Blooming With Joy and Creativity

It's been a very interesting 2016 with the broken foot and several other adventures all unfolding at the same time. Now that I've been out of my cast for a month, even though my foot is still incredibly painful and swollen every day, I am feeling a new burst of energy and excitement about life.

I have met some amazing people since we've moved and had the opportunity to work with some very inspiring folks around town. It feels like all those things are coming together this summer and I am really excited to see what can become of some of my ideas. It feels like the season of perfect storms and opportunities to do some really amazing things.

I have been scribbling and scrawling in notebooks like crazy, envisioning new creative projects from sewing to painting to photography. I have about 100 things on my Pinterest boards that I'd like to whip up in "my spare time." It felt like we were stuck in unending winter and early spring for a while and suddenly last week summer just decided to arrive overnight. Now we are having hot, windy days and I am looking forward to a dip in the pool,  weekend floats and sunning. Sounds heavenly.

I have been very inspired by my friends lately and have come to the realization that I have a lot of very incredible people in my life, amazingly good people -- friends from childhood, schools and many different jobs, church congregations and so many other activities. I am happily meeting the same caliber of people in my life here in New Mexico. These friends just blow me away and I find myself motivated to try to live up to their amazing examples and be a friend of equal caliber. It's a good yardstick and constant reminder of who I want to be. So grateful for that!

My friend in the photo up there is our first peony here in our backyard. I have to give Mother Nature totally credit for this photo -- late afternoon light, on the stem in the backyard. Crazy amazing! Our yard on three sides is landscaped in the "high desert style." That means some pines, sagebrush, natural grasses, rocks and cactus (even after The Man removed a few hundred pounds of it for the safety of dog and kiddo.)

In our walled back yard we have a little haven with the pool, mature trees, flower beds, grapevines, lots of lavender and lilacs, roses, lots of vines and a small round stucco gazebo, with large rock steps leading up and down to four different levels across the yard. There is nice space around the pool for lounge chairs and a small spot a few feet away for a small table with benches and sun umbrella. 

Above all that we have the lovely courtyard patio area where we put the big table for dinners under the cafe lights.The peonies are in a corner of the patio. Peonies always remind me of my grandmother who grew the most beautiful deep pink peonies. It is so nice to have a little garden setting in the desert. We are looking forward to putting the backyard to full use once this weekend hits. It's pool time and time to start eating dinners outside, inviting friends over and really enjoying every moment of summer.

Now that the warmer weather is finally hitting us here in the US, what are you excited for this summer? Looking forward to sharing it with you!

A Weekend In Taos, New Mexico

One of my initial goals when we moved to New Mexico was to take every opportunity to get to know our new home. I thought it would be fantastic to take a weekend every month to visit a new corner of the state.

We barely got settled, into the school year and through the holidays when I started my five-month broken foot odyssey. So a couple of weeks ago when our new, much loved, next door neighbors invited us to meet them in Taos, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take our first weekend getaway.

Unfortunately kiddo got sick the night we were planning to leave and none of us was feeling too great. So we decided to wait until Saturday morning to see how everyone was feeling. Come Saturday morning kiddo was not feeling great but was begging to go since she'd already been packed for two days. We decided we all could use a couple of days away from the house and projects and To Do lists. 

We met our friends and had lunch at the historic Taos Inn restaurant Doc Martin's. We enjoyed some great, classic New Mexican fare and a nice visit together. Then we wandered Kit Carson Street and a variety of beautiful art galleries. One of the most interesting stops was at Angie Coleman Fine Arts. Our neighbor, who is an artist is a friend of Angie's, so we got to see her block printing. It was a great opportunity to see what goes into her beautiful work that we also saw features at Taos Inn.

Along the way there were lots of pretty alleys and nooks and crannys to see and the lilacs were in bloom and were so fragrant. Kiddo was feeling pretty wiped out at this point so we checked into our hotel for the night and ended up eating the snacks we'd brought with us for dinner and we never left the room again that night.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn, which I'll give the following reviews. When we got our room keys and headed to our room with luggage in hand, The Man and kiddo were ahead of me. Once I got into the room, I saw baby toys on the bed and then a suitcase against the wall. Hearing people coming down the hall, in horror, I said, "This is someone else's room. C'mon let's get out of here!"

It did take a few seconds for each one of us to register what was happening in the room because the beds was made, and the room was very tidy. The Man said he thought it was odd that the hotel had provided us with a crib. Once The Man ran back up to the lobby and got us another room, we ended up loving our room. It was very simple, stylish and comfortable. There was a great indoor pool in the hotel, breakfast and everything was very easy. The one downfall was that the room was not at all soundproof. Noise from upstairs, the hallway and neighboring rooms was loud. Luckily we were tired and slept a long time anyway.

 Sunday afternoon we tracked down a pizza joint The Man has been talking about for as long as I've known him and it well worth it. It's not a spot you would ever find if you weren't hunting for it. Word is it has a cult following.

Taos Pizza Out Back is rustic to be sure, but the minute you step out of your car the smells coming from inside assure you that you've made a fantastic decision for your next meal! We were all about ordering once we sat down and quickly ordered drinks and their version of a supreme pizza.

We were not disappointed and I will gladly revisit any time we're in town and definitely will recommend it to everyone. Everything about the pizza was fantastic and they also had a great dessert menu, which we were too full to check out.

We wandered the downtown plaza for a while and did a little souvenir shopping and enjoyed looking at beautiful New Mexico jewelry and other locally made products. We took things pretty slow the entire weekend and headed home early Sunday afternoon. The drive home was beautiful and went quickly.

I am looking forward to going back to Taos again when we're all feeling a little better and to adventuring to all the places we didn't get to see on our first trip. We passed lots of river rafting spots, and there is lots to see around the Taos, Angel Fire area. Here's to more New Mexico road trips this summer!

Check out my instagram feed, kalanicutblog for lots more photos of our New Mexico adventures including a trip to the Sandia Peak Tram last week.