Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and lite Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and literally. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far and it finds us. ☀️
It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasand It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasandwichshoppe when a friend texted me a screenshot of their cheese butter. Up until last week I had never even heard of cheese butter but just two days later, I’m driving an hour round trip to get some. 😂 I was never one to succumb to peer pressure (I didn’t have my first drink until I was 21!), but when it comes to food finds, I am very easily intrigued. After all, that’s how I’ve discovered some of my favorite bites over the years … lardo from @butlerandtheboard, a spicy Italian sausage, and my love of chicharron. If you haven’t visited Mike’s in Nutley, it’s worth a visit. While there, I also got a small tray of meatballs (a bargain at $10!) and a delicious mortadella sandwich that is worth a round trip. ✨
The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter nee The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter need a little bit of color, so here you go. 😍 Love this chest of drawers. Discovered it buried in a local shop and bought it specifically for the green color (one of my favorites). Vintage Coke crate was a $10 score from a garage sale place on Facebook some ten years ago. And the assorted markers in Roy G Biv order (natch) that aren’t used anymore because my kids have sadly left that phase. 🙃
Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo s Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo style, hope you had a good one! ✨
A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if I wanted her to bring me back anything. Would you believe me if I told you I asked for salt? I love picking up different varieties, whether we’re traveling or I’m just visiting a new shop. Maddie grabbed me a super cute one from her trip to Paris last year, and the Magic Unicorn Salt I get locally is another favorite. What’s yours?
One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a serious case of FOMO on the daily, gets hiccups more than anyone we know and has perpetual bed head. She’s quite the unique roommate but may be exactly what our home needed. 💛
I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw th I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw that @njdotcom had picked six bagel shops at the “best in the state,” and one was reasonably local, all the sudden I needed one. I was never one to fall prey to peer pressure, but I’m very definitely a marketer’s dream. 😂 Alfa Bagels is on Route 10 in Randolph and has a good assortment of bagels, including all the usual suspects, but with a few others like rainbow, Asiago and French Toast throw in for good measure. Their bagels always seem to have a nice chew, which I appreciate and I love their sesame one. My go-to order lately is a double toasted flagel with lox spread and tomato. Their lox spread is a little ho hum, but the bagel is delish. Check them out next time you’ve got a craving (or get motivated by a local news story 😝). What’s your bagel order?
✌🏻 ✌🏻
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Press
  • Writing
  • Contact

Sweetnicks

Food and Life

In Which We Talk About Art, Doodling, and Fun Mail

May 3, 2012 · Narrative

The love of art runs deep in our family.  Want to make any of us happy?  Appear on the doorstep with markers.  Or colored pencils.  A fresh stack of assorted paper.  Hole punches.  Washi tape.  You name it, we’ll love it.

When it comes to talent merging with passion, that’s where we all diverge just a bit.  My grandmother was into watercolors.  Acrylics.  Paintings on large scales.  She took a college art class for years and years and years.  And more years.  Every semester, she would drop out just before the final exam, so she could retake it the following year.  Her paintings were mostly flowers and cubes.  Arrays of pinks and purples.  I meant to take pictures of her art to add here, but alas, darkness came too fast, and that will have to wait for another day.  I have one of her pieces hanging in my office, and Madeline’s room, and my sister has one hanging in her daughters’ room.  The paintings remind me of my grandmother’s living room … modern squared off couches and chairs in bright purple, and thick pink curtains.  When we would spend the night there, and wake up and walk into the living room, it was bathed in the most beautiful pink ever.  Much like Madeline’s room is now.  Although my grandmother and I rarely saw eye-to-eye, I miss visits to her home.

My sister and mom definitely have my grandmother’s artistic bent, and can draw mostly anything you ask them to.  As for me?  I’m a complete doodler.  My home and office desks are littered with scraps of colorful doodles, drawn after being stuck on the phone too long, or after a frustrating day.  Nick now steals my doodles and has started taping them to his bedroom wall.

calendar doodles

“Mom, how did you do that?  That’s awesome!”

Um, I don’t know, just a bunch of lines and a little bit of free time.

doodling

I’m also a fan of doodling on mail.  You know, snail mail.  The kind we don’t get too often anymore.  I’m on a mission to bring that back.  Help me out with that, ok?
fun mail

The kids are always drawing, coloring, stealing my markers.  They both have gobs of creativity, more in their pinkies than I do in my whole body.

And I love that they’re so passionate about it.

Our mini art gallery at home (see more about it here) is a rotating display of things the kids make both here and at school. Two weekends ago, after amassing a small collection of paint chips, we made rainbows with the scraps.

art wall

art wall

art wall

Tonight we rushed through dinner to get to the Festival of Arts at Nick’s school.  It’s something they do every year, and it’s a terrific way to show off how seriously they take their art program.  Over seven hundred kids in the school.  Each student gets three pieces picked to display for the festival.  It’s fun to go up and down the halls, and see the different renderings from the different grades.  They study different artists and techniques throughout the year, and tonight’s festival is the culmination of all that.

(Nick’s birch tree art is in the shot below)nick's birch trees

birch tree wall

dot art

searching

Here, after making the patterned splotches, they had to interpret what they saw, and write a poem (the one below is Nick’s).
splotch interpretation

This one below is from the first graders, but no surprise that I loved it. Can’t wait for Madeline to get there to do hers.
rainbow art

tree branch art explanation

tree branch art

I loved this idea:
i wish art

cubist hands studies

cubist hands art

color wheel art

monster art

The below pieces are part of the fifth grade display:
head art

head art

head art

head art

head art

Are those stunning or what?

Back tomorrow!

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPRINT

Posted In: Narrative · Tagged: art, art gallery, display kid art, doodling, fun mail

Comments

  1. Joanne says

    May 4, 2012 at 6:35 am

    I LOVE how into art your kids’ school is! I think it’s so great to have that creative outlet firstly because it’s so cathartic and relaxing and secondly because having a kid think, “I’m bored, let me draw something” is way better than “I’m bored, let me eat twinkies and sit in front of the tv” :P

    Reply
  2. Cathy says

    May 4, 2012 at 9:31 am

    hey…. that snail mail looks familiar!! Jason thought there was something REALLY cool in the envelope…

    Reply
    • Cate says

      May 4, 2012 at 1:29 pm

      And there WAS! ;)

      Reply
  3. Meg says

    May 4, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    I’m all about snail mail, too, and try to send “real” mail as much as possible! I’m not much of an artist but occasionally include cute quotes and other ephemeris. Stickers are more my bag . . . I can’t send anything without stickers. It’s just too naked.

    Reply
    • Cate says

      May 4, 2012 at 1:30 pm

      Yes, Yes, Yes!! I’m a sticker collector from way back and hoard my sheets and hide them from the kids. Do you have any awesome online sources for stickers? I’m also getting back into rubber stamping. I have SO missed those days.

      Reply
  4. Ramona says

    May 7, 2012 at 3:49 pm

    Great imaginations!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Storytelling…
Through photos.
Words. And recipes.

Archives

Categories

Instagram

Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and lite Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and literally. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far and it finds us. ☀️
It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasand It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasandwichshoppe when a friend texted me a screenshot of their cheese butter. Up until last week I had never even heard of cheese butter but just two days later, I’m driving an hour round trip to get some. 😂 I was never one to succumb to peer pressure (I didn’t have my first drink until I was 21!), but when it comes to food finds, I am very easily intrigued. After all, that’s how I’ve discovered some of my favorite bites over the years … lardo from @butlerandtheboard, a spicy Italian sausage, and my love of chicharron. If you haven’t visited Mike’s in Nutley, it’s worth a visit. While there, I also got a small tray of meatballs (a bargain at $10!) and a delicious mortadella sandwich that is worth a round trip. ✨
The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter nee The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter need a little bit of color, so here you go. 😍 Love this chest of drawers. Discovered it buried in a local shop and bought it specifically for the green color (one of my favorites). Vintage Coke crate was a $10 score from a garage sale place on Facebook some ten years ago. And the assorted markers in Roy G Biv order (natch) that aren’t used anymore because my kids have sadly left that phase. 🙃
Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo s Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo style, hope you had a good one! ✨

Pinterest

Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and lite Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and literally. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far and it finds us. ☀️
It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasand It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasandwichshoppe when a friend texted me a screenshot of their cheese butter. Up until last week I had never even heard of cheese butter but just two days later, I’m driving an hour round trip to get some. 😂 I was never one to succumb to peer pressure (I didn’t have my first drink until I was 21!), but when it comes to food finds, I am very easily intrigued. After all, that’s how I’ve discovered some of my favorite bites over the years … lardo from @butlerandtheboard, a spicy Italian sausage, and my love of chicharron. If you haven’t visited Mike’s in Nutley, it’s worth a visit. While there, I also got a small tray of meatballs (a bargain at $10!) and a delicious mortadella sandwich that is worth a round trip. ✨
The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter nee The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter need a little bit of color, so here you go. 😍 Love this chest of drawers. Discovered it buried in a local shop and bought it specifically for the green color (one of my favorites). Vintage Coke crate was a $10 score from a garage sale place on Facebook some ten years ago. And the assorted markers in Roy G Biv order (natch) that aren’t used anymore because my kids have sadly left that phase. 🙃
Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo s Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo style, hope you had a good one! ✨
A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if I wanted her to bring me back anything. Would you believe me if I told you I asked for salt? I love picking up different varieties, whether we’re traveling or I’m just visiting a new shop. Maddie grabbed me a super cute one from her trip to Paris last year, and the Magic Unicorn Salt I get locally is another favorite. What’s yours?
One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a serious case of FOMO on the daily, gets hiccups more than anyone we know and has perpetual bed head. She’s quite the unique roommate but may be exactly what our home needed. 💛
I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw th I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw that @njdotcom had picked six bagel shops at the “best in the state,” and one was reasonably local, all the sudden I needed one. I was never one to fall prey to peer pressure, but I’m very definitely a marketer’s dream. 😂 Alfa Bagels is on Route 10 in Randolph and has a good assortment of bagels, including all the usual suspects, but with a few others like rainbow, Asiago and French Toast throw in for good measure. Their bagels always seem to have a nice chew, which I appreciate and I love their sesame one. My go-to order lately is a double toasted flagel with lox spread and tomato. Their lox spread is a little ho hum, but the bagel is delish. Check them out next time you’ve got a craving (or get motivated by a local news story 😝). What’s your bagel order?
✌🏻 ✌🏻

Copyright © 2023 Sweetnicks · Theme by Vicki Harrison Design