Things happening in my yard right now.

Daffodils planted in the front yard? A bit of a disappointment. Of the 80 I put out 40/40 over the past two years, who knew that so many would come back without a blossom? I refuse to hate on them tho, because the ones that showed up were THIS PRETTY!

Backyard is another story and where I spent my time this weekend. (I think that thermometer in the direct sun was reading about 80º. It was really about 65º).

It's so Spring-y here this year. Everything is blooming and not getting destroyed by rain in the process. Like these little delicate blossoms...


And all this shaded green stuff... I swear someone is making up for last year. And it's happening so significantly in the past few weeks, I honestly feel we're making up for lost time. In my opinion, last year was such a drag weather-wise that we've practically already made up for it in nice days.

I feel like we are in for an incredible Spring/Summer season. Surely this tree outside my bedroom window is optomistic!

My Mom Does It.

Click any image to enlarge.

Just before I went down to my parent's for Easter, Lisa over at A Bloomsbury Life did a post on A Well-Layered Room. My Mom totally does this. So while I was there, I snapped shots of a couple rooms. She does it outside too, as you can see above (dang those redbuds are pretty!). I regret not getting the family of stone rabbits on the shelf under the grill. Oh well... here's her sun porch. Note the collection of McCoy pottery in the shadows on the shelf above the windows.


And next a kind of overall shot of the living room, kitchen table, and hints of the kitchen. There are endless things to look at everywhere you glance. This style is not for everyone I know, but she has a definite knack for putting a room, full of little vignettes, together. (I'm not sure if you can see it – click to enlarge – but the wall to the right in the kitchen? She even hand painted a plaid pattern on it).

Here she is playing solitaire... with original, beautiful and personal stuff all around her.

I mean, this is her LAUNDRY room, where I'm pretty sure she pretends to "work" but doesn't really.


I swear this stuff is basically in storage, waiting to be rotated into the main living areas when their time comes, but still, it's set up like this in this little room no one even sees.

Not to be outdone, my Dad actually even does this in the garage. This is in case he, or anyone he knows, doesn't have time to make it to the local Wal-Mart and finds themselves in a fishing "emergency". The other side of this wall is likewise full, and there is another whole wall like it I didn't photograph. Behind it you might notice meticulously organized tools underneath a valance of fishing lures, and it's surrounded by collections of maps, baseball hats, and stacks of outdoor/fishing/golf magazines – all at your disposal in case you "need" them.

These 'collections' are ways I find that make a house a home. Rotating them around your living areas to look at every day is a wonderful way to express yourself, your passions, and to keep life interesting. At least, I think so.

Baby Girl Piglet.

For Jr. & Jess's little girl.

Go-to Pasta.

I made this one up. I can't remember if I've ever talked about the love I've had for sausages lately (or over the past year and a half). Just writing that sentence makes me think probably not because I can't get over the concept of how saying I'm loving sausages sounds. Whatever. I'm over it. When I go the AMICI Italian Market, I can't NOT get the Sicilian Sausages. Last time I got four, and froze them in sets of two. Because undoubtedly I need to make this recipe at least once a month. Normally when I'm making this, I use spicy Italian turkey sausage. That is of course unless I'm splurging on these Sicilians. They are outta this world.

So last night after a week of attempting to eat Paleo, the big reward (even though I'd had a few cheats along the way) was some really rich, really decadent pasta for dinner. My pasta go-to. Normally I break up the sausage out of the casing and brown it first. But while it was thawing, I started with the vegetables. A red onion, a green pepper, and a red and/or yellow pepper (or in this case, what I had left of the red and yellow pepper slices in the fridge). You can totally scale this up or down, with more or less of any of these ingredients, depending on how much you want to make.

Slice these up and cook them in olive oil over a medium-low heat until they are brown and sorta caramelized. Soft, not crisp. I do this on a low enough heat that I can leave the stove for 10 minutes at a time and then return to stir them up. It takes me about 30 minutes to get the effect this way. Set aside.

In the same pan, squeeze the sausage out of the casing and brown the bite-sized pieces. About 5-10 minutes. (See those red pepper bits? You don't get these with Jenny-O turkey sausage. This is the Sicilian version).

Return the vegetables to the pan and mix them all together with the sausage.

Add the sauce. This is where I totally cheat, and I don't feel bad about it one bit. I use sauce from a JAR! Seriously, my favorite is the house brand Arrabbiata from Safeway. No kidding. If you can get your hands on this I highly recommend it as my favorite jarred sauce, but really, just use your favorite sauce from a jar. Add enough that the sauce-to-meat/vegetables consistency is to your liking.

You can stop there and add your pasta, but if you want to go all out, add some heavy cream or half/half. Again to your liking for color/consistency.

Then add your favorite cooked pasta. I prefer rigatoni or linguini. Top with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Voila. Better – or comparable to – anything you could get in a restaurant. (In my humble opinion).

Around the World Wide.

This one moved me.

More here.

Via Even Cleveland.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's is one of those holidays kinda like New Year's and Halloween that really does nothing for me. I do love that it's celebrated so enthusiastically every year for at least a week by the people who love it.

Would you get a load of these three kids? They are the sons of friends of mine and I got this card in the mail yesterday. I go around and around and around the picture – they are all my favorite!

(And they're standing right in front of my building).

Things are growing!

Now that I have my own yard, I think I've developed a true love of Spring – previously for me a rather ho-hum season. Mostly because it always ticks me off that it takes so long for it to get HOT out once we see the forest thru the trees and a subtle end to winter.

Seeing these things growing helps me tremendously.

I definitely think it will still snow, and our temperatures in the 50s will suddenly plummet again below freezing. But signs like this give me hope. I LOVE that "new green" color. And when the dead branches on things in the back yard finally bud, after looking like it's impossible for them to do so for so long, my heart might swell and burst with joy.

For now, I can look forward to the day when, long before we hit 80º, the 80 daffodils in my front yard sway their golden heads in the breeze. Good times.

Bolognese and Meatballs.

After I watched a bunch of kids and a couple of my friends get their heads shaved in support of kids with cancer* at the biggest suburban 1-block block party I have ever seen, I did some grocery shopping. I love grocery shopping. I went to AMICI Italian Market, Whole Foods AND Dominick's this afternoon.


Last night Dave talked me through his meatball recipe and his variations on Lidia's Bolognese recipe. I haven't had a full fridge in weeks. So it was exciting to fill it today with all kinds of stuff, but even more so to spend the evening making sauce and meatballs.

*This was I think the 3rd St. Baldrick's event hosted by this particular block in my neighborhood. They have raised over $32,000 this year! Something like 100 people shaved their heads. It was really incredible to see, regardless of the pelting rain and chilly temperatures. Like a not-so-mini-St. Patrick's Day extravaganza. Carts dispensing shots of whiskey, Blackhawk's and Sox Southpaw mascots, fire trucks, port-a-potties. It was awesome!

Katie's.

Finished today. Gouged my thumb with an x-acto while doing so. It's still bleeding (45 minutes later). Funny thing about that is right before I did it, I thought, You're going to stab yourself. I was doing something really dumb.

I documented the path this one went on in my journal and thru sketches and photographs. I might spend the rest of the day writing it up. It's given me an idea for a series. I loved making it.

Julie & Matt's: Two Partridges in a Pear Tree.

Finally gave this one away to my dear friend and her new husband. A little wedding present if you will.

Missed the opportunity to post a couple.

On our way to the Midwest Crossfit Sectional, we did do a little cultural and hit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. No pictures allowed! But this one counted. For real when we walked in at a distance I thought these people could have been those "live mannequins" you sometimes see. They were fake, actually. Try not to notice, but I'm wearing my sweatpants jeans... Don't judge!? I was in the car for over 5 hours and wanted to be comf.

For fun here's the classic from our arrival at the designated Crossfit Hotel.

The Peonies.

One glares right, one left. One's on the angle. You get the idea even though it's not an entirely accurate representation.

I sweated this one. I love when I'm sick to my stomach with nerves and then everything works out way better than I could have imagined. Linette was an incredibly gracious "client", who seemed to enjoy the painting when she saw it. I have to give props and thanks to all my friends who encouraged me with this one – that I was NEEDY along the way is an understatement! But I feel a confidence boost from positive results, and I'm looking forward to another couple of small projects and the pending i55 series I plan to bring out to Steamboat this summer.

What can I say, I'm in the mood... Finally!

To view how this one began, click here, and here. What a difference some inspiration makes!

Art Institute, Part Three: Just the space.

We had to wait a while to be seated to lunch so we walked out onto the patio on the third floor by the restaurant and imagined how wonderful it would be to sit out there listening to a concert at the pavilion below in the summertime, having cocktails and/or dinner and just generally enjoying a leisurely evening.


The new Modern Wing is so linear and white, with a backdrop of scenery that is both modern and classic, traditional. We split our entrees, Michelle's a whitefish encrusted in almonds with grilled fennel and some kind of potato puree, mine a small piece of steak cut into six bites, topped with a poached egg and greens, swimming in some kind of sauce. Michelle had a beer and I had a pomegranate lemonade, and we ended the meal with coffee... And then ordered a frozen chocolate and nugget mousse with chopped salted peanuts throughout on a plate of caramel, described by the waiter as a frozen Snickers bar. Hello?

Two more pieces I enjoy:

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Art Institute, Part Two: Hanne Darboven.

So I think my favorite in the Modern Wing is Seven Panels and Index by Hanne Darboven, 1973. Difficult to photograph – it's under glass. The first time I saw it, I went home and googled her. I don't know, then I really loved her completely.

An excerpt from one article:

"Anyone who visited her at her family's estate just south of Hamburg has a story to tell--about, for example, her cohabitation with Piephans, the canary, and the various Mickeys, several generations of identically named miniature goats. Each morning at 4:00, Hanne would bring them the same type of cookie. She worked until 11:00 A.M., then granted one hour when she could be visited or reached over the phone. Regularity, discipline, austerity, asceticism and obsessiveness were among her idiosyncrasies--both in her work and her life--since she regarded 'being and doing [as] one.' "

Via DB Art Mag.

I mean, she kept miniature goats? Named them ALL Mickey? How awesome is that? And she smoked, made no apologies for it, and apparently continued to do so until it ultimately killed her last year. One thing I read was that if she was awake, she was smoking. What a unique person. Making thousands of annotative deliberate hand written collections, her work apparently fills barns and buildings on her family's estate.


The majority of the piece at the AI looks like sheets of ledger paper with a cursively written "u". Filling whole pages, all with distinct yet seemingly random meaning.

With the google search I came up with a pic of the artist:

Via When the Helicopter Comes.

All the links provided offer more information, but for still more, click here.