Lazy weekend

Finally a weekend at home. Went to a happy hour with some friends in Westport and then to reVerse on Friday night with the same girls I went to Napa with. The brie stuffed beef tenderloin is a must try.

Saturday was lazy. Chris and I cleaned the patio and did chores and then headed to 810 Zone on the Plaza for the KU game. The Jayhawks were victorious once again. I think there might a trip to a bowl game in my very near future.

Sunday...errands and more laziness. Em and I did make it to our core strengthening class at 11 a.m. I hate it so much, but I love the way it makes me feel. If anyone knows of other core strengthening classes or DVDs, please let me know. Our class is only once a week and I would love to add a few more days a week.

A few new discoveries this weekend besides the brie stuffed tenderloin...Chris and I bit the bullet and purchased the iPod Classic. I fell in love with the Nano commercial (sucker for those marketing tactics), but I loved that I could put all of my photos on the Classic and still have 20,000 songs. Mind you, I'm certainly not a music head, but I'm in the process of uploading my CDs and I might reach my limit in 10 years or so.

I also fell in love with some comfy pants at Gap Body and bought a few pairs in navy and grey. They are the best...and imperative for those lazy weekends.


Etsy has been calling my name, so I decided to try to upload at least a new piece a week. Still, I have many, many more purchases than sales. I found the greatest calendar and felt I couldn't live without it. Can't wait for 2008.

N'Awlins

Yeah! The Jayhawks are #9. Ellie and I celebrated the victorious 'Hawks a few weeks ago. Can they go 8-0 this week against A&M?

I do apogize for the lack of posts. New Orleans was very educational, but it was also an absolute blast. Let's just say that when my luggage didn't make the connection from Dallas to Kansas City, the American Airlines attendant asked if there was anything identifiable in my bag "like a red hair dryer or five pairs of shoes". I answered that I had a yellow and green feather boa and a plastic shark. She laughed, but typed it into the computer anyway. The boa was from a impromptu dance party at a bar on Bourbon Street and the plastic shark came in a fancy little drink I discovered while in The Big Easy.

Gone Again

It's Sunday night and Art at Park was good. My mom came up to help me out on Saturday since Chris was going to the KU football game. She left Salina at 5:30 a.m. to get to KC by 8:30a.m. What a trooper! When she arrived it was pouring down rain. If any of you know my mom, you know that she was "white-knuckling-it" since Topeka. Anyway, we stopped at Caribou and headed to Parkville. It was still raining. It continued to rain, so my mom and I had some special bonding time in my tent, which remained zipped up. We just sat in the middle and listened to the rain fall on the tent and watch the worms crawl all over my plastic bins.

After a while, we decided to go to the farmer's market and buy some pumpkins, apples, beans and honey. It was still raining, so we drove around Parkville. What a cute little town. After that, we decided to walk around downtown and stopped in a little shop with really cute Christmas stuff. Christmas? What the heck? What happened to Halloween? Of course mom bought some ornaments for her ornament exchange at school...she's always prepared.

It was still raining and the park was slowing filling with water. The ground where my tent stood was nearly submerged. The director cancelled the show at noon.

Yay! Free Saturday. Mom and I headed to Em's house and we watched the delayed KU game on t.v. and I held Ellie all day long! It turned out to be a really great day.

Sunday was much nicer...weatherwise. Chris and I stopped at Caribou (yes...I'm addicted) and headed to Parkville. The park had dried out fairly well considering the amount of rain that we got all day Saturday. The crowds were pretty good, but I think people were still a little timid from the weather the day before and were worried about the mud. A few friends stopped by, so that is always a fun way to break up the day. Thank you to those of you that came! You don't know how much I appreciate it.

I'm off tomorrow morning to New Orleans for a work trip until Thursday. I just want to be home for a few days, but I'm anxious to see how N.O. has changed since I was there a few years ago.

Have a great week!

art@park

I'm packing the car for Art at Park tonight. The show is Saturday and Sunday only. I'm praying for cool, crisp autumn weather. I hope some of you have a chance to come and hang out! The show is taking place at English Landing Park at Park University.

Here are a few pieces that I'm bringing...

The material in this piece is from a shirt I found at Salvation Army! Who needs fabric stores?


This was one of those pieces that I kept adding to, but still didn't like it. Plop a bird in the middle and I guess it will suffice.


I can never have enough home images at my shows. Huh...birds again.


This piece was way different for me. It started out a boring titan buff color and then I added a pink wash. I painted a thick orange square, added some collage elements, rolled on some white paint with the brayer and used the tracing wheel to add some depth. I then penciled in the red house. It's simple, but sometimes those are the best.


I found this photo on ebay a few months ago and hadn't used it yet. It's a great picture of a newly married couple leaving the church following their ceremony. I love the blueish-grey background. I also used an antique recipe. I then stumbles across an idea when a string from a piece of fabric stuck to the piece. It lead me to the embroidery floss that sis in a basket unused on top of the bookcase in the "studio". I used an orange piece of floss and the color combo was great. I think this piece would make a sweet little wedding gift.

Back from Napa

What an awesome trip! Chris and I left on Thursday morning with three other couples for harvest season in Napa County and the surrounding towns. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend any time in San Francisco, so we will certainly head back another time.

We stopped off at a wonderful little vineyard on our drive to Napa to sample some sparkling wines. Here is a view from the balcony area where we enjoyed the view and the cool, crisp weather.

On the first evening of our trip, we invited a chef into our rented home for an interactive dinner party. That's Lynnie in the green teaching Chris a thing or two about Beef Bourguignon. Lynnie was not only our chef, but became our full-time driver of our massive grey church van for the next few days.

Our drive from our home to the wineries each morning was more than brutal. Imagine the worst winding, narrow road and then multiply that by ten. It was hard in the morning for anyone that was hungover and a buzzkill in the evening on the way back. The coolness factor of the house more than made up for it though.

The boys enjoying the vino and reminiscing about the old days at the frat while the girls cook with Lynnie.

The hilltop modernist retreat in person. The house was spectacular with wild turkeys in the yard every morning. It sat on a hilltop/mountain and there was not even a single light for miles around us. It was the most quiet and peaceful place with a beautiful view of the bright, starry sky.

On Friday, we stopped off at numerous wineries including, but not necessarily in order...

Plumpjack...we sat in the courtyard area with a few bottles of wine until they politely asked us to leave at closing time. The weather was perfect and we hardly wanted to jump back in the church van.

Chimney Rock...where we stopped just for a bit after a brief rain shower.

Del Dotto...where they ask you to sign a waiver before entering their wine cave. They served the wine straight out of oak barrels from a "wine wang". No kidding. The tour and tasting ended in a room with a crystal ball with The Doors playing over the loud speaker. We had been warned about this winery at each of the other wineries that day. I now understand what they were talking about.





Joseph Phelps...an early morning and probably my least favorite. Very fancy and not too much my style. It was absolutely gorgeous though. The boys were more interested in the KU game via text message than anything else. Go 'Hawks.


Off to Domain Chandon for sparkling wine and an awesome leisurely lunch. The peach raviolo of dessert was awesome.




We also stopped at Elizabeth Spencer, ZD, Honig and Cakebread. I highly recommend the Honig Sauvignon Blanc...voted the best in the valley under $20. You should be able to find it at your local liquor store.

I'l try to post more pictures later because blogger is being a bit tricky right now. Check back!

Off to Napa

Greetings everyone and happy hump day. We are off to Napa tomorrow morning. I couldn't be more excited. We have a personal chef coming to our house tomorrow night for a cooking demo and wine pairing. The chef will change hats on Friday and Saturday when she becomes our chauffeur in our giant white church van that will tour wineries through Napa and Rutherford, California. At least we are being safe!

The good news is that my camera is now working. Afer getting drenched at Sunday's NASCAR race, I placed it in a sealed container of rice. It worked! Supposedly it works for small electronics like cell phones and cameras. So, now that the camera is working again...be sure to check back for pictures from our trip. OK...off to pack. Have a great weekend.

A-NASCAR-kind-of-life

Great weekend here. Dugout suite tickets to the Royals game on Friday night and NASCAR tickets for the race at the Kansas Speedway on Sunday. Too bad that it ABSOLUTELY POURED just over half way through the race. The rain was so blinding that Chris and I got lost in the parking lot for more than half an hour while we searched high and low for our car. It was still quite an experience. Those NASCAR fans are insane! I've never seen grown men flipping off an "opponent" at every chance. That's 267 laps around the track and a lot of finger flipping.

Needless to say, my camera no longer works due to the downpour. My phone is hanging on by a thread, but it's not looking so good. It works, but I can't see who is calling or who I'm dialing. Right now, both the phone and camera are in a sealed container of rice to absorb the moisture. Pray that the camera fixes itself before the trip to Napa on Thursday!

In the meantime, here is some more information about the place we are staying. I can't wait...
Napa PreFab