14 April

Brown By Any Other Name is Not So Sweet

The predominant color in Anchorage right now is brown. Not a rich, patina brown but a dried up, left over, it’s been one hella’va winter yellow-brown. Alaskans call this time of year “break-up.” I think it’s because you are ready to “break-up” with this state and move to Hawaii about this time because things are so ugly AND still cold (it will be in the 20’s tonight). But spring must be around the corner because the Canadian Geese are back and landed on the park strip this morning. This site thrilled Nimbus and had me repeating “leave-it, leave-it, l-e-a-ve-it!” on our morning walkies. The geese are hard to see, but they are in the upper left corner of the picture (photo below). It looks like my little topiary grass sheep (above) made it through the winter –or at least he finally popped up out of the snow. We’ll see if any of the moss and plantings sprout back. I’ve got more “Steel Wool” sheep cut out and will be welding them up tomorrow for the Spenard Farmers Market. It took me a whole day to cut a sheet of curls but I love making them. I’m going to add only small mesh chicken wire to a couple of the sheep for topiaries instead of the curls. Customers had asked about them last year. I’ll probably bring my planted one as an example if it sprouts back nicely.

This week I’ve had

my volunteer hats on. Saturday Gus and I will be reading to kids at the Kids Day, Wild About Reading event. I'm honored to have been invited as a “celebrity reader” (due to my children’s alphabet books) and will be reading Saturday, April 16 at the Dena’ina Center downtown from 10am - 11am. We’ve also rounded up hundreds of “gently read” books to give away promoting literacy. While helping sort the boxes of donated books the last couple of weeks Gus has had his very own lending library! The other project I’m happy to be spearheading is the new “Blooming Artist Youth Booth” at the Spenard Farmers Market! This will be a free booth for kids 17 and under to sell their hand made arts and crafts. Gus has been inspired to try and sell some of his paintings and has been practicing on several small canvases the last few weeks. I thought this would be a good opportunity for youth groups and individuals to share a free, Market sponsored booth as a way to raise and earn

money. The Market will provide the tent and tables. Kids and youth groups must be supervised by an adult at all times and reservations are necessary. If you know of a young artisan or youth group that would like to sell their items at the Market starting Saturday, May 21 have them contact us at spenardfarmersmarket@gmail.com. Also this is a reminder to my artist and farmer-grower friends to get your Vendor Applications in NOW if you want to participate in the Market. Space is limited and 10x10 booths are only $15 per Saturday 9-2. Go to www.spenardfarmersmarket.org and download a vendor application and spend the summer with ME at the Market –where I promise there will be plenty of fresh GREEN color!



I saw this house near downtown that had one of my "Wind Raven" sculptures on the outside! I thought it looked great against that brick color -nice contrast.


6 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

How cool to see your work out there! That would just make my day if it were me.
Hey-I just noticed the tile behind the mixer- love that she came back to be with you and she looks perfect there!

Julia said...

Your ravens look stunning against the red of that house. How exciting to "stumble" upon your work in use when you are out and about.

I still love your metal sheep. I need to get on your list to buy one of your small ones, before you sell out at the farmer's market this year.

Tracey Broome said...

As I was reading I was thinking "how cool is that" and then Meredith took the words right out of my mouth, but really, how cool is that! What a great use of space on that house, the ravens are perfect there. I love the idea of the kids booth at the Farmers Market. There was a day when I would jump on this idea and take it to the market here but all I need is one more thing on my plate :)

Ann said...

Oh Cindy, you must have been channeling my thoughts when you wrote about BROWN. My yard is brown (and wet). My dogs are brown (and wet). My floors are brown. The mop with which I tried to mop my floors is brown. My car is brown (although that is not what the Subaru factory intended). And I hate brown. Now, if all of this were just polka dot......

Unknown said...

I think you should insert a speech bubble over Nimby's head as he's "admiring" those geese! What a great pic!

cindy shake said...

thanks guys!

@ kristen -he's saying "i want to love on them, and play with them, and chase them, and SQUEEZE on them and taste their...!"

@ ann, OK let's switch our thinking to BROWN = CHOCOLATE love! It's the only way to get through the next couple of weeks because I don't have the time or money to jump on Alaska Airlines right now!