Ron Mueck

In some after dinner bloggy wanderings I came across this guy:
I just think his work is so strange and beautiful... and don't get me wrong... very, very disturbing. But very cool.

It reminds me of this, which I also am so completely enamored with:

Cute kids out at the farm

Gosh but we always have such a good time out at Johnson's. What a great bunch of folks. And Beth gave me delicious fresh organic eggs to take home! They're having a transplant sale this weekend, don't miss it. Lots of heirloom tomatoes, squash, cukes, melons, flowers... oh my gosh, can you believe spring is on the horizon and all those delicious vegs are coming our way? It's about this time of year that one finds themselves never wanting to look another beet in the face ever again.

Neat free print out for YOU!

I like to check in at the blog, Just Something I Made. She's a graphic designer and often pops stuff she designs up on her blog for her readers to use. Labels, book covers, even widgets for your blog (my God, did I just type that?). Or vintage things she finds... she really has a taste that appeals. To me, at least. She just posted this cool thing above. It's an I Spy game you can play with your kid... "I spy the monkey", you say, and then they try to find it... and so it goes. You can print it out here.

Dave Eggers

I had the glory of getting to see this incredibly awesome person last night at Bookpeople. I had just watched his TED talk a few days before, and then I was at Bookpeople and saw that he was coming and thought, well, it's a sign. Any time I have gone out of my way to see someone I admire I haven't regretted it.

I was a bit of a spaz about it and I feel slightly embarassed... I read that you had to get there at 4 to get a wristband and I assumed it would be mobbed and I better get there an hour early... and find childcare for my kids for an hour in the afternoon, no easy feat... as it turned out, the literati were fired up about ol' Dave but not fired up enough to like storm Bookpeople and it would have been perfectly fine for me to just show up at 7:30 for the reading like half the other schmoes.

Also I bought his (fur covered!) book, The Wild Things. Normally I would not do the signing thing. I'm too shy in the face of people I revere, I'd rather admire them from a distance. But since I'd gone to all that trouble I decided to get it signed. For my brother, and then I'd get some real brownie points from him to make the agony of having to go face to face with Dave Eggers worth it. As it turns out, it was rather agonizing and the pang that won't go away is exactly why I don't like to do things like that. He was such an amazing guy. He really was willing to chat for a few moments and really have a moment with each person who went up to him to get their book signed. Even though there was a huge long line and I wouldn't have faulted him at all if he'd rather rush through a bit. But I rushed myself through and now looking back I realize he was about to say something more to me but I cut him off because I was afraid we were having a moment of awkward silence. So, note to self: Be Here Now. Let celebrity authors finish their thought without letting your fear of uncomfortableness get in the way.

Anyway, this guy is really unbelievable. Aside from his writing which I think is great, it just seems like he spreads the love around in a major way. Instead of clinging greedily to fame/fortune and attempting to ensure he never gets pushed off his pedestal by steadily churning out safe and predictable books, he's like, "Well, if all these eyes are turned towards me, I'm going to use that spotlight to make sure these other things get attention, too." His just amazing amazing work with 826 Valencia etc which I could rave on and on about... encouraging people to go out into their community and give of themselves... support your local bookstore for god's sake (which I'm SUPER embarassed to say I need a big kick in my lazy ass to do, and I got one from Dave himself last night)... and also just giving some of his spotlight to other authors, spreading the love around as I said... last night he introduced and raved about two local Austin writers, one of whom had published a novel with McSweeney's (which accepts unsolicited manuscripts!!), and had them read before him. Bestill my beating, breaking heart. Staggering genius.

Of course on top of it all, he is SUPER cute and funny and really wanted to engage with the audience and just talk about interesting stuff, and kept asking the audience to give him a relationship question rather than a writing question. Sad to say almost no one obliged and I wish I had had the balls to do so, or just ask him any more interesting question that he was looking for. Everyone just wanted to ask him (mainly) about how to get published, it seemed. Oh well. I'm glad he was there to encourage everyone to volunteer at Austin Bat Cave (and live life and experience something, anything, a whole bunch of things) alongside trying to get yourself published. Getting published is great and all but let's spread some of this love around.

Bristlebot!

I'm working on this little bristlebot birthday party. The kids will also be making one of these fun obstacle courses for their bristlebot. Isn't he a cute little guy?

Gever Tulley of Tinkering School visits Austin!

I'm rather absurdly excited to announce that the fabulous Gever Tulley, founder of Tinkering School and author of the above book, will be visiting Austin at the end of March, and these are the events we have lined up for him while he's here.

FRIDAY
March 26

An evening with:

GEVER TULLEY Founder of Tinkering School (tinkeringschool.com)
and author of Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)
with
CARRIE CONTEY, Ph D. Co-founder of Slow Family Living (slowfamilyliving.com)
prenatal and perinatal psychologist, parenting coach, educator and consultant
and BERNADETTE NOLL Co-founder of Slow Family Living and
Future Craft Collective (futurecraftcollective.com), writer and mother of four

speaking on the topic of
INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
FRIDAY, MARCH 26TH, 7PM
Sri Atmananda Memorial School, 4100 Red River
RSVP: KAMI WILT, KWILT@AUSTIN.RR.COM

Gever will be signing copies of his book after the talk. Bring cash or a check if you'd like to buy one.

SATURDAY
March 27

A day long Tinkering School workshop with fifteen kids at Sri Atmananda. We will be designing and building a two story structure out of sticks using a lashing technique which Gever recently wrote about in Make magazine.

SUNDAY
March 28
5 pm
A screening of the film, Race To Nowhere: The dark side of America's achievement culture.
A panel discussion will follow with Gever Tulley, Bernadette Noll, and others.
A blurb from the film's site:

"Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political, igniting a national conversation in her new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in our achievement obsessed public and private education system and culture. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens."

Location TBA. $5. Visit the website to watch the trailer. Book signing to follow the discussion.

MONDAY
March 29

UT talk to design students... this is open to the public, but I don't yet have the deets. I will update this posting when I have the specifics, including the location for the film.

Oh, it's all just going to be a real shebang, I can't wait! I mean, the guy was just on Good Morning, America for goodness sake (if that's not evidence that you've arrived I don't know what is)... this is our big chance to see him before he's just WAY too famous. And vision Tinkering School: Austin... let's make it happen. Wouldn't it be cool??

Rainbow bath salts

This is a really fun and easy project. I made fizzy bath salts, dyed them different colors, and then the kids had the fun of layering them however they wanted. Kinda like that sand art in glass vases that we used to do at the fair... does anyone else remember that? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Anyway, the fizzy bath salt recipe is super easy and normally I would do that part with the kids too, but these were extra bath salts I had left over from a birthday party I did last weekend. So, actually that was pretty good that we could skip that step because we were doing this project after school, a time when patience is on the wane and ire is on the wax. So we made it through the project without any major meltdowns from me or from the kids, which is a major Whew.

Fizzy Bath Salts

1 c. baking soda

1 c. epsom salts

1/2 c. citric acid

a few drops scent or essential oil

a few drops of food coloring

Mix the baking soda, epsom salts, essential oil, and food coloring together first and then give it some time to dry, 10 minutes or so. If the mixture is too wet when you add the citric acid, it will start fizzing and all that fizz will be wasted. When the mixture seems dry just add the citric acid and you are all set. You don't have to be that careful, really. If it fizzes a little that's alright.