Double decker desk

I could have sworn I blogged about James' desk in the past but I just did a search and couldn't find it.  Last year our friend David made James a beautiful desk out of a slab of cherry, accented with some walnut.  It's the lower desk you see here.  It's a beautiful piece.  David is a true artist.

James does a lot of his writing while standing, so for more than a year he's had an ugly aluminum stand up desk that sat on top of this beautiful one.  As you can see above, it's been replaced with another piece of art.  James and I love it.  It,  too,  has tiny walnut bowties at the cracks in the cherry.  One of the things I really love is the live edge with these little carvings in it.

I was at David's shop this week and saw his most recent cherry bedside tables, which are equally as beautiful.  I love the dainty little feet on them.

The next piece of furniture he's building for us is a dining room table.  I can't wait to see what it looks like.  

Learning to slow down

Gosh, it's been 3 weeks since I've blogged.

The big news here is I've sold all but 2 goats, Luti and Pessa.  I decided it was time to semi-retire and enjoy quiet mornings, milking just Luti and Raisa.  Pessa is permanently retired and she and Luti will live out their senior years here and be companions to Rex.  Linus, Lily, Darla and Cato all went to the same home (which made me very happy) where they will be spoiled and produce milk for many years to come.  I miss them but I'm enjoying spoiling Luti and Pessa by giving them more attention and treats.  I think they're getting used to the idea too.  With fewer animals hopefully we can do a little more traveling.

We just returned from a 4 day trip where we met some friends in Asheville, NC.  What a great trip!  Asheville is such a great city with lots of great food, shops and art galleries.  Here we are at the Asheville Arboretum.

Visiting the art galleries really inspired me.  We saw so much great art.  It made me want to keep working at it.  I started this piece a few weeks back.  Once again, I'm trying to come up with a name for it.  James told me "Melting Pot" is too cliche. If anyone else has some ideas let me know.  I've really loved painting these children's faces.  Strangers are so much more fun to paint than people I know.

While I'm figuring out how to slow down, James is taking a little longer discovering how important it is.  After returning from our trip he's gone crazy working in the garden for many hours at a time, shoveling mulch, weeding and planting.  Because of this his back is crooked again.  Today he was sidelined.  This is kind of what he looks like.

This is the second time this has happened to him; both times after he overdid it in the garden.  Maybe his chiropractor will explain to him how important it is to take it easy.