Posted on

Nooks for Kids (DIY Nooks!)

Who doesn’t love a nook?  A quiet little place where you can hide from the world and have a moment to for stillness and quiet?  A place where you can tuck your secrets away and keep them safe?  Or even just a place that’s just your sized when the rest of the world is so big.

This roundup of nooks serve all of those needs perfectly and show what you can do with an awkward or unsightly closet with just a little bit of power tool and upholstery know how.  What are you waiting for? Go forth – make nook!

 

Even big kids like nooks (particularly these, with their solar chargers and laxed views on posture.)

Posted on

Foxy Grandma & Her Favorite Guy

How sad is it that so many kids don’t have photos with their grandparents because they hate being in pictures?  Not so with this foxy grandmother and her grandson.  They’ll get to have photo memories of his first steps and how much fun it was to play with grandma!  Lucky boy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Yes.  She did get bit.)

 

Posted on

CelebrateMOM!

This one is for the moms.  Moms do everything.  They help you pick out the right clothes.  They clean up your mess on the floor.  They superglue your leg back together when it gets cut open.  In short, they’re amazing.  CelebrateYOU photo shoots give a gift back to moms for all they do.

It’s always good to celebrate your life and where you are and mark it with great photography. (Not to mention how meaningful pictures of you looking beautiful are to your friends and family. Updating your Linked In or Facebook profile picture isn’t a bad idea either. And if you’re dating… well, that online dating profile could probably use a boost right about now.)   That’s what these photo shoots are all about… taking those amazing women who do so much for other’s and show them how beautiful they really are through the lens of my camera.

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

Posted on

Play in Japan

If you’re looking for amazing things to do with your kids in Japan…. look no further.  (Click pix for more info.)

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam Woods of Net Knitted Wonder Space 2009

This piece is the “sculpture forest at the Hakone Open-Air Museum which,

includes several sculptures that children can play on. These include the “Woods of Net,” created through a collaboration between an artist and a team of architects. The pavilion is made entirely of wood, using traditional techniques seen in Japanese temples. A huge, brightly colored net hangs down from the middle of the pavilion like a giant hammock.

On the Overnight Tour at the Enoshima Aquarium. (C)Enoshima Aquarium

 

The Sagamigawa River Festival; approximately 1,200 koinobori hang from wire strung across the river.

 

You can even tour ninja villages!  Awesome!

Posted on

Stunning Portraits

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a sucker for a great portrait.  I’d walk through the museums and look into the faces of people long dead and wonder what route they took to get to the studio.  Did they pass markets?  What did their shoes feel like? What did the roads feel like beneath their feet?  It’s such an exciting notion – to be transported in time to when the paint was fresh and wet.

But then there are some portraits make you wonder more about the artist.  portraits like these. Can you imagine deciding that you’re going to make photorealistic embroidery portraits?  Or use naked humans as your paint?  How about composing the heads of screws to create portraits?  I think they’re all amazing and beautiful and I hope you click through to learn more about the artists.

 

Cayce Zavaglia

detail of Sophie – Hand Embroidery: Crewel Wool and Acrylic on Linen, 14 x 35 inches – photo © Cayce Zavaglia

detail of Aunt Lin – Hand Embroidery: Crewel Wool and Acrylic on Linen, 16.25 x 29 inches
photo © Yatzer.com

 

Andrew Myers – Screw Art

Portrait of John. Dimensions 48 in x 48 in x 5 in. Medium: screws, oil paint and phone book pages

Portrait of Bill. Dimensions 24 in x 24 in x 4 in. Medium: screws, oil paint and phone book pages

 

Chris Dorosz – Paint Drop Sculptures

stasis 13

stasis 24 (jeff and sheldon with children)

 The ‘paint drop’ sculptures develop the idea of the ‘staple paintings’ further by trapping fallen paint drops in a grid work of clear vertical rods.  Through the viewer’s movements in aligning and de-aligning these pixel-like paint drops, full body portrait forms emerge and vanish.  By placing my subjects in a form of ‘stasis’  through the medium I mean not only to protect them for a little while, but alternately to underscore the tenuous nature of human physicality  where any moment life as we know it might just collapse into a pool of droplets or drift upwards into the atmosphere.

I hate that I don’t know who this artist is.  But I couldn’t leave it out. I found this image, uncredited, on Pinterest.  I think it’s amazing though.

 

Posted on

Celebrate you photos

It’s always good to celebrate your life and where you are and mark it with great photography. (Not to mention how meaningful pictures of you looking beautiful are to your friends and family and couldn’t your Linked In profile picture or your online dating profile use a boost with new photographs.)

Well, that’s what these photos are all about.  Cast aside any notions that you are not enough and celebrate where you’re at.  I’ll help you look your best as you are.

This is Jane, a 60 year old grandmother, who is dipping her toe into the dating pool.  I wanted for her to have some new photos where she’s looking as beautiful and fun as she is.  Like most people she has some extra weight and some areas she’s not comfortable with, but we went out and had a great time and she got a bunch of (slightly touched up) shots of herself for her new adventures in dating.

   

   

Posted on

Living with… or in books

I love books.  My ex used to confiscate my wallet before we walked into bookstores, not because he didn’t want me to spend the money but because he felt they might overrun us.  He had a point.

I think it was Cicero who said, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”  I agree.  They’re like my friends and I love them all piled up on top of each other.  I use them as furniture and decoration (see below.) I just kept thinking that there must be other amazing awesome solutions out there – cuz it’s a worse problem not to have books in your life than what to do with them once they’re there.

 

I also have this one architectural oddity in my house.  Yes, it’s a door that’s been cut out and turned into a bookcase.  Yes, it’s actually a functioning door too.  It leads to the attic.  Can’t say I recommend doing this – but it works for me and people are always asking about it.

I love the book room!  Why not use your books as a room divider?

How simple-perfect a solution is this?  Just take a wall get some 1x2s and glue a dowel on the front then sand/paint/mount and you have all those amazing children’s book illustrations as art and storage.

 

Love!  Love!  It’s just a bunch of tubing attached together.  Can you imagine this as a whole wall?  That would be so great!

This desk is built out of the only remaining books in a library that burned down.  They were repurposed when the library was rebuilt.  I love it!

The throne de bookage – it’s a library in a chair, otherwise known as the Bibliochaise.  What’s not to love?

Not terribly practical – but I could see it as the perfect solution for someone who was really into reading philosophy – just going round and round and round….

 

 

Posted on

Awesome Playhouse Inspiration
(most you can buy)

Who doesn’t love a playhouse?  There really is something about having an imagination and a place of your own to explore the world.  And if that playhouse was a work of art… where would your imagination go.

(Click on the picture for more info.)

I want to play in your rattan fort!

  

Not exactly a play ‘house’ but I’m in love with it anyway.  Maybe it’s a play house-boat with climbing wall – a pirate’s training camp as it were.

Can you imagine being the little girl who has this playhouse?

(I also want a to be able to slide out of my bed!)