More illustrator art

I’m loving playing with Illustrator. Here are some more wall art pieces I’ve worked on – 3 more to go to replace all of the photos I have in mind. 🙂

Making a wish list

My husband and I have been working on creating wish lists for each other for future gift buying situations, and also just for fun. (There’s not much budget for actual shopping, so it’s fun to dream)

My wish list has some of the usual suspects for a girl … purses, jewelry, perfume. But also some unusual items:

A pretty compost pail ... the fact that we're not already composting shames me

Le Creuset stock pot in Caribbean blue. I would just leave it on my counter. I can't stop looking at it.

A food processor ... in aqua preferably. 🙂

And the several years from now wish. How dreamy is this greenhouse? Now imagine it with a vintage chandelier in it, overstuffed chair with ottoman, small bookshelf, a million candles, and tons of flowering plants. Heaven.

In honor of Valentine’s Day

To the man who puts up with my longing for babydoll sheep, the fabric scraps all over the living room, the longing for freeze-ice popsicles in the middle of February, and the million summer trips to garden stores … happy Valentine’s Day. You make our life a much more relaxed, happy existence. You are a loyal friend and I am glad you are mine.

Pablo Neruda, XVII:

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours.

Old photos

I was going through an old memory card the other day and found photos I had never edited.

Dog in a basket 🙂

This is love

Colorado I adore thee

Kevin bacon and eggs on Halloween

Bosco sticks

Growing up, one of the best days at lunch were Bosco stick days.

If you haven’t heard of Bosco sticks, they’re a breadstick-type treat with a mozzarella center. They are totally terrible for you and absolutely delicious.

A couple of weekends ago, my husband had a craving for these things. It had been years since both of us had them. We checked their website for possible locations and learned we’d have to go several states a way to get our hands on them. Then the wheels got to turning: How hard could this be to make?

Basically, you take pizza dough (I used the basic pizza dough recipe in the user manual of my bread machine), roll out into a rectangle, and place mozzarella string cheese per 1.5 inches of dough and cut into 1.5 inch strips. Wrap dough around string cheese, rolling as you go to form perfect breadsticks.

Place on well greased cookie sheets and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until barely golden. Remove from oven, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic powder, if desired. Serve with pasta sauce for dipping.

Dogs in the snow

Our dogs are so cute playing in the snow that it almost …. almost …. makes me tolerate winter.

And my husband is pretty cute, too. 🙂

In which my husband gets swindled into agreeing to a herd of babydoll sheep

Not ours ... yet

Our prenuptial arrangements seemed a bit strange from the start, especially for two ‘city kids.’

– He must agree to learn to tolerate sleeping with a fan, because I refused to give up circulating air at night.
– We would always have a minimum of 2 dogs, in case our dog(s) chose a favorite. I mean, how sad would it be to have only one dog and that dog liked my husband better? Not an option.
– At some point in life, we would own a horse. And one milk cow. And possibly some chickens. And any other farm animal that might be considered later on.

My poor husband. You’re probably wondering what he got in exchange. I’m trying to remember now, myself. Funny how your own sticking points are much clearer in your memory. I think the deal had something to do with having his own target range when we had lots of land (which clearly we will need to with all of the farm animals, and clearly the range will be a safe, respectable distance from our petting zoo), and a few other minor quibbles.

The point is, there have been some changes in our prenuptial agreement. And so the campaign has begun for a herd of babydoll sheep.

It started with this article. And the fact that we hire out our grass mowing. A mild interest in sustainability coupled with the darned adorableness of the woolly creatures had me fully convinced that our future involved these eco-friendly lawnmowers. The fact that I could dress them in bandannas, train them to fetch and that they would come when I called them put me over the top.

In all honesty, my husband is a pretty easy pushover and happy to go along for the ride. The conversation went something like this:

“I think we should get some babydoll sheep.”

“Babydoll sheep?”

“Yes. They’re adorable. They’re the size of Rufus, and come to think of it, they look like Rufus too.”

“Uh …”

“We could spin their wool into yarn and I can make scarves.”

“Uh …”

“They are cute. And huggable. They can wear bandannas. They come when you call them – one of our dogs doesn’t even do that. You can walk them ON A LEASH. How flippin’ sweet is that?”

“Is this in addition to the cows?”

“No, I’d probably trade in the hypothetical cow for 2-3 hypothetical babydoll sheep.”

“I think we may have a deal. Can we turn the shed into a stable?”

 

We (and by this I mean I) spent the rest of the night watching babydoll sheep YouTube videos and finding awesome things like this.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I married that man.

P.S.  – While we *could* turn our shed into a stable, and while our city allows sheep within city limits, our yard is too small. So these hypothetical sheep will stay that way for awhile longer.

I might be a bit biased but …

My little family is the cutest. 🙂

There is nothing on earth I love more than coming home from work to my husband, two adorable dogs, and cute little house. Bliss.

Happy birthday, baby!

This sexy man turns 25 today. Happy birthday, my love! Welcome to the quarter-century year-old club.

This marks the 8th birthday that we’ve been together, and the 11th birthday we have had since we met each other – woah.

I am so fortunate to be the wife to a man who is hardworking, smart, loyal, thoughtful, drop dead sexy, a great pup father and a good foot rubber. I love you, dear. Hope this is the best year yet!

A quarter of a century flown by

Today I turned 25, and for some reason this feels like a monumental birthday to me. Growing up, I always saw 25 as being the official marker of adulthood. (Who considers a 21-year-old an adult, really?) It’s the age your car insurance goes down, it’s a quarter of a century, it’s the age my parents were when I was born. There’s no denying it now, I’m really an adult.

Years from now, looking back on this birthday, I want to remember how completely content I am. Madly in love with my husband. Gainfully employed in a job that is fulfilling on most days, working with people I genuinely love. Working in an entirely different field that I imagined 3 years ago. Gaining rich, rewarding volunteer experiences. Still close to the people who have been my friends for 12+ years now. Earning enough to not struggle much from month to month, and close enough to recent history when that wasn’t the case to really appreciate what that means. Living day to day life in our cute, tiny, cozy little house filled with my favorite man, my favorite furry friends. A still relatively new homeowner that marvels at the ability to paint walls, tear up flooring, and create a home. Proud caretaker of a fledgling perennial garden that isn’t weeded as much as it should be. Increasing confidence in the direction of my life, of my redefined career goals, of my growth as a woman, wife, future mother, friend, employee.

I can’t help but wonder what the next quarter century has in store.  In another 25 years, I hope to be the proud mother of one or two college graduates. To have established a slightly larger, but still just as cozy home on an acre or so where our children come back to visit us, to stay in a home that’s filled with memories for them.

From Countryliving.com

To have a huge king sized bed with a worn, lumpy mattress from Saturday morning cartoons in bed with our kids and our dogs piled under the covers.

To still be madly in love with my handsome husband, getting ready for a new section of our life as the parents of grown children. To be established in my career, and have my husband in a career he loves, too. To have the time to really give back. To have a huge garden that feeds us in the summer but also fills the house with beautiful perennial flowers.

From thousandislandslife.com

To have traveled to a country on a different continent (preferably multiple countries and multiple continents). To know how to finish a quilt from beginning to end. To be looking forward to watching my husband’s eyes light up at holding our first grandchild. (Woah.)

Life is a beautiful, surprising, joyful journey. I am so thankful for these first 25 years and all of the simple pleasures they have held. To the next quarter century.