Taos, New Mexico

On the road again. This time heading west to Stateline, NV by way of New Mexico. This was taken with my phone, but I'll post more pics once I get internet on my computer again. I've signed into google latitude again if you wanna watch our journey out west.

[Late addition by Nick: Jess had trouble getting this message posted earlier today. She's driving now so I've been learning her phone to help get this posted and to pass some time in the passenger seat. So glad to figure it out finally. Anyways... We were going to take a backcountry route from Taos northwest past the Four Corners and either up to Moab or past the Glen Canyon dam. We changed those plans after we ran into some heavy snow up in the mountains west of Taos. We backtracked a bit and now we're heading south to I-40. It will be a longer and less scenic route, but hopefully less snowy too. We had some fun stops in New Mexico. Jess will enjoy writing about it when she gets back online.]

wow. sorry ive been so absent

10 whole days since my last post. wow! that's unusual. i have been busy visiting friends and family. i'm also making most of my christmas gifts this year so i am busy doing that (and unfortunately cant post pics of them til after christmas... hopefully ill remember to take some). and some not so exciting home maintenance. i have now been in my crawl space... like 3 times and just this week... and it wasnt that scary after all. and may i just say, i love my renters! they are the best.

here's a cute video from my nephew's 5th birthday party.




and a cute pic from my favorite dav (no, i didnt buy it)

Applique Project

Mr Moose (my nephew) had his 5th birthday this week and today is his party. I made him a special gift I want to share with you. The story starts back a few months ago before I hit the road. I wanted to show the boys the Keeper of the Plains at night with the fire pits roaring and also surprise them with a hidden sculpture near there. I live pretty close to both attractions so my sister, BIL, and nephews stopped by my house before hand. It was starting to get chilly with the sun going down, so I supplied them all with jackets. The two little ones each wore one of my hoodies. I remember Mr Moose making the cutest comments. "Oohhh, its so warm and cozy in here." and "its smells like you auntie Jess" hehe. Soooo, that leads to my idea for his gift. I found this really cute green and white striped GAP hoody that I customized for him. The hoody is oversized so he'll be able to wear it for a few years (if mama's washings dont kill it before then).

My idea was to applique (a first for me) his favorite animal or another favorite something to it. Unfortunately, I wasnt really feeling kitty cats so I went a different route. I used his favorite song instead. Can you believe its "Funky Town." :) I put "funky" on the front and added elbow patches, and on the back i added some of the lyrics. some of the pictures were before I stitched it on. I have washed it 2 times (only washed it a 2nd time cuz it hung dried the first time and I wanted to dry it in the dryer so it was softer before i gave it to him) so, mama, no need to wash it for awhile, OK?.

i had first considered putting it on the back

before stitching

after stitching

click to enlarge and read some of the lyrics

Art Auction Friday Nov 4th

I am back in Wichita, Kansas for the holidays. While I'm here, I am participating in an art auction to benefit Kelly Moody. He is the owner of the Firehouse Art Gallery and has recently under gone surgery to remove a brain tumor. The art community is coming together to hopefully give a little back to him. For more information, check out the link below.

http://www.tangentlab.com/current.htm


I am donating a painting to be auctioned and possibly volunteering at the event on Friday.

(i think this one)

If you'd like to come check it out, it will run from 7pm to 10pm at Tangent Lab.
143 N. Rock Island, 3rd Floor

It's on the west side of the Farm and Art Market Square - directly across from the River City Brewery and Mort's. North and upstairs from Suede and Finns.

Leaving North Carolina

We are packing away and will be leaving North Carolina in the morning. It's been a very eventful trip out here. Some how we managed to squeeze a lot out of 3 months. Feelings of sadness have not sunk in as of yet, however I was starting to feel some anxiety tonight. I think it mostly had to do with the fact that we didn't start packing til almost 9pm, but its coming along smoothly. Coming out here, we managed to fit everything in the car and on the roof, but we are coming back with a trailer. One reason being we have more things now, but we are also picking Nick's mom up in Arkansas and taking her back to Wichita with us. She hasn't been back in years so we are happy to help her get back.

Alright. So Goodbye Asheville! I love you. You really are an awesome place and I did good picking you. *tears

Everyone else... I'm comin' home. Have a great Thanksgiving and I'll see you soon.

ps. on the landlords website here ---> http://www.foxandfiddle.net/apartment/
the pictures were taken without our knowledge after we first moved in. Our stuff is even in the pictures.

Last weekend in Asheville

happy monday.

i had a good final weekend here in Asheville. we are leaving bright and early on thanksgiving day and should be back in kansas by friday night. i'll be in kansas for most of dec and then will head west. not 100% sure where we'll be after that, its still up in the air, but tahoe or colorado are the most likely possibilities. livin in the moment for now i guess.

sooooo.... friday i spent the day thrift shopping. i hadnt been in quite awhile. actually i hadnt had a day out of the house by myself in, well... hmmm i cant remember when. weeks atleast. any who. it was fun and i found lots of inspiration, especially from old books. love the colors and illustrations.





Saturday we went for a bike ride at bent creek. probably our last one :( . weather was beautiful. the trees were bare but oh so lovely.


we went on some new trails that i was nervous about previously because they are marked at medium difficulty and ive found that even easy trails can be hard so medium to me might be impossible. but they werent. they were really fun. it had been raining a few days prior so there were some muddy ruts but we charged through them. (ok so we took it pretty slow. no reason to be drenched unnecessarily, but a little mud is ok. fun even.

showing off a little mud on my shin.

i did, however, have a little mishap. the path had narrowed and was rooted so the margin of error was small. my tire caught a log that was poking out into the path and i went down. my knee hit the log and got pinned between it and the bike. nick was no where in site. he tends to ride faster therefore typically leads. i sat on the ground for a moment after kicking the bike off me with my free leg and admittedly started to cry. thoughts of "oh be tough and shake it off" went through my head and i got up. my knee hurt pretty bad but i was able to stand on it and knew i was ok. i literally "shook it off" and got back on my bike and finished the ride. it got iced when i got home because a couple welts had formed. it was really stiff yesterday but getting better. just some bruises now.

Yesterday, we were invited over to the farm house for games and music. there were a lot of people over there. we played all sorts of games. anyone ever heard of Birdy on a Perch? some cool chick declared us partners and nick had some boy as his. you roam around like musical chairs til the music stops and then the birdy has to get on his/her perch. i think there are some pretty funny pictures out there. later there was a jam session in the foyer. it was really fun. and some great people, too.

pizza and a movie

Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co is the bomb! Seriously, if you travel here, you should put it on your things to do list. It is of course a place to get pizza and beer. BUT they also have a fun theater that shows fairly recent movies for only $3 and really yummy pizza. check out their menu. We ate one of the gourmet pizzas and added a couple toppings. It was on Sesame seed crust with pesto, portobello mushrooms, spinach, pineapple, (i think they forgot the walnuts it was suppose to come with), and gorgonzola cheese. Yu-um! We got there supper early to get a good seat and we did (unlike our first attempt a month or so ago). We played cards while we waited for the movie to start.

so this is the restaurant part.

he he. they have those wacky mirrors that i use to play with as a child at carousel skating rink.

inside the bathroom.


yep. that's the toilet. aahhh, Matthew McConaughey was watching over me.

tickets

inside the theator

ordering pizza. they just yell out your name when its ready. even during the movie. it's pretty laid back, but not really all that destracting from the movie.

we saw "500 days of Summer". it was a good one.

Regina Spektor tonight

We're going to another concert tonight. Regina Spektor! yay! It's probably the last one we'll get to here in Asheville, but its the biggest one of all and in a venue we haven't been to yet.

I spent the day painting.

there was a little fire.
on the canvas.
in paint. :)
a real fire almost happened but i blew it out as the match landed on floor. no evidence. ha ha.

Weekend Road Trip

ok ok . so i didnt think we were gonna go on any more road trips before leaving asheville.... but we did. nick had a great idea to go to charleston, sc (the holy city) for the weekend.

(holy city because of all the steeples)

and we sooooo lucked out because the weather was absolutely perfect! mid 70s both days.





we stayed in a bed and breakfast.


walked a lot.



took lots of pictures of old buildings, etc.

(the bff of the lady who owns the b&b we stayed in, owns this b&b. we ate breakfast there this morning while sitting on the middle floor deck... has a view of the harbor)

(click to enlarge and check out the braids)

took a tour of a dungeon.


ate some locally caught seafood, homemade ice cream and gelato, and some southern bbq... all yum!

(had amberjack for the first time. it was ok, but the swordfish, scallops, crabcakes, hush puppies, sweet potato souffle were great.)

(these metal plates were on our table. barbar streisand and jimmy buffet both sat at our table. for reals. we ate at hymans. its a famous restaurant known for sneaking in celebs via a back entrance. we didnt know the other 2 names on the table)

(this one's for you, shell. no no, not the bloody mary (it was pretty good actually), the boiled peanuts. these ones were better)




took a boat ride out to fort sumter.

(0ne of the shells in the wall)

took a bicycle taxi ride. hmmm....and checked out the market and a bunch of art galleries.


did i mention we arrived there yesterday afternoon and drove back tonight.

(above photo cred to nick)

(protecting the imported goods)

ha ha. turbo tourists or something. it wasnt stressful though, we enjoyed it and were relaxed.

on the way home tonight, the radio station was set to npr on car talk. during the show they played split lip rayfield's song "the kiss of death" and we both recognized it right away and got so excited that we started texting our fellow fans about it (after singing along of course).