Green beans and apple sauce

Unfortunately my beloved Apple G3 burnt out yesterday. It was a very sad and traumatic day for my family. All of my work and all of my clients and all of my cards and all of my photos and it just felt like my whole life was on there. Joey (a.k.a. my new best friend) at the Apple genius bar managed to salvage my hard drive. I spotted the Apple Mac Classic icon tattooed on his arm and knew that if it could be done this was the guy that could do it, and yippee he did it!

We had a nice big pot of crisp green beans at dinner. Yum! c.

Coffee love

We used to buy ground coffee at the supermarket and brew it using a french press but it never ever tasted as good as Starbucks. That's all changed thanks to a very thoughtful gift we received during the holidays last year. Our Nespresso machine makes the yummiest lattes. I think it's the real reason Starbucks stock is dropping. I have a suggestion for the Nespresso team, figure out a way to make hot chocolate pods and you'll capture the non-coffee drinking market too. All I ask in return is a dozen boxes of Arpeggio delivered to my door and a Nespresso machine for Lindsay. I try not to get attached to material possessions but don't even think about messing with my C100+ or I'll have a caffeine rage and you won't even know what hit you! c.

It's raining color

We had the most incredible lightning storm yesterday. I'm convinced the neighbors house got hit and we almost lost our dog to an anxiety attack. Today the colors outside are so saturated it feels like the house has landed in some sort of Technicolor dream. These purple barberry bushes look amazing against our lawn. The previous owners planted these bushes. I think they are pretty but I'd never recommend them because they have the nastiest long thin needle like thorns just like the spikey snakes that live in our grass.

A barberry inspired thank you card. c.

A stitch in time

I'm always looking for cute artwork for my daughter's room. I try to find unique or original things on a limited budget so when I came across this book I ordered it. I'm not sure what I was thinking because the last time I embroidered anything I was 12 years old and probably only did half the project before I opted to go play outside. Determined not to loose site of my mission I flipped through and was drawn to this page. Since I can't read Japanese instructions I took my inspiration from it, drew and embroidered (did you fall off your chair?) this piece on linen. I think once I frame it, it's going to look really cute in her room. I know this means that her teenage years will be all about hanging stuff on her walls that isn't cute. I totally get that. c.

Seeing double

Apparently Daddy is the one on the computer and mommy is the one on the cell phone which seems reasonable. I certainly use the phone often enough, Daddy is always on the computer and I'm willing to except that we might even seem a bit stiff. If you look a little bit closer Mommy is also Paula Abdul and Daddy is Simon Cowell. Now what does that tell us?! Analyzing that might just be too painful.

Image is page 160 from the May, 2008 issue of Wired Magazine. c.

Day 7 - Multicolor

Felted flowers make the best kind of fake flowers.

Gears! This was a hand-me-down from G's cousins and it is our favorite toy. c.

Day 6 - Yellow

Hello Spring! It was so nice of you to visit us this weekend.

Some new yellow flowers are blooming next door. I asked what they were but they couldn't remember.

Looks like butter and we pretend it's butter, but it's not butter. It's pineapple! It's pretty stressful when your child stops eating veggies so when the Deceptively Delicious cookbook came out I got it. I have to admit that I don't really cook out of it but what I did get from it was a new way to present food and that it's o.k. to hide some pureed carrot baby food in mac-n-cheese.

Yard work is always fun at the start. I will come to dread these yellow stickers by September. c.

Day 5 - Blue

Some blueberries on a square blue dish.

Another square, a beautiful ceramic tile that hangs on my wall.

Birthday card of an electric blue whale and his best friends. c.

Day 4 - Red

That's my tired old red couch. It's been good to us but now it's saggy and sad. Funny thing is that it photographed well. Maybe I could get the couch a job as a couch model and make enough to buy a new one.

Red wouldn't be red without Elmo. He's a part of our family and so here's a detail of Giant Elmo. He looks a little sad in this photo, perhaps he doesn't like having his picutre taken.

Some pods of yummy goodness. c.

Day 3 - Brown

My morning latte. More about how I made that in a future post.

Our dog is technically a yellow lab but she's not yellow, she's brown. She's got brown eyes and a brown nose. Someone once told me that I had a monochromatic dog. I always thought that was funny.

A new baby card in brown.

Day 2 - Pink

This is almost a cop-out day. How easy is pink when you have a little girl? Even if you were to try and avoid the world of pink, pink finds you.

Little G's got this fancy eco-friendly, plastic-free water bottle. The real reason we have it is because the drawing is so darn cute and she wouldn't put it down at the register.

A cute cupcake container I got at this really fun store.

I absolutely love the pink pom-poms on the sweet dreams pillow.

A children's birthday card with a pink dog. c.

Day 1 - Orange

I thought I would give myself a little assignment. Over the next 7 days I'm going to try to see what we've got going on in our world that fits in with a particular color.

Today was easy because we got these beautiful oranges yesterday. I'm seeing nicer fruit at the grocery stores now which is a good sign Spring is here even if it did snow yesterday.

One of my favorite cook books is orange.

Another gift from far away, a friend brought me this lovely shirt all the way from India. I love the color and the paisley detail. I'm starting to sound like a broken record but I'm going to need SPRING WEATHER TO ARRIVE in order to wear it!

The orange passie we still need at nap time. Humm still working on that.

Auntie Octopus and Uncle Celery

When I started designing cards I did about 30 or 40 designs and I thought, hummm, will I be able to come up with a continuous supply of new and fresh ideas, over and over again? The answer is yes, but it's not me who's doing it, it's little G. Lately she's been obsessing about Aunties. She's lucky enough to have Auntie Helen, Sarah, Kathy and CoCo. We've got some others we call auntie too, ya know, the people in our lives that love her like a real auntie. I think it gets a little confusing because all week she's been jabbering about Auntie Eggplant, Uncle Celery, Auntie Tomato and Uncle Chicken. I love nothing more than slapping two eyes and a semi-smile on an inanimate object. I've never thought of them as family, but hey, what the heck!

Some cards that are smiling and a hug for Auntie Carrot and then a little bit of cooking.

Lovely packaging

A friend brought us this wonderful box of Armagnac all the way from France last night. I know it's going to taste delicious but right now I'm obsessing about the beautiful packaging; the handwriting, the paper, the box and the hand sealed bottles.

Meant to be

Last night my fortune cookie had this to say. I'm always looking for signs, even though I don't think things really work that way. When Lindsay and I were trying to come up with a clever name for our eco-friendly card business we searched for something in common, something meaningful. Pumpkin is the nickname we both gave our kids. Which reminded me of this restaurant that I was lucky enough to eat at once. It's a great vegetarian option if you're ever in Venice. So there you have it, Mia Zucca - My Pumpkin.

A new pumpkin inspired thank you card for Spring. c.

Waiting for Mr. Blue Skies

The only way to cope with dull skies and a never ending winter is to put on a pair of really shiny shoes.  c.