Chris caught it; She sketched it

You may have read here about how I had a homeowner victory about finding an affordable slipcover for our sofa. Well that's not the only upgrade our living room has received recently. 

Last August, Chris and Jack went fishing on the Missouri River in Montana. During that trip, Chris caught a very large fish. For Christmas, Mom and Jack had that fish commissioned in watercolor to scale by the artist Sketch and Release. She takes measurements from photos of fish and recreates them to scale in a piece of art. 

Chris received his sketch a little time after Christmas, and I wanted it to be framed soon so we wouldn't mess it up. 

Here it is while I was choosing the matte and frame. 

Here it is hanging over our newly slipcovered couch!

On the piece of art, the artist captures the details such as: 23 inch rainbow trout caught by Christopher Cook at the Missouri River in Montana on August 14, 2011. 

I think it looks great!

But what happened to the artwork that was hanging above our couch? They were exiled to the downstairs guest bathroom. 

Here's one more of the fish!

The Thanksgiving Grind

This Thanksgiving, Chris and I traveled home to see my family. The night before Thanksgiving lunch, my mom and I set out to make cornbread dressing, and we discovered we didn't have any corn meal. You know, the corn meal to make the cornbread that goes into the cornbread dressing? 

I offered to drive to Kroger and fight the fight of everyone else who had forgotten one ingredient the day before Thanksgiving, but before I got in the car, Mom said that she did have polenta. Polenta is just a larger grind of corn than corn meal. 

So you know what? I ground (in the food processor) the polenta to get it closer to corn meal. 

And it worked! The cornbread came together perfectly. I felt very pioneer-like doing this successfully. 

But I didn't get a photo of the finished cornbread dressing. I was much too busy eating. I was able to get a group shot, thanks to my new remote control for my camera. 

A pretty good looking group.

And, yes. I did cut my hair again. It's even shorter than before, and I'm loving it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our weekend according to my new iphone 4s

We had an eventful weekend! 

Friday afternoon, I received my new iPhone 4s. I was using the original 3G, so this was a huge leap forward for me. As an ode to my new phone, all of the photos on this post were taken with it, using the  Instagram app. 

Friday night we saw these guys. 

Saturday morning, we met up with Chris' sister and her family for Bryce's baptism. We were thrilled to be asked to be his Godparents. 

On our way back from Little Rock, we decided to take a few detours. I had seen a cemetery in Carlisle, AR, that looked really interesting. It may sound weird, but I enjoy visiting cemeteries. I think roaming through the old graves and learning bits about people's lives is interesting. Here are some interesting shots I took in Carlisle. 

We even found some possible family members. 

Then we decided to head south just a little bit to Slovak, AR. Chris was baptized at the church there and his grandmother is buried there. On the way, we ran into this guy. 

Thankfully, he didn't run us off the road, and we arrived safely. 

Here's Chris' grandmother's headstone. 

I like this shot. It feels very southern to me. 

Here's the front of the church. Unfortunately, it was locked, and so we weren't able to get inside. 

Finally, after our wandering, we made it home, and this guy was happy to see us. 

Homemade cocktail treats

I was inspired by Martha Stewart's pickled cocktail additions, and I decided to try one of hers and one creation of mine. I chose her pickled radishes, perfect for martinis, and then I researched homemade maraschino cherries, perfect for manhattans. 

First I pitted the fresh cherries.

Perfect little holes.

I then filled two jars with the pitted, fresh cherries. I left the stems on them so they would look fresh and pretty. 

Then I took a bottle of cherry liqueur....

and poured it over the cherries.

Hello, deep, dark mysterious cherry jars.

And, I made custom labels and tied cute bows around the jars. 

I followed Martha's recipe exactly, and put the radishes in a jar with a fun clasp.

They got custom labels too.

These made perfect gifts, especially for someone who likes martinis and manhattans! I made these for Jack for Father's Day.

The cherries were just as beautiful in a drink!

Friends, Family and Alpacas

As mentioned, Chris and I headed up to the farm this past weekend for multiple reasons. 

1) Chris always wants to celebrate his birthday at the farm. He kinda loves it there. 

2) Kathy was coming up, and we planned to see Shelby, a friend from Hendrix!

 

3) My folks are good people, and we enjoy seeing them too.

 So this is Kathy. I've blogged about her often. She's my BFF. We will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary of friendship this September. I'll let you know where we register. 

Oops. Autofocus was off. This is Kathy. And, don't be frightened by the hat. We were about to strike out on an adventure, and the wind was cold. And, it's my mom's hat. 

Kathy and I found some artsy trash by the water's edge. 

And, we visited the Indian cave. 

She's a city girl, but she still looks good in a cave!

I even made her jump out of the ranger and open gates. She learned a lot about farm life. 

Then we spied a momma and baby cow!

The baby was so tiny, and it had a difficult time walking. It looked like its back legs weren't quite loosened up yet. 

Then, Kathy met the dogs. They are such big loves. Big, huge fierce-to-predators loves.

Then it was time for the grand show. The alpacas!

Sometimes when you're on a farm, loves comes in all shapes and sizes. The rest of this series of photos have been edited and removed to protect young eyes. 

Finally, the alpacas were ready for some appropriate photos. 

I love how this group is so clearly posing for their picture!

Then, the llama had to get some love.

The llamas really tickle when they breathe on your face.

Remember those fierce protectors of the herds? Did I mention they just work at night? 

The other llama needed some attention too. 

Emily has grown so much since our last trip to the farm!

Llamas really like to smell your face. 

A lot.

Then it was time to shoot some guns. 

Kathy was getting a safety lesson from Chris. 

Practicing your stance is very important.

"How in the heck do you see through this thing?"

She hadn't even shot anything yet, and she already had the look down. 

One last correction. 

Then it was time to shoot. 

That gun looks so natural with her. 

 At what, you may ask, was all the shooting? This deserving tin can, of course!

The hunter and her prey. Notice the holes.

After Kathy showed that tin can who was boss, we traveled back to find the baby cow again. Can you find him in this photo? He's the black spot right in the center. He was circled up against a mound of earth. It was the perfect snuggling spot, and he was out of the wind. Smart momma cow. 

After our big day on the farm, it was time to eat. Of course, we had to do pizzas!

Jack gave Kathy the important job of bubble-popper. 

That's the official bubble-popping stick. 

She did a great job because the pizzas were delicious.

We were so busy having fun that I don't think we got a group photo of everyone. I think it's safe to say that after ten years of friendship, Kathy and I are still going strong.

Even on a farm.