Thursday Text: Nathaniel Hawthorne on marriage

During our courtship, Tony sent me some wonderful quotes from Nathaniel Hawthorne to his wife, Sophia. When we were married, he again quoted from Hawthorne. Last year on the occasion of our anniversary, I found the following quote that I really love. I guess it gets you in the spirit for Valentine's Day.

Nobody but we ever knew what it is to be married. If other people knew it, this dull old earth would have a perpetual glory round about it.


{Yes, I sneaked one of Thayer's paintings into this post.}

Cupcakes!

I have really been captivated by cupcakes lately. They are easy to make and easier to frost than a whole cake. Plus it's like giving each person their own cake! I think I should get the Martha cupcake taker and cupcake tree at Macy's. Speaking of Martha - she is releasing a cupcake cookbook with 175 recipes on June 2. How exciting! In the meantime, you can find plenty of cupcake recipes on her web site. (She really should pay me...)

Missouri Botanical Garden - Orchid Show

On Saturday, we went to the annual orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The garden is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. We love visiting the orchid show each February. It is a welcome glimpse of spring. I always take way too many pictures because there are so many interesting varieties. Here are a couple that we thought were fascinating. We've tried to grow orchids on a few occasions but never have much success. Have you ever cared for an orchid?

Food Storage

Food storage is something that has always lurked at the back of my mind. We've never had the space or the money or the time or the inclination. (I know - everyone comes up with their own excuses...) Between a friend at work who got into food storage when she lived in Utah for a while and a Christmas gift from my parents, we have finally started! So far I got some big plastic buckets with fancy twist-on lids, some glass jars with lids (from Wal-Mart), whole grain pasta, and brown rice. My leftover funds are going toward flour, sugar, and oats to fill up the buckets. I also got in on a stake Walton Feed order to get some random things like refried beans and potato chunks. The Shelf Reliance web site is lovely and has beautiful cans of food (below), but seems rather expensive. Hopefully I'll figure this all out as we go along.

Friday Featured Art: First Steps

It seems that when most people think of van Gogh, they picture irises and sunflowers and him with a bandage around his head. When we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art last summer, I was pleased to see a variety of works by van Gogh. I don't remember seeing this one, but I really like it. It's called First Steps, after Millet. Millet's version was kind of a washed out pastel picture, but I think this one is so endearing.

Thursday Text: Stars

My most recent poetry class (6 or 7 years ago) introduced me to Sara Teasdale. Her poems are generally on the short side and are very descriptive and beautiful. I just learned that she was from St. Louis. This poem especially spoke to me:

Stars

Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,

And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;

Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;

Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,
And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.

Richard Saunders

Last February, my sister Sara came to visit me in my little town. I was so excited to have a visitor and was going to drag her to every shop in town. The only problem was that we had a freak snow storm the day that she arrived. We ended up trudging around to find every shop closed - except for Richard Saunders! He lives right on my street in a 170-year-old home and sells wonderful gifts and antiques. If I remember correctly, she found a cool old compass and a magnifying glass for her husband and son, respectively. (I later got one of the compasses for my dad, and he's now using it to teach his Boy Scouts - how cool is that?) We're glad that we can always count on Richard Saunders.

Draper Temple

The open house for the Draper Temple is going on now. I love that when there are temple open houses the Church puts out photos of the interiors. It looks stunning. I especially liked the detail of the ceiling from the celestial room (bottom), and how cute is the bride's room (below)?

801 First Street

This cute house in my little town is for sale! It started out as a church of some kind, and then it was a restaurant and then another one, and then a couple turned it into a house. It is right at the local trail head of the Katy Trail. From the listing, it looks like the kitchen is in the bell tower area. To the right is a little gazebo, and they had wonderful sunflowers through the middle of the yard last summer. I think it would be really interesting to live there!

Maira Kalman

Grace of Design*Sponge posts so much stuff on her blog that if you blink, you'll miss it. I happened to catch her link to Maira Kalman's journal of paintings from her trip to the inauguration in the New York Times. Check it out - it will brighten your day.


{On a completely unrelated note, happy Groundhog Day!}