My House Is Red

Mercury staying in inhumane levels. I wonder if I’m ever going to wake up from my hibernation.

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drawer's block

Oops, for all these years – till one quilter told me recently she’d taken the liberty of adding some wings – I never noticed that Daisy (angel pattern 0602 in collection 2002) had no wings! What’s the lesson?

• Sometimes things become so self-evident that you stop paying attention – with more or less disastrous consequences. Nothing devastating here, thank heavens, but pay attention to whatever you are doing!
• All angels do not have (visible) wings. Anybody can be an angel in disguise: even your next door neighbor who helps you get your boat and dock out of the water and into the shelter for winter is an invaluable angel.

So Daisy, the wingless angel, doesn’t hit the ground with a flop after all. Even easier than forgetting to draw wings is failing to recognize the real angels among us. That’s what Daisy is telling us. But please, feel free to add some wings to Daisy. She would just love to flirt them and take flight to see what’s up.

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Daisy, everyday angels, pattern, wings

Finally, my first pattern for a long, long time! And a scare: I was just about ready to upload the new pattern when I noticed that Casa Caramellia was gone! The domain had expired! First thing I did was to check that I’d paid the bill, and next I contacted my web hotel provider. Whew, it wasn’t something I did or didn’t do but it was their automated system that had failed to renew the domain name. They fixed the matter the first thing this morning, so the Casa wasn’t down for very long. Hope nobody tried to get in on Sunday.

Change of subject: I wanted to draw an angel who was wearing socks that had holes on them – holy socks, but… well, she insisted on looking nice and wearing striped stockings instead. And to make sure she’s always got a new pair to change into – and that I won’t make her wear worn out socks  - she’s about to start knitting woolen stockings herself. A very resourceful little lady.

Hope you enjoy the pattern and that it keeps you busy till the next angel lands on my desk. This one was a pain, the drawer’s block and all, but it gets easier when you do more drawing and on a regular basis. I hope. Now I notice that the arm doesn’t come out of the sleeve quite right… Oh well.

There’s an old saying “Practice makes perfect” – but remember, you never want to be too perfect. Perfection is hard on your soul. Angels are merciful.

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drawer's block, mercy, new pattern, perfection

The newest angel pattern is still on the drawing board – or rather on my cluttered desk. Too many versions of it, too many lines that won’t settle right, too many pencils, too many pens and liners.This is the drawer’s block. I have to get a change of thoughts to get back on groove…

Last night I went to a concert and saw and heard Dean Bowman perform a couple of amazing songs using his own voice as the sole instrument. I used to think that music without any instrumental background was kind of boring but I couldn’t have been more wrong. When the rest of the band (it was a jazz concert where Bowman was a visiting star) came back and filled the stage with rambling sounds of the piano, trumpet, violin, bass and percussion, it all sounded so cluttered. I notice I use the word “cluttered” a second time here. My desk is cluttered and the music was, all of a sudden, cluttered. Which it wasn’t, of course. It was just that I found Bowman’s voice to encompass it all: clean, no frills.

After the concert I bought Dean Bowman’s new CD: death don’t have no mercy (© 2009 Living Jazz Archive). It has 22 spirituals, and wow, what a fresh and spirited twist.

I’m no music critic and can’t describe the qualities of Bowman’s voice and performance to do him justice. All I can say is AMAZING. If you have a chance, check him out yourself. Here’s a quote from the cover: “On this solo a capella CD, Bowman acknowledges his debt to Black spirituals and gospel as the foundation of his creative development. Though his intimate and soaring interpretations of these immortal standards, Bowman passionately channels the power of the African American experience.”

Back to the drawing block… with Bowman’s Heard the Angels Singing in the background.

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Dean Bowman, drawer's block, music, spirituals

Another autumn evening falling into deep shadows with withered yellow leaves of birch trees. Not much going on, except for a constant buzz of a fly in the window, wanting to go out. Because it doesn’t know it’s cold out there? Because it wants to be free – to die? Why?

And then a moth in the window, out in the cold. The kitchen light attracts the last warriors of the night, but they are doomed. Winter is falling moth by moth.

The imagery of frozen wings and falling seems to dominate my thinking these days. I haven’t drawn angels for a long time, I’ve been down. It’s as if angels, too, have tucked down their wings, and like mere mortals, trudge along the darkening paths with their heels and toes grinding holes in their woolen socks.

It’s hard to recognize a wingless angel with holey woolen socks. Holey? Or holy?

Maybe it’s time to find a pen and start sketching before the inspiration dies. No promises, though. Holy socks might not work at all. Socks are so mundane and -

- smelly.

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drawer's block, fall

I never thought I’d start blogging. I kind of fell out  - or fell in – and it took me ages to surface and fathom what was going on, how things had changed on the Internet. I didn’t even know what a blog was. My old site, Minneko’s Stained Glass Angels, which I created in 2000 and kept on building and updating till 2004, had fallen behind the times, lay abandoned, gathering dust… So, one day last fall when my sky was filled with dark clouds and chilly gusts of wind were blowing through my soul, I  decided to do something about it . Something about my life. About the circumstances. To make hours better, bit by bit, byte by byte.

After a day or two of brainstorming, I came up with a domain name: CasaCaramellia.com, which, I immediately knew, was to be a new home for me on the Internet. I kept rolling the words on my tongue and they tasted delicious, a hint of honey and gingerbread not to be missed, something precious and dear to the mind and soul.

I know, Casa is both Spanish and Italian and means a house, and I’m Finnish and most of the visitors to my pages come from the United States. So, what’s the connection? Well, CASA is a translation of the last part of my surname: KeskusTALO, the whole lot meaning ‘”a house in the middle” or “una casa en el centro”. Furthermore, when you say Casa Caramellia aloud, the meaning conveyed in Finnish is: A PILE OF CANDY! What a perfect name… for a place that is far form perfect, yet. But what a delicious project! Every time I log in to my server or tinker with the code or content, there’s a trace of burnt sugar and toffee in the air. I wonder if you can smell it, too?

Delicious…

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Casa Caramellia, history