Julia Child

I am completely obsessed with Julia Child these days. I read all I can get my hands on about her this weekend, watched her demonstrate how to roast a chicken and make Grand Marnie souffle and took a virtual tour of her kitchen at the Smithsonian. I admire her since she was well into her 30's when she married at a time when this was frowned upon, became a cook because "she liked to eat", was the only woman in her class to graduate from the Le Cordon Bleu, and started her TV career well into her 50's. She took America out of the casserole doldrums and brought it into the age of souffles. And she was quirky.

Lost in the City

Last night, A. and I were supposed to go to Brian Jungen's show but since his gallery moved to a new more industrial location, we got completely lost. We missed the show but instead had a great walk in Vancouver's soon to be developed lower east end. Abandoned warehouses, old auto shops and a forgotten railway stretched out for a mile. This city's landscape is changing so rapidly I have been documenting it when I can as I soon forget what was there once it is developed. Too bad about the show, but I enjoyed our walk and photo session.

Happy Birthday Helvetica!

A former coworker of mine emailed me an article about this exhibition at the MoMA celebrating Helvetica's 50th Anniversary. I guess more of an inside joke as we all had a hard time with our designer who used the most inappropriate fonts (and way too many of them) whenever designing anything simple or not. It used to drive me crazy and many people couldn't understand why I would get so bent out of shape about fonts. And size. And negative space (or lack of). I would take it personally and loose sleep over it. I once suggested Helvetica but was never appreciated as an idea...I love its simplicity and it generally looks so comforting. Anyway, here is the article.

lemon drop martinis and other favourites

The warm weather is finally here and with that comes the cocktail parties on the patio. I have my mini lanterns, tiki inspired furniture and the cocktail attire all set. Now I need interesting recipes. Every year I try to experiment with a new summer drink. Last year was lemon drop martinis (still a favourite), I think this year it might be capirinas. For some reason it is hard to find cachaça, the Brazilian sugar cane liquor but I was able to substitute with white rum. Still very good. What are your favourite summer cocktail recipes?

Put your slippers on, you are going to catch a cold

I have been working on a series of drawings in collaboration with my grandmother Mara. She often leaves notes in my apartment when she visits, which are very much in the style of her tone. Eat this pizza, or put it in the freezer; put these tulips outside, so they live longer; eat more yogurt; and so on. I often find them long after her visits and they always make me smile. I have been saving them and incorporating them in a series of drawings.

Now that I have started blogging again, I can't seem to stop. I found this website www.atol.bg, which is for long lost Bulgarian classmates and was able to find people I have't spoken to in more then 20 years. One of them Andrey, who lives in Florida, was my neighbour and classmate in grade 2. I found this photograph of my second grade class and it turns out he is the one on my left. How strange. We are in the museum of Bulgarian-Soviet Relations in our best commie uniforms. (I am the one in the white clogs in the middle)

squiggles

I have always found the squiggles by the pens for sale really beautiful. I have been scanning them and working them into drawings.

As if I didn't feel overwhelmed already by all the information around me, personal email, work email, facebook, flickr, I have been really neglecting my blog. So, prompted by K. and K. tonight I have decided to continue with my blog. I think the problem was that I didn't feel like a had a specific voice when I was writing. Is it a personal blog, an art blog, a food blog or a social blog? Well, I'll give it another chance and let it develop organically. I am posting a photo of the can of sardines I bought today at the German Food Warehouse by my house. This place is like a museum. I also bought a jar of peach jam from the Bulgarian communist era. So, I am back and if you have stuck around long enough to see this well overdue post, welcome back!