9.27.2008

the design hive

*** eta on 10.13.08 - the correct dates that I'll be there are the 15th and the 29th ***


I applied to be a vendor at The Design Hive Market and managed to get two dates in November!

I'll be selling my cards during the event on Saturday, November 8th and Saturday, November 29th from 10 am to 5 pm. It's held at the Baldwin School in Cambridge which is within walking distance of both Harvard and Porter Squares. More info to come for sure.


9.24.2008

i *heart* shopping for babies

I love shopping for baby stuff, it's true! Our friends, Tim & Maryea, welcomed their first born earlier this week (more details and hopefully a pic to post soon!), Meghan Jane - congrats to the new parents!!

In preparation for her arrival, I bought this adorable bib and a set of "burp and bum rags" from PearlGrey on Etsy. The title of her rags just cracked me up! Aren't they cute??!




9.23.2008

enormous tiny art + portsmouth, nh

Renee and I drove up to Portsmouth, NH on Sunday to check out an art exhibit called "The Enormous Tiny Art Show". It was at a store called Nahcotta and it featured works from various artists that were 10"x10" or smaller (most were really small). It was really neat to see how people use different mediums in art. One of my favorite techniques was called encaustic painting where some kind of wax or resin is used on the canvas or surface like a marble tile.

It was kind of disappointing how the gallery/store took down the pieces that had already been sold because it left holes in some of the exhibits, and it would've been nice to see the artists' collections as a whole. A couple of my favorite pieces were by artists Tara Hogan, Rachel Austin, and Lindsay Bentis. Renee and I both liked the pieces by Stephanie DosReis. Renee liked the "Friends" piece and I liked "Utensils", but both were already sold.


We walked around town a little bit and saw some inspiring things. We also saw this funny store display of a skeleton holding this sign.


Check out this display of Le Creuset pots and colanders. So colorful!

A couple of neat business logos on a door.

Renee wanted me to take a picture of this framed poster inside a Starbucks bathroom.

A pretty vase display at Nahcotta.

We came upon a bead store called Beadizen and met the owner who has had the store for fifteen years. She had some very reasonably priced strands so I got some glass beads to play around with. We talked about running a small business and she said that she is considering closing hers down next year, which was kind of sad to hear but almost understandable.

On our way back to the car, we came across a fabric store. Renee needed to buy a special needle for her letterpress class and of course, I had to run right into the Amy Butler fabric section. Oy vay. I saw this great yellow and grey combo fabric and got a yard of each. What to make with it? I'm not sure yet but I'll figure something out.

Afterwards, we drove up to the Kittery Outlets in Maine mostly to check out the Crate & Barrel outlet store. I bought the glasses we originally put on our wedding registry since they were less expensive there and made good use of a couple of our gift cards. I also bought some fabric that they sell for only $8.95/yard in some fun, funky patterns.

After all our shopping, we decided to head back home and stop off at Costco before getting dinner. Alas, we got stuck in a little bit of toll booth traffic leaving New Hampshire and didn't make it there until 5:58 pm. Of course, our luck and it being Sunday, they closed at 6:00 pm so it was a no go for us. So then we headed over to Yoki for a yummy sushi dinner. You can read about that experience here.

All in all a rather fun day full of art and inspiration!


9.22.2008

fun with chalk

We drove down to see Tony's brother and the family on Saturday. They were at the Ashland Fair at the time, so we waited in their driveway. We found two pieces of sidewalk chalk so I drew a large car in their driveway to help the time pass.


Marina made her signature peanut butter pie to celebrate Ethan's fourth birthday. I tell ya, if I weren't allergic to peanuts I would've probably eaten a quarter of the pie by myself! She makes it with cream cheese, Cool Whip, and a chocolate crust. Yum!

9.19.2008

vegas + the grand canyon

Tony and I flew out to Las Vegas, Nevada last Friday. Mom and Mike's friends from England, Lorraine and Leon, had a spare room available in the house they rented (Castillo Ventana) so they invited us to stay with them instead of at a hotel on the strip. This was like our third or fourth time in Vegas so it was nice to experience it away from the action at night. Leon's parents, Leo and Paula; Lorraine's father, Les; and Leo's secretary, Freida, joined them on the trip too.

On Tuesday, they surprised us by having us all caravan out to the Graceland Chapel where they renewed their wedding vows a la Elvis. It was fricken hilarious! They surprised Leo and Paula by having them renew their vows of 42 years. It was a great surprise! We celebrated by having lunch at the Bellagio buffet afterwards. Then Lorraine hit the jackpot on number 13 in roulette which was just insane!

Then they surprised us with a trip to the Grand Canyon via a Cessna plane and a special trip down to the bottom of the canyon via helicopter! Then we rode in a boat on the river for a little while.

I think these photos will express how much fun we had on our trip. :-)




















a birthday wish


9.01.2008

labor day weekend

We drove up to Williamstown on Saturday morning and then took Tony's parents to the Garlic Festival in Bennington, Vermont in the afternoon. Although I grew up in the Bay Area in California, I never went to places like Gilroy, host of the Gilroy Garlic Festival - one of the largest food festivals in the U.S. It was a bigger to-do than any of us thought it would be, full of vendors selling different types of food, produce, and craft products. None of us were brave enough to try the garlic ice cream (thank goodness), but we did enjoy two huge plates of freshly fried potato chips from Grandpa's Spuds.

We bought a 1/2 pound bag of Marino garlic from a local farm and I ended up roasting it the next day. My favorite shot was of this little girl trying to stick an "eat more kale" sticker onto her belly.

We woke up on Sunday morning and saw about 17 wild turkeys in their backyard. It looked like there were three adults and the rest were like little kids. I went outside to try and feed them some bread, but of course they took off at the first sight of me. Oh well.

Tony's brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew drove up from Pennsylvania to join us for the weekend. The Flaherty's came up to the house for a little get together on Sunday night so there were burgers on the grill, some bocce ball in the lawn, and lots of laughs. Such a nice way to spend a summer evening.

Lynn made this beautiful dessert tray. The cake in the middle had a raspberry filling, and the little cupcakes had a lemon curd filling. Unfortunately, I couldn't try any of it but it looked absolutely delicious!

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend! I'm starting my new job at the Harvard Art Museum tomorrow. So excited to start this new adventure!