Dreaming with the Dream Jam Band!

Francine Wheeler is a singer for The Dream Jam Band. She's the wife of a talented designer that I work with, and I'm so excited about the release of their new kid's album, Leave it in the Soup! They've been working on this album for awhile. I played this youtube link for Jake this morning, and he clapped along and swayed with the music...an excellent review from a 2-year-old!

To read more about Francine, and The Dream Jam Band, read this article about Francine featured in Parents Magazine! (She's famous!) The songs are lively and upbeat...I have to say that I liked the youtube video just as much as Jake did! Front row seats please!

Random Cupcake Thoughts

I've had cupcakes on the brain (and in my stomach!) lately because I've been working on a cupcake book in conjunction with a fabulous looking cupcake bakery in Boston called Sweet. During a product development meeting late last year, it was decided that we wanted to pick up on the cupcake trend, and create a cupcake cookbook.

Here's a mock-up of the cover. It could change s little, but look for this in stores this December!

One of our editors had recently been to Boston where she had some great cupcakes from Sweet. We contacted the owner of the bakery, and they agreed to create a cookbook with us. One of the challenges for them, (and for our editor) has been to adapt the recipes to 12/24 cupcakes from the large quantities they make for their shop. The editor, who lives in Sunnyside, Queens has kindly been bringing many cupcakes into the office as she has been testing the recipes. I think she should open her OWN cupcake shop, so I made her a logo:

She asked for some help testing the recipes, and I gladly offered to make the Lemon Cupcakes which are beyond delicious. I've made them 3 times now, and keep tinkering with the recipe. I get a little lazy about things like sifting flower, but they're still pretty good. Really, I must stop.

On the topic of cupcakes, someone recently told me about Cake and Shake, an organic cupcake cart that has been setting up shop on the streets of Manhattan. I can't wait to pass one. I personally do not care if my cupcake (or shake) is organic...but, if organic is on the menu, I'm game!

Best Wishes

This cute "wishing tree" recieved the Best New Product Award in the party category at the Stationery Show. Guests can write "wishes" and hang them on the darling cardboard tree. I think it's such a great idea to have at a shower, or wedding reception, or graduation party.

Hi Everyone,
I'm back posting after a couple busy weeks. We went on our first family vacation to Eleuthera, a small island off the coast of Bahamas which was incredibly beautiful. Then, after I got home, I spent two days at the Surtex Show in NYC. The show, which is part of the National Stationery Show, is full of talented artists and designers specializing in print and pattern design. My focus there is to find designs to be used journals, notecard, gift bags, bookmarks, and various other gift products. Above is a sneak peek of my office, and some of the designs we purchased there. Each year, I love hanging the art in my office and reviewing our finds. It's fun to hear what my coworkers like and to discover what their favorites are! More on all this later...I feel like I'm still catching up on my life after our whirlwind of activity!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my most wonderful mother...and to all lovely mother readers! It's time to celebrate...for me it's also time to celebrate that I AM a mother...to the best "big boy" in the world!

Finders Keepers

I promised to show more of my sister's amazing artwork, so here goes (despite my questionable photography abilities!) Besides writing and illustrating children's books, she's very versatile and has tinkered in all sorts of mediums (if you've been following my blog for awhile, you'll know what I mean!). She sews, makes doll houses (which are more like mansions), cooks Barbie cakes, quilts, and tinkers...it's all creative. Instead of just painting a bathroom and adding a new shower curtain, she has been known to actually PAINT NEW TILES and resurface the whole bathroom. 

Several years ago, she bought a kiln, and was painting on any ceramic tile surface she could get her hands on. She made this tile mural of the the Nauset coastline in Eastham, Cape Cod. I think it hung in a museum on Cape Cod for awhile before it found an unfortunate home in her basement. Lucky me, I unearthed it during a basement flood while I was visiting one day. Finders, keepers. It's mine now, is proudly gracing Jake's playroom in all it's beauty!

Junk or Jewel?

I "bought" this floral candle holder at my mother's garage sale a couple weekends ago (for free). I think it's really pretty. My husband thinks it's odd. But, it's hard to object to a family heirloom, right? What do you think...pretty or odd?

Aren't Flowers Cool?

One of my best friends came for a quick visit from Oregon last week and gave me these gorgeous flowers. Aren't they lovely? If you look closely, you will see what beautiful works of art they really are...not just the arrangement, but up close as well. I played around with them for about two minutes in Photoshop...see what cool effects you can make? 

This is adding a simple "cut out" filter to the two original photos:

And this is the effect you can get using the "poster edges" filter. I think this turns the original photos into the style of some old botanical prints that I've seen somewhere:

 

Thanks for the visit and the flowers (and the Jumbo and bath toys) Melinda and family! It was great seeing all of you. Shall I blow these up to super-sized prints for your house???

P.S. I know I promised to post more cool things my sister has made, but my photography just doesn't do them justice. I'll play around a little more and try to post again about her fabulousness this week!

Martha's Gamecock Cottage

 

My sister gave me this adorable painting for Christmas. It is of the historic Gamecock Cottage which is located near the house I grew up in on the north shore of Long Island. It was built around 1864, and has been an aviary, a boat house, and a summer cottage. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it is located at the end of West Meadow Beach peninsula.

She painted it in one of her new styles that she started using for her Hello Cape Cod , and Hello Boston books. It now sits proudly in our playroom! I love it, and it's a great reminder of where we grew up.

Photo of Gamecock Cottage © Linda Tagliaferro 

My sister is incredible!

I may have mentioned that Jake has been going through a big Brown Bear, Brown Bear  phase right now, and has the book memorized. So, imagine his excitement when we arrived at my mom's house the other day...we were greeted by my nieces wearing a yellow duck and green frog t-shirts that my sister had made using Brown Bear fabric. Jake was handed the prized brown bear t-shirt. Then she gave him this adorable quilt that she just whipped up! She's pretty incredible like that! AND, she also gave him this pillow which he is nuts about (and so am I!). My niece told me that my sister just sketched it out (using a SHARPIE) on some felt and stitched it together. He's so proud of all his new things, and was quite the big toddler on campus at daycare today when he strutted in wearing his new tee, and carrying his new blanket for naptime!

My sister Martha is pure genius at coming up with some of these projects. I've been known to find some pretty incredible things just stuck in her basement that she just thinks no one will want, or hasn't had the chance to display anywhere. Proof of this...my mom had a garage sale last weekend, and some of her old college art projects were selling like hotcakes. We were actually quite hysterical about this, as one woman made her dig through my mom's attic to try to find more things, and made her sign the back. Having lived side by side with her while growing up, and always making projects, we tend to take it for granted that people actually WANT things like this!

This week, I'll show just a few of the items my sister has come up with that I've sequestered to decorate my own home. Stay tuned...it's my Martha week!

Shutter Shock!

Last weekend, we had a rather interesting...and upsetting experience. While Christmas shopping in a local, upscale mall, last December, my husband passed by the Venture Portraits photo kiosk featuring fun, cool photos of families. Lured in, he decided it would be great to get some family shots done, and paid $50.00 for their promotion...a one hour photo shoot which came w/ a "free" 8 x 10 framed photo. Great! Right?

We had our photoshoot last weekend. The photographer was great, Jake was adorable, and loved it. They shoot against a white, seamless background, and they play music, and generally have fun. We switched Jake's outfits, brought his guitar, and books and he was beyond a terrific sport about it all.

After an hour, Jake was done..."my go home". So, we packed up, I took him to the car and my husband stayed inside to schedule our "viewing". Then they handed him the PRICE LIST!!! WHAT!!!???

Keep in mind, I am an ART DIRECTOR and have HIRED photographers for shoots! I've gotten MARRIED and hired a WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER!!! I've reviewed countless portfolios in my day, so I can speak from some experience that I have never encountered such ridiculous prices in my entire life.

First of all...you can only buy their framed prints. No chance of making your own album, or wallpapering your guest room with photos (not that I was going to, but I should be able to do whatever I want w/ the photos, right?).

If you wanted one large photo of their "JAZZ" series...a 30"x40" photo is $3,800.00. OR, perhaps a more modest 10"x10" print? A mere $800.00. Or, maybe you'd like to do a little series, a larger 20" x 30" framed photo flanked by 4, 8"x10" photos? $4,800.00. And, if you can't quite decide which photos you like best, for $1500, they'll make you an album with 10 photos. Can you believe this?

Now, if I WAS going to spend $4,800.00 for FIVE photos (no matter how well framed they are), I think I might not be looking for the photographer in a MALL...no matter how high end the mall was. I think I'd do my research and find someone who offered a number of tailored packages to work with me to decide what would be best for us. Afterall, I am the customer. Or not. Since, there was no way that I would show up at that viewing and see all the adorable photos of my family. I'm weak. I'd buy something, but I wouldn't feel good about it. And, that's the thing, if you don't show up for your "viewing" you forfeit the "free" 8"x10" photo (just read the fine print!)

So, no thanks for all that. And please, if you happen to come near one of these stupid Venture Portrait  kiosks in the mall, make sure you ask exactly what the prices are first, and what you get. They're evasive at best.

If they only knew...

I got this cute book called, I Love You, Daddy for Jake about a year ago (probably for Father's Day, or something like that). He's out grown it a bit, but I like reading it to him because it's written in a sing-song rhyme that I like. I think sometimes shorter rhyming books help him to sleep a little more than some of the longer Curious George books that we read...perhaps because he's not concentrating on them quite as much. Last night, as I was reading to him before bed, he started pointing out who the various "Dads" in the book were:

Nanny:

Grandma:

His Aunt (TeeTee):

And she thought he never mentioned her! Ha!

Hope you had a good weekend everyone!

Let's Make a Cake!

I've got felt on my mind lately...I've been looking for creative ideas using felt because I want to make Jake a Brown Bear, Brown Bear felt board to play with (he is currently obsessed with the book, and reads it to me several times a day. He's gifted like that!). In my searches, I came across these crazy cute felt CAKES! How much fun is this? They come with about 60+ felt shape to decorate the felt cake to your hearts content. I didn't have anything quite as elaborate planned for Jake, but perhaps we should make a Brown Bear cake?

Available at Mahar Drygoods , and Twinkle Kids (the creators of this fun product!)

Print+Pattern is in print!

One of the first blogs I became hooked on, Print & Pattern, is authored (and in a sense, curated) by a talented British woman who goes by the name Bowie Style. Her blog highlights the best of print and pattern designs worldwide. I was excited when she announced a couple years ago that she had been approached to create a book...and even more excited when I stopped by her blog today and realized it's now available!

The book, Print & Pattern showcases 120 of the top print designers with bios of each of the artists. Some of the artists included in the book are: Orla Kiely, Cath Kidston, Sukie, Carolyn Gavin, and Helen Dardik. I can't wait to get the book in my hands...I'll be excited if I see some of the artists I've worked with over the years featured in her book! The book is published in the UL by Laurence King, and will be distributed in the U.S by Chronicle Books .

More sneak peeks are available at her site here.

Bye Bye Daddy's Ties

How cool is this Tie-Die Easter Egg Kit? You transfer the designs of neckties ONTO EASTER EGGS! I'm sure my husband wouldn't mind if we sacrificed a few of his ties for the project (would he?). Actually, the kit comes with recycled ties to use and are supposedly "deceptively simple" to make.