winter's way

the winter wags on. i find this time of year, for myself, to be very introspective and i yearn to create. maybe it is the time spent indoors or the lack of color outdoors. maybe it is the new year or the passing of another birthday for me. i see the annual trend. i feel the cocoon wrapped around me. my layered cocoon. i'm thinking, i'm dreaming, i'm searching... i have ideas. i have big ideas but my wings are only waiting to spread. and the spring will come. as fast as it can, it will come and each unique bloom will take it's turn. one after the other. while the butterfly breaks open it's cozy cocoon, makes it's way into the warm breeze and ultimately takes flight. i hope to be the butterfly.

i am working through the artist's way once again. i have a few times in the past but have never gotten through the first few chapters due to lack of discipline i believe. this time though, i am blessed to be part of a group of four women who are dedicated to this journey. we meet once a week to discuss our progress and we do a little project the second half of the meeting. i am truly enjoying it and highly recommend forming a small group if you are thinking about doing the artist's way for yourself. i got past the first 4 chapters and this week i feel as though i have turned a corner for sure! if you are not familiar with the artist's way, by julia cameron, check out this link. basically, it's a step-by-step path of discovering or rediscovering your creative self and getting "un-stuck." this process has worked wonders for many, many people. 

EVERYONE is an artist...

in the artist's way there is what you call an "artist date." once a week you are to go on an outing of sorts that inspires you. it's only for you. i have been having fun with this. my first big artist date coincided with my annual trip to the city for my birthday. during the month of january, i choose a day where i go into the city early to walk around, take it some art and design, snap some inspiring photos as my souvenirs and then i meet my mom and we go to some museum or gallery and get a yummy dinner. the fact that it is annual i now know is sad. only once a year i spend a few ours by myself to get inspired??? wow. at first i thought a once a week alone-date was pushing it but now i can see it is so necessary. anyway! once off the train, i headed to my favorite window and display inspiration - anthropologie. not only do i want to own every piece in there but i dream about being their display artist. it's like candy for me. i can't get enough of it. uber creative and always green, these displays or shall i say sculptures take on a shape and space of their own. there has been a curious amount of synchronicity going on lately in my life in many ways which i won't get into today but one small coincidence was that there was a feature in wholeliving this month highlighting two chicago based display artists who came together to call themselves indo. i came across it after i came home that day. their work is absolutely beautiful.

farmer's market cartons fused together in a vertical display with lush plants growing from the center. beautiful.

this year we headed to the american museum of natural history. dioramas galore! oh joy! speaking of diaramas, that reminds me that i have to make one tonight with eden... always fun for me, and i don't hear eden complaining about her grade!

the color and texture in the geology section was interesting as well.

a great birthday month was had. lots of celebrating with friends and family. i feel blessed to be 35! 

woo-hoo!

one gift that i received (and asked for!) was the tribest mason jar mini blender. it makes great smoothies like the magic bullet (which finally lost it's mojo, so i retired it to only grinding coarse coffee beans) but unlike the magic bullet it uses standard glass mason jars as the blending cup. mind blowing, i know. but that means bpa-free blending and storing! the things i get excited about...

 i also got a shiny happy new juicer!!! a breville - oo-la-la. i haven't been using it as much as the mini blender just yet because i am still chilly during the day and juicing tends to cool me down. for whatever reason, smoothies don't have the same effect on me. the other reason why i tend to blend in the winter is because there is a lack of fresh organic produce for juicing but for blending i use frozen organic fruit which is available all year round. anyway, i'm sure i will be juicing away in a few weeks when it starts to get warmer (hooray!) and because kris carr just came out with a brand spanking new juicing ebook, crazy sexy juices & succulent smoothies! i can't wait to give these a try.


my integrative nutrition studies have been truly amazing. i am loving the classes and material. i feel so sorry for the person who brings up nutrition or natural food around me. i never shut up! i guess that's a good sign. i have been mulling around ideas in my cocoon for my holistic health counseling business name and logo. to come...


well, as you all know, the giants won the superbowl which was such an event in my house. i have a happy husband. i still feel the effects. i kept the superbowl fare on the healthy side of course. grass fed, natural burgers with sauteed mushrooms and onions on ezekial buns anyone? bbq kale chips (using smoked paprika)? sweet potato fries? yum. 

february brings hearts and chocolate... 

Valentine Sensory Box


and the birthday of the sweet girl who is always in my heart. my edie bella turned 10! yes, i have a ten year old!?! and she is amazing and smart and talented and funny and beautiful and....well i just love her beyond measure.

december whirlwind

hi all. well as always the month of december has been a blur. i have come to realize that it's the year's "warp zone" – anyone remember those little holes that super mario would fall into? it's like an alternate trance-like world but with goodies! even the background music changes, just like in december... as soon as the turkey is carved, it's black friday which is like the tippy-top of the roller coaster ride of the holidays. fa-la-la-la-laaaaah!!! from then on, everywhere you look, every song you hear, everything is holiday. it's quite amazing. this year i've had such a hard time keeping creative in my work. how can all of these images and sounds and lists not have an impact? while at my desk, i try my best to drown out this holiday madness in order to get to work but i still see the tree's lights reflected on my monitor! all of that said, i do love christmas. i just find it more difficult every year to separate my work from all of these images thrown at me. any ideas?


aside from my designers block, i have been a bit elfy. the girls and i have been crafting, wrapping, singing carols, eating, wrapping, eating, wrapping...... it is quite fun. i discovered a fun little shop on etsy that sells blank wooden pegs and such – great for making your very own little dollies. i have decided to make little peg dolls for my nieces and nephews of all of their cousins because they don't get to see each other that often. now they'll be able to play together when ever they want! since we will not see them until after christmas day, i will continue to make these next week and i will post when i am finished. below, are some tiny trees we painted.

i came across a bunch of really cool toys this season. here are a few of my favs:

kimochi dolls – these are so adorable and such a useful tool for communication between you and your child as well as your child's communication with others. there are a few different characters (personalities) that you can choose to purchase for your child. they come with tiny feeling dolls to be put in their pouch when they are feeling that way. so for example, when your child is feeling angry, he or she can find the angry faced doll and put it inside of the kimochis pouch. this may spark some further communication and so on. the website is highly informative for the parent or teacher. take a look. i purchased the cat for my toddler.

creationary - how awesome! it's like pictionary (one of my all time favorites) but you build the word with legos and have your partner guess! nough said.

lil log cabin - although i did not buy this, i wish i could. it's like the little house family and i think it would be a great addition to the little house books and shows. my daughters would love this - too bad it is way over priced! maybe one day i will make one myself. check this one out that someone made. it's just like the ingall's!

last but not least, i did indeed pull together another 'recipes & tidbits' this year. here it is in pdf form and also posted on the right of this blog for safe keeping. 

truly enjoy each other – give thanks – peace – happy 2011!!!

my big girl

my oldest and i go on mommy and me 'only' dates when we can. i think it's so important and can feel when it's time to have some quality time alone. to be honest, it's always a blast and i truly look forward to our dates. we go to the movies a lot (it's so nice to go to a movie with a happy ending for a change). sometimes we go shopping for some new clothes or go to the cafe for some chai and hot cocoa. in february she pics a show in the city. last year was riverdance. i'm looking forward to some bike rides this fall as well. a few weeks ago we planned a whole day together in manhattan.

first, we subwayed it (she loves the subway!) downtown to tribeca where we navigated to our latest discovery - moomah, a craftster slash hipster slash artsy little nook where you can choose to create unique and natural art projects, like insect dioramas and collages made with pebbles, feathers, lavender seeds, take classes and/or grab a healthy bite and coffee. the possibilities seemed endless while we were choosing our do-it-together craft surrounded by intriguing dioramas lit with soft lights and large whimsical drawings to spark your imagination. eden chose to do a collage where the supplies are a surprise. she was given a board, a bird cutout, confetti shreds, lavender seeds, tiny acorns, tissue paper, felt and some random black and white images...oh, and modge podge of course - my fav!

we ended our visit to moomah with a wholesome lunch. it was so great to tell eden she could get whatever she wanted because everything on the menu was a good choice. i loooooved moomah. i can go on and on. their website and overall branding is awesome! (i discovered moomah on designsponge) it was very inspiring and gave me tons of ideas for projects with my girls. we can't wait to go back.

after our creative endeavor, we headed back uptown to the king tut exhibit in times square. this was totally eden's idea. i thought she would get bored but she was quite the inquisitive historian! we read every description and talked about everything we saw. it was a very organized exhibit where they took you chronologically through parts of ancient egypt while explaining the artifacts found from these periods. the exhibit was not too long and not too short and just plain gorgeous. the craftsmanship and technology from this time blew me away. the egyptians are definitely set apart from all other cultures. we both learned a ton. i recommend this exhibit. it was a little pricey but it turned out to be worth it.

before heading back on metro north, we took a detour and landed at the american girl store for some 'looking.' eden and i like the american girls books. they have books that deal with all aspects of being a girl. growing, emotions, friends, school and fun creative books. we bought a keri smith book for girls, called "tear up this book" (i mention books by keri smith in my previous post).

we had a beautiful day, my big girl and i. she is growing so fast. i just hope that, as a mother, i do all the right things and navigate this new road ahead with patience, clarity, and an open heart.

see life

these are some images that i have been meaning to post but have been so very busy with my girls. we ventured out to riverhead, long island to the atlantis marine world aquarium where i was so mesmorized (as was tressa) by the vibrant colors and shapes of sea life. it's other-worldy. my father noted that if someone were to paint a picture of what we were seeing, noone would believe that these fish and plants were actually the colors painted. in one of the tanks were thousands of different fish. you could stare for an hour and still probably find a fish that you haven't spied yet. amazing! i felt inspired by the intricate details of what i was seeing and relaxed by the healing nature of watching the flow of water and movement of sealife. overall, an aquarium is always a nice day (and an educational one - shh!)

quick wall art

i have had these beautiful handmade papers lying around in my attic. i love the patterns yet couldn't think of what to do with them. i like to line the bottoms of my window panes with pretty light filtering papers instead of using expensive blinds (that i really dislike and dislike cleaning). these couple of sheets are too opaque to use on a window so i modge-podged each sheet onto a stretched canvas and stapled the edges down in the back. i am going to hang them in the living room for some extra color and pattern. and it took about 20 minutes.

i heart. . .

there is this blog that i have been following since i saw an article in mothering magazine a few months ago. soulemama is a mother of four, writer, artist, sewer, crafter.... in portland maine who has created a beautiful blog about her daily life. i find it calming to go there. makes me want to leave this fast-paced new york state of mind and move to maine :) i know, i'd never survive - or would i? anyway, her creative ideas are inspiring and just the little quant moments that she captures in her photos and posts remind me of what is important. i ordered her first book (it's on its way!) called the creative family: how to encourage imagination and nurture family connections. i look forward to her posts. this is the first and only blog i actually follow. 

so, my new wish is to learn how to sew - on a machine. i am searching for a place that holds classes. there are a few in the area. there are so many possibilities in sewing. i feel like it is an essential thing to know or it was when our grandmothers were young. sewing or knitting is such a nice thing for a grandmother or mother to pass down to her children. maybe eden would like to take a class with me. that would be lovely. i have a project in mind for a friend who is having a much awaited baby girl. i want to sew her a tiny kimono that i saw a simple pattern for. i am currently looking for some cute fabric. i am liking the the few i posted above. i need to decide soon since i will see her on the 30th. better get sewing! yikes!

finding a balance

finally, a quiet moment to myself. how long will it last? i better start writing... so my design work has really been monopolizing my time lately. i am very grateful for having many jobs, especially in economic times like these yet i tend to refrain from saying "no." this always leads to an overwhelmed state. i am trying my hardest to turn down jobs  - not only because i need sleep but because my girls need me. in the midst of this chaos of my day i hear a little voice saying "why are you doing this? what is truly important here? do we really need the money this badly?" i don't know the answer. atleast not yet. 

what i do know is that when i am not working, i feel i am not contributing (crazy, i know). i feel that i am losing my identity as a designer. i feel annoyed when i have to ask for money to go food shopping. the same old stay-at-home mom story. i'm sure all you mom's have the dilemma. i want to stay home with the kids/i want to continue my career. it's like we are either under-stimulated or overworked. where is the balance? i am still trying to find it. 

note to self...

this has been my mantra that i have been repeating in my head for the past week or so. with a teething infant, 20 design jobs to finish, 40 school play costumes to coordinate and make, a family vacation to pack and plan for and everything in between it's hard to not lose it all together! i'm actually thinking of purchasing this print to hang in my kitchen. check out all of the other 'hit-home' prints at keepcalmgallery. i have this image on my desktop and when i actually stop moving for a second and look at it, it reminds me not to sweat the small stuff which sometimes is just difficult to do when you are swimming in small stuff... i like the crown at the top - it reminds me that i am a queen. the queen of this house and of this little family. keep your composure (so hard sometimes!), keep your head high, remember your grace, take a deep breath and simply carry on... 

design

thank goodness, it's back! i was so dumbstruck a few months back when i went grab my tropicana-pure-premium-original-no-pulp. i couldn't find it on the shelf when i realized that their logo had been changed to this:

buying oj went from being a juicy florida mirage to a mod glass of ikea. if you know me you know i love all things old. ephemera, furniture, toys... anything with a history yet, if you have seen my work you would know that i love simple, modular design. less is more. clean. crisp but there is a place for it. in this case, all i could think was, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." i came home that day and ranted on about it to patrick who held the rolling of his eyes back. so now, low and behold, it's back! the new design has been booted due to customer unsatisfaction. the redesign ordered by pepsico has failed! well, the old is new again. thanks for coming to your senses tropicana!

i heart. . .

i heart birds in art - i love prints and paintings of our feathered friends. birds are amazing creatures. so colorful and yet somehow wise in nature. my eye is catching all things spring these days and birds are the first sign that the gray will soon burst into rainbow. 

these paintings are so darling. they are by an artist named geninne in mexico city.

 i'll be posting more signs of the northeast spring as i stumble upon them...