Saturday Morn

The weather has been perfect lately. Spring rains and sunshine. I woke up this morning inspired to make some white sangria to sip with friends tomorrow. Then I gathered some lilacs and tulips from my backyard and made this spring bouquet to give Aaron's mom Bonnie later today. We're going to Hiawatha to visit her and Grandma. Aaron is making pizza dough for dinner with them tonight, multi tasking by making mix tapes of Washington Phillips to give Grandma. A good start to the weekend.

For the Birds...

This winter seemed to last FOREVER! 2010 has had its share of loss and disappointment too so when my niece Haley said she wanted to spend spring break with us, I jumped at the chance to welcome her bright spirit into our scene! I arranged to meet my parents in Des Moines as thats the half way point for all of us. They suggested the Des Moines Botanical Center which sounded great. It was a welcome blast of early spring color and cheer. Little did we know that they were also hosting a BIRD SHOW that weekend. From the minute Haley and I were reunited, she was begging I mean B-E-G-G-I-N-G for a bird. Grandpa and Grandma said no, but that was easy for them, as they bid farewell and left me in charge. What's an aunt to do? I mean, Haley does want to be a veterinarian when she grows up, so the way I see it; she needs all the pet experiences she can collect between now and later. The next thing i knew, we both had bird fever....it was so much fun looking at all these beautiful feathered friends. So an hour later we were on our way back to Lawrence for the week with a cage containing a SOCIETY FINCH chirping in the backseat of my car! We were giggling uncontrollably because we had both egged each other on....I mean, she didn't have permission from her dad, and as she pointed out, I didn't have permission from Aaron to keep it either. We figured one of the two situations would pan out. We promptly went to the library when we got home and checked out some books about finches to prove to her dad how responsible she is and how very much she wanted this new pet! Well, of course she got her way (thankfully!) She called me just the other day to tell me that she and her dad had just gotten home from the pet store where they got FlapJack the finch a new (much bigger) cage and a millet seed stick. I'm certain that the next call will be to tell me they got him a cage mate...

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.