Our Juicy Life

Making people smile...

sure makes you feel good.  These two little girls made many people smile yesterday.  The one looking at the camera is Stella, she's almost 1 year old.  The aloof one (who never looks at the camera) is Daisy, she's almost 9.  Both are rescues.  We ride our bikes to our studio about 2-3 times a week.  It's only 6 miles from home and it pains me to start up the car and drive such a short distance.  So we try and save on gas and try not to pollute as much as possible.  We rode to work a few times in the fall and didn't bring any dogs with us and the kids were very upset.  They all love having a dog at our studio, they expect it.  So we decided to get one of the kiddie carriers that hook to your bike.  So now we carry the dogs.  Only two at a time though (remember we have 4).

This is Augie.  He's the man, the gentleman.  He's 14 1/2 and solid as a rock.  This dog is my baby.  I rescued him when he was 6 months.  He's been with me longer than Bruce.  He's deaf now, but other than that, healthy and still Mr. Love.  This guy greets all the kids that come into the studio, he doesn't bark, doesn't lick, doesn't jump, just rests his chin on your leg.  He's very chill.  He and Daisy came to the studio today, in the carrier.

This punk is Dashell.  He's 2 1/2.  He's a golden retriever.  He doesn't ride in the carrier, although he could...but he's afraid of it.  He's the biggest dog we have and the biggest baby.  He comes from an organization called North Star Foundation, which is an organization we volunteer with that raises and places golden's with children who have autism.  We were originally Dashell's puppy raisers (you raise the pup for a family for 6-8 months), we were raising him for some friends of ours who have a child with Asperger's.  4 months into our raising our friend was diagnosed with cancer and died 2 months later - tragic.  The children associated the dog with daddy and decided they didn't want him, but wanted us to keep him...so Dashell is with us and he is also a service dog, he visits sick children in the hospital.

Anyway, today we made 10 or so people smile or laugh.  Most of them looked stressed, rushed or grumpy and then we pull up on our bikes with the carrier and instead of seeing kids they see our little kids.  How can you not laugh or smile.  It makes us happy to make others smile.  Smiling is good...laughing is good.  Hope this made you smile. 

There is nothing better...

than fresh bread, reall good olive oil and red wine.  By really good olive oil I mean $20.00 - $30.00 a bottle.  This is not for cooking, I buy cheaper olive for that, this is for eating.  You sure can taste the difference between an $6.00 bottle and a $20.00 bottle.  There is a store here called Surfas, it's a restaurant supply store and they have sample bottles of their olive oil out with bread and you can taste each one to see what you like best.  Of course the one I liked the best was from the Provence region of France and it was $36.00 a bottle.  I bought it, of course.  We also like one from Italy and it's $22.00 a bottle.

I love these little animal plates too.  I got (4) of them at a wonderful store here called Colcha.  They have really unique and beautiful things.  I try and go in every month or so to see the new stuff they have.

Ever since our first visit to France in 2004 we have been hoooked on French Red Wine.  We would get a bottle of the house wine in Paris or in Provence for $4.00 a bottle and it was amazing.  We have been drinking mostly Bourdeaux wine lately, but found this Cotes du Rhone wine and it's really good, it's $6.00 a bottle, seriously and it's amazing.  You can find really good wines for a great price, just because they are inexpensive doesn't mean they are bad.  I love to cook, but I must say that this combination is hard to beat.

Here we go...

OK - everyone is telling me that blogging is the thing to do.  I really didn't know much about it until I started researching ways to market my pottery business.  Oh my, there are so many blogs out there.  I was a bit overwhelmed (and still am), but here I go.  I figured I'd make my blog about my pottery business The Juicy Pear, my life with 4 dogs (yes, 4), my travels, my love of cooking, my "other" business (which pays the mortgage and most of the bills) and my love of cycling.  I should say right now that "my" in my life isn't just me...it includes the love of my life - Bruce.  I should say "we" because we do everything together, seriously.  We work together, we own a children's art studio called Art-Works Studio where we teach the fundamentals of drawing & painting to children ages 5-17.  Actually Bruce teaches all the classes, he's a fantastic painter/artist and great with kids.  I'm his assistant during classes and also handle the daily running of the business.  We travel together (we are excellent travel companions....if you want to test your relationship, go on vacation to a foreign country), we cycle together (we bike about 110-140 miles per week), we nap together (yes, nap...everyday and it's so nice!), you name it, we do it together.  We have been together for 11 years and still love doing everything together, it works and it's wonderful.  But since I'm the one writing this, figured I'd use "my".

I probably won't be a daily blogger...don't think I have that much to say, we'll see if that changes.  But I hope you check back often to see what's up in my Juicy Life.

Alisa