As everyone else has mentioned spring has arrived and with it bike rides and planting of I hope to be a garden for myself this summer! Onions, green beans, peppers, herbs, tomatoes, and strawberries, and many items from the farmer's market and the Amanas'.

This past week a lot has been developing with my research. I have gone through another round of blood tests, all relating to Celiac Disease, and have just gotten out a biopsy on my esophagus and my small intestine. Unlike my previous biopsies I ask for plenty of photos and I got them. Not the most beautiful photos but quite extraordinary non the less.

My Lit Reviews have expanded beyond my control with several blog sights, collage resources, and books and articles newly published from Celiac Clinics. It is great to have all of this at my finger tips but getting started on it is the hardest part!

I am off to New York this next week to look at some galleries there and than to Philly to National Ceramics Conference. It is funny and frustrating that my stress about this trip is Eating! I will be sure to journal and paste as I go along!

Right now I taking a break from the University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives. I have visited The Archives in the past with projects focusing on Artist's Books and Cookbooks from the 1950's. Currently I am looking at different collage works that the Archives have collected. All have been very interesting, and some very confusing. What I am focusing on is the construction and different techniques that artists use when creating collage works. I have felt many types of paper and have felt things that were pasted and painted over; each done for a specific reason with the hand of an artist. Some are neat and clean, while others are a little less neat with smudges.

What is amazing to me is that every mark or paste made by an artist is thought out long before the decision is made. I was looking at a JELLO book made of collage and each aspect of the book related to jello from cut out recipes and different boxes used to hold the jello.