Jim and I spent the weekend at Lied Lodge for our anniversary. What a wonderful experience! The photo above is the dining room, complete with vaulted ceilings, timbers and a view overlooking the arbors and vineyards. For dinner, I had a grilled salmon fillet with a spicy mango sauce and Jim had his usual fillet mignon, followed by totally decadent chocolate desserts, compliments of the lodge in honor of our anniversary.
This is the view of a small part of the lobby. There are numerous furniture groupings like this scattered throughout the lobby, some by a huge fireplace --- a perfect place to sit with a cup of coffee and enjoy the morning newspaper.
This is one side of the huge fireplace in the lobby. The back side of this fireplace is actually in a sun room with glass on 3 sides and a view of the hills and trees. Very relaxing!
This is one of the sayings carved into the stone above the fireplace. The philosophy of the lodge and its acres of land is one of planting trees and conserving our natural resources. 
These were some of the centerpieces on the tables in the lobby. Everything in the lodge's decor is tree related. The naturalist/minimalist in me loved the ambiance! 
This is a fabulous metal stand holding clay pots with twigs of various sizes and colors that was displayed in the lobby. 
Happy Anniversary, Jim! Today marks my 11th wedding anniversary, and it has been 11 wonderful years. I am lucky to have found a partner who is perfect for me. 11 years ago the temperature was in the 70s, and the sun was shining --- a beautiful day and very unusual weather for Nebraska in February. Today we have a blizzard on the horizon --- much more typical weather.
I have been diligently cleaning, throwing out and rearranging in my studio in preparation of having some time to work on these pieces, and this morning I actually had some time to do just that! I am happy with the first layers shown here. Next I will stitch these pieces in place, and then more layers of cloth and paint will be added. The inspiration for these pieces is an upcoming exhibition titled "Connections". I started musing about the physical connections between the various layers of cloth and between the paint and the cloth, plus the emotional connections that I will add later with screenprints of mementos that have a personal meaning to me. What a great title for an exhibition!
This is one of the pieces from a new series titled "Defining Lines". It is inspired by the lines in nature and our surroundings that give our lives boundaries, and the lines that define us as individuals --- those lines that we aren't willing to cross. Click here to see the entire series.
I also shipped "Grammie", the piece I made as a tribute to my grandmother, to the Quilters' Hall of Fame. It was juried into the She Made Her Mark exhibition that will be on display there from March 1 - June 25, 2007. 
And lastly, I boxed up "Urban Warfare #1" in preparation to ship it to the Ayer Lofts Gallery. It was juried into the Paste-Up exhibition that will be on display there from April 5-29, 2007.
I love the different textures and colors in the woodpile! The splintering of the split wood, the peeling bark, the contrast of dry wood next to wet wood. I'm not sure if I will use the photographs in collages or to burn thermofax screens, but I definitely feel inspiration for a new series of work.
Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted to my blog! I have a family member in the hospital in ICU, so I have been spending a lot of time at the hospital with her. Which means I haven't been in the studio creating any new artwork. The upside is that I have had plenty of time to sit and knit. She now wears the snazziest socks in the whole ICU, and I have enough knitted socks to wear a different pair every day of the week! Above is the latest pair that I am knitting.
