Journal Of Drawings

Recently, I've been really inspired by Melissa Morris's 160 Pages (I actually wrote about it on the Everything Little Miss blog yesterday). I even started my own little journal of drawings for 2010. They're just quick sketches and short comments, but I like how it's going. I started on the 14th, and I've already done 10. This is the second one I did.

I've written about our disco ball before. One of my favorite parts about working from home is that I get to experience a sunlight party almost everyday.

Are you doing anything new in 2010?

Mamise

Yesterday we attended a memorial service for Eric's grandmother, Mamise (pronounced May-meese, it's a nickname her sister gave her because she couldn't say Mary Louise). She lived to be 91, and had a long, full life. I didn't know her well, but I will certainly remember her fondly. She had a way about her, and I thought she was very funny. Yesterday was a beautiful day, and we spent it remembering her life. I enjoyed listening to the stories of family and friends, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to know her.

I took this picture of Mamise at the beginning of August.

Eric spoke at the service, and I'm including his words below. She was his Nana, and I know he misses her.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Eric Schwarz. I am the oldest son of Jeffrey, as his mom usually called him (especially when he was in trouble), which means that Mamise, who I called Nana, was my grandmother. For the record, my grandmother drove a Camaro Z28 convertible and owned a Super Nintendo.

As one of Nana’s grandchildren, I realize that you won’t find a better grandparent than one who is as passionate about eating candy, playing with toys, and having fun as you are. We would arrive on the Vineyard every summer and scramble into Heaven Between, where Nana had 3 things waiting for us: a fun pack of sugary cereals, several brand new presents, and a collection of perfect skipping stones.

The cereal was devoured and the new Lego sets and puzzles were put together, much to Nana’s delight, but the most meaningful items were the skipping stones. Each one hand-picked from her own beach and saved throughout the year so that they were waiting for us when summer came around. The great challenge was that in order to enjoy the skippers, we had to return them to the sea. And as I watched a particularly good rock bounce across the waves, I would hope for the ocean to bring it back to the beach so Nana could find it again the next year.

Of course the toys waiting for us when we arrived were never enough. Many trips were made down to Brickman’s for even more board games and card games, endless sports equipment, and plenty of water floats.

As much as we loved to play, she seemed to love watching us even more. There were several adventures to Oak Bluffs to ride the Flying Horses or play mini golf. In those cases, I can remember her excitement and pride when we would get the brass ring or make a great putt.

But Nana especially enjoyed watching us play ping pong. She would stand on the back porch of Heaven Above and just be thrilled to watch us hit the ball back and forth. She would always comment about how fast we hit the ball. And it became a game within a game, to do really well and get an enthusiastic response from her. I didn’t realize at the time how much joy that brought her.

For our annual charter fishing trip, we would bring enough GORP and Cheez-Its to last the afternoon, but, Nana would insist on buying us enough snow caps, candy dots, jaw breakers, sour patch kids, gummi worms, gummi bears, and anything else we could scoop out of the bins to last several weeks.

Heading out of Edgartown on a 40 foot boat, like the scene in Jaws, we’d be off to catch blues and stripers and nobody on board was more excited than Nana. When the pole bent sharply, indicating that a fish was on the line, she would let out a cheerful “hey!” as one of us kids worked to haul the fish aboard.

The best moment was when Nana would take her turn to reel one in. We were catching 40-50 inch bass, which was a challenge for me at 17, and there was Nana – 5 feet tall, 90 pounds, 80-something years old – not only fighting this massive fish, but fighting off my dad as he offered to help.

And that’s how I’ll remember her. Out on the water, sun blazing down, fishing pole in hand, a huge smile on her face while fighting to bring in the big one. And never giving up.

First Blog Birthday

We started Objects of Communication one year ago today! Here's a little slide show of some of my favorite photos we've featued this year.

We've truly appreciated your encouragement and sweet comments. Thank you so much for following along!

The Proust Questionnaire

A while ago, I Suwanee posted about a book called The Proust Questionnaire. It took about 5 seconds for me to become completely smitten and covet my very own copy. I follwed a link to Vanity Fair to see celebrities' answers to the questions, and that just made me want the book all the more.  Luckily, I had a handy-dandy gift certificate to Barnes & Nobel, and I picked up my book last week (they had to order it special just for me!). 

So what the heck is this questionnaire all about? Personality. When you answer the questions the asker learns a little more about you. Proust didn't invent the questionnaire, but he did make it popular. 

I haven't yet had time to read the book cover-to-cover, but I will. It's such a gorgeous book; much taller than I expected for some reason, and so deliciously pink. And it has one of those built-in bookmarks! It's yellow! It's luxurious. Swoon.

My plan for the weekend is to answer some of the questions and learn a bit more about myself. Can't wait! Happy weekend everybody.

Oh one last thing! Pretty Neat Designs featured my Oxalis Card Set in a post about gift ideas for Mother's Day!

New Inspiration Board

click image to enlarge

Now that I've rearranged the apartment, I have space for an inspiration board beside my desk. I'm always finding things in catalogs and tearing them out and sticking them in weird places. Now I'll just put them right onto the board! So cool. Plus, I'll add my own sketches and notes. I'm just starting out, but I think it'll be full of gorgeous things one day really soon. 

I find many of the images and words that inspire me online, so they probably won't make it to the board because I don't want to waste paper by printing them (never fear, I have an inspiration folder on my computer). It's cool how many beautiful inspiration boards, lines, and folders can be found online. Do you have one?

Eric's Going To HBS!

Today Eric found out that he's been accepted to Harvard Business School! I'm so, so proud. The next two years will be very interesting. :)

If you're wondering, I spent the last 45 minutes figuring out how to spell out "congratulations" with things I could find in the apartment. Success! 

From left to right: cookie, chocolate candy (thanks Kim), cigars, twisty tie, advil, broken rubber band, batteries, ribbon, corkscrew, letter cut from one of Eric's magazines (sorry), band aids, crystal + necklace pendant, top of a drink umbrella, q-tips, holes from a hole punch (aka confetti).

[click image to enlarge]

An Old Letter From My Sister

My sister wrote me this letter in February 2007, when I'd only been living in Boston for a little over a month. She told me all about her new class schedule and her weird roommate situation. But best of all, she included little drawings. She's always doodling, and sometimes she creates amazingly complex designs. She can also sing and dance! I don't think she knows how jealous I am. Jealous in a good, proud way. 

She has her own photo blog, and sometimes she includes photos of her doodles. It's also filled with the adorable misspellings I mentioned yesterday. 

Look What I Found!

My brother wrote this paper just over 3 years ago now, when he was in 6th grade. I rediscovered it today when I was looking through an old folder. It's probably the greatest thing ever written. Below you can find the full text (including mistakes, which the teacher made no effort to correct - what the heck?). 

The worlds best Person (besides me) 

February 6, 2006

The worlds most important person to me is beleave is or not my sister.

Her name is April May. I can smell April evan if it is January. She smells like freshness and joy (wich is spring). Like every one she can have bad days, but ushually She is as nice and kind as can be. She helps wit home work (she is really good at that espesicaly because she gruated college), she helps clean, and she evan plays games with me. April helps some kids that goe to Sullivan School that have a hard time speaking english, so as you can see she is a big help. April and I do almost everything together all of the time.

I love April. 

Isn't he great? Really, he's wonderful. For those of you who don't know, we're like twins born 11 years apart. And it's true, we do a lot together. Not as much now that I don't live at home, but we have a blast when we do see each other. 

Next time I'll write about how amazing my sister is. She's different than the two of us in many ways, but we also all have an awful lot in common (she makes similarly endearing spelling mistakes)! 

In Case You Didn't Know

This sign is from the subway system, or Tube, in London.  I assume the purpose is to allow people a chance to think twice before attempting to walk up the stairs.  We don't actually remember who took this photo, but I'm taking credit via this post.  I think it'd be nice if everything was labeled in this manner.

1058 Pages Later

I started The Journeyer in June 2006, at my dad's suggestion. I finished it yesterday morning, 2 years and 8 months later! I really enjoyed Gary Jennings' story, and I thought it was a great book, but for some reason I'd always put The Journeyer aside when I got a new book. So I've read dozens of books in the past 2 3/4 years, but I just never got around to finishing this one (maybe because it's 1058 pages). 

The book is historical fiction chronicling the life of Marco Polo. The editorial review says: 

"Marco Polo was nicknamed "Marco of the millions" because his Venetian countrymen took the grandiose stories of his travels to be exaggerated, if not outright lies. As he lay dying, his priest, family, and friends offered him a last chance to confess his mendacity, and Marco, it is said, replied "I have not told the half of what I saw and did." Now Gary Jennings has imagined the half that Marco left unsaid as even more elaborate and adventurous than the tall tales thought to be lies."

Twitter Bug

I recently started using Twitter. I'm still getting used to it, and the whole thing is a little weird to me, but I'm pretty sure I like it. It's interesting to follow user updates/tweets and see what people are up to during the day. Some people just post links to things they're looking at or that inspire them. Other people just write what they're doing at that moment. Some people forget they have twitter for a few days at a time. 

If you're interested in following me, click here. I also added the Twitter gadget to the sidebar of this blog, so you can see updates there as well. 

Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library

This little box set is one of my prized posessions. As you can tell, each of these books has been read many times. Maurice Sendak's illustrations are wonderful, and the tales are captivating. 

In 1975, Carol King put these stories to music on the Really Rosie album. As a kid, I fell in love with the musical and written versions. Yeah, I pretty much know the words by heart.

My favorite is Pierre. "Read his story, my friend, for you'll find / At the end that a suitable / Moral lies there."

My Journal

I started keeping a personal journal at UMass, because it was a requirement for my college writing class. Once I got into the habit, it wasn't so hard to write on a daily basis. In fact, I sometimes found myself writing many times a day. My second semester freshman year wasn't easy, and my journal became a very important part of my life. 

Lately (by lately, I mean the past year and a half!), I've been really bad about updating my journal. I tend to pick a day and do a massive update, but I don't write much; I glue in business cards from restuarants, cards people send to me, stickers, news articles, and little things I've collected since the last update. It's sort of like a scrapbook I guess. 

I think I stopped writing because I was just complaining about work (ugh) all of the time, instead of documenting what was happening in my life. Maybe now I'll start up again. We'll see. Even if I don't write frequently, I still use my journal to keep track of the things I do. 

The Inauguration Of Barack Obama

Inauguration Day Schedule

Inauguration Day: January 20, 2009

Here I am watching Obama's speech

Today we have a new President, Barack Obama. He was sworn in at 12:05 PM (5 minutes late), just eight minutes after Joe Biden became our new VP. I watched CBS news coverage all morning, and I had the CNN live feed on my laptop from 10:30 - 1:00.

Barack Obama is our 44th President. In case you're living under a rock, today is special because we've just inaugurated our very first African American as the leader of the United States. Obama's campaign was one of hope. He managed to engage a younger generation in politics, and wasn't afraid to use new technologies to do so. His slogan was (still is?) "Yes We Can." He was right.

Today, President Obama's speech urged the American people to be personally responsible. He was also very clear that, while he's hopeful for the future, our country is facing many obstacles and there will be no overnight miracles:

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.

They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics." Full speech at ABC News >>

Hey everybody, it's a new day!

Breast Cancer Playing Cards

These playing cards were designed by my good friend, Viola Moriarty. This evening I'm going to the opening of her new exhibit, Ex-Voto Suscepto, at the SVHC Cancer Center in Bennington, VT. With this multi media exhibit, Viola chonicles two years of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. 

The breast cancer playing cards are $10/pack. All proceeds go to direct breast cancer education, treatment and support of patients through the To Life! organization. 

To purchase, please call To Life! at 518-439-5975. 

Fizzy Water

I really like seltzer (but I prefer to call it fizzy water). Is that old fashioned? I think it's good plain, but I love to put it in my orange juice and make a little spritzer-type drink. I especially like adding a lemon or lime flavored seltzer to my juice - that just gives it an extra little kick. 

I bought this particular drink because it came in this cute bottle. Packaging is everything, people. 

Walk In Peace

My Aunt Claire gave me this beautiful, silk pillow cover a few years ago. In the upper left, it says milagro, which is the Spanish word for miracle. There are 4 milargos (the little legs) attached to my pillow cover with red ribbon, and in the bottom right, it says walk in peace.

"Milagros are small metal religious charms found in many areas of Latin America, especially Mexico and Peru.  The word “Milagro” means “miracle”.  They are also used in Europe, where they are often referred to as Exvotos (Offerings).  These small charms, often depicting arms, legs, praying people, farm animals and a wide range of other subjects are typically nailed or pinned to crosses or wooden statues of various saints like the Virgin Mary or Christ, sacred objects, pinned on the clothing of saint statues, or hung with little red ribbons or threads from altars and shrines.  They are also carried for protection and good luck.  Ranging in size from less than 1/2 inch to several inches, they are as unique as the cultures that produce them."  
-From Zanzibar Trading Co. 

The pillow cover is also vibrant and has a detailed design. It's really very stunning and special; I'm flattered that Claire thought of me. 

$$$Max Money$$$

I've been so busy that I'm still unpacking my bags from when I was home for the holidays. It's fun though, because I'm re-discovering my gifts! My brother (age 14) was trying to think of what he could give us that we would all like. He concluded that everybody wants money, so we all got $400 in $$$Max money$$$. Hahaha. Excellent present. 

Magnetic Poetry

Magnets are like accessories for refrigerators. They give the appliance (and your kitchen) a little pizzazz. I like magnetic poetry sets because they invite imaginative interaction.

Tangiers Has New Business Cards

My mom owns an adorable little shop called Tangiers, in downtown North Adams. She sells everything from jewelry to handmade soaps! Right now, there's an after-Christmas sale going on, which means there are some amazing bargains. Tangiers is on Main Street, across from the Holiday Inn. 

I recently redesigned the business cards. They were printed by Image Software Services, and I think they look really great. If you're looking for a printer, Image is wonderful because they can print as many or as few as you'd like. You'll get a great deal and fast, friendly service!