Wednesday, April 16, 2008

April blowin' by...

Last year's garden (or maybe the year before that...japanese eggplant, lemon grass, basil, sunny dahlias, and a really sweet cantaloupe melon)

This is going to turn out to be one productive month! You can't tell probably (with the lack of pictures these days...) but Jared and I are working up a storm on our little casa and on bunches of other things. Mostly we're feeling the heat of our baby due date at our heels :o) She'll be here in about 10 weeks!! But really it feels so good to be getting stuff done too you know? And sunny warmish weather always motivates me.

The projects and other good stuff:

Re-doing our bathroom (all demolished, most of the electrical done, some plumbing and drywall started, almost everything on hand that will go back in - all that in the last 4 days - craziness!)


Preparing for my show at Vintage Faith Galllery (I've got tons more work to do for the show...and need to start writing my 'summary', then get started on the framing and presentation - show date May 4th!)

Celebrated Jared's 30th b-day! We somehow squeezed in some good time with friends on Saturday, and then one lovely friend helped us move our old cast iron tub out of the house - eternally grateful believe me. Now we have a giant green tub in the back yard - woo hoo...


Planning out mural jobs for the rest of the month & May...I may be painting my last big job in May, then maybe just little things, and then the baby's room (still simmering ideas for her space...). I'll be back to work (if slowly at first) in late August and already have some mural jobs on the calendar - have some figuring out to do. Can I paint murals with a baby strapped onto me??

General stuff...making curtains and finishing projects in rooms that have been crying out for attention (painting trim, fixing plaster and drywall, organizing, getting ready to move my stuff from my office in the house to the studio outside (and hopefully making it a gosh darned cool space I love to be in :o)

And with this amazing weather...I've pulled out my seed packets of long italian globe onions, french charentais melons, curly lettuces, miniature white cucumbers, dragon carrots, and what could be a whopper of a plant and take over the whole garden - moon and stars watermelon (but I can't help myself!!) and I'll get them started hopefully today. I'll go by Summer Winds to get tomato plants sometime this week too (I like to buy big plants in April that already have a healthy head start). We love 'early girl' and 'sun gold' and so I'll pick up those and 3 or 4 other types - a big beefy sandwich tomato with tons of juice and flavor, a meaty one that is perfect for sauces, a really colorful one that has lots of sweetness, and then something surprising we haven't seen/tried before. I get way too excited about tomatoes!!


Today I'm painting works for the show, picking up a toilet tank and groceries - what randomness right? That seems to be life these days.

I'll leave you with some of my favorite finds from the past few days:

A lovely egg from the easter egg dyeing we did (love these colors):


Sanguine trying to catch a butterfly in the laundry room shade:


Love these fabrics!


One of the tiles going into our bathroom:


Enjoy your Wednesday! :o)
xo, Devon

Friday, April 4, 2008

Bloomin'


Yesterday I turned the tomato beds...found lots of earthworms (yea!!) and too many grubs (ewww...). But that's what happens when things can simmer under the ground undisturbed for a few months. I praised all the little earthworms and told them to keep multiplying please :o) And I...sorry for those who are squeamish...squished most of the grubs, and tossed a few over the studio roof at the dog who is constantly barking at me (he would get oddly quiet for a few moments as he was probably trying to figure out what the wiggly thing was, then he'd resume barking...then get bombed by another grub). I then poured bags of compost over the whole freshly turned heap and will let it sit for a while. I'll probably plant luscious little tomatoes at the end of April. Still dreaming about which ones I want....besides my 'early girl' and 'sun gold' staples.


And look at the AMAZING poppy!! I need to take another photo that shows just how big this bloom is, but I promise you it's huge and so seductive with its frothy petals. Poppies were the first seeds I ever planted out here in Cali - oriental poppies, back in 2000. I'm somewhat obsessed with them. I have to admit I wish this was a red poppy, or orange. I'm not a fan of pink really. But it's hard to care when something as beautiful as this pops open. And look, there are 4 or 5 more buds that are going to follow this giant one :o)


This caught my eye earlier...I really love Yoshitomo Nara's work and check out this new little book!! I would love it for (myself) the baby's room. It looks so magical.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Dreamy skies


Been busy since being home from Easter in Texas...we had a great time :o) I'll share pics from the trips, and pics of all the terrific stuff going on around here soon. For now, here's a yummy shot from my kitchen window of the sky the other day. It was so dreamy - like a scene from an N.C. Wyeth painting.