Look-Alikes.

So I was trying to find some old baby pictures of my brother to compare them with the photos of my niece. Turns out I don't really have that many of him, but in this one I think I see a pretty strong resemblance to her. What really freaks me out though, in looking at the old photos, is how much my brother looks like my Dad did! It's outrageous.

Painting.

Cement is a tough color to match. So is wet cement. I've been flipping through my swatch books trying to find a color that compares. The CMYK version of 451 comes close. It's funny to me that such a common color you see everywhere is actually very difficult to define.

Lily.

These kinda showed up in my yard out of nowhere. I've never planted them, or seen them before, but there they are, spreading some beauty around among these pretty yellow ones that were, in fact, here when I moved in 3 years ago.

This is one of my favorite views.

Of all time. Only part of the (so far) wonderful weekend, but one of the best parts. I hope to see it again before it's over on Tuesday.

Roast Chicken.

Suddenly felt the urge to make one of these and googled Le Crueset Roast Chicken. This recipe came up in the results. Besides making some chicken, I need to get back into the habit of posting here. I'm going to try and do that the next few days.

Via The Amateur Gourmet.

Em.

I'm an aunt! Babies are babies are babies, but this is my niece! Her name is Emerald Maia. I can't wait to meet her in August.

Kids Party 2010.

Filling water balloons in the grossest section of my entire yard.

Hosted my first kids party this weekend. It got really ominous when the thunder started and the torrential rain began to fall as everyone was due to arrive. We started pulling all the stuff into the garage. Then somehow about a half hour later, it cleared and the sun (and bathing suits) even came out.



Not in any particular order we had:

Hotdogs
Pizza
Candy, Candy, Candy
Bubbles
Water Balloons
Slip 'n' Slide
Baby Pool
Hammock Fun ("Can we get that ropey thing out")
Hop Scotch
Squirt Guns
Candy, Candy, Candy
Fruity Pebble (ala Rice Krispie) Treats
Art Station Painting
Bean Bag Toss
Hobo-Style Goodlie Bags (Fave color bandannas filled with treats on sticks)
A Water Fight
("KATY! YOU GOT WATER IN MY EYES! I DON'T FORGIVE YOU!)
Kazoos
Piñata
Candy, Candy, Candy
& Plenty of Sangria (for the older kids)

Oh so fun. And, I get to cross one off the To Do list. Hurray!

Greenhouse in My Car.

Got a bunch of flowers for the yard this past weekend. As I was loading up the car someone passing by said, What? You just drive around with a greenhouse in your car? I thought that was kind of a cute idea. What if you did?

Happy Birthday.

How cute is this drawing I got from Sarah!? Look at the little palette and paintbrush! I love it!

Pepper Jack and Onion Stuffed Mini-Burgers.

My friend Clay bought 1/8 of a cow his sister raised and slaughtered. He gave me 1 of his 25 #s of ground beef and today I used it to make mini burgers stuffed with onions and pepper jack cheese.

HOLY YUM.

PS – I'm missing my brother today.

Chris Payne - Asylum.

My friend Ruth turned me on to this photographer Chris Payne and his Asylum images a couple weeks ago. The colors are amazing. I really love old, abandoned buildings so much for some reason. This is a room of old file boxes...

I think the peeling paint is beautiful... some of the details in the architecture, amazing. This marble staircase...

And these Eames chairs kill me. What a collection of colorful seating in this abandoned autopsy auditorium. You could design a whole house based on the color palette of the chairs alone. I'd love to raid a place like this to see what I might find.

Isn't this bathtub so Girl, Interrupted? All these pictures are so creepy, but beautiful. They evoke an almost physical response in me.

So, it was an odd coincidence to see this next one hanging in my boss' house at a party last weekend. Her's was by David S. Alee. Two different artists, but capturing very similar images – of asylums as the subject. Apparently they photoshop'd a gurney out of this one, as it was off-putting to potential buyers, which I find a shame. If I remember correctly, this was a pharmacy.

The central glare is from my camera flash, but on my computer at least, the rest of the colors are pretty true. Oddly pretty and interesting.

I need to be doing this.

On a pool deck so hot it almost hurts to lay down. For hours. So my skin is still warm even after the sunlight starts to fade and we're firing up the grill.

Image by and via Freckle Farm.

Cinco (Ocho) de Mayo.

Went to the annual Cinco de Mayo party at Kris and Eric's last night. I have a really nice hibiscus margarita headache to prove it. I don't think I should have had 45 of them. But they were so good. Eric cooked the entire meal from scratch while we watched, which is a huge part of why this party is so fun.


THE MENU
Three salsas: A tomatillo, a pickled chipotle, and a pacilla pepper.
Guacamole
Cucumber Salad
Cactus Salad
Poblanos & Cream
Tacos: Vanilla Shrimp, Skirt Steak, Tongue

Habiscus and Guava Margaritas
Carte Blanca

Dessert: Guava sorbet and Chocolate Chipotle ice cream

A super highlight were the fresh handmade tortillas Katy and Steve picked up from La Cabanita on our way there. They came raw and Steve fried them up as we were eating. I never want to eat a tortilla that is not like this ever again. YUM.

Another real treat was this Poblanos & Cream (+ white onions). He roasted the poblanos on the burners on the stove, sliced them and sauteed with onion, then added this cream that is like sour cream but way thicker and less "sour". So good.

This vanilla shrimp was also very good. I had never seen vanilla paste before. And the skirt steak was perfect.

I took pictures* but couldn't bring myself to post the tongue. I've never seen anyone slice a 3 lb. tongue into patties before, or watched it get cooked up on a grill. It tasted very good, with more flavor even than the steak, but I can't get the sensation of the texture of it out of my mouth. I am feeling it in my teeth right now as I write this. Then there's the visual of what it looked like as it was prepped, which was equally fascinating (I couldn't stop looking) and vile (and turning away in disgust).

Loved the spicy chocolate ice cream, and the chunks of sugary Mexican chocolate it was made from.

*You can see more pics, including the tongue, on my Flickr.

Pouring down rain.

It's storming like crazy. Finally. It's been brewing for the past 6 hours. My plants must be so happy. I love it when the house shakes with a thunder and then everything lights up.

Weekend plans.

These are some nice brushes. They remind me of a book I read once about a painter who was so particular about her brushes she wouldn't even let her assistant touch them. At the time I was like, That's obsessive? They're just brushes? But now I sort of get it. I've had the majority of my brushes since college, and I have definite favorites. Some of them are starting to fall apart. The ones I really love are sort of irreplaceable? Like really broken in tennis shoes or blue jeans.

Anyway, this image makes me happy. I really need to do something creative that's not done on the computer. It might be cleaning out the garage and rehauling the studio. I feel the need for a major purge and reorganization. I also really need to nap in the hammock. After I mow the lawn. I love laying there smelling the freshly cut grass.

Image by The Mountain Label, via A Thing For, via Lobster & Swan.

Love. Love. Love.

I see interiors all over the worldwide daily that I admire and am inspired by, but this one breaks my heart. The walls... The floors... The doorknobs... The fireplaces... And this bedroom! I mean it, this bedroom literally makes my heart ache.

And of course I'm sure it's in Italy. It doesn't say it is, but it is right? Just to make it that much more – what? – impossibly incredible? I can't take it.

Images from B&B Italia - Maxalto via Solid Frog. Coincidentally, I work right above Maxalto, which might make it pretty easy to get my hands on a catalog... like, tomorrow.

An odd overlap.

I know I've mentioned Crossfit over here in passing before, but I got a nice surprise when I looked up the workout on my gym's website today. These pictures of Emily.

Am I crazy or are they pretty beautiful?

These to me look very quiet and peaceful. The lighting with the early morning sunrise, the solitary act of the exercise, the graceful positioning of the body right down to the toes? The stocking feet match the time of day and make it feel even more like she's in pajamas and just woke up, yawning – an incredible contrast to the almost invisible physical exertion going on in real life. I also quite like then seeing the hard edges and true "weight" of the barbells on the floor, that you almost miss while busy looking at the seemingly weightless, floating figure above them.

Is it just me? I'm trying to find out who took these and then I'll give appropriate credit.

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.