La Flor Solita.

The brisk autumn air is upon us. While it doesn't make me happy that little flowers like this one are soon going to go away, I am excited about pulling out the my woolen sweaters, leather boots, scarves and hot cocoa mugs.

I'm a Northern gal, what can I say? My lovely pm reminds me of this quite often. Part of the reason he does so, I think, is because he is a southern guy. [There's a song all about people like him: Los Delinquentes, Despues. They're singing all about la gente abajito del sol :)]

Regardless of being from the north or the south, I love fall. It's something about the changing of the leaves, the air and our clothes that almost forces us to change gears. Some of these changes admittedly may be against my will (aka -- fall cleaning and closed windows), but others bring excitement. Our biggest celebration . . . the cooling of the airs means we can brew again!! We kicked off yesterday with bottling our peach american wheat. This will give a little bottle of sunshine on cold days.

We've got lots of floral and herbal teas in the cabinet. Maybe we mesh some of these flavors and aromas into our next homebrew. Hmmm....

Pseudo Bachelor(ette)

Flowers remind me of nature. I've never been one who likes to get get flowers. They die. I'd rather get a plant, that way if it dies it is my fault. Flowers given as gifts make me wish it was chocolate instead. I enjoy chocolate and when it's gone I don't feel guilty since you have to eat it. Flowers go bad on their own.

Anyway, I chose this photo with this post because flowers remind me of girl time. And it's perfect since, I've had the place to myself for the last couple of days. Tonight I plan to celebrate and fully intend to take advantage of my pseudo-bacheloretteism. I have a few items on the mind - chick flick, wine and my comfort food. (Okay, so it's ice cream and chocolate, no big surprises!)

Every once and awhile I need to be able to play a sappy movie and not worry about what pm will think of me and my occasional lack of taste. Today is going to be that day. In fact, I better get to it.

[I do promise to write more soon. I realize I have been seriously neglecting this blog lately. Life has gotten busy. Not that it looks to be getting (un)busy any time soon, but I am planning to make more of a commitment to writing.]

30 Days of Creativity - Day 9: Card Cutout

The other day I mentioned I had more paper than I know what to do with. That is, obviously, still the case. However, I wanted to try to challenge myself to think of different things to do with this paper. I did a handful of things today (mostly involving my stacks of paper), of which one was successful. Just as the Twitter roll for #30daysofcreativity says (via @createstuff) "Life is trying things to see if they work.” – Ray Bradbury. I did just that today. Try, try and try again.

I have been attempting to do a tutorial for a string ornament for months. I cannot seem to perfect it; and, as much as I hate to admit it, I don't think that tutorial will be up anytime soon. I'll find something else to do instead though, no worries.

So what did I do? I made this cute card cutout. I am planning to make others as well, as they are great thank you/blank cards for future use. Time to sharpen the exacto knife and get back to it. This little project reminded me of one of my elementary art school classes. We made a stained glass "window" out of different cuts of colored paper. I remember that I made a dolphin. Oh yeah.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 6: Flores

For our lack of an outdoor garden, it was necessary to create our own indoor garden. A very easy project - all that you need are paper, scissors and a stapler. I opted for more muted toned paper, but using colorful paper remnants would give that garden some extra punch. I plan to make more of these little fellows throughout the week.

I absolutely love gardens. The closest we have ever come to having a real garden has consisted of filling our window sills with planters. It's been successful thus far, and lucky for us our last couple of apartments have had great natural light and deep window sills.

Our indoor garden update for the day involved our aloe vera plant. I transferred a shoot from our larger aloe plant to a pot today. I am hoping that it continues to grow roots and makes it. [Judging by how burned my shoulders are today from a morning stroll I may be in need of some aloe soon.]

reach for it.

Thought I'd shine light on another "old" photograph from our Flickr stream. (It's funny as I write "shine light on" the afternoon sunshine is streaming through the blinds and shining plenty of light on me.)

I love watching everything come into bloom during spring. It all seems to grow so quickly, making it hard to believe that only a few short weeks ago there was more brown than green on the ground. I was amazed just how green everything was over the weekend. Too bad we didn't have a camera on hand to capture all the rich colors. The overcast skies sure helped illuminate all the blooms and buds. Can't wait for some of our indoor plants to catch up!

On a side note: We just got about 8 rolls developed from two of our favorite cameras: Holga & Kiev. This means we'll have plenty of new photos to post both to the blog and to Flickr in the coming weeks. Other than that, it's just another manic Monday. One soon to be filled with paella and red wine. mmm!

spring time

I think (and hope!) it is safe to say that spring has arrived! I've seen the proof: daffodils blooming and robins hunting for worms. Let's not forget the nearly full week of consistent sunshine folks!

It's not that this past winter was colder or longer than most, it just felt like it. Maybe because we moved right before temperatures really started to drop. However, I think it has much more to do with the fact we walk almost everywhere now. There is no sense in driving; public transportation is faster and more adventurous.

Now that it's spring - that means in with the new, out with the old. We're hoping to do some refreshing of the apartment, daily tasks, and most importantly....our creative energy. It never ceases to amaze how much easier it is to do things when the weather is nice. Instead of bundling up to brace the cold, you can just go. Here's to a weekend and many weeks ahead of e.x.p.l.o.r.i.n.g.