Commencement 2010

Dear Attentive Reader,

Well, it is graduation time again, and, as I have not been asked to give any commencement speeches, I would like to give some advice here, in my blog, to all the recently coined alumni.

First, let me say that it is I, Harriet, hosting the blog today. Once in a while I do get off the new chaise and make my way to the computer. (Though computers aren't really my forte, and this one makes a very loud electronic whooshing sound which gets under my apron.)

Here are three small jewels for you to take home to your own chaise and cogitate at your leisure:

From Mrs. Beeton's Kitchen:
1. Dirty saucepans filled with hot water begin to clean themselves.

From Our First President:
2. Be not immodest in urging your Friends to Discover a Secret.

And from my favorite writer, Eudora Welty:
3. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.

And finally, a picture by the elder weasel, which demonstrates an attitude of great openness which all alumni should endeavor to cultivate in the big, wide world.


Until the next,
I remain,
your trusted rabbit,
and good friend,
Harriet

Weasels Take Up Entomology

Hello Readers and Happy June,

You will be interested to know that the weasels have taken a great interest in bugs. Will the insect world benefit?

The younger weasel is particularly interested in the butterfly and has illustrated the insect's varied career:

1:
2:
3:

4:
The elder weasel has been studying bugs in some sort of laboratory she set up:


Have a closer look:


It does not appear to me that this bug is doing well. What do you think?


Shall we call the ASPCB?

Harriet says we should take that contraption away from the weasels and keep them indoors. She has not always been treated respectfully by the weasels. Nor have I, for that matter. Nor have I.

And on the subject of bugs, Harriet would like to mention the passing of a good friend of hers, Louise Bourgeois. Louise was a great lover of insects and was also very old.


And with that, dear reader, I leave you.

Wishing you a lovely June,
in harmony with bugs,
we remain your
Good Friends,
Harriet and Mickey

Looking for Love

Dear Spring Reader,

Did you read my personal ad? Did you tell your single dog friends about it? I must admit I am baffled by the lack of response. Harriet says that it's too cryptic. She thought maybe someone from the CIA might respond. But I'm not looking for a spy dog! I guess I won't know anyway if a spy dog responds since she will have to lie about her true job. Oh dear.

I felt sure that any seasoned love-seeker would know all the secret codes. And surely the dog for me has been looking a long time for the perfect match, and I will be her happy ending.

In the meantime, I have begun self medicating (as they say). Have you heard of the Bach Flower Remedies, Dear Reader?



They are wonderful little mood alterers in a bottle. To decide which ones are for you, you must begin with a questionnaire.

I am taking Chicory (I need to be needed and want my loved ones close/I feel unloved and unappreciated by my family) and White Chestnut (I relive unhappy events or arguments over and over again). Harriet says I should also be taking Vine (I am strong-willed, ambitious and often bossy), but I don't consider that a problem.



I also picked up a couple of bottles for Harriet: Honeysuckle (I'm often homesick for the "way it was"/I think more about the past than the present), Olive (I feel completely exhausted, physically and/ or mentally) and Water Violet (I give the impression that I'm aloof). I slip them into her morning tea, and just yesterday she sprang from the chaise and said,"Let's do something new this weekend!"

So on tomorrow we're off to the Quincy Library.


Here's wishing you an exciting and new weekend, Dear Friend.

Your Loyal, Lonely,
But Improving,
Dog,
Mickey

Personal Ad

,

with
in search of looking for
.

.
.

Email: mickey@harrietandmickey.com

Office Gossip

Oh, Dear Reader.

I'm feeling a little down today. Sure it's nice having friends and new hires, but things can turn on you so fast. Guess who's no longer welcome in his own bed? Me.

Maybe you even saw it coming: Big Mickey and Bernice. I came down from the office yesterday and guess what I found. This:

Bernice mauling Big Mickey on my bed. "Bernice!" I shouted. "Get off of Big Mickey!"

The two of them sat up abruptly, and I could tell right away that Big Mickey didn't mind being mauled. By Bernice, that trollop, with her tags all hanging out.

"What's going on?" I asked, hopefully. "Did you fall over?"

Silence was the reply I got. And embarrassed looks.

"Oh, I see," I said. "I see how it is."

And that's how it is dear reader. It's not the three musketeers any more. It's Big Mickey and Bernice. And me.


I've been keeping busy. I have other things to do than hang out with them.

But, it does hurt to see my bed taken over in such a manner.


And to not even be noticed when I walk into the room.

I think I might find a new bed to sleep on for a while. Even the weasels would treat me better than this.

Your forlorn
Friend,
Mickey

New Hires

It's bloggy blog time, Read-y Readers!

What today? you wonder. As do we, dear friend. As do we.

Well, I suppose the natural thing to do is to introduce you to our new employees. Mind you, most of these have not passed the 3-month trial period, the Great Perlustration, as Harriet calls it. Although I think that word is more for papers than people. (Harriet loves a long word.)

We put all our employees through a battery of tests, and if they do satisfactorily, they are permanently hired. Some of you who run businesses of your own will understand this.

Here they are in order of hire date.

First Rudy:

He was actually hired before our policy of the 3-month trial. I can't really imagining him passing the tests now. This isn't fair to our new employees who have to, but Rudy has a broken foot, and we can't really kick him out. He announces when someone new has entered the building.

Then Martha:
She's actually been with us for years. A quiet worker. She's in charge of opening the mail.

Next Birdy. Birdy is a new hire, and I'm not certain she'll get tenured. She's a frightened kind of thing and has trouble staying on task.


Martin, below, is our most promising new hire and has won employee of the month both in January and again in March.

Martin is a hard worker, and his only flaw so far revealed is a tendency to talk too much. Of course this doesn't bother Harriet who can barely hear anyhow, but it does annoy me occasionally. Martin does mainly technical, computer work.


Bandit, above, was hired on the same day as Martin. He isn't overly bright, but he is likable. He is Hector's assistant.

Big Jim, above, is not actually a new hire. He is just shacking up in the studio for a couple of weeks. We do that from time to time for good friends. But be assured, Dear Reader, that these visitors do not interfere with the highly productive work of our team.

And finally, Muggers, our wind-up dog. He's not an employee; he's a toy! Did you think we'd hire someone without a proper head? We wind him up every once in a while for a good laugh.


So there you have it Interested Reader. The full staff at Harriet and Mickey, Ink.

As always, you are welcome to come visit us,
And meet the New Hires.
Your friends,
And Responsible Employers,
Harriet and Mickey

Chaise Completed!

Good afternoon Cherished Reader,

Well, you will be relieved to know that the chaise is finished! Printing on fabric is all well and good, but I'm not sure that it saves any time. I believe I could have hand-painted both the shower curtain and the chaise in the same amount of time it took me to print them. What with the washing and ironing, then washing and ironing again. That is enough to fully exhaust a dog like me who has great difficulty simply getting the ironing board out of the closet.


Here is the completed chaise:


Compare to uncompleted chaise.

Harriet says it's firmer with the cover on it, and also enjoys the woodsy feel.

The studio is nearly in tip top shape, nearly ready to resume full production. Just a few more things...

Well. Here's wishing you a delightful weekend,
Your printmaking dog,
and loyal blogger,
Mickey
(with Harriet)

Delays and Polish Illustration

Well, the chaise screenprinting is not complete. That is, there have been some delays. Dear Reader, you can expect to see a completed chaise next week. Dog's Honor.

What do you want to talk about today? Delays? How about an interesting illustration book that I found in the library the other day? It's filled with Polish book illustrations. Here are some of my favorites:

[Click on images to make them bigger.]

This pictures a robber getting away. Zbigniew, himself, looks a little sneaky, doesn't he? Harriet used to date a Zbigniew, and she says he was also sneaky.

Here is my favorite:
A lovely village scene.
This book called Polish Book Illustrations, was published in 1964. That means Krystyna is now 82 years old.

I also like this train picture. I really like to ride on trains and don't get to often, what with things here keeping me so busy.

This one shows an expectant father and son going to a cyrk, whatever that is. I don't think Eryk here ever goes to cyrks.


And finally here is Bohdan Butenko, overseeing his nice pictures. You can see me and Harriet riding on his plane back in Harriet's more adventurous days.



Don't the Polish illustrators dress nicely? Hector thinks we should institute a new dress code in the studio, but as we all know well, he's not in charge.

That is all for now, Dear Reader. Please join us next week,
And please think of us often,
Your friends,
advisors,
and animals,
Harriet and Mickey

The New Math

Good afternoon Reader,

Perhaps you are acquainted with The New Math? It's a new way of doing math. Harriet, apparently, is very against it, being so expertly expert in her multiplication tables. But I am all for more freedom in my calculations. It's kind of like glasnost, but for math.

Annie just finished a new math trilogy, which clarifies the subject. Here it is:


But what does it all mean, you ask.

Well, my good friend, think about it.
Here it is broken down. Start first with the division:



Then calculate the difference between the house and the boy,


Add the two things together and you should come up with this:


If you didn't come up with this answer, then you were wrong.

More on this and other subjects next week.
Your tutor
and friend,
Mickey

Shower Curtains

Hello Readers!

I was away last week so I didn't write to you. This week I am back, and so I will write to you.

Well, the hand-printed shower curtain is finished and is Somewhat Disappointing. Annie didn't iron the prints long enough (you must iron them to set the ink), and much of the ink came out in the wash. Here is the shower curtain with two of the three final stamps done, pre-washing:


And here it is with all three stamps after being washed.


Perhaps we can get Our Roommate with the Sewing Machine to make us another plain curtain to try on. In any event, we were not entirely pleased with the color scheme, so it could be good to have another go at it.

We did, however, make some prints on paper of the "H Monster" print, based on a drawing by the elder weasel. These look terrific:




In better news, Annie is preparing to print our studio chaise with a pattern from by Lena Corwin, who wrote the great printmaking book that has inspired these projects, Printing by Hand. We got a screen made by the kind folks at RC Silkscreening in South Boston. It's beautiful in an of itself.

More on that next week.

Until then, rest assured,
that we wish you
a very Happy Easter,
or at least,
some very good chocolate,
your friends,
Harriet and Mickey

Flooding and Flat Files

Hello Readers,

Here at the H&M headquarters we've had 3 DAYS STRAIGHT of rain. You know what this means: lots of water. Luckily we are situated in the attic and our roof did not leak. Here is a photo of the little brook that passes by our gentle abode.



In other news, we have recently acquired a set of Flat Files (grey ones).


This is a big improvement for the studio and will help keep our important papers flat. We have purchased several big items for the new studio, and I never miss an opportunity to have buyer's remorse.

The purchase of these particular Flat Files involved a Long Drive to a Remote Place, Stopping to Withdraw cash at an ATM, realizing that our ATM card was No Longer in Our Wallet, buying the weasels a Bag of Cheezits, and Convincing a Total Stranger to let us pay with a check. Naturally when it came time to inspect these Flat Files, I was not in the calm and detached state which is ideal for inspecting New Purchases.

When I got them home, I looked them over and thought, "What Have I Done? They are much too heavy and are probably not meant for storing paper at all!"


Do you have Any Idea how much they weigh? Thirty pounds per drawer! That's at least twice as much as I weigh. This was the onset of my buyer's remorse, which I have since recovered from. A local steelworker helped me carry them up to the attic, and so far the floor has not caved in.

In any event, they give the studio a very professional air, which is Much Needed.

I leave you here, cherished blogworm,
safe in the knowledge that our papers are flat,
and,
our roof doesn't leak.

Your good friend,
Mickey