Cereusly Awesome

I feel like I am in a time warp. Summer has been excruciatingly slow but it has also slipped by at an amazing pace. There aren't enough hours in the day and yet, at times, it feels like nothing is moving. When I look back, I wonder why I am left with that feeling when so much did, indeed, get done. Perhaps it's that time again, when every step forward requires enormous amounts of energy, willpower and dedication. Perhaps it's the relentless heat and the draft of cooled air that makes my bones ache, even though the cool is set at an ambient temperature of 80F, three degrees higher than what most people consider comfortable. Medha's been home forever and school starts in less than four weeks - not much left of summer!

But, you know, I feel that way about the last decade, too! Where did it go? While clearing up the house yesterday, we unearthed some old CDs that had audio files of Medha as a toddler - some people clean in spring and they're done; whereas I'm still cleaning from last spring and the spring before that and I can go back to the time that we moved to Colorado from Illinois. We don't have much stuff but we have piles and piles of paper, most of which cannot be recycled without scrutiny as they need to be shredded, but only after monumentous decision-making: to keep or not to keep. The same holds for CDs and DVDs. Wasn't it just yesterday that she was singing her ABCs backwards and belting out You are my Sunshine? Come mid-August, she's no longer going to be a pixie but instead she will be a 7th grader. Where did all those years go?

I may sound like I am complaining but a lot of awesome has also been happening at the same time. I think it is this that gets me through the uphill climb that most of my current tasks seem to take. Jen of the Butter fame gathered us together - was it just 10 days ago? - to watch her nightblooming cereus blossom into a huge flower from a shy bud.

Cereusly Awesome
Innards of the cereus

Handy with Best Intentions

Beautiful bracelets of handwoven nickel-free pewter on reindeer leather, finished with an antler button, were not exactly what I expected to find at the Louisville Street Faire.

Lapland Bracelets
Lapland bracelets, a Swedish tradition

Anita Grönstedt who learned this Nordic art in Sweden as a teen, is now based in Superior, right next to Louisville. She says a bracelet can take her anywhere from a few hours to half a day to complete. Her work is so neat and precise that I stood there in awe! I was attracted to these bracelets because no metal touches the skin as the pewter is mounted on reindeer leather, which ages beautifully into mottled dark shades.

Lapland Bracelets
Anita Grönstedt explains her technique

They run from $45 to $125 for a bracelet. If you're local and want to have a look-see and feel-touch, Anita lists the events where she will have her own booth on the homepage of her Grönstedt Designs web site.

Isn't it amazing how much talent there is out there?

Time for the Louisville Street Faire

Yes, it's that time of the year when Friday evenings mean a convergence by the railroad tracks across from the library for some live music, local artists, good food and micro-brews. I've said it before that Louisville Street Faire rocks and I am going to say it again! It's grown bigger and more popular - something we really like!

strEAT Chefs
His first Banh-mi

He bought it from the strEAT Chefs at the window of their Airstream trailer. He couldn't stop raving about the fresh flavors.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!
Happy 4th of July!
Happy Day!

Snickerdoodle flag
Snickerdoodle flag at our I-Day potluck yesterday

Due to the economic downturn, Louisville has had to cut back on several of its annual events, including the traditional fireworks display and the picnic at Community Park. I am far too lazy to brave the traffic and drive out to another town or jostle with other Louisville denizens for a spot on the Davidson Mesa, which has views of $$$ fireworks going up in flames all around us: CU-Boulder, Longmont, Superior and perhaps even Lafayette and Broomfield. So instead I will leave you with some of my shots from the last couple of years of Louisville's fireworks:



Have a great long weekend!

Seeing in 3D

I didn't think I was going to enjoy How To Train Your Dragon but I was transfixed. The 3D animation was spectacular. I was completely hooked. So when Six Apart Media contacted me saying that as a publisher with their advertising network, I was now a part of their rapidly growing Entertainment initiative, of course I was interested! And especially so when the movie was another 3D animation movie.

Lemony
Despicable Me