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.

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.

Hungry Cellar 6-13-09

I know, its been almost 2 months since Hungry Cellar happened, but better late than never, right? We held it on my birthday. Our friends Stan and Deanna hosted it out on their property north of town. It was a gorgeous evening...one of the last cool ones where we wanted long sleeves. We had a bonfire after dinner. It was a fantastic night, and a perfect way to celebrate my new year. Alex and Dri played some lovely tunes among the lilies. Chloe Jones made some terrific thoughtful toasts. We had such an array of local produce to choose from. Aaron and I were up the night before until 5am making the homemade pasta for the green lasagnas. Not sure if we'll do that again....our apartment looked like a pasta factory. Grandma Violet would have been proud...she's my Italian granny who called boughten lasagna noodles "rubber straps". Our efforts were appreciated. Down to the last crumb of the just-churned-butter-milk birthday cake with wild gooseberry sauce, zabaglione, and the 2 black raspberries on each plate I procured the minute the farmer's market opened. At 7am. With barely 2 hours of sleep under my belt.

March into April into May

My friend Leslie AND my dad have now gotten "on my case" about needing to blog more. They are both right. Not only do I need to blog more, I need to write more in general. I do stop by the mailbox on my walk to work to send correspondence off at least once a week, its just that I used to write ALL THE TIME. I've been snapping pics at least, so I've got evidence of living.....a full, busy GOOD life. These are pictures taken in March, April and May of the garden. I audibly gasped yesterday when I went out there are saw how gorgeous the arugula and lettuce was. I picked a bunch as well as some cilantro and beet greens and made a delicious tossed salad and ate it with some very French peasant inspired radish sandwiches. perfect.

A Year Ago

Exactly a year ago Aaron, Osa and I spent the afternoon at the beach. I was looking at these photos I took last March 12 in California and couldn't help but long for the vibrancy of spring color. So I bundled up and took a field trip to Sunrise Garden Center and Howard Pine's Greehouse. Perfect fix. Coming soon....photos of March 12 in Kansas.

Plotting and Planning

Today all the seeds I ordered arrived in the mail. I am EXCITED. We are going to have a decent sized garden out in the country at our friend's place. I ordered everything from this great seed supplier in missouri that specialize in heirloom seeds. Looking at all these seed packets gives me the same feeling I get when I'm in the bulk spice section at the grocery store or at a market buying trinkets in a foreign country. I see the potential of the purchase extending beyond what is in my hands. I feel rich because I have the ability to transform this material into something else which has value that extends beyond what I paid for. We're going to get a truckload of compost and manure. I remember when my parents were first putting in our garden at home and my mom was obsessed with enriching the soil with any and all kinds of animal poop. We had chickens, rabbits, goats, a cow, a horse, etc. but the ultimate was when she convinced my dad to get some elephant and tiger shit from the circus that came to town. At the time I thought she was crazy. Now I see she was smart.

Hey Ladies

Tonight I talked to my best lady Kjirsten on the phone. It made me miss her and her lil' family. I could hear Ezra and Ivan playing the electric piano in the background. Is it possible Ivan is teething and crawling? Ezra is WAY into (um, obsessed) with the alphabet and the complexities of not only cellphones but their manuals. This is enjoyable reading material for him. He is three! Almost four. Kjirsten and I got caught up for the most part on the ins and outs of our lives of late. Tho 1600 miles apart, we remain connected in a fierce way and seem to always be going through similar stuff.
Then I got a "Facebook" message from one of the few friends I made in Santa Cruz.... Edith. She has a top notch custom specialty cake baking business. Her cakes are elegant and gorgeous and so is she. Her and her husband have a lovely yard and they were very generous and allowed us to stop by and pick as many Meyer lemons as we wanted even when they weren't home. We are still eating the preserved lemons we made and brought back to Kansas in Mason jars.
These two "conversations" across the distance have me feeling happy yet slightly melancholy. I am very aware of the fact that I can only be in one place at a time and I can't have it all. Usually this is okay, but tonight I wish to be right there with Kiki, James and the boys to hear the piano concert in person. Then I would like to stop by Edith's for a piece of her Meyer lemon poppy seed cake and catch up.

Ports of Call

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this past October. We all went on a family vacation last week to commemorate this accomplishment of sustained love. We went on a Carnival Cruise of the Mexican Riviera. It was wonderful to be in the sun and tho we stopped at super touristy ports, I absolutely love Mexico and any chance I can get to practice my Spanish. We all had a relaxing and fun time. I can't believe that a week ago I was laying on the beach with my whole family. It was a rude awakening to come back to a freezing cold winter. BUT today it was 70 degrees here (crazy!). Today was also my grandma's 90th birthday. It is amazing to think she was born in 1919. Time is absolutely baffling to me. Happy Birthday Gram!

The last bite of fruitcake

The holidays may be over but we still have our tree up. Its a dead branch we found down by the river, painted it white and hung beautiful ornaments from. One of these days I will be compelled to take it down, pack each little glass bird and acorn in paper and wrap up the wooden snowflakes. I have to admit that it was just this evening that I finished off the fruitcake my mom sent. Delicious. Its my grandma's recipe. If you aren't a fan of fruitcake you won't understand. So because I'm literally and figuratively still digesting the holidays, here are some images from the season.

Dulce y Guapo

Now that the holidays are over I am going to catch my breath and catch up my blog. These are pics of the Bourgeois Pig installation that Aaron and I did in November. The paintings brightened up the joint and transformed the space. The opening was a good time...thanks to all who showed up. We always feel so supported by our patrons and pals.

Happy Holidays

The open-house at the boutique where I work BoMo...(short for Bohemian Modern) was my official kickoff to the holiday season.
Getting out the glitter and garland put me in the spirit as did dipping dozens of cherries in chocolate. I invented a new appetizer that everyone was into.... Curry Carrot Cashew with Endive. I'll work on the name... I made a couple dozen ornaments to decorate with as well as filled old jars and bottles with this gorgeous glitter that i acquired a few years ago. I have 3 big barrels of the stuff and its been used for many projects and art shows....my MFA exhibit, etc. Tomorrow is the opening reception for our painting show DULCE y GUAPO and then we are going up to MN on Tuesday for Thanksgiving with my family. I've spent Thanksgiving with Aaron's family for the past 7 years so we are looking forward to sharing the table with my peeps. Its just crazy to think that this time last year we were in Costa Rica starting this blog...and eating a roast chicken in the jungle and later catching a scorpion. wow. a lot has happened since then.

Why I haven't been blogging...

I feel like I've been writing blogs in my head and not sitting down to type. Lately I feel like I am running in too many directions and multi-tasking all along the way. Its all GOOD STUFF that I'm up to, its just A LOT. Multiple upcoming Holiday art/craft sales, decorating for an open house at work, catering the open house, yoga, canning pickles, taking Osa on long walks, baking at the Casbah market, endless laundry, etc. meanwhile Aaron and I have an art show that opens on Sunday that we are finishing working on and gearing up to cater as well.
He and I just decided that maybe in 2009 we can have evenings that are free. When we lived in California we didn't really know anyone so our nights were always all ours. I'm not really complaining. I just want to read a book and chill out. Soon, right?

Hungry Cellar 10-25-08

A very special evening. Its thrilling to see the reward of days of planning, shopping, cooking, shlepping tables & chairs, ironing tablecloths, etc. take place before your very eyes. I love the way food and wine open up new possibilities for conversation, connection and resonance. Becca's words were thoughtful, provoking and revealing. Suzannah's music.....well, it sorta breaks my heart how beautiful it is. really. thanks for everyone's support. We've got a good thing going.