I love this site: 2-views, where two artists interpret a word using photography and mixed-media. I’ve been a fan of Maditi’s blog for a long time. Love those collaborative projects.

Oh, and I finally updated our about us page. Just little tweaks and a few photos:

above: our Boulder, Colorado wedding

and camping trip to the Great Sand Dunes in 2005

The other day David and I bought a Home Test pH Kit on a whim at Whole Foods. You know how they put good stuff by the register to suck you in. And we are total suckers for science stuff. Especially when there are experiments involved.

So, we’ve tested our pH levels and evidently David and I are both too acidic. Who knew that was even possible?! And it’s not like we are eating a diet of soda and pop-tarts over here. (Just too much dairy and processed grains, I guess.)

Right now I am drinking lemon-spiked water to alkalinize. Yes, I am drinking an acid to be more basic. Evidently lemons, when digested, have a very alkalizing effect. I know this sounds crazy. You’re going to have to trust me on this one.

Lately I’ve had a surge of creativity and it has been a blast. I’ve had such fun working on my ceramics homework. Yesterday and today I played around with using leaves to create different textures and patterns:

Clay and bits of leaf are now all over the house. So worth it.

Yesterday I finally saw The Queen (how fitting that her majesty visited the White House on the same day–total coincidence). Wow, the film was phenomenal. I was completely floored by Helen Mirren’s performance, the breathtaking cinematography, and spectacular script. It was moving, interesting, and thought-provoking. I found my mind lingering over it hours afterwards and it was fresh on my mind this morning when I woke up. Now that is a good movie.

I find it interesting how certain memories are etched clearly in our minds. I remember exactly where I was the moment I learned of Princess Diana’s car crash. Some things, often haunting things, really stay with us.

+ walking around barefoot
+ English breakfast tea with milk
+ blooming plants and deep greens
+ creating Japanese tea bowls:

+ pottery inspiration: 1, 2 & 3
+ hot summery days
+ coconut rice pudding as a Sunday treat
+ anticipation of trips to the beach
+ late night alumni on pandora
+ postcards from abroad from Kate-Robin!

When we lived in Boulder, we ate out several times a week and frequently met up with friends at local bars or restaurants. David and I used to go out on dates all the time. In our three years there, had tried nearly every restaurant in town and had our favorite places. The waiters knew us. The owners would stop by. Our friends would know where to find us.

Since moving here we haven’t really gone to happy hour or eaten outside or found tons of fabulous restaurants. Yes, we live in California with beautiful weather, but we don’t eat out that much because everything is so darn expensive, and most of our friends aren’t around the corner and able to meet at a moments notice.

So, yesterday was a treat. After a lovely drive in the country (scouting towns to move to with absolutely no luck), we ended up in beautiful Healdsburg, a smaller, more expensive, and less hippy Boulder, but lovely nonetheless. We found the local brew pub, sat on the back patio, and savored the sunshine and yummy pub fare.

Sitting there we realized that we were having a Boulder date. It felt so normal. It felt so right. We had missed it so much. And now we know that we need to do this way more often… Happy hour, anyone?

Where have I been? What have I been up to?

Gardening at our house (as opposed to Luther Burbank’s house), making leaf plates for my ceramics class, paring down and throwing out and organizing our stuff that is taking over the apartment, cooking Thai food, reading (up to a couple hours a day now!), and doing some hard-core running. We seem to have finally developed a routine here in California: yoga, arts and crafts, garden, run, eat, read, sleep, and repeat. We’ve been here a year now.

p.s. Check out HepburnTribute.com — that’s been a real source of time suckage lately.
Still lots of things to adjust and tweak, but it’s on its way.