Just a quick note

As I descend into the world of babies and toddlers I've found myself recently infatuated with a kid's magazine that I cannot have. Honestly I haven't even held the magazine to see all the magical contents, yet I am smitten. If I were a 10yr old again, I'd be in heaven.

So without further ado: Anorak Magazine: The Happy Mag for Kids!

Here's the best inside peak I've been able to get: Book By Its Cover

This fabulous little magazine is out of the UK and available on amazon, for 53 bucks! Yikes. I'm sure I'll stumble upon it in some Bay Area bookstore eventually....

Poster Image: Anorak Magazine 2009

Til then I'll contemplate the meaning of the Wisdom Clouds.

I'll eventually catch up with it all

First off Happy New Year to the two people who read this, myself excluded. Thus far my new year has been a whirlwind of getting life straightened out so that I can A. finish my Montessori teacher training by this summer B. have a baby in August and C. nap between eating double what I normally eat.

Here is our little cashew/peanut/squish at 7 weeks
looking like a baby chick.

But I find I'm spending most of my time mentally preparing a nursery, mainly focusing on the decor of course and wondering how on earth we're going to arrange our tiny two bedroom apt. (of which one room is the office/music room) into an actual two BEDROOM apt. How do you tell your child, "I love you, but I'm not giving up the bass"? Will they even notice that half of their room is filled with Dad's music equipment? Can we easily hide that bass amp under the crib? Yes, these are my problems. It doesn't help that I received my new Real Simple in the mail yesterday and it has a section on these hyper organized moms. I hate them. I also would like to fly them out so that they can categorize all of Joe's cables and miscellaneous music instruments, with labels and proper space.

Oh, but I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about art right? At least I think that was the initial intention of this blog. Well for now here are the ideas and sites I've been looking at for baby nursery decor:

• My brother made my husband this painting for his birthday and at present I think it will fit nicely in the baby's room, despite being a little dark. There is something comforting about it, like a grisly old grandpa watching over our wee one.
  

• I kinda love birds, despite hating real life birds. So when I saw this painting that can be customized with your child's first initial I got all gooey inside just thinking about the name debate that will soon ensue.
  

• This Etsy shop has too many wonderful pieces to choose from, so I'll just post a link to their homepage. I love the colors she uses! Are they a throw back to the 70s? Possibly, but then how else would we match that hideous Ethan Allen dresser my husband has had since birth and insists on keeping?
  

• As far as bedding goes, I'm kinda hooked on orange. I saw this crib sheet while perusing the web the other day and I'm stuck on it, the only problem is, does it have to be 60 bucks? I mean my own bedsheets aren't $60! Plus imagine the copious amounts of drool and other bodily secretions we'll have to clean off these fancy things? Oh well, they're organic and it's all for the baby right?
  

Through college I worked in a casual yet fancy restaurant that opened my taste buds to the world of beautiful and delicious food. Thanks to my experience I now spend about half of my day thinking of food, concocting recipes and perusing the aisles at my local grocery. So I felt it was only fitting to highlight some of my favorite food oriented blogs, because well first off I'm hungry right now and second, these recipes make cooking into an art! (Something I have to occasionally remind myself of while I'm trying to quickly eat and drive to school at the same time).

So for today I say eat, drink and savor every morsel because while food's main purpose is to provide us with nutrients, it also can bring a little beauty into each day.


And so on to the food:

Smitten Kitchen - Who says you need a big space to prepare gourmet meals?
Visually this site is absolutely beautiful. The chef and her husband do all the work, cooking, cleaning and photography. Since it's cooling down in the Bay Area we're making her chicken and dumplings tonight and my mouth is watering as I type.


Lara Ferroni - Beautiful images of food that I believe are posted on this site Cook & Eat.

Chez Pim - Another site with gorgeous images, although I think some of the dishes may be a little out of reach for the average home chef. But who am I to limit your talents? Go, prep, cook!


Finally a few restaurants and groceries in our area that I couldn't live without:

Berkeley Bowl - The kind of grocery store where shopping is more of an experience than anything else. (That sounds cheesy, but it's true. I spend a good 40min a week trolling through the giant fruits and veggies section looking at exotic/foreign/odd foods and asking myself "what am I going to do with this?")

Cheeseboard Collective - A pizza coop along with a cheese shop. A combo that makes one delicious style of pizza a day (always vegetarian) for a relatively cheap price. Ingredients are always fresh, seasonal and worth the long line.

Tartine Bakery - So good they don't have a sign. Tartine's food is, and not to overuse this word, beautiful. Always rich and full of flavor, their desserts as well as their savory treats are welcomed by my taste buds every time. It's kind of an SF must.

Welcome!

I'll start off with a disclaimer, I'm no professional. There. That being said the point of this blog is to provide information and resources on art (of all varietals) for ages 2-80 years. Why? For the sole purpose of connecting with other individuals who share a love for the craft, who see the world as one big painting/photograph/interpretive dance (oh god) waiting to happen.