rabbits and wood in the blue

 Summer is in full swing here in Minnesota. Sticky air, heavy with mosquitoes and the multitudes of lily tigers as their blooms grow heavier and heavier. 

We still have no working fridge (wtf, insurance?!). So we are still eating Flintstone-esque portions of meat and fresh veg from our garden.

We've begun a bit of redecorating, painting the living room walls a nice cyan blue. 

Trim isn't finished yet, we're thinking maybe gold (??).

I finally got around to painting/sealing our rabbit hutch too. I think the bunnies (Whiskey, Rye, & Bourbon) are digging it. Next, we're going to build a nice big A-Frame run for them to enjoy on the grass.

 Whiskey

Well, I gotta get back to work!

Magic

With these

I can make these

and this.

Today is an incredibly hot rainy day in Minnesota. A day to sit out on my porch with a cup of chilled coffee and work on some wood carvings. I've sketched out some new designs that I need to start carving. These will be for an upcoming show in Wisconsin in October that I'm super pumped about, its at one of my favorite local venues.

 More magic?

 With these

we made this!

Fresh radishes from our garden. Jonett cleaned and sliced them extra thin with his godly steady hand. Then he just marinated them in a small bowl of rice wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Extra tasty and simple meal- because, whomp whomp, we still have no working fridge!! Blarrgh!

Tiger Lily/Dragon Ball

 

Life without a working refrigerator is getting old. It means our weekly grocery bill has become obsolete, driving into town once or so to pick up a few bags of frozen veg to accompany our nightly dinners of Flintstone size steaks. 

I've missed cooking so badly, I decided to buy some ice for our cooler to hold leftover cream cheese because I really, really wanted to try This recipe. They were amazingly good, we used a good squeeze of sriracha in the mix= rad.
 

Here's some photographs of my newest addition to the Shop. I'm really digging the fragile Tiger Lily, which seem to grow wild allover here in the Driftless Region of the Wisconsin/Minnesota border.

 I really love the prussian blue against the burnt orange. That is a blanket my in-laws brought back for us while they were visiting a former foreign exchange student in Macedonia. Of course, I might just be partial to the colors because they remind me of a certain childhood hero...

A Wonderful Life

My mom and her husband came to visit yesterday. My mom is truly the cat's pajamas and we had a great afternoon out at the local antique shop in downtown La Crosse. We spent the evening out on the porch and when I awoke this morning she had already brewed an extra strong pot of coffee and was 
outside weeding among the flowers. 

 Mom and I have always loved watching movies together. From wistfully watching the eatery in Babette's Feast or longing for Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient, we love 'em all. Last night was the first time she saw our new house and she gave us such a sweet home warming gift inspired by It's A Wonderful Life. 

"Bread... that this house may never know hunger. 

 Salt... that life may always have flavor.  

And wine... that joy and prosperity may reign forever."

 

  

Birthday presents for Jonett. A darling-baby fig plant and a bottle of whiskey

After they left I spent the morning running some prints and cleaning my makeshift studio.

We have a small display shelf near the living room so I decided to set up these little dudes. My mom started giving me these small figurines as a child and I loved them dearly since. A few have broken limbs or ears here and there but it only adds to their endearing nature.

The 4th, lost hair and several bloody marys

Hope everyone had a safe and super rad 4th yesterday. Jonett and I had a surprisingly productive day (plus throwing in an hour or so for him to play Minecraft and me to play Harvest Moon, it's a holiday!). We started the day with an ear lowering for Jonett. As much as I love his curls it was getting too hot for him, it was satisfying as well since I've been longing to cut my own hair too. 

 Ugh, it would feel so flippin' great to have a shaved head right now.  But. I've been trying to grow out my hair and it is currently the longest it's been since I was 19, or about 7 years ago. I do love short hair, and will always campaign for it, but I just want to switch things up for a while. 

hair monster.

We got to work building a roof for our rabbit hutch. Prior we were using plastic storage bin lids bungee corded together, rudimentary but it worked for a few days. The previous owners of our house had an old wooden playhouse thing in the backyard so we dismantled that and created a roof. We went to our local Re-Store (habitat for humanity) and bought a ton of roofing shingles for only $5!

I'm not going to show the finished product yet because its not done, I still need to paint it.

 

My beloved tools. I aim to start building a table for her soon...

 

studio shot!

As evening set in we drove into La Crosse to visit with my pals, Alberti & Nukie. We had a great spread of food and friends, and after dark we trooped down to the bridge to watch fireworks. All in all it was one of the best 4th celebrations I've had. 

Alberti and I met years ago and bonded over our mutual love of art, Carl Sagan, and Star Wars.

 One of my favorite drinking games: Jenga! Take a pen or sharpie and write rules on each block. Super fun, some of our rules are: Person must use non dominant hand, rhyme, list (Pokemon, Harry Potter spells), waterfall, beer bitch.

And I even carved out some time to make a new Cyanotype scarf with a gorgeous Tiger Lily I found growing in our backyard.

One of our kitties, Paikea, lounging while I took a break from a commissioned cat painting.