August

August is the best eating season ever. Tomatoes straight from the plants in our garden. Red Haven peaches at the farmer's market. Melon, peppers. . . and the season will end with onions and potatoes and spinach and butternut squash. Best time of the year, hands down.

Weekend Joy

This past weekend was really lovely. We got the weather you always want in the summer, but rarely get. No warmer than 84 degrees. Blue skies. Puffy french vanilla clouds. We went to the farmer's market, read books, ate outdoors on a rooftop with dear friends and then walked for local custard, gardened (a little), ate good food, turned the AC off. Really really nice. . .

blurry tomatoes

Did you know there was such a thing as red okra? I didn't.

and my favorite outdoor painting (of which there are many) along the L platform in Oak Park.
Perfect wee birdies.

I want one, please.

William Thielicke built an MM6 Hexacopter, attached a video camera to it and then made this gorgeous video of Cameroon. Who wouldn't want a camera attached to a remote control helicopter that has six rotors? Seriously. Who?

A nice place to fly: Hexacopter in Cameroon / Africa from W. Thielicke on Vimeo.

A New Raft of Critters at Fivetrees

Check out my new little buddies in my fivetrees shop!

Havel

Ulla

Artur

and the photo shoot was going very well right up until someone jumped on me and bumped my arm so that I got this picture. . .

the cutest critter I know. . .

Clam Cuteness

Ack. . . so cute I could explode.

Summer Storm

Yesterday, a big summer storm blew in early afternoon and never really let up again until this morning.

Right before it hit, I ran outside to take my second cutting of basil of the season for pesto that we will lay up in the freezer for the eatin's this winter. And while I was mid-harvest, I saw this impressive cloud formation.


It had the look of an open spot in the sky that aliens might swoop through. Though, I imagine that Cicero wouldn't be the first target that aliens would want to colonize. . .


And because of the storminess, I stayed in the rest of the day making things out of a rainbow of felt.

New Art for Me!

I bought a painting today and it looks like this:

(can you hear me squealing and making little clapping motions just below my chin in delight?)

It's a painting by a Canadian artist from Toronto who has a shop on Etsy called greasychickenface. This is a teensy painting--just 4"x3"--but I love it and it will be perfect to smoosh into my salon-style grouping of art in my office/studio. It's great having new inspiration in there.

Anyhoo. . . greasychickenface's art is great. Colorful and that kind of artwork that's some unusual mix of cute/sad/ugly/playful that makes me sort of nostalgic for how I saw the world as a kid. You should check the shop out!

Things I've Seen On Walks

Walking around Cicero and Berwyn, there's no shortage of wonderful sites to collect.



And lilies, lilies, lilies. Mine all bloomed back in June.





and I love this final picture, because even though I took it mid-day in natural light with the Harinezumi, it looks like a Dutch painting.

Ouch That's Cute!

Man, do I love Hine Mizushima's work. Hine has been my favorite shop on Etsy pretty much since I discovered Etsy. The work is so smart and ridiculously cute.


I saw this little guy--Ectoplasm No.1--just today, and I thought I would have to chew my own hand off to get out of the trap of its cuteness.

It was shipped to its buyer in a specimen tube.

Can't. Take. The. Cuteness.

(not to mention 10% of the shop proceeds help out Japan Relief!)

Moving

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

I love these short films by Rick Mereki. Not surprisingly, they've gotten 93,000 views in two days of being posted. Three: Move, Learn, Eat.

Moving has meant a lot to me in the last two years, mostly because movement was hard or painful. But just back from a two mile walk without any pain or exhaustion or any feeling other than being a little sweaty. And I feel like I could star in this film. . . and that's a feeling I can't really put words to. . .

Here are the other two. . .

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

dream home

Part of my rehab is taking long walks to realign my back muscles and strengthen my whole mid section. So every day (nearly), I go for a long walk in the neighborhood. About four days ago, my walk took me past what I think might just be my dream home.



It's in Oak Park directly across the street from a park containing a man-made sledding hill. It's south facing on a corner. And because of the way the house is positioned in the lot, it has two good sized yards on either side of the house. Which would undoubtedly mean one yard for dog, kid, friends, bbqing and one whole yard for a massive vegetable/cut flower garden.

It's only a dream, though, so I started taking dreamy pictures. . .


It's only two drawbacks are that it's undoubtedly out of our price range. . . and it's not for sale. Otherwise, it's perfect.