Thursday, July 21, 2011

Skinny laMinx

Now that we're moving I'm officially obsessed with looking at furniture, home decor, interior design blogs, etc. I'm so excited to have new space to arrange!


Skinny laMinx has been one of my favorite textile artists for awhile but I've never bought anything from her shop. She is based in Cape Town, South Africa and I love how modern and organic her patterns are. Also, she has a few designs that remind me of my time in Mozambique as a child like this:


I just noticed she added some pencil cases to her shop as well- hooray! Here are a couple more photos:


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

the best last class





At the organization where I teach, most of our courses are 8-weeks long and meet once a week for 2.5 hours. So you can imagine how quickly the time flies. I am lucky enough to be the program manager and a teaching artist for one of our most accelerated programs that lasts roughly the length of the school year (mid-September to late May). We still have breaks between our existing terms but we stay in touch with our students and have plenty of open studio time for them to work on their projects outside of class. Even with all that extra time, the year still feels like it flies by and is over in the blink of an eye and then it's time for me to start planning the next year's program.
This year was a little different in that we built in time to reflect and celebrate our students' work instead of rushing to finish everything during the last class. All of their work was already installed so we had a few different critiques and then some time for the students to reflect on the year. It was so gratifying to hear them talk about their experience in their own words! We took some video throughout the evening, check it out:



Garfield Park Conservatory

I was so sad to hear about what happened to the Garfield Park Conservatory during one of the many intense storms we've had this summer. The photos on their website of what the hail did to their amazing greenhouses are unbelievable. If you've ever enjoyed this wonderful (FREE!) resource, I encourage you to donate here.