An ode to blue

Blown glass. Fresh from the garden. Series 3. Shiny and new. Italian patina.

Meet Ralph

Ralph is a giant sequoia.

Well, he's not so giant now, but give him a few hundred years and he will be!

Of course, it was impossible for me to make a trip to Longwood Gardens and NOT come home with a plant. Since we were on our way to a New Year's party, the small and self contained version of this little giant sequoia was the perfect plant. I dubbed him Ralph on the car trek home New Year's Day.
It's cold outside and he's awfully small just now, so after a proper potting, Ralph joined the houseplant collection. He'll be giant someday.

how I spent my winter vacation

I've been home from work for 12 glorious days--my longest non-work stretch in more than a year. There were holiday festivities and family gatherings in the mix, and one mini road trip, so I don't know that it completely qualifies as a "stacation" (i.e. an at-home vacation), but it was pretty darn close I'd think.

After all the holiday hoopla, I had time to put together one of my gifts--the mushroom cottage playset by Fantastic Toys. Good thing you're never too old for a mushroom cottage playset :)

Since both Ryan and I were home for much of our time, we made a point of getting out of the house for some type of excursion each day. Among them: ice skating, duckpin bowling, bike rides, scooter rides and dog walks outside the "usual" route.

Our mini road trip was north for New Year's Eve. We stopped along the way to enjoy the holiday displays at Longwood Gardens.

I was highly amused (it doesn't take much), by the scooter-focused signs throughout the Gardens. I'll leave you to figure out what they were talking about and why I wasn't offended by these scooter regulations.
One of our last excursions was a repeat trip to a local lake. The first trip was with the dogs earlier in the stacation and the second was today with our bicycles.
And in the midst of it all, I finally made something brand new for Polly Scoots.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble. Gobble.
Umm, butter sculpture.

Happy Halloween!

Boo! Thanks to hubby, Ryan, for working his mad pumpkin carving skillz!

Winter Wonderland

It's cold out there, but at least it's finally pretty. Guess this is the only scoot in our collection hitting "the road" tonight.

Self Portrait

I'm overdue for a post, but also overdue for some good sleep. So I'm stopping in to say hello and, hating to post without a pic, pulling something from my collection. There's a story behind it, but I'll save that for another day.

For now, I'll just peak out from the fragmented wonder of a mirrored turtle mosaic. Never fear, there was a scooter lurking in the background!

Signs of the Season

I'm in the home stretch of my big fall cleaning project. It wasn't so bad that I've been at it all week, but sometimes it does feel that way. Chipping away at it between everything else has made the project take far longer than expected, but the end is in sight.

Before digging in today, Ryan, the pups and I headed out to the nature preserve for a morning hike. We basked in the signs of the season.

Savoring the seasons

Autumn is the perfect to time to explore the great outdoors. On Saturdays, it's fun to load the kids (our dogs) into the back seat and find a park before it gets too crowded with people. We're lucky enough to have a nature preserve not too far from our house--it has become a favorite destination.

We've been sadly lacking in rain this summer and it shows. The picture above was taken about a month ago. The one below was taken just last Saturday. The lake, already crowded with vegetation, is getting even harder to find.

Despite the weather, there's still lots to explore. Wonder what happened to this tree??

An awesome night out

Saw an awesome show Friday night. My current favorite band, The Cat Empire, played at Rams Head Live in Baltimore. Their 2006 album, Two Shoes, is what I put in when I need to get my some serious Polly Scoots work done. After I'm done dancing around the living room to Sly, I have the energy/motivation to create along to the rhythm of their ska, jazz, Latin, reggae beat.

The six band members, with an occasional second trumpeter, seemed to really be enjoying themselves on stage. Each song included lengthy jams and solos, with different members taking the lead as the night progressed. I played trumpet as a kid and was blown away by both horn blowers' abilities. At one point, the two trumpeters played a bit of a duel with DJ Jumps egging on the new guy.

I was well-pleased at the end of the two-hour show and, of course, it left hungry for more. Thankfully, the band just finished recording a new album, so relief is in sight.

I'll definitely pick up tickets when this band makes its next trip from Melbourne to a stage near me.

Random Wednesdays

Sometimes it's fun to make something pretty to eat on a random Wednesday night. Last night I took a page out of Ryan's book and skewered and grilled some meat. Since we've finally (and unexpectedly) reached the end of our bag of 100 skewers, things were a little crowded, but still tasted yummy. This turned out to be a rather messy meal to eat as the goal was to make roll ups using the lettuce with all the fun things rolled inside, but it started out kind of pretty.

I cubed the thin cut pork tenderloins and marinated them in some low sodium teriyaki sauce for about an hour and a half. Then skewered and grilled the meat at about 500 degrees for a few minutes on each side. After the last flip, I poured some more teriyaki sauce on for the final few minutes of grilling.

I cheated on the noodles and used a packaged noodle bowl from Simply Asia (just two minutes in the microwave). One serving was plenty for both of us. Sliced cucumbers and carrots finished things off. Next time, I need to find a lettuce that's a little less rigid through the middle--it will make the rolling much easier!