an american-italian thanksgiving

These things

say

'Thanksgiving'

to me:

Canon 6D + Tamron 24-70 lens
LR preset: kk_earthywgrain

PS textures: kk_waterfront1 and kk_waterfront21

as seen on Instagram
iPhone 6 captured with Camera+ app
edited with Leonardo and Stackables apps

family heirlooms

now in my keep:

ravioli rolling pin,

collander,

macaroni pot,

Italian embroidered linen tablecloth
and matching napkins

(a wedding gift for my folks in 1953)

***

This is what

Thanksgiving dinner

looked like

in our family:

homemade ravioli

with

homemade ricotta filling

and

the best ragu

you ever tasted.

We kids never had a traditional

Thanksgiving turkey dinner

until we were

grown

and living on our own.

For the record,

none of us

ever objected.

Also for the record,
we considered ourselves
Americans
of
Italian/Irish/Swedish
descent.

Greg, Cindy, Mom, Grandpa,

'Dudie,' Adrienne, Lissa

(Dad was behind the camera)

Thanksgiving 1966

at Dudie & Grandpa's house

Dudie wisely got out her best

plastic faux lace tablecloth

for us kids

(tomato sauce stains quite reliably)

Greg, Cindy, Adrienne, Lissa

making ravioli with Grandpa

in our kitchen

November 1969

See the rolling pin?

The tradition continued

- in a way -

when we kids

had kids,

only now it's

Christmas Eve

dinner...

Linking up with

Texture Tuesday

Be Still 52 (week 25)

Happy Thanksgiving!

friday finds: zen seeing

Not quite sure
just how
I got to this place
...
but here I am.

Somehow I wandered into
- or rather -
discovered
the art of
Contemplative Photography
which led me
back to my roots:


d  r  a  w  i  n  g

mouseover to see original


I was drawing
long before
I ever picked up
a paintbrush
or a needle & thread
or a camera.

I was never one to say
"I can't draw."
I can draw anything
as long as it
doesn't move.

So when Kim (Manley Ort, that is)
started talking about
photography versus drawing,
and Betty Edwards
(I still have my old 1979 edition)
and Frederick Franck
(got that one too)
I unearthed
my books
and my sketchbook
and
my favorite tool:
a
mechanical pencil.


I have often returned
to these roots
over the years.
Each time
more meaningfully
and fondly
than before.

And I ask:
why did I ever stop?

***

Notes:

I enjoyed playing around with this
humble, yet meaningful little still life.

Be Still 52 assignment: Week 7
Focus, Blur, & Creative Play
I love this process!

Lillian was there

to oversee every little thing

of course.

Canon EOS 6D

continuing to purposely over-expose

(it really does help in the editing process)

LIGHTROOM

using Snapshots my own way:

to remember

where and when

I got an idea

Kim's split tone really helped
get rid of the yellow undertone.
I had already tried
various ways to do this.


PHOTOSHOP

***

Linking up with

Friday Finds

Texture Tuesday

Be Still 52

show & share: lucky little girl

One of the nicest things about scrapbooking is the opportunity to remember stuff from my childhood that I sorta forgot. Once I get out the box of slides (Dad was into slides back in the day...thank goodness, because the memories of almost 20 years fit into just six shoeboxes!) and run them through the old slide viewer (I found it at a used camera place a few years ago: one of the best purchases ever) well, the memories come flooding back. I gotta do this more often.

I was blessed with a happy childhood, surrounded by a loving family.

How grateful am I?

***

An InLinkz Link-up

show & share: every child is an artist

Every child is an artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

You would never have known it by reading my blog that I have done some serious stitching. I have mentioned it in passing in a few posts over the last year or so. Four, to be exact. Click on my new sub-heading, 'Stitchery' - or click on the 'Stitchery' category to your right to see those posts.

I actually defined myself as a Quilter for almost 20 years. I was into quilting big time. More on that later. Early in my quilting 'career' I discovered crazy quilting...and re-discovered a childhood passion for embroidery.

Last week, while searching for something else I stumbled across these 'artifacts':

My first embroidery

cotton floss on polyester cotton fabric

age 5

(signed backwards - natural for a lefty)

Crewel embroidery pillowcase

wool yarn on linen

age 10

My mother taught me

while she embroidered

a bedspread.

Embroidered sampler (purse)

wool yarn on woolen fabric

age 12

I believe this was from

an Erica Wilson book

Folk Art embroidered purse

cotton floss on muslin

age 14(?)

Yesterday I was showing them to my daughter, Erin, and telling her about this Show & Share link-up. She suggested that I make this week's theme Kid Art. So here we go...

Take a photo of some childhood art - your own or that of your children or grandchildren...or any child you know. I hope you will join me. It's not nearly as scary as showing your First Quilt.

***

An InLinkz Link-up

friday finds: albuquerque part 3

Today I am concluding my armchair journey to Albuquerque. It's still in keeping with historical, cultural, and architectural themes, but I am fast-forwarding a few hundred years to the late 1940's.

It's time to "get your kicks on Route 66" and here's a little music video to get you in a nostalgic mood:

I couldn't help but hear the fabulous velvety voice of Nat King Cole

on that hot sunny day five years ago

as I made my way along Central Avenue SW (the old Route 66).

Admittedly, this is a little before my time, but it puts me in mind of the many summer vacations

with my family, when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. 

We stayed in more than a few motels like this -

many with a quaint name or homey atmosphere

to remember them by.

We ate in many an eatery back in the day.

Some of the old places have been restored and/or are still in business today.

I'm not so sure about "steak fingers" and eggs. Meh.

This old neon sign is wonderfully grungy.

I hope someone rescues this bit of Americana

but it's kinda big...where would you put it?

Do you suppose today's big SUVs would even fit in these carports?

Here's a place with some attractive features.

No WiFi though, and thanks, but I've got my cellphone.

Many sites are now obscured behind chain link fences,

I suppose to keep away vandals and vagrants.

Or nosey tourists with cameras.

I wonder who actually owns these run-down old properties

and what, if anything they plan to do with them.

I can still picture my mother doing a 'recon' before the whole family trouped into the place

(motel or restaurant).

She sure had an eye for a clean bed and bath, but sometimes

we had to settle for somewhat 'less than hygienic' accommodations

(aka a "flea bag")

especially out in the middle of nowhere.

If Mom saw tablecloths on the tables, then chances are it was safe to eat there.

She also checked out the menu, with taste and budget in mind

(Mom + Dad + four kids + two grandparents...that's a lot of tired, hungry people to feed).

***

I know there was probably a more efficient way to 'batch process' these photos, but I wasn't in the mood to spend the time to figure it out. So here's what I did:

In Lightroom 4  I cropped each photo, keeping the original size ratio, then treated them with the following presets:

1. Dave Delnea's CyanSkies Look3
2. His Backlight Vertical Left 
3. His C+V Washed Vintage 001
4. Lightroom's Rounded Corners White (in hindsight, I would have increased the width a bit; as you can see, only the corners show up)

Here's a screenshot of my Photoshop CS6 processing:

***

Linking up with

Friday Finds

Texture Tuesday

Weekend Walk

show & share: 'young cindy' printer tray

Printer trays have been around for years; they lend themselves quite nicely to creative ideas for storage or display, or in this case, altered art. You can find them at antique stores, on eBay, and lately I've seen something similar made by 7 Gypsies. A few years ago I saw one in Ali Edwards' book, Life Artist. I've made a couple more of these, which I will share another time. This is the first one I made, back in 2010.

I found that it helps to unify everything if you start with a theme. Mine is about the many blessings of my childhood. I pondered it for a week or so, not knowing quite where to begin...then I just jumped in and started. I unearthed some old photos and started playing with them. Just looking through old photos stirred up memories, words, phrases, topics, etc. After awhile it got a little easier, as the doing of art begets further inspiration (not, contrary to popular belief, the other way around).

This hangs in my art studio. It makes me pause and smile every time I see it.

I'm going to let the images speak for themselves...

I had the best of intentions to get this post up yesterday as scheduled, but the InLinkz thing took a bit of doing the first time around.

This link-up will stay open until Saturday night, October 12th.

Next week should go more smoothly.

Share my button:

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An InLinkz Link-up

winter haiku

Winter??

Don't you mean spring? Yeah, don't I wish. Here in these parts we're finally getting the precipitation our drought-stricken land has been craving for months. And in true Colorado style, April is turning out to be more wintery than January. Even the oft-repeated mantra, "we sure need the moisture" is wearing mighty thin.

So...I've been back in my studio in recent weeks, just casually playing around in my art journal with gesso, paint, paper, stamps, crayons, stitching...whatever I can get my hands on. While I thoroughly enjoy and love creating with camera and computer, I gotta admit that I have sorely missed the hands-on, real-time stuff in my studio.

I promised myself I would do  just one layer of something each day. Non-committal, no worries or expectations, or pressure to create a masterpiece or anything. Just play around and enjoy the process. That is what an art journal is for.

At some point in my layering process I dug up a spare print I had made years ago: a scanned favorite snapshot of young Bob and his friends on the makeshift skating rink at the park across the street from his house. Growing up in Canada meant strapping on ice skates at an early age...and, in Bob's words, "literally crawling home every night, exhausted from hours of hockey..." Fond memories indeed. He loved skating, and to see him on his hockey skates now...well, it's as if he'd been born with skates on. Which, as I said before, is not far from the truth.

I finally turned to haiku to express the sentiments I had unearthed and discovered that I can write...and poetry at that!

A strong contrast to his recent mutterings about winter, which I will leave to your imagination. I mean, the guy just wants to get out to the range and teach, and get on his bicycle and ride. I heartily concur.

***

Linking up with Tuesday Muse.

xoxo

Cindy

una tradizione di famiglia Notarianni

Translation: "a Notarianni family tradition."

Like any tradition, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when/how this all started. It seems to have evolved over the years until it became a formula of sorts. Several years ago my mother, aka Grandma, thought it would be fun to teach her seven grandkids how to make pasta, as taught to her by her father-in-law, Gregorio Notarianni, who was taught by his wife, Della.

You know, I do remember making pasta with our Grandpa when we were kids. Specifically ravioli and gnocchi. He even taught us how to make ricotta cheese.

Greg, Cindy, Adrienne, Lissa

making ravioli with our Grandpa

November 1969

We seemed to settle on gnocchi, probably because it is a bit more practical to make by and for large crowds. Gnocchi - pronounced nyocky - is made with mashed potatoes kneaded into the pasta dough, which is then cut into little pieces and rolled on the gnocchi board to get the ridged texture.

Erin and Kelly

making gnocchi with Grandma

December 1999

(same kitchen, same table....30 years later)

In recent years, more than one grandkid has been heard asking if/when we were going to be making pasta for Christmas Eve - as early as mid-October.

Then we would all gather on Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house to feast on the fruits of our labor, topped with homemade sauce: ragu - pronounced rah-ooh in our family's own dialect, and served with homemade bracciole - bra-jhole -, meatballs and sausage. Let me tell you: it's heaven on earth.

***

This year, Grandma decided it was time to "pass the torch" and let us kids and grandkids take over everything, from making the ragu to hosting the dinner. Kelly and Aaron offered to make the ragu and bracciole at their place a few weeks ago. I hosted the gnocchi-making party at my place a week before Christmas...you gotta let the pasta air-dry for a few days, then freeze it (my sister Adrienne was in charge of that part).

Wisely, Grandma stepped back and only offered input when called upon for clarification, like "Do we add the potatoes to the flour "volcano" before or after we fill it with the beaten eggs?" (there was a serious debate going on here); she was also called upon to poke her finger into the dough to determine if we had kneaded enough flour into it.

Aaron and Kelly offered to make the ragu and bracciole at their place a few weeks ago. I hosted the gnocchi-making party at my place a week before Christmas...you gotta let the pasta air-dry for a few days, then freeze it (my sister Adrienne was in charge of that part).


MAKING CHRISTMAS DINNER from Cindy Swainson on Vimeo.

***

My brother Greg and his wife Lynn hosted dinner for 17 people on Christmas Eve, complete with dozens of luminaria (Lynn hails from Albuquerque) and a White Elephant gift exchange.

This year's celebration was extra special because everyone was home for Christmas, so Grandma had all her children and grandchildren gathered around her.


CHRISTMAS EVE from Cindy Swainson on Vimeo.

Buon Natale!

xoxo

Cindy

sisters

I discovered this picture amongst the vast collection of slides Dad took over the years when we were growing up. This photo is from our trip to California in 1965. I remember this day clearly because I had lost my balance while we were wading on the beach near San Clemente. Thoroughly soaked, I had to spend the rest of the day drying off while we toured the area.

I've been playing with this image on and off for a couple years now, haunted by the juxtaposition of the two figures: my big sister, Lissa, and me. You see, there's a connection we were to share much later in life...

Lissa was treated for breast cancer in 1995, at age 40. She survived, but two years later died from leukemia - a rare result of one of the chemotherapy drugs.

In 2006 I was diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer, after a routine mammogram. Having a sister with breast cancer put a red flag on my chart. But I was lucky. My course of treatment was simply lots of tests, biopsy/removal and 5 years of tamoxifen. I don't even really count myself among the brave ranks of "breast cancer survivors" even though I continue to see my oncologist (who was, not coincidentally, Lissa's as well) for a yearly follow-up.

The other day I hauled this image out again, inspired by Kim's tutorial in this week's Beyond Layers post: "Dream-Like." In the end I didn't follow Kim's recipe exactly, but made my own recipe in Rad Lab and set it into an old-school snapshot frame from a site Kim shared with us last week.

This is why I do what I do with photos and Photoshop. It just might end up as a page in my scrapbook...

gone but not forgotten

Elissa Notarianni Ditto

November 11, 1954

~

July 9, 1997

a timeline

I have always wanted to be an artist. Since I was a little girl, making art has been vital to my existence.

It’s who I am. Who I’ve always been. I could always draw just about anything. Anything I could actually see in front of me, that is, as long as it didn’t move. I learned to draw by copying pictures...not coincidentally the way my father learned to draw as a child. By the 5th grade I was into oil painting, in addition to sewing and embroidery.

My parents strongly encouraged us kids to get a college degree, and so I got my BFA in painting at the University of Denver. It was at DU that I learned to combine my love of drawing and painting with my love of fabric.

I’ve explored many different media over the years; quilting and embroidery held my interest for over twenty years, and as I acquired skills I shared them, teaching classes and designing my own line of quilt patterns - Columbine Designs. As you can see, the patterns are still selling, even though I haven't added any new designs in over 10 years.

Then, about 12 years ago, I started to burn out. My avocation had become my vocation, and I no longer stitched or designed for the joy of it. It had become Work. I was truly in despair. I floundered for a few years, trying desperately to get my “mojo” back. In the mean time I was looking for something different to do, and somehow discovered rubber stamping and then scrapbooking.

The “paper arts” industry gradually morphed into mixed media - which, for me, is just a fancy way of saying I love to play with all sorts of materials and methods - and I followed the trend. More and more, technology opened new doors for me: with the computer came the internet, digital photography and photo editing...and now blogging.

A turning point came in 2006 when I read Ali Edwards’ groundbreaking book, Life Artist. I came to the realization that my favorite theme is, and always has been, quite simply, Everyday Life. I have always been interested in family history; my parents each worked on their own genealogy, and I have access to a treasure trove of family photos spanning over 100 years. I continue to document our lives and our family history with scrapbook pages and various mixed media projects. I still love to play with everything artsy, from fabric and paper to paint and plaster to beads and metalwork, and now photography and photo editing...and blogging.

The adventure continues...