Archive for August 20, 2008

Oklahoma City Museum of Art

August 20, 2008 · Filed under eye candy, museum of art

I’ve been meaning to get to the OKC Museum of Art lately, as we are hosting an exhibition of Roman art from the Musee du Louvre. While Roman sculpture, etc., isn’t really my strong suit, I did enjoy getting to peruse the collection. In particular, there were some amazing pieces of jewelry. The detail was so fine and precise. Alas, I only got in one photo (above) before my camera was shooed away by a snickering guard and his buddy who was just hanging around with him. :-\  Apparently, though, photography is allowed in every other part of the museum as I had had no previous problems. 
The museum is also home to a gorgeous permanent exhibition of Chihuly glass. Chihuly may be somewhat commercial, but nobody does colored glass like he and his studio. They photographed particularly well in the dark space of the galleries. Every piece is so striking in the light; it feels like you’re underwater, surrounded by the most beautiful, colorful sealife.

I didn’t remember these charming little putti and bird figures from my last visit. They were so shimmery and delicate. There was one owl in particular that I really liked.

Don’t you just love the milky color of this photo above? It’s in stark contrast to the other translucent pieces around it. I just loved it. It’s so soothing.


This was Jude’s first visit to an art museum. I think he liked all the bright colors. If anything, it’s just fun to take him places and see his reaction to things. 
As you can see, he also enjoyed snacking on his, um, feet, while we were checking out the modern galleries.


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Animal House

August 20, 2008 · Filed under animals, house, inspiration, jude

You may remember this framed alphabet card that I have hanging in the powder bath. I bought the set of cards from Michael’s — it’s a Martha Stewart design, and for $9.99, I think it was a pretty good deal. I’ve also framed the letter “U” and have it on the mantel in the family room. It’s got a lovely little illustration of a sea urchin. Remind me to photograph it sometime ….

Anyway, I’ve had the rest of the alphabet sitting in a pile in my very unorganized office, and I finally got around to doing something with them this weekend. I hung almost all of the rest of them in the bonus room in a little nook where Jude can see them as he hops in his Jumperoo.  Every day, I take him over into the corner and we look at the different animals. I love the expressions on their faces. The cow is particularly demure.
I had to quickly clean up/clean out Jude’s playroom today as the drywall guy was coming to patch up a few places that have unfortunately cracked. I threw all the stuffed animals into the crib and promptly forgot about them until naptime. All but two or three of these animals were mine from childhood. I still love them, especially the giraffe. Anyway, I put Jude in the crib with all the animals and he thought it was just the funniest thing ever. I let him play for awhile before removing all the animals. But he was happy this time to go down for a nap! 🙂

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Entryway

August 20, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized

Thanks to Peacock Feather Events  for featuring my photo of our entryway!

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End of Summer

August 20, 2008 · Filed under baking, cousins, family, food, jude, summer

We have had the most interesting weather the past few days here. Usually at this point in August, the temperature is averaging 100 degrees, and we’re cringing at the mere thought of longsleeves or sweaters. But with all the rain and cool weather we’ve had, fall is seeming more and more like an imminent possibility. Four inches of rain fell overnight in Oklahoma City; in other parts, we actually had 11 inches! 

This evening, as I stepped out to get the mail, there was a cool mist and everything felt so fresh and clean. I’m ready to curl up in a sweater with a good book. I grabbed the camera and shot a few photos of the trees in the front yard. The bark is completely saturated with water and the greens just pop against all of that bark and moss.
Yesterday, my nephew Matthew called and wondered if he could come over to hang out with Jude. I had just gotten home from the grocery store, and was happy to have him come hang out. Matthew will start the third grade tomorrow and is a gourmet cook in the making, and I love to make stuff with him. A couple of years ago at Thanksgiving, he helped me make the yummiest apple pie. I know he has great potential for big things and even bigger ideas. For dinner, we made spicy chicken strips with corn and smashed potatoes (individual Yukon gold potatoes: boiled, and then smooshed and then baked with cheese, chives, bacon, butter, etc. SOOOO good). For dessert, there was a YUM chocolate chip cookie bar recipe.
Jude was totally enthralled with his cousin and could not take his eyes off of him. We are so lucky to have such wonderful boys in our family for Jude to look up to. I am realizing more and more what an influence that older kids can have for little ones, even at this early age. 

So today, I got to hang out with Matthew’s older brother Benjamin. Ben is starting the fifth grade tomorrow, and wanted to spend the last evening of summer freedom with us, and I was happy to oblige him. I cannot tell you what a joy these boys are! Anyway, with the rain and all, we ended up going to Barnes & Noble to look at books. Like Matthew, Ben is really good with Jude, and — like with Matthew — Jude was enthralled with his older cousin. When we came home, I made chicken fried rice while the boys ate crackers (above). Here’s Matthew (below) with Jude on Monday night. Aren’t they sweet?
Here’s the beginnings of the chicken fried rice (below). It’s one of my favorite things to make and is an easy crowd pleaser. Ben made us some delicious peanut butter cookies. We laughed that they were inadvertently vegan PB cookies … because an egg was forgotten in the mix. 🙂  Oh well, they were still really delicious!

With all the rainy-ness, I went out the other night and shot some photos outside. In my college photography class, I really enjoyed learning how to shoot outside in the dark. You can get some really interesting results. It was one of my favorite projects… Anyway, I’d like to start trying some different things in my photos, but this was a start. 


Finally, a few photos of family silliness. Jude sure loves his daddy, and so do I!

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