Final Art Exhibit

So I know I've already mentioned this, but here's one more post about my final art show. It will go up on Thursday...just two days! It will be on display until the end of the month. The opening art reception is this Friday from 7-9 pm in the main gallery of the Harris Fine Art Center on BYU campus. Everyone is welcome! My art reception will be in conjunction with the opening art shows of two graphic design students, so you can check out their work, too. (If my artwork isn't enough of an incentive to come maybe the work of the design students will convince you!)

I can't wait to have the exhibit up. It will be such a huge relief. I've been working like crazy to get it all done and I've still got some final details to wrap up these next few days. Josh has been so helpful with all the little details, and he's been so patient with me as I've been stressed out to the max! I'm sure he's even more anxious than I am to have this show up and over with. But it will be great and I'm really excited to have my work on display after months of laboring over it.

Josh's Birthday

Friday was Josh's 26th birthday! He's pictured above with a huge bowl of Grandma Tueller's famous carmel corn with nuts. It's his favorite! She was so sweet to bring over a fresh batch for his birthday. I'm pretty sure Josh was more excited about this carmel corn than he was about any of his other gifts! We spent a little time together then headed to Park City for Josh's mission reunion, which was great. Afterwards, we went to my family's house in Sandy for birthday cake and gifts. Logan had set up a big treasure hunt around the house for Josh, with two big bags of Reese's cups as the final treasure. Josh couldn't have been happier. (I promise Josh isn't as big of a sweet tooth as this post is making him sound like!)

Josh is amazing! He is the perfect companion for me and I'm soo lucky to be married to him.

Logan

This past weekend Josh and I were up in Sandy, using my dad's fancy tools to build some panels for my art. I had to make a run to Home Depot to get some materials and Logan asked if he could join me.

(This is beside the point, but I have to include why Logan would be so anxious to go to Home Depot: He bought a few long wooden dowels, which he later cut and made into wands for every member of our family....yes, you guessed it. He's reading Harry Potter. He just finished book five. Harry Potter has also incluenced his naming of our pigeons. Two of the newest birds are named Ron and Hedwig. In fact, he might be holding one of those two in the picture above. He says the next bird to be born is going to be Dolores Umbridge. Josh is so proud of him).

Anyway, I realized that I hadn't brought my wallet with me to Sandy, but Logan assured me that he could cover for me. Turns out he carries about $100 cash in his wallet. He's not your typical ten-year old. Either he's extremely frugal with his Christmas money or he's a thief. And either way it's pretty impressive. He was able to bail me out and pay my $50+ bill at Home Depot. On our drive home, however, he quietly mentioned that he would be charging me interest for the money he had leant me. When I asked what his rate of interest would be he initially said $5.00 a month. After thinking about it for a minute he decided it would actually be $5.00 a week. Smart boy.

The below picture is a sneak preview of the Fall Fashion Line of pigeon attire that Logan is currently designing. Notice the stylish red bonnet and green cape, both made of local grown materials. With his impressive design skills and his business sense, Logan is destined for success.

BFA Show

My final art show is in under three weeks! Click http://hawkinsart.blogspot.com for info and for a little preview.

Fish Tacos

Not much is new with Josh and I except that I'm still licking my lips over the yummy fish tacos I had last night for dinner. Josh and I got tons of gift certificates to Magleby's Fresh from our landlord over a year ago. We were so good at using them sparingly, but we finally used the last ones last night. I usually strike out at Magleby's. I think I've gotten a salad every single time and I just don't think their salads are that impressive. But last night, after seven hours of classes I was STARVING and a salad was not an option. I branched out and got the mahi mahi fish tacos. Yum. (They were almost as good as the ones I had at Becky's house a few weeks ago!) The tacos were so much better than anything I've ordered there. It's too bad that I didn't discover the fish tacos until I was on the last of our gift certificates! I'll just have to learn how to make them.

Speaking of fish tacos...I'll never forget ordering fish tacos with Josh at a restaurant in Mexico last summer. I was expecting some delicious fresh fish caught just that morning, but instead the tortillas were filled with fried fish patties (basically the generic brand frozen fish sticks that give you a bad feeling when you see them on the freezer aisle at the grocery store). Come on Mexico! You can do better than that! I'm pretty sure you invented the taco, and you could have even had a hand in inventing the fish! Ok, maybe.

The London pants are back

This is a long story, but it has a happy ending, so it's worth it: I spent the summer of 2005 in London on a BYU study abroad, and it was an amazing experience -- particularly for my taste buds. (Notice the beautiful freshly baked breads at the Borough Market above). For some reason I just went for it and ate all the English delicacies that I could find. I'm still not sure what happened to my self-control while I was there. Here are just a few of the pictures of me and the food.

The first, of many, trips to an Indian restaurant near the BYU London Center.

We are just about to dig into our dessert... following an already large-enough and fattening-enough meal of steak and ale pie.

Seriously, why didn't someone stop me!?

Just hanging out with my Professor's son....oh yeah, and a table covered in English candy, cookies, and sweets!

Needless to say, I came home much rounder. And I had to buy several new pairs of pants and tops to accomodate my new girth. Buying new clothes because of a weight gain is never a fun thing. However, I eventually lost the London weight and was able to box up those roomier clothes. The good news of this story is that those London clothes have been put to good use again...as maternity clothes! Josh will say "Oh, did you get some new maternity pants?" and I'll say "Oh no, these are just London pants." At least now I have an excuse to fit into them! I guess some nightmares do have happy endings.

Blueberry Pancakes

This morning I woke up and suggested we make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Have we ever made them before? No. Did we even have blueberries? No. But was I craving them anyway? Yes. Josh didn't ask any questions. He took off in the car and returned 15 minutes later with blueberries. And 10 minutes after that we sat down to a delcious blueberry pancake breakfast. Yum. If blueberries weren't $2.50 for a tiny, little package I think I'd make blueberry pancakes every morning.

Date Night, SLC Style

We had such a fun date night last night! We went downtown to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts for the big "Monet to Picasso" show. It was a really great exhibition. Josh is a trooper because this is the second art date in a row. Last Friday we spent the evening going to several galleries in the Provo Gallery Stroll. The SLC Gallery Stroll is next Friday and I'd totally love to go, but I'm not even going to ask. I think that's where Josh would draw the line.

After the art show we walked around the Gateway and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Yum. Josh got a delicious pizza, and I tried the BBQ chicken chop salad and I LOVED it. It was really, really good. Plus, food has been 10 times more satisfying ever since I've been pregnant. Josh is loving it. I'm usually not a huge fan of going out to eat, but now I'm all over it. Josh is taking advantage of this time and we've had some good eats lately.