Suday at the LaKe**

Yesterday we went with a couple of friends to take a swim at Ward Lake. The weather was really nice, not too hot. The water was perfect for a dip, it was a great lazy afternoon.

We had eight kids (Vito's group) "camping" in our backyard Saturday night because it was raining in the mountains. So instead of cancelling the trip they pitched tents in our yard. They had it pretty good, they got to "camp" and still use an indoor toilet, watch movies all night inside and eat a nice hot breakfast in the a.m.

They did however make s'mores in the fire pit because it's just not real camping without s'mores. I'm pretty sure they had a good time.

Needless to say our quiet afternoon on the lake (after they all went home) was quite enjoyable.. Quiet.

First fruits.. and some more goodies.

Well, yesterday I picked the first ripe tomato from the garden. It's not the largest tomato I've ever seen but quite quite tasty. We picked off the last head of lettuce, picked a few ripe peppers and a ton of basil. Vito made a yummy pesto sauce with all of the basil, I ate it by the spoonful it was so good. For dinner he made some yummy pesto gnocchi with peppers, sausage and of course, the yum yum tomato. My dinner pic doesn't look as good as it tasted but it was such a fun treat and tasted deliciously fresh.

However, tragedy has struck the garden. Four of our six tomato plants have the black plague (at least that's what I'm calling it). The tomatoes have a black bottom, I think it's the tomato's version of Aids. I have no idea what's happening, but it's SPREADING. Each plant has grew a good 12-15 tomatoes that are now BLACK on the bottom, we've got a lot of casualties. I don't know how to save the "good ones" or if it's even possible. This one little delicacy we picked yesterday might be our only survivor. Help me, please! Any suggestions!?

Art from YeStErDaY** and some cards too!

Look new! Index card art. More coming soon.

Sunday at the RaCeS**

Vito and I went to the horse track yesterday with Jess and Matt. Jess and Vito were quite impressive betters, they knew exactly what they were doing. However, Matt Stevens and I didn't have as much luck (or strategy). My scientific process wasn't too difficult, I didn't bother looking at stats, I walked over to the stable and picked the first horse that gave me a wink. Needless to say I didn't do so well, I lost all of the money Vito won.

Apparently in college Vito and Jess visited the track on a regular basis. After 8 races of me loosing money, I was more interested in taking pictures of the big betters and horses.

Lots of cigars and cold beer on a hot day. It was a scorcher, high 90's for sure.

Yesterday's paintings**

I did these eight little paintings yesterday afternoon. I painted them on small chipboards that are 4.5"x6.5".I used acrylic, sharpie, pen, oil pastels and cow marker (orange and black.) It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to do with them, I started out painting all of them solid turquoise. Now you only see a tiny spot of turquoise on each one.
I also bought a few black chipboards at the store so hopefully I will get to those soon.

...Still have scraps from sewing pillows??

Sew them onto blank paper cards.

These scraps of rick-rack, paper, ribbon and fabric can apparently sew quite nicely onto paper.

I just made myself I nice big stack of cards.


I want to make some more.

BeAd DaY.

This morning I met with Anne Marie for our weekly coffee and bead. It's usually just coffee, but today we had coffee and made fun stuff.

A necklace, bracelet and earrings for only ten bucks. Gody gold and hot pink plastic spacings. Who doesn't go mad for gold and hot pink? gad zooks.

Tonight Vito and I are going on a little date night and I have all new accessories to show off.

*To the King and Queen of Romance*

My mom and dad sent us this funky fun anniversary card in the mail a couple days ago.

Awhile back I discovered these neat plastic packet sleeve things at Xpdex that are great to use if you want to hang a card on the wall (or hang anything really).

I switched out the card I had in bathroom.
I fits nicely.

Paintings

Yesterday while Vito was downstairs demolishing the bathroom I found a cigar box in the basement and decided to paint instead of help. I did start to help, I scraped a good 2'x2' square of wallpaper off of the wall. Then I decided it would be more fun to paint.

Also while I was down there I found a little Ziploc bag full of 1" square blocks that I stayed up late painting on. In the picture they look quite large, but they actually all fit on a piece of paper. They are so small that it was hard to get a good picture, I think they would look good in a shadow box of some sort.

Extra scraps from sewing pillows..??...

Sew it on a shirt.

Everyone wants to wear shirt art.

Now I'm a walking art display.

Cassius liked the idea so much he passed out on the floor, dropped dead with amazement.

Get the Christmas lights....

our lettuce looks like a tree!

Merry Christmas in JULY!

I sawed down the tree of lettuce today so we can have a delicious dinner with some friends. Cristi and Joe are coming over so I figured it would be the perfect time to sacrifice one of the heads. I don't think this is normal for it to look so strange, it's about 3 feet tall... all the other heads of lettuce look normal. Watch it actually not be lettuce at all, some kind of weed we eat and die.

Scooter update.

A day (Wednesday) in the life of my moto cuzzi.

9-10:30- hot yoga class

11:30- lunch in cherry creek with friends from work

12:30- back to aurora to make tamales with maria

4:30- back home, then off to the honda dealership to schedule FIRST tune up.

5:00- home.

6:00-8 Albertsons to Michaels to Target to home.

9:00- home in the garage, after a long days work.

total miles to date: 687.

CaLiFoRniA- 4th of July

We went to California for a week over the 4th of

July for Dave's Birthday. Heather and Ali took us

out on their friends boat on the 4th, that evening

we went back to Dave's to watch fireworks off his

patio. Lots of eating and drinking, days at the

beach, shopping and fun with friends.