Got Costume?

i'm having to dress mid 1800's for the Ball this weekend.

i'm going for the disheveled victorian look like this...easy to glue and pin.

but what i'd really like to be is the hedgehog

im wishing i had serious sewing skills right about now...those bustle dresses are mind boggling!

children: greek goddess

presidential bodyguard

the outhouse monster boy raised by wolves

bette go heat up the glue gun!

xo happy costuming

milady

My Life in th Bush of Ghosts

Beaumont Hotel

remember when i alluded to this?
well, thats what i've been up to lately. bringing history to life one ghost story at a time. it all takes place in the quintessential western mining town of Ouray nestled in a gorgeous box canyon dubbed Switzerland of America. I get to have fun, be creative, be a storyteller and make money WITHOUT being a dreaded waitress. It affords me to do what I want all day which is supposed to be art but then those darn kids keep needing me....kidding, well not really. :) My art isn't contained on a surface these days.

my life in the bush of ghosts music i enjoyed in art school

my life in the bush of ghosts one of my favorite books

xo milady

Wild Mushrooms

an unknown photo of a girl and gnomes 1887 - this is how i felt and wished i looked! :)

Holly and Lily

A lovely bolete!

Courthouse Rock

just a hop skip from my front door is this...the glorious Cimmaron mountains

with all their crags and points and magical forests. My friend taught me to identify chanterelles, boletes and hedgehogs but most importantly the deadly

kinds that are oh so smiliar . The day was crisp and fresh, the first day of school actually...we dropped off our children and drove here, hunted for our prizes, had a picnic on a stump then drove down the mountain to town where we fetched our kids. To think the kids were working so hard that entire time while their mothers were skipping through the woods like 2 little red riding hoods.

Dinner that night : Quinoa pasta with a Marsala wine and Chanterelle cream sauce with fresh sage.

What kind of adventures await you near your home?

Would love to hear!

vintage mushrooms for crafts

photo credit>

xo milady

Back up part 3 Rodeo

Every year, we cap our summer off in serious Western style . Out come the flashy tops and sparkly belts, tiaras and buckles, canned beer and sno-cones. Horses are washed and trimmed, pigs are srubbed and shaved, animals are hustled into the fairgrounds where they will be shown and sold to charitable customers.
Its all fun and games until the last day when the kids prepare for the truck that comes early in the am and takes them all away. Except ours. You see, i have a pet lamb who is now a very fat sheep, and have recently been adopted by a goat who enjoys the afternoons on the chaise lounge on the deck. I am not a rancher - in fact , i'm a weenie. So when the truck comes I feel just as traumatized as the little girls who get in their lamb pens and snuggle their goodbyes with their summer friends. Every year I think "what am i doing ?! "
But then i think...well, we aren't vegetarians so why not really learn where it all comes from?! If it were left up to me to harvest my own meat i'd become a vegetarian immediately. My kids pigs are still here at home.
Its a tradition in this little cow town to end the summer with a rodeo and 4-H fair complete with a spotty attendance of macrame entries, a few pies, canned goods and "art". This year I didn't enter a thing. who cares! Rosie, my daughter,the Rodeo Queen's Attendant dramatizing about something

The husband and Blue who is Red watching the Labor Day Parade in Ridgway

Roscoe showing his hog "Bonnie" for the 4-H judge. He had blue fingernail polish that matched his cowboy shirt. We Rogers like to shake it up a bit. "Clyde" missed the show, he was too fat and stayed at home. It's true, a pig can be too fat.

Did you ever think you'd see this? A chicken getting a bubble bath. Now, all she needs are some diamonds and a raspy voice like Carol Channing.


xo milady