the week ahead

butterfly habitat at lavender festival

welcome to Happy Homemaker's post

from the old ranch tour at Chatfield

It's going to be another hot week here in our 'hood.

The weather in Aurora CO
The weather people say it's been in the 90's but in the sun, it feels like 110 to me. Of course once you start to melt, it just is hot.
And humid for some reason, people use the word muggy. Whatever, it's uncomfortable. And there are always some fluffy things blowing around, and the hoa spread pesticides on all common areas so it's impossible to find a safe place to walk the dog. That was Friday, and of course only sprinkles for rain since then.
In a day, it starts sunny and cloudless, then the clouds build through the day, becoming a black mass in the afternoon, then sprinkles, then a spectacular colorful sunset, and hot wind blows.

To Do
go through the first floor and try to put things away. How is it horizontal surfaces attract all kinds of things? Magnetic force? Anyway, it seems hard to find a place to put everyday stuff out of sight, someplace where you can find it again.
Milo's ears are a problem again, so I guess we all have to face the stress of the vet's
I really should mop the floors again, and want to find an answer to the tiles in the bathroom
Make art, and sort supplies again. They tend to have a party when I leave the room and it's like "risky business" in there
bring my nightime novel down to finish the last chapter. I have been so tired lately it's hard to finish this book and I have several waiting to be read.
write a post on the lavender festival, with lots of great pictures
Water the vegetables, even the non producing zucchini which may produce fruit some day... hope
Do something to make my fingernails look better
figure out how to cook the lima bean harvest...

Eating
as I said, I harvested some lima beans. The bush beans were a disappointment as they were tough and fibrous but I googled when to pick lima bean pods, and picked some. You shell them, so I was surprised to see three or two little limas in the pods... lots of waste, and now have about 25 little beans to try to steam in my saucepan pots!
I made iced tea with my cinnamon tea bags, and it was amazingly good! I need to make another batch for this week. Simply, I brew 3 cinnamon black teabags, with three green tea bags, and dilute with filtered water to use for the week.
I saw three little purple eggplants on the plant, woohoo! Success! I googled when to harvest and can start using them anytime. You kind of squeeze them and if your fingermarks leave dimples, they aren't ripe, but otherwise we need to use them. Got a favorite eggplant recipe? They are about 6" long. I think I'll put a ground chicken tomato sauce over them and bake.

reading
finishing up the librarian series, and finished the studio book on disc. Both excellent!
Starting the next Laura Childs teahouse mystery at night, and listening to a Kate Morton book on disc, The Clockmaker's Daughter in the studio. Reading home magazines and then allowing myself to recycle them.
I get the Writer's Almanac daily, it's a post of famous (or not) authors, and what happened on this day back in history. It's an amazing gift each morning to learn so much in a short post!

Watching
TV is just lacking right now. I'm still hanging in with the bachelorette but she's such a mess. She finally explained why she kept one guy around despite his opinion that a woman does what her husband tells her to do, because she felt she didn't really belong as the bachelorette and self sabatoged. The next show should be her in therapy.
I also watch master chef, and IMHO, the judges expect too much from the home chefs. Just because this is season 10, they demand more expertise, and keep yelling at them, "this is season ten! step it up!" well the contestants haven't been on the show for ten seasons, they are new like all of them have been, so to expect any more from them than season one contestants is ridiculous and demeaning.

We started watching Campers on ACORN and only saw the first episode. I'm not sure... it's no 800 words which I still miss.
I'm watching videos on youtube, mainly painting shows, and TED talks. After one TED talk I learned to walk away from certain people and drew this cartoon to remind me...

I found this clever film one day...
This film says it all really... please enjoy, chosen as the film of the year for Vimeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9dZQelULDk

Making

I'm trying to draw/paint daily, and learn more about that artform. It is informing my quilting arts too, with painting and drawing on fabric to be stitched later.  My design wall is full of color at the moment, while I design a bed quilt from blocks of color. It's like eating chips, just one more block before I stop for the day!

Experience of note
I talked to friends last week, one in Boston who recently lost her nearly 17 year old dog, and now has adopted an 8 week old puppy!!! yea! Welcome to the world, baby boy Ziggy.
I chatted with a friend in DE who just accepted a position at different university to teach her classes in ethics. I am celebrating with her, because they were not happy in DE and are moving to a great home in MD to be near work and her kids/grands.
My friend Mary adopted a cat unseen, and it's adorable and adjusting to it's new life, and they are adjusting to the new life in the house as well.
I also celebrated with a fellow quilt artist, who had a quilt hanging at Sacred Threads, and got an email from a viewer who was stunned by her work's impact. What great connections we can make when we risk sharing our feelings with others.

I loved sharing these life changing events this week, and I am grateful for the connections I have, because even though each of these friends is in far flung states, we are close in heart.

I'll leave you today with a connection I made with an artist from Texas, showing her work at Cheeseman Park in Denver this weekend. We had a very in depth, very honest conversation as I shopped. Her work spoke to me as being meaning driven. Her jewelry designs, come from her deep love of different cultures, shes an anthropologist by education, and we talked about how we feel in today's world of distrust and hate. It makes us both heartsick, and we both cope often by not dwelling in it. In the span of 10 minutes, I saw her and she saw me, the persons inside the personas, and we relaxed for a moment in the knowledge that we were understood. 

Linking with
pet parade 
cheesy photos at ched curtain
all seasons
https://comedy-plus.com/ Awe Mondays

happy homemaker monday