Boschert Family Happenings

Sweet Lincoln is my quiet studio companion!

Claire got her driver's license. As other parents of teenagers know, this is fabulous because it frees me up from driving her everywhere, but also terrifying since driving is such a complex and sometimes-unpredictable task.

Jeff and I had a wonderful anniversary dinner last week. After dinner we drove into downtown Dallas to go to a fancy chocolate shop I'd heard about. First, we strolled over the beautiful new walking bridge along side the stunning Hunt Bridge. My affection for the Texas flag is growing.

Here's Kate Weiser Chocolate. In fact, that's Kate on the right with her hand raised.

I chose three bonbons. Look how ridiculously beautiful they are!

They were exquisite. Please come visit so I have a good excuse to go back!

Sun Printing

Lincoln helped me with some sun printing last week.

It was a little breezy and I was worried my fabric and stencils might fly away. So, I put down lots of rocks.

Check out StencilGirlTalk where I'm a guest blogger and I've written about the whole process and shared the super cool results.

This and That: February Edition

I've been working in the studio quite a bit. Not much I'm ready to share yet, but here's Lincoln keeping me company on my red couch.

I made linzer tart cookies for Valentine's Day, like I do every year. Yum.

Claire and Benjamin both passed the most recent belt testing! Ben will move up to "recommended black belt," which means one more test before he will earn his full black belt with his name embroidered on it. Claire is a now a First Sr. Black Belt.

Every Thursday I spend an hour tutoring a third grader at a Dallas elementary school with Reading Partners. Last week we made a Venn Diagram comparing characters in a simple story book. She loved this activity!

She's quite bright, but tests below her grade level in reading, probably because English is not her first language. Reading Partners has a curriculum that is proven to help kids close the gap. She's making great progress. It's an honor to work with her.

Claire played a solo for the annual district evaluation. It's always a delight to hear her play.

Anticipating a big ice storm, I cut all the daffodils from our yard and put them in a vase. The orchids were a birthday gift from a friends. I think they make for a lovely bright centerpiece.

The ice came and they cancelled school for two days. Not too cold for Benjamin and his friends to walk from one house to another in search of the best video gaming set up.

Holiday This and That

Such a fun time of year, right?!

I went out to lunch with a bunch of gals to celebrate a birthday and the birthday girl's husband sent along this box of Sprinkles cupcakes for us to share for dessert. Isn't that so generous and DELICIOUS! The ones in the lower right are the seasonal chocolate peppermint flavor that I nearly grabbed before anyone else could steal one.

Claire is making a Tardis gingerbread "house."

We enjoyed our annual tradition of chocolate fondue on the night we decorate the Christmas tree. These were the chocolate dippers, we had bread and apples with cheese fondue earlier.

I saw this at Target. Because it's fun to nibble on Baby Jesus?

It's gray in Texas, but Lincoln doesn't mind.

Some artists friends and I enjoyed brunch together plus a gift exchange. There were several items in the gift bag I chose, including this beautiful lemon from Brenda's tree. I am just stunned by it's elegant simplicity.

She also included a bag of fresh bay leaves from her garden. I put this sweet little bag on my spice rack and I love seeing it sitting there with the prepackaged dried stuff.

The wonderful simple gifts of unexpected cupcakes, treasures from the garden and spending time with family and friends... really aren't so simple right? They are the beautifully complex blessings of the season.

This and That

We recently visited the Perot Science Museum where they have a new "lab" where you can make rockets... as I did here.

I put lots of fins on my rocket. It's like a flouncy skirt.

You can also make cars and run them down a ramp which measures their speed.  Jeff and Claire loved this and made many many many adjustments to get the best time.

You can also play with this awesome giant light board. Each block can be moved and adjusted to light up in different colors. Late in the afternoon when the lab was mostly unoccupied, Claire placed all the cubes to write "geronimo!!!"

Here's Lincoln in the corner of the dining room rug.

I had the delightful opportunity so display some of my artwork at our local taekwondo studio along with mixed media artist Marcie Dodd. It was an "art and wine walk" in the small business village of our subdivision. Super fun.

SAQA sent me a copy of the Celebrating Silver exhibit catalog as a thank you for my various volunteer projects. So much appreciated! And such an amazing collection of art quilts.

I got crafty last week and made this iPad stand using this tutorial. It's getting good use already.

Claire had her first marching band competition of the season yesterday. Their band made the finals and here are all ten finals bands streaming into the stadium for the awards ceremony.

Here they are all in formation with the drum majors and color guard leaders from each band in an arch at the front. Claire's band is on the right in the blue and black uniforms with the color guard in white dresses at the front.

Claire's band WON!!! Yeah Hebron High School Band! After they announce the winners, the bands all "break ranks" and wander around the field with each other.

I'll be sharing some new art work this week too. Stay tuned!

Inspiration Walk

The January theme over at The Sketchbook Challenge is "artists date." Last week, I decided to take a walk with Lincoln to seek inspiration. My own little micro-local artist date. I took tons of pictures.

This is my favorite.

It was a random shot... not intentionally composed this way, but I really like it. It totally reflects the mood of the day... gray, cloudy, wet, out of balance.

I posted a few more images and my thoughts about making time to seek inspiration on The Sketchbook Challenge blog.

More Than A Week...

since my last post?! How did that happen? There was that flurry of pictures and excitment following my trip to Houston and then I just fell back into all the every day stuff that must be done -- and does not make for interesting blog posts.

I did take this picture of Lincoln on our leaf-covered deck. So handsome!

I've also been working on my STITCHED workshop. I've been learning so much about iMovie. There is tons of potential for online learning with videos, photo sharing and virtual classrooms. I am very excited to be exploring all the possibilities!

Visitors

We're dog sitting this week!
That's Lincoln in the back. Paddy is the other yellow lab. You can hardly tell them apart unless you're looking right in their sweet faces. Well, they aren't looking so sweet in this picture. But, they are certainly having fun!

This is Marzen. Shes's about 12 weeks old. Lincoln was willing to share his big bone.
We are enjoying a puppy love fest.

Yum!

I love the traditional foods that we enjoy during the holidays. In fact, I have a separate envelope in my recipe binder that is full of the family favorites.

Of course we had cranberry pudding. I've blogged about it many times in the past (including way back to 2005).

Benjamin made a special dinner for Lincoln one evening. It was a big hit!
The kids gave Jeff a fondue pot for Christmas. We tested it out with a delicious cheese fondue. This new electric pot is a huge improvement over the sterno one we had when we lived in Florida and nearly burned the house down.

We celebrated Jeff's mom's birthday on New Year's Eve with lobster! We've done this a few times before -- so I guess it's also a tradition. A good one, I think!

Jolly!

It snowed on Christmas Eve! A true white Christmas...
Then on Christmas Day, Lincoln and the kids had a blast playing in the yard.
Benjamin bundled up in several layers. Claire just wore her pj's and my boots. (We wear the same size shoes now. Ahem.)


We had a most lovely Christmas -- the outdoor fun was only part of the wonderful day!