Nic's Night Out

The Ladies from Left: Emma, Brynel, Kelly, Megan, Nicci and Me.

Saturday night some of us ladies got together to celebrate our friend Nicci.
Nicci battled breast cancer in 2009 and she is finally done with her chemo and radiation. She is young, she is my age, younger and has a beautiful family. She is an artist as well and a deeply creative and feeling individual. She has been a true inspiration to me, her courage and ability to accept her situation and yet fiercely fight back is something to behold. Nic has the ability to see the blessings that come from something difficult. I'm proud to know her and draw strength from her example. She is one of the good ones, all of the women that came together that evening are strong and incredibly good and kind. Nicci has a strong tribe of friends that I'm proud to be a part of.

Love

Inhale, Exhale
By Betsy Walton

I know it's not Valentines Day..I don't really celebrate it anyway..really love should be celebrated every day, in every little thing you do whether it's drinking a warm cup of chai or listening to a friend, listening to music or being with your mate. At any rate, I really like these words from Karina the Gluten Free Goddess, I copied them from her blog.
"Love is messy and complicated and often the timing sucks. Love asks us to get dirty. To risk authenticity, not sugar-coat its opposite. Love doesn't depend upon perfection. It thrives in imperfection. Love seeds itself in the broken places. It prefers the company of weeds above roses. And love doesn't require being polite, being correct, being right, being the best. Love asks us to hurt. To stretch beyond what is bearable. To feel scared. To lose control. To be ridiculous. "

Here's to all the different ways love exists within us, love can be quite messy and that's okay.

January 22nd 2008

Josephine Helinski Davis.
I think this was a passport picture, though she never did get to go overseas like she wanted to.

It's been two years since she left us, I find that hard to believe at times. I'll never forget the moment my sister called me and I could hear in her voice what she hadn't yet told me and my world came tumbling down around me.

Mom, Karen (in the background) and Me. We were such a team, always tight. I must be about 3 here, my sister would be 17 months older than me. My Mom in her early thirties.

Time does not heal all wounds. You learn to "walk" with it. And to experience joy along with deep sorrow.

My Mom is still very much alive in those that she touched with her kindness, love and generosity, I carry her in my heart and memories each day of my life.

Karen and Me, a reflection of our Mother.

Winter Inspiration

Ice, rock, water..inspiration for new pieces I'm working on in the studio.
I've been watching Boulder Creek on lunch time rides over the last few weeks as it's frozen and thawed and refrozen. Pattern, colors, contrast of light and dark, lines, texture, beautiful.

Just squint your eyes almost closed and all of these things come out and you're left with a composition.

Winter inspiration.

New Davenport

Our new Dav-ey.

Well, new to us that is. My Grandparents used to call their sofa a Dav-ey after Davenport which I think was a brand of sofa back in the day. Kinda like how people called their refrigerators a fridge after the brand Frigidaire. Anyway, Craig and I purchased this sectional and ottoman off of my co-worker Courtney. It's only a few years old and we got a killer deal on it. It's really changed the dynamic of our living room but we were needing a change from our very old, very beat up sofa from the 1940's that a bought over ten years ago. It's a lovely old sofa with great lines but horribly dirty and would be usable if it could be reupholtered. I got the two light colored pillows and the tray on the ottoman at Target. It's very comfortable and much bigger than what we had, yet it makes our smallish living room feel a lot more open. Yeah for new davenports!

Snow Biking and some other stuff..

My BLT resting in the snow.

We started our new year with a lovely, hard packed snow ride at Picture Rock with Jimijames. It was a beautiful, cold, sunny day, perfect for riding. We made it to the silo after which the snow became unpacked and soft so we basked for a while and then turned around and swerved about back down the trail.

Craig enjoying the narrow snow track.

Jimijames kickin' it 29 SS style.

We had a lot of fun and it was challanging. Afterwards we found our way over to the Stone Cup for some warm drinks, I love their Chai Latte, they use a local brand called Bhakti Chai, it's soo good.

It's been a good holiday season with lots outside time, good food and drink, friends and nourishing down time full of quiet. I've been running a lot more this winter since it's been snowy and cold and the trails are closed for the most part to riding. There are some great runs up where I live where you don't see anyone except maybe a deer or two. I really enjoy running when it's snowing, I can't quite explain it but there something special about it. Thank goodness for my trackers, they make my running shoes grip onto everything.

The other thing I'm quite pschyed about and it's a totally shallow, gurl thing is that I saved some Christmas money and bought myself The Boots.I had mentioned these boots awhile back as a wish list, in your dreams kinda thing. I don't get opportunities to buy myself things like this well, ever really. When I have extra cash I usually pay bills or buy whatever bike related item I need. This time I went with impractical over practical, so this was a fantastic experience for me. Can't wait to get them, I think they kick ass, so unique!

I was also gifted some wonderful enameled iron cooking pots, such as Le Creuset, and stoneware baking dishes for Christmas and all I can say is where have you been my whole life? I make a lot of soups, stews, risotto type dishes especially in the winter and these pots cook these type of dishes so slowly and beautifully. The stoneware baking dishes also are a revelation in baking quality over my very old metal pans that I inherited from my Grandmother while I was in college. I cherish these pans but they don't even come close to baking evenly like the stoneware, everything literally looks and tastes better, it's a revelation. I've really enjoyed cooking this fall/winter with the desire to save money and make everything from scratch so to speak. What I have been given is a special connection to the food and the process that is much stronger than what I have experienced in the past and having the right tools does make a difference I have to say. Next is stoneware baking sheets, Ha!