Have Your Cake & Eat It Too.

Tonight I was sorting through photos and found this documentation of two cakes I made this past year. In August, my friend Christina called and asked if she could hire me to make her husband John's birthday cake. Having just returned from the berry patch, John got a chocolate blackberry cake with blackberry earl grey buttercream icing. As they are both architects I knew they would appreciate the statue of Jefferson perched in the center. In December, John returned the gesture by putting me to work on a cake for Christina. As it was cold and dreary, my agenda was to create the most cheerful, bright vision of birthday celebration. I made a lemon coconut cake layered with tart lemon curd and coconut cream, adorned with edible snapdragons and rose petals. I have always been enthusiastic about birthday celebrations. I'm glad others are too!

Winter Blues

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Hope your hearts are warmer than the weather! The bitter cold windy day has me feeling grateful to be in a warm apartment, listening to records and drinking coffee with the NY Times. We catered a brunch recently where we served these beautiful saffron & vanilla poached red anjou pears. Tonight, fresh sardines with lemon & olive oil, homemade pizza and baking brownies with madadamia nuts and toasted pecans. Its Valentines Day....of course there is a bit of indulging in sugar, flour, coffee and red wine......MMMMMMMMMM why does being bad taste so good?

2010

Happy New Year! I'm not sure I have any faithful readers after neglecting this blog for MONTHS! I have been writing more in my journals/sketchbooks and also writing lots of letters to keep the mailman/woman in work but still these are lame excuses. Lots happening around here...art shows have come and gone, the holidays, and sadly the passing of my Gram earlier this month. A lot to process. Death forces me to look into the eyes of LIFE. I am going to make it a goal to post something AT LEAST once a month. I swear. I'm really gonna try!

BREAKFAST: A Morning Ritual

I've got a new show of photos up at Milton's on Massachusetts St. This small body of work is more about documentation than photography per se, and I am happy to have made this series happen. My favorite photo is this one, which I blew up larger than life. I love Gram's dishes. We used to eat off these at her and Grandpa's farm. If you live around town please check it out!

Loot

Here's Aaron standing next to a super cool O-L-D juke box at Gold Rush. It did not come home with us, but here's all the stuff that did. Our carnival chalkware collection is growing. Adding Snow White inspired us to procure The Lone Ranger which we found in Iowa on our way back to Kansas. Good junk is GOOD.

Doggy Paddle

We went up to MN for a quick visit a few weekends ago. We timed it with our FAVORITE junking opportunity....a big antique/flea market extravaganza called Gold Rush. It was great to see my family, collect more treasures, hang out with our friends the Onofrios, play dominos with Grandma and swim in my parents pond. Aaron and Mom shared the view of the sunset from a rock that overlooks their gorgeous gardens. Osa learned how to "surf.". Pretty awsome. She was like a little kid...she did NOT want to get out of the water.

Summer Summary

I recognize that most all of my blog entries are retro. Meaning, it takes me generally a month or two to process whats happening and then get my photos organized and reflect. I'm determined to move into fall without dragging summer with me. That said, I have some updates to do before its officially a new season. Its important to pause and summarize some of summer's finest moments. Here are some snapshots of my high school best friend's sufi wedding we went to in NYC. It was a beautiful celebration. We all sat on soft, white sheepskins among hundreds of pink roses. pipi and Mustafa shared vows and a goblet of milk and honey with rosewater. Aaron and I fell in love with the city and vowed to visit more often.