At Home: farmers markets & succulents

One of the best parts about the summer is having so many farmer's markets to go to.  I absolutely love feeling like I have a little bit of non city life in my city life. You really can't beat fresh fruits and veggies.

After having my first red currants and gooseberries at SoWa last year, I've been on the prowl for these delicious fruits. I'm an avid fruit eater, any and all kinds. I was so excited a few weeks when I went to the Copley Farmer's Market and found them again! I was also simultaneously sad when I found out strawberry season was over. farmer's market strawberries are my absolute favorite.

I also love my little bud vase pictured here. This precious little vase is from Yad LaKashish, or Lifeline for the Old, which was one of my favorite parts of Israel. Yad LaKashish is a place for the underprivileged elderly to go work and make art and sell it to earn money. It is a beautiful little place where these elderly can feel they have a purpose still in the world. I love my little reminder of what a beautiful place this was.

Other than farmer's markets, I'm also obsessed with succulents this year as is the rest of the world. My roommates and I pick them up wherever we can find new kinds. I love how easy they are to take care of and that I especially loved coming home from my Israel trip to a budding succulent. 

-b 

Out & About: nss 2013

A week before I graduated from Massart in May, I took a trip down to New York with three of my friends to walk the National Stationary Show at the Javits Center. I was not prepared for just how huge and awesomely overwhelming the whole shindig was. Check out some of the booths below (excuse the quality of the iphone pictures!)

Firs things first: can we talk about how much I loved all the teal/turquoise/blue, rustic wood, and metallics that were happening all across NSS this year?! And how amazingly put together the booths were in general? It was like going into hundreds of little perfectly thought out storefronts. I couldn't have asked for a more positive experience than what I got after two days of walking the show. It was absolutely amazing to meet the designers and see all of the brilliant paper products in person that I have only ever oggled at online. As you can see to the left, I came back from NSS with a whole lot of paper swag. Granted, the picture is me and two of my friends piles, but still. That's a whole lot of beautiful paper-from business cards to postcards to fun little giveaways and the adorable scavenger hunt bingo pieces we got to collect. Walking down the (overwhelming &) beautiful rows at NSS, all I could think was that one day I could only hope to be a part of NSS as a designer. I guess we'll see how the years play out, but for now I'll just keep pinning the booths and the beautiful paper goods on my pinterest boards. I came home from New York completely exhausted but filled with new ideas for the future and enough inspiration to tide me over until next year, when I will inevitably find a way to go once again to NSS.

I also can't talk about my amazing trip to New York without talking about my INCREDIBLE hotel! My friends and I stayed at the Renaissance hotel right in Times Square. The top picture is the view from breakfast, and the one others are the view from our room and the street. Talk about incredible, yeah? The trip overall was extremely wonderful between visiting NSS, perusing the Surtex licensing show, exploring Brooklyn for the very first time, buying bunches of succulants to bring home, walking around Chelsea Market, eating amazing food & dessert (including ridiculously delicious Crif Dogs hot dogs-I never thought I would say hot dogs were ridiculously delicious), exploring New York, and just generally being inspired with three really great friends just a few days before we would enter the "real world".

Here's to more blogging! -b

An Overdue Update: i graduated college!

I'm going to write it here so it has to happen: I will blog more. 

I've even taken specific photos on purpose just for the sake of blogging.  And I haven't done it. But those photos still exist and belated posts are better than nonexistent ones. So here I am, and I've had so many blog worthy moments in the past few months that I will be blogging this week to catch up. 

First things first: I graduated college! I'll miss the heck out of Massart and all the amazing things it brought to my life, but I am so  excited about being a college graduate and getting started in the big world. It poured up all morning until we all walked out to our seats, so it was a bit crazy. We almost weren't allowed to walk due to the rain but we obviously protested until they let us.

I found my first 4 leaf clover a week before I graduated at my boyfriend Tom's graduation. That was a good start to the end.

Since I graduated, I went to Israel, went to NYC for the National Stationary Show & Surtex, have had my artwork begin selling at Target, turned 22, chopped off about 5 inches of hair, had a 5 year anniversary with my boyfriend Tom, and so many more little exciting moments. I can't wait to share them all.

Here's a start to something I will be better at. -b

In the Kitchen: matzoh ball soup & charoset

Happy Belated Passover! 

Or if you don't celebrate Passover, then happy friday! So I didn't particularly do anything for Passover this year except the food part. Which, other than the spending time with family and friends part, is clearly the best.

I used my Matzah Ball Soup recipe from my home cooking book & also my mom's basic recipe/guidelines for making Charoset for my Matzah and it was ridiculously delicious.

Charoset may not look the prettiest but I seriously can't get enough. Who wouldn't like apples, honey, cinnamon, and almonds? All good things in my book. And Matzoh Ball soup is always  a good choice.

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Sidenote : how cute are my new succulents & cacti from Massart's sale the other day? They're teeny tiny & planted in a little soda fired bowl I made last year.

Hope you all had an excellent week & Happy Friday!!  A lot of exciting stuff has been going on lately in my art world and I can't wait to share it with you all over the next few weeks//months.

In the Studio: a sneak peak

Coming up with just a few short months until the end of my last year at MassArt, I can say that the studio space is what I'll miss most. I love having a place to work at school and having so many illustration & graphic design students around is pretty awesome & inspiring.  Its not anything special, but this is my studio space.

Its always a little bit of a mess but I guess that's what its like being an art student. Its changing constantly with new projects, but here you can see my Nursery Rhyme Illustrations and two of my Degree Project tunnel books.

I also am forever swooning over my prints & postcards you can see on the left side by Jaime Zollars, Ambird, Kristen Uroda, Nick Sullivan, & a  very awesome little panoramic drawing of houses in Italy that my friend brought me back from a street artist!

I mean really though, talk about a killer view. Definitely will miss this view while I work. 

& I'll of course miss my lovely seniors in illustration who are a constant inspiration.