It's obviously been a while since I've updated my journal here. Where's my assistant? Help.

I've been performing at some choice festivals of late and more intimate listening venues and house concerts. Good times, seriously.

Between the music & performing I have become slightly obsessed with making recycled bottle cap necklaces. I have many scanned on my Facebook page if you'd like to see more. The inspiration is endless, I am a pig rolling in the proverbial mud pit from hell. Yee ha.

All is well, I am the luckiest person to have such wonderful family and people in my life. Now, if I could just learn how to be organized!

Love ~

The Women and Gender Studies Program is pleased to announce “Sex in the Kitchen: Gender and the Development of Kitchen Furnishings in the Twentieth Century,” a lecture and conversation with professional cabinetmaker and writer Nancy Hiller. Hiller will speak on Monday February 22, at 7pm in Room 25 L at Stetson University. All welcome. Refreshments will follow. Cultural credit available for Stetson students. 

This illustrated presentation will discuss the origins and historical background of the contemporary American kitchen, considering how gender, advertising, and other influences have shaped its development. Hiller will also talk about her experience as a woman in a field traditionally occupied by men and will present several examples of kitchens she has designed for houses of various period styles, including Queen Anne, Tudor and Georgian Revivals from the '20s and '30s, and a mid-century modern ranch.

Hiller is based in Bloomington, Indiana. After earning a City & Guilds of London certificate in furniture making in 1980, she was employed by several custom woodworking shops in England and the United States. Since 1995 she has operated NR Hiller Design, Inc., a custom furniture and cabinetmaking business that specializes in period-authentic kitchen cabinetry, in addition to built-ins for other rooms. Her writing, furniture, and cabinet work have been published in several national periodicals, among them Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding, American Bungalow, and Old-House Interiors. Her book, The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History, was published by the Indiana University Press in 2009.

I started the new year by losing my sweet friend, protector and dog of 14 years, Beaner Hiller Wilson, aka Beanie Wheenie Peepolini (his Italian name). 

I first saw Bean and his mom Nellie in Miami's design district, hairless, walking the streets. Nellie barely approaching people, begging for food with her eyes and cowering body, Beanie following behind, visibly afraid. I thought about them for 2 weeks and then returned to the design district to visit my friends Michelle and Steve at their photo gallery. There were Nellie and Bean on the street, I told Michelle I was going to take them home. 

Two hours later, after pinning Bean under a car to catch him and Steve rigging a comedic trap in order to catch Nellie, I had my two red mange and flea infested, hairless dogs! Yippee. 

They stayed at the vet for a week or so and then came home. I recall sitting in the garage with them staring at me, mess everywhere, thinking, "What the hell have I just gotten myself into?" I cried and called my mother saying, "It's like I have two children!" I would walk my hyena looking Nellie and giant eared Beaner in the upper middle class Skylake neighborhood, nervous that someone would haughtily ask what kind of dogs they were. I finally decided that Nellie would be a very rare 'Mongolian Hairless', (my own breed). 

They tore up all the plants in the back yard, dug holes, drove my boyfriend crazy. They grew hair and Nellie was gorgeous, with a long gold/red coat.

They lived on Drayton Island with my parents for some years while I did some touring, then back with me. I moved to St. Augustine and they were in heaven. We had a wonderful time, the three of us. Going to the soccer field near my apartment downtown, the dogs chasing each other, smiling, I can see both their faces. 

On one of my early dates with my husband Chip I was returning from a couple performances in South Florida and had the dogs with me. Chip let BOTH dogs sit on his sofa and I almost fell over. He scored out of the park with that move.

Neither dog ever showed much affection to anyone other than myself or my mother and father but during his last couple years Bean would actually walk up to Chip for a scratch. He even walked up to a very few select friends. Nellie died two years ago, they were wonderful dogs.

I can't believe how much I miss them. 

(Please excuse any grammatical errors)

I am venturing back to the bowels of South Florida for one show in February! It will be on Valentine's Day at The Downtowner in Ft. Lauderdale (ok, not quite the bowels). More to follow!!

Peace

Happy * Healthy * Prosperous * Calm * Organized, (please Lord, let me learn the fine art of organization) New Year to you all!

Love,

Magda