Change of Address

I just changed my art blog's url.....so please update your bookmarks with
http://darbyart.blogspot.com/

Various Whatnot

So I am not getting much time to fret about the dentist...my next appointment was suppose to be the end of Feb but they called today and said they had a cancellation for tomorrow and wondered if I would like it. They told me last time I was there that I will most likely be in pain for 24 hours. Yay me!

Not much else is going on around here. I really need to get going on my art room. It needs to be reorganized so badly. But it is such a huge project that at the moment every time I think about it I get overwhelmed with it. And I need to finish some projects but at the moment I can't even do that with how things are in there.

What else...

Watched Long Way Round last night from netflix. We watched it when it was bravo also but enjoyed it again. It is an amazing journey. Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charly Boorman take a trip around the world on motorcycles and film it. I love the places they go, their feelings as they travel, the people they encounter....it is amazing. Made me so envious...the traveling to new places and meeting so many wonderful people.

Crossing Fingers, Praying and whatnot....

....that the Broncos start doing better or Michael will be very grumpy tonight!

Wine

I was not a big wine person until I met Michael. He told me I had not had a good wine. And of course he was right. I had cheap dry wines that give me headaches before I met him. But now I drink smooth wines that each give a sensory experience...the smell, the color, the taste and the feel of them. The area we live in has quite a few wineries. And all of them have their unique award winning wines. And now I prefer wine over a harder drink.

Here is a couple links about Colorado Wine in general....

Colorado Wine
Colorado Wine Fest

We enjoy wine that is medium-dry to semi-sweet to very sweet. I do really enjoy the fruity flavor coming through in some of the blends also. We have a lot of Colorado fruit growers in the area so many do a blend of fruit with the wine.

Saturday we went to St. Kathyryn's Cellars first. I tried 3 or 4 different wines. But my favorites were Cranberry Kiss and Ruby Red. Cranberry Kiss is sweet but not too sweet as it has that Cranberry tang too. It is beautiful color and smell is so nice too. Ruby Red is a little bit dryer but still sweet. Again a beautiful color and smell.

Next went to Rocky Mountain Meadery. Mead is actually wine made out of honey instead grapes. The woman in the winery was very helpful and also just so sweet and beautiful. She came to the area 20 years ago with the plan to only stay one year and has been here ever since. Lancelot and Camelot are the ones Michael picked up. He really liked the mead. Lancelot is medium dry. And Camelot is sweet. It is so smooth. I was surprised how smooth the taste was in them.

Finally we ended our mini tour with Carlson's Vineyard as it is our favorite. They had a special on their Laughing Cat Red Wine so we got 2 bottles of that. And then the Laughing Cat Sweet Baby Red Wine as I wanted those to go with dinner. We ended up only drinking one bottle as we had quite a bit of wine on the little wine tour. The Laughing Cat Sweet Baby Red is sweet but not too sweet. It says on their site that it is blend from a merlot. The Laughing Cat Red Wine is a mellow red that is just all around good table wine. And at the price they were offering it right now it was hard not to pass up...so we didn't!

It was really their wines that made me start appreciating wine. The first wine I fell in love with there was their Gewurtztraminer. It is a spicy peppery wine but with a little sweetness to it also. And now our favorite wine from Carlson's is Fat Cat Muscat. It is so smooth. And the flavor just pops. Mrs. Carlson suggested taking and pouring a little of it in a champagne flute and then topping it off with champagne and a couple frozen grapes! Oh my that sounded exceptional. Maybe I can ask Michael if we can do that for our anniversary as we do have a bottle of champagne.

I have drank I think all of Carlson's wines and there is not one that I don't like. The cherry wine is great when you dip the glass into a melted chocolate....tastes like chocolate covered cherry. I really wanted another bottle of the Apricot but they have sold out of it.

We mostly drink local wines but we pick up others too. We enjoy medium dry to sweet wines. We have drank different labels in the Gewurtztraminer, Rieslings, Shiraz, Merlots, and Chardonnays. I also got a wine journal this weekend from my Mom so I want to start keeping closer track of what we drink and enjoy.

Shopping and Eating

We had a wonderful time with my parents did lots of shopping and eating! Two of my favorite things! It was great to see them and Michael and I are really happy that they were able to come visit us.

Yesterday we basically shopped all day long. Michael's Arts and Crafts is having a great clearance sale. 90% off Christmas stuff. And Mom and I went crazy in there. Mom bought me too much in there - a pack of Mary Engelbreit Christmas for 9 cents. A couple foam Christmas stamps for 9 cents. Oh and red, silver, gold and plaid ribbon that I use on packages and for art and craft stuff...for 19 cents a spool. They didn't have a ton of stuff left but they had enough to get us quite a few good buys. We also hit some of the shops downtown but because it was a holiday many were closed.

Mom and Dad Arrived!

My parents arrived safely. We whisked them out to do a mini wine tour shortly after they arrived. And came home with 8 bottles of wine! Oh my we tasted so many wonderful wines. I made stew for dinner, served with hard rolls and a nice red wine. We had butter cake with chocolate ganache icing and toffee ice cream after dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday early. The cake didn't turned out as good as I would have liked. The icing was great but the filling became hard instead of being soft and fluffy. And of course with the altitude the cake wasn't as high as it was suppose to be and that always annoys me.

I am so happy my parents are here as I have missed them a lot. It gets hard at times being so far away and not being able to see them very often.

Sharing a Link...

I have been meaning to share this link. He is a friend and one of my favorite artists. He has a piece for sale right now that I would love to have....since it seems to fit me well this past week also.

Happy New Year!

We had a very nice Christmas and New Years even though I had allergy attacks for Christmas and a cold for New Years. But we still had nice quiet cozy holidays.

Christmas Eve....I baked a ham with a honey mustard glaze. Served it with creamed potatoes, green beans and herb rolls. After dinner we took a drive to look at all the lights and tried to take some pictures of us downtown in front of the big Christmas tree but that was not working out well.

Christmas Day....Our day was very very relaxed...in fact I actually slept a lot! I think the month finally caught up with me plus I was having a horrible time with allergies. So we ate, watched movies and took naps all day long! Michael and I watched Polar Express and we both loved it! We watched Bourne Supremacy too. It was a DVD Christmas - we got Bourne Surpremacy, Meet Joe Black, Serenity and the Firefly TV series box set.

I think Santa thought we were really good this year as there were lots of presents under our tree. I got everything from domestic things: cookie cooling racks, new kitchen utensils, pie shields, measuring spoon and tea. To art things: Rubber stamps, little tags, cutting mat and brads. To books and movies: I got Paulo Coehlo's book The Zahir...that I started reading right away as I love his books so much! I also got Nick Bantock's book Urgent 2nd Class that I have been wanting for a while too. I got the coolest trivet - I found a picture of online. A calendar called ArtPlay that has great collages in it, a gift certificate and journal from my sisters. Michelle wrote in journal combine that with the card she gave and of course I was tears. It was one of those hallmark moments! We got great presents from Michael's parents too...such as the bears that I already posted a picture of...they were just part of the presents! So as I said Santa was very good to us!

Dec. 26 - yes we did it...we were out in the after Christmas shopping. I picked up a few things with the gift certificate my sister gave me. Plus we stocked up on Christmas wrap, tags and ribbon as we were OUT! Completely OUT! Michael had to do some creative wrapping on Christmas Eve.

Skipping to New Years Eve....I was sick with a cold. So we were kind of boring. We made potstickers and crab ragoon and then just watched movies until close to midnight when we watched the Dick Clark special being replayed for mountain time. We toasted in the New Year with a Carlson wine....Fat Cat Muscat! Yum! And then went to bed shortly there after....as I said we were boring!

New Years Day....we are doing what we did Christmas Day...sleep, eat and watch movies because I have a cold.

All in all..the holidays were nice even with being sick. It was quiet and relaxing which I know we both appreciated although we were thinking of our families and missing them. At Christmas time I try to do some reflecting on where my life is and how grateful I am for everything in it....and this year was no different. Nothing earth shattering uncovered....just that I am very happy to be with Michael and am grateful for having him in my life.

We hope that everyone has a VERY Happy New Year!