Long overdue

I don't know why I always end up painting walls and furniture, rather than the canvases I have stacked in my art cupboard, but somehow I do. This desk was bought about a year ago for $20, brown, old, scratched, and it's been stuck in the corner of Zoe's room since then. I finally had the inspiration to work on it, and it sanded up easily with a belt sander, after I screwed up my courage enough to switch that monster on. I primed it, painted it a soft white, and then distressed it with the same pale pink that's on Zoe's walls (somewhat hard to see in the pictures).

I think it's sweet, at least for a little girl for now.

Shy bandit

We've seen his handiwork in the broken-open bird seed container, or the occasional torn garbage bag, but we don't often see our masked backyard neighbor. On this particular day, however, he decided to take a nap in the tree directly facing our back deck.

Vegetable cupcakes

I've been dying to try these cupcakes for ages, and the last day of school seemed an appropriate place for such a summery theme.

The base is chocolate frosting coated in crushed oreo cookie "earth"; the vegetables are simply starburst candies molded into shapes, with green frosting dipped cornflake "leaves" and green M&M "peas." It was all surprisingly quick and easy to pull together, and the kids (36 of them in both my children's classes) loved them.

Credit to "Hello Cupcake" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson for the idea.

Signs of summer

Despite grey skies, summer is here. The bluejays and squirrels are squabbling in the back yard, and in the front the poppies are opening.

Lupins

One day when I was about 16, I saw a beautiful bunch of roses in town, well out of reach of my sixteen-year old purse. Later that day, after I had told her about them, my mother drove back into town and surprised me with those roses. I still remember that they were the beautiful pale antiquey pink kind.

Yesterday I walked into the house from work to find another memorable floral gift from my generous mom - this time a striking, bold spiral of lupins. I'm particularly fascinated with the deep red ones, which I've never found at a nursery. I have planted blue ones in my garden more than once before, but sadly the moles (or something) seems to enjoy eating them. So, for now, I'll enjoy the ones on my kitchen table.

Why blog?

It's true. There are a gazillion blogs out there. I've always wondered why people blog, even though I'm an avid follower of a select handful. If you're not really a professional blogger, though, someone with credentials, who wants to read your musings?

Recently I stumbled across the blog of an old friend. I don't think she would consider herself a professional blogger, and often her posts are short, simple, and make no point other than to capture a quick image or impression. I love reading them, because they're almost always beautiful - beauty in the form of a photo of a homemade cake; beauty in a few words about the garden in winter.

I started wondering what beautiful small things I take the time to notice - or capture and celebrate - in my busy life. This blog is about providing a space just to do that. And really? I don't care if anyone reads it or not.