the weather has been beautiful lately as we transition into fall.  the windows are open and the air is nice and cool. now's the time to take advantage of the quiet, spend time outdoors, and savor the last bits of our last summer as just dog parents.

baby girl's room is so close to being ready for her.  i couldn't resist posting a few pics of her bed.  her room has such a chill vibe that we are loving, and i'll confess we have slept in there a few nights just for fun.

 we're also trying to get as much out of the summer veggies as possible before they stop producing.  a new, amazingly delicious recipe we've discovered is habanero carrot pepper jelly.  it's easy and so tasty with some cream cheese on a cracker.  the two of us have already eaten an entire jar!  it's just the habanero gold recipe out of the ball book, but with carrots substituted for the apricots.  so good.

 i've gotten a new pottery mug every september for three years now.  i'm thinking it's a good tradition to keep going, so here is this year's pick.

 great falls!  eric shows belle some kayakers.  look at that little butt roll!  god she's adorable.

 my man from the mountains is looking very mountain man lately.

 do anything and everything outside while you can.  that's our motto.  we met up with some friends for an outdoor artjamz painting session.  eric went with an aboriginal painting, while i did a zebra.  it was a lot of fun, and now we have two more paintings to store in our basement :)

 these two are heading to iceland soon (beyond jealous over here), so mark painted a volcano.  hope you guys get to see an eruption!

we've been in our new house for a little almost three months now, but i always have a hard time figuring out where to hang our pictures.  a lot of times i end up making something because i can't find or don't want to pay for what i want.

i saw a cool idea on one of my favorite blogs that looked easy enough and also looked perfect for the big wall behind our tv. voila, here it is! 

bella even posed perfectly for the picture.  she's a stylish dog-cessory.

i love the way the painting came out, and it was cheap. which is always the right price.

i've also re-purposed these guys that i made for our old place in our new bedroom.  they are really helping with the soothing nap-time vibe we've got going on in there.

slowly but surely. i guess we'll get the house right just when it's time to move somewhere else :)

i started working at the national endowment for the arts a couple of weeks ago, and so far i've learned a ton and am really enjoying my work.  aside from the job itself, it's been very novel to be working downtown.  during lunch one day of my first week, i walked to the natural history museum to check out a photography exhibit, oh you know, natural history museum, just during my lunch break :)  i can see the capitol from my building and everyhing is literally a 5 minute walk away.  if you're going to move to dc, you may as well work for the government right in the middle of everything, right?!

this past week we had a very cool field trip to the national gallery of art's east building (modern art).  they have an exhibit going on until october 6th called Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music.  the show tells the story of the original russian ballet under the leadership of Serge Diaghilev.  i knew of the russian ballet and their performance of stravinsky's rite of spring, and i knew they were known for using contemporary music in their shows.  i had absolutely no idea how inclusive they were of music and art contemporaries in their performances, and that they were so forward thinking in all of thier costuming and dance techniques.

just look at the artists that collaborated with diaghilev and the ballet over only ten years: stravinsky, prokofiev, erik satie, debussy, rimsky-korsakov, picasso, matisse, coco chanel (ha!)

^^original rite of spring costumes!^^ (via)

 ^^costumes for the blue train by chanel^^ (via)

^^costume for the song of the nightingale by matisse^^ (via)

a co-worker in my division is friends with one of the curators of this exibit and she met up with us to give us a behind the scenes guided tour.  i loved hearing about everything from the preservation of the original costumes to who decided to paint a big blue wave on the wall of the space.  overall, i have to say they did a beautiful job with the presentation.  if you have any interest at all in the history of dance, ballet, music, theatre, or visual arts (or history in general), i would make sure to check out this exhibit. it's so well done and so entertaining that you don't even realize how much you've learned until you leave.

my favorite video installations were of baryshnikov dancing (i could watch him dance all day long) and rudolph nureyev playing the faun in the afternoon of a faun. (video here)

^^original costume design for the faun by bakst^^ (via)

^^because yes^^

the museum has set up a small, temporary shop right as you exit the exhibit.  i die for museum shops and couldn't resist this little hand-painted turkish bowl. 

loved this exhibit and highly recommend it!

note: any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity.

on saturday, when the weather was lovely (this cold, sadd, winter hadn't yet arrived), eric and i enjoyed the day listening to music, taking the girls on a bike ride/run, and i finally finished and hung up a diptych i made. 

it was inspired by the one below i saw on sanity fair's blog (who also happens to live in dc).  it's hard to figure out what to put behind or around a tv.  i wish our dresser had less crap on it like hers... but we are a family of 4 living in 600 square feet so....

via

between this and the new bedspread eric's mom got us, i'm really loving our bedroom!

i got a wild hair to get a new rug and paint the living room.  here are some before and after pics.

before - green rug, white walls:

after - jute rug, blue walls: can you see the ghost dogs moving on the rug?

the girls seem to like the new rug that was on sale at west elm.

here's a picture mid painting.  the blue is called "craggy cliff".  i would not recommend painting and drinking.  a few touch ups had to be done the next morning :)

before - green curtains:

after - white curtains:

rebecca and i did a second installment of uncork'd art last night.  we got a bottle of wine this time and i really don't think it helped us become masterful painters. one guy did say mine looked like a renoir. whoa! he needs to go to museums more often.  overall we had a blast and made a new friend or two by the end of the evening (the wine did help with that).

me and nadine.  she also blogs.  www.thedailydosebar.com

Eric's out of town.  I already saw Magic Mike with Cara.  Rebecca's out of town.  I'm all caught up on work and just finished Mockingjay.

What-ever will I do with an entire Saturday to myself?

Thrift store: Check!

Bake cookie-muffins: Check!

Blast music an do something artsy: Check!

I'm not an artist, please don't judge :)

My attempt to copy Leonid Afremov

Last but not least, snuggle with my girls, drink some moscato, and watch Pride and Prejudice: Check, check and check!!!

Best movie ever.