evening stroll

just saw that fox statue for the first time in my neighborhood
laughed with delight
just watched Fantastic Mr. Fox last night
what a fun film

too chilly to play in the sand...

oh well!
fresh laundry will do

jotters in the making

some new jotters for Design Collective

Sculpture Garden By Night

enjoying night-time strolls through the sculpture garden
excited to find the wind chimes(Pierre Huyghe) are still up
go + hear them in the breeze
amazing the way they harmonize

find them
past Spoonbridge and Cherry
walk away from the Walker Art Center
hidden in the grove of trees

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Oh My!

I made this birthday pie for a friend who prefers pies to cakes. According to him, "Pies are a taste experience. There's a history there." I like that and I like pie, which I don't make often enough. The house smelled so good.

I've tried a number of pie crusts and this version is a mixture of the best qualities of them. It resembles a flaky pastry crust-so good. And don't be scared by the fresh grated ginger in the filling. You don't really taste it, but it adds to the sweet + tart flavors of the pie.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Crust:
2 cups unbleached flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 lb unsalted butter, cubed and cold
1/3 c shortening, cold(non-hydrogenated)
1/4 c ice-cold water

Combine dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter or two forks, add butter and shortening to flour mixture until pea size hunks form. Slowly add just enough of the ice water until dough forms a ball; you may not need all the water. Wrap dough in waxed paper and chill in fridge for 3 or 4 hours.

Filling:
3 c strawberries, sliced
3 c rhubarb, sliced
1 1/8 c sugar
5 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine all filling ingredients, except butter. Roll out bottom crust and line pan. Pour filling into crust and dot with cubes of butter. Roll out top crust and form lattice on pie(this is way easier than you think). Brush lattice top with heavy whipping cream or half and half and sprinkle with raw sugar. Line baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper and place on bottom rack to catch drips during baking. Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake 40-45 minutes more or until filling is thick and bubbly. Cool completely before slicing.

today is filled with...

pie baking
jogging
dishes
kiddos
white lilies
cold, sweating smoothies
plant watering
art making
contemplation
whirring fans
scalloped potato making
snappy asparagus
laughter

and a whole lot more

maybe a late night swim?

bigBang Studio

I like the digital-esque cacti and lavender shadows in Lily Stockman's Creosote. I'm loving her animal paintings, too.

Find her humorous blog here and more art here.

around the house

coin purse from Taxco, Mexico
an arrowhead from my love
peonies
old farm chair from great grandparents
my dabbling at painting in the park
canvas storage vessel I created recently

small & mighty greens

chives, parsley, basil
spinach and mesclun
they are growing fast
in 30 days we'll be eating greens from our window sills!

we tried to garden on our deck at our last apartment
the squirrels made that extremely difficult and unfruitful
this year we're sharing a CSA share with friends

the earth was once a blown up star...

saw this on our walk last night
reduce!
reuse!
recycle!

BP spills Coffee

h i l a r i o u s

The Avett Brothers

and while we're on the subject of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts
(previous post)
this is perhaps one of my favorites
those voices together!
can you imagine being present for these?
NPR: you are rad
music: you make my day
and turn my frown upside down

Tallest Man on Earth

he reminds me of the great Bob Dylan
enjoying them both

cheap beer + fancy cookies

I love cheap beer + fancy cookies.

Most of our alcohol comes from the liquor store down the street. At the check out, the cashier always tells me to have a magical night and it always makes me smile.

And so, without further adieu, I wish the same to you.

Pottery Park

I visited historic Red Wing this week with family. We spent the day picnicking, browsing antique shops, going to the Red Wing Pottery Museum, Pottery Park and the Red Wing Shop.

Behind the old Red Wing Pottery Factory you can find piles and piles of discarded pottery. It is amazing to walk through the endless piles of broken stoneware in the woods. See a video from my last trip here.

After a busy day, we headed to a pizza farm in Stockholm, WI, for brick oven fired pizza. It was an exhausting lovely rainy day.

Inspired By Iceland

Remember how I said I want to go to Iceland?

Well, now I want to go sooo bad...

cards as of late

working on cards for the shop

why can't we stop the oil?
and I don't mean just the spill
does 'spill' even convey the enormity of it?

{via The Big Picture}

Inspiration Board

This is our current inspiration board. We simply removed the print from a hefty black frame(spray painted at an earlier date) and started taping our bits and bobs(with paint-safe tape, of course) on the the wall to inspire us.

Many little bits carry their own story. Some were obscurely found, some remind us of happy times and people we love. Our board changes a lot, as we are always adding to it. It looks different now than when I snapped these photos a few days ago. It always makes us smile and reminds us to be grateful. Sometimes we just stand in front of it with our arms wrapped around one another and look and smile.

the sparks around the campfire

We brought out the sparklers during our recent camping trip and snapped a few photos. Such fun.

Griffin + Sabine

I was fortunate that a friend lent me Griffin and Sabine, an epistolary novel. The trilogy, by Nick Bantock, consists of a series of letters and postcards between Griffin Moss, a lonely artist in London, and Sabine Strohem, a postage stamp illustrator living in the South Pacific. Their artistic correspondence reveals their deep affection for one another an ocean apart. Will they spend their lives together or is Sabine just a figment of Griffin's imagination?

{Thanks, Catie!}