free classes

Creative Techs, a Seattle design company offers free Adobe CS4 design classes. Did you hear that? FREE!

Now go out and learn something.


http://www.creativetechs.com/

More Awesomeness!

This comes from a very talented photographer that is one of my Flickr contacts. This is seriously the coolest marketing idea that I have seen lately. SO brilliant!

http://http://onelovephoto.typepad.com/heathergilson/2009/04/the-blist-and-our-little-cameras.html

Stylin' Camera Bag

What every girl needs!

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/bowler-camera-bag

Art CRUSH!

There's an artist whose work I am totally (newly) crushing on. I had heard of Andy Goldsworthy a few years ago, but kind of filed him in the back of my dusty head somewhere over the last few years. I was looking for an artist & project to teach at my daughter's school this month and stumbled back across him.

I am crazy about the idea of making art for art's sake. It is so easy to become attached to the things we create. I cannot imagine being in the mindset that all of my works created in order to

d i s i p a t e. Furthermore, Goldsworthy often produces his sculptures far away form any normal human pathways, so there is the potential that the only person who will see the piece in real life is the artist himself. Luckily, Goldsworthy documents his art in photographs so that the rest of us can taste a slice of what he has made. I imagine that a photograph is nowhere near as emotive as seeing his sculptures in the wild: kinetic, soulful, fragile, audacious and powerful. We hold on to our things so very much in this culture, that it is hard to wrap my head around an artist that does exactly the opposite that every time he creates. Every time. Fascinating.

I presented a few clips from the documentary, Rivers and Tides, to my daughter's class. We also flipped through several beautiful books of Goldsworthy's artwork. The kids were as fascinated as I was at his simple, yet extremely sophisticated works. Goldsworthy's art is stunning and fantastic, yet speaks to us on a Jungian, collective conscious level.

Kids are natural artists. It is insane what comes out of their souls when they are allowed the freedom to express themselves through art. Photos below of some of their creations.

Where the Wild Things Are!!!

Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!

Maurice Sendak's amazing children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, is being adapted into a feature film, directed by none other than Spike Jonze. The hip factor does not stop there: author Dave Eggers collaborated with Jonze on the script; Arcade Fire's song, "Can't Wait" backs the just-released trailer; and music by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be featured on the soundtrack. Wha, WHA???!!!

It's going to be a long wait until the film is released on October 16th, 2009.

Thinkin' of a Master Plan...

One reason to be thankful for the recession? I have had to get creative in thinking of business ideas, career opportunities, and how to bring in some cash. My part time photography business is still going successfully, but I am ready to expand my career.

I am very interested in the ad/branding/graphic design industry. After researching some ads on CraigsList and realizing that I don't have very much experience in that world, I decided to pursue an internship with a friend's company: guruuve.

Guruuve is owned and operated by two amazing, smart and creative women, Sharon Backurz and Jeannine Axelson. They were more than happy to have an extra hand at the office. When I contacted them, they were in the process of brainstorming ideas for their website, which is currently a glorified "under construction" site at this point. I came at just the right time, as they were looking for assistance with styling the front end of the site as well as someone to photograph all of their products. They are teaching me the basics of the Mac as well as instruction in InDesign. Luckily, I have tons of experience in Photoshop, so "indie" does not feel extremely foreign to me.

I am one of those people that is overflowing with ideas. I need to keep a notebook with me so that I can write them down when they come to me. Luckily, I had a notebook with me for my latest two ideas. I won't reveal them here, but I will say that one is an idea for a book that I plan to work on with my good friend, LV, and another is a business idea that my husband and I are inspired to work on. LV has another book idea that we are excited to collaborate on as well.

With so many people unemployed, it seems to me that this is a great opportunity for people to explore new careers through internships, volunteering, taking classes, etc. I know that can be tough to find the time when people's basic financial needs are not being met. Putting food on the table trumps pursuing your dreams, but I wonder how many people would benefit from taking this time as an opportunity to reflect and then act on where they would like to go.

Do we all feel like we are still searching for who we want to be when we grow up? Maybe now is the time to figure that out and go after it.

Produce & recipes, week two!

The list this week is a bit more challenging for me. I love peppers, but P absolutely doesn't like them at all. I am still not sure what I will do with those. I like celery, but I was unsure of how to create a whole side dish out of it. I might make cream of celery soup (sub the cream for almond or soy milk) so I bought a celery root, which incidentally is one ugly root!

I have some definite recipes I am making this week and then I'll wing it at the end. I have a few ideas.

Again, we'll have the fruit for snacks and dessert.

Produce box:

Snap Peas

Red Thumb Fingerling Potatoes

Broccoli

Rainbow Chard

Hass Avocados

Red Bell Peppers

Red Cherry Tomatoes

Celery

Romaine

Lettuce

Strawberries

Navel Oranges

Cameo Apples

Mangos

Here is our menu:

Rainbow chard with raisins, pine nuts, and hard boiled eggs and served over brown rice:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Swiss-Chard-with-Raisins-and-Pine-Nuts-231509

Repeat of last week's romaine topped with stir fried shrimp and snow peas (snap peas this week). We used romaine for the greens, instead of watercress and arugula. I also candied the walnuts (recipe at bottom of note), and tossed the greens in a little olive oil & white wine vinegar before adding the toppings. Vegans could sub tofu for the shrimp. That recipe was a HIT!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Shrimp-Snow-Pea-and-Walnut-Salad-11911

Chilled soba noodles with snap peas and tofu or shrimp. The reviewers on epicurious suggested that you avoid cooking the dressing, just whip together and toss all ingredients at the end:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chilled-Soba-with-Tofu-and-Sugar-Snap-Peas-242834

Stir-fried suagar snap peas & cherry tomatoes, roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes and veggie burgers or baked true cod. Last week, we baked fresh true cod in lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, salt and paprika. It was awesome! I got it fresh from Uwajimaya and it was only $7.99 a pound. yum.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Sugar-Snap-Peas-and-Cherry-Tomatoes-5828http://www.recipezaar.com/Roasted-Rosemary-Fingerlings-218656

Hmmmm. Now for the broccoli, peppers and celery.

One dish I thought might be interesting is to make quinoa and then create a fried rice-type dish with the rest of the veggies and the quinoa. It would probably be yummy with mango mixed in. I have never done this with quinoa, but I am guessing it will work.

If I don't do that, I will make celery soup, roasted red peppers for a side dish and open faced broccoli melts (using sheeps' milk cheese). The open faced broccoli sandwiches come from Moosewood's Simple Suppers, my favorite vegetarian cookbook. Below is a recipe for roasting the broccoli, which might be really good prior to melting a big slab of cheese on it. Otherwise, I just saute it in a pan with a little spray oil and seas salt, so it gets a little crispy while it softens.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Broccoli-with-Garlic-and-Red-Pepper-351031http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Red-Bell-Peppers-231977http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cream-of-Celery-Soup-996

BTW the lacinato kale salad and the shimp salad from last week were everyone's favorites. The greens from the farms are absolutely incredible.

Recipe for candied walnuts, which I tripled so that we had plenty (found on the web):

1/4 cup nuts

1 T sugar

1/4 t salt

1 t walnut or olive oil
preheat oven to 350

toast nuts in oven, about 5 min, or until fragrant.
while nuts toast, in a small bowl, stir together sugar, salt, oil.toss toasted nuts in sugar mixutre and stir.

heat small skillet on med heat, add nuts & sugar mixture, stirring regularly until sugar caramelizes, abt 5 min.

Cool on parchment paper.