Half Over? Or just begun?

A shot of our new building, the Tilsner, shot from across the street

Ana during intermission at Kooza

For more about Kooza, check here

Picture I took after a long walk with Ana...check out that full moon

Ana with Grandma on the 4th of July

From the Elvis Costello concert at Taste. Awesome.

Ana at Costello concert

Farmer's Market...so nice to have in your backyard...who needs a garden?

June trip to the gardens near Lake Harriet

Anniversary trip to Red Wing

During our trip thru the countryside to enjoy Pizza on the Farm, I made Joel pull over so I could take this shot of a country church...beautiful

One of our regular stops now along the way to Red Wing is Northfield...here's Joel enjoying the popcorn stand...small towns--I still love them



I thought I'd share a few summer photos...the more recent shots starting at the top.

How did we reach the mid-point of summer? It's mid-point in my book when the Fourth is past and my daughter has celebrated another birthday. And, the baseball season is half over!

It is going way to fast....and while I am enjoying the warm weather, longer days, and time off here and there...I would like these months to pass a little slower!

Our summer really started with our move into the Tilsner Artist Coop. We are loving our new place, still settling in and decorating. I think it will take the whole summer to feel truly settled.

We took a break from the moving to celebrate our second anniversary. We enjoyed another trip to Red Wing and this time included a trip to Pizza on the Farm just outside Stockholm, WI. Try it...it's the best pizza!

We went straight from moving ourselves to moving my son, Cyrus. I'm done with moving!

Weekends I've been enjoying trips to the Farmer's Market, gardening in the spot outside our building and lots of time in the studio. This summer Cirque du Soleil set up their tents atop the parking lot directly across the street from our building. It was quite incredible watching the tents go up (watch time-lapse video of it here). Even more incredible was the actual show. Ana and I went to a performace as part of her 25th birthday celebration. (Yup, Ana is 25!)

And there's so much more I want to do this summer ... definitely more ballgames. We've gone to less than 10 Twins games and one Saints game...we'll be fixing that in the next few months. Maybe a road trip or two. The State Fair!!! This year for the first time I think I will be able to be on vacation during the whole fair! Wowza!

We still have a busy half to enjoy!

Wonderful Night

I love Craig Ferguson and thought you might enjoy a chuckle as well.

It's a wonderful night indeed!

Cycling Race in Lowertown

Living in Lowertown St. Paul offers entertainment right outside our door some days, especially during the summer. Every day we can watch the barges move down the river. Soon Cirque du Soleil will be setting up in the parking lot across the street. During the week we enjoy music in the park (next weekend is a jazz fest in Mears Park). And then there is always the Farmer's Market just down the street.

The first stage of the Minnesota Bicycle Festival took place this past Wednesday night in Lowertown St. Paul...the cyclists raced around Mears Park and right in front of Lowertown Commons (our old apartment building). It's the third year that I've caught this race...even if you're not a cycling fanatic it's hard not to get caught up in it when it's happening just outside your door. There was actually 2 races--a women's event as well as a men's event. Both races lasted about an hour. Weather was great this year. I managed to shoot a little video on my camera. This is from the last 10 minutes of the men's race (the video is only about 30 seconds) Note the gap between the 4 leaders and the rest of the pack.

A short retreat

It has been a long month. May was all about moving to our new place. We painted, we packed, we hauled stuff over. We are now in our new space, but still working on getting settled. (If you haven't already checked it out, you can see pics of the new place here)


Joel and I took a much needed little break from the whole moving routine to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We enjoyed what has become our favorite escape to Red Wing. It's a short road trip...long enough to feel like we're getting away and short enough that we're not spending tons of time in the car.


We travelled through Northfield on the way there. I love the feel of that town...small, with a beautiful Main Street, and lots of fun shopping (with even an art gallery and art stores). It was a beautiful day too...temps in the 70s, sunny, no bugs...perfect.


In Red Wing, we again stayed at our favorite B & B...the Moondance Inn . We slept in the lovely Garden Suite, but basically had the place to ourselves (we were the only guests that night). We have stayed at Moondance 7-8 times now and it sort of feels like our vacation home!

We took advantage of the lovely weather and enjoyed Pizza on the Farm! We've been waiting to enjoy this for 2 years and it was worth the wait. Basically there is this farm outside of Stockholm, Wisconsin (about a half hour from Red Wing) that every Tuesday during the warm weather months bakes pizza in their outdoor brick ovens. The pizza crust is made from flour they ground themselves. Most of the toppings are grown/produced on the farm as well. It is incredibly fresh and incredibly good. Hundreds of people typically come on a Tuesday night and it's quite a sight to see. You bring your own blanket/table/chairs and set up on the lawn. It was a wonderful picnic and a great way to celebrate our anniversary.

We're back to our regular routine now...back to trying to unpack and organize things.

A little something to make you smile!

Sound of Music Train Station @ Yahoo! Video


A friend shared this on Facebook and I thought it worth sharing. Enjoy!!!

Art Crawl-Spring 2009

Life promises to be plenty busy in the next month or so. I apologize in advance for being a bad blogger. But then if you know me, you know 1) that my blogging here has already slacked off and 2) that I do the bulk of my blogging these days at my art blog. Heck, I haven't even written in my baseball blog yet this season.

This weekend I was busy preparing for next weekend's art crawl. Hundreds of artists in St. Paul open up their studio to the public this coming weekend. I've done it a few times now and it is always a wonderful experience. If you have never gone to an art crawl I highly recommend it. You get to meet the artists. There is lots of great art. Free treats. Sometimes wine. Great people watching. Friday night there are generally street performers outside. It's like going to an art museum, but skipping the middle man and going directly to the artist.

There's always lots of last minute preparations. Of course, I always put things off. This weekend, in addition to finishing artwork, I was painting our studio door (with chalkboard paint...cool project), painting the frame of a mirror, and of course organizing...There's still lots to do, so I'll be busy all week.

So if you're looking for something to do this weekend, stop by my studio. I'll be serving up those little meatballs on Friday night (and other treats Saturday and Sunday).

Check out my art blog for more behind the scenes info, as well as a cute video made during the 2007 art crawl.

We're moving!!!

Unit #507. Our new home. This is a picture of our apt. door. Yes, I really like this painting, but I will have to feature my own work. Can't wait.

Looking into the apt from the dining area. The pic is a little dark and it doesn't really show how beautiful that brick is. I love it.

Here's a better shot of the brick wall.

A shot from the dining area towards the front door (which is just past those closets).

A shot into the dining/kitchen area.

The wood floors (throughout) that I love.

Kitchen shot. Nothing special, but I do like that it's more open than our current galley kitchen.

Kitchen shot. Nothing special, but I do like that it's more open than our current galley kitchen.It's official. We will be moving during the month of May. I've been sitting on pins and needles during the application process, afraid to say much about it--lest I jinx the whole thing. So allow me to backtrack a bit to clue you all in.

About a month ago, we received the lease extension for our current place. Our lease expires June 1st. Now we love our place; it has many conveniences, loads of character, but with that comes a fairly hefty rent. Joel has lived here some 6 years and I moved in 2 years ago. We discussed the possibility of moving a year ago, but since I had been moving on an annual basis the previous 4 or some years and we were still settling into married life, we decided to stay put.

This year we thought about it a lot harder. There would be something nice about living in a place that we picked out together. It would force us to clear out some clutter. We could decorate a new place together. Still moving is hard work, not cheap, and hard work.

Joel decided to do a little more research about some the of the artist lofts/co-ops in our area. Generally the rent is considerably less and the spaces can be quite interesting. Joel found 2-bedroom units available in 2 buildings--the Carlton & Tilsner.

We looked at the Carlton building first. The Carlton is a newer renovation, located on University Avenue. While it had some great amenities, the living space felt small...it would not easily accomodate our stuff or my stepdaughter's wheelchair. Besides, we realized we didn't truly want to leave our neighborhood of lowertown St. Paul.

After looking at the Carlton, we felt we would probably be staying where we are at, but Joel went ahead and looked at the unit available at the Tilsner...just a block from where we live now. After looking at, he called me excited...and we scheduled a time when I could take a look as well.

I, too, could see the possibilities. As they say, the "bones" of the space are good. The brick walls are incredible. The light is good (even if my poor pictures don't show it). The unit is on the 5th floor and if you look past the parking lot across the street, you can see the river. We both love the open floor plan and have some creative ideas on how to use it. Yes, the bedrooms are small, but the living room/dining area is huge. We give up the conveniences of this building (underground parking, our own laundry, and 2 bathrooms), but we gain so much.

By moving into this building, we will be moving into a vibrant art community. One of the requirements for living in the building is that at least one of the residents of the unit needs to be an artist (that could be a visual artist, writer, or theater person...). I think this idea appeals to both Joel and I equally. It is what we love about the lowertown community...that it is an artist community.

So we decided to submit our application. After 2 weeks of waiting and dealing with setbacks, we got the word today. The unit is ours!

We will start our move May 1st...but do it slowly throughout the month (we don't have to be out of our current place till June 1). We are beyond excited. We are thrilled to have a new place that will truly be our first place chosen together. We have already been discussing how to arrange things, what walls we want to paint...essentially, how to make the place "our home".

Yup, we've got a lot of work ahead. But we're excited.

I can't wait to show you pictures of how it all looks when we move in!