Lilac Love

Lilacs
It has been such a lovely spring for flowers here in the mid atlantic states. Lilacs have been especially beautiful, but their window of beauty is slowly closing! I miss their tender fragrance and sweet lavender color.

Breakfast Lilacs
Appreciate them while I can, but for consolation my delicate pansies are still in bloom.

Kindred Spirits
Read more at: Food Paintings.
Fascinating Special on Federal Power and the Constitution

PBS is running a special lately on the government series on the constitution, fascinating stuff. I have seen the 1st segment and it seems to be a prompt for debate and analyzing the constitution and how it applies to modern times. Peter Sagal dons his motorcycle and rides across the USA interviewing people who are relevant to dilemmas today involving the constitution.

I love watching good television that makes you think about important issues relevant to us today.
You can check out more information here.
I will see you again on Friday, taking a couple of days off this week
!
Vegan Recipe, Gluten Free Pasta with Spinach, Tomato, Hemp, and Cheeze
Would you like to create an easy gluten free pasta dish that even kids love? Watch this video with Jamie Goldfuss of Kosher Vegan Cooking demonstrate how to make this delicious dish.
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 Bag Trader Joes Organic Brown Rice Noodles
1 Bag Trader Joes Vegan Cheese
1 Bag Trader Joes Organic Chopped Spinach
1-2 Organic Sweet Potatoes
1 Jar Trader Joes Organic No Salt Pasta Sauce
Organic Garlic Fresh cloves or Powdered to taste
Hemp Hearts to taste
Utensils:
2 Medium Sized Pots
1 Large glass mixing bowl or pot
Peeler
Food Processor
Glass Baking Dish
Colander
Directions
Peel 1-2 small sweet potatoes and cut into 3rds
Then place in food processor and chop into tiny pieces
Place pieces into a small bowl
If you have a garlic clove you can add it to the food processor with the sweet potatoes.
Fill medium sized pot with water and boil
After boil add brown rice noodles for 7-8 minutes
Add a drop of himalayan pink salt and extra virgin olive oil
Let cook uncovered and stir as needed
Drain noodles into colander and rinse with cold water
If cooking at the same time to cook more efficiently use a 2nd pot for the next step or if you only have one pot use your original pot after the noodles and water have been drained to start sauce.
Add sauce to pot on a medium flame.
Next add the bag of vegan cheese.
Then add the chopped spinach and sweet potatoes.
Let this mixture cook on a medium flame for 10 minutes.
After the mixture is done combine noodles and sauce mixture in a large bowl or pot.
Next pour the noodle and sauce combo into your glass baking dish.
Cover the top of the noodles with a nice amount of hemp hearts.
Place the dish in your over to bake for 20 min at 350 degrees.
Enjoy and serve hot.
Jamie has a band, Goldfuss, who plays cool indy music, check out his new album, here.
Have a Seat, A New Watercolor

New Watercolor
Working as much as I could in my studio this week, I finally finished my new watercolor. This work is about color and different moods and scenes. I table with tulips and azaleas are set up on a polka dot table cloth. Chairs and flowers(of course, always have to have at least one flower!) are a motif, showing up in various spots of the painting. I have the colorful reality of the painting divided into 3 scenes, sketched flowers and leaves flowing up and around a chair facing out on the right. A sunny day with fabric flowing down off a bench in the middle. And on the left, a park bench in a place filled with blue with fabric laying on it.
I love the colors and flow, what do you think?
Read more at: What is Joye Creating Now?
Baa Baa Black Sheep

Black Sheep
Keeping with my creative interest in textiles this month, I visited the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend. Seeing the wool from its source, is way cool. There is something I love about milling around people who live in the country and love nature. Many think of nature as flowers and trees, but animals is where this fair is at. Shepherds brought their young lambs to sell, vendors sold spinning wheels, fresh wool, all the tools needed to card and spin, as well as homespun yarn.

Sheep make almost pleading sounds when crowds gather around them. They stay in groups and allow themselves to be herded by sheep dogs. Their hair is very warm and is shorn yearly.

Sheep Shearing Event
A different world, that is for sure. Surrounded by a sunny sky and the sounds of fiddle and celtic harp music, this was truly an enjoyable day!
Read more at: Playing.
A Sad Memoir for Reading This Week

Her: A Memoir
When growing up, I was envious of twins that I knew. It seemed so cool to have a constant friend, playmate, someone who knows your every thought and truly, truly understands you like no other. But after reading Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani, it seems that having your own identical twin can be obsessive, haunting, and extremely loving. Christa’s twin sister, Cara, is raped in 2001 in New York and begins a downward spiral into drugs, despair, and eventually death. This is a story from the surviving twin and is both heart breaking and full of love and understanding.
If you can handle hearing the pain, I recommend this book, but be prepared for a sick feeling full of yearning.
Read more at: Books that made me cry.
Hi I'm Joye!!

