mourningdove

Global Metal

If you grow up in New Mexico, you love heavy metal. Or maybe you hate it. But you’re not going to feel meh about it. Me personally, I don’t just love metal: I consider it part of my birthright alongside killer sunsets and green chile. Metal is responsible for a lot of the major timeContinue reading “Global Metal”

Wright’s Beach

Every year for the last couple of years my friend Steph and I have come out to the CA coast in the summer and stayed at Wright’s Beach campground (actually one year we stayed at Bodega Dunes down the road). We mostly like to sit on the beach and stare at the water, but weContinue reading “Wright’s Beach”

Donkey and Cow

I was going through some old files today and came across my favorite illustration for a story I wrote for friends about their giant dairy cow, Mabel, and her miniature donkey friend, Eeyora. I never actually saw this happen but imagined the friends helping each other reach the ripe apples in the trees that overhungContinue reading “Donkey and Cow”

Umeboshi and the RBQ

Before I even get started, this is a story of failure. Umeboshi, Japanese salted plums, get their plum-purple color traditionally not from the fruit itself–Japanese ume are actually yellow–but from red shiso, an herb in the mint family with an inimitable flavor. I have tried and failed to grow red shiso so many times. It’sContinue reading “Umeboshi and the RBQ”

Quilted Advent Calendar for Recycled Christmas Cards

I receive such lovely holiday cards from my friends that I hate to throw them out. So, I came up with a way to display my favorites. Each year I choose 24 cards and cut vignettes from them that I slide into the windowed pockets of this quilted calendar. Then, during the coming advent, wheneverContinue reading “Quilted Advent Calendar for Recycled Christmas Cards”

Digital Organization Tips

I looooove efficiency. I love it so much that I have wondered more than once why I didn’t become an engineer. Very little can boost my mood as much as quickly as streamlining a process that used to contain redundancies and inefficiencies. I nearly cried when our city finally, FINALLY got single-stream curbside recycling. I’mContinue reading “Digital Organization Tips”

Emotion Board

I went through a traumatic life change recently, which ended up being a blessing. Like Mary Oliver says…. Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift. “The Uses of Sorrow,” Mary Oliver In the months (and months!) of therapy thatContinue reading “Emotion Board”

SFO Botanical Garden Photos

A couple weekends ago, I escaped the heat and wildfire smoke with a group of girlfriends. We spent a deliciously cool couple of days in SFO’s Japantown, staying at the Kabuki and getting a year’s worth of dead skin cells scrubbed off across the street at Pearl Spa. Appetite piqued, we ambled through Japan CenterContinue reading “SFO Botanical Garden Photos”