chopped.

It was time. I needed a bit of a change...so I chopped my hair and I absolutely love it. It is exactly the freshness I needed.

Andy's New Toy/Work in Progress

Andy got his dream car last weekend...a 1976 FJ40 Land Cruiser. He is so excited about it. Blake helped him clean it up a bit while I was on the retreat last weekend. It needs some work, but it will be incredible when he is finished with it.

I went on a retreat with our youth group from church this weekend. It has been a few years since I had been on a retreat with students and I remembered this weekend how much fun they are. We played crazy, crazy games, stayed up way late, and just enjoyed getting to know everyone. We had an amazing speaker who just really blessed our group with his words. The weekend was awesome and it was so cool to see the students so desiring God.

We had beautiful weather all weekend. It was cool and crisp in the mornings and evenings and nice and warm the rest of the time. We got back to the church on Sunday evening. After the students had gone home, we watched in the distance as a tornado came out of the sky and touched down. It did this a few times before we saw it begin to get bigger and start to pick up dust and debris. I have never ever seen anything quite like this before. It was amazing and scary at the same time. Thankfully, there were no major injuries and no major destruction. Crazy Colorado Weather.

Six

Happy sixth wedding anniversary to us! I love you babe...here are some early pictures of us for your enjoyment:
And one fairly new picture of the three of us...

Inspiration

I have the creative itch...you know, the one that won't stop bugging you until you find yourself at the checkout counter at Joann's or until you hear the hum of the sewing machine, the clicking of the knitting needles or the swish of the paintbrush across paper...yep, I have that itch. I have been trying to ignore it for the last few weeks. I mean, there is so much to do around here. However, the itch is so strong, instead of cleaning my bathroom, I find my self on this blog, wanting to make these gloves and this dress for Blake. Or I find this free pattern on this site. I even started to look at ideas for Christmas gifts...I made this bag once and I know there are some very special people who deserve one. And, Thanks a lot to Cindy who gave me the quilting itch ever since our visit to WA. We went to the drive-in movie on our last night and she brought out two of the most beautiful quilts...I want to make quilts now, and lots of them.

I was able to finish this painting last week. I love to paint and I go through times when I paint late into the night after everyone has gone to bed. I started on this last winter and just never got around to finishing it. The other day, Blake was really into her watercolors so I was actually able to finish this painting. I'm still trying to figure out where it will live in our house...probably in the dining room, but well see. I have loved painting for as long as I can remember. In second grade, I painted a picture of a bunch of teddy bears, all of them wearing bow-ties...the art teacher picked my painting to hang in the hall. At that point, I was completely hooked. I loved it. I mainly paint in water colors. I love to watch how the colors mix and mingle in the water. How they take on a life of their own, something that is completely out of my control. This painting was do with acrylics and a medium to make the birds and the wire stand out. This was an experiment and I think I am pretty happy with the outcome.

Art and creating is somethings that I so cherish in life. I hope and pray my children will have a love for art, even if it just for looking at paintings or sculptures or being able to appreciate someones creative abilities, or even just a love for the 64-count box of crayola crayons (you know the box I am talking about, the envy of all elementary students). Having a creative outlet is so important. It helps you to learn how to take chances and risks, and it allows the chance for mess ups and to be able to start over on a clean sheet. Creativity is everywhere we look. Weather you love doing art or not, we are all creative beings. We are made in the image of The Creative God and therefore, creativity runs through our veins.

Dreaming of Autumn...

Yesterday, we got a little taste of some cooler weather...a wonderfully cool 85 degrees. I broke out my jeans and even fired up the oven for a new bread recipe. Our house is not air-conditioned and it just does not have the best airflow in the world...it often seems to be 5-10 degrees hotter inside than it is outsides. So when these cooler days come around I start getting excited for the days of soup, fresh baked bread, lattes, clogs and my favorite North Face fleece. In honor of the 85 degree weather, I made some amazing blueberry bread. I doubled this recipe to make two loaves.:

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup fresh (Iused fresh since they are in season) or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, 1 cup sugar, juice and eggs. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into egg mixture alternately with milk. Fold in lemon zest, nuts, and blueberries. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Remove bread from pan and drizzle with glaze. Cool on a wire rack.

This bread is so good and easy to make...my only problem was I didn't grease the pan well enough and one of my loaves didn't come out all the way...so sad. I want to try this bread using raspberrys...we're off to the farmers marker to see if we can find some there.