s gotten away from me. Instead of swimming in a particular direction, I’m pretty much just letting the currents push me and take me where they will.

My husband’s on a month of vacation and somehow that’s made me even busier.

But I did have a chance to attend Jon Young’s Wilderness Skills workshop at O’Neill Regional Park last weekend.

One of the highlights was watching Evan, one of the Earthroots instructors, make fire with his locally harvested bow drill. His whole kit is made of mulefat wood, which grows all over here in south OC. Jon Young was thrilled and spoke of how the native people further north had traded their most precious resources to get a hold of plenty of mulefat. He was determined to take a few branches and get them started in his backyard in Santa Cruz.

Apparently the name comes from being a mule delicacy, rather than from having any fat in the wood. Story has it that mules liked nibbling on the salty leaves and often had distended bellies as a result; hence the name mulefat.

Mulefat is neither too hard, nor soft and makes a great “Bic” wood. Ideally, all parts of the fire kit should come from the same wood.

Evan's fire kit: board, spindle, bow, and hand piece.

A bow drill kit consists of four pieces: the bow (Evan even made the cordage!), the spindle, the hand piece, and the fire board. All the components of the kit were small and unassuming; the spindle wasn’t longer than my hand and about the width of my thumb. That rock just above the fire board is the hand piece; it protects the palm of your hand from the friction of the twisting spindle.

Evan wanted to show the entire process from start to finish, so in this first video he is simply starting a notch where the spindle will sit. Once he has a good spot started, he carves a notch in from the side – I think that might be to help air reach the heating wood. He said that he could reasonably collect his supplies, make a fire kit, and start a fire IN UNDER A HALF HOUR.

Evan has a small clump of dried mugwort sitting in a pile of dry pine needles; this is a little “nest” to provide fuel for the baby flame. You can dry it or Evan explained that the growing plants themselves often have dead and dried leaves hanging off them. He passed the mugwort around as it has a pleasant and distinctive smell.

Jon Young taught us a fire song that gained popularity through youtube: Light it up to live/ Tend it well and it will always be there.

Okay, so who’s ready to sign up for Evan’s next fire class with me?

Posted in wilderness skills | 1 Comment

Zen Eating

Posted on November 18, 2010 by jeannie

Nothing requires me to slow down and chill, more than eating a fresh pomegranate, single jewel by single jewel.
Still, no matter how much I concentrate, I always splash that ruby red juice that stains purple on my clothes.
Great tip from my friend Tara who visited last weekend:

Shuck the pomegranate under water. That’s right, submerge the entire fruit in a large bowl of water and defruit that baby – you will cut down on your stains by 99% or your money back.

Tara loaded us up with fresh pomegranates and lemons from her trees.

Posted in food | 1 Comment

Appreciation at 42

Posted on November 10, 2010 by jeannie

I sometimes complain about feeling old at the ripe age of 42, but a quote from a Nora Ephron interview (she wrote When Harry met Sally), gave me pause.

She’s 69 years old and has just written another book about aging called I Remember Nothing. (I’m starting to relate…)

She says:

“The worst part of aging is illness. What you hate when you’re 50 – wrinkles and flab – seem so inconsequential compared to this lottery of who gets sick and who doesn’t. The second worst part is all the things you can’t do. And everything you think you can still do, you end up in the hospital…”

Okay, I’m done complaining about my skin. I am in excellent health and I can still do everything I want: playing chase with kids, camping for Thanksgiving, and swimming in cold oceans. Being in my forties is just fine.

And my husband is officially on vacation today UNTIL JANUARY 6, 2011!

Posted in health | 1 Comment

Tilapia with Peppers and Olives

Posted on November 9, 2010 by jeannie

Tilapia with Peppers and Olives: the launch of a month of dinner menus.


As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m pleasantly working my way through a stack of past issues of Real Simple magazine.

When I came across the article “A Month of Easy Dinners” in the October 2009 issue, I only hesitated a second before tearing the whole thing out to save. In fact, I’ve implemented the month-long guide to weekday dinners as of last night to rave reviews from the teenage daughter and dieting husband. Yes! TWENTY super-fast, simple dinner recipes, with shopping lists at the start of each week.

I mentioned this to a friend yesterday and she said,
“That wouldn’t work for me – I have a hard time following somebody else’s agenda.”

I thought about this. I consider myself more of a leader than a follower, so the comment rankled just a tad (even though I know she didn’t mean it as a criticism).

And then I thought about how in college, I used to enjoy dropping in on a buddy and following them around for the day. What I liked about the experience, was not the following, but the re-viewing – meaning, I was tourist in my own town; somebody else’s daily routine and errands helped me see life from a different perspective.

I enjoy pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. It makes me feel giddy and excited like I’m traveling. So, I’m going to follow somebody else’s menu for ONE ENTIRE MONTH and see where it takes me. Heck, my grocery shopping has gotten to be so routine that I don’t even need a list anymore – I’m looking for some change!

On this week’s schedule:
Monday – Tilapia with Peppers and Olives
Tuesday – Beef and Bok Choy Stirfry
Wednesday – Spicy Orange-Glazed Drumsticks with Green Beans
Thursday – Roasted Pork with Brussel Sprouts and Apricots
Friday – Spaghetti with Sweet Potatoes and Ricotta

Monday’s dinner got me though, because I love green olives and rarely have a chance to cook with them. Also, it helps that it is a fall menu because peppers and green beans are all over the place at the farmer’s market right now.

Tilapia with Peppers and Olives

olive oil for frying
tilapia filets (frozen from Trader Joe’s)
salt and pepper
2 red bell peppers, sliced thin (added a green one too)
1 onion, sliced thin
1/2 pitted green olives (used the kind stuffed with pimentos)
1/2 fresh parsley, chopped
juice of 1 lime

1. Season fish with salt and pepper, and pan fry on medium high heat until opaque throughout.
2. Meanwhile, saute onions and then add peppers until tender, 8-10 minutes. Stir in olives, parsley, lime juice. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve veggies over the rice.

Posted in food, recipes | 1 Comment

Martinmas Songs

Posted on November 7, 2010 by jeannie

We’ll be singing these songs in a lantern procession after a soup and bread potluck dinner and the puppet show.

Both are from Sing Through Seasons (compiled and edited by the Society of Brothers)

Down with Darkness by E. Amiran

Down with darkness, up with light;

Up with sunshine, down with night.

Each of us is one small light,

But together we shine bright.

Go away, darkest, blackest night,

Go away, give way to light!

With a Lantern in the Hand by Eberhard Arnold (lyrics) and Marianne Zimmermann (music)

With a lantern in the hand,

Joyfully go through the land.

One to the right,

One to the left;

We must show to all the light!

Throughout the land!

As one band!

Light —- in hand!

Posted in waldorf | 1 Comment