GUESS WHO'S TWO?

Calvin Helps Decorate

Or will be, in just a few days. Remember that decadent dulce de leche/Mexican chocolate/sugar skull cookie creation I told you about a while back, made by Lex's friend at Cake Monster?  Well, we all were jonesin' for another of Stephanie's amazing cakes, but she has a wedding to bake for next weekend. So, of course, we did the only logical thing. We moved Calvin's birthday up a week!

Stars and Moons, Two of His Favorite Things

Uncle Nootie

Where are the prezzies?

A Swimming Pool!

And A Water Table!

Not being familiar with either of those things, he calls them both "bathtubs".

Time To Cut That Cake!

It's On Fire!

Me Help...Eat All Those Cookies.

Nom, Nom, Nom...

And then, he's right back outside -- his favorite place to be -- wondering why no one has his other bathtub set up yet?

 Happy Happy Birthday Little Man! You're the best present your parents ever got!

KNOCK THREE TIMES

A few weeks ago my daughter sent me a text with a list of four different kinds of art, and told me to choose one. Without even thinking, I shot back "Wood block carving!" She then came back with "Great! You and I are now signed up to take a class together May 11th. Consider it an early Mother's Day gift to us both." Why did I choose that one without even thinking? Well, it seems synchronicity has been knocking on my door yet again!

You see, two and a half years ago I took a screen printing class at Lucky Star art camp, and had a blast! So when, shortly after I got home from there, family started pestering me to update my Amazon wish list, I added anything I could find to do with printing. That's how I ended up getting this awesome block printing set and book from my son and daughter-in-love. Unfortunately, it's been sitting untouched all this time, since, right after that, I got swept up in weddings, new grandbaby, travel and travel journals, etc. , etc., etc.

Welcome to Craft Austin!

A Chocolate-Making Class That Shared Their Bounty With Us

Then, a couple of weeks ago, the newest Maisie Dobbs mystery was released, and I was reminded how much I love the style of art that is on each book in that series. It's the same style that you see in the intro to the PBS series, Durrells in Corfu, and I just adore it! I decided to do a little digging and discovered that both Andrew Davidson and Alex Maclean use wood cuts and engravings in their art!

Our Instructor

Lex Decides On A Pattern And Begins To Carve

Classmates

Then I started reading a great new book last week called The Garden of Evening Mists.  Not only does it take place in Malaysia -- a place we visited often when living on Sumatra -- and involve gardening, a former obsession of mine, but there is also a story line revolving around Ukiyo-e, 18th century Japanese woodblock prints!

Inking Our Blocks

Lex Opts For Delicate And Refined

I Go With Rough And Messy

So, of course I had to choose the wood block carving class. 'Cause, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that when Synchronicity keeps aknockin' on your door, you really oughta answer!

COUNTRY MEETS CITY

Dripping Springs is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I've never understood how it could have so many residents, but offer so few amenities. It's always been more of a bedroom community for Austin commuters than a real town, being just far enough away to offer more affordable housing, but close enough that everyone could drive into the city for all their shopping, dining and entertainment. That is beginning to change, however, due to the string of massive master-planned communities popping up all along the Hwy. 290 corridor, from west of Dripping Springs right on to Austin -- a veritable sea of houses! One of the most immense developments is a 1600 acre community called Belterra, at 290 and Nutty Brown Rd. Though I hope never  to live in one of these developments again, there is one thing I am pretty excited about -- the 93 acre mixed-use development that came as a result of it, and is being developed by the same group that worked on The Domain in north Austin. The anchor is Sky Cinemas, a sister to the art house theater in downtown Austin called Violet Crown. This new one, however, has fourteen screens and will show both popular releases and limited release films, which is how we got to see the movie Tully last week without having to drive all the way to downtown Austin. Woohoo! The shopping center is in it's early stages yet, but there was at least one shop worth checking out -- Breed & Co. -- which is definitely not your typical hardware store!

Another thing we are excited about? Some of the restaurants that are in the works!

Pieous -- a pizza joint more famous for its pastrami -- is our favorite place to eat in Dripping, but from the day it opened it was too small, which made it very hard to get a table.  Hopefully, this newer, larger location will take care of that problem. But probably not, as it will be a good bit closer, and therefore more tempting, to Austin folks.

On my personal burger scale, those at Hat Creek Burgers sit closer to Whataburger than to Hays City, but I do love their outdoor dining pavilion and their playground.

Also in the works, but not yet open, are Torchy's Tacos, The League, Bistro 54, Spec's Wine, Spirits and Finer Foods, and I believe a big HEB as well.

Looks like Hubby's and My "Friday Movie Dates" just got a whole lot more options!

 

THE THING THAT WILL BREAK MY HEART

In my 43 years of marriage to a traveling engineer, I've walked away from some fairly awesome homes and gardens with hardly a backward glance. You get used to it. I'm finding it extremely difficult, however, to contemplate a future where we might need to live somewhere other than here. What's funny, though, is that it's not really the house or the garden that I will miss. In fact, they have both been royal pains in the ass!

What were we thinking, buying a house with only two bedrooms, a one-person kitchen with practically no storage or counter space, a one person bathroom that Hubby and I have to share, with a tiny shower, one sink, no countertops or drawers, no walk-in closets, and no separation or privacy between the toilet and everything else? A house that has only three rooms on the main level, and which requires one to go outside to reach the two rooms on the lower level? And, gardening with deer, snakes, armadillos, raccoons, and feral hogs? Fuggitabowdit!

So, no, I won't be missing any of that if we ever have to leave. Nonetheless, there will be tears. The thing that it will surely break my heart to walk away from? It will be these windows in the trees, and the amazing things I see almost every time I walk past one. Views like this one out my bedroom window, which kept me mesmerized for most of the the morning the other day!

That very same afternoon I walked past the dining room windows and spotted a doe that must've been in labor, so there are probably at least one or two more precious fawns hidden away here now.  Is it any wonder that I can never seem to get anything crossed off of my to-do list?

 

NEW BOOK GIDDINESS

I rarely buy books anymore, getting most all of my reading material from our local library. However, when these two titles popped up in my feed by chance this week, I didn't even bother to do any research on them. I just went straight to Amazon and placed my order!

I mean, what better match for a creative grandma, an adventurous grandson, and the stack of Blue Apron cardboard boxes I've been accumulating, than a book called Epic Cardboard Adventures, written by the author of a blog called Pink Stripey Socks?!!!

Goobs may not be old enough to do any of these projects on his own just yet, but it won't be long.

In the meantime, there are several I could make for him, to play with now. Robot finger puppets? Egyptian pyramid? A king's crown? Where to begin?

The second book I ordered was this one:

Why did it reach out and grab me? Well, I love the work of Antoni Gaudi and, when we were in Barcelona, I learned that everything he designed was based on patterns and structures he observed in nature, such as the four basic design structures explored in this book. And, with these four,  the author created amazing art like this...

and this!

Perhaps this will help me to become a little more observant of nature myself, and to come up with some wonderful patterns that I can use in surface design projects, or to carve my own stamps with, or maybe to make patterns on my gelli plate then print onto my handmade papers. Who knows where it might lead me?

Is it any wonder that I'm feeling such giddiness?

TOUR DE FORKS

I try never to do more than one foodie post per week, nor talk about a restaurant I just mentioned recently, but I'm afraid it just can't be helped. You see, last night we returned to Cafe Malta over in south Austin, thanks to a very generous Christmas certificate from two of our kiddos which needed to be spent. However, this time, it was for a whole different experience! You see, twice a month, on the first and third Tuesday evenings, they set aside their usual menus and take those lucky few who managed to nab reservations on a Tour de Forks.

Cafe Malta is a Mediterranean restaurant, so on these special evenings they feature a menu from a different region each time. Thanks to the popularity of the Mediterranean diet, you are probably wondering "How many different ways can they serve veggies, whole grains, legumes, olive oil, and lean protein." Well, you'd be amazed. For one thing, did you realize there are 22 different Mediterranean countries -- from Albania and Algeria to Tunisia and Turkey -- with dozens of regions in every one, each having their own special way of preparing the local bounty? Last night we were transported to Abruzzo, a region in central Italy.

As you can see, there are always two menu options -- the meaty one and the vegetarian one. John ordered meaty, of course, and I ordered the other, then we swapped bites of each course, so we got to try a bit of everything!

Aperitif

The aperitif -- made with brandy, orange liqueur, red wine, fennel, clove and soda -- was awfully pretty, but a bit too much for a non-drinker like me. Fortunately, they just happen to serve one of my favorite dry rosés, so I opted for a glass of that instead.

Firsts:

John's Grilled Lamb Appetizer

My Caramelized Onion Bruschetta

Seconds:

My Soup With Dandelion Greens -- So Bitter!

John's Pork 'n Beans Soup

Thirds:

John's Roasted Pork Shoulder Over Polenta

My Housemade Pasta With Porcini Mushroom Sauce

Finale:

Almond Cake Coated With Dark Chocolate

So. Did we moan and swoon over every single bite? Well, no (those bitter dandelion greens!). That would be unrealistic expectations.

But, did we have a grand adventure? Why yes, we did indeed!