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Earth Day 2013

Home, as seen from Apollo 17. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Happy Earth Day everybody!

I’m tied to my desk, which doesn’t feel particularly Earth Day like to me, but since I’m here, I thought I’d share a few links with those of you who are also desk bound on this lovely (if a bit chilly) spring day.

Check out Earth Day celebrations from around the world with The Washington Post.

See how much you know about the Earth — Take this New York Times quiz by the professors at the College of the Atlantic in Maine.

Or this one, from CNN.com.

Dance around to the Kinks while you watch this video and then join the Rainforest Alliance’s Village Green Preservation Society.

Resolve never to litter again after checking out this photo which shows how a discarded six pack holder effected the life of one turtle.

Be inspired by this call to action for more women leaders in the environmental movement.

Revel in UK artist Anna Garforth’s moss installations and then learn how to make your own.

Feel free to share other great Earth Day related links in the comments. I’d much rather check these out than do all the other stuff I’m supposed to be getting done…

Tackling tough issues

kids

A book that appeals to anyone curious about the civil rights movement in the 1960′s.

As the mother of a bi-racial, interfaith child, I have my work cut out for me in the teach-your-kid-their-family-heritage department. And while its tempting to gloss over it altogether (Slavery! The holocaust!), ignorance is the one sure fire way to guarantee that the unsavory aspects of history keep repeating themselves.

So we’ve chosen to keep our eyes open and, as a family, try to understand what has gone on before us as a way to feel empowered about our ability to improve our future. And when I encounter a great book on one of these topics, I grab it, because there is no better way to illustrate a point than through the power of a good story.

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney tells the story of the 1960 sit-ins protesting segregation at the Woolworth lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina. The story is powerful, without feeling oppressive. It’s told simply, but without being dumbed down (which is what drives me crazy about so many children’s books out there. The illustrations (by husband Brian Pinkney) are bold, exuberant and colorful, perfectly representing the spirit of these brave civil rights protestors.

The core message is big and bold, so even the beginning reader can digest it by herself, making it all the more powerful.

There is also, if you really want to get into it, a timeline chronicling the major events of the entire Civil Rights Movement (see below) which helps put this particular event into context.

A timeline of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Here’s the timeline.

In the end, Pinkney distills the whole struggle for integration into a simple recipe:

1. Start with love.
2. Add conviction.
3. Season with hope.
4. Extra faith to flavor.
5. Mix black people with white people.
6. Let unity stand.
7. Sprinkle in dignity.
8. Fold in change.
8. Bake until golden.
10. Serve immediately.

It’s a recipe we should all learn by heart and pass along to everyone we know.

A new beginning

misc

An unexpected burst of color in the Mohave desert.

Every spring, for a couple of weeks, the beige and khaki California desert erupts into bloom. It is the most profound sign of the evolving seasons that I’ve ever seen– right up there with the crocuses bursting out of the snowy backyards of New England. It is a glorious time to be in the desert, all full of optimistic thoughts of rebirth, rock climbing adventures, slightly overenthusiastic forays into outdoor swimming pools, crazy Easter egg hunts at our hotel (The 29 Palms Inn– one of my all time favorites)… All in all, the perfect beginning to springtime.

Which brings me to this post, which heralds the rebirth of my own online universe. A whole new look, all kinds of bells and whistles that I can’t believe I care about (RSS feeds! Pinterest!) and hopefully a more coherent experience for all. Springtime, but for your computer.

I have so much to share with you guys and now… finally… I have an adequate platform to do just that. Even in it’s current work-in-progress state, if you’ve got loads of time on your hands, you can wander around and check out some photos, or songs, or even articles I’ve written for people besides myself. More of which will be arriving every day. And then you can go out and tweet that sh*t to your hearts delight. Just by pressing a button!

Fun!

A thousand thank you’s to the good people at Area 17, who rocked the design and implementation of this website beyond my wildest expectations. I am still pinching myself. They are geniuses.

Do please let me know what you think. I’ll be here at my desk, busily updating past blog posts into the current format, uploading content (as of this writing, there is only one song up for you to listen to, so I have my work cut out for me…), generally trying to get used to these new ways of navigating this brave new world… and keeping it real.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

On the road

travel

On the road in Joshua Tree National Park.

It has been awhile since my last post… But I have been busily at work behind the scenes here spearheading a soup-to-nuts redesign of my entire website, which should be ready to unveil in the next week or so. This massive endeavor has all been done with the help of the sublime web gurus of Area 17, who are as good as it gets in this dept. No joke.

I’m really excited, though I have my work cut out for me these next few days, uploading all the content, resizing images, figuring out what to keep and what to get rid of (very hard for me!) etc etc.

But hopefully the result will be a better stronger faster and all around more up to date online universe where I can… gasp… Upload videos! Spell check my blog entries! (so the literary editors amongst you will no longer have to send me polite e mails regarding my typos) Put captions underneath my photos! Get you guys to like things on Facebook! And all the other stuff that we have come to assume is a part of our web browsing experience.

Maybe with this new version, I’ll even post more often. Though I make no promises.

Fingers crossed.

Oh and by the way, the above photo is from a recent trip to Joshua Tree National Park, where my little family spent part of spring vacation. More on that trip to come…

Duro Olowu!

style

Nothing like a tray for a head…

It’s way too late on a Thursday night, and I am exhausted and really need to be going straight to bed. But before I turn of the computer, I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow (the soon-to-be-today 1st of March) is the day that the Duro Olowu line for JC Penny hits the stores. And the web as far as I know.

I went to a little preview party and let me tell you, this stuff is nice. For real. Target had better watch out. And all under $100. I promise to come back to this post and actually write more detail, gush on about his use of color and the bold manner in which he mixes patterns, but I am way too tired to do that now.

These pictures will have to do for the time being.

A wider view of what’s on offer from Olowu at JC Penny.

And there are accessories, too. Jewels and frames and trays…

Duro’s brilliant wheelie bag.

And this wheelie bag, which has my name all over it.

Maybe sometime soon I will put more photos up, share more fun facts about Duro Olowu’s illustrious career and go on about how much I love a designer who is not afraid of color and who manages to make a JP Penny frock feel like you bought it at Bird.

But I need to sleep, so it’s gonna have to wait. Just go to JC Penny and see for yourself. You won’t be sorry.

Why I love Kula

places

The main studio at Kula Yoga Project’s Brooklyn location.

Today I took a lunchtime hour long class at Kula’s Williamsburg yoga studio. Which I love. Here’s why.

Not only does my longtime pal Schuyler Grant co-own and teach here, and not only do they serve up the most delicious food and drink at the shanti shack, a delectable little vegetarian cantina (to borrow their own definition) located in the lobby, and not only do they have two studios and the brains to schedule a kids class at the same time as the adult class so you and your little ones can get your asanas on simutaneously…

But, and here’s the kicker, the studio is BEAUTIFUL. I mean, look at that photo. If that’s not enough to free your mind, I don’t know what is.

And check out the details:

Like these stencils that are painted at various spots on the antique wooden floor… — Read more

Happy Presidents Day

people

The future leader of the new world.

Still hard to believe that this man is actually our president. But it sure does give me hope.

Here’s to the next 4 years.

It’s that time again

style

Tess Giberson’s fall 2013 collection. Or most of it…

It’s the moment during New York’s fashion week when I profess my love for Tess Giberson and all that she designs. It happens pretty much every season. So this time, I’ll make it short and sweet.

For over a decade, Tess Giberson has been creating conceptual, intricate, singular, wearable, intelligent clothes for women. They are styles that stand the test of time– I have pieces from as far back as– 2005 maybe?– that feel as fresh now as when I first got my hands on them. And they still get play.

This collection harkens back to her earlier, more experimental days, with the show featuring a set of personalities that are very much the type of women that would actually wear the clothes in real life– some of them playing percussion instruments to the atmospheric soundscape overseen by a dj in the back of the room.

The clothes are predominantly neutral blacks and greys, but I think I may go for one of these more colorful knits myself. I’m always a sucker for a bit of brightness, especially in the winter.

I go on and on about her in an earlier post, so I won’t repeat myself. Let just say she’s well worth checking out, if you know what’s good for you.

Giberson’s spring line just her store today, so If you can’t wait till August for these clothes, you can always get your fix RIGHT NOW in soho.

See you there.

(oh and please excuse the slightly blurry photo of the knits. Sometimes my iphone sucks.)

My new favorite merchant

decor - home

Wooden measuring spoons! Photo courtesy of Merchant no 4.

Unfortunately for me, I have found a new beautiful online store full of simple, ageless, organic, useful, everyday objects for the home at Merchant no. 4. Damn them!

Also curse my husband, who is the person who initially sent me the link.

Because now I want to trade in about 60% of the stuff I have in my kitchen for things they sell. Problem is, these items don’t come cheap. So I’m going to have to settle for just a few of them. Like these storage containers, which will hopefully replace my overflowing cabinet of scratched tupperware:

The nicest food storage ever. Photo courtesy of Merchant no 4.

…or at least get me headed in that direction, since 2013 is supposedly all about decluttering.

We’ll see how that goes. But in the meantime, if I can’t fill my apartment with everything Merchant no 4 sells, at least I can share it with you guys. And maybe collectively we can do some damage. Or at the very least, we can admire the lovely photography (which I have brazenly cut and pasted onto my blog… thanks guys)

A fairy garden

kids

Our very own fairy garden.

My daughter has been obsessed with The Girls’ Book of Flower Fairies for years now, and is always scanning the pages for fun activities and ways to bring the magic world of fairies into our humdrum daily lives.

Her latest obsession is the flower fairy garden, and she insisted that we make one IMMEDIATELY. Which was a bit of a challenge, because it is the dead of winter. But I hit Jamali, my favorite prop house in the flower district in Manhattan, and then bought a couple of lovely easy-to-care-for indoor leafy plants at Sprout Home ( a polka dot plant and some kind of fern) and we were in business. You can see the results above. — Read more