New Print Dave Kinsey..

Last Spring, I spent the night in the Dave Kinsey room at the Hotel des Arts in SF. Besides the dump trucks outside ALL night, it was a great little room. Really impressive, actually. Dave Kinsey's work has a dark edge that I always really appreciate so I was really excited we got his room (art dork, nerd alert.) The Shop at Lazarides recently released Kinsey's print Unrested. True to form it's a perfect blend of Kinsey's style and technique (street/gallery) and blended perfectly. It would look perfect in my home, where it can spend the night forever.

Banksy on Valencia..

I just rolled out of bed, grabbed some coffee, a ham & cheese croissant from Tartine and shot some pics of this piece by Banksy. Which quite literally appeared on Valencia street yesterday morning. Since Bansky's film,  Exit Through The Gift Shop, came out there has been a lot of dissention and haterade  around the elusive street artist. And it's hard to not wonder if this was actually Banksy that did this or part of his team. Regardless, I have serious respect for Banksy and all that he does. His commentary never ceases to make me giggle and think long and hard about the art world. He's become the Warhol of my generation and I can't wait to see what he does next. If you haven't seen Exit Through The Gift Shop, I highly recommend it. Simply put it is, in essence, piece of Banksy's art.

fall and christmas sponsorship winner announced!

{{The winner of the large banner for the fall was comment number 21 from Lauren:}}O, hello! It’s September tomorrow. I honestly, just, wow. August. Potty trained a toddler, started regularly working out, felt the darkness of postpartum depression creeping back in, took a road trip for a wedding, celebrated DanO’s birthday, had our car broken into and stuff stolen… no wonder I didn’t see September coming until I woke up this morning and it slapped me in the face.And well, I meant to do this a week ago, but I already explained that, so here we are on August 31 and here goes:I am giving away a large banner of advertising space on my sidebar over there!  —->You guys know about my perspective on blog space advertising, right?For over a year now O My Family has been supporting the handmade community through sponsored space, giveaways, and review posts. I have truly enjoyed my interactions with the talented entrepreneurs and creative souls with whom I have worked. I have realized through this endeavor that it is all about supporting each other in the blogosphere, not about making a buck. I actually feel a bit like a match maker – introducing friends and readers (who are friends I just haven’t met yet) to shops and products I think they will love.Because of this, and because of my desire to continue to support the handmade community, I have created discounted sponsorship packages that will run the remainder of the year.I am offering 2 package options both of which are deeply discounted:Fall: A 2 month package that will run from September 1 – October 31Fall through Christmas: A 4 month package that will run from September 1 – December 31Sponsored Space Sizeslarge260×125small125×125.Fall Pricing:Large banners are $100 for two months (normally $80 a month, now $50)Small banners are $60 for two months (normally $50 a month, now $30)Fall through Christmas Pricing:Large banners are $175 for four months (normally $80 a month, now $43)Small banners are $100 for four months (normally $50 a month, now $25)There are a maximum number of slots of each banner size, meaning that this price and time frame is available on a first come, first served basis. All ads will run for the entire duration of the package purchased, exceptions given for mid-month starts (prorated – because I’m publishing this so late in August). Giveaways are not included in the cost, but can be purchased for an additional $15. All billing is done via Paypal and must be received before the banner is featured.What Should I Know About O My Family?O My Family  was named “Best Mommy Blog of 2010” and “Best Pregnancy Blog of 2010” by TheBump.com, was a finalist for the 2010 BlogLuxe Awards,  and was the winner of the 2009 Divine Caroline Love! This Site Award. In 2010 Allison spoke at the Minnesota Blogger Conference as well as the Casual Blogger Conference as part of a keynote panel.With a fast-growing and strong community of readership, O My Family is reaching young adults, new moms, seasoned parents, newly-weds and readers from every stage of life in-between. New material is published approximately 10 times a week and traffic averages 90,000 to 100,000 pageviews a month.O My Family is an honest and candidly written blog sharing the realities of brand new motherhood. Posts frequently contain product details and experiences about which I believe the women (and a few men) who read my blog deserve to know. Comments left by readers on posts often become conversations, links and advice are often shared. This is a place were moms come to be encouraged by others who are experiencing what they are experiencing.{{I am so honored to be a part of this! I love this community!Interested? Questions? Email omyfamilyblog (@) gmail (dot) com, or reach me directly by using the contact form.}}Giveaway!!I am thrilled to announce that O My Family is giving away a Fall advertising LARGE banner space (Sept 1 – Oct 31)  to one handmade shop or small business owner!Leaving a comment on this post is all you have to do to enter! Of course, for those over achievers, you can gain one extra entry by tweeting this:Today only, @OMyFamily is giving away a fall advertising package worth $100! http://bit.ly/ngaYauJust tweet it and come back here to leave ONE ADDITIONAL comment on this post letting me know that you tweeted and what your twitter name is. Any comments that don’t follow these rules will be deleted. (Play fair, friends!)This giveaway closes at 10:00pm Central time, TONIGHT. The winner will be contacted via email tonight.Good luck!

maxwell loren holyoke-hirsch post it's..

hello friends! i just want to give you all a heads up that at this very moment maxwell loren-holyoke hirsch is selling post-it's on his website for $20 a pop. yep, you heard me right:post-it's drawn w/ his nimble, little fingers. i myself just hit "add to cart" like a bat out of hell and i suggest you do the same as it's a great opportunity to buy a teeny tiny piece of art from an awesome artist. hurry!

nature freak matt furie..

while i was at 49 geary, i also stopped by the jack fischer gallery to say hello to jack and check out the matt furie show, nature freak. matt's drawings are always full of amazing detail and color. as usual there was a lot of naughtiness going on in his work. robots and tree ladies havin' a blast, birdies and rainbows co-mingling. it's enough to get a girl to blush, whilst still stealing glances! i love how his brain works. it was nice to get in to see the show before it closed. you can check out the full show on the jack fischer gallery.

p.s. the image below isn't in the show, but it is one of the first pieces i ever saw of matt's...and i just love it. just look at how happy that lil guy is!

Maya Hayuk..

With all this rain in SF (I know east coast friends, I have no right to complain) but damn I need some sunshine and color. So I thought what better way to get some quick color was to post Maya Hayuk's newer work she recently uploaded to her website. Just looking at her work I feel like I get a zap of vitamin D. Speaking of sunshine, be sure to check out Rye Rye's video Sunshine to see the below mural was comminssioned for.

Oh and Maya just joined twitter, so that's exciting!

this must be how zombies feel

Here it comes, the quintessential exhausted mother verbal vomit:I think we’re transitioning out of the ‘likes being swaddled when he sleeps’ stage.(That knowing, empathetic groan y’all just made collectively? I heard it from here. Thank you.)It’s a really good thing he’s cute.

one hundredth post!

Apparently I’ve been at this blogging thing for a while now.I can’t imagine how I found enough fodder for 100 posts already though.Maybe it had something to do with graduating from college, getting real world jobs, and celebrating our first year of marriage… all in the same month. There might have been a thing or two about moving into my in-laws’ basement for another month plus a half, then subsequently moving out of the in-laws’ basement and buying our first house.Or I suppose it could have been the renovating of our first house, the continuation of the renovation of our first house, or the perpetual renovating we are doing on our first house.There’s probably something in there about creating a human being, too.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~You can chalk it up to the first grade teacher in me, but I thought maybe we should commemorate this occasion with a little sharing exercise. This also functions as a half-birthday wish list, conveniently.Just a thought.100 things I would like 100 of 100 things of which I would like 100Stuff I want. chap sticks80 ¬∞ dayspairs of comfortable heelsduvet coverschai tea lattesadorable baby onesiescuddles with Pearlmini cheese cake biteslarge necklaceseasy-to-make dinner optionsbeautifully wrapped Christmas boxesjust-blooming white tulipsassorted glass vases, apothecary jars, or hurricanes (I think that counts as three items) ^ ^bottles of martinelli’s sparkling cideryankee candlesblack and white photos of people and places I loveplane ticket vouchers to see people and places I lovehandmade monogrammed cardsfreshly washed towels to smellchai frappuccinos blended coffee (aka dirty chai frap). wait. I already have chai on here?dangley earringsaustralian shepherd puppies – as long as I don’t have to keep themcrazy strawsleather bound copies of american literature classicsroyal gala applesshoulder and neck rubssets of table linenswarm bowls of popcornblown glass ballspouches of Capri Sun Pacific Coolerwood block words to rotate seasonally on my mantleshades of pink nail polishthrow pillowswatermelon jolly ranchersceramic baking dishesassorted colors of gdiaper little ‘g’ pantspeople who read my blog regularlybottles of bath and body works hand sanitizerteva olowahu sandalsover-sized starbucks ‘city’ coffee mugs (and a place to store them)lenses for our SLRcashmere throwsold handwritten letters and post-cardscoffee dates with friends no longer geographically nearstrawberries and cream jamba juices (it’s not on the menu any more – order it some time)potted hydrangeasbottles of european wines (for later.)aveda hair productssquare feet of closet spacekisses from DanObuttered popcorn flavored jelly belliesless days of being pregnantmore days to get the nursery ready (yes, i know. but do they all have to make sense?)crunchy leaves to step onsheets of beautiful scrapbooking paperbaby diapers changed by someone elsework vacation days in a yearhours of sleep. straight.bless you if you’re still reading this. I’m so impressed. (does that count as one?)karats in a diamondfree hours of labor on our house by someone else. anyone else, really. just not us for once.blooming cherry trees lining a streethappy years of marriagejars for canning. cuz i’m going to be that lady. just watch.strawberriesiced venti no-ice chai (oh. it is? whoops)purses in perpetually perfect conditionmaids to do my laundry… and bidding, because that’s what maids do I’m toldacres of land to cross-country ski overcopies of martha stewart living and realsimple^ that was totally twocool key chains like I had hanging from my jansport in middle schoolhugs from my family every monthounces of more patienceideas for this list (seriously, all this introspection is starting to get difficult.)fridayshours a week to catch up with friends over the phonepairs of favorite jeansshiny wedding rings in size 6 so that I can wear them (size 4 is long abandoned)minutes of fameclear hair rubber bandsquiet moments with DanOshirley temple films on dvdaroma therapy refills for my cubiclepregnancy safe allergy pills so I could smell the aroma therapy. or anything.children’s books to pile on my lap and read to nuggeteleven more to think of – I can totally do thissaltwater sandalspounds of frozen meat in my schfancy freezer (just no swine)miles of shorelinebibles to send to chinamonths of membership to the YMCAmiles to the gallon on both of our carshooded animal towels to put on nugget after he takes a bathfree dates to go on in the twin citiesbabysitters lined up for the nights of each of those free datesventi chai frappuccinos (blended cream) with condensation on the cup (aka summer)wonderful blessings, adventures, and people in my life to blog about over the last 1.33 years (check!)

in the year 2068

Lately I’ve found myself thinking “I am so old.” I’ll be a college graduate in mere days, I know every word to the songs that come on in the “90′s hour” on the radio, which makes my high school co-workers (see last post) look at me like “how bizarre, how bizarre…”. My knees hurt when I kneel for more than a few seconds, oh, and I’m married.But let’s be honest, I’m not old at all. Unless of course you’re talking in terms of making the Chinese Olympic Gymnastics team, and in that case I have in fact missed the boat by a good 8 years.I am sort of looking forward to it though – being old that is. My guess is that there are pros and cons to the last stages of life. Here are a few that I have been pondering:Pro: RetirementNever missing a day of Oprah.Con: 8:00pm bed timeMissing every single Colbert Report.Pro: Dorm life, 2.0Think about it: retirement homes (and college dorms) provide: a social calendar full of planned events, room/floor mates, provided food at a central location, a sense of communityCon: That old person smellI don’t think you can ever wash that sucker off.Pro: Free Time200,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Niagara Falls anyone?I think that when the time comes, I will be one happy, retirement home livin’, grandchild cheek pinchin’, afghan knittin’ elderly person. For now though, I guess I’ll just have to *ahem* save the best for last.

kill pixie print from fecal face..

Fecal Face just released this amazing print by Kill Pixie. Limited edition of fifty, signed and numbered these babies are sure to go real fast. Jessica of Fecal Face says that due to the rich paper they chose to use, it looks almost 3D. How swell. Well, just looking at it through my computer screen...it looks pretty fresh to me, so I can only imagine what it looks like in person. Purchase it here.

detail.

we had a promise made, we were in love. .

i'm smitten gets a big, fat prize for the best lil' tote w/ the cutest image ever and their doorbell (a-door-bell aka adorable) website w/ the wonderful images of part girl/part animal people. the music. the images. it's all just darling. ok, i have no prize for i'm smitten. but i love, love, love that tote and the website. can't my love just be enough?

what is it about antlers lately? why are they so magical? really. please tell me. you can check out i'm smitten here. my christmas list just continues to get longer...

* heartbeats by the knife.** images used by i'm smitten's cutie pie permission.

New Work Richard Pearse..

Richard Pearse shot over an email with images of a new group he's been hard at work on for the upcoming group show, Linear Empires at White Walls Gallery. Richard's detail and ability to connect color & shape in his work is what really draws me in. So much to look at.

Check out Richard's blog to see all of the work that will be in the show. Linear Empires opens on February 12 and runs through March 5.

Studio Visit Mark Warren Jacques in SF..

Contributor and gallerist, Jillian Mackintosh shares with us her latest studio visit with newly transplanted artist, Mark Warren Jacques. Mark's studio is a pretty remarkable place, however Jillian's pics make it look even more inviting than ever. They make me want to grab a sleeping bag and sleep under the stars surrounded by Mark's work. - meighan

Mark Warren Jacques admittedly has an amorous disposition and this time he’s fallen in love with San Francisco. While embracing different cultures, ideals and perspectives he’s undergone a metamorphosis in his painting, both conceptually and symbolically. Last week I dropped by the warehouse where Mark has built himself a zen tent in the attic studio space. A skylight reflects bright light into the white cotton tent filled with succulent plants, a guitar and new paintings for his upcoming solo exhibition I'm Here Now at Gallery Hijinksthis October.

Introspection of the mind, body and soul are divulged figuratively while remaining abstract. Bright colors cluster together with patterns and stark edges as elements of the natural world take form with bare boned foliage and starry constellations. Mark tells me he's experimenting with form, figures and anatomy for his next show which should be an interesting addition to his existing spectrum of symmetrical and organic shapes.

Stephanie Simek Jewelry. .

Adornment fascinates me. I love how we live in this super evolved (some would argue...) society and yet we still wear symbols and signs to let people around us know where our aesthetics are at. I am always super drawn to jeweler's that work with unique and non-traditional materials. Stephanie Simek transforms shells, fauna and egg shells into beautiful pieces of wearable art. That Illuminated Sea Cookie pin would look slammin on a tweed vintage coat! Oh, or the Pussy Willow earrings?!

Be sure to check out Stephanie's latest project; her Sound Locket. She collaborated with five musicians to create this unique piece that literally holds a song.

pin my love on you..

so i think it's safe to say that one of my jewelry obsession's are brooches and pins. i'm not real clear what the difference is...but the word brooch conveys to me an over the top or be-jeweled, pin sprakley in nature pin, i suppose. where as a pin is more subtle, despite it's size. regardless, i have a small drawer full of them both. no lie, don't judge!

i just found allira tee's adorable wood and acrylic brooches (which is what she calls them, so we are going w/ that category.). allira is an artist from new zealand who in her bio on chocosho says...

" At the end of 2006, I decided to start designingaccessories for a bit of fun and as an outlet for my creativity. Mydesigns are quirky and playful, aimed for people of all ages who wantto bring out their childish nature."so far her designs do just that. her brooches are fun and although they have child like themes they still translate as mature. stylish and classic in their shapes, make it easy for them to slip into anyone's wardrobe, adding instant whimsy to an outfit.be sure to check out her website where new designs have been unveiled and promised to be out soon (like the hobby horses!!). also get a load of her triceratops yellow tote, boasting the dino as "the greatest of all time." ummm, hello? doorbell. (a-door-bell. adorable!!)

Andrew Schoultz Compound Eyes On The World..

Last week I posted an installation visit with Andrew Schoultz as he prepared for his show, Compound Eyes on the World at Marx & Zavattero and as promised here are pics from the opening. AND to boot, I'll be posting a studio visit tomorrow that I did with Andrew back in April. You'll get to see back to some of the pieces in this current show that were in progress at that time. The detail in Andrew's show is incredible and as I have said many times before, I hate this word, but truly epic. I took so many pictures, I was like a kid in a candy store, all of the pics from the install and opening can be found on the blog's flickr. You can also take an online walk through on M&Z's website.

Compound Eyes on the World: New Work by Andrew Schoultz opens September 11 through October 23, 2010. Opening Reception Saturday, September 11, 5:00 PM.