Thrilled by the Thought

Janelle @ Brimful Curiosities who said,

Wicked is wicked! Haven’t read this one yet. Thanks for the giveaway.

Send me an email at pianoteacherblog{at}yahoo{dot}com with your info and I’ll get that shipped out to you asap!

Thanks to everyone who participated! Be sure to check back TOMORROW for my next giveaway {with a twist!}

The giveaway ends tonight!  Hurry and comment here!

And stay tuned for another book giveaway {with a twist} coming up!  I’ll announce it on Thursday, so be sure to check back!

Don’t forget to comment on the giveaway here!

I grew up in Northern California, only an hour or so away from the ocean.  We spent many weekends going to different beach towns, old Spanish missions, and big cities like San Francisco.  Now living in Salt Lake City, I haven’t come across quite so many cool places.  I’m sure I haven’t been looking hard enough, because we recently discovered this cool little downtown area in Sugar House.  Loaded with tiny furniture shops, boutiques, art galleries, and interesting restaurants, we spent several happy hours wandering and discovering.  We even came across several statues, monuments, and other “installations.” 

I would love to hear of your favorite cool places to visit!

This installation was made out of who-knows-what, but it functioned as a street lamp.

Hanging outside a quilt shop.  We thought it looked like stained glass.

Not quite as comfy as it looked.

And the real reason we came to Sugar House.  This store:

This store sells international fair trade items.  Here is what they do (copied from their website)

It is a trading partnership aimed at sustainable development for excluded and disadvantaged producers. It seeks to do this by providing better trading conditions, by raising awareness and by campaigning.

The principles of fair trading include:

1. Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
2. Transparency and accountability
3. Capacity building
4. Payment of a fair price
5. Gender equity
6. Good working conditions
7. Care for the environment

It’s a non-profit store.  All employees are volunteers.  The items sold are very unique and so beautiful.  Look them up to see if there is a store near you!

Don’t leave this site without commenting on the fabulous giveaway here!  (You can comment in other places too.  I don’t mind!!!)

Henri Rousseau painted toward the end of the 19th century.  He was an untrained amateur painter.  The painting above is probably his most famous.  I’ve always been struck by the blue of that sky.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  I love the imagination and fantasy of his paintings.

This is another one I recently discovered (as if my discovery means anything at all.  It’s always been out there!)  Don’t those plants look so exotic?  Rousseau never left Paris, so he had a fantastic imagination to be able to paint scenes like this!

What do you think of these paintings? Are they a little too weird for you or do you like the imagination?

Don’t forget to comment on the giveaway here!

I think babies and children naturally love music, don’t you? My 11 month old starts bouncing and swaying all over the place whenever she hears music. I want to encourage her in every way, so every day, we turn on the radio to a good dance music station and we dance all over the place. (Even though, after persistent prodding on my part, my husband recently confessed to me that I am not a good dancer. He’s right, by the way).

We also have a piano in the house, which she wanders over to nearly every day.

Today, she found our guitar which has been collecting dust behind the couch since before she was born.  As I sat blogging, I suddenly heard gentle guitar noises as she plucked and hit the strings.  I was so excited that she figured out what the guitar does all on her own!  Knowing her curious fingers could damage it, I still pulled it out and let her explore.

When she started to use it as a climbing gym, exploration time was over!

How do you encourage your children to explore and appreciate music?

Are you a Wicked fan?  I am giving away a spankin’ new copy of the sequel to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked.  Son of a Witch would make a great Christmas gift for any Wicked fan you know (even if that’s yourself!). 

Here’s how to win your very own copy:  Leave a comment on this post for one entry.  Send a friend over to leave a comment for two additional entries.  Post about my giveaway on your blog for five additional entries!  Sound good?  Get commenting! Giveaway ends Tuesday, November 18!

As if you couldn’t hate Hitler enough, here comes a lesser known story of more silent victims of the Nazis- famous art. 

The Rape of Europa documents the Nazi’s massive, calculated thievery of artworks, furniture, and historical objects throughout Europe.  Hitler and his forces traveled across Europe, stealing from art dealers, art collectors, and museums.  What he didn’t take, Hitler burned and destroyed because he considered it unworthy of the new “supreme” nation he was building.

The images in this film of Nazis casually walking off with beautiful masterworks in their ornate frames is surreal. 

Many museums prepared for his looting by evacuating all the artwork and shipping it off to the countryside.  The Nazis were then greeted with empty hallways. 

Hundreds of paintings are still missing.  The Utah Museum of Fine Arts actually had a stolen painting in it’s possesion without knowing it!  Thankfully (but sadly), they returned the painting to the original owners.  Experts believe some of these missing paintings will remain missing for generations until all of the Nazi generation is gone.

Watch the movie. It’s so worth it.

Octopuses or octopi (Either plural is correct, I promise.  I looked it up!) are just not pretty. While they’re very cool looking, I feel they just lack that beauty that makes you say, “Ooooh” in a mesmerized fashion.  They are blobby and globby and the creepy way they move doesn’t do much for their looks. 

Maybe it’s because of evil Ursula that I feel this way.

But my daughter was playing with one of my old Art History textbooks and left it open to a page with this vase from 1500 BC.

I can not remember ever seeing this vase as an undergraduate student, even though I underlined several things about it and other things on the same page! Just where was my head when I was busy underlining?

I think this vase is just absolutely stunning. Did you ever think an octopus could be this pretty?

What do you do when you receive a wonderful, lifesaving gift and you really want to say thank you, but the giver is anonymous???  You blog about it, of course, and hope that the sender checks your blog frequently!

The other day, my daughter received a most fabulous package filled with an entire wardrobe of winter clothing- new jeans, new jammies, new sweaters, new long sleeved shirts and onesies, new mittens and a hat, a new winter dress and tights, and even some shoes!  Everything is the perfect size, very much needed, and very much cute! 

Here, Lydia inspects her new treasures:

Everything seems to be up to code.

The jammies qualify for some lovin’.

My favorite of the cute new outfits.

And, of course, the box provided entertainment for Lydia and the cat.

Thank you to our wonderful gift-giving angels!  I hope you check my blog today!  My other hope in sharing about this wonderful act of kindness is that others will be inspired to give when they see a need and are able. I believe we are all blessed with different talents, abilities, and means so that we may share them to help others.

I am so happy because my 11 month old can finally sit still long enough to look at a book.  If you know my squirmy little munchkin, you know this is a huge accomplishment.  And I am ecstatic that her favorite book of the moment is a book about art! 

 
A Child’s Book of Art, with artwork selected by Lucy Micklethwait is geared toward kids.  Each page is devoted to a topic, like “At the Seashore,” “Numbers,” or “Opposites,” with 4 or more paintings that go along with the topic.  What I love most about the book is it puts paintings of such different styles and time periods right next to each other.  An Egyptian tomb painting might share a page with a Van Gogh.  

Honestly, this is a great book to have, even if you don’t have kids.  You don’t need a degree to study art, and this book makes it so easy!  Without even realizing it, you learn to look at paintings a little differently through comparisons.