Category: shopping

I Heart Art: Jen Corace

I am a big fan of Providence, RI artist Jen Corace. She has been a frequent contributor to Tiny Showcase which I think was where I first saw her work. You can see her past TS prints here. From what I’ve seen she has quite a few fans online; some of the art bloggers I follow love her work too.


I enjoy the narrative nature of many of her pieces. I like the two pieces above in particular. I love the moment the piñata piece captures. The girls in the background are either ambivelent or mildly scandalized about what just happened, the girl with the stick has lost her hat in her exertion, and the piñata is dripping something that doesn’t may or may not be candy; the details are great.


A lot of Jen’s work deals with childhood. And while her subjects often seem to be in some sort of peril, they don’t seem like helpless victims to me. Their blank eyes cloak a strength and a capability even while they’re surrounded by strangeness or isolation. I always believe they’ll prevail.

I was excited to hear that Jen had illustrated a new version of Hansel and Gretel. I think her style is perfect for the themes of the story. I ordered a copy “for E” for Christmas (tee-hee).

Check out Jen’s web site here and a current exhibition of hers here.

Angel Tree Topper

Sometimes I see cute or fun things online and so I thought I’d share some of them here. (You know, because blogging about things that catch my eye is almost as much fun as buying them myself…right?)

I love this angel tree topper kit from Paper Source. It reminds me of the angel topper we had on tree when I was a kid. I remember my dad lifting me up when I was little so I could plunk her down on the tree top. Every year her paper cone skirt got a little more folded and bent (perhaps do the the child-inflicted plunking?) but she remained so sweet looking throughout the years.

Mr. Grabby Hands

This last week or so, E. has discovered he has hands and that they are under his control. To some extent, anyway. He loves grabbing at things and trying to put them in his mouth. He’s more successful with some things than others. He loves clutching his burp cloth in both hands and cramming it against his face and kind of growling into it. Pretty cute stuff.

On a different note, yesterday I ordered my first print from Tiny Showcase. I’ve been on their mailing list for a while and would check out the prints from time to time. Anyway, this week I finally took the plunge and ordered this print.

It’s by Amy Ruppel, whose work I’ve admired ever since I saw an exhibit of hers at the Smith Family Bookstore in Eugene a couple of years ago. Even though you miss out on some of the depth of Amy’s work with a print, I’m still really excited about it. And the print even comes with two cute enamel pins!

It was a bit of an ordeal to order it, though. Because Tiny Showcase only does very limited runs of the prints, they can sell out very quickly. I logged on to the site right at 5:30pm MST when they release the prints, but the site kept crashing on me because of the high traffic. By the time I got my order placed, they were on print #188 of 200, so I barely squeaked in under the wire. The entire run sold out in less than 30 minutes!

Yay for Friday

Kimchi in space! (Thanks, Sandra.)

This morning I tried to download some video that I’ve shot of E. lately, but I haven’t been able to get it to work yet. Maybe I’ll have it ready on Monday.

In the mean time, I bring you A Fun Thing From Target:

This last week I saw these reuseable shopping bags at Target. There were three different styles ranging from 99 cents to $2. I got two of the bags pictured below for $1.49 each. I like that they fold up and snap into a pretty compact size but then they unfold and they’re about the size of a brown paper groccery bag. And they have handles. I’m trying to cut down on unneccessary waste, so I’m going to try taking these when I go shopping. I don’t know how easy it’s going to be to have the cashier bag my things in them though.

I’d like to not use so many plastic bags, but I’m not really up for being super millitant and harassing the cashiers if it’s too confusing for them. I hate being that guy. We shall see how it goes. I’m going to try and get my stuff bagged in them the next time I’m there.

I heard that Target created these bags last year to satisfy a new law in California, but I guess they’re rolling them out nationwide now. I found them in the $1 section and also by the groccery section of the store.

Have a great weekend!