Greetings From Santa Fe, New Mexico - Hotel Art

This evening I am writing this post as I sit in a really lovely room at the Drury Plaza Hotel in central Santa Fe. I am on a trip with my dear friend, Natalie. We have been talking and dreaming about going on a trip together ever since we were in college. Life was more complicated than I think either of us expected when we were in college, and so a cruise to celebrate her 40th, or any of the other trips we dreamed about, did not happen. Now we are set to make the most of our short time here.

It was a lovely, though stormy, drive down here. The clouds were simply amazing.

It was already the evening by the time we arrived. We had considered walking around a bit before going to dinner, but once we found out that the hotel offered drinks and "snacks" such as pasta, meatballs, baked potatoes, salad, nachos, etc., we decided to eat here and just relax. It was a good choice.

We were also both taken by the art that is on display throughout the hotel. I decided that you might enjoy it, too. (I do not have photoshop on this computer, so the photos are not edited or cropped - sorry about that.)

Tomorrow we will have breakfast at Tia Sophia's and then take in a Taco class at the Santa Fe Cooking School. (Here's the description of the class we are taking: When you make a taco, you are building your own meal by personalizing your filling, your salsa and your garnish. Come have fun with tacos in this hands-on class. Tacos will be prepared filled with potato, poblano chile and spinach, hot & smoky shrimp, chicken guacamole and tacos al Pastor, made with blue corn tortillas, flour tortillas and salsa fresca.)

A Low Key Weekend Scrapbooking and Cooking

I have been making scrapbooks for years. We all love them. However, they can be cumbersome to store due to their size and bulk. I experimented with digital scrapbooking this fall and love the results. Now I am embarking on a new adventure to shift to making digital ones from now on. It has been a little intimidating trying to figure out where to get supplies, how to translate my artistic style into what I can find and how to keep it all organized. So far I am mostly muddling along. This weekend I spent time looking at Tracy Ann Digital Arts (TADA) and DesignerDigitals since so many of the the pages I like in galleries have elements from those companies. I bought a few things, uploaded some freebies and am on my way. I began with a free template and made a page about Ellie.I now have to figure out what I want Ethan's page to look like. I am not sure I want a duplicate, but I do want cohesion. I may simply do an altered mirror image of Ellie's page. I also started on two pages about the New Year's Eve wedding we attended by am stymied by how to proceed since I don't know how to create what I have in my head.
On Sunday morning Ethan and I took our second cooking class at the William Sonoma store in Cherry Creek. Last week we did cast iron cooking. We learned about a lovely 40 garlic clove chicken and a no knead Rosemary bread. You can see Stephanie in action in the photos below.

This week it was a large crowd for French cooking. They made crepes, French Onion soup and a chicken dish. Ethan made crepes when we got home. I gave a try at making the soup but mine did not turn out as well since I did not have the right wine. Next week it is indoor grilling.