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I'm feeling the itch. No, not that kind of itch! The itch to completely rehaul my website. It happens every now and again and I mostly keep it under control by just changing the banner when the mood strikes me. However, my last banner redesign didn't quite make the itch go away. So, today I made this. Who knows could be the start of something!
What do you think?Labels: Artsy Fartsy
What a lovely day we've had.. brunch at Smiths was delicious as always. We parked the car near St Pauls and walked across the footbridge from St Pauls to the Tate Modern. The weather was pretty reasonable - patchy sun and not super cold although quite windy.
Mary Catherine and I had a great time waving to the boatloads of tourists while on the bridge - most waved back. The slides at the Tate Modern were really cool. Mary Catherine decided that the small slide was just too scary, so we sent Andrew down so we could say that we'd done them. The biggest slide looked most excellent.
We didn't get to see the Gilbert and George exhibition, but it's on until May - so hopefully we'll get back to see it. I decided that it probably wasn't appropriate for Mary Catherine. She's very aware of letters at the moment and I just didn't think it would be good for her to possibly recognise them in curse words. I'm all for her seeing art - but I drew the line at C U Next Tuesday, know what I mean? (example here - up to you if you look)
My favourite moment of the day.... We were walking through the Minimalist section on the 5th floor and I noticed that Mary Catherine was fiddling with her tights. All of a sudden - right in front of my favourite Mondrian, Mary Catherine hikes up her skirt and shows me that her tights had slipped halfway down her bum. Yes, my four year-old mooned the Mondrian.
Good times, folks... good times. More pictures from our day here.
Labels: Artsy Fartsy, London
From the desk of Picasso's mother...
 You know what I find annoying but necessary? Having to adjust my colouring style so as not to intimidate my four year old. Yesterday we were colouring in her new Peppa Pig colouring book and I found myself really having to squelsh the urge to bring some flair to my colouring. I've done it before, trying to amuse myself while colouring with her - you know, a little three-dimensional shading here.. a lot of perfectly coloured colouring there. When I do that - it irritates her to the point where she'll stop colouring saying that I do it better.
So, I've recently stopped adding my personal style (and trust me, I love to colour so this is a massive sacrifice) to her colouring books. As much as it bothers me, I've started holding back.
Just as I've started doing that - to my pleasant surprise, she's started adding things in! She's started putting patterns in her colouring, where there are none required. Peppa Pig got a lovely triangle on her sand bucket and Mummy Pig some lovely stripes on her dress. I guess I need to find a balance between tarting up my colouring in an inspirational way and not being such a fabulouso artiste that I make it intimidating. Oh the trials and tribulations of motherhood.Labels: Artsy Fartsy, Parenting
They walk amongst us...
Interesting article I read today in New York magazine - re: Grups, Yupsters, Yindies and Alterna-Yuppies or as Adam Sternbergh writes, the obituary of the generation gap.
"Let’s start with a question. A few questions, actually: When did it become normal for your average 35-year-old New Yorker to (a) walk around with an iPod plugged into his ears at all times, listening to the latest from Bloc Party; (b) regularly buy his clothes at Urban Outfitters; (c) take her toddler to a Mommy’s Happy Hour at a Brooklyn bar; (d) stay out till 4 A.M. because he just can’t miss the latest New Pornographers show, because who knows when Neko Case will decide to stop touring with them, and everyone knows she’s the heart of the band; (e) spend $250 on a pair of jeans that are artfully shredded to look like they just fell through a wheat thresher and are designed, eventually, to artfully fall totally apart; (f) decide that Sufjan Stevens is the perfect music to play for her 2-year-old, because, let’s face it, 2-year-olds have lousy taste in music, and we will not listen to the Wiggles in this house; (g) wear sneakers as a fashion statement; (h) wear the same vintage New Balance sneakers that he wore on his first day of school in the seventh grade as a fashion statement; (i) wear said sneakers to the office; (j) quit the office job because—you know what?—screw the office and screw jockeying for that promotion to VP, because isn’t promotion just another word for “slavery”?; (k) and besides, now that she’s a freelancer, working on her own projects, on her own terms, it’s that much easier to kick off in the middle of the week for a quick snowboarding trip to Sugarbush, because she’s got to have some balance, right? And she can write it off, too, because who knows? She might bump into Spike Jonze on the slopes; (l) wear a Misfits T-shirt; (m) make his 2-year-old wear a Misfits T-shirt; (n) never shave; (o) take pride in never shaving; (p) take pride in never shaving while spending $200 on a bedhead haircut and $600 on a messenger bag, because, seriously, only his grandfather or some frat-boy Wall Street flunky still carries a briefcase; or (q) all of the above?" Read more.Labels: Artsy Fartsy, Parenting
 Oooh - look at this - A Jar Of Whimsies! How fabulous would this be for the four year old in your life who likes little curious objects!
Not too sure how appropriate/child safe they'd be for unsupervised play.. but man, I think the idea is really fun. Reminds me of the grab bag I made for Mary Catherine when she was a baby of every day items for her to touch and play with.
From One Good Bumblebee : "The 30-ounce plastic jars are packed with over 100 items including glass glitter imported from Germany, vintage cotten spun mushrooms, gold foil leaves, viles, millinery supplies, vintage beads, vintage costume jewelry, vintage clothespins, typewriter keys, ingle bells, vintage marbles, wooden spools, sugared fruits, antique skeleton keys, vintage game pieces, watch parts, foil dresdens, miniature toys, vintage swizzle sticks, charms and so much more."
Although I have to say, from the pictures, I can tell you that here in the UK, we still use those 'vintage' keys and clothespegs!Labels: Artsy Fartsy
 Just in from our date night. Andrew and I were both tired from being up for various parts of last night with Mary Catherine as her ear infection took hold. However, we managed to drag ourselves out to the movies and I'm so glad we did! We saw Venus and really enjoyed it. Peter O'Toole plays an aging actor coming to terms with approaching the end of his life who strikes up an interesting relationship with his best friend's niece. He certainly deserves the Oscar nomination for Best Actor he's received (his 8th nomination, but has never won).
Reviews here.Labels: Artsy Fartsy
Tagged
I got tagged by HollyMay.
Now I have to: open the nearest book to page 123, type 6 - 8 lines of the book and tag three other people (Nancy, Katherine and Jodi - consider thyselves tagged). Now, back to the task at hand.
"Great, time to go to the beach before he gets here."
"I don't want to."
"You don't want to go to the beach?"
"No, these are my holidays too. I do not want to work so hard every day. Not on cycling, anyway." She flicked a pair of lacy panties at my leg. Well, 'pair' was a grand description for such a tiny piece of clothing. A pantie singular was more like it.
"If you let me get you a decent bike, it wouldn't be like work at all."
"I don't want to do anything this morning. I just want to lie in the courtyard, read, do nothing."
I mulled this over while she chose a t-shirt and another sarong and laid them out on the bed, ready to put on after her shower. Just lying about all day struck me as a waste of a good beach, especially as we were going to be marooned in Paris for several months once the cafe was up and running. If it ever was.
Oh what glee - I've just gotten to write the word panties on my site! Always fun. Above from Merde Actually by Stephen Clarke. A fantastic comedy of errors.
From Amazon: From the bestselling author of A YEAR IN THE MERDE, the next instalment in the hilarious adventures of Paul West.
A year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is still struggling with some fundamental questions: What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Why are there no health warnings on French nudist beaches? And is it really polite to sleep with your boss' mistress? Paul opens his English tea room, and mutates (temporarily) into a Parisian waiter; samples the pleasures of typically French hotel-room afternoons; and, on a return visit to the UK, sees the full horror of a British office party through Parisian eyes. Meanwhile, he continues his search for the perfect French mademoiselle. But will Paul find l'amour eternel, or will it all end in merde? In his second comedy of errors, Paul West continues to sabotage the entente cordiale. Author's apology: "I'd just like to say sorry to all the suppository fans out there, because in this book there are no suppositories. There are, however, lots of courgettes, and I see this as progress. Suppositories to courgettes - I think it proves that I'm developing as a writer." Stephen Clarke. Labels: Artsy Fartsy
 This Saturday we went to the Hockney exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Our friends Katherine and Jason joined us for a lovely day out. We were lucky to score tickets as they were sold out for this, the last, weekend. Nothing like having friends in the right places, I say. Seriously, we were very lucky to get in and although it was incredibly crowded, I really enjoyed it. Mary Catherine was like a cloudy day with high winds. She eased in and out of good and grumpy moods, but for the most part enjoyed it as well.
 I'd bought her a new faux Moleskine sketchbook (like my new little Moleskine, but slightly larger) for the trip - so she was keen to use it to sketch while we were there. Mostly, she had me draw what I saw so she could colour it in - so she has a few pages of hastily drawn Hockney's! You should click on the link to K's blog above and read all about the woman she met at the museum - very quirky.
I get such a buzz from exposing her to culture. Seriously, it's one of my greatest pleasures. Well, that and the fact that my four year old daughter is acutely aware of the role coffee shops play in our urban life. When we were in America a few weeks ago, we walked out of a shop and she turned to me and said, 'Mummy, I really need a coffee, let's go get a mocha!' The apple does not fall far, my village, not far at all.Labels: Artsy Fartsy
Foto Fun
Andrew got a new Mac Book Pro this past week. Before you wonder where we keep the money tree, I should tell you that it's for work, but thankfully he gets to treat it as his own. It came with a fun program called Comic Life and I spent a few minutes last night playing around. Hence the lovely picture of me in my glasses at the right.
We all slept until 10:30 this morning - all of us - so we're just having a home day today. I have a feeling I'll be feeling a little stir crazy later on this evening, but it's no big whoop. So far, I've gotten all of Mary Catherine's stuff unpacked and put away - which is a good thing. Her room looks a bit full now, so I feel a toy cleanout and drop off to the Children's A&E later this month.
Now I just have to put away all of our clothes and pack away the Christmas tree. I think the tree will disappear this evening after MC goes to bed. You know, the Christmas Elves have to come and take it back to the north pole. The north pole being a cardboard box!
Labels: Artsy Fartsy, Hum Drum
Originally uploaded by ebeth. As part of my new endeavour to keep a sketchbook journal, I thought I'd share my entry for today. I was looking at people on the tube this morning and everyone was bundled up, as it's cold out. What caught my attention was all the different scarves in such a tiny space.
Being a lover of minute details - I decided on scarves as my topic for today. I'm not finished with the page yet, by any means - but it's been fun taking a few moments here and again to doodle a bit.
You're welcome to critique my drawing - but keep in mind 'I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my shit.' (Actually, that line isn't true, but for my friend Nan who is having a difficult day today - call Tyrone girl, I'm thinking of you).
Happy Friday.
Labels: Artsy Fartsy
I decided not to make any resolutions this year. However, I think I'm going to do 43 things. From their site:
“I am doing 43 things”
People have known for years that making a list of goals is the best way to achieve them. But most of us never get around to making a list. 43 Things is great for that! Make a list on 43 Things and see what changes happen in your life. Best of all it’s a way of connecting with other enthusiasts interested in everything from watching a space shuttle launch to grow my own vegetables. So the next time someone asks you, “what do you do?” you can answer with confidence, “I am doing 43 things!”.
Now - what to put on my list? One thing I know I will put on is my new Sketchbook Journal. Andrew bought me a Moleskine book and new drawing pens for Christmas and I really want to see if I can keep a sketchbook for a year. So that's definitely going on my list. I did my first drawing today and it's such a gorgeous book that I was nervous doodling in it!Labels: Artsy Fartsy, Geeky
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