Jennifer Strano

Evidently..... size matters.

What size are your cupcakes?

Sophie's First Show

My Sophie had her first art show. It was wonderful.
The kids studied Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Matisse, DaVinci and Kandinsky.
Then for each artist they did a their interpretation of the artist.
It made me smile and realize how awesome a kid's eye is. No hangups and so real.

That email.....

You know which one.

The matter has been handled.

I am moving on.

Thank you for all of your advice.

u r 2 cool.

HUGE EXCITEMENT!! {that sounds a bit naughty}

I have been in 4 states in 4 days.
Zipping around everywhere.
Manchester NH for CKC..... 8 classes, left with no voice and a very shocking visitor.... you know who you are:)

The home for a night and of to NYC for the Stationery Show.
COMPLETLY WONDEROUS. UTTER COLOR BLISS.

Back home and still no voice and a very snippy email - see next post......

BUT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The MOST INTENSELY exciting part of my travels has just happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG.

I just opened my email from my favorite Amy Butler. If you have been reading my blog from the get go you know how i have been stalking her for a couple of years now. And you might remember how I met her in Salt Lake at the Quilt show last year.

BUT LOOOK!!!!!

She saved my business card!!!!!!!!!

and used it in her email that she has sent to all the other people stalking her!!!!!!!!!

Wow. I feel complete. Minus my voice.

Plastic Wrap

i know..... why is she posting about plastic wrap?

It is one of those things. I can not stand bad plastic wrap. It drives me crazy. I have tried Saran wrap, Glad, the Target brand to name a few. And I have never found one that pleases me.  I know.... I should be shunning plastic wrap in lieu of Tupperware, storage containers. But I am a proud user of plastic wrap. It has endless uses.

So tonight when I clicked on my weekly newsletter from America's Test Kitchen I was OVERJOYED when I saw that they TESTED PLASTIC WRAP!!!!

My search is over, I know what the best is.
Now all I need to do is find it.

Lookee Lou.....

Many brands of plastic wrap clutter supermarket aisles these days. Are they all created equal? We bought five to find out.

Stretch-Tite, Saran Premium, Saran Cling Plus, Glad Cling Wrap, and Glad Press'n Seal all survived a microwave test and kept guacamole from turning brown for 72 hours. The real differences came when we tried using these wraps to cover bowls made of glass, metal, and plastic. The Glad Press'n Seal stuck to all three-but only if the bowls were perfectly dry. A glass bowl kept in a refrigerator for a few minutes gathered enough condensation to render the Press'n Seal useless. We consider this a fatal flaw.

The other four wraps performed equally well when used on metal or on glass. Plastic was another story. None of the wraps could cling to the plastic bowl. In every case we had to wind extra wrap around the first sheet. This is where Stretch-Tite really shines; the stickiest of all the wraps tested, it's also good at sticking to itself. Stretch-Tite is not as readily available as Saran or Glad products, but mail-ordering big 500-square-foot rolls is an option. Also look for these rolls at warehouse clubs.

Yes, it is true!

I can now officially say ........
Strano Designs, as seen in Martha Stewart's Living.

It is a little bit of India, page 52 in the June 2008 issue!

I am tickled pink (& papaya of course!)

another question posed by my Sophie

Sophie: Mom, why are there bids?

Me: What? What do you mean?

Sophie: Why do we have birds?

Me: I don't understand what you are asking.

Sophie: Well, why are there birds on this planet?

Me: uh..........................
............................... well......
.....................let me think.......
....................................

Me: Oh look Sophie a bird!

Fine Art Friday - I found this and thought I would share it!

This weekend will mark the 170th anniversary of the birth of Walter Goodman to the portrait painter Julia Salaman Goodman and her husband, Louis Goodman. Walter Goodman grew up to be a fairly well-known painter, illustrator, and author in his time, but in recent years he has not been as well-known, partly because the present whereabouts of most of his works of art are unknown. Some flossy facts to get you acquainted with this talented British artist and his 1883 painting, “The Printseller”…1. Goodman was reputedly the first English artist to receive a commission from a Chinese. In 1878, the Chinese minister to the Court of Berlin, Liu Hsi-Hung, commissioned Goodman to copy Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato’s “Madonna in Prayer,” which was in the National Gallery.2. “The Printseller” is a tromp l’oeil, or “trick the eye,” painting of a printseller’s window, so the objects appear to be three-dimensional. The printseller himself is included in image, along with books, coins, vases, a teacup, a necklace, statues, and photographs, six of which depict great Victorian painters.3. Goodman was a fan of the theater, and had even staged a play with his siblings in 1859 that received glowing reviews. Many of Goodman’s portraits are of Mary Anne Keeley, an English actress, whom Goodman highly admired and with whom he appeared in an 1884 production at the Prince of Wales theater. In 1895, Goodman published an appreciation of the whole theatrical Keeley family entitled The Keeleys on the Stage and at Home; it contained engravings of several of his portraits of Keeley.4. With his wife, Clara Isabel, Goodman had five children: Walter Russell, Joaquin, Reginald, Julia, and Keeley. Presumably, Joaquin was named after Goodman’s good friend and fellow artist, Joaquín Cuadras, Julia after Goodman’s mother, Julia Salaman Goodman, and Keeley after the Keeley family.5. Goodman contributed a weekly essay, “People I Have Painted,” to Sala’s Journal for several months in 1893. In each essay, Goodman described the often humorous circumstances surrounding a specific painting, including those of Napoleon III, Prince Leopold, His Excellency Kuo Sung Tao, Mary Anne Keeley, and Jack Sheppard.6. The Jewish Chronicle commissioned Goodman to draw a study of his own mother, the portrait painter Julia Salaman Goodman, for her 90th birthday in 1902.

Color to Live By

Do you have Spring Fever?
Want to surround yourself in luscious color year round?
Check out Yolo Color House
Spring into a new color palette!

My fav is Leaf.02

Ella the wise 7 year old

another chat with my Ella

Me: Ella, what do you think it will feel like to be in love?
E: Confusing.

sometimes she just nails it.