Blue + Green

Mary Cassatt

under the horse chestnut tree. the coiffure. mother's kiss. the bath.... under the horse chestnut tree is so stunning, it always sucks me in to the scene.

In April 1890, an exhibition of Japanese woodcuts at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris inspired Mary Cassatt to begin experimenting with different print techniques. Using aquatint, drypoint, etching, and hand-coloring, Cassatt attempted to capture the flat planes and simple lines of Japanese woodcuts. After painstakingly overseeing the execution of each print, Cassatt exhibited the resulting series of ten at the Durand Ruel Gallery in Paris the next year. Together, the prints combine the spare beauty of Japanese woodcut designs with innovative color patterns and finely tuned drawing. 'The Bath' was Cassatt's first effort in the series, and the only one, according to her, in which she truly tried to imitate Japanese design. She produced seventeen different states for 'The Bath', more than for any other print in the series.

Cozy Bed Alcoves and Bed Nooks

Christina Bothwell - Lucid Dreaming

Amazing clay and glass sculptures by Christina Bothwell.

Maira Kalman: Illuminations

I'm hoping that our August vacation to Los Angeles will coincide with the Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World) exhibition at the Skirball. In her TED talk she said she was a dreamy child who was ignored by her parents which was really the best thing in the world for her development.

"How much truth do we tell? What story are we actually telling? How do we know when we're our real selves? How do we know if the sentences coming out of our mouths are real stories or real sentences or fake sentences that we think we ought to be saying?"

Olive Kitchen Palette

Water Skirt

Esther Pearl Watson

Open Shelving + Chalkboard Walls

Done right.

Idea for Displaying Kid Art

Found this idea at: http://decor8blog.com/

Inspiration

The Story of Stuff

Our kitchen trash can is now a compost bin thanks to Seattle's expanded composting guidelines which includes meat and food soiled paper such as pizza boxes. Our tall curbside trashcan has been nearly empty for the past few weeks. I'm amazed by how little trash we really generate.

Vote for Survival

I love Nikki McClure's paper cut art, Buy Olympia is giving away free McClure Vote posters. Check it out.

Bubble Calendar

I know the boys would go nuts over this bubble calendar. Pop a bubble daily for a year. I bet they'd pop the whole year in one day actually. Cute idea.

Asher's Birthday Week

Ashee Bear ("No, I'm Asher!") turned three this week. He received his customary birthday bowl of strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast (we spring babies are lucky). We did a Mom and Asher ice cream outing and a family dinner with Grandma and Grandpa at Rositas. He had two school celebrations. But I don't think he really cares about his birthday yet. We showered him with gifts anyway (yes, we suffer from second child guilt). I can't believe he's 3!

Since Asher refuses to peddle his trike, he just pushes along with his feet, we thought we'd help him along his path to riding a two wheel bike and bought him a Rolli Rider wooden "learner bike." He took to it immediately. No sweat. Apparently there are tons of manufacturers producing this sort of bike now, they're very popular in Europe and have received a lot of press recently.

From their site: The Rolli-Rider is an indoor/outdoor self-powered, sit-down riding coaster intended for children between two and six years old. This grandparent handcrafted balancing riding toy (Made in USA with a lifetime warranty) teaches children to balance a two-wheeler long before they are ready to ride a bicycle. When old enough to ride a bicycle, Rolli-Rider provides plenty of confidence that training wheels should not be necessary.

Today we had Asher's birthday party at Little Gym. I invited a small group, to keep the chaos factor down (I'm burnt out from Elliot's gigantic circus parties). Unfortunately only a handful of kids could come (which made the price tag for the small party pretty steep). I should remember that there will always be at least 2-3 last minute cancellations for parties involving little ones, plus it was memorial day weekend.

But who cares. Asher had a blast, our exuberant little madman, running around the gym with his buddies until he collapsed into a chocolate cupcake and juice nirvana.

Lunchbox Saga

When Elliot lost his bumblebee mini backpack/lunchbox in December, we looked in lost and found but it had disappeared into a black hole in his elementary school. So we bought him a replacement Star Wars "May the Force Be With You" vinyl lunchbox - Thermos brand. Inside the lunchbox a note claimed that it had no traces of lead - a reference to the lawsuits filed by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) against makers and retailers of soft vinyl lunch boxes that can expose children to harmful levels of lead. Of course he loved the Star Wars lunchbox and never lost it.

Last week, I left his lunchbox on the kitchen table with food in it and discovered in the morning that something (a raccoon? a tiger? a Norwegian rat!!!!) had ripped open the vinyl siding and shredded the zipper and gorged on the rotting food inside. Sadly, the force was not with the lunchbox, it did not survive the vicious attack. Needless to say I was disturbed, I shrieked a few times in disbelief. Bad mommy, I made things much worse. Elliot was really traumatized. We left the house and went to whole foods for breakfast. We called rodent control later that day. We hadn't closed up a few holes inside the house after the remodel and that's how they got in, but that's another story. So now I'm on the hunt for lunchboxes again.

I don't think I'm going to go the vinyl route again. In Mothering Magazine they recommended avoiding the following three plastics:
#3 (PVC/phthalates; hormone disrupters)
#6 (polystyrene/styrene; human carcinogen)
#7 (polycarbonate/bisphenol-A; hormone disruptor)

Here are my two front runners for new lunchboxes:

Cool Tote
Cool Tote Lunch Bags are free from lead, and the lining is made of nylon which is very safe. As you may know, nylon is even used to make toothbrush bristles. We choose nylon because it is much more durable than vinyl, and it is easy to wipe clean every day so there is no buildup of bacteria from left over lunch materials.

Asiana West Junior Lunchbox
Insulated construction designed to keep warm foods warm and cold foods cold. These stylish, lightweight, compact containers are built tough and great for meals on the go, or for general-purpose storage for just about whatever you might want to use them for. Great for children’s school meals and snacks. Available in 3 bright colors, each with a removable compartment divider. 7” x 5” x 3”. - $17.95 each

Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children School

This morning on NPR I heard this story about a children's circus school in Afghanistan where the kids learn how to do standard circus stuff like juggling and acrobatics, but also skills such as computer science, embroidery, radio production, and how to recognize and avoid land mines. I love the future forward, optimistic focus on education and children. We'll have to go see them in 2008. Here is a link to their site: Afghan Mini Mobile Circus for Children

From the NPR story

Founder David Mason says when they take their show on the road, it's to educate as much as to entertain. They teach life-saving subjects, like how to recognize and avoid land mines, or the importance of washing hands.

He took his life savings and went to Pakistan in early 2002. But no aid agency would sponsor him. He says they wanted to build clinics and schools. The idea of a circus just didn't fly.

The 14 Afghan teachers and performers who work for the circus are paid a modest $200 per month. About half of them travel across Afghanistan to perform in provincial schools. Mason says it's too dangerous to let the students travel.

But the children do perform overseas. Fariya's brother recently returned from Japan. Their sister, Parisa, went to Germany and Denmark. A trip to California is planned in 2008.

Crocs Mania

I bought Elliot a pair of pale blue crocs, the soft squishy foam clog, last June and we've definitely gotten our money's worth. They're his favorite shoe, easy to put on, comfortable and apparently the allow him to "run really fast," even faster than his new balance track shoes. I've been asking him to retire his crocs for the winter, maybe he could pick out some boots, great for rainy days. You can walk outside and not get cold wet feet (you would think that would be a plus). But I must be delusional.

When school started I told him he couldn't wear his crocs to school. Just like we don't wear track pants to school, it's not appropriate attire. We don't wear squishy clogs to school. But then it became difficult to fend off his pleas when I saw that nearly half the kids (boys and girls) in his class wore crocs to school daily. I relented. He could wear them to school. I gave in to the track pants as well. I have so many battles, this one didn't seem worth it. (At least I held my ground on not wearing shorts until next spring). A friend gave him some trinkety frogs to attach to the holes in the shoe. It's a full blown kid trend.

So the rule is that he can't wear crocs to school now that it's raining and cold everyday, but he can wear them on weekends if it's not raining. Today he knew it was his opportunity to wear his crocs, so he carefully crafted an ensemble that consisted of navy track pants with a reflective white stripe down the side and a green and navy baseball shirt. My natty young man.

Balloon Juice

I too like to browse political blogs, especially near elections. One site, Balloonjuice.com , that I stumbled upon last year has become one of my favorites. I found it when Congress decided to intervene in Terri Shiavo's husband's (and federal courts) decision to turn off her feeding aparatus. I am not sure what I was doing at the time, but Marika was at book club when I decided to IM with the blogger and let him know that even though he was a republican I appreciated his calling foul on the whole affair. We "chatted" for a couple of hours or so, and he seemed pretty reasonable, more like a libertarian. He is an assistant professor, blogs about beer, and plays internet poker. I kept coming back thereafter as he seemed to be switching between the liberal and conservative perspectives. Well, gradually he has become more and more outspoken about how far the GOP has strayed from its values. I find the whole thing very compelling to read daily. I know that after reading the site, I can never think of Patricia Heaton in the same way....

Dan

Kitchen Dearest

We chose not to remodel our 1920s kitchen with the permanently scraped and smudged black and white check vinyl floor that lacks counterspace AND storage space when we remodeled the rest of our house. Why? Because it's a 30k job minimum probably have taken up half of our budget. We'll get around to it one of these days. Probably.

Kitchens are the most expensive room in the house. They also go out of style the fastest. Burnt orange formica. White laminate cupboards. Tuscan yellow and red brick floors. Marble countertops that are now cut and stained black and yellow rotten.

A small 2 bedroom recently remodeled house up the street from us is on the market so we peeked in to check out the design. Two small bedrooms and a very small living room, but it had a huge best in show kitchen with poured concrete countertops, sub zero, bosch dishwasher, viking range. The works. It also had amazing cupboards with unique metal grating on the cabinet face. I fell in love with it. Can we do that in our space? Think of how productive and happy we would be with a kitchen like that. Do it right.

How would it take to do this kitchen job cost? 50K? 60k? According to the realtor, at least 80k. Kitchens go out of style so fast, this martha-stewart-celadon-green-retro-20s-stainless- steel-poured-concrete-thing will be so passe in a few years.