blazes

Tree Peonies from the Luckystone Lodge, Q. Cassetti, 2010Its hotter than blazes today, yesterday. A bit of breeze this morning with the weatherman predicting thunderstorms and hail moving the 90˚ temperatures to 60˚ by evening. A perfect evening for the Senior Campout that Alexander Q. will be attending. Planning is everything. I guess it will be a bonding experience for all of them!

My husband the saint had a long dayof it yesterday braving the highways, bridges and tunnels, hot weather, and lots of carrying to get our princess safe in her airconditioned (a surprise) tower at FIT. He came home, ate a bit and then early to bed with the fans whirring. I had a mini date with Alex. We saw the Avengers to both of our fist pumping delight. I love this stuff. So does he. I loved the treatment of the characters particularly the humanizing and recalibration of the Hulk, a creature I never really understood but thanks to the Josh Weeden redux, he is becoming one of my favorites. We all have our Hulk moments…and now I can fullly embrace it.

After some weed destruction at the Luckystone (and picking these lovelies in the picture), I came home to do email (a lot of Farmers Market stuff), and settle in to work further on this big RFP I have been requested to fill out to be considered a certified vendor for a big institution. This RFP is a lot of work and is forcing me to get my act in gear, refresh my resume, refresh my web presence etc. etc. The stuff is all there, I just need to renew, refresh and parse. Additionally, this process has pushed me to review my thinking on the business, and things I need to do to keep us relevant. So, despite my grumpiness, I am pleased with the push.

Gurus Unleashed, a web aggregator of information, tutorials and the like on Adobe Creative Suite products just linked to a Vector Tuts tutorial showing the new tracing features in Adobe Illustrator CS6. Fascinating for those of us who are followers of the great Vector, and live and breathe new opportunities to smooth our our work. The silhouette feature (particularly for our retouching work) is a beauty. Take a look at this tutorial: here>

Need to get rolling. I have a 9:30 call about the nesting dolls.

A day of presents

After Ambrosius Bosschaert, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5There was a fresh young squirrel neatly left at my doorstep this morning. Dead, but not disturbed in any way. A beautiful little thing with his amazing paws with lovely pink pads and soft coloration. What to do with him? Toss him in the compost as usual…but somehow that didn’t seem right. In the spirit of a friend who told me the “waste not want not” tale of his own, I decided differently. This friend was really unhappy with a rather robust groundhog who had burrowed his way under the fence to attack my friend’s garden. Fresh vegetables were the prize.  My friend was not going to allow that sort of tresspassing—so he pulled out his beebee gun and shot the culprit dead. This same friend feels that if you take a life, you should take energy from it…and so proceeded to skin and dress the groundhog, place him neatly in a roasting pan, and put the whole thing in the refrigerator for his lady friend to roast for dinner. He said it was tasty.

So, in that same spirit, I was thinking that maybe Elly’s hawk, Tucker, might think that this offering might be a mighty tasty snack. Poor Tucker is stuck in his hawk house during the spring and summer as he could be tempted to fly away—and so is constrained when he goes out and hunting is off the table until it gets colder. The taste of wild meat might be just the thing compared to the little bits of gizzards Elly produces for him. Our little offering went into a freezer bag and he is nestled among the bags of frozen kale and boxes of chicken stock for just that purpose. No roasting pan here. Just the real deal for a real raptor.

Another gift is that today is  Rob’s birthday. He is a present everyday to those of us who are proud to be his family. I hope there are lots of nice things in his day to celebrate how much he means to us. Happy Birthday dear boy.

Really nice illustration news! Nancy Stahl, a teacher at Hartford and a Vector Queen, just was admitted to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame for 2012 along with R.O. Blechman, John Collier, Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeline books), Edward Gorey and John Sloan. Talk about an amazing lineup…and it is so wonderful Nancy has been recognized for her beautiful illustration and work with the US Postal Service. Her illustration work is sublime—elegant and simple. She is the bar for all of us vector princesses as she keeps churning out inspiring work to all of our delight.

Would love to stay and muse with you. But, time is ticking. Today is CSA day and I have to get Kitty squared away with residence documentation etc. gotta go.

Spin Out.

Tulip Riot, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5Farmers Market meeting was good yesterday. We are planning on a monthly community dish to pass “Community Potluck Picnic in the Pavillion” on the first Tuesday of every month…at least through the summer so we are talking 3-4 events. That will need a poster, but I am good with that. Should be a nice illo…picnic illo. Maybe I can even try to make it pretty. Imagine!

We are also ramping up the decision making on our Saturday experiments at the Market. We are introducing a Saturday market 5 times this summer—as a trial balloon to see if there is traction beyond Wednesdays. We worked out many of the details—including some great music (Judy Hyman in September!). A board member is interested in tagging a contra dance after one of the Saturday market. Lots of great energy here.  I am hoping for the absolute best!

We have heavy grey clouds in the sky. Looks like a day of rain today. The farmers need it. As long as there is no freeze, we will take it. It was so glorious picking up my share at Good Life Farm in Interlaken. Melissa and Garrett’s property is planted beautifully with crops cut by rows of fruit trees…and these gorgeous farm buildings interspersed….complete with a peek of the blue lake in the background. Asparaganza is at Good Life tomorrow with lots of excitement around it. Should be a fun late afternoon with Melissa and Garrett with games(!), food from the amazing locals, and cider tasting from my friends at Redbyrd.

I spent some time with Trevor MacDonald, MacDonald Farms yesterday. New opportunity! MacDonald Farm has been making Probiotic pickles, sauerkraut and other delicacies since 1972. They have an excellent product, are known locally, and have something many other do not have, probiotic pickles—not “canned” pickles (made with vinegar). So we have tasty food with healthy qualities. We have history. We have a great story. Now all we need to do is shine it up. Should be interesting to see where this goes.

More later. Alex needs to be tended to.

 

 

Spring Green

Inspired by Dutch Tulips, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator 5Warm and humid. Wet underfoot. The lilacs are popping and the green carpet stretches on and on. It is that spring green…not fall green(more olive) or summer green (more blue) but that brilliant yellow cast green that tells us that young and new is the time of the year.The birds are busy chittering and singing. The tiny red pinecones to be are clustered at the end of their branches with little tassels of green new growth. The peepers cheep and  the squirrels leap from branch to branch. I saw a little fox in Taughannock park last week, trotting happily across the street—rusty red against all the brilliant green. I love treats like that.

Tonight is the Trumansburg Farmers Market meeting. One month and a few days until we open. I have the print materials done (including a bookmark that is going to the library and used book store in town to show support to the library’s local food lecture series this year). I have the tote bags ordered (and should see next week). Banners are next along with programming in tandem with events in the village. Goodness where has the time gone? In a wink and a blink it will be time to start wrapping the Christmas presents.

I mowed down two publications yesterday and have a bunch of redo projects today. Redo meaning—revisions. It will be nice to finally have them finalized so as to be able to do something new. 

Our Kitty turns 20 in a few days. Where has that time gone? And, even better, she will be back with us soon for a few weeks before the adventure she will have this summer begins. No, its not Europe, but its another country for most, NYC. Classes and a job…with a berth in that fun city. She should really be able to expand her horizons and learn so much. We are hoping she will be with us for GrassRoots which would be a highlight for all of us.

anyway. My nine a.m. was postponed to nine twenty…so I should say goodbye.

April showers may bring May flowers

Parrot Tulip wreath, Q. Cassetti, 2012 Adobe Illustrator.Making my lists. Checking them twice. Getting them whittled down, down, down. am feeling like we are getting a little traction—moving this forward versus feeling victimized by the lack of focus on much of this work. Am wrapping things up today/tomorrow with new work coming through the door. The snarls are being shaken out.

Pro Bono-ville has a few quick websites to put up on Squarespace (Farmers Market). Am hitting stride for this week. I am liking InDesign this week…and enjoying how smooth working with text is. And the crossover between InDesign and Illustrator is totally beautiful.

As you can see. more illustration findings….parrot tulips galore. I am going to dig on the web for some alternative images to draw…more parrot tulips, more bulbs (frittillaria, muscari, daffodils, narrcissus). I am getting a few canvases ready for Picture Salon to output and stretch. Two monkeys that like to drink, and 3 floral patterned biggies (36” square)—all to be hung at the Stonecat Cafe. They are also interested in a series of paper prints framed for the restaurant (a former fruit stand). More for this evening as things are going to start a bit later with Rob having a meeting and Alex out winning tennis tourneys. This work is quite a surprise for me as it is very appealing, very applicable and very pretty. I did not set out to do this but to better understand Dutch Flower pictures, their compositions and the general feel. This process of making pictures always is a surprise and shock. Its a new body of work every 2-3 months. From fruit now to flowers.