dear ramona,
today you are two years old. it seems both a blink and eons ago that you came into this world — but either way i remember the day clearly. you waited for a full-moon and then demanded your way out. your papa working with me and me working with you to make this so. once in your mama’s arms, we clicked right away. and we have continued to do so, with the exception of a couple grumpy days here and there.
you are light and joy and smarts and movement. you are glee and silliness and chub. you are toots and pitter patters and big hugs and wet kisses. you are song and dance and wiggles and wrestles. you are rain and sun and helper and reminder to me that yes, sometimes life does get to be just about tea parties and building blocks and splashing in puddles. you are you. wholly and perfect, you.
my prayers for this new year, your third year of life, are that you continue to learn new things, have the freedom to play a lot, that you keep on exploring your independence, learn to ride your kick bike, climb higher on the playground, watch less barney, and keep making mama read you all those books you love. i pray you remain steadfast in your fearlessness and your desire to make friends with just about anyone. you are tough and gentle, and i pray you develop a good balance of the two.
it is inconceivable to me, our life without you. i’m glad that you are ours and we are yours bc it just makes quite a lot of sense.
heaps of blessings and hugs and snuggles and love to you, my sweet minka.
i love you. love, mama.
this saturday, jp and i are partnering w a local community non-profit, earthlinks, to speak about urban farming, specifically raising goats and chickens in the city. if you’re in denver, saturday morning at 10, stop by and meet lacey and violet and here how we incorporate livestock in to our city living! also, make sure to check out the monthly open house series, community links, that earthlinks puts on. the organization is so unique and a much-needed asset to the five points/north larimer neighborhood and its homeless population.
i’ll be back next week w some posts about our time in nashville, a yummy meal planning helper (and how it’s been encouraging me to cook), and thoughts on two-years-olds and being married for five years. muah!
ramona and i jetted off to minneapolis on the fourth of july (see her holiday-appropriate dress photographed above). we were there to spend some time w my family and celebrate my mother’s birthday (does anyone else have a mother that looks much younger than her age? mine does and i’m hoping those genes are passed on to me. looking good, mama!). we spent the days w my brother, and sister-in-law, and their three amazing kids. though we ventured out to the public mini-pool at wabun park at minnehaha, most of our time was spent in my parents’ home, which is perfectly situated for grandkids. there’s a huge yard w a blacktop perfect for practicing riding a bike and pushing baby cousin (ramona) around in doll-sized buggies. they have a tree where there’s a door that leads to the home of a magical pixie who leaves candies and seashells for the little ones. and a playhouse. and a tetherball pole. and a vintage air plane spring ride. and raspberry bushes in the rear. it’s amazing, really. the adults just get to sit on the screened porch and watch the little ones bike and spin and toddle and run around. life is slow-paced and easy.
and you know what? it took some adjusting to. bc as much as we love our home, we don’t have the space to spend quite as much time in there comfortably so we’re often out and about. and so being w my parents, in their cozy space w their large L-shaped couches that are just always calling my name to sink into and soak in the beautiful day, really was an exercise in letting the day happen. i’m not arguing for big spaces and homes — bc our family living in a small space is as much intentional as it is just a matter of what we have at this moment — but i am arguing that it’s nice to slow down once in a while. ramona and i are a bit more go-go-go than my parents on a day-to-day basis. which is neither better nor worse. it’s what works for her and i. but i certainly appreciate being put into situations that give me reason to pause just a tad more.
(this store is called the foundry and has nothing to do w slowing down while traveling except that it took my breath away while i shopped there and i wanted to give it a shout-out. online shop coming soon. otherwise, if you live in minneapolis, go there now. i spent a small fortune there and will never regret it.)
and then today ramona and i flew to nashville where jp joined us. we’re here to spend some quality time w some of our dear friends and explore this city, which from all we’ve heard only has good things to offer. and this is where i realized this was the post i wanted to write. bc after a stop at barista parlor w our friends for some iced coffee and cappuccinos, tessa and dorian and their cute little guy, august, dropped us off at their house (our home for the week!) and left us so both families could get some quiet time. ramona took a three hour nap, which was much needed after our 4:15 wake-up call. tessa did some work somewhere. dorian napped. jp napped. i napped. i washed dishes. read some of the book i’m reading. and then found myself in a quiet dining room and decided to blog about the wonders of traveling w family. nap time, to us, is sacred. it is not to be messed w if we want a happy child. and so instead of hitting the town and going all out right away, we soaked up our friends’ beautiful, simple, small, cozy home and regrouped. and i imagine our four days here will be a lot like this (w the addition of some splash pads, and good restaurants, and visiting other old friends).
don’t get me wrong. i love those trips to san francisco where it’s just jp and me and we can galavant off for the day and cram a lot in (we’re hoping to do NYC this year too and oh my! the hustle and bustle of that place!). but there’s something extraordinarily lovely about being across the country in a new town and still just taking it slow and experiencing it w locals, and pretending we live and maybe even belong here. i’m not opposed to the touristy thing, but i sure do love the make-yourselves-at-home and settle in feeling as well.
i’ve sinced moved to their front porch and it’s starting to rain lightly and i hope, my dear friends, that you too are soaking in wherever you’re at and enjoying the moment of whatever it is you’re doing. for whatever reason i think these words from someone i follow on instagram is apt for what i’m feeling: be kind. be joyful. be a force of nature.
p.s. these photos are from instagram. do you instagram? follow me here!
p.p.s. congratulations to holly, the winner of the tentiko giveaway!
this week’s guest post is from jenny stockton. she reads, she bakes, she travels, she does lots of good for this world. she certainly seems quite wonderful! (we’ve never met but denver just keeps getting smaller and smaller: we do have some mutual friends.) go check her out. i especially love her discuss posts — thoughtful links to stuff worth knowing about.
if you ask me where i want go out to eat, chances are pretty good i’ll be suggesting any place that serves a big ass margarita and endless bowls of chips and salsas. that will be my request for my last meal. so when jenny came to me w an idea for a guest post that involved letting us all in on the secret of her favorite mexican restaurant, well, i couldn’t wait to see just how big those margaritas are.
I first ate at La Loma almost ten years ago, when some West Denver natives took me for dinner. I was volunteering with a youth organization, tutoring and mentoring teens, and the folks I was working with were intent on teaching me about all the best food the Westside had to offer.
One of my favorite things about La Loma is that it’s been around for so long, serving excellent authentic Mexican food. I’d even go so far as to say it’s the best Mexican food in Denver.
When my husband and I went for dinner recently, we had the honor of sharing the experience with my baby brother for the first time. By the end of the meal, the two were cracking each other (and themselves) up with jokes about how La Loma “is no Casa Bonita but…”
There are three main reasons to eat at La Loma: green chile, tortillas, and tequila.
If you are a tequila connoisseur (I am not), La Loma has something to offer you. If you are a margarita enjoyer (I am), you should probably get a medium and make your underage baby brother drive you home (I did). I like margaritas on the rocks with salt, and La Loma uses only “tequila reposado 100% de agave”, which means it’s aged no less than two months but no more than a year and is made with no glucose or fructose sugars. The margarita de la casa is the perfect balance of flavors – tart and citrusy without being too sweet or sugary.
The flour tortillas are made from scratch, which is really probably all you need to know.
Luckily, the green chile comes as a side option with a number of the dishes. I have been known to order a bowl of it with tortillas for my dinner. Either way, you really shouldn’t ever leave without having at least a spoonful (or dipping one of your tortillas in the bowl your brother got as a side with his chimichangas).
If you have room for dessert, the sopapillas are some of the best. They’re light and crispy, but soft and fluffy enough to fill with pockets of honey.
So the next time you find yourself in Denver craving good, authentic Mexican food, go to La Loma. You won’t be disappointed.
thanks, jenny! i’ll be trying to talk jp into margaritas and burritos for lunch today!
this week, for the small business series, i’m excited to introduce you to our mutual friend malt & brew, a brewery and tap room that’s located just down the block from crema coffee house. opened up by a group of guys that love beer a lot and love community even more, it’s a great space for the neighborhood folks and beer nerds to hang out, get to know each other, and continue coming back for beer, activities, and a revolving line-up of denver food trucks. caleb, the main commander of the tap handles, is a fabulous networker and will make sure you’ve made friends w at least the three people to the right and left of you. bryan, the brewmaster, is happy to show you around and chat w you about what the process is, what he’s working on, what’s in the pipeline. brandon, the online whiz of the whole production, will make sure you stay updated. he gets us in the know now by answering my questions…
1. what is OMF?
Our Mutual Friend is a small brewery in Denver. The main things that set us apart from a lot of other breweries is that a lot of our goals are based on a desire to do as much of the processes required in brewing ourselves, like roasting and toasting all the grains used in our beers and eventually bringing the entire malting process in-house. We also hope to eventually produce beer using all Colorado grown ingredients. We have already formed some great relationships with growers and definitely see a future where the dream is a reality. Aside from that, we have a great little taproom and patio in downtown Denver that is becoming a neighborhood meet-up spot. it’s definitely a place to socialize, work, or anything else you can think of that would be good with beer.
2. how did you get into this? what was your inspiration?
We all met at a couple different house parties and immediately hit it off on the subject of home brewing. From there we brewed beer together and when Bryan started to think about taking things to the next level, we all seemed to bring different strengths and experience to the table that allowed everything to look like it could really happen. The inspiration definitely came from working hard on each step of the process and having things fall into place. We didn’t really know what it would all look like (or taste like) but we knew it needed to be exactly the beer we wanted to drink and the place we wanted to drink it in.
3. what had the process been from conception to execution? (this can include opening/evolving the business to making your goods to both!).
The process has been about communication and reassessing where we are at based on the facts of the moment. Im sure any new business owner can attest that some of the details you may have had at the genesis of it all go right out the window, but they usually are replaced by something far more enjoyable or functional within the paradigm of what you’re doing. We knew we wanted to make really good beer. We knew we wanted to do as much of the grain to glass process ourselves. We knew we wanted the taproom to be far from normal industrial/warehouse type taprooms you see these days. Other than that we took it one day at a time and had a solid business plan.
4. has creating/developing/launching/
Building it was difficult in its own way, but the easy part is knowing there is a finish point. Maintaining the business has been an interesting adjustment in that you don’t quite get that this all needs to happen every day and hopefully forever. You have to deal with becoming more factory like than you thought it would be. You have to keep scheduling people to work. You have to keep working. It’s fun and tiring and challenging all at the same time.
5. are you doing this solo or do you have other partners/collaborators/helpers in the brand?
There are three of us that own the brewery and work alongside a few employees who are also good friends and invaluable to us. The brewing industry is great in that we are definitely aware of the subtle competition we all have in hopes of growing the market share and getting people into craft beer. Everyone has similar goals of making beer that people love, and within that there is definitely a lot of awesome inter-brewery collaboration that happens. We all share ideas and equipment and help each other solve problems. It’s a great industry to be in.
6. who, if anyone, has helped w branding/website development/maintenance?
Our friend, Justin Pervorse, in Atlanta, GA has been with us since day one creating our identity and logos as well as all the cool illustrations used for our beer label designs. We also work a lot with the screen printing shop next door (A Small Print Shop) who are a silly, creative bunch. Paul Michel does awesome illustrative work here and there, and I (Brandon) try to coordinate with everyone to bring all together into a cohesive message… That people should come hang out with us and drink our beer.
7. when did you open?
We opened at the beginning of December in 2012.
8. where can you be found?
We are located at 2810 Larimer st. in the RiNo neighborhood.
website || facebook || instagram || twitter
9. what new/other businesses are you excited about in denver? or would you like to see in denver?
We love all the awesome things happening in the neighborhood (Huckleberry Roasters, Crema, Infinite Monkey Theorem, The Populist, Black Shirt Brewing, River North Brewery, Ritual Chocolate, Moto Ocho, Amerigo, Epic Brewing, etc etc etc). We want to continue seeing more variety in businesses that serve the local community and make it better. The more the merrier.
10. what’s your favorite shop in denver? favorite place for food? neighborhood?
Hard to pick favorites. Come by the taproom and we can talk about it for hours.
(dj photo from facebook)
make sure you stop by for a pint and say hello to these fine gentlemen! there’s usually something going on in addition to the brewing and beer: mondays is yoga (led by my wonderful sister-in-law). wednesdays is our mutual running club (led by paul of mountain vs plains fame). thursdays is a dj series. and wednesday thru saturday there’s a different food truck parked outside. woohoo!
welcome
