city water

(Locals! The East India Square Fountain is back up and running! These warm days have us walking down and dipping our feet in (or whole body, in Levi's case) almost daily. It's most definitely Levi's current favorite Salem locale. Gosh, I love our city.)

Noseworthy (and Levi tags a building)

So, my brother-in-law just came out with a rap album. I'm not really a rap aficionado, but I have found it incredibly thought provoking and very enjoyable to listen to. Maybe even convicting at times.. 
A friend of ours, who is a graffiti artist, worked on the album art and I headed down to photograph the process and the final images. It was fun to watch a prolific street artist at work and Levi even got to tag his first building..yup, if you see small black dots around town, you'll know the culprit. :)

(listen to the album and if you like it, consider downloading and supporting the artist! : noseworthymusic.bandcamp.com) 

Summer List 2013

trot trot to Boston

On Saturday morning we woke up determined to not stay cooped up inside, no matter how bleak the weekend's weather report. 58 and rainy? Perfect weather for Levi's first train ride to Boston, said we! We hopped on the commuter rail and took the T to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market to walk around and have lunch. The look on Levi's face when he realized that he was going to go inside the train (and didn't even have to be strapped into anything!) made the whole trip worth it and he loved every minute; the fun of being in the city and having some good tourist-y fun was just icing on the cake. 

picnic and paints

This morning we packed up paints and a picnic and headed out to our very favorite spot. It was perfectly warm, sunny and everything was in full glorious bloom. I sat in the sun and painted while the boys adventured through the woods and gardens, stopping in every once in a while for a hug. 

Hoping your day is also full of peace, warmth and sunshine!

Art Room Diaries: final projects in process

Final projects are in full-swing in my middle and high school art classes. Middle schoolers are creating 3-D models/diorama's of a master landscape painting and my high schoolers are designing/painting old wooden chairs in the style of a master artist. Both of these projects are ways for them to do some in-depth art history research and an opportunity to incorporate knowledge of their chosen artist's life, work and style into an original work of their own.  

So far, they are looking great and I've never heard so many "I can't wait to work on my project next week" and "this is the best thing I've ever done" and "I wish I could stay here all day and paint".  It's been a wonderful way to end the year. 

Stay tuned.. photos of the finished products to come in a few weeks!

(and have I mentioned lately that I have the best job ever?)

layering the living room

Just a little redecorating update from the kettle...

Our brown wool rug (seen here) has been a bit frustrating to keep clean (highest pile in the wooorld), it sometimes feels a little dark for the room and definitely too wintery for the warm weather I've been feeling through my open windows.  During a fit of spring cleaning, I decided to pull it up and see if I could figure something else out, at least for the warmer months. 

I recently saw a great home tour (at OhDearDrea) and I fell in love with her layered rugs.  I haven't seen it done successfully elsewhere, but I thought I might as well give it a try.  I am a bit of a rug hoarder collector, so I had a few around to play with.  I settled on three in my warm reds/yellows color scheme and then I went to work messing around with composition.  

It's a little wacky, I'll admit it...but I LOOOOOVE it.  It has the feel of Middle Eastern bedouin tents and makes the room feel a little more wonderfully Yemeni (Have I mentioned that I lived in Yemen for a few years growing up? That's a story for another time...)

So, any thoughts? Madness? Awesomeness?

(You may notice that I also switched out the red curtains for some white and airy ones that have been hiding away in storage for about 7 years. Not sure that they'll stay, but for now I'm enjoying the sunlight they let in. I haven't been red curtain-less since college! Things are gettin' crazy up in here..)