shower curtain art, mosaic and mandala

It goes like this...

You get a phone call from your friend who lives down the street.

You tell your wife the woman from Texas is on her way.

She arrives with two things in hand--- her most highly favored shower curtain, and her medicine cabinet door.

She tells mosaic woman to match the colors.

You cut strips of glass that match the colors. You make a pile of the glass in case more strips are needed.

The mosaic....






You draw a mandala and need to pick colors. You see the pile of glass you had made. You could put it away, or you can use it as inspiration. The shower curtain Mandala comes to life...




side notes...

to see our ETSY shop click here.

another glorious trip to Willow Creek Orchards... they still have peppers and tomatoes from PA! we also got Chinese cabbage, radishes, cheddar cheese, milk from pasture fed cows, maple cream, sweet onions, potatoes....

I am going to make bread tomorrow. I've been itching. Mosaic Woman has been craving.

I am going to see The Turtle Island String Quartet tonight play some standards favored and written by John Coltrane. Here is story on NPR about the Love Supreme with links to their music.

Searching for a cassette by The Cure, I found another memory from 1986: a sweet voice that led me down the road of folk music...

The album ends with a song that is sad yet hopeful...

Nanci Griffith: The Wing and The Wheel

The wing and the wheel... they carry things away
Whether it's me that does the leavin' or the love that flies away
The moon outside my window looks so lonely tonight
Oh, there's a chunk out of it's middle... big enough for an old fool to hide

Where are all the dreamers... that I used know?
We used to linger beneath street lamps in the halos and the smoke
The wing and the wheel... came to carry them away
Now they all live out in the suburbs where their dreams
Are in their children at play

There's a pale sky in the east... all the stars are in the west
Oh, here's to all the dreamers... may our open hearts find rest
The wing and the wheel are gonna carry us along
And we'll have memories for company... long after the songs are gone

jazz concerts

So I tend to blog after the show. I repent. The other week after church, chatting with a friend, I said that I was awed by the fact that we had tickets for 8 jazz concerts... never before has this been the case, however, we jumped in for reduced prices at two colleges.

The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Dizzy is gone but the love continues...September 3, 2008 at Lafayette College, Easton PA Many living legends here who played with Dizzy!

The Back Bay Saxophone Quartet (well we don't have tickets, but if we hop on RT 78 after a quilt show in Harrisburg, it will take us to Bethlehem where they are playing at Moravian college this Saturday, September 6th. OK so they are jazz and classical music influenced composers who play saxophone.. could be interesting and maybe have time to say howdy to my parents in Bethlehem. Moravian's concert hall is a short walk from their condo. We have met there to listen to the Moravian College Big Band, who always puts on a great show.

Hank Jones playing piano duets with pianist Mulgrew Miller, who is also in the big band mentioned above. Hank is nearing or past 90 years of age his siblings, Thad and Elvin are also jazz masters. Piano duets, how cool will that be... Lafayette College on October 12, 2008.

Here Hank plays My Funny Valentine with the Meridian string quartet.

Speaking of string quartets, the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet is arriving at our local community college, MCCC, in Blue Bell on Novemeber 8, 2008. Not long ago I came across their new CD on which they do a tribute to sax legend John Coltrane.

Mulgrew Miller will be on stage yet again at Lafayette College with his band, Wingspan, on November 22, 2008. want a listen... here is Samba D'Blue composed by Miller.

December 12, 2008 at MCCC will be the night we see the master of the acoustic and electric bass, Christian McBride.

I am so glad I found the piece of music I highlighted by Hank Jones, because on January 24, 2009 at MCCC we will see jazz pianist, composer, arranger... Billy Childs playing with a string quartet, The Ying Quartet.

Dianne Reeves finishes off the jazz series at Lafayette College on February 7, 2008. Have you seen Good Night and Good Luck, the movie about Edward T Murrow? Then you have seen and heard her. She was the singer in that studio they kept flashing to throughout the movie. Many consider her the best jazz singer out there right now. here she is singing One For My Baby on the sound track to mentioned movie.

back again at MCCC on February 13, 2009 we will see John Blake Jr play some jazz on his violin... listen to some here if you are curious

OK, I am linked out. this is such a range of music... who could have imagined this coming into our lives before the pamphlets arrived this summer. We are excited and blessed to have the opportunity; and thanks to all those organizations that give grants and support cultural arts series, it makes it affordable for us.

remember support music... applaud, celebrate, enjoy