He looked so peaceful, for a few hours. And now, even though he's on morphine, it's very, very hard work to keep him in even a seated position for any length of time. (He's supposed to on bedrest for a week.)
January 27, 2012
January 24, 2012
Scaling Buildings in Paris
Those crazy Parisians -- the latest thing is scaling buildings. Well, looking as if you are. This is an art installation by Buenos Aires-based artist Leandro Erlich -- that's a giant mirror and the people are actually climbing all over that facade on the floor. See more photos on My Modern Met.
January 19, 2012
Sandwich Artist
From top to bottom: a Mondrian sandwich, a Pollock one, O'Keefe, and Hirst. There are more at Low Commitment Projects. Via Max Clarke on facebook.
January 17, 2012
Kasha
Vivi likes kasha!
When I was little, my mom used to do a Slovak finger play that involved "kasha" or porridge. I can't remember the exact words and I certainly can't read Slovak but I think it might have been this one -- it was a bit like "This Little Piggy," in that it involved the adult lightly gripping, with her forefinger and thumb, each of the fingers of the child's hand as each line was recited. After the last line, during which the littlest finger was gripped, the adult's fingers ran up the child's arm and tickled him or her under the chin:
The mother mouse was cooking porridge,
In that colourful pot,
To this one she gave a little on his spoon,
To this one she gave a little in his bowl,
To this one she gave a little on his plate,
And to that one she gave some on his wooden spoon.
But she did not give any to the small one,
Cause there was none left.
So she sent him to the pantry to eat some jam.
Apparently the word kasha, in Eastern European cultures, refers to any type of porridge, which is a dietary staple there at least a thousand years old. In American English, the word kasha usually refers to buckwheat groats and buckwheat was certainly one of the oldest kinds of cereals used to make porridge in Eastern Europe.
As a result of trying to eat much more healthily here in the crooked house, we've been shopping more often in the organic section of the grocery store, which is where I came across a packet of organic kasha, the roasted buckwheat kernel kind. Although we ate a number of Slovak dishes when I was growing up, I'd never tried this. Vivi and I whipped up a pot this morning, and ate it with a spoonful of honey and some milk. It was, suprisingly, delicious! (As the very healthy-looking, slightly strange-smelling grain boiled away in the pot I was already mentally going through the list of words I expected to use to describe its taste -- they included "terrible," "awful," "no good," "very bad," and, of course, "yuck." I was astonished to be wrong.) We will have to try some of the many, many, many other recipes for kasha -- sweet or savoury; breakfast, lunch, or dinner; main or side -- found here.
Pretty word, too, isn't it? Kasha. I expect a celebrity will use it as a name for a baby any day now.
Winner of the When I Was Small Giveaway
And the winner of last Monday's When I Was Small giveaway here on crooked house is Amanda. Congratulations Amanda! (The winner was chosen by randomizer.org.)
January 15, 2012
January 13, 2012
Snow Day
Not much school this week for residents of the crooked house. First there was the annual twenty-four-hour stomach flu vomit-a-thon on Wednesday, then the early lunch-time dismissal on Thursday due to an impending snow storm, and now school is cancelled today while they clean up the streets. We just made the obligatory snowman. He looks like he is bleeding because we tried to use red smarties for his mouth but they proved to be too irresistible and had to be eaten, leaving nothing but red dye smears across the snow. We replaced them with uncooked rotini noodles, which aren't as palatable.
Nothing says "fun" like a giant fake smile.
See, she actually does have a normal face.
"Ah yes, the 2010s," future photography historians will say, "when the likes of hipstamatic made even joyous childhood activities such as the making of snow angels look bleak and ominous."
The angry birds are quite pissed off about it. Well, the red one is. The green pig is mildly annoyed, the blue bird, concerned.
January 11, 2012
Hidden Mothers
In the early days of portrait photography, small children were often photographed while sitting in the arms of their mothers, who were completely covered by a blanket. Later the ghostly lump of the mother would be cropped out of the photo by a mat. These Hidden Mother pictures are highly sought after by collectors today. It seems that even before the proliferation of unrealistic images of women in the media, moms didn't want their pictures taken.
Look here and here for more of these strange photographs. Via A Cup of Jo.
January 10, 2012
January 09, 2012
When I Was Small Giveaway
Sylvie and I just got the best package in the mail -- two copies of our favourite children's author Sara O'Leary's new book When I Was Small, illustrated by Julie Morstad. It is the latest in their lovely series of books about Henry, which include When You Were Small
This book is just as sweet, charming, and hilarious as the others -- it is the perfect bedtime book. And if you act! fast! you can win a copy. Just leave a comment and your email address below and we will choose a random winner next Monday, January 16th. The book is not yet readily available in the states so if you live there and just can't wait to get your hands on a copy, please do enter. I am happy to send it anywhere in the world.
You can see more pageviews of the book on the Buy Olympia site - Americans can certainly order it from there. And you could always order it from Amazon.ca or Chapters.
There are also more gorgeous images from the book at the publisher, Simply Read 's, blog. Love that daisy for a sunhat!
