Getting Inky for Emberley

Growing up as the child of two elementary school teachers meant I always had to do my homework AND have my mom check it before I could play, that if I ever screwed around in class my dad would get a call, and it also meant that my sister and I had access to more children’s books than I knew existed. My parents would fork over hefty chunks of their paychecks to make sure their classroom kids, and their own flesh and blood kids had libraries overflowing with brightly illustrated stories that kept our little minds active and happy.

One such author was recently in Los Angeles showing his original 1970’s work, along side five contemporary artists who were greatly influenced by him.

Scion Presents: Ed Emberley and Friends from Scion ART on Vimeo.

Ed Emberley has written and illustrated over 80 books. As I missed the show completely, I arranged a tribute of my own with my nieces and nephew. We pulled out the stamp pads and pens in honor of his 1977 book, Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book.

I rolled up my sleeves, put paper down on the kitchen table, and pressed my thumb into the ink to show the little ones what we were doing.

Whether it was that they were happy to be making gifts of stationery for their parents, or just that they were thrilled to be allowed, and encouraged to get dirty, all three kids tackled the craft thoughtfully, and with lots of focus and care.

Extreme Concentration

Ages 3+

Back-to-School Apple

The Strong Man!

Good clean fun 

The grand collection

 

For hours of fun without the mess, Ed Emberley has dozens of downloadable crafts and activities on super cute website. 

Don't Tread on Me

 The Smog Shoppe in Culver City (Credit: Woolly Gallery)

Earlier this month, LA Times columnist Emily Green reported on how she is skeptical of vertical gardening. While I generally agree that vertical gardens are not for everyone, I must add that traditional (horizontal) gardens are also not for everyone. In fact I can think of many dear friends and family who would admit freely that they could kill a plastic fern.

I disagree with the article's overall sentiment, however that vertical gardens, or "living walls" as they were called ten minutes ago, are a wasteful and irresponsible fad. In fact, Green even scoffs at the challenge recently posed by the manufacture of Woolly Pockets, who has begun a program to provide teaching gardens, supplies and curriculum to urban schools. Where Green suggests either "Bring back the lovely old dry stone walls of yore." and add in the article comments online, "School gardens should be installed in ways that are more permanent than recycled plastic bags hung on fencing. Raised beds are preferable; removing concrete or asphalt is the best solution." 

Indeed, schools should rip up asphalt for permanent garden beds in well tended soil. Just as they should have art and music programs. But yes, lets poke holes in the fact that a company is trying to reach out to schools and offer up solutions in a fun and interesting way. For shame.

 Frida Kahlo High School in Los Angeles (Credit: Woolly School Garden)

Perhaps a response to the vertical gardening skeptics, or just an attempt to pretty up all of the vacant city lots is the rogue gardener's "seed bomb".

Flower Grenade Throw and Grow (Credit: Tony Minh Nguyen and Snowhome for Suck UK)

Online there are tons of how-to instructions and ideas for making your own seed bombs at home. Or you could buy pre-made bombs on the streets of trendy L.A. neighborhoods out of gum-ball dispensers from places like COMMONStudios. These seed bombs are typically pellets of seed (usually native wild flowers), clay soil, and compost. I've yet to see these in an edible form a la fruits and veggie seeds, but as far as alternative gardening goes, randomly chucking clay-coated seeds could very well make you feel like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed.

"The GreenAid Change for Change" Los Angeles (Credit: COMMONStudio)

I think the key to gardening of any kind, is education. Know your environment before introducing plants that will either die immediately, require more care than you can give, or run rampant and become a nuisance, or even a danger. You will know what your space limitations are, and choose the best garden style for that space. 

There's no question that growing and tending to plants both beautifies your surroundings, and provides basic health benefits. I would encourage anyone with access to sunlight to plant something, even if it hangs from a felt bag on your wall, grew out of a clay clod, or was just a cute house plant that you picked up at the market. It's your garden, and you can control whether it's a wasteful fad or not. 

If you would like to donate to the Woolly School Garden Program, do it HERE! 

Photo Saturday: Melbourne at Night

I am getting very itchy being at home so much. My bags may pack themselves at this rate. I was fortunate enough to visit Melbourne, Australia for business in 2008 and I ache to return to this city! So much art, culture, and fun with my co-workers are dear friends. More shots from this trip can been seen here. 

Chalkboarding Everything

I’ve seen chalkboard cheese plates in several specialty-cooking shops, and while I love the concept, I don’t usually love the price.

This week I picked up two aerosol cans of Chalkboard spray paint for about $6 each (one green, and one black). I used the green paint first, and went to town spraying anything that might benefit from a kitschy labeling solution: Tupperware lids, old jars that I could give as gifts, vases, terracotta pots, etc. As long as it holds still long enough to let the paint dry between coats, you will end up with an even base that will be chalk-ready.

 

I don’t actually recommend spraying the lids of Tupperware. The paint doesn’t adhere to the plastic very well, and if you use any force at all when trying to write out the contents of the container in chalk, you will just end up scraping the paint away. As shown here:

 

For the cheeseboard, I looked to the backyard. I found an extra tile, and tossed it on the grass to examine further/knock any spiders off. It actually broke when I tossed it, but that gave it more of an authentic cheeseboard-y look! Happy accident! Place your serving dishes on the newly painted tile, label, and enjoy!

For your own chalk boarding crafts, I've linked up one of the spray paints available through Amazon.com here:  

The Other Man

Around 1995 my best friend gave me a book published through the Metropolitan Museum of Art called “Art & Love, an Illustrated Anthology of Love Poetry”.

I poured over this book, dog-earring pages, writing notes in the margins, tattooing the poems on the insides of my eyelids and associating them, in a Pavlovian fashion, with the paintings and illustrations they shared a page with. A decade after receiving the book in fact, I ran across the Jean Baptiste Camille Corot painting entitled “The Letter”, and began reciting “Farewell Ungrateful Traitor” by the English poet John Dryden.

Of all the poets and paintings I was ever enamored with, there has been one I followed, collected, and obsessed over more than all the rest.

James Laughlin was perhaps better known as a publisher and founder of New Directions, but his writing was what carried me through my twenties on a cloud. I enrolled in a Latin class in college to decipher some of his earlier, Latin-laden work.  Dead language? Not for me! This was my life. When I worked at the front desk of my local library, I would spend down-time doing research/borderline stalking him. I still have a doodle from my library days that says, “James Laughlin! STILL ALIVE!!!!!” with hearts and rainbows drawn all over it.  Unfortunately he passed away in 1997, but I wouldn’t learn this fact for another year, and in the meantime would blissfully fantasize about taking a cross-country train ride to Connecticut, where we would meet accidentally in a coffee shop, he would observe me from a distance reading something brainy and looking irresistible, scrawl out some fresh masterpiece on a napkin, and even at his advanced age, seduce me the following day. This was, and is how my brain works. During my own bad romances, I would escape into his words. I would refer to certain passages and wonder if I was his type.

James wrote poems about all sort of scholarly things. He was well educated and came from an era of sophistication. And then of course, there were the torrid, fleeting tales of love, lust, and stolen moments in the back seats of cars. He married a few times, took many lovers, was an avid skier, and close friends with Kenneth Rexroth, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound. I would imagine us skiing together, wearing Scandinavian-patterned sweaters, and sitting around a fireplace in a snowy cabin, listening to the latest works from his famous friends.

 

When I open the well-traveled, and cotton-soft copy of his collected works now, I can still produce most of the poems off the top of my head, but flipping through the pages is more like flipping through a photo album of places we traveled, things we ate, and a life I lived with my favorite poet, and for so long, my favorite man. I wish I’d met you just once James Laughlin. 

We Can Camp If We Want To

I recently had the great honor of hosting an over-night camping trip with two of my nieces. This was their first camping experience, and for the eight and six year old, I knew the concept of sleeping outdoors was exciting, and a little scary. 

My husband and I share a love of camping, and one day hope to take my nieces, their mom, dad, little brother, and baby sister out camping on the sandy beaches at Morro Bay. Or perhaps we’ll all cozy up around a fire ring at Mt. Pinos, surrounded by pine trees, lichen and mostly melted snow patches.

For their very first camping trip however, we stayed a little closer to home.

In fact, we were home.

Camping on the lawn, not twenty feet from the house. Just in case.

The guest-list for the celebration dinner that night included the aforementioned parents and kids, a set of grandparents, and a friend from work. BBQ fare was hamburgers, melon, Caprese salad, green salad, fruit salad, and of course, S’Mores (marshmallow salad?).

No ghost stories were told this night, as I would be the sole adult in the tent with the girls. The Mister enjoyed a restful night's sleep in our bedroom and I made him promise that he wouldn’t sneak outside during the night to scare us. This was “practice camping”. Not “scare-the-bejesus-out-of-these–young-girls-so-that-they-never-want-to-go-camping” camping.

 

After saying goodbye to their parents, washing off the marshmallow stickiness, and brushing our pearly whites, we donned our jammies, kissed the Mister goodnight, and read a few books. The girls fell asleep almost immediately, and woke up happy and refreshed. It was really a joy to share a tent with such happy campers.

We completed the experience by preparing and eating breakfast outside. I cheated and made toast in the kitchen. The girls were tickled that we were makin' bacon on a one-burner propane cooker and single frying pan. The Mister also made us an incredibly tasty omelet with fried cheesy bits. It was a success all around.

Labor day is approaching, and while campsites may be filling up all fast, your own backyard is most likely still accepting reservations. 

Anyone have any good eggplant recipes?

I'm the proud mother of FOUR dinner-ready eggplants in my little patio garden. If anyone has any favorite eggplant recipes, I'm listening :) Thanks in advance!

Cooking at home: Chinese Tea Eggs

Tastespotting.com has always been one of my favorite places to window-shop recipes I may want to attempt, discover new food blogs to read, and add must-visit restaurants to my travel wish-list.

I bookmarked these Chinese Tea Eggs in 2008, and not long ago, while scrolling through my old faves, I ran across them again and got inspired to try them out. The recipe is about the same difficulty level as your average hardboiled eggs, but appeals to me, since I usually end up breaking one or two eggs anyway. Also, these are prettier.  

Tea eggs


6 eggs


3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt


1 tablespoon black tea


5 star anise pods


1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice


1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns
1 bay leaf

In water just covering the eggs, simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the eggs from the water, and crack them without removing their shells. The more cracks in your eggshells, the more patterned they will be in the end.

Return the eggs with the remaining ingredients into the pot of water. Cover the pot, and simmer together for two hours.

 

Remove the eggshells and enjoy this tasty and eye-catching snack!

Photo Saturday: Swamp Stillness

One more, because I'm missing Alakai Swamp in Kauai right about now!

Photo Saturday: Bocce Pug

I'm in the mood for Bocce Ball. Any takers?

Craft: Shoe Modification level 1

Inspired by Camper shoes, which I love but cannot often afford, I turned to my closet to spice up my own boring footwear.

These plain, faux leather flats from Target were excitedly embellished with Sharpie marker after getting engaged. Celebration doodle shoes!

Fawn-colored (or maybe a wild hare?) cloth flats in need of... something... a little life? A few button eyes, noses and Sharpied lashes later... LIFE! The felt flower pins are detachable.  

Second-hand silver leather pumps. For days when I need to channel my inner pop artist or Superhero. Drawn with Sharpie-marker by yours truly.  If you see me coming in these, look out! I feel my super powers kick in every time I wear them. 

Garden Walk: Lotusland in Montecito, CA

There are lots, and I mean LOTS of botanical gardens, lath houses and arboretums in Southern California. 

Lotusland is a gorgeous Southern California garden with an especially unique history. Located in Montecito, California, Lotusland is open by advanced reservations only and offers guided walking tours of the sprawling 37-acre estate that include an impressive Cactus Garden, Bromeliad Garden, Blue Garden, Japanese Garden, Topiary Garden, Orchards, Fern Garden, Cycad Garden, Water Gardens, and a theater filled with Grotesques, to name just a few.

As the private home of a well-to-do nurseryman in the late 1880’s, the house and it’s surrounding estate were purchased by a no-nonsense aspiring opera singer with an apparently terrible singing voice in 1941. Madame Ganna Walska, married 6 times over, had intended on opening the garden as a retreat for Tibetan Monks. Due to wartime visa issues, the monks were unable to come to the United States and so Madame Walska devoted her life to designing, redesigning, and re-redesigning the gardens now known as Lotusland.

A tribute to Madame Ganna Walska in her home at Lotusland

The Lotusland tour feels reminiscent of the Hearst Castle tours in San Simeon, in that the lush gardens, extraordinary pools, and overall lavish lifestyles are self-indulgent, yet one cannot help but imagine living and playing on the grounds at both locations. Beyond the shared aesthetic grandeur of the two tours, the one-time residents of both locations, Madame Walaska at Lotusland, and American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst at Hearst Castle, were both influential characters for the1941 Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane.  

If you've not yet visited Lotusland, or Hearst Castle for that matter, check the links above for hours, locations and fees.