Day Six Prompt for the Creative Challenge is:
FAMILY VACATION.
Send me what ya’ got! Stories in the comment section below; images in an email.
Cheers,
Rita
Monthly Archives: July 2013
July Creative Challenge, Day 5: Rainbow
Ohhh so many RAINBOW images to choose from, its hard to pick just one. They seem to be everywhere.
The other day I was in town looking for a car. A storm had just blown through, and when the downpour ended the sales man and I went out onto the lot. He kept looking distractedly over my shoulder. That seemed odd, considering he was laser focused on trying to sell me a car at all other points in our conversation. That was his job after all. Then after a few minutes he just stopped his sales pitch. He gave up talk of miles-per-gallon-highway, and automatic-transmission and rear-window-defrosters. His smile turned from sales-man professional to shy and wonder-filled. “Sorry” he said with a nod, “but there’s the most amazing rainbow behind you.” I turned around. And sure enough he was right.
I haven’t decided on the car, but I think the guy turned from “Sales man” to HUMAN in that instant. Rainbows can do that.
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I think my favorite Rainbow story happened when my daughter was little. A raucous thunderstorm came through the area and left us with a few downed branches and an awesome rainbow.
It was the biggest, closest, most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen.
Clear from the danger of the storm my daughter and I put on our rain boots. I took her hand and we walked over to the edge of the neighbor’s cornfield.
The corn was hip high to me, but was just at above her head.
The edge of our known world.
A fence that divided us from else-where and other-ness.
It felt as if we two were all alone in our little Zone.
I picked her up and held her on my hip as we watched the rainbow and sang nonsense songs and talked.
I knew that the rainbow would fade as the angle of the sun adjusted, but this memory would remain brilliantly vivid thru the red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo of life.
July Creative Challenge Day 5 Prompt
Since I do a weekly writing challenge from SidevieW I thought I’d roll that into the July Creative Challenge (and co-opt her prompt — hope you don’t mind Sidie).
Tomorrow’s Creative Challenge Prompt is:
RAINBOW
You know the drill. Leave a comment with your written creation or send me an email with you artistic works. (I’ve been checking my g-mail account, but I haven’t seen anything… so if you think you’ve sent something drop me a comment.)
Cheers,
Rita
PS if you want to follow SidevieW’s writing challenge go HERE, and tell her I sent you.
43 Presidents, 43 Quotes
Kovie Biakolo and the folks at Thought Catalog came up with a nice list of Presidential quotes for the Fourth of July. Enjoy!
July Creative Challenge Day 4: PRIDE
Well, it’s the Fourth of July and here in America that elicits a lot of PRIDE in our Founding Fathers. So for today’s challenge I did a word collage based on the Declaration of Independence and the original signers.
My Declaration word collage.
The Declaration is an amazing document and it is worth a trip to the National Archives in Washington DC to see it in person (along with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the 1217 Magna Carta. I’d also strongly suggest a trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA where the Declaration was debated and adopted.
Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Like the Bible and the Constitution people read the Declaration in different ways, often to fit their specific needs. Indeed, when Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Livingston and Sherman put their heads together to come up with the document they had their disagreements, and before the Second Continental Congress finally adopted it copious compromises had to be accommodated. Alas, certain races and sexes had been edited out of the “all men” altogether (not that women were ever really in the mix to begin with.) Yet, despite it’s flaws and the flaws of the men who signed it, the Declaration remains one of the best treatises on the rights of individual man and of independent states ever written.
I encourage you to read it in its entirety. Here’s a full transcript of the Declaration. Or to listen to it HERE from NPR.
The Assembly Room inside Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
For more information on the signers I suggest delving into the profiles posted on The Society of The Descendants of the Signers of the declaration of Independence. Click HERE to read about John Penn from North Carolina (who I picked at random). John Penn was instrumental in organizing the North Carolina delegates to vote for Independence. He:
- He served in the Continental Congress for six years
- He signed the Declaration of Independence
- He signed the Articles of Confederation
- He signed the Halifax Resolves (the North Carolina Constitution)
- He was virtual dictator of North Carolina at what arguably was the turning point of the American Revolution in 1781-1782 [DSDI1776.com]
John Penn (Continental Congress) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
July Creative Challenge: Day 4
The Creative Challenge prompt for Day 4 is:
PRIDE
Show me what you got. Send visual or written responses to my email.
Cheers,
Rita
Farm Fresh Challenge: Fava Flavor
Yes! Fava Beans were featured in this week’s CSA box from Calvert’s Gift Farm. They are a little labor intensive, but the taste factor is worth it.
Bounty from the box. This today I’ll used zucchini (far left), basil (leff), fava beans (top), onion (bottom), garlic (2:00). We also got broccoli, cukes, lettuce and eggs.
Welcome to another edition of Farm Fresh Challenge / Chopped Parkton.
![[Not associated with the real Chopped, the Food Network or Tim Allen.]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fn_chopped-logo_s500x500-copy.jpg){kind=logo}
[Not associated with the real Chopped, the Food Network or Ted Allen.]
2 lb Fava Beans
1 Large Zucchini (or 3 small Zucchini)
1 medium Onion
1 Garlic
Basil
FROM THE PANTRY:
Olive Oil
S&P
Garlic Salt
Lemon
Paper Towels
FROM THE FRIDGE:
Grated Italian Cheese
1lb Beef Cubes
Directions:
1. Fava Beans are kind of a pain to prepare, so stick with me. First bring a large pot of water to boil. Shell the outer pod of the Favas and discard the husk. Put the beans in the hot water to par boil them for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water until they are cool enough to handle.
Fava bean with par boiled shell still in place.
You aren’t done yet. Peal off the outer shell to reveal the inner bean. This lighter green Fava Bean is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Top — Fava good
Bottom — Fava bad (well Fava still in the outer shell, and it will TASTE bad if you eat it.)
2. Dry out the pot and add 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil. Heat to hight.
3. Dice Onion and mince Garlic. Add to the Olive Oil. When the Onions are translucent toss in the Fava Beans. Sautée for 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer all the ingredients to a bowl lined with a paper towel.
4. Mash and squeeze in the juice of a half a lemon and mix. Cover to keep in heat.
Sautéed Zucchini
1. Cut the Zucchini into strips 4″ x 1/2″ x 1/2″. Add to the already hot oil in the pan (add more oil if necessary.) Sprinkle with Salt, Pepper and Garlic Salt. Cook each side of the Zucchini Strips for 3 minutes.
Transfer to paper towel lined plate and pat with additional paper towels to remove excess oil. Transfer to a bowl and top with Italian Cheese. Repeat with all but 1 cup of remaining Zucchini. Cover bowl to retain heat.
2. Set remaining Zucchini aside to serve uncooked.
Sautéed Beef
1. Carefully place the Beef Cubes into the hot oil. Sautée for a few minutes on each side until brown. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and pat dry to remove excess oil.
2. Plate quickly before he beef gets cold.
The final dish has Zucchini two ways (Sautéed with Italian Cheese and raw), Sautéed Beef, and Fava Mash.
This was delicious, but frankly I’ll never cook Zucchini this way again. Too much trouble and too much oil for me. The Beef with the Fava Bean was fabulous.
July Creative Challenge Day 3: EXPLORATION
Welcome back to the July Creative Challenge. Today’s prompt is: EXPLORATION.
I invite you to send in your visual or written entries.
—————————————————————————–
I knew when I came up with this prompt that I wanted to do a title graphic that evoked a 1970’s TV SciFi space exploration program, and that sent me on my own exploration of sorts. An EXPLORATION of type.
As a graphic designer I have hundreds of typefaces on my computer, and millions more are a few clicks away on the internet. Most are utilitarian stalwarts with proper serifs or a crisp no nonsense ariel-esque san serif style. And I use them day in and day out for communicating proper, no nonsense things. But I’ve got a special file with oddball typefaces like Legion and Comic Age incase Gene Roddenberry should come back from the grave and stand at my desk demanding “Damn it Rita, I need a logo for space ship, not a newsletter!”
Then I could whip out that special file and present him with something like this…
“Exploration” in Comic Age
Or this…
“Exploration” in Legion
Of course I’d spend a lot more time on a real logo than I did these quickies, but Gene would no doubt be impressed enough to reward me with a red shirt and a one way ticket with the Away Team to Alpha Centuri Seven, or something.
When I teach Graphic Design to young people they always go for either the typeface that has the name that is closest to their own (I suspect it makes the typeface easier to remember) or the typeface that is the wildest, funkiest, and busiest. I try to assure them that if they stick with design they’ll have 4 or 5 decades to explore typefaces, and they don’t need to put every trick into this one pony.
You’ve got to fit the typeface to the project or the only thing you are communicating is that you are a bad communicator.
What message would it have given the reader if I’d ignore the obvious choice for the TUDORs yesterday (Goudy Text MT) and went with something less appropriate…
“Tudor” in Goudy Text MT and GiddyUp. King Henry is NOT amused.
Sometimes when I’m in the processof picking a face I employ the guitar tuning method. I type in the word (as I would pluck the guitar string) and then I try a face I KNOW is wrong (just as I turn the tuning peg on the guitar too far so it is too flat). KNOWING it is JUST TOO WRONG helps me find the true tone (both on the guitar and in Font Book).
Want to “explore” some fun, funky typefaces (aka waste an afternoon)? Visit this site… They have 1,001 “free” fonts.
Related articles
- The Art of Typography (tigerprint.typepad.com)
- Moving Type (dropsomespecs.wordpress.com)
- July Challenge Day 2: TUDOR (ritalovestowrite.com)
July Challenge: Day 3
I hope you are warming up to the Creative Challenge. Remember you can do anything creative. Just get those juices flowing. (And keep it clean.)
The challenge for tomorrow is: EXPLORATION
I’m interested to see what you come up with. Written responses can be left as a comment. Images… you can email me.
Cheers,
Rita
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