My first trip to hot springs

... dinner at Mother's Bistro in Buena Vista, relaxing into the night in the Cottonwood Hot Springs, camping nearby, breakfast in Salida, hike to stupa in Crestone... take in that mountain air and remind myself this is all only a couple hours away...

Variations of Beige {delicious} Food

A cup of coffee, a few sunflower cookies and a peanut butter sandwich helped energize my jewelry photo shoot. Hopefully VERY soon I'll have my stuff up on etsy.

Garden's Bounty turned to Pesto and a Salad

My 90th post is dedicated to my first true harvest from my garden.
I was thrilled. I felt like a child again going through my garden finding what was ripe.

(my first carrot, cucumber, and onion, in addition to the usual tons of basil, lettuce and spinach... added in are a couple nasturtium and arugula leaves with a few heirloom tomatoes: early girl, black krim and sun sugar)

Inspired by my friend Fe, who showed me how easy and delicious fresh pesto is, I couldn't pass up making it with all the basil I just picked.

I put a handful of basil leaves, a few cloves of garlic, drizzled olive oil over, sprinkled grated parmesan in with a little S&P. I like to add a few nuts, even if not pine nuts, like almonds or walnuts. Then chop / puree, add a splash of the pasta water and it's ready!

voilà:

Maybe I'll come up with something exciting for my 100th post -- like a free pair of earrings giveaway!

Remembering California

This morning is grey, cloudy in the Springs and I feel a bit nostalgic...

1997, visited my aunt, photo taken near Palmdale

Salsify Seed Head

currently working on designs for the William Morris exhibition at FCMOCA

can't wait to see this glass exhibition at FCMOA

Wood Star Earrings

I promised myself that any new jewelry I created would have to go to my etsy shop, not into my own stash.... but I couldn't help myself with this pair of earrings. I love them too much, I have to keep them.

Watermelon Feta Basil Salad and more...

Watermelon Feta Basil Salad Cubes of watermelon covered in a little lemon juice, sprinkle fresh chopped basil and feta on top, salt & pepper to taste, combine and serve - delicious! I enjoy it without the feta, or with olives and a little olive oil, or mint instead of basil.

Yesterday, two very good friends visited. We made jewelry together and drank sangria - so much fun! I made this salad along with banana blueberry walnut scones and strawberry smoothies, too.

(we also had Haystack's Cracked Pepper Goat Cheese, crackers, organic blueberries and raspberries, edamame and chocolate)

Trip to the Denver Art Museum

Sucked into exorbitant prices for the somewhat disappointing King Tut exhibit at the DAM (you don't even see the mask used in all the advertisements, but maybe I'm spoiled by NYC's MET), we instead enjoyed our time in the contemporary section. Kiki Smith's Genevieve and the May Wolf stands guard as you go around a corner to discover a portion of the bizarre building is devoted to Sandy Skoglund's Fox Games installation -- stunning!




And I finally got to see a piece from a recent addition to my list of favorite artists: El Anatsui. He is "a native of Ghana, renowned for his rich, colorful textiles woven from found objects including bottle caps and debris from consumer products." more here from the DAM (pdf)

detail of Rain Has No Father?

Thanks C&Q for a great day!

Early Girl Tomato and the New Woodpile

early girl tomato (see their baby picture below)
My first ripe tomato - to be eaten tonight in a salad - can't wait!


We finally got the woodpile built. I dragged the railroad ties from the back of the yard into a nice 6'x8' formation near the site of the future shed. (previous owner seemed to use the r.r. ties for a compost pile -- who would want creosote in their compost??) Stacked pallets on top of the r.r. ties and then neatly arranged the wood from an elm tree that was cut down in our yard. Looks so much better!


You can see below the baby early girl tomatoes and the pallets and wood waiting to be organized!

photo from early spring

Red White Blue

things from around the house that were, you guessed it, red white and blue...
Happy 4th!

Pollination Painting

I came across this small painting of mine from 2005 and was going to toss it. But instead, I decided to try what pencil is like on the surface of my paintings. Needless to say, I had fun and might use this combo of materials in the future.