July 2008 – The Nearest Future

I Heart Art: Scott Campbell

I like looking at (and once in a while buying) art online. I’m mostly interested in prints and silk-screened posters because they are, well, affordable. I’m also quite taken by the idea of supporting living, breathing artists and having unique art in my home rather than prints of very common pieces by long dead artists (Don’t get me wrong though, I like a good Van Gogh as much as the next person). But there are a lot of talented artists whose prints you can buy online for $20 or $30 and I thought I’d share some of my favorites.

A couple of weeks ago I bought another Tiny Showcase print.

This print is actually a diptych by artist Scott Campbell (or Scott C) and it’s titled “The Cute Hunter.” I’ve been a fan of his work for a couple of years, but this is the first print of his that I’ve bought. I love Scott’s use of watercolor combined with his whimsical/somewhat old-timey subject matter. I bought this set with the idea of hanging them in E.’s room, but after I get them framed (I thinking that they would look great with an old-fashioned brocade mat) I might end up snagging them for somewhere else in the house.

I think a lot of his prints would be great in kids’ rooms. I have been coveting this awesome ninja battle print (make sure you check out the details on the right) for E.’s room. But it’s kind of pricey and huge. But a set of these two prints would also be great in a kids room.

I first discovered Scott’s work through the web site of the art gallery Nucleus. Their website used to be kind of clunky and take forever to load but they redesigned it about a year ago and it’s great now. The gallery is located in L.A. and is high on my list of places to go the next time we’re in L.A., whenever that will be. Nucleus carries a lot of artists that work in the comics industry and they put on a lot of cool themed shows. After each show they’re pretty good about putting prints of the exhibition pieces up on their site for sale and so it’s fun to check and see what’s new.

If you want to see all of Scott’s prints that Nucleus carries you can do that here. Scott also has a comic coming out on August 1st that I’m excited about (and have already pre-ordered) and his blog has updates on projects that he’s working on.

(Wow, I had no idea I was such a gushing fanboy of Scott’s work until I just reread this post. Yikes. I need to calm down!) Anyway, I’ve got to go hop on the Nordic-Track and exercise and so I think I’ll save the other artists I like for later posts.

Bedhead

Yesterday E. was sporting this awesome hairstyle when he got up from his nap:

Sadly, E.’s tooth still hasn’t broken through yet. He’s still congested and has also developed a cough to boot. He’s more clingy than normal and is having trouble with his naps.

But luckily this should be a pretty quiet week work-wise since my team is going to be out of town at a conference. So E. and I and going to try and take it easy this week. Well, I’m going to try and take it easy but I have a nagging feeling that E. (and E.’s tooth) may have more of a say in the matter than I do.)

On the Edge of Our Seats

This past week we’ve been seeing a lot more of this than is usual:

Yep, one of E.’s teeth has finally decided to grace us with its presence. But it’s being a total drama queen and has decided to keep us writhing in suspense for over a week. In the mean time, E. is congested and drooly, cries at the drop of a hat (or if you take too long getting him a Cheerio), and has trouble napping (but thankfully he still sleeps okay at night).

All and all, I guess it’s not too bad. But it’s been going on since last Friday. Just how long does this whole thing normally take? When I feel inside his mouth it seems sometimes like the tooth is very close to the surface but at other times it feels like it has sunk down some. Do teeth actually do that? This tooth is such a tease!

On a brighter note, N.’s grandpa is arriving tonight to stay with us for a week and a half while he attends a conference in town. It’s always fun to have Grandpa around and I’m hoping to get some good pictures of E. with his great-grandpa.

Minty Fresh

I stopped by the health food store last week to get E. some vitamin drops (hopefully they’ll help him less sickly) and noticed these Metromint bottled waters. I had seen them around before at fancy food/import type stores but had never tried them.

I’m kind of conflicted when it comes to bottled water. When I’m out and about I often prefer drinking water to soda or other drinks and it’s convenient to buy bottled water to take with me. But it’s ridiculous how much waste in the U.S. is generated by plastic water bottles. And it’s also pretty wasteful to pay for clean, drinkable water when the U.S. has a great infrastructure that provides it to us in our homes.

But clean, drinkable water that’s flavored with mint? And in a nicely-designed bottle? I will TOTALLY buy that for a $1 (Especially if they’re on sale.)

I ended up getting one each of the Spearmint, Orangemint, and Chocolatemint flavors. I wasn’t so much a fan of the Orangemint flavor: the combination tasted a little weird to me. But the Spearmint flavor felt cooling on a hot day. And the Chocolatemint flavor was great: a perfect blend of chocolate and mint that was refreshing and slightly sweet.

So if you’re going to drink bottled water anyway, you might as well drink these. (But recycle the bottle when you’re done!)

We’re Getting Serious

I have to admit that when things were hectic in June I slacked off on feeding E. solid food regularly. But last week I decided to get serious about feeding him solids and finally got around to buying E. a high chair. I really like the design of the chair we bought. It’s like a little barber chair: it has a center pole with a pneumatic lift so it’s height-adjustable which means that E. can use it to sit at our kitchen bar when he’s older. And the base has casters so it can be wheeled around, which has been more useful than I thought it would be. I can wheel E. over to the sink after his meal to wipe him down or if I’m working in the kitchen I can position him next to me to hang out.

Anyway, E. seems to like sitting in his chair so far. During this past week E. has gotten a lot better at eating Cheerios and enjoys chasing them around his tray.

Double Feature

Is there anything more decadent to parents of a baby than going to a double feature?

Before E. was born N. and I would occasionally (maybe twice a year) go to a double feature on a Saturday if there were a couple of movies we wanted to especially see. There’s something slightly surreal and decadent about entering the plush air-conditioned atmosphere of a movie theater in the bright afternoon and then emerging four hours later into the hot dark summer night. Now factor in not having gone on a date sans bébé in months and the whole experience reeks of decadence.

Last night N. and I went and saw Hellboy 2 and Wall E. There are quite a few movies out right now that we want to see but haven’t been able to since we haven’t found a regular babysitter yet. (Many, MANY thanks go to Miranda for watching E. for us last night!)

Anyway, I enjoyed both movies. I’ve always like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics and Guillermo Toro is a great director (I loved Pan’s Labyrinth and it’s going to be interesting to see what del Toro does with the two Hobbit movies he’s going to direct.) He definitely has a unique visual style that I really like; the creatures in Hellboy 2 had a similar look to those in Pan’s Labyrinth. The art direction was great. Bits of the plot felt a little formulaic, but overall the movie was great. (Aside: How the heck is it that Selma Blair keeps getting younger and younger? She’s 36, for crying out loud, but looks like she’s in her early-20s in the movie. It’s a little weird.)

Wall E was also a lot of fun. The animation was impressive (but always felt organic to the story) and the robot characters were so personable. I recommend seeing both movies, preferably in a double feature if you can manage!

Fine Feathered Friends

Some of you may remember Robin Watch ’08 and it’s unfortunate end. I’ve always had a fondness for birds. There’s something so delicate and wild about them and it’s softly thrilling when I see a bird up close.

Last week I noticed a hummingbird flying around the tree just outside our front door. When I would open the front door it would fly right up to the screen door and look at me. A neighbor came to the door and after she got buzzed by the hummingbird she suggested that maybe it had a nest in the tree. I looked and looked but couldn’t find anything for a long time. But then I saw this:

The nest is TINY, smaller than an egg. I read online that hummingbirds make their nests out of moss, plant fibers, and spider webs. In the photo you can see the spider webs covering the outside of the nest. The webs remind me of the story of Thumbelina – I like to picture the hummingbird going to the spiders and bartering for some spider silk (because I’m a nerd like that). More likely than not the hummingbird probably just ate the spiders and then tore away their webs.

The nest is surprisingly close to our front door. Can you see it in the photo below?

I did some online research on hummingbirds and bought a hummingbird feeder and set it up outside. (Hummingbird PSA: apparently if you have a hummingbird feeder you shouldn’t add red dye to the food and you should clean and refill the feeder at least once a week.) I haven’t noticed the hummingbird using the feeder yet, but if she starts using it hopefully I can get some more pictures.

Recipe and ENT Follow-Up

Last night we had dinner with some friends. It was a lot of fun (Thanks for having us over, B. and E!) We brought along a dessert which was a sort of ice cream cake. I had seen an episode of Rachel Ray’s show and got the idea from her. I thought of it as a sort of frozen strawberry shortcake. There were only 3 ingredients: pound cake from Costco (yum!), strawberry ice cream, and some sliced strawberries for a garnish. Like Rachel Ray’s receipe, I used a pyrex meat loaf pan.

First we lined the pan with plastic wrap, making sure there was plenty of extra hanging over.
Then we sliced some strawberries and arranged them in an overlapping pattern on the bottom of the pan. (Note: they will freeze solid and so make sure to cut them thinly or else they may be a little too chunky like ours were.)
Spoon in some ice cream and spread it out evenly into about an 3/4″ layer.
Slice the pound cake horizontally into about 3/4″ layers. Lay a slice of pound cake over the ice cream and cut smaller pieces of pound cake to fill in any gaps.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 up to the top of the pan, ending with a cake layer.
Then wrap the extra plastic wrap over the top of the pan and press down on the whole thing a little. The ice cream should be a little soft so it mushes around and fills in any gaps.
Pop it in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
To unmold, dip the pan in a hot water bath for a half a minute to loosen everything up a bit. Then turn the pan upside down and wriggle it out of the pan by tugging on the extra plastic wrap. Discard plastic wrap.
Slice the cake vertically and serve. (Note: It doesn’t look that great when it comes straight out of the pan, but once you slice it into pieces, it looks pretty good. The end pieces don’t look as nice though, so either slice off a skinny piece from the end and discard it or give the end piece to your husband/roommate/boyfriend/child/dog to eat. You made it, so you should get a pretty piece!)

This morning I took E. back to the ear/nose/throat doctor today for his two-week follow-up appointment. The good news is that E.’s ears are all cleared up! The bad news is that E.’s was still a bit of a pill over the weekend. If his ears aren’t bothering him, I’m not sure why he’s been fussier than normal. Maybe he’s finally decide to teethe? He doesn’t have a single tooth yet. *shrug* Who knows.

What I do know is that my monthly report for work is due tomorrow and I still need to put in a lot of work on it. E. just went down for a nap and so I’ve got to get busy.

Slowly But Surely

This summer I have two goals: to get in shape and to organize my house. So far I’m making slow progress on both. It took me about a week, but I finally finished this project:

It’s a corner bookcase for my office/sewing room. It’s made up of Billy bookshelves from IKEA: 2 narrow units and 1 wide unit that each have height extensions. They’re held together by the corner bracket that IKEA sells.

The process of covering the back of the bookshelves was the same as the bookshelf I put in our bedroom, but this project upped the ante. To begin with, there were 3 shelves and 3 height extenders, so there were 6 pieces to cover in fabric. Stretching the fabric, stapling it around the edges, and smoothing down the excess fabric with spray adhesive (lesson learned: use it outdoors, not in your dining room!) got a little old after the 4th piece. Also, I had ambiously (foolishly) chosen a print with bold horizontal and vertical lines so it was a little difficult to line up both axes to make sure they were straight. Also, attaching the height extensions to the top of the shelves was a bit of a fiasco because of the low ceiling but N. was very sweet and helpful and came up with a solution to the problem. So, it all worked out well in the end (phew!)

Now I just need to organize my books on the shelves and sort out the rest of the room. Once the rest of the room is presentable, I’ll post some pictures.

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Even though I’ve half-Korean, my skin is pretty pale. My mom has fair skin for a Korean and I inherited her skin tone so my skin is pale with yellow undertones. Normally I try and rock the pale look: I apply sunscreen everyday and try to avoid spending too much time in the blistering Utah sun. I want to do what I can to avoid skin cancer (and I have to admit that I’m not in any hurry to get wrinkles either).

BUT, I also wear a skirt at least once a week and dislike pantyhose. And my legs are naturally a shade of fish-belly white so bright they practially glow. So I thought I’d try using one of the self-tanning body lotions that have cropped up lately. (See? It’s not an actual tanner, it’s just body lotion that gives you a hint of color. *Sigh.* I am such a sucker/hypocrite.) Anyway, I went with Aveeno’s Active Naturals Continuous Radiance for fair skin tones.

I have pretty sensitive skin (I’m afraid that E. inherited his from me) but Aveeno products are in general pretty good for sensitive skin. (Their baby products are what E.’s pediatrician recommended when his eczema flared up.) The lotion has a light scent to it, but it wasn’t chemical-y or bothersome. The lotion goes on and feels like it’s really moisturizing. You’re supposed to wait until it dries to put on clothes, but it seems to dry in just a few minutes. I’ve never had a problem with it rubbing off on my clothes.

(But what’s that, you say? You want to know how it actually works?) Well, it works pretty well. After a few days I started to see some color. There were a few small patches that were a teeny bit uneven (mostly around my ankles), but after a little over a week they evened out. The color looks natural and it’s not orange at all. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and the color seems to have stabilized at a very light golden shade. It’s enough color for me, but unless you have super pale skin you might want to use the shade for medium skin tones.