Things my mother taught me

It's a brilliant winter morning with only a dusting of snow. I don't have a cleaning job today, so I'm able to work in the studio...yippee! Got a new painting loaded on the Loud Colors website called "Cocktails and Salmon Colored Roses". It always feels so good to finish a painting. I keep looking at it, thinking I should tweak it some more, but sometimes I just get tired of being so darned perfectionistic. Besides, the woman in the work looks kinda quirky and kinda tragic, and the whole feeling of the piece is pretty and expressionistic at the same time. Does everything I do have to be so controlled, for Heaven's sake? I certainly hope not! Just got an email from a patron and I think two more small works have just sold.

On Thursdays, my husband's workout partner comes over for dinner. So after making the bed and putting away last night's dishes, (and tearing myself away from Facebook) I'm busy making cranberry meatballs, rice, and chopping up the last half of the remaining cabbage in the fridge for coleslaw. Oops-- out of chili sauce for the meatballs, so I'll just have to use ketchup. Improvised on the brown sugar, too, using white sugar with a small pouring of molasses. Nearly out of onion too, so dried minced onion went into the meatballs, and the remaining fresh onion will go into the coleslaw. I've never really thought a recipe should be followed like it's another Commandment--and besides I'm allergic to grocery stores(!) Tossed the meatballs into the crock pot to cook while I answer a few things on the computer, write out an invoice, and jot down my thoughts on this blog.

Puttering around in my kitchen makes me think about some of the things I learned from my mom (which is amazing because I avoided housework like the plague when I was a kid.)

1. Focus on the corners when you clean a floor--the middle will take care of itself.
2. Use what you have.
3. Don't add salt to your dishes--people use salt shakers often without even tasting the food, anyway.
4. Wash your dishes as you cook.
5. Figure out dessert and plan the rest of the meal around that.
6. If you don't cook enough, there will always be food left over--because everyone is afraid to eat too much.
7. Tea pretty much makes the day go round.

Well, I'm back to the easel. Catch you later.

(Image: "Cocktails and Salmon Roses" Acrylic on Canvas, Cory Jaeger-Kenat, 2010.)