Emerson Umbrella Art Show & Concord, MA

Last weekend I went to a fantastic Open Studio at the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord, MA.  Our friend Lois Andersen shares a studio in the beautiful building with another talented painter, so I was excited to see some more of her work, since I've always enjoyed when she's displayed selections at Park Street Church.

The building was a beautiful old school building that has been renovated into artist studios.  With three floors, 55 artists, and lots of demonstrations going on, there was plenty to see!  Lois was sweet enough to show me around to some of her friends for a while, then I wandered through the rest of the building on my own.

Here's Lois and her studio-mate with some of their art!

Here are a few shots of the art.  There were so many things to see!  Pottery, oil paintings, jewelry, woven scarves, cartoons, sculptures, watercolor...the list goes on!  Here is a little taste.

This was a hands-on exhibition where kids were making rafts from nature that will be part of an Earth Day celebration.

After walking around the Open Studio for a few hours, I headed into downtown Concord.  Concord is one of my favorite little towns around Boston.  There's Walden Pond, a thousand historical sites to visit, fantastic restaurants (like 80 Thoreau), and several good antique stores I like to visit.  On this trip, I got a tiny antique metal sheep for myself and some old watch gears for Travis.  I'm planning on making the watch parts into some kind of steampunk pin for him to wear when the Gentlemen's Very (Very) High Art Society plays...or the next time we go to a Steampunk event.

Downtown Concord

Clever name, huh?

What are your favorite art exhibits?

Healthy Smoothie - Oatmeal, Spinach & Berries

If you've been following along at home, you know I'm a sucker for a good smoothie.  This week I decided to add a few ingredients to one of my favorite mixtures of fruit to make it healthier, and loved what I ended up with.  Adding oats and spinach to the already delicious list of ingredients makes this a fantastic breakfast! I was SO full after drinking mine!

All you need is:

1 medium banana
5-6 strawberries
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup yogurt (I used strawberry Chobani)
1/4 cup oats (I used Old Fashioned Quaker Oats)
1-1.5 cups baby spinach
1/2 cup water (or more)

Then just fill your blender and blend until smooth!  I gave it a little longer than usual to make sure the oats were pulverized.  :)

Even husband liked it!

Have fun switching out the fruit you use - I don't think you'll come up with a bad combination.

Interested in other cool treats?  Check out a few of my frozen yogurt recipes - Blackberry Honey Frozen Yogurt and Strawberry Banana Fro Yo!

Enjoy!

Giving Up Caffeine and How to Make Water Interesting

Yesterday marked one week since I've given up caffeine   Why did I give it up, you may ask?  Well...

Last Monday, I stopped into the CVS below my office to get my morning Diet Mountain Dew, but sadly, they were out.  I went across the street to Walgreens, but they were out too.  Frustrated, I went down a block to another CVS...and THEY were out too!  And that was it.  I didn't like the fact that I was so addicted to caffeine, and I liked the fact that I was consuming so much Aspartame even less.

The first few days were terrible.  Day 1, headache.  Day 2...headache so bad that I went home and slept/sat in the dark all night.  Day 3... exhausted and headache.  Day 4...exhausted and a milder headache.  Days 5-7...just tired.  And finally...day 8....I'm FINE!  4 days of headaches and a week being tired to knock a terrible addiction isn't bad at all!

I think part of the reason I was able to get through the withdrawal symptoms so quickly is because of all the water I drank.  Seriously...I drank SO much water.  That way I wasn't also dealing with dehydration headaches.  (And it's just good for you.)

It worked out pretty nicely that we were shooting some videos at my apartment for work the week before I quit soda.  One of the videos we shot was about ways to make water more interesting with yummy ice cubes, so I thought I'd share it with you all.  Here are some pictures from the day, and the video showing how you make the ice cubes.

Here's what was going on in my house...crazy!

Poor Travis was stuck in the dining room surrounded by all the props, trying to grade papers.  What a good sport.  :)

Now...back the ice cubes.  We made four kinds - lemon, mint, berry, and lemon-berry-mint!  The berry-lemon-mint ones were by far my favorite, and are a perfect way to keep all this water I'm now drinking interesting!  I like to smash the frozen berries a little before putting them in the trays.

Check out the video below for the how-to!



What's your favorite way to spice up your water?

Red Sox Opening Day

Happy day, happy day!  Today was our first REALLY beautiful day here in Boston - 64 degrees and sunny!  If that wasn't enough, it was also Opening Day at Fenway Park.  Since I couldn't take the day off to go to the game, I decided the next best thing would be to take my lunch break and walk to Fenway to soak up a little Sox enthusiasm.  Here are a few pictures from my walk.  Enjoy!

Beautiful brownstones!

The very first bloom I've seen this year!

And just for good measure...here's a cute picture of Toby.  :)

How To Keep Squirrels Off Your Bird Feeders

Last time we were home, Travis' parents told us their secret for keeping squirrels off their bird feeders.  When I was growing up, my grandma would grease the bird feeder poles, so the squirrels had a hard time climbing them.  I remember watching them scramble up a little ways and sliiiiiide right back down.  While it was an entertaining thing to watch, there were still a few highly skilled rascals that made it up.  This solution also required regular "greasings"...not much fun.

Terry and Jenny's solution started in their toy box.  Are you ready??  It's...a slinky.  Yep!  Check out what they did!

The solution was as simple as dangling a slinky from the top of the string or pole, so it hangs down the length.  When a squirrel grabs on to climb up, the slinky stretches and sends the squirrel right back to the ground.  No traction on the pole = no  reaching the yummy seeds!

Hope it works as well for you as it has for them!  

Easter

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!  We had a wonderful (but exhausting) day at church and with new friends.  Park Street Church has 3 morning services (8, 9:30, and 11) and one evening service on Easter Sunday, and is jam packed for each one.  This year I didn't play in the orchestra since we were having friends over after the service for lunch, so I just went to the 9:30.  Poor Travis was there from 7-1 pm.  Whew.

The service was beautiful, music was fantastic, and they once again had my favorite flower arrangements of the year.  I LOVE Park Street's regular Easter flowers - puffy pink hydrangeas, daffodils, orange tulips, and purple hyacinth in terracotta pots, tall yellow bushes on either end, and Easter lilies in the center.  It's just beautiful!

After church, Travis brought our new friends Bill and Lauren back to our place for Easter lunch.  We had pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, "pan peas", and broccoli...followed by Key Lime Pie with strawberries and Cool Whip.  I've had a great time enjoying some tulips I picked up this weekend.  They were beautiful!

Later that day, we opened a package from Travis' parents that included some candy, my new favorite kids' book, and treats for Toby.  Toby got two big cookies - one looked like a bunny, and the other an Easter bone (below).  He looooved licking (licking...licking) the frosting before devouring part of the cookie.  What a lucky little guy.

The book was super cute - about Pretzel the dachshund that was abnormally long and his love interest who "doesn't like long doggies".  *Spoiler alert   Eventually he rescues her and they get married.  It's really cute - check it out!

What did you do for Easter?