Month in Review: June & July

Wow...It is hard to believe that June and July have come and gone. I feel like the ole blog is just hanging by a thread! This summer has been so busy. I miss blogging and am looking forward to more regular posts soon, but until then...

Off my hard drive

One project I completed in June was the season brochure for Book It Repertory Theatre in Seattle. I did this mural-like illustration of their five plays for the season, featuring pull quotes from the books. If you live in Seattle or plan on visiting please check out their offerings for the season! It looks like it is going to be a good one (from left to right : Even Cowgirls Get The Blues by Tom Robbins, My Antonia by Willa Cather, Moby-Dick or The Whale by Herman Melville, The Beautiful Things Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu and Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).

On my plate

Unlike last month, June was a month full of culinary delights. Giving two birthday parties, and hosting visitors from another country forced us to bust out of our take out rut, dust off the recipe box and get to work. In early June I made our kiddo some sugar free carrot cupcakes for her first birthday. The cupcakes are sort of a tradition among my friends, and the recipe has been passed around to quite a few babes who still hadn't sampled sugar by their first b-day. Our girl daintily ate a few bites and then spied the sugar laden, 5 pound slice of butter cream loveliness on my plate and got mad. And, of course I gave in and let her have a few bites which made her happier than Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins. For the international guests I made Martha's Key Lime bars, which were a big hit and relatively easy for a Martha recipe ( I ignored the part about juicing 23 key limes and just used lime juice from a bottle- oh the scandal)! I also whipped up the Everyday Food Apricot Stuffed Chicken, Jicama Citrus Salad, and a spinach dip recipe I found online. All were eaten so fast I didn't get any photos. I've also become addicted to a nightly scoop of Ciao Bella gelato. A deliciously bad habit I plan on continuing until the day I leave this earth. Seriously, you should try this stuff. Their Fresh Mint with Chocolate Chips makes me go week in the knees.

Mother of invention

If you know me well, (or maybe even not so well) you know I live somewhere in between Organization Avenue, and Clutter Street. My problem is piles (luckily not the kind that require medical attention). I tend to flit so quickly between activities that I leave a trail, like some kind of blissed out domestic slug around my house. By evening there are usually little bits of my day strewn or sometimes piled all over the house. And now with a running toddler to chase I have even less time to clean up my act (both literally and figuratively speaking). It has me worried. I mean, how am I going to get my kid to pick up after herself if I can't? That's some scary stuff! So this month I invented a game for myself. I call it the "Rommel Basket". Rommel means "Junk" in Dutch, and to me has a less negative, more cheerful feel to it than JUNK. It goes like this. I have a beautiful, large wire basket that a friend gave me as a gift. During the day I just throw everything in it that I don't have time to put away properly at that very moment. And then, at the end of the day I play "beat the clock" and try to get it all put away in less than 10 minutes. And you know what? It is working! I'm finding that I hesitate before throwing stuff in, and just take care of it right away. And other days when things are hectic at least all the clutter is contained. Anyhow, it is a simple idea that is really working for me. Maybe someday I'll use the idea with my kiddo.

Font of the monthOne of my recent projects was in need of a scripty, handwritten typeface. I actually entertained the idea of hand lettering the type myself, but even I'm not loco enough to take that on at this point. I did a lot of research and finally found Panhandler by David Buck. I'm not usually a big fan of script fonts. I think they end up looking too regular and not spontaneous enough most of the time. But when I saw Panhandlers lower-case 'r' I fell ascender over descender (that's the typographical equivalent of head over heels).

From my camera


One of the highlights of my summer was finally seeing a bench I helped design in 3-D! It is living next to the Seattle Center fountain until the end of the summer. Fun!

In my ears

Here are a few songs that I added to my ipod in June and July. I really love the beginning of "I Will Possess Your Heart". Makes me want to play bass guitar for some reason. I'm pretty much gaga for anything by the Helio Sequence these days, "Hallelujah" is no exception. "SunShinin" pretty much perfectly decribes how summer is percieved here in Rainyville. I had to add "Caught in a Crosswalk", by Baskervilles..because I'm a type geek and any band that is named after a typeface has to be neat. I do think the song sounds a little more sans serif, though. And the sweet sound of 'Electric Love Letter", is just, well kinda sweet.