ART 4500, Spring 2017

Weaving.

So far, we have done Duct tape wearables ( I made a little tote bag), felt collage (mine is a pheasant), needle felting (apple blossoms), and  now this weaving on a homemade loom. Next is a fabric collage of a person or figure...should be interesting. A final independent project is also required, but I am taking this for FUN and a hard, final project does not sound fun to me. A ten page research paper? Ha! Well, to be fair, only 5 of the ten pages need be research. The rest is instructions and directions so that others may accomplish the same thing.

Spring Blossoms

We have a lot of blooming trees in the neighborhood that I have been REEEALLY enjoying.  Even though my eyes are a bit red, burnie and itchy.
Also, Spring is not here to stay. I'm guessing we'll have at least three more snows before winter really ends.  At Least.  So, we probably won't really enjoy any fruit from our trees this year, but you can never tell.

This is in my backyard. The white on the ground is apricot blossoms that have blown off the neighbor's trees that are ALL White and in full bloom.

These are little jonquils by the back fence, struggling up through the trashy leaves from old junk I never got cleaned up in the Fall. It's good that they are so hardy and forgiving.

We have a fairly young plum shrub in our back yard. It's blooming. Last year we got about 20 plums off it it.

Periwinkles (?) under the apple tree. Again, struggling up through all the dead, trashy stuff.

Grape Hyacinths that are blooming through our very weedy grass.

Now THESE are hyacinths!  They live down the block on the corner and are so pretty every year, contrasting with the bright red tulips early in the spring. In later spring there are HUGE Peonies, and summer brings roses! These people have a great yard.

More pretty pink blossoms on the way home from work today.

This is somehow skewed. The phone pole really is straight, but the willow behind it is quite lovely, all decked out in the new spring-y colors.

Another pretty shrub on my way home.

Apricot blossoms. On my way home.

A flowering something tree in my friends' front yard. On the way home today.

Beautiful forsythia on the way home.

And this lovely flowering (non-fruit-bearing) pear tree is right where I park my bike every day. It is gorgeous. I don't think many bees are out yet, as it is sometimes just a - buzzin' when in full bloom like this.  So pretty.!!  Love my Town.

Another "Foodie" post.

Because I love good food and books on food and about food and so forth, and because I always was overly proud of the fact that my kids were basically not picky eaters, I'm including the catalog record of the book below. It's big. (Eric said I should read it). I need to lose the pride. It was luck, pure and simple.  But this article that Eric shared with me as a great deal of food for thought. Pun intended. ;-)

http://news.nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu

Currently, my refrigerator contains drawers of produce and very little cheese and processed foods (except that yummy, sugary yogurt).
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In my library:

• Brief Record 
• Full Record

• MARC Record

  Salt, sugar, fat : how the food giants hooked us 
  Moss, Michael, 1955-

  Personal Author:

  Moss, Michael, 1955-

  Title:

  Salt, sugar, fat : how the food giants hooked us / Michael Moss.

  Edition:

  1st ed.

  Publication info:

  New York : Random House, [2013]

  Physical description:

  xxx, 446 p. ; 25 cm.

  Contents:

  Prologue : "The company jewels" -- Sugar : "Exploiting the biology of the child" ; "How do you get people to crave?" ; "Convenience with a Capital 'C'" ; "Is it cereal or candy?" ; "I want to see a lot of body bags" ; "A burst of fruity aroma" -- Fat : "That gooey, sticky mouthfeel" ; "Liquid gold" ; "Lunchtime is all yours" ; "The message the government conveys" ; "No sugar, no fat, no sales" -- Salt : "People love salt" ; "The same great salty taste your customers crave" ; "I feel so sorry for the public" -- Epilogue : "We're hooked on inexpensive food."

  Summary:

  In the spring of 1999 the heads of the world's largest processed food companies, from Coca-Cola to Nabisco, gathered at Pillsbury headquarters in Minneapolis for a secret meeting. On the agenda: the emerging epidemic of obesity, and what to do about it. Increasingly, the salt, sugar, and fat laden foods these companies produced were being linked to obesity, and a concerned Kraft executive took the stage to issue a warning: There would be a day of reckoning unless changes were made. This executive then launched into a damning PowerPoint presentation, 114 slides in all, making the case that processed food companies could not afford to sit by, idle, as children grew sick and class-action lawyers lurked. To deny the problem, he said, is to court disaster. When he was done, the most powerful person in the room, the CEO of General Mills, stood up to speak, clearly annoyed. And by the time he sat down, the meeting was over. Since that day, with the industry in pursuit of its win-at-all-costs strategy, the situation has only grown more dire. Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It is no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It is no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes. The processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year. In this book the author explores his theory that the food industry has used these three essential ingredients to control much of the world's diet. He traces the rise of the processed food industry and how addictive salt, sugar, and fat have enabled its dominance in the past half century, revealing deliberate corporate practices behind current trends in obesity, diabetes, and other health challenges. Features examples from some of the most recognizable and profitable companies and brands of the last half century, including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Frito-Lay, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more.

  Subject term:

  Nutrition--Economic aspects--United States.

  Subject term:

  Food habits--Economic aspects--United States.

  Subject term:

  Food industry and trade--United States.

  Subject term:

  Nutritionally induced diseases--United States--Popular works.

  Subject term:

  Salt.

  Subject term:

  Diet.

  Subject term:

  Fat.

  Subject term:

  Sucrose.

  Subject term:

  Sugar.

  Subject term:

  Nutrition.