a seasoned hostess’ tips for successful soirées

15 Sunday Apr 2018

Tags

First Holy Communion, Flower Crown, Sacraments of Initiation

Photos of the week…

the secrets to hosting

I am an extrovert.

As an extrovert, a good party invigorates me. As a mother of four, we can stay longer and visit more if the party is at our house.

The day of parties came after two days of rain brought to us by the Pineapple Express.

Middle schoolers took to the park for their own party finishing off spring break.

Tip #1

know when to outsource

There was a time when our parties featured homemade bread, homemade marshmallows, extensive decor, linens and pumpkin parmesan gnocchi.

With children, our practices changed, but the spirit of hosting did not.

On Divine Mercy Sunday my eldest child received her First Holy Communion. Following morning mass, we held the first of two parties of the day. I knew I needed some help.

Given the choice between a flower crown or a veil, Miriam chose the flower crown.

Rather than make it myself, I ordered from Kelley Flower Farm a crown of yellow and white flowers, (in season ranunculus) and blue ribbon, reminiscent of Our Lady of Lourdes who Bernadette observed wore a blue sash and gold roses at her feet. I love how easy these ladies are to work with. A few Facebook measurements, a follow-up phone call and we were set. I dashed through the rain as the Farmer’s Market open to pick up our prize.

Tip #2

know the things you’re set on and find a way

I had a crazy idea for Miriam’s First Communion Dress. I loved my wedding dress, the sight of it brought my joy, but I never saw it because it was an enormous dress in an enormous box. Taking the scissors to it, drying my eyes, I removed the lace and mailed it with two yards of a silk-cotton blend to a dear friend in Minnesota.

We talked for weeks (months) over details for this special gown. The dress that came back to me was stunning and perfect for a little girl.

Tip #3

avoid tasks that require work when the guests arrive…i.e. don’t cook.

The morning’s festivities included party platters inspired by Real Simple, my go-to for stress-free parties. We served an antipasto platter and a platter with carved ham (half ham from Costco, grandmother’s meat slicer) with green apples and brie served with Hawaiian rolls (from Costco). All the ingredients were prepped the day before and plated just before party time.

For dessert we served shortbread dipped in chocolate, madeleines and bite-size honey-lime tarts (from the Magnolia magazine), provided by my mother.

The less work you do once people arrive, the better. We kept the menu light and delicate for my Little Flower.

We try to plan menus that avoid the use of utensils.

Tip #4

remember how party plans affect others

My husband was tired after playing cumbia through the night. My four-year-old struggled to understand that the morning party was not for her. To honor that sweet thing, I planned ahead and ordered two bouquets the girls.

I love Kelley Flower Farm‘s practice of adding herbs to their arrangements. It adds another level to the sensory experience of holding a beautiful arrangement of flowers, and those double ruffle tulips, oh my!

Unfortunately, I think my five-year-old son is still reeling from all the attention the girls got.

Tip #5

themes make planning easier

Embracing the spring theme, my mother decorated a homemade carrot cake with a basket weave and daisy spritz, complete with a real basket handle. There was also a movie theme, so we served nachos and pizza.

You can use a theme to determine every detail or use it to act as a loose guide.

I prefer the loose guide approach.

Let your theme narrow down the colors and menu for the celebration.

Tip # 6

the one thing that matters most is the people

Take a few moments to lay down, close your eyes and gather your thoughts for ten to twenty minutes before guests arrive. Let go of anything that was not finished, the unswept floors, the dirty walls, the imperfect dishes, the burnt Madeleines. Let it go.

We do not celebrate to make Pinterest and Instagram moment, we celebrate to be with others, to honor special events, to teach our children what matters.

So, whether you eat from fancy platters or Costco take-n-bake, in the end, what matters are the moments you share and those you share them with.

Posted by Kathryn Anne Casey | Filed under Family life, Reviews

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What I Learned This Winter

17 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by Kathryn Anne Casey in Family life, Reviews, The Good Life

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What I learned, Winter

Previously published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch.

When do you take the opportunity to look back? We often do it at the turn of the New Year, or at the end of a time commitment, like a month-long fast from shopping or alcohol. We live in a 24/7 world where everything is available, all the time. Without the natural breaks in the world around us (like blizzards and the seasons I wrote about recently), it is all too easy to stay swept up in the energy and movement of the world, never stopping to ask, “how did that go? What am I grateful for? What did I gain? Where was I weak?” and committing to improve in the next go-around.

So, along with a small sector of the internet, I want to participate in a quarterly reflection considering what I learned in the past season. I share it with you and invite you to share your list with others. This winter, I learned…

How to say, “I miss you” at the grave of my stillborn child.

To ask that person to coffee.

I met at a woman who is a former broadcast journalist. After recalling the coaching from a “Real Simple” magazine feature years back, I sent an email asking her for coffee. There I learned her tips and recommendations to help me improve interviewing.

A voice recorder is an amazing interview asset.

Rather than stare at the screen of my phone to find the voice recorder application, I purchased a recorder (life is better with buttons). Using it, I relaxed and felt able to fully listen and hear the story of the interviewee. Too much energy had been spent worrying if I would remember the facts. Knowing they were safe, I loosened up and focused on meeting the person. Amazingly enough, when the recorder malfunctioned, I lost the interview but still remembered everything I needed to…except the names! Paper and pen will still accompany me.

Post-holiday blues exist.

During Advent, I threw myself so heavily into to crafts and the buzz of the holiday season. When it passed, I saw how empty I’d become. Things were so good, I had forgotten to pray, to seek silence, to slow down, sit a while and read to my children.

My first-vocation comes first.

In the fervor of a new career, the career of my dreams, I dived deeper and deeper, letting writing work seep into every still moment of the day. Then I missed the moments with my children, and their behavior reflected that. I stepped back, edited my schedule and stopped spending so many evenings out.

The glory of morning chores is real.

We practiced consistent discipline, used catchphrases to remind them what good behavior means, and implemented morning, afternoon and evening chores, on a list for each child. We knew what to ask of them and they anticipate what will be asked of them. When my son and I hit the road to San Francisco for a brief hospitalization things were okay at the Casey House.

Use Turbotax to file self-employment taxes.

Remind myself to be patient.

Little moments of impatience took hold without me realizing it. It is much more peaceful to be a patient person (or to pretend to be a patient person).

If another layer of my support system is peeled back, I will be okay.

We learn the tools for coping, of often through the help of another person. When that person is gone, we still have the tools, we just need to remember to use them

Take relationships at face value, believe people who say they care.

There is baggage around that one. Often, recognizing the pattern is the first step.

If you decide to list a handful of things you learned this season, feel free to share it with me at Writer@kathrynannecasey.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Photojournalism Tips in my Notebook that Celebrate Small Town Life

11 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by Kathryn Anne Casey in Family life, Reviews, The Good Life

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Photography, Photojournalism, Small Town Life, YLI, Young Ladies Institute

Sharing with you my photos of the week (viii)

Last season I rediscovered the joy of using the local library. While it is an excellent source for Anne of Green Gables, some of its offerings are a little out-dated, though not useless!

Checking out Photojournalism: A Professional’s Approach, I learned a thing or two which I am learning to apply to my photographs. Combined with the wisdom of How to Style Your Brand and the deliciously laid out Brand Brilliance (not found at my library), stride might just be in the making.

1. Let your photograph tell a story.

There should be enough elements in the photograph to tell you as much of the “who, what, when, where and how” as possible. Bonus branding points if your photograph includes the colors associated with your business in marketing photographs.

From here, we know this guy (my husband and owner of Casey Music Service) tunes pianos, works in people’s homes, doesn’t kill plants, uses a cell phone while he works but still with foreign-looking tools. We know he can hear and his hearing is required for his work (or he is blind but then that type of phone might not be as helpful).

2.Take an overall shot, an action shot and a detail shot of the story you are telling.

Even if you do not use all three, it frames them in our mind for your project.

3. Climb on the chair.

To get the right photograph you might need to stand on a chair, a table or lay on the ground. It depends on what you’re aiming for.

At the YLI 3rd Sunday of Lent Mass and Breakfast, it did not get too complicated and only a little disruptive to the people whose cookies I stole in order to take this picture.

4. When you believe in your subject, it shows.

Photography is art. It is a skill that can be learned, but like the copy it accompanies, when you truly care, truly want to celebrate the accomplishments of the subjects, that love comes through. Here, celebrating Small Town Life, we have two boys going off to play in the World Series of the Little League…and they couldn’t be more excited.

Please note Photojournalism: A Professional’s Approach was a remarkable book but it does have explicit images. Approach with caution and away from little ones.

The Power of Extra Yarn

24 Saturday Feb 2018

Posted by Kathryn Anne Casey in Reviews, The Good Life

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Extra Yarn, Kindness, Mac Barnett

“Extra Yarn” by Mac Barnett weaves in the many things I find necessary in a good children’s book.

It prioritizes a story over teaching a moral: The purpose of any book should be to tell a story. If a lesson is embodied in that story, great, but let it begin with a story to tell, not a moral to teach. Stories form cultures because of the people in the stories (and some adventure).

The illustrations by Jon Klassen are creative, beautiful and facilitate the telling of the story. That everything was gray and plain creates a visual for how “things began to change in that small town.”

The features are not distorted. Some distortion in animation is used to say something about a character. Mr. Incredible in “The Incredibles” is enormous and super strong. His wife had a willowy silhouette as she can super-stretch. Her plumper features after childrearing not only show the reality of how women’s bodies change with motherhood but also that she has lost her flexibility in life. Too much distortion, on the other hand, is no longer useful but destructive to the beauty of the human person represented. Too many picture books engage that approach. “Extra Yarn” simplifies the human form without distorting it. The painting is soft, repetitive and as quiet as the story it has to tell.

It practices the golden rule of writing, show don’t tell. In the turn after the climax, only one sentence, spread out over three pages tells us of the triumph of good over evil. The villain has no power over her.

The characters are inclusive without a spotlight. Annabelle makes sweaters for everyone, persnickety Mr. Norman, a large-statured Mr. and Mrs. and “Little Louis” a smiling man with a beard no taller than Annabelle. That is how disability and different-ness work. We just live together. More books should include differently abled people as normative, without dwelling on it.

There is insight into the characters that make up small communities. Mr. Crabtree wears shorts in the snow! Yes, and so would my dad. I have found, men who never get cold are often rather cheerful, happy with their internal temperature. The author captures this.

The protagonist is not a stereotype; she is a person. She doesn’t need in-your-face girl power. “Take or leave it,” the villain says.

“Leave it,” she says.

Neither damsel in distress nor girl-on-a-mission, Annabelle is just a girl. If we represented girls as just as human as boys, as normative, then maybe girls would learn they deserve just as much respect and have just as much right to speak as anybody else.

The prose is simple, rhythmic and reads aloud beautifully. No clunky sentences here. This is essential in storybooks which will be read aloud. It teaches good language skills to children. Because children pick up what they read and hear, story books should use proper grammar and sentence structure.

Virtue is practiced in the book, and only the villain is villainized. I want my children to know tricky people exist in the world. What I do not need is an illustration that every adult and every institution is a villain, because this simply isn’t true. People can be wrong, narrow-minded, or jealous, but it does not make them part of the bad guys. Annabelle’s good deeds help bring people together instead of put people to shame. Not even the villain is put to shame at her hand, but from his own choice to steal the box.

Stories tell us something about people and reality.

Form Annabelle, we learn about simple acts of kindness, in this case, knitting sweaters, can have a great impact on our community, change the world in a sense.

From the villain, we learn crime doesn’t pay. And he has no power over those who are good.

The truth about the world in this story is that we can make a difference by touching the lives of those around us with simple acts of kindness. A smile and our kindness are things we always have at our disposal. And that is why there is always extra yarn.

December Links

15 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Kathryn Anne Casey in Reviews

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Christmas, December, Grief

Since Thanksgiving, I’ve been off my blogging game. Here are some pieces that stood out to me since then.

Here’s a great post on giving each season its due, in this case, Advent before Christmas. I’ve heard the analogy of celebrating Advent the way we prepare for a new baby (you’re allowed to decorate). This writer draws a similarity to how one plans a wedding: “Ideally, I think, that’s still how we’d celebrate it today. I think of it like I was planning a big wedding. It would be on my mind months ahead of time. I’d get a few major projects done well in advance so I wouldn’t have to worry about them as the big day approached. Then in the weeks before the wedding, I would focus on having everything I needed available and organized and cleaned. I would bake the cake and prepare the food. I would scrub down and decorate the church and the reception hall in the days just before the wedding. I would be prepared to celebrate. We’d have the rehearsal dinner the night before. But what I wouldn’t do is throw a reception or two a couple of weeks before the wedding and eat the cake and the wedding bell cookies and drink all the champagne before the happy couple is even married, before they’re in town even. That would be crazy.”

This article on the effect of “contemplative architecture” on our brains is inspiring. I think there will be a movement towards an architecture that lifts our minds to God. It just may be a while before we see it.

On grief:

Is this negative or positive? I do not know. It looks like difficulty reading it tied more to factual knowledge than expected. We should work on teaching our children about things in those early stages when memorization comes easily. It means Wikipedia has an important place alongside a novel.

I was grateful to read this piece called “When the Holidays are Hard” on the holidays today. It has good recommendations for those who are grieving and those who know someone who is grieving.

“I will joyfully welcome Jesus on Christmas, but my joy will likely be a tearful joy, a joy that still hurts and wonders at what’s happened, a joy that moves in and out of peace, but ultimately, a joy that trusts.” From Nancy.

Love this shopping advice! I particularly like the idea of “Choose one or two brick and mortar stores and get inspired.” Our shopping trip is planned Thursday for downtown Turlock, though my kids’ gifts were purchased elsewhere.

And one last one on grief. This article on miscarriage highlights the intriguing phenomenon of cellular memory. I appreciate articles that explain how things work, like our minds.

Weekend Links 10.4.17

04 Saturday Nov 2017

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Politics

Did you see this piece of news? Russia created fake Facebook groups and advertisements to divide America during the election.

Russia was building on something that already existed, our tendency to sit back and get angry scrolling through our newsfeed. They exploited that weakness in Americans to make relationships among people worse. Here are the numbers.

I like that this will force those involved to take a stand for something. We cannot be values-neutral because someone with values will come in and stand for something or manipulate that neutrality to work for their gains (see inclusivity issues on college campuses which leads to restraint of free-speech).

I also hope that people wake up to what Russia is really about. George Weigel has written openly about it. Even Russia has noticed him.

Family

O blessed reality! I love crafts but hate the idea of doing with children. We are all human, mostly! Here a mom dishes on her “lazy” way of celebrating the liturgical seasons with her brood.

Fascinating article about baby’s needs for a mother to be present in the early years. Unlike many pieces out there, I like the balanced perspective of this article. It argues a single point (that babies need to their mothers present for early development) but acknowledges potential arguments with straight wisdom like “motherhood isn’t about perfection,” “we don’t want to send women back 50 years” and not everyone is capable of being home with their babies because of mental health of distraction. Rather than shut down the conversation about what is best for children, we need to separate our feelings from our grasp on reality. I can acknowledge what is best for my children even if I also acknowledge I can’t give it to them. I need to be able to look at my life and not fall apart at that realization…because I am not perfect. And neither are you.

I came across this beauty on facebook. Our trip is coming up. We are feeling the pinch of the sacrifices associated with pilgrimage, but we will not give up. To review, we are heading to Detroit to join in the mass for Fr. Solanus Casey, who is on step 3 or 4. He is considered by many to be “the Padre Pio of Detroit.” We can thank Fr. Benedict Groeschel for spreading his name around the country.

Canonization Process.jpg

Consumerism

Is anyone still under the impression that Disney is about making children happy? It’s about profit. So now they are demanding too much of theaters and some smaller theaters are choosing to say no.

A calm explanation on the economics of why Disney would do that.

Fashion may be in the 1990s but film is stuck in the 1930s/40s with the murdering act of franchising to death anything that does remotely well the first time around. Although modern filmmaking is capable of juggling more complex characters, more characters and more complicated plots than its primitive beginnings. So you get the convoluted mess of these comic book superhero movies. I am ignorant of most comic books so I will direct you to Stephen Greydanus’ insightful review of the most recent rendition, Thor: Ragnarok. Like Frozen, the roots are fascinating and would make for brilliant, modern storytelling, especially with some retrained CGI. But they bump it all to tell the story they want to tell because they believe it will sell more.

If you are ready for Christmas head over to any store, anywhere (except for very small number who may or may not advertise they are waiting until after Thanksgiving). Some actually find the holiday creep helpful. Imagine completely all your Christmas shopping and prep so you can really focus during Advent. That makes sense, except that holiday smells and bells activate our internal celebratory response, so it is really hard to feel like it is not time to celebrate yet. For me, I’ll probably avoid the stores in November, do some online shopping, make Christmas cards and the annual photobook and think about Thanksgiving centerpieces.

On the pro-early decorations perspective, here is a thoughtful piece. “Acknowledge the hunger for joy and peace that Christmas represents, and share how Jesus and the Church can help you find those things. Consider the struggles that person might be facing in life and how Christmas offers them the tiniest break from their anxiety.”

Summary of other news

More Hollywood superstars are being accused of sexual harassment/assault/abuse and are quickly being ostracized. It is good that women are coming forward. I wonder if it will become the witch hunt we’ve seen in the Catholic Church, “guilty until proven innocent” which can lead to tragedy for the innocent.

There is a potential case against Weinstein. What if the blacklisting is a sort of martial law because people have lost all faith in the system? This is a new thought for me. Comments?

Weekend Links 10.28.17

28 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by Kathryn Anne Casey in Reviews

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Heavy like a pile of leaves.

Fall festivities

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” ― L.M. Montgomery…that quote speaks to the depths of my heart this month.

Think I just found my Catholic tie-in to back up our dressing as witches for Halloween (we’re not Witches of Eastwick! Think Bewitched, instead). The last “witch” hanged in Boston was a Catholic.

Halloween makes for big debates among Christians. Here are some perspectives:

Pro-Halloween: The celebration itself is deeply spiritual.

Pro-Halloween: Regarding our children and creepy Halloween. It is interesting to point out the elements of the Catholic faith that may seem creepy, but to practicing Catholics are just normal.

Cautionary: The glorification of violence is not.

I think we might do this, but without the food. I like the idea of creating a place of prominence to remember our beloved dead on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. I could see it becoming very meaningful for our children (and us too).

Consumerism

Good news Target

Moved to tears with this: “Target’s new line for kids with special needs…” After the hours I spent making vests for Peter. I can appreciate the need, even if we are still in toddler stages.

Bad News Target

Give a gift and let them choose if they like it before receiving because it really is only the thought that counts. Target is unrolling a gift giving option this year. Except for that graciousness matters, taking thoughtfulness all the way without the protective shield of a gift receipt or option for a gift card. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting cash and gift cards, but a well-thought gift? I still remember who gave me that soup tureen eight years ago.

The call of God

Are you having Augustine moments with your conversion? Hard to make it stick? Even if you’re not, Read this. Jesus has a plan on how to get in.

Beauty in the Church. We need it!

I would describe this piece as penetrating. To remember how and when and by what means mothers will give of themselves.

Please read this heart-rending request from a woman who was brutally raped in need of help to pay for surgeries to recover her body from that attack. It makes me furious to think how intensely one side focuses on access to abortion, and neglects basics of care.

Review: Meander through Middlemarch

27 Friday Oct 2017

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Book review, Middlemarch

My friend told me this was a book about people who want to do great things…and not everybody gets to. She and I struggle with that. We are housewives who ache for some expression in the world. We follow politics, read classic literature, KonMari our homes and look systems to improve our budgeting, housekeeping or cooking. Still, we are not satisfied. As an adult, my favorite children’s book is the Little Red Tugboat: “I was meant for greater things!” There is nothing greater than parenting, and yet, I get to feeling unused in some strange capacity. I feel pulled into the world, but in an unhealthy way.

My friend’s synopsis intrigued me. I ordered it from the library and soon it came, all 841 pages of it. I began…slowly.

For the first 100 pages, I think I disliked every character. Then we heard more about Dr. Lydgate. I liked him. I appreciate a medical mind wanting to make discoveries. As soon as the fictional Rosamond and I had developed our crush on him, author George Elliot began to reveal his faults. She did not hide Dorothea’s faults. Dorothea was irritating from the get-go, probably much like I was as a youngster.

This book is largely about young people finding their way in the world. Dorothea and Lydgate ache to do great things. Fred, Mary and Rosamond do not. Will has all the energy to do great things but lacks motivation. They all find their way, some more roundabout than others.

Every character evolves. Every character is good and bad. Every character is capable of feeling and is capable of experience a want of feeling.

I had to stay friendly with the footnotes. Elliot manages to make references as quickly as the Gilmore Girls, only it is not my pop culture. She makes brilliant feminist commentary on what few advantages there are for women but speaks so satirically about their weakness and inability to think, their need to be governed. The author acknowledges in the end that some endings may be dissatisfying, perhaps the woman should have achieved more, but we all exist in our context. “A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life…” Not just passion but circumstances make a way for public heroes.

That is wisdom.

This is the way that great literature can teach us. With real characters who are not flat but can be felt, who take shape with flesh and blood in our imagination. In learning their lessons, it is like learning from people we know, who share life with us. Those lessons sink deeper than something stated to us with little depth or feeling. We need the lives of the saints to teach us about perseverance in spiritual dryness. We need Therese and her parents to teach us about the little way. We need Dorothea to teach us about making great sacrifices. We need to learn a lesson from fallen characters.

In the end, I loved it. I simply loved it.

Weekend Links 10.21.17

21 Saturday Oct 2017

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A smattering of topics for Saturday.

benjamin-voros-160962

Church Stuff

Good commentary by George Weigel on movements in the Catholic church and why they matter.

Beautiful description of what Millenials want. The problem as I see it, in local parishes here, is not that they are misreading Millenials, it is that they do not even care. They are concerned with maintaining institutions, as Weigel astutely points out. They want to keep the Church just how it has always been for them. Maybe they are afraid or lazy or maybe they really love it, I don’t know, but they aren’t handing over the reigns anytime soon…or so it feels.

Pro-life issues

It is just a little hard to believe this but it does not appear to be satire. Apparently, the government has come in line with science, life begins at conception.

I think this is a fun read on pro-abortion/anti-abortion debating. The author takes apart an argument that went big on Twitter.

For our children

My blood freezes when I hear the work stomach flu or fever. Read this piece from Scary Mommy and keep your sick kids home. When my Peter was two months old the stomach flu ran through our family and led to his first hospitalization. Any fever leads to hospitalization. You just do not know who around you might have a hidden disability or a weakened immune system. I am grateful to those friends of ours who are ever fastidious in communicating to me their kids’ health when we visit. It sets my mind at ease to know we are all working together to help our kids thrive.

I missed National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the flurry of windchime production. Here is a beautiful piece by Susanna Spencer. These days I struggle with the silence. How do I answer how many children I have? I never counted to strangers those I lost before physically feeling their presence before Celeste. Do I count them all now? Do I say seven which would incur greater looks and conversation than the four I have living? Do I say five and leave out the two who left me at seven and nine weeks? I do not know.

On Womanhood

Sexual harassment or assault is too common. I am so glad women are standing up with the #metoo movement. Here is another story of why any unwelcome touch matters.

I really like this perspective from Lilly Bozzone at Verily. It does not help us to always focus on flattering our figure because when it is not flattering, it steals our joy. I experience that. Hopefully, I can move closer to better balance.

Politics

I’m so glad for her straight-talking steps to surviving this presidency.

Watercolor Floral Workshop with Holly Anna Calligraphy

20 Friday Oct 2017

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Holly Anna Calligraphy, Kylee Blackburn, Watercolor, Workshop

Saturday, October 14th, I attended a Watercolor Floral Workshop with Holly Anna Calligraphy taught by Kylee Blackburn. A painting of Kylee’s hangs on my living room wall.

Sitting in the PICU in the spring of 2016, I began to feel the ache to create. At home my hobbies were big: upholstery, painting walls, painting signs and sewing curtains, pillows and bunting. What could I do in the restraints of that room? During one walk I encountered Arch Supplies. The saleswoman directed me to a travel set of watercolors.

20160402_105634

I knew watercolor from Mr. Dennis’ high school art class, but nothing more.

I started sketching.

20160402_105628

The details were not much to look at, so I decided to try simplified flower shapes.

I purchased the set and went on my way. The price of thank you cards inspired me to give away the little paintings I created.

The book, 20 Ways to Draw a Tulip, helped immensely. I drew with pencil and painting over, then outlined with ink in some cases.

Like macramé, once Peter was discharged from the hospital, there was little to pull me back to the activity.

Then I encountered the Four Friends Market, Holly Anna Calligraphy and Kylee Blackburn’s work.

And, oh, what Kylee can do…

I signed up. Because of other expenses, I contemplated canceling. I recalled the calligraphy workshop and the space, both the physical space filled with natural light and bougainvillea and the mental space of time away from everything. Like a walk away from the hospital. I knew I needed it.

When I walked down the alley, I breathed in the beauty. Opening the door, I knew my way. I felt outgoing and at ease. Thumbing through the book I read about color theory and delighted in the blue watercolor words used for headers in each section.

Kylee explained her method and her rules. The water makes the watercolor work. My mind created Venn diagrams of her technique and Ron Stocke’s from M. Graham, who I watched demonstrate watercolor techniques at Arch Supplies. He is trying to change the field, to show you can intentionally use the paint from the tube with incredible results. His paintings are a testament to that.

But what do I want to paint? I want paintings that are attainable to me. I want paintings that help me breathe a little better when I paint them. Those are the paintings by Kylee.

I could not be more pleased with what I took away from this workshop. I learned how to form flowers, how to work with the brush, which brush to use, how to create definition in the painting, and how to paint flowers. Kylee walked from table to table so we could see her make the strokes made up close. I asked her to paint roses again. Our goal was to paint a floral wreath.

I liked two of my practice flowers and used them for the wreath. I wish I had not been too afraid to start fresh. I thought I could not reproduce them.

With any new art, a big factor in success is to not be afraid, to put faith in the words of a good instructor who tells you to go for it, dip in the water and push hard on the brush. There is still practice and experimentation to be done.

Sometimes with these workshops, all I can think is, “my goodness that’s a lot of money for two hours.” Then I remind myself…

it is double in San Francisco.

It is not just that. The ease of having the recommended materials provided saves a lot of trial and error. Art supply stores overwhelm me with their options. Watching is key to learning, as is practicing. Small, personal workshops provide both opportunities. Youtube videos are helpful, but when I have a question regarding what I am doing right or wrong, they fall short.

Then there is the escape from life and responsibilities to soak up something new.

Returning to life, now when I paint with me daughter, I have a better idea of what I am doing, which inspires her to always keep learning.

Just for fun, here is my masterpiece from last year:

Sketch of Peter which created much laughter.

I receive no compensation for this review.

Kathryn Anne Casey

~ Considerations of art, feminism, consumerism, community and family, my own domestic philosophy

Category Archives: Reviews

a seasoned hostess’ tips for successful soirées

the secrets to hosting

Tip #1

know when to outsource

Tip #2

know the things you’re set on and find a way

Tip #3

avoid tasks that require work when the guests arrive…i.e. don’t cook.

Tip #4

remember how party plans affect others

Tip #5

themes make planning easier

Tip # 6

the one thing that matters most is the people

What I Learned This Winter

How to say, “I miss you” at the grave of my stillborn child.

To ask that person to coffee.

A voice recorder is an amazing interview asset.

Post-holiday blues exist.

My first-vocation comes first.

The glory of morning chores is real.

Use Turbotax to file self-employment taxes.

Remind myself to be patient.

If another layer of my support system is peeled back, I will be okay.

Take relationships at face value, believe people who say they care.

Photojournalism Tips in my Notebook that Celebrate Small Town Life

1. Let your photograph tell a story.

2.Take an overall shot, an action shot and a detail shot of the story you are telling.

3. Climb on the chair.

4. When you believe in your subject, it shows.

The Power of Extra Yarn

December Links

Weekend Links 10.4.17

Weekend Links 10.28.17

Review: Meander through Middlemarch

Weekend Links 10.21.17

Watercolor Floral Workshop with Holly Anna Calligraphy