a word to the wise

You know I love coffee. I love all types of coffee, but my favorite is a non-fat Latte, no flavor. I occasionally order this small indulgence from a local Starbucks. I usually order "Grande Skinny Latte."
This is all wrong!
A friend recently told me, as a little trivia tidbit, "Did you know that if you order a Grande Skinny Latte instead of a Grande Non-Fat Latte, you will pay 30 cents more for your coffee?" I was horrified! Skinny, Non-Fat, what's the difference? 30 cents for a word that has been ingrained in us by all those Starbucks baristas: Skinny.

So, into the Starbucks I strolled. Knowing the secret, I ordered, "Grande, non-fat Latte, please." Sure enough, my coffee was just a bit less expensive. So, I asked the question, "Is a Skinny drink really more expensive than a non-fat drink?" The barista was stupefied. "Well, it shouldn't be....let's see." So he pushed the "Skinny" button on the register. "Yep, it sure is."

Hmmm.... So, if I have 1 Starbucks a week and order the wrong way, I am spending an extra $15.60. That's not too much, but it could buy me a few more coffees!

Just a word to the wise.

Join us..

Over second and third cups flow matters of high finance, high state, common gossip and low comedy. [Coffee] is a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat. ~Author Unknown

On beauty & coffee...

I have said before that coffee is a beautiful thing. It is one of my weaknesses, (as are wine and cheese). Yesterday I happened upon the most beautiful coffee I have ever seen.

This masterpiece was created at Fluid Coffee Bar in Denver. I was struck with how art was infused into their shop and into their art. Without being overbearing, they have touches of art throughout their space; and without making a big deal about it, the barista presented me with this little piece of Latte art. They are truly promoting artful living.

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The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life. -Frank Lloyd Wright

A Monday Favorite

Coffee. Coffee is my weakness. Coffee is important. Especially on a Monday when my kids don't want to get up and neither do I. So I was thinking of my coffee favorites. They fall into several categories.

First, coffee at home. I like to drink strongly brewed black coffee from my favorite coffee mug. The mug can make all the difference. My favorite mug had a retro design with the motto "Smart Women Thirst for Knowledge" They were from Uncommon Goods, several years ago. Check out their cool stuff!

My second and third coffee favorites fall under the category of coffee away from home. The most enjoyable is to have coffee with a friend. I enjoy coffee at someone else's home or at a coffee establishment. My favorite local place to have coffee is called Cannon Mine Coffee. It is just a short walk from the studio, which adds to the appeal for me. I love that they always have new art on the walls and something for the community at night, including live music, discussion groups, poker, and tastings (wine, burbon, etc). Plus, Kerry and I make all the lovely candles that grace their tables.

My third, and final, coffee favorite is a Grande Skinny Latte from Starbucks. I must confess, it is an indulgence that I partake in much too often.

What are your favorites?

Irish Wit and Wisdom

"He who gets a name for early rising
can stay in bed until midday"

Here's to taking it easy lately. Enjoy an extra cup of coffee this morning.

Happy Birthday, Donna Reed

Happy Birthday, Donna Reed (and other useless bits...)

Today's useless bit of trivial information: Today, January 27, is Donna Reed's birthday. She would have been 87. She was made famous by in her rolls in movies like It's a Wonderful Life (one of my favorites) and her academy award winning performance in From Here to Eternity. Her persona was idealized in The Donna Reed Show. (I was more of a Leave It to Beaver and Family Affair girl, myself) She died in 1986 of cancer.

Why? Why!? Just why do I know this utterly useless bit of information, (or the tasty tidbit about Napoleon) you may ask. I must admit, it is my Sunday morning indulgence. A hot cup of coffee, crawl back in bed and . . . . turn on CBS. I must confess, I watch the CBS show Sunday Morning to start my week. Unlike any regular news show, there is little talk of the spiraling stock market, the increasing insurgency in Iraq and the pontificating of political pundits. This news show is filled with good news and uplifting stories. Why not start my week with a bit of light trivia or thoughtful commentary?

There are more interesting stories as well. Like today's story on the Monuments Men, the men and women whose job it was to recover and return stolen artwork from Hitler's caches after World War II. The book Rescuing da Vinci tells how Hitler and his men looted public and private art collections for their own personal use. They stole the thousands of works by Van Gogh, da Vinci, Botticelli, Kandinsky, Klee, Chagall, and many others from Jewish collectors and public museums. The Monuments Men were assigned to find, recover and return the work. These men, some of them art historians and museum curators, did what they could to rescue major portions of European art and culture from destruction. That was today's art history lesson...

And so, I will fill up my coffee cup, crawl back in bed, and see what commentator Ben Stein has to say this morning.

When you handle yourself, use your head; when you handle others, use your heart.
-Donna Reed

Weather report

I am happy to report that the cold snap is finally at it's end here in Lafayette, Colorado. When I took the girls to school this morning it was 22 degrees , we all thought it felt great outside. That should tell you something, if 22 felt warm, it must have been really cold for a while!

Look at Friday! It's a heat wave! To celebrate the "great" weather, and to get back to business, Kerry and I plan to be open for coffee hour this Friday! Yay! We are so excited!

What, you may ask, is coffee hour? The studio is open for coffee on most Friday mornings from 9:00 - 11:00 am. Join us for coffee and a sweet treat. You can peruse, shop, visit, sometimes make your own project, and check out our latest endeavours. If you are in the neighborhood, we'd love to see you. Why don't you stop by?

The tour that never ends...

...and on your left you will find our food and drink station. Today we have some lovely hazelnut coffee and some delicious pumpkin chocolate chunk bread. Help yourself to some coffee or tea, and take a look around.

During our evening events we offer wine and dessert. In addition to the wine glasses on this shelf, we have placed various art pieces that we have each made, as well as some folk art and scrabble tile messages. Click the photo to take a closer look

As you make your way around our studio you will find a plethora of beautiful materials. We have worked hard to sort, categorize and organize the many items we use for our various projects. As much as we have boxed and labeled, it is hard to keep everything at hands reach and aesthetically pleasing. Many our our supplies are kept on this shelf.

We came up with a solution to hide all the mess. We call it the magic curtain. Now you see it... now you don't! We close the curtain when we have guests so the chaos isn't too distracting.

Our big supply table has been a challenge. Our solution has been a dozen or so of the media storage boxes you can find at Michael's Craft Stores. They are perfect for sorting and storing all sorts of items. We have one for rubber stamps, on for ink pads, one for chip board letters, one for costume jewelry pieces, one for children's game pieces, and the list goes on and on and on....

If you read this blog or this one or this one or have seen all the things we have in our studio, you would never guess that our space is really pretty small, only 15 x 20. No, really, it is. We use every inch of it!

One of the best parts of the studio is the wonderful, warm feeling you get when you walk in the door. We hope you feel it too. If you haven't stopped by, you really should sometime. We'd love to show you around!

Breakfast of Champions

Good Morning!
This is how I start my day: A bowl of fresh berries and a big mug of hot coffee. I love my "Smart Women THIRST for knowledge" mugs that Karry gave to me for my birthday one year. They inspire my day...and probably lead me to drink too much coffee. Today my mug was filled with delicious Hawaiian coffee that Kerry brought back from her trip.
I hope your day started off as well as mine did.