the day of love

Say what you want, despite the commercialism and anxiety surrounding one day in Feburary, it's not a bad thing to make an extra effort to honor your loved ones.

Valentine's Day through the iPhone:

It was Avery's first time celebrating Valentine's Day in school. I thought the other parents would be annoyed with our lollipop gift, but judging by the amount of sugar he brought home in his loot bag, it wasn't a problem. Thank you, Pinterest for the last minute idea (found here).

Red velvet miniature whoopie pies with real cream cheese icing. Delish.

My gift to Bobby: a Bill Cunningham quote that brought us both to tears recently. "He who seeks beauty will find it."

His gift to me: ballroom dance lessons for two. Sorry ladies, he's all mine :)

pancake of the week: my funny valentine

 Whole wheat pancake / strawberries

Experimented this week by adding raspberry & blackberry jam to the batter to add a natural red color. I separated the batter into three bowls and added jam to two; poured regular batter to create heart shape and filled in the center with the jam batter, but the color didn't show up as I had hoped.

Afterthought: would have been great with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

the weekend

It was a chilly weekend made warmer with great friends, quiet time and the scent of a newly refinished dining room table. The table belonged to my great-great-grandmother and I've always loved it for sentimental reasons, but was never a fan of its appearance. Now I can safely say I adore it and hope to pass it on to Avery someday.

Bobby took Ave to visit his brother, which is an all-day trip, so it freed up time to paint a little valentine for my love.

discussing art with children

Lazily perusing through our art books is one of Ave's and my favorite activities to do with one another.

A recent fave has been Stefan Sagmeister, but he consistently picks up the Nick Cave book from the coffee table and carefully examines each page. He adores the bright colors, varying textures and the interesting poses the dancer/artist performs to model each Soundsuit.

But the first quarter of the book focuses on a series of assemblages exploring African-American stereotypes in early American mass-produced products, such as lawn jockeys and Aunt Jemima figurines. Cave created structures incorporating the lawn jockeys, surrounding them with knitted medallions, porcelain birds, wooden ships, and other seemingly unrelated materials. Those, in particular, fascinate Avery.

Realizing he doesn't sense the irony or context of the images he's studying, I felt an honest explanation was in order.

But do you try to explain racism and stereotypes to a three year-old who hasn't experienced the cruelty of the outside world?

 When you break it down to simple terms and ignore the artist statements, leaving out the metaphors and scholarly vocabulary, art can be explained and understood on such a primitive level.

Unsure of what to say, I just told him that those objects have been used to hurt people's feelings in the past and the artist makes them into beautiful objects so they lose their power and can only create joy.

"Oooooh," he said nodding with the most serious expression, "yes, they hurt my feelings, too,"

Describing art to a child can be exhilarating, as you are able to notice and appreciate the basic visual characteristics in a piece, undistracted by art's fundamental elements.

When I look at a painting by myself, I tend to survey the concept, technique, color, composition and historical context. When Ave and I look at paintings together, we talk about the subject matter first (if figurative) and the action. It's like seeing again with new eyes.

As we reach the second half of Nick Cave's book, Avery feels the need to reenact the Soundsuit poses.

And changes into an outfit more soundsuitable.

 We're admittedly overly cautious with action/violent movies and imagery, but art is a different matter and opens communication (though we did move the Cremaster book to a high shelf). So, I'm curious...do you guys share mature artwork with your young children?

pancake of the week: a bunny wearing glasses

Blueberry eyes, pink cream cheese icing on nose and ears, and sliced asian pear for whiskers and glasses

Requested (no joke): A bunny wearing glasses

*heart* is not a verb

A common theme over the past weekend: I found myself proclaiming my love for a number of different things. If I were the typical blogger (and perhaps I'd have more readers), I'd say I "heart" them or they made me "swoon." But who really talks like that?

I'm not ashamed to say I'm absolutely LOVING...

Zumba

We finally made the steep financial commitment to join the YMCA last week and I have a feeling we'll get our money's worth. I attended my first Zumba class last Friday and I am HOOKED. I went again on Saturday and would have yesterday had I not had a prior commitment.  

Each instructor brings their unique style to the class – some are heavy on latin/salsa, some hip-hop, and others Afro-Caribbean. The classes I attended were more Afro-Carribbean, which I loooove and is blanket monster-approved.

I even ordered special Zumba shoes b/c my arches ached in my street Asics and they're bright blue aqua and neon green. Yep, I have officially joined the party.

Madonna & M.I.A. on the Superbowl Halftime

I only heard Madonna was the halftime artist a couple days prior and didn't know the rest of the line-up. Seeing my girl M.I.A. at Madonna's side brought me to tears. Though weren't you guys nervous seeing ol' Madge walk unsteadily down those stairs in her high heeled boots? She needs to invest in some Zumba shoes, too.

I heard someone remark, "it's a shame M.I.A. flipped the middle finger on national TV b/c she'll never have that exposure again. We all know what happened to Janet Jackson."

To that remark, my response is:
A. M.I.A.'s whole image is about bucking the system. Have you ever really listened to her lyrics?
B. Madonna was on her best behavior last night, so someone had to do it.
C. Who cares? Dudes are tackling one another and everyone is getting all hot and bothered about a particular digit. Though admittedly, I wouldn't want Avery to copy her, but I also don't want him tackling down his friends either.

The Friedman Brothers are at it again!

My buddy Matthew and his bro won the Doritos "Crash The Superbowl" contest. Y'all, that's a million dollars. They've been at it for a long time and even made a feature-length film back in 2002, but haven't received the proper exposure until now. It goes to show that you should never give up on your dreams.
 

Two in one

Did you guys see the Gillette spot last night with both Adrien Brody and Gael Garcia Bernal? My heart was aflutter. Big time. And I had no one to share the excitement with except my father-in-law, who I doubt appreciated my enthusiasm. If you missed it, you can view it here.

Cupcakes

I've been wanting to make these heart cupcakes ever since seeing this tutorial on Pinterest.

I substituted red velvet for the chocolate cake and added a drop of red food coloring to cream cheese frosting instead of using cherry frosting as suggested.

A couple tips when making these:
You can use the cut-outs to make little heart shaped sandwiches or use them on top of cupcakes that are looking flat. You have to really put more batter than normal in each cup to make a suitable top for punching out with your cookie cutter.

I am a week early with these treats, but since I can't bring homemade treat to Ave's class anyway, I guess now is a good time as ever.

And since I'm going to be burning all those calories in Zumba anyway...

pancake(s) of the week: Awesome Man & co.

Hi! I'm a superhero. My name is Awesome Man.

I have a stylin' letter A on my chest...

...and an Awesome Dog named Moskowitz.

(ingredients used for all: banana, blackberry jam, raisins, nutella)

Avery's pancake request couldn't have been more complicated this week. He asked not just for Awesome Man, but his dog, too.  The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man is the creation of Michael Chabon, an author who also wrote one of my favorite novels: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

It's quickly become one of our favorite books to read at night and has taught some useful lessons to use during the day. You see, Awesome Man's secret identity is that of a young boy (based on Chabon's son). When Awesome Man gets really angry, he tells the reader he wants to start hitting or throwing stuff. But since he's superstrong, he has to be careful and create some alone time to give himself a "ginormous Awesome Power Grip," which means he hugs his knees to his chest until he calms down.

We have encouraged the Power Grip in this house many times.