Art and Romance

Feb 18, 2009
Categories: art, relationships, road trips, shopping

It’s been a long and lovely several days since my last post. On Thursday at our class i finished my first-ever oil painting, which i’m pretty proud of.

My First Painting

Again – i know it’s not perfect. The cloth in the background makes no sense because the still-life shifted from week to week and by the end i was just guessing at how the light had fallen on it when i did the under-drawing. I’m not very good at imagining that sort of thing, which is why i don’t draw from imagination.

On Friday Nathan and i drove to Chicago to celebrate Valentine’s Day away from home. We stayed at a lovely little B&B in Oak Park called Harvey House and took the L into the city. I did a bit of shopping but didn’t procure much. We had pizza at Gino’s East and Nathan decided that he prefers Felix & Oscar’s pizza here in Des Moines. I’m pretty sure i caught something by not using my hand sanitizer until after my first bite of the baked ravioli appetizer. Zicam is helping me fight it, though. I’m drinking a lot of tea, too, and will probably become addicted to it as a result.

Saturday we went back into the city to see Millennium Park and the Art Institute. It was awesome to see Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, one of Van Gogh’s “Bedroom” paintings, and some really beautiful Monets. But the painting that struck me the most was this one:

Doppelganger
Nouvart Dzeron, A Daughter of Armenia by Ralph Elmer Clarkson, 1912

IT LOOKS JUST LIKE ME. WTH? Even my Mama agrees. But she says i’m prettier. :)

We had a lovely dinner at a little place called Francesca’s Fiore in Forest Park and Nathan made me drink most of the wine since he had to drive back to the B&B. I ended up talking his ear off about Rome, my family and various photographic film formats. Best Valentine’s Day EVER.

On Sunday we visited IKEA and picked up some awesome stuff for the new loft before driving back to DSM. We’ll be moving in nine days!! I began packing yesterday. I know i’ve got a long way to go, but it’ll all be worth it in the end.

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Amazon Wish List

Nov 26, 2008
Categories: shopping

For the couple of you who are scratching your heads about what to get me for Christmas, here is a list of ideas that i had fun compiling on Amazon and in no way expect to be fulfilled (because i’ll be grateful for anything/everything i’m offered, even if it’s merely the grace of your presence):

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Why i love Target

Sep 14, 2008
Categories: graphic design, shopping

I should be getting paid for this.

So i got this little Target coupon book in the mail yesterday. I guess the former resident of this apartment was on their mailing list for one reason or another, and i’m benefiting from that. It’s two dozen or so pages long, and each spread has three coupons on one side and a portrait on the other, like so:

Target coupon book

I needed a bunch of stuff anyway, so i took it with me to Target today. I found a couple of things that i thought were blog-worthy.

Target Find #2

I didn’t even need any pasta, per se–or have a coupon for it, for that matter–but this packaging grabbed me. I thought it was lovely, especially compared to all the other bread-and-butter pasta packages.

I checked out the ice cream ’cause i happened to have a coupon for it, and – lo and behold!:

Target Find #1

Green tea Haagen Dazs?? Hell-o! I’ve been looking for green tea ice cream for years and all i could find was some dairy-free crap that tasted as bad as it sounds. But now A. i’ve found some, B. it’s freakin’ Haagen Dazs, and C. I saved a dollar on it, which makes it extra-sweet.

I bought a ton of stuff, and when i got home i flipped through the coupon book again to see if there were any coupons left that i might use, and suddenly the design made a whole lot of sense:

Target coupon book #2

How clever!

And the final reason that i love Target is that soon, with the help of my dear friend Kelly who occasionally works at Target and therefore gets an employee discount, i shall acquire a new iPod touch for as much as $57 off the retail price. Hell. Yes.

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Coasters!

Sep 05, 2008
Categories: shopping, web design

I finally got coasters to protect my glossy furniture!

New Coasters!
Made by paddy

Those are all computer-related icons. I looove these! I found them on Etsy, totally worth the money. I feel like a true web geek now. :)

3 Comments |

Growing

Jul 21, 2008
Categories: apartment hunting, art, cellphones, concerts, des moines, family, life, photography, road trips, shopping

First of all, thanks for leaving so many wonderful comments on my last post. It meant a lot to me.

My sister Amy and her son Harper are visiting from Oregon right now. They arrived on Wednesday and the three of us and Mom had fun shopping around the East Village of Des Moines, going to see WALL-E, reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and generally hanging out. Friday evening Uncle Doug and Aunt Vicki had a little BBQ to celebrate, and of course their whole branch of the family was there. Saturday we drove out to Uncle Dave’s and visited with that bunch and Harper had fun playing with his second cousins. It had been a couple years since most of us had seen each other, and it was nice to be able to catch up.

That evening Mom, Amy and I went to see Ani DiFranco at The Capitol Theater in Davenport. I never cease to be amazed by how much she rocks. She was a little less talkative than the last time i saw her over in Iowa City with Emily last summer, but that’s okay.

I wish i’d taken pictures of all this stuff. :( Next time.

Yesterday Amy & Harps headed for Cedar Rapids and Mom & I came back to DM. On our way we stopped at the Amana colonies for lunch and picked up some blueberry wine. I hadn’t been around there in quite a few years. It’s really well-maintained and cute, but it was so hot that we didn’t stick around for long.

My Mama in Amana

Bumble Bee

I saw some paintings by this Chicago artist Laura Lee Junge in a little gallery there, and i thought they were really neat:

On an unrelated note, my current goal in life is to decide on an apartment to move to in Des Moines, which is proving to be a major headache. But i got my new camera phone today, so playing with that should relieve some stress for sure.

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