Cate Anevski

Yum!

4 c. milk
1 c. short-grain brown rice
1 c. water
pinch of salt

2 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1. Put the rice and water in a large-ish saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for fifteen minutes.

2. Add the milk & salt, and simmer for 1 hour & 25 minutes, stirring frequently. (You don't have to stand there and stir it all the time, but don't get caught up in Spirited Away and forget for more than ten minutes, or you'll have a serious milk skin issue on your hands.)

3. Mix together the remaining five ingredients. Add them to the mixture and stir constantly for four minutes.

4. Portion out the result and refrigerate.

5. Top with that delicious strawberry that you couldn't resist at the grocery store. (No kidding, it was saying my name...)

6. Share with your sweetie.

Tada! You've just enjoyed rice pudding!

The Green Post

I gardened today. On my way outside, I saw this guy through the window chowing down on something. By the time I got to the yard, he was gone, but he had left a pile of feathers behind.

Anyone know what he is?

Rainbow Order Is Just Better

I've been hard at work arranging things in my studio. While I was at it, I thought I'd make my supplies a little easier on the eyes. I wonder how I can arrange all my white drawing papers by color...

Mirth or Zombies?

Also known as: Should I be mad or see it as a blessing in disguise?

One of my professors forgot to send my letter of recommendation to me, so my application to PNCA arrived one day late, and the school won't consider me for their graduate program. I've explained the situation to them, and they won't budge.

Housies!

To make up for my recent boring-ness, I'm posting two fun things I found at Goodwill yesterday while running boring errands. The first one is a glass house. I don't know what it's for, but I have a feeling it will be for protecting tiny scenes involving thrown stones.

This is a super-fun trinket shelf. I've been looking for a house-shaped trinket shelf for ages, and I finally found one yesterday.

The reason I've been so boring (and was at Goodwill in the first place) is that I have been offered a solo show at the Arts in Transit corporate offices. I've spent every waking/non-working moment lately finding used frames, painting used frames, and framing unused prints. I'm a bit exhausted but also really flattered to have been offered a solo show out of the blue.

The Good, The Bad, and The Hopefully Pretty

Good news: I did my taxes today, and I actually get money back this year.
Bad news: It's because I have a ridiculous spending habit that I just happened to direct towards my business in 2007. (No profit means no profit to pay taxes on.)

Good news: Everything's nicely lined up for my letters of recommendation for my application to PNCA.
Bad news: I think I've screwed up obtaining my transcripts, which would doom my application, and the Loyola Web site is down, so I can't even check to see if I'll somehow be saved.

Good news: I'll move to Portland no matter what.
Bad news: I'll move to Portland no matter what. (Sorry, David.)

Dinosaurs Need Love, Too

So, what the heck have I been up to, huh?

I've been taking a bit of a blogging break these days. So much so that I haven't even come on here to let anyone know that I'm taking a break. I've been working a regular retail job for a while, and I've really been enjoying it. I've also spent a ton of time reading and cooking, as you can see by my dinosaur pie above.

I'm certainly not shutting down the blog, but I am taking a bit of time to reflect. I've been directing my creativity elsewhere for a while, but I know as soon as I feel rested enough, I'll go right back to drawing and crafting the way I was before. (I do have one thing to show you, but it's a gift for a friend, so until she receives it, it'll have to remain top secret.)

I hope to be back to blogging soon, and if nothing else, I'll start sharing some recipes on here. It seems that all my creative endeavors end up as cookies these days, so I'll just have to share the wealth.

And thanks so much to those who've checked in on me. It's really nice to know that I am indeed noticed in the good ol' blogosphere. I guess I just needed a bit of a vacation.

Well, I've Been Boring...

I have been my usual busy-bee self, but lately that's included mainly things like laundry and bills. It's also included some applications to various things, so I'll share that with you.

First, I submitted my "Alternative Transport" design to Threadless. Just click above to vote if you like it. I stand to win money (to help out with the bills) and free shirts (to help out with the laundry). I'm working on refining a lot of designs for submission, so you can just check out the "Vote for Me" category to the right to see what I'm up to.

Second, I'll be at the Holiday Fire Sale at Art Coop on December 14, from 7 to 11 p.m. Art Coop is located at 4519 Olive, 4515 Olive, and 462 North Taylor, all of which are within 100 feet of one another. This space is directly behind the place where I grew up, which I think is great. The whole time I lived there, that whole strip was treating something like a ghost town, so it's really nice to see someone going in there and helping to revitalize that part of St. Louis.

Third and fourth, I'll be at the Contemporary Art Museum for two things. The first one is a huge group show this month whose name I never get right but for which I'll be making an embroidered marionette. The second is their Flat Files program, which I just got my acceptance letter for yesterday. They'll be contacting me in January to choose some pieces from my portfolio to include in their files. This will help me with the fifth thing I'm applying for: grad school.

The sixth thing I have to report is nothing I applied for, but nonetheless CNN mentioned me.

And that's about it!

Art Museums Are Inspiring

Yesterday, Kieran and I went to the art museum and took a few more portraits, which are up on my Flickr page. Quite inspired, I started working on some larger pieces. Usually I just make drawings and paintings that are smaller than 5" x 7", but this one is a whopping 9" x 12". I have another one that I'm planning, but it hasn't gone past the character sketch phase.

I also went to some art openings last night with an amazing artist I met at Venus Envy, Holly Gallaher. We saw one very cool installation, and now I'm inspired to go even larger than this size. I just need to find a room and an idea to put in it.

Can't Keep Up

I have been getting so far behind on everything these days. I'm finally done with all the craft fair mania, but all my running around has left me with a nasty cold. The past couple of days I've just laid around like a bump on a log watching Big Love and Walking with the Dinosaurs. Since I have nothing else to share, I'll leave you with a setting exercise I wrote in class last night:

"Sarah shivered in the drafty old church. She couldn't see much—just what the illumination from the streelights outside showed her though the cracks in the boarded-up windows. She wouldn't have thought that anyone had been in here in a decade, but the scent of freshly burnt candles mingled in the air with the ten-year-old ashes.

"She couldn't believe she had been talked into going into this abandoned church at all—let alone on the spookiest night of the year. Her so-called friends had assured her she'd be here all alone, but the evidence of a recent visitor made her leery.

"She tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry. At that moment, she heard the sound of running water. Perhaps it was her lucky day, as she had forgotten to bring water on this trip, but her gut told her the rushing sound was not a good sign. One of the few things she could see were broken rusty pipes sticking through a charred wall. Where could water possibly be running from? Perhaps she should run from there, too."

This is what happens when your creative writing teacher reads you a passage from a Poe story as an example of a good setting the day after you watch The Crow in mid-October. I'm in a very Halloween-y mood, and I hope my cold lets up soon so I can get a costume done in time. Well, I'm off to the couch to work on my pototo impression.