383: leaving july behind

good morning.

above is my new print "wooden stones" by jill pilotte of small stump. you may remember that i interviewed jill on the glass doorknob for handmade for the holidays. i just love her work.

do you ever feel strange on the last day of a month? the switch from july to august seems huge to me, and it's making me think. perhaps this is because i used to teach preschool and august meant preparations for the new school year.

t and i have been thinking of finding a cottage/cabin in virginia for a long weekend in august. we could bring our badminton rackets, go berry picking, go for long walks by a lake, look for smooth rocks to bring home. i could bring my notebook, my camera. we could both bring our guitars. does anyone have suggestions for a place to stay?

did you see molly's essay over at npr? :)

also, one of my favorite local bands is featured on npr's song of the day.

i'm really excited about this exhibit coming to the nasher in august.

off to read a bit before work. i'm so close to finishing the sea, the sea.

xo
s

382: clouds + tag

i'm starting to realize why i can't seem to accomplish very much these days. the smallest things stop me in my tracks. i walk outside to take out the compost and a leaf has landed on top of a dishtowel, so perfectly placed...that i must go back and get my camera.

i am washing dishes and when i squirt out some dish soap, the tiniest bubbles emerge; i choose one and follow its gentle drift until it lands and pops. i stand still with my hands in the dishwater, smiling.

i play records while cleaning the kitchen and have to stop every so often to flip the record over or make a new selection.



i begin to clean up the piles in my study and then i'm suddenly attracted to the colorful paintings that are stacked up. i return to the dining room for my camera.

i read a passage in a book that reminds me of another book. i seek it out. i read some more.

i am walking around with my head in the clouds these days.

###########################################################


i've been tagged recently by lottie and misty to reveal 8 random things about myself so here we go.

1. the smell of kentucky colonel mint can bring me to tears. it reminds me so much of my grandfather, whom i dearly miss.

2. although i prefer pies to cakes, i recently discovered that i love lane cake. i can say with confidence that this is, in fact, my favorite cake. it's a white layer cake with a cherry, pecan, coconut, brandy filling and iced with fluffy seven minute frosting. it is the very same kind of cake mentioned in to kill a mockingbird, and it will forever be the birthday cake of choice for me. :)

3. i like listening to the rolling stones "some girls" album while doing household chores.

4. my friend matt and i play a game we call "psychic club". we ask each other questions, close our eyes, and then tell the other person what we see. strangely, several of my "predictions" have occurred. i told matt that he would have car trouble when he got back to wisconsin and he did. i also told him that a friend would surprise him by inviting him to travel out of the country and a friend did indeed invite him to go to spain. i find this funny and a bit scary.

5. when i was little, i loved going to healing springs. it was a natural spring near my home where my grandfather bottled water to take home for drinking. one winter i went there with my family and got soaked. a week or so later, the whole family came down with the flu but i was fine. they all said it was because of the healing spring waters. i want to take t here.

6. i really want to take a writing class, but i'm afraid i'll have nothing to say.

7. i have never liked seafood.

8. i have such mixed feelings about living in the south. there are times when i'm so content here and times when i want to move away. it's a constant push/pull and i'm not sure if i will ever make up my mind.

have a good monday friends!

381

feeling the need to be quiet in this space again today. thank you for visiting and leaving such kind comments this week.

hope you have a great weekend.
shari

380: clothesline love

the beauty of the everyday is there...you just have to notice it.

i'm behind on my reading...so a short post today.
xo
s

379

hi friends.

i thought i would share a few images from the book that t is reading entitled " a handmade life". i've only flipped through the pages and read little bits and pieces but it seems like a great book on living simply. chapters are titled beauty, simplicity, the craft of living. i know he talks about education some too.






to read more about this book, visit chelsea green publishing.

i spent some time listening to world cafe this morning as they featured one of my favorite singer-songwriters, devon sproule, who lives in virginia. the songs "keep your silver shined" and "stop by anytime" are full of summer imagery and just so very beautiful. have a listen...especially if you appreciate wonderful lyrics.

i have missed reading a poem each day, so i went to my bookshelf this morning and remembered that i haven't read the poetry chains of dominic luxford from mcsweeney's 22. i opened it up and fell in love with the first poem, "the charm of 5:30" by david berman. really good stuff.

i've also been out in the garden this morning with t, digging potatoes, tearing out the broccoli which never produced a single stalk, and taking photos of the huge dead tree that fell into our garage/workshop. it's a mess back there...let me tell you.

and now, just so glad to be inside, listening to vinyl again. we just replaced our broken needle this weekend. hello lovely crackle.

paula has updated her shop with such beauty as has abigail. be sure to stop by and take a peek.

xo
s

378: his and hers part 2 and h2o posies

my second polaroid for the his and hers project taken in low light without a flash. i was a bit worried when i pressed the button but i'm pretty happy with this image.




i've also been revisiting earlier watercolor experiments, not quite ready to pick up my brush again. yesterday as i was studying a particular painting, i realized that while i did not like the painting as a whole i did like certain parts of it. these are h20 posies...little flowers found inside paintings. really loving this process.

we've been watching brideshead revisited (the bbc series) in the evenings, and i was tickled when i heard ruth reichel mention it on the splendid table on sunday. have you read the book or seen the series?

have so much to do today...take care friends.
xo
s
ps: a big thank you for all of the lovely comments on yesterday's post. so glad it resonated with so many. :)

377: meals and music

this weekend, we prepared a simple, local dinner for one of our friends. he brought the summer squash from his neighbor's garden; it was picked right before he came over. we went to the farmer's market earlier in the morning and bought butter beans and blueberries. our menu for the evening: butter beans, squash, tomatoes with onions and feta cheese, a cucumber and onion salad marinated in red wine vinegar, and slices of freshly baked jalapeno bread that we picked up from our favorite baker, edna, at the farmer's market. for dessert, a blueberry buckwheat cake...the first of many this summer, i'm sure.

earlier in the day, i made mint sun tea. in the summer, it's so easy to let nature do all of the work.

such a complete pleasure, cooking with a friend in our tinier than tiny kitchen. chopping, sipping homebrew, catching up on the daily ins and outs of our lives with a prairie home companion playing quietly in the background. this simple evening could have taken place decades ago, and i love that so much.

we gathered in the booth to share our summery meal, and i smiled inside knowing that this was just THE perfect way to spend a saturday evening. after we had our cake (the guys had 2 slices), we went outside to sit in the cooler than normal air. the sky was a cerulean blue and seemed like a deep, deep puddle. i found that i couldn't stop staring at it. the breeze was nice too and as the guys chatted about bicycles and instruments, i just sat, content with being quiet and watching the night sky become darker and darker. little brown bats darted around the chimneys undoubtedly chasing the mosquitoes that plague me daily. i silently cheered them on.

it was like a moment in a good novel. no, it was like days gone by and days yet to come all at the same time, in the same moment.

it was lovely.

and more of the same last night. a great meal (curried corn and pepper burritos) eaten outside, a few games of badminton, and then gathering inside for a bit of music making. three guitars, lots of singing with the occasional switch off to the drums or the stand up bass.

the simple pleasures in this life (friendship, simple meals, time spent outide, and simple entertainment) seem to endure even as years pass and technology begins to seep into every corner of our lives. this weekend served as a good reminder.


hope you had a nice one too.
xo
shari

376: friday inspiration

hi friends.

happy friday! i'm feeling so inspired by mav and camilla's latest project. i spent some time photographing the prints yesterday and i'm just so charmed by the colors, the drawings, the placement of the images. lovely all around!



as i was flipping through moosewood at home (one of my favorite cookbooks) yesterday, i knew i needed to try the creamy banana ice recipe. according to katzen, she found the recipe in an old issue of food and wine. it's so simple. cut up ripe bananas, freeze them, and later pop them into a blender or food processor. the result is a quick and easy frozen dessert that is remarkably similar to banana ice cream. i'm just excited to find a way to use up ripe bananas that doesn't involve turning on my oven.

speaking of food and wine magazine, i picked up an old issue at the food co-op and was pleasantly surprised. here are a few photos from the magazine that i really liked.


madhur jaffrey



plan bee honey



you can't beat inspiration for a quarter! oh and this is the august 1999 issue, in case you were wondering. :)

ash kicks off the year of magical thinking over at ship today! please join us.

wishing you all a lovely weekend.
s

375

hi there.

i've been spending my days reading the sea, the sea, so i'm loving p2p's newest cards, "shimmer sea, shimmer" that i just received. they are so beautiful. i think there is one set left so if you act fast...



it's been really hot here. i think the word that describes it best is muggy. needless to say, we've been seeking out easy recipes that do not involve an oven or stovetop. our new favorite summer salad is carrot and parsley. so fresh and light. perfect lunchtime food when it's 90+ degrees outside.



i'm also really into the orange/rust and green color combination. i took these photos in my backyard yesterday and only when i uploaded them did i notice a color theme.



thank you for your kind comments about yesterday's post. it really means alot to me.

have a good day!

374: spiraling

i am like the nautilus, forever spiraling. tiptoeing into the center and then retracing my steps back out again. cycling forward and backwards, repeating.

i like this image of a spiral because it describes so well my tendency to cycle in and out of interests. there are times when i'm spiraling in, and with each eager step i'm trying to reach the center, the core. in this space, there is energy, excitement, motivation to move forward. then, there are times when i'm spiraling out, taking some time to re-evaluate or slowly moving away from the center. there is a quiet energy here characterized by periods of reflection, contemplation and sometimes, frustration, irritation.

it's so interesting to notice these spirals. am i spiraling in or out of certain areas of my life? it never ceases to amaze me how something can stop you dead in your tracks and change the direction of your spiral. the reasons vary, but the pattern remains the same. in and out like our breath. around and around. this is life. constantly moving and changing.

373

hi there.

hope you all had a great weekend. we went out for indian food, went on a few walks, played a bit of tennis, gardened, and spent much of last night in the kitchen.

last night around 9:30, t and i ended up in our kitchen, making all sorts of things. rewind back to our bowl of cereal at noon followed by our late lunch at nearly four and you can see how it happened. um, we were hungry. i started it by baking the easiest brownies ever: moosewood fudge brownies. six simple ingredients: vanilla, flour, eggs, butter, baking chocolate, brown sugar. heidi of 101 cookbooks fame blogged about moosewood brownies earlier in the year so catch the recipe here.

this little bake-a-thon led to a cleaning out of the fridge which led to making homemade vegetable stock. sometimes, we end up with more vegetables than we can eat. at times, these extras end up in our compost pile which is good but i think making a homemade vegetable stock is better. as you probably already know, there are many ways to make stock. we sauteed onions, a leek, and carrots and then added water and white wine and lots of chopped vegetables (green beans, patty pan squash, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, summer squash, garlic...you get the drill. oh and fresh rosemary and thyme from our herb garden.

while chopping the veggies, i also chopped up two asian pears for late night snacking, grown by a local man named deck. so good! and of course, since i was already in the kitchen, i needed to make some more popsicles. the latest batch is blueberry pineapple.

while the stock was simmering, we were watching il postino (why does it seem like all of my entertainment lately is circa 1990 something?). luckily, t did not fall asleep waiting for the stock to finish cooking (like i did) so we now have homemade vegetable stock happily put away on our freezer shelves, where it will stay until this heat subsides.

love this laundry photo by gayla....and this one too.

it's monday! and it all begins again..
xo
shari
ps: the necklace in the photo was made by an inspiring superhero.

372

hi friends.

i'm looking forward to the slower pace of saturday and sunday. how about you?

just time for a quick hello today. hope you all have the loveliest of weekends.

see you back here on monday.

xo
shari

371

i'm really into bark landscapes right now. nerdy, right?


i'm also loving:

carob spirulina bites (like healthy candy)

hearing owls at night

reading the autumn issue of donna hay

milk in glass bottles

the bbc pride and prejudice soundtrack played at work

alphabetizing

ponytails

making a list of things i want to paint but probably never will

clouds that look like gray wool

night drives with the windows down

opening the front door and being offered a slice of homemade honey wheat bread with butter (t rocks!)

listening to 21 singles

lightning bugs and crickets chirping

blueberry popsicles with one fat blackberry inside (my 2nd batch)

and these!




happy thursday!
xo
s

370

the last few days have played out the same. coffee, work, a cold lunch (crackers, cheese, tomatoes, blackberries), work, dinner. repeat. no painting, no cooking and no reading. i wonder if this is a summer routine or a summer rut? i'm even listening to the same song on my morning commute. over and over. it's the only song that fits as i pass by the water treatment plant and the golf course. the green driving range a canvas dotted with pastel colored golf shirts and white golf balls. i scan the course each day and only once have i spotted a woman in a pinstriped dress. mostly khaki shorts, sometimes white, and bright polo shirts. i keep thinking how it would make such a lovely, lovely painting.

yesterday among stacks of books, i watched the raindrops outside. i thought of how long it has been since we had cloudy, cooler days and actual water falling down from the sky. i watched the rain cover the pavement like a cool wet salve to sunburned skin.

later, the temperature dropped significantly. i love these severe changes because it makes you wake up. 95 degrees drops to 75. it is cool and there is a light fog. the most magical summer evening yet.

369

in an attempt to stay cool and save money, i recently started making my own popsicles. for my first batch, i used all natural apple juice. they are really good. i also made coffee ice cubes yesterday.

yesterday, in the kitchen, a strong memory came back to me. when i was a little girl, i remember vacationing at myrtle beach and drinking from the coolest aluminum tumblers. they were the colors of summer fruit: raspberry, blackberry, peach. i loved holding them in my hands because they were ice cold. later when we lived in denver, i had a similar experience at tommy thai restaurant. they serve water in small aluminum mugs. having dinner there on a hot night was such a treat because with a mug in your hand suddenly everything felt cooler. i'm not sure if it is wise to drink from aluminum cups (?) but they are certainly on my mind this time of year.

martha is updating her shop today at 12 CT. and have you popped over to amisha's etsy shop yet?

have a great day!

368: in the heat of the summer

thank you, thank you for your kind words about my polaroids. i think i am feeling a bit more comfortable switching between cameras now. :)

this weekend, it seems, was all about the food. we needed something to distract us from the miserable heat. saturday we went to the farmer's market and came home with exactly what we were looking for...local fruit!! one small, ripe, perfect cantaloupe and 2 containers of blackberries. one container for snacking and one container for a cobbler. i posted the recipe last year. it's my mom's and you can find it here. we also bought jalapeno chevre, a small mixed bouquet with cosmos, and cheese bread that had just come out of the oven that morning. the best part though was finding a vendor with iced coffee and coffee ice cubes. oh, the small pleasures!

you may notice that we did not come home with any vegetables. we are csa members and get a box of organic veggies each week so our trips to the farmer's market are all about fruit, dairy, bread, and flowers.

as all southerners know, one of the best places to escape the heat of the summer is the movie theater. the historic movie theater is closed for the summer in durham so we drove to chapel hill to see waitress, a movie all about pie. the theater was full of people, soaking up the dark quiet coolness.

on sunday, the heat was worse. we had made breakfast plans for 9:30 at a cafe pretty close to our house. we were optimistic that we would beat the heat so we walked. even the morning heat was tough. later in the day, we went on a walk again. this time at 2 pm. we were headed back in the direction of ninth street, the little area filled with shops and restaurants. i was going to meet e for gelato and knitting and t was just tagging along for the sweet, icy coolness. with gelato in sight, we trudged along in the heat and were rewarded. t had vanilla bean and banana and i had chocolate hazelnut and peach.

leaving the cafe was difficult. with only 1/4 of a bottle of water in my hand, i braced myself as i opened the door. stepping out into the street, it was as if the water in my bottle immediately began to heat up. would it be boiling before i got home? the heat was oppressive and most of the route is in the sun. even with the tree cover, it was just as hot. this was the heat of hallucinations (i swear i began to smell rubbing alcohol), the heat that makes your knees wobble just a bit. i rationed out my water. one warm sip here, pass the laundry, another warm sip here. and then i stumbled into my house where i sat on the couch for ten minutes before i could form a coherent thought.

okay. i'm being a bit dramatic, but it was HOT. yes, i know i live in the south but that doesn't mean i have to like the heat.

dinner saved the day and suddenly all of the heat irritation vanished. t made grilled flatbread pizzas with whole wheat crust, roma tomatoes, korean garlic, and scallions, and dessert, of course, was blackberry cobbler. one big bowl each.

hope you stayed cool this weekend. no more complaining about the heat. i promise.
xo
s

367: polaroids

fourth of july breakfast on the porch.


we were eating grits.


more painting this week. trying out new techniques.


beautiful morning light worth mentioning. :)


view through a glass lantern on our porch.


ladies and gentlemen: we have our first tomato. for some reason, all of the other blossoms on this plant died.

thanks again to paula for the wonderful interview. if you haven't read it yet, please scroll down. it's the very next post. i know you will love it!

it's friday and i am SO glad. abigail is in the captain's seat today over at ship. today is our final day of music for landing planes by. we do hope you'll join us in two weeks for the year of magical thinking by joan didion.

happy weekending!
shari

366: an interview with paula valentim

name: paula valentim

occupation: ceramics student

city: almada - portugal

recently you made a big change in your life when you decided to go back to school and study ceramics. what fueled this change?

it all started with a piece of clay.

a few years ago I enrolled in some weekly evening pottery classes and the moment I touched the clay and was able to make a small pinching bowl I knew that was what I wanted to do. it just felt so natural to me. the classes only lasted for about 7 or 8 months but I continue dreaming about it. still it took me some years to gather the courage and leave a settled life and a promising career as a librarian to study ceramics full time. but I felt that I had to do it. it was stronger than me. I started a ceramics course last october and haven’t looked back since.

do you have any advice for others who want to go back to
school in the arts?

in my humble opinion I think if someone isn’t sure yet what they want to do then it is a good idea to try different areas, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and see how they feel about it, without too much expectations in relation to the end results initially. just feel if it is right. for me it is pretty much about sensing if something feels right, if it gives pleasure and it is fun. it can’t be a punishment.

then find a good school which gives not only a good basis in the specific area of study but also a good basis on things like history of art and aesthetics which helps to have a better understanding about art in general and helps looking at things around you differently.


what is your favorite material to work with and why?

it has to be clay / porcelain.because it is manageable, adaptable, you can add to it, you can remove from it. it is flexible and when working with it feels part of you. it moves with you. it feels you. if you treat it delicately, it responds delicately. if you are upset, it will be upset and that is visible in your work. because it is a material so close to nature it “senses”. with clay you need to be able to “listen” to what it is asking from you, and you need to be able to tell what you want from it. there is communication between clay and you. when I’m working with clay or porcelain I forget about anything else. I just feel.


choose one ceramic piece you've created recently and tell us the story behind it.



I choose this piece on the right (sorry for the badly photographed image) because it marks a turning point in many ways. it is in no way the sort of piece I imagine myself making in terms of personal work but I learned many important things from it. it was the first piece I made from which I learned how to build using simultaneously different techniques. it is the largest piece I made so far. this piece taught me not to be afraid of building in a larger scale (actually from this piece I just feel that I want to build in large scale) it was a challenge from the beginning, it made me look at ceramics from a different perspective.

a bit about this piece…it was for an assignment where I had to select elements from an Islamic piece. I selected the plate you can see on the left, with the peacocks. I was asked then to draw on paper each element individually contained in the plate by colour and forget about the original image. I had to select at least 2 elements and build a piece where they would fit between them in a way that they were not fixed permanently. I also had to respect the colours of each original element. I selected the round green shapes on the peacocks’ tails, the white round shapes around the plate’s rim and the green elements on the flowers. each element in this piece can be removed including the white round shape in the middle and everything is in equilibrium, but it is very stable.


define inspiration.

the driving force that keeps me alive rather than just survive.


what is currently inspiring you?

round irregular shapes

small details of the everyday and from anywhere, be it in architecture, in nature, a gesture from someone’s hand, a photograph

contrasts in textures

black and white photography

the colour white




who are some of your favorite ceramic artists?

there are so many but I select Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Rupert Spira and Emmanuel Boos as the first ceramists to have a strong influence on me.



who are some of your favorite clothing designers?

I tend to think more about individual pieces rather than designers. but here are a few that I find interesting at the moment:

Dries Van Noten
Marni (both men and women)
Iben Hoej
Rubecksen Yamanaka

but like I said it is more down to individual pieces than the whole collections.



how is the design process different for ceramics and fabric?

the design process between them is very distinct.
I find that fabric is more rigorous. you cannot make a mistake otherwise you may ruin the whole thing. so you have to plan things well. with ceramics although you can and should plan, you can always go back, add, change easily and continue with the idea you had initially or change it if you like. except obviously when it has been fired.




do you prefer creating one over another?

yes, although I love clothes and fabrics I prefer ceramics.


describe an example of your perfect day.

getting up to a warm sunny day. take a long walk by the sea. spend the rest of the day creating and go out in the evening to the cinema, jazz concert or a dance performance.


does nature influence your designs? if so, how?

yes it does, specially the plant kingdom. I’m fascinated by the forms and structures, the enormous variety of textures and the variety in colours. it is an endless world of inspiration.

what appeals to you about working with your hands?

it just feels so natural. it is our most precious tool. often instead of using a tool I instinctively use my hands, in fact I use very few tools when working with clay.
for me it is fascinating how hands can create, build, transform, make something that wasn’t there before.


do you keep a journal? if so, what kinds of things do you record/keep inside?



I find that I’m unable to keep only one place where I record things. I have several places where I’m recoding things at the moment. online at:

simple me, the place where I write about many things from ceramics to music to walks to words that I feel I need to express.

the book of hours (which badly needs an update),the place where I record the processes and my development as a ceramics student.

poeira da estrada, my flickr album.

and then I have 3 books where I record things. one is a small moleskin that I carry around with me all the time. to record ideas, something that grabs my attention, important messages. another is a notebook I have for practical classes and the other one for theory classes. all of these make a “large journal” where basically I keep the same sort of things … ideas, thoughts, little bits of nature like leaves and small flowers, paper cuttings, drawings, notes, quotes from other people.


what are the greatest joys in your life?

holding hands with my husband, my silly dog lucas, being able to put an idea into practice, looking at the sea, swimming.

thank you so much Shari for this interview and for making me reflect further about me and my work. obrigada!

thank you paula. you are such an inspiration!

you can visit paula's etsy shop, otchi-potchi, here to find beautiful handmade clothing and accessories. look for an update soon.

have a great day friends and thanks again paula!
xo
shari

365: 4th equals vinyl

hi there.

happy 4th of july to all who celebrate. for the past five years, t has enjoyed being the dj on the 4th. he has a whole lineup of songs that he likes to play. most of them are on vinyl, which is a bummer because our needle is broken. however right now as our coffee is brewing, we are listening to a little "4th of july" a la galaxie 500.

last night, t joined me at the bookstore for homemade lemon ice cream and two rounds of mah jongg. have you ever played? the tiles are so lovely. there are dragon tiles, flower tiles, season tiles, and wind tiles. such a cool game. now i am on the search for a vintage mah jongg set.

when we got home, we were so tired and hungry. this is what we had on hand:
beer
flour
butter
broccoli
a ripe tomato
bread
cheddar cheese
garlic
seasonings

what do you think we made?

why, a quick and easy rarebit, of course. broccoli on toasted bread with a cheese sauce made from beer, cheese, garlic, mustard, horseradish, and flour. then we topped it with chopped tomatoes. yum.

tomorrow, i will post the wonderful interview i mentioned earlier. i think you will really enjoy it.

until then, happy fireworks!
xo
s

364: a simple new project

simple things:

the first sungolds from the farm.

witch hazel conditioner...so cooling to the scalp.

quiet mornings with t before work.

woven cloth napkins; a wooden honey dipper.


on to the new polaroid project: his and hers.




this idea came to me a few years ago. i noticed that sometimes our converse sneakers ended up right next to each other, which made me laugh. i thought of how fun it would be to photograph these similar objects only when they randomly ended up side by side. i had been thinking of working on this project for awhile but just started this weekend when i noticed our dueling flip flops. (also pictured is our coffee table which t designed and built and our box of dominoes. hi molly!)

my one rule for this project is that i cannot place the items side by side to photograph them. they have to just end up together due to everyday use. therefore, this will not be a daily or even weekly project. instead, it is a project that involves happenstance, and i like that!

enjoy the simple things today.
xo
shari

363: july

morning friends!

first, i am just blown away by all of your lovely and supportive comments regarding my paintings. thank you for the encouragement!

second, it's JULY. how did that happen? ;)

we had a busy but fun weekend. a farmer's market trip where we picked up pumpkin bread, farmer's cheese, zinnias, lemon cukes; a breezy walk to the regulator for the sunday times; a trip up the road to see sweet land, which was really good and beautifully shot; an american dance festival performance that wowed us (we saw rite of spring and folding by shen wei dance arts); watching two jimmy stewart movies; sitting outside for brief spells trying to evade mosquitoes.

yes, a good weekend indeed. in addition to the above, we spent a good bit of time in the kitchen making cucumber yogurt chilled soup, stuffed zucchini, and f. pea's tofu subs, all new recipes for us.

oh and i can't forget the hours logged picking caterpillars off the broccoli. i have never seen so many caterpillars in my life. we've been on caterpillar duty twice a day for the last five days and still, there are more!!

a few announcements:

***marsha is in australia, and we won't be updating street until she returns. therefore, you have plenty of time to put on your detective cap and find a street with a compound word name (and email it to me). if you are successful in this mission, your name will be entered in a drawing for a surprise. we send out good surprises. just sayin'.

***links have been updated for july. i'm hoping to revamp the whole blog soon.

***tomorrow, i will tell you about my new polaroid project.

have a great monday!
s