Over the weekend, I had to find an image that would be suitable to weave for my tapestry class.  The group of women who study there are so talented and creative and I felt like everything I put my hand to was derivative and ordinary.  Finally, in a pile of images I had torn out of magazines and catalogs a long time ago I found a picture from a  travel supplies  catalog.  I should have made note of the source before I threw it away.  It is a photo of a street of row homes, maybe in France, or for all I know, New Mexico, and it is colorful and angular, just right for a first real tapestry piece.  There are some details in it that I know will be too hard to weave into the tapestry.

Cover of a Magellan's travel supplies catalog

Rather than trying to ignore the subtle lines when I am weaving, I decided to play around with Photoshop and see what I could do with the picture.  Jim bought me a flat bed scanner a few weeks ago, so I was ready to go.

It was easy to scan the picture into the computer and then open it in Photoshop.  I wanted to try all the options.  In the menu bar, I clicked on Artistic and the list of options was too exciting.  I tried Colored Pencil, Brush Stroke, and Fresco, but when I got to Pallet Knife, I knew I found the look I wanted.

The finer details are gone and the hard edges are blurred enough that I think it will be easier to weave.  I have to dye the yarn.  At first glance, it looks straightforward; green, blue, brown, orange, red, grey and black.  But then I see that on the green house alone there are at least four shades of the olivy green.  My friend, Margo is an artist and painter.  I will ask for a consultation.

On Saturday, I’m teaching a warp painting workshop for weavers from the South Jersey Guild.  Maybe I’ll start dyeing then, when we have all the pots going.

Ok, now for the raw food update.  Here’s my recipe for raw brownies.

Raisins, dates, unsweetened coconut, almond butter, almonds, unsweetened carob chips or unsweetened raw cacao nibs (from Whole Foods), whatever proportions you want, swirled in the food processor until it is chopped up.  I put spoonfuls of it on a tray like truffles and put it in the refridgerator….delish!!!

I was starving today.  Every radish, sprout, lettuce leaf and carrot I ate was like eating air.  I was reading one of the raw food forums; so much information and helpful for keeping on track, and came across a recipe for ‘fried rice’.  I like cauliflower and happened to have a head or six in the fridge.  The cauliflower is put through the food processor in small batches until it looks a little like white rice.  Chopped up carrots, green onions, celery and sunflower seeds are added, and then a dressing of sesame oil, tamari sauce ( used soy), a little lemon juice and you have a tasty salad that is sort of reminisent of fried rice, if you are starving to death.  Here’s a link for the real recipe…

http://goneraw.com/recipe/cauliflower-rice .  Here’s a link for the Wednesday Group; the tapestry weaving group that the women who teach my tapestry class belong to. http://www.wedsgroup.com/ .  They are having a show of their work at Medford Leas in June and July.

By the way, I have not lost a pound.  However, I feel more energetic than I have in a while and  have been told my skin looks nice.  My doc gave me a script for six more weeks of physical therapy and wrote on it for the therapist, ‘she looks great!’  I think it was a reference to how one would refer to their grandmother walking with a new cane.