The LinkedIn blue bubble incident

You know that blue circle which keeps popping up on your page... the one demanding that you "finish your profile"... well, I finally got sick and tired of it, and I thought, Okay... let me get rid of it.  I took a look as to what its demands are, and, of course,  the demand ends up being "ask for recommendations."  I don't particularly like doing this, and it's why I still have not done it, but I thought, if it will help me not see that darn blue bubble, I will do it.

I clicked on the link and ALL of my LinkedIn connections popped up on the screen! Overwhelming much? YES!  I thought... well, that is a lot of work... Okay, I will simply say "please recommend me, and if we have not worked on a project together, here's a link to my work"

Sounded like a great idea at the time, but... let me give you a heads up, don't ever do this!
Apparently people whom I know thought it was spam because I said "if I don't know you", and the people with whom I have not done a project thought it was spam because I said "please recommend me." LOL

The Moral Of The Story:

Leave the blue bubble alone,
even if it's driving you crazy!





Ps.
I have 1 recommendation from Sandra Prater (thank you for taking the time Sandra:)
a bunch of "Izabela, is this spam?" letters
and One Blue Bubble, which just won't go away:)

My trip to Rohde's Green Sense

This year I decided to start an organic garden... and to go with an above ground one!
Laimis purchased a whole lot of organic dirt from the store across the street from the Dallas Arboretum.

They said that the soil had 3 different kinds of things inside it, for organic gardening, but when the truck arrived home I looked at it and had to squint... it looked more like mulch than something I'd picture vegetables growing in... but, I thought... what do I know... I just remember gardening from Poland and the dirt might be different.

Well... I guess I knew something after all, because after spending a whole lot of money on seeds and plugging in a few tomato plants, nothing grew past the 1 or 2 original inches of growth.

I finally talked to a neighbor who told me to take a trip to Rohde's!  ...and so I did!

Turns out, all those pieces of wood inside the so called "garden soil" ate out all the oxygen and so the poor plants were basically suffocating! I picked up some organic fertilizer, which would put a whole lot of nitrogen inside the dirt and hopefully by next year I'd have a garden:)

I didn't remove any of the original plants because I wanted to see what would happen, and in no time what so ever, my tiny cucumber plant started turning into a large cucumber vine!  The other ones were not so lucky!

But,! and this is the reason I was most impressed by Rohde's, I did see sorrel plants at the store and was just blown away!  The last time I saw sorrel growing anywhere was in Europe!  I picked up one (I didn't want to throw money out the window if the fertilizer was't going to help) and planted it in the newly doctored soil.  It's growing!!

So, back to the sorrel!  I know that in Europe it's the most common spring green laying around the kitchen, but why is it that no one seems to eat it here?  I've never seen it at the grocery store.  It has a lovely citrusy bite and it's excellent in a sorrel soup, or paired with fish or chicken.

You should always cook it in aluminum, otherwise you'll end up with an ugly color because of the oxalic acid in the plant.  If you don't care about the color, cook it however you'd like... it's still going to have a great taste!

These are not my recipes, but here are a few:

Salmon in Sorrel Sauce

Butter-Braised Radishes with Sorrel

Cauliflower and Sorrel Soup

Have Fun!

Second Time Around: The Hubcap as Art

Several years ago I got an invitation from Ken Marquis, the founder of Landfillart Project to participate in an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece of rusted metal garbage and create fine art. The pieces of trash were made up of old automobile hub caps from the 1930's through the 1970's and mine arrived in a large box just a few days after our initial conversation. It was an old chrome Chevrolet piece, rusted in places and most definitely mistreated by the time it had spent in the landfills; using it as a canvas was not an option for me; this piece was begging to reveal the beauty hidden beneath the patina of time. I decided to strip the piece to its core, finding the gold underneath the silver; jackpot! The freshly unearthed metal looked as if the piece had been molded just that day... I decided to distress the piece and apply a dark patina to the surface, lightly taking off the high areas, and slowly, but surely, creating art. I loved it so much that I really didn't want to send it back. After a few days of enjoying the piece at my home, it was finally time to pack it up and ship it back to Landfillart.org, where it could do some good for our precious earth.

Today I have been informed that a bunch of the pieces were chosen to be displayed at the MSV in Virginia!  Here are a few other pieces which will be on display:

ABOUT THE MSV EXHIBITION

The exhibition of environmentally inspired contemporary art, Second Time Around: The Hubcap as Art will present the works of 287 artists from every US state and 35 other countries from Sunday, September 7, 2014 and run through March 1, 2015.

In support of the opening of Second Time Around, the MSV will concurrently present WASTE NOT, a version of the exhibition Green Revolution which is made available by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service based on an exhibition originally created by the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, and its Black Creativity Council.

To top the cake with a cherry, my piece is being displayed on the front page of Landfillart.org; how fun is that!