meal planning worksheet

I made a meal planning worksheet to help organize our meals and grocery list.
Elke can write now so I asked her for her input...



spgedy=spaghetti. the love started here
and grew. there is something so yummy about a long noodle to twist & slurp. spaghetti it is.

Ode to: LACMA

We went to LA last weekend and participated in LACMA's "next gen" program. The girls now have free admission until they are 18 and can bring one adult with them. This day was one of the best of my life.



They loved this exhibit.



Elke's favorite painting. We are pony crazy, or pegasus or unicorn or pegasus unicorn crazy.









We went on a friday and often were alone in rooms like this. At one point Elke did say: "I want to get out of here and paint." inspiration. everywhere. yes! let's go!




One of my favorites. By Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's wife.



Loooooooove, love love love.



Happy Chinese New Year! Year of the Dragon: sounds magical & exciting. Hope so.

happy new year!

highlights:

elke: turned 6, started kindergarten, wants to major in "riding ponies,"

lost her first tooth, is a bookworm, can generally be found drawing & needs to monkey bar everyday.

she is a self starter and a finisher, devours all crafts and shocks us with her astuteness.

tate: turned 4, started preschool, is princess & fancy crazy, she is constantly charming strangers and literally stops traffic with her friendliness and need to clog sidewalks & throughways. she is sweet, funny and bounces around the world with a odd & lovely glee. she loves to carry fragile things and push buttons.

tremendous love for these girls washes over me at continual moments throughout the day. they are my sun,

my cookies, my kale and pen.

low:

our lexi passed away this year and the loss is so vast. she was a gentle giant. a quiet, stoic wise and trusty love. it was too soon & sudden. we miss her so terribly. ouch!

ok, medium:

I started this blog and though I am not sure where it is going or what it is about

I am happy to have a place to document in the world.

and now back to love...

cut-up: anthropologie catalog

I bet there are thousands of things you can make with an anthropoligie catalog.

here are two: a paper chain & paper beads. simple things for little fingers in your favorite vintage hues.

vintage scene from the sketchbook

I made this in my 20's during a time of letting go & self forgiving. I always laugh when I come across it.
Liberating, light, and of course, there is the underlying struggle. funny. ya?

envelope you

experimenting with gouache

wabi-sabi

"Wabi stems from the root wa, which refers to harmony, peace, tranquillity, and balance. Generally speaking, wabi had the original meaning of sad, desolate, and lonely, but poetically it has come to mean simple, unmaterialistic, humble by choice, and in tune with nature. Someone who is perfectly herself and never craves to be anything else would be described as wabi. Sixteenth-century tea master Jo-o described a wabi tea man as someone who feels no dissatisfaction even though he owns no Chinese utensils with which to conduct tea. A common phrase used in conjunction with wabi is "the joy of the little monk in his wind-torn robe." A wabi person epitomizes Zen, which is to say, he or she is content with very little; free from greed, indolence, and anger; and understands the wisdom of rocks and grasshoppers.
Sabi things carry the burden of their years with dignity and grace: the chilly mottled surface of an oxidized silver bowl, the yielding gray of weathered wood, the elegant withering of a bereft autumn bough. An old car left in a field to rust, as it transforms from an eyesore into a part of the landscape, could be considered America's contribution to the evolution of sabi. An abandoned barn, as it collapses in on itself, holds this mystique.
There's an aching poetry in things that carry this patina, and it transcends the Japanese. We Americans are ineffably drawn to old European towns with their crooked cobblestone streets and chipping plaster, to places battle scarred with history much deeper than our own. We seek sabi in antiques and even try to manufacture it in distressed furnishings. True sabi cannot be acquired, however. It is a gift of time."

I have not read the book, but reading about these ideas feels like water going down.

found here