Queen of Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras dinners traditionally end with King Cake. Ours is no exception. Last year I made a traditional King Cake, using a pecan half as the charm to determine who was King/Queen of Mardi Gras. That person inherits the responsibility of providing King Cake for next year’s party.

Marilyn’s piece contained the pecan half, making her Queen. We weren’t overly impressed with King Cake and decided to make something different. My mother used to make Swedish Tea Rings, but Marilyn and I both dislike kneading. I found recipe using bread machine. We made a deal. Since I’m the one who owns the bread machine, I would make the dough and shape it. She would bake and decorate it.

Jacqui gets a good laugh as she watches Marilyn crown herself.

A brainstorm (or was it a brain cramp?) struck me early Saturday morning. Wouldn’t a tiara be a fun accessory for our Mardi Gras Queen? So I bought one. It even came with a bling-bling ring!

Queen Marilyn demonstrates her mastery of the “royal wave”.

Queen Marilyn didn’t wear the tiara for long. She said wearing it hurt her head. As Shakespeare said, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

This year, Ava (left) got the cake piece with the die symbolizing the Queen of Mardi Gras. The die is cast and she’s the Queen!

Bisque to die for

Our sister-in-love served us her Crab and Corn Bisque in December 2007. We loved it. She gave us the recipe, writing it in the cookbook she had given Hubby for Christmas. The next March, we hosted a Mardi Gras dinner using that cookbook. Our guests ate so much of the bisque that they hardly had room for the rest of the meal. A tradition was born. All our guests said they wanted to return in 2009 for Mardi Gras and that delicious bisque.

Mardi Gras isn’t a state holiday in this part of the world, so we held our party last Saturday night. And, yes, we served that wonderful bisque. Recipe follows. It’s surprisingly simple. Stefaney’s Crab and Corn Bisque Printer-friendly PDF Ingredients: 1 lb. lump crab meat (do not use imitation crab) 1 pt. heavy cream 1 can evaporated milk 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 can whole kernel corn, drained 1 stick butter 1 bunch green onions, chopped 1 t. liquid crab/shrimp boil salt and pepper to taste Method: Sauté onions in butter, then add remaining ingredients. Cook on medium heat for 45 minutes. Stir as necessary to prevent scorching.

Profound relief

Yesterday afternoon, Hubby and I took all the pictures I’m showing to the gallery. I feel such relief to have them all done and gone. No more weight of responsibility.

I still have things to do, boring things like finishing pricing and developing an order form for the pictures in the electronic frames, but the main project is out of my hair.

Thank you, Lord! I can breathe a lot easier now.

Color theory

When I took this picture, I knew it was destined to be shown.

But this picture had issues, power lines and power poles. Ugly things. I had intended to eliminate most of the sky to dump the power lines. I showed it to Art Teacher Jeff. Jeff said I shouldn’t crop it so severely, that the power lines actually helped the picture. That was unusual! I did need to remove one of the power poles, though. That took some doing. Removing pole wasn’t that bad, but lining up the power lines to the remaining pole took a long time. Jeff showed me some tricks in Photoshop, otherwise, I doubt I could have accomplished it.

When we got the matboards, we chose orange for this picture’s mat. While Jeff was cutting other mats for me, I looked at the picture and frame on the mat. That orange was garish, a horrible combination. I tried yellow, but that wasn’t a good color, either. Much of the background washed out. I shuffled through my matboards, but nothing I tried seemed to work.

He looked at what I was doing. I showed him the various colors I had tried. “Try the purple. It’s yellow’s complementary color.“ I put the photo on the purple paper. Wow!

What a difference a mat makes

I should have known not to figure mat cutting dimensions when my brain was mush, but I tried anyway. I cut it just big enough to allow the picture to fall through on the sides. I must have forgotten to subtract the half inch required to keep picture inside the hole.

I had no pieces large enough to redo the mat, so I tried patching it with an under mat of the same color. That looked terrible. I could not show it in that condition.

I bit the bullet and took it to the local framing shop.

I had intended to replace the original brown mat with another one, but Teri showed me a rust-colored mat. She said she could trim brown mat and put the rust one underneath, next to the picture. I loved the idea. The rust color brought out highlights that hadn’t shown before.

She adores this picture and wants to hang it in her shop as an example of her work. We traded my picture for her framing. I’m excited to see my work hanging on someone else’s wall. She also wants me to produce a book of my work for sale in her shop.

Is that cool or what?

Details and decisions

I thought that the grind of framing would be the worst part of preparing for my show. It is, but I keep finding more nagging details to take care of.

I entered all my inputs into a spreadsheet for Hubby. He’ll be figuring the total cost of goods sold so we can price these photos at last.

I’ve written my press release and had it proofed. I plan to send it out tomorrow.

Hubby bought an electronic picture frame and I’m loading 30 more pictures onto it. Gallery manager loved the idea. This picture of Louisiana cypress trees is one of those. I’ll have to add a number to each picture and produce a pricing sheet. I’d like to see which standard photo sizes work best for each one and recommend what would look best.

Do I hand sign these photos or just add a digital copy of my signature?

Tomorrow I’m attending a free web design class. I could use the help. I have homework to do before I arrive, planning what I want to do. I’m not sure what I want, except a photo gallery and shopping cart.

I had a productive visit with framing shop owner today. She’d like to display some of my work and offer it for prints. Best way to show them off is to produce a book, which isn’t cheap. A sale would pay for it, though.

My head is spinning.

A problem to solve

At some point, the matting on this picture has shifted. When I attached it to the door, it was correctly placed. Friday night I noticed that the mat has become somewhat skewed.

I don’t know how to fix this. I’m afraid to try removing frame from door. What if I break it? I don’t have another one ready, nor do I want to cut glass again any time soon. My experiences with lacquer were not positive, so I’ve decided to glass my photos from now on.

I stood the door on its side, hoping gravity will help me. I’m not optimistic.

Does anyone have ideas how I can repair this problem?

The red door

I finished the red door this morning. Door had a screw loose, so I glued it back in. I just want those old, rusty screws to remain where they are. They are no longer load bearing, just decoration. I glued the bottom boards together overnight. When I clamped those boards together last night, I received a bit of a surprise. The shim under the rightmost clamp shattered. When I loosened the clamp, I found that the clamp had gone through the back board into a rotten place. I wonder how much of this door is truly sound. Apparently the part I nailed the frame onto is still OK. Frame already had two holes in it, so I used them to attach frame. Worked great. Dad had given me a Dremel tool kit for Christmas. Teresa from Maggie Grace Creates had commented on my silverware wind chimes post about using a Dremel to grind off edges. Right then I decided I wanted Dremel for Christmas. I hadn’t had a chance to use it until yesterday. As you can see, the nails I had used to reaffix portions of the door were rather too long. These were the only rusty nails I had and I wanted to stay with the rustic feel as much as possible. The last thing I wanted to do was saw them off, so I got out my Dremel and its grinding wheel. A web forum said to wear safety glasses since the wheels fragment so quickly. Whoever posted that knew what they were talking about. I used an average of two grinding wheels per nail/screw. They just disintegrated. Those little pie-shaped pieces in picture are broken wheels. Dremel was a dream, much better than hacksaw. I was frustrated when I had to buy another collet for a tool that was included in my kit. Dremel welfare. Here’s the finished project.

I love it. I think it’s unique. I found this door on the ground. Hopefully soon it will be decorating someone’s wall. I love creating something beautiful and fun from other people’s castoffs.

Coming down the home stretch

I have just a few more items to take care of before I’ll be completely finished with framing. Thank God!

I framed Hanging Lake last night. I normally loathe the mat colors I used. That green and orange remind me of my least favorite vegetables (other than cabbage). I cannot stand cooked carrots and peas. Those mats are those colors. Ugh. But I was amazed how they made the picture pop. Wow. As soon as I saw what those colors did for this picture, I ditched my original plan. Plans only last until they meet reality.

I thought I might be able to finish framing, until I placed the glass in the keyboard photo. It was too short. Drat! I had been quite concerned about how I’d frame this picture. Plan A failed and I was very dubious about Plan B. Then I remembered a window frame I’d fished out of a house last fall. I tried it and it was perfect. I’ll take that frame, mat, photo and backer board to glass company after school today. They can put it together for me. Handling that big 40X29-inch sheet of glass scares me. I’d rather let the professionals handle it. All I want to do is cover the back with paper and add the wire.

I framed the red door last night as well, then nailed it to an old barn door. The nails were too long, so I’ll have to cut them off. I got out my new Dremel tool kit, but discovered that I didn’t have the cutting accessory. I’ll have to buy that this afternoon. Thankfully, I’m subbing for the teacher who has planning period right after lunch. I had to glue a piece of that door back together overnight. Once I trim the nails and add the hanging wire to the back, that package will be finished.

I lost the vertical picture of Hanging Lake last night when the lacquer spray stained it. I wish I would have bought glass for that picture frame. I don’t like lacquer; it’s too risky. I’ve now ruined a mat and a photo with lacquer. Disgusting. I won’t bother replacing the photo. I’m sure no one will miss it. The gallery will be pretty full with my photos as it is. I am deeply grateful to Jeff, the high school art teacher, for his help matting my pictures.

Measure twice, cut once

Today I started matting. First I cut down a couple mats that fit the picture but not the frame. I wasn’t thinking on the first one and just chopped all the excess off one side. When I turned it over, I was horrified. I thought about dropping the photo from my show, but found one matboard that will work in a double frame. I was relieved. I like my turtles. We toured a Louisiana swamp on New Year’s Eve 2007 with my brother and his family. Guide pointed out turtles. I was using my film camera. I focused on the branch and shot away, not knowing what I was taking. I was quite surprised when I saw this image. I’m calling it “Happy Together” after The Turtles’ 1967 chart-topper.

The next mat-cutting went better. Somehow the original pink mat for this photo had gotten a stain on it. I cannot understand how. None of my mat stash or matboards went with the picture. When I went to thrift store for more frames to cannibalize, I found one with a large double mat, one medium blue and the other cream. It went perfectly with that picture and enabled me to use a black frame that I was recycling. After my experience with the turtles, I was much more careful to properly align the frame on the mat. Because of the mysterious stain, the picture is not dead center within the mat, but I rather like its appearance. As you can see, I drew several cut lines before I got everything centered.

When I finished framing this, I had recycled frame, glass, backer board, hanger and one mat. I went to high school this afternoon and began cutting. What a pleasure! However, “Measure twice, cut once” saved me this time, too. We kept confusing the horizontal and vertical cut dimensions. I laid the picture I was matting on the matboard before cutting and that saved me. We changed measurements on one mat several times with various colored pencils. By the time we cut it, matboard back looked like a Scottish tartan. Whatever works.

Something missing?

Patty said this morning that she sees no bricks on the sides of the blog.

Bricks should appear on both sides of the yellow background to the posts.

Does anyone see the bricks on the sides?

Please let me know.