Dinner Party at Steph's House
Originally uploaded by LacyLu42.
We had a dinner party at Stephanie's house for an article/photo shoot, and this is one of the photos from our awesome photographer, Julie.
6 years ago
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
New Mexico, Part Dos
We last left New Mexico on the gorgeous expanses of Ghost Ranch. In the above photo, you can see Georgia O'Keefe's beloved Peternale (the mesa).
From there, we got lost (only briefly) and then went to Tierra Wools which is a shop just outside Chama trying to keep the old traditions alive by ranching traditional Churro sheep that the Native Americans used to keep here, and then dying and weaving their wool in traditional ways. This shop keeps 25 local weavers employed full time.
That night, we were hosted at a reception by the Jicarilla Apache nation, and they sang and danced for us — and then we all joined in! It was very cool, and they were extremely friendly and willing to tell us all about their customs.
The weather was bitterly (and unseasonably) cold, so most of us hadn't packed appropriately. On the way to the train the next morning, our PR host let us stop at a Dollar General, where we cleaned them out of gloves, hats and scarves. It made us all a LOT happier on the train!
Because of the cold, we got a really unusual treat: snow and changing aspens at the same time! The ride through the mountains on the Chama railroad was absolutely breathtaking. The train stops at the top, half way, where you have your choice of turkey dinner, meatloaf dinner, or soup and salad for lunch. It was actually very, very good!
That isn't everyone who was on the trip, but all of us who rode the train. Carol (second from the left) turned 65 that day! So we celebrated with Little Debbie cupcakes I bought at the Dollar General! ;)
That night we were treated to a cowboy dinner, complete with entertainment, which was when I decided that I needed me a set of cowboy children. They were all so cute and polite and helpful… when they weren't trying to lasso one another.
That's it for now! More to come!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Northern New Mexico Trip
Last month, I had the amazing opportunity to go on a press trip to Northern New Mexico for work. It was an eight-day trip of epic proportions that I will be writing about for our annual travel issue in 2010.
We started in Santa Fe, which I'm sure many of you know, is one of my favorite cities in the world. There's something about Santa Fe that simply defies explanation: is it the light? The air? The people? The food? What makes this place so magical that even common doorways and mailboxes are photo opportunities?
I can't say that I know, but I do know that I was taking full advantage of every history walk, every restaurant stop, every moment — and full advantage of our new camera.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was a restaurant tour we took through the Santa Fe Cooking School. They take the group around town on foot, visiting four or five different fine restaurants, where you get to meet the chef and then sample some of his food, sometimes even right in the kitchen!
After Santa Fe, we trucked up to Los Alamos and Bandolier National Monument. It was a gorgeous day, if a little chilly, and our guided tour of the dwellings with the ranger was fantastic. (We also got a lecture on proper terminology. The people who lived here are no longer called Anasazi [which is the Navajo word for "strangers"], they are the Ancestral Puebloans. And, because in native beliefs, everything is always as it should be, they are not ruins, because there's nothing ruined about them! They are dwellings.)
We also got some of the history of Los Alamos when we went back to the city, which was fascinating. Because the city didn't actually "exist" during the war, the 150 children who were born there at that time all have "P.O. Box 1667, Santa Fe, NM" as their place of birth on their birth certificates. We stayed in a hotel directly across the street from Brandon's apartment, and ate at a restaurant where he and I used to eat!
After Los Alamos we headed to Abiquiu to visit Georgia O'keefe's home. (They don't allow any photos of her home, but it was lovely: very minimalist and modern.) Then we went on to Ghost Ranch where she had a second home and where she painted much of the scenery. We took a great tour where the guide pointed out the scenery and then showed the painting of it, which was fascinating. Beautiful country, too. It's now owned by the Presbyterian church, which uses the facilities as a wellness retreat center.
That's all for now! More when I upload more photos. To see the whole set that I've uploaded so far, click here.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
This Our House: Episode 6 "Say Hello to Our Little Friends"
About three weeks ago, we came home to discover that our four-foot square summer vegetable garden had been completely dug up by something the size of a small dog. All the plants were torn out and DEEP holes had been dug in several corners.
We filled the holes in (the plants were not salvageable—no veggies for us!) only to have a repeat performance the next day. And every couple of days since.
About a month ago, my in-laws were visiting and saw a red fox in our yard in the early morning. That was kind of exciting! Foxes are awfully pretty and not as threatening or worrisome as seeing a coyote in your yard—OR SO WE THOUGHT.
Last week, Brandon and I saw it for the first time—in fact we saw two at once one morning—and that's about the same time we started finding little presents left for us in the yard; so far the remnants of two birds, one rabbit, and a bag of beggin' strips dog treats, plus some droppings.
And they're still digging up the now-empty garden square.
We're pretty sure it's the foxes doing the digging. Someone at a local garden store suggested they might be attracted by the smell of the manure we had mixed in for fertilizer. At the advice of the internets, yesterday we sprayed all around the wood enclosing the square with ammonia, as well as in the places where they'd left droppings and refuse from their meals in hopes that it would deter them.
No such luck. This morning, the garden plot was completely dug up again.
Our second attempt is going to be mothballs. Brandon put a bunch of them in old socks and put one at each corner of the garden. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll try next. I've wondered if maybe a friend would let us borrow a big dog that could pee all over the yard. We've also read it might help if Brandon went out and, er, marked his territory a bit as well.
And if those don't work? I guess we'll have to call vector control. It's not that we mind them passing through the yard, but we don't want them to make a home here, and we DEFINITELY don't want them to get habituated to digging up our garden; someday, I'd like to have veggies out there that WON'T get torn up.
In other news, there are now two snakes. Brandon is not pleased.
Stay tuned.
We filled the holes in (the plants were not salvageable—no veggies for us!) only to have a repeat performance the next day. And every couple of days since.
About a month ago, my in-laws were visiting and saw a red fox in our yard in the early morning. That was kind of exciting! Foxes are awfully pretty and not as threatening or worrisome as seeing a coyote in your yard—OR SO WE THOUGHT.
Last week, Brandon and I saw it for the first time—in fact we saw two at once one morning—and that's about the same time we started finding little presents left for us in the yard; so far the remnants of two birds, one rabbit, and a bag of beggin' strips dog treats, plus some droppings.
And they're still digging up the now-empty garden square.
We're pretty sure it's the foxes doing the digging. Someone at a local garden store suggested they might be attracted by the smell of the manure we had mixed in for fertilizer. At the advice of the internets, yesterday we sprayed all around the wood enclosing the square with ammonia, as well as in the places where they'd left droppings and refuse from their meals in hopes that it would deter them.
No such luck. This morning, the garden plot was completely dug up again.
Our second attempt is going to be mothballs. Brandon put a bunch of them in old socks and put one at each corner of the garden. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll try next. I've wondered if maybe a friend would let us borrow a big dog that could pee all over the yard. We've also read it might help if Brandon went out and, er, marked his territory a bit as well.
And if those don't work? I guess we'll have to call vector control. It's not that we mind them passing through the yard, but we don't want them to make a home here, and we DEFINITELY don't want them to get habituated to digging up our garden; someday, I'd like to have veggies out there that WON'T get torn up.
In other news, there are now two snakes. Brandon is not pleased.
Stay tuned.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Housewarming Party
Housewarming Party
Originally uploaded by LacyLu42.
This was the spread at our housewarming party last weekend! Unfortunately, it rained, so we had to nix our plans for showing a movie in the back yard, but we still had a great time catching up with friends.
P.S. We are STILL working on those sandwiches, because this was sandwich platter one of two!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
This Our House: Episode 5 "I fought the lawn and the lawn won."
Sorry to have been AWOL for a few weeks. We have been busy bees, though! Two weekends ago, we started making serious progress in the yard and built a garden! Take a look:
Brandon built a frame for our new "square-foot" style veggie garden and we decided where to put it.
Then my sweet husband had to dig out the lawn there. I want you to know, that while he did all the digging, I mowed the entire lawn. And then did some other digging later.
I just wanted you all to know that so you don't think I was sipping lemonaid and working on my tan while he labored.
The next day, I got my hands dirty and put the crops in. We tried to stick with things that, we were assured by our books, would do OK in late summer and fall. So here's what we planted:
But even if the seeds don't work, this is a test year. So that's OK.
Then, because our local greenhouse was having a sale, we put in some flowers, too!
These are cosmos that I put in around the base of our bird feeder (the aforementioned digging). We also planted some daisies in the back yard and some sweet william in the beds in the front for some color.
The rest of the weekend was dedicated to pulling weeds. We have so many weeds, you guys. It's just not even funny. We considered going for a "meadow" look and just letting the weeds have their way, but it looks so much nicer when they get pulled out.
And I'm not even talking about dandelions in the lawn, though we definitely have those too. I'm talking about four-foot tall lambs-ear looking things, and stuff with a tap root that I'm tempted to cook up like a carrot. And thistles that sting straight through solid leather gardening gloves. Not to mention this creeping vine stuff with pink flowers that would be nice enough—if it didn't think it needed to take over the world. Honestly. Kudzu has nothing on this stuff. I swear it grows about three feet overnight and if you leave a pile of it lying on the ground, I think it sprouts roots before you can move it.
Thankfully, after about a month of solid pulling and chopping and weed whacking, we've finally made a pretty good dent in all of them. And look what we found in the back corner after we'd cleared out all the thistles and brambles:
More pretty flowers!
This week is going to be dedicated to emptying out the last of the boxes and hanging pictures. Then we'll have a marathon cleaning session and finally a PARTY!
Stay tuned!
P.S. Made a trip out to the compost bin last night and the snake is STILL THERE! I feel like we should name him; he's clearly going to become a part of the family.
Brandon built a frame for our new "square-foot" style veggie garden and we decided where to put it.
Then my sweet husband had to dig out the lawn there. I want you to know, that while he did all the digging, I mowed the entire lawn. And then did some other digging later.
I just wanted you all to know that so you don't think I was sipping lemonaid and working on my tan while he labored.
The next day, I got my hands dirty and put the crops in. We tried to stick with things that, we were assured by our books, would do OK in late summer and fall. So here's what we planted:
- 1 tomato
- 1 eggplant
- 1 summer squash
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 orange bell pepper
- 1 cauliflower
- 2 bush beans
- radishes
- lettuce
- spinach
- shallots
- carrots
- and some marigolds to help keep bugs away
But even if the seeds don't work, this is a test year. So that's OK.
Then, because our local greenhouse was having a sale, we put in some flowers, too!
These are cosmos that I put in around the base of our bird feeder (the aforementioned digging). We also planted some daisies in the back yard and some sweet william in the beds in the front for some color.
The rest of the weekend was dedicated to pulling weeds. We have so many weeds, you guys. It's just not even funny. We considered going for a "meadow" look and just letting the weeds have their way, but it looks so much nicer when they get pulled out.
And I'm not even talking about dandelions in the lawn, though we definitely have those too. I'm talking about four-foot tall lambs-ear looking things, and stuff with a tap root that I'm tempted to cook up like a carrot. And thistles that sting straight through solid leather gardening gloves. Not to mention this creeping vine stuff with pink flowers that would be nice enough—if it didn't think it needed to take over the world. Honestly. Kudzu has nothing on this stuff. I swear it grows about three feet overnight and if you leave a pile of it lying on the ground, I think it sprouts roots before you can move it.
Thankfully, after about a month of solid pulling and chopping and weed whacking, we've finally made a pretty good dent in all of them. And look what we found in the back corner after we'd cleared out all the thistles and brambles:
More pretty flowers!
This week is going to be dedicated to emptying out the last of the boxes and hanging pictures. Then we'll have a marathon cleaning session and finally a PARTY!
Stay tuned!
P.S. Made a trip out to the compost bin last night and the snake is STILL THERE! I feel like we should name him; he's clearly going to become a part of the family.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
I *heart* my family
DSC00906.JPG
Originally uploaded by LacyLu42.
This is my daddy, diligently fixing a big old chunk that was missing from the bottom of our French doors. I'm not sure he, or my mom, or my sister know how much of a gift they gave us coming to help us out at the house last weekend.
More to come! There were moose involved!
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
This Our House: Episode Four "Taming the Jungle"
Oh, so much yard work.
So. Much. Yard.
Work.
We managed to mow all six feet (six inches) of grass on the forty acres (one-third of an acre) of yard we have. Then we used our machete (clippers) to remove ten cords (a big pile) of dead wood from the trees and bushes.
Then we found a snake. No parentheses on that one. I was opening the composter that the previous owners left, trying to see if I could move it, and there's a sliding panel on the side, presumably so you can get to the good compost at the bottom.
Only when I slid it open, there was a snake.
I swore loudly and ran over to Brandon.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"You don't want to know," I said.
"Oh god. How big?"
Not that big really. Probably. I didn't see very much of it or very well. Brandon wouldn't go within ten feet of the composter without his weed whacker for defense. We didn't see it again.
But it could still be out there. Lurking.
Have some photos to distract you from that thought:
Pretty poppies in the flagstones.
Lavender in the herb garden.
Herb garden, all trimmed up, with the sage that plans to take over the world.
Our first roses.
Pretty Clematis, I think.
So, after mowing and clipping and pruning and yanking about a thousand thistles and other weeds (with about three thousand more to go), we called it a day in the yard when it started to get hot on Saturday and when it started to rain on Sunday. We moved into the house and we managed to FINISH the master bedroom. Thank goodness.
Look how happy he is to be done.
And, remember the weird closet of doom?
This is what it looks like now:
SOOOOOOOO much cleaner and better looking. WOO HOO!
So now, we're going to finish up the walk in closet (just needs a fresh coat of white) and move on to the small bedroom, which will be our office. And the first thing we need to tackle is...
...the dino wallpaper.
Stay tuned for the next episode, "Death of the Dinosaurs."
So. Much. Yard.
Work.
We managed to mow all six feet (six inches) of grass on the forty acres (one-third of an acre) of yard we have. Then we used our machete (clippers) to remove ten cords (a big pile) of dead wood from the trees and bushes.
Then we found a snake. No parentheses on that one. I was opening the composter that the previous owners left, trying to see if I could move it, and there's a sliding panel on the side, presumably so you can get to the good compost at the bottom.
Only when I slid it open, there was a snake.
I swore loudly and ran over to Brandon.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"You don't want to know," I said.
"Oh god. How big?"
Not that big really. Probably. I didn't see very much of it or very well. Brandon wouldn't go within ten feet of the composter without his weed whacker for defense. We didn't see it again.
But it could still be out there. Lurking.
Have some photos to distract you from that thought:
So, after mowing and clipping and pruning and yanking about a thousand thistles and other weeds (with about three thousand more to go), we called it a day in the yard when it started to get hot on Saturday and when it started to rain on Sunday. We moved into the house and we managed to FINISH the master bedroom. Thank goodness.
And, remember the weird closet of doom?
This is what it looks like now:
SOOOOOOOO much cleaner and better looking. WOO HOO!
So now, we're going to finish up the walk in closet (just needs a fresh coat of white) and move on to the small bedroom, which will be our office. And the first thing we need to tackle is...
...the dino wallpaper.
Stay tuned for the next episode, "Death of the Dinosaurs."
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