Laundry

I'm just spending a quiet night at home folding the laundry and watching the Australian Open on TV. But I did try to make the laundry a bit more exciting by taking some pictures.

A Rainy Ocean Trip

Despite today's wet and windy weather, I decided to pay a visit to the Pacific Ocean around dusk. I wasn't the only one there enjoying the crashing of the waves and the solemn weather. As usual, I was awestruck by the ocean and below are some photos I snapped before the rain became too heavy. 

Back to Lino

Classes have started up again, which means I'm spending my Saturdays in the printmaking studio at Fort Mason. I've been drawn to linoleum carving for a while so that is what I want to focus on this semester. 

 Given that my drawing skills aren't phenomenal, I've decided to try a new technique, tracing my photographs. This is the source photo for the linoleum block I was carving today.

The tracing, reversed and inked in with Sharpie on the lino block. Let me just say, those bricks are none to easy to carve out. After 6 hours hunched over the table, carving, I'm still not quite finished.

It was a very windy and somewhat rainy day today in San Francisco. I'm glad I got to work next to the radiator.

More Illustrations

Some more illustrations from the workshop handouts that I'm working on. Text will be added to the images for the final version.

My First Illustrations

I'm working on making handouts for the workshop I will teach next week and I've decided to try my hand at illustrating the handouts myself. These are the bookbinding tools. I'll add text to this image later.

Some Cookies

Today I decided to take a short break from bookbinding and made some cookies instead.

I used the 'always delicious' chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Joy of Cooking, substituting M&Ms for the chocolate chips. My other secrets include using raw cane sugar, not granulated; always using dark brown sugar, regardless what the recipe calls for; and 'accidentally' spilling a little extra vanilla extract into the mixing bowl.

Some Poppies

My first week back at work after the holidays has been much busier than I expected so I was looking forward to today, my first Thursday off of 2012. Admittedly, I stayed in my pajamas until 1:45pm, but I wanted to be sure I did something fun before going back to the salt mines tomorrow. I heard on NPR that 25 foot wave swells were expected on the Northern Pacific coast so my photo excursion stopped just short of the Pacific Ocean at the Queen Wilhelmina Garden surrounding the windmill in Golden Gate Park.

The garden is most known for the tulips that cover it in the spring, but today it was sparsely planted with poppies that made for a lovely visit.