Friday Featured Art: Shadows and Rows

My bro-in-law, Joseph Alleman, has some new pieces available through the galleries that represent him.  This one is an oil called Shadows and Rows.  I know it's because I'm a Western girl at heart, but I really love his work.

Thursday Tunes: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell

Have you heard Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's collaboration?  The album is called Love Has Come For You, and what I've heard of it is lovely.  (I really like bluegrass.)  This is "When You Get to Asheville" as seen on David Letterman.

Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Have you seen the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube?  They're pretty clever - made with modern Pride and Prejudice characters.  Here's the first.

Footstool

We need a small footstool, and they're surprisingly hard to find.  Everything in stores these days is big and bulky or made for storage.  I found this one on Etsy, and it gave me an idea...  What if they made unfinished footstools?  Apparently they do!  The one on the bottom is sold by DIY Upholstery Supply and is made in Italy.  (The price is not too bad, either.)  I may have a project on my hands...

New Handles

Our house is very 1960s and needs quite a bit of modernizing...  One of the first (simplest, easiest) things I did was to change out the handles on the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  They were copper, and they are a strange size - so I found some oil rubbed bronze handles online.  These pictures aren't great, but here's a before and after.  (Next I'll have to spray the hinges bronze...)

Friday Featured Art: Legion of Honor

I made a big mistake by not writing down any information about this painting, but it's one that I really liked at the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco.  I guess I'll have to do some research...

Thursday Tunes: Pilgrim Song

When we returned from Utah Saturday, we went straight from the airport to Ravinia to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It was a lovely evening.  One of the songs that we enjoyed (that we had not heard before) was "Pilgrim Song."

Michael Miller Fabric

Sorry I've been away!  We spent some time in Utah last week, and I've been trying to catch up ever since...  While we were there, I had an afternoon with my sisters at Gardner Village.  The one place that we all bought something was the fabric store, where I found this oh-so-cute forest animal fabric by Michael Miller.

Thursday Tunes: Feels Like Home

We were watching a show on TV the other night about Randy Newman.  His songs are so lovely.  One that we particularly like is "Feels Like Home" - especially Bonnie Raitt's rendition.  She's the best.

JB's Fish Camp

While we were in Florida, we went to JB's Fish Camp to rent kayaks and have lunch.  We paddled around for about an hour and a half and visited a little cove full of manatees.  What a great way to spend a day!

Land Love Magazine

When I was at Barnes & Noble a while back, another British magazine caught my eye.  (Probably because there were bunnies on the cover...)  It's called Land Love.  It contains great articles about plants and food and wildlife that are uniquely British.  This picture is from an article about how to make a sofa in the forest - fun!  And the critter at the bottom is a hedgehog, of course!

Wizarding World of Harry Potter & Butterbeer

So here's a picture of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter from when we were there.  I took this later in the day, so the crowd is quite large.  One of the fun things about entering the WWOHP is hearing everyone gasp with delight.  It is magical.  The bottom photo is Hogwarts - home to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.  That was quite beyond description.  Here is a link to a butterbeer recipe that's close to the real thing.  (I would omit the rum extract from the topping and use less whipping cream if I made it again...)

Friday Featured Art: Garden of Earthly Delights

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I saw a picture of Victoria Beckham wearing this Carven skirt, and it fascinated me.  It's such an interesting idea to use art - literally - as fashion.  Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights is always one of the strangest pieces that one comes across in an art class, but I think it translated well to an article of clothing.

Thursday Text: Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis

This month for book club the topic was biography.  I didn't finish my book, but I've been enjoying it.  I'm reading Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer.  Sayer was a friend of Lewis, and this is considered the definitive biography.  I'll let you know what I think when I finish...

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

We were in Orlando last week!  Of course one of our main activities was visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It was fabulous.  I'll have to post some pictures later, but for now I'm borrowing some from Universal's site...  At Ollivander's I bought Luna Lovegood's wand!  And below is the Pumpkin Juice that they sell there.  It was delicious.  It's a cold juice drink with apple juice, pumpkin and apricot puree.  So fun.

Oh, Martha, You Really Shouldn't Have!

I just found out about something that might use up all of my allowance for the next couple of months...  Martha Stewart Crafts now has a jewelry line at Michaels!  My local store didn't have everything, but they had some awesome stuff.  It will be fun to try out some new techniques - like enameling!