Silkscreening on porcelain

My daughter was doing some experiments with her etsy shop and wanted to try out some silkscreens on mugs.  So we played around in my studio as I had all these screens, stamps, sponges and she brought the paint  and some mugs.  She was happy enough with her results that she had me make several screens for her and I was intrigued enough that I ordered some paints and kept a couple of the test mugs.

I went for the bird images, of course.  Here's my test results today.  The blue bird was a bit blurrier than I would like so I'm looking for ways to thicken the paint just a bit so I don't get so much spread.

The flying heron on the other hand came out well.  I used a stamp for it and I'll be adding some colors after the black outline finishes curing.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results of this first bit of experimentation.

Fresh cranberry relish recipe

I've been making this cranberry relish for Thanksgiving for at least 30 years now and I'm still enjoying it.  This year, I thought I'd share.  It is really good with leftover turkey in a sandwich, fyi.

before the food processor does its thing

Ingredients:

• 1 navel orange
• 1 lime (original recipe called for 1/2 lime but I use it all)
• 1 tart apple or whatever you have on hand
• 3/4 C pitted dates (if the package is 1 C, I use it all)
• 12 oz cranberries
• 1/4-1/2 C sugar, to taste

Basically, chop everything up in a food processor and mix it together.  Chill overnight to let the flavors mix.  I do the orange and lime and the dates first and since my food processor is small, I do 2 batches.  This makes sure the rinds of the fruit get chopped small enough.  It also uses the juice from the citrus fruit to keep the dates from sticking to stuff.  Then I chop the cranberries and apple in 2 batches, adding 1/4 C sugar to the second batch.  Put it all in a big bowl, mix well, and taste to see if it needs more sugar.  This year, it was a blood orange rather than navel so not as much sweet from the orange and I used the whole 1/2 C of sugar.

After the chopping & mixing, ready to chill

I hope we all have a good Thanksgiving!

Greenbelt and Pokemon

It's been a rough month what with some major upheaval in my life and then the election.  So I've been spending lots of time on the greenbelt when it wasn't raining seriously looking for birds and since they're somewhat scare this time of year, finding some Pokemon.  This is part of my self-care, along with meditating and reading.  The nice thing about the greenbelt and Pokemon is that I can share them here.

In the fall, all the blueberry bushes along the greenbelt near Larsen Lake turn a gorgeous red.  And as some of the leaves start to fall, the bushes get a bit more sculptural rather than bushy.  I enjoy looking at them as part of the cycle of life and as beautiful parts of nature.

I start my walks on the bridge behind the Boys&Girls Club and usually I pick up some birds there.  Alas, on this walk, there were no birds around and instead I got this very common Pokemon Pidgey.
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I also got lots of great nature shots showing the change of the seasons.  October & November are when we have fall here in the Seattle area and it's fun to see the contrast as the seasonal foliage goes away leaving the green stuff that's here all year.

I'm getting several common Pokemon on each walk and at least one new one every couple of days which is nice as I'm in that stretch of the game where I have to level up before things get really interesting.  Sometimes that makes me feel like this guy.

I hope you all are taking care of yourselves.  We're living in interesting times for sure.