So back to my post on The Clark Art Museum on the Henri Toulouse Lautrec Exhibit. So there was this painting by Henry Somm as part of the french city life exhibit and it was beautiful. I cant find a good picture on the internet except for this small one but it was a watercolor and ink painting.
History
The Moulin de la Galette is made up of two mills: “Blute-fin” and “Radet”. The first mentioned name of the mill was “Palace windmill” in 1622. The Debray family acquired the two mills in 1809 for producing flour. But it was also used to pressurize the harvest or grind materials needed for manufacturing. The Parisian people appreciated it as Sunday walking goal.
The windmill “Blute-fin” was build in 1622 and often repaired. The name comes from the French verb “bluter” which means sifting flour for the separation from bran.
At the end of the Napoleon empire, in 1814, during the siege of Paris one of the Debray brothers strongly defended the windmill against Cossacks. They killed him and nailed him to the wings of the windmill.
In 1870, the owner Charles-Nicolas Debray, added a guinguette with a dancing room, and called it “Moulin de la Galette” in 1895. The “galette”, is a small rye bread that Debray millers made and sold with a glass of milk. Now, in French, “galette” is the name of cake. In 1830, they replaced milk with wine (especially the local Montmartre wine) and the windmill by a cabaret.
The atmosphere was relaxed and customers more popular than in other establishments such as “Moulin Rouge”. People came to “Moulin de la Galette” for enjoying and dancing. In “Moulin Rouge”, with a windmill-like building in a low-altitude place without wind, people came to see a show with professional dancers.
Then the place was used as music-hall, radio and television studios. It was closed in 1974, at the end of the ORTF (French public TV). It is now a private property.
The windmill “Radet” was built in 1717. In the 19th century, it was transformed into a guinguette on Sundays and public holidays. An association “Friends of Old Montmartre” saved it from destruction in 1915.
Here are some other paintings about the Moulin de la Galette…
Toulouse-Lautrec
Van Gogh
Poster for Moulin de la Galette…
1885…
Now a days…
oh man I can’t wait!!!
So this was the first weekend in a real long time that me and kev had to our selves. I was very excited. I mean I love all the other stuff and people we hang out with on weekends but sometimes I just want to have him to myself too! hehe Anyways we decided to hop the train in Amenia, NY at the Wassaic Train Station as we know refer to as Trowner-ville (truck+owner=trownerville). There some some sort of crazy fair going on for selling your farm or machine equipment and the streets were lined with hundreds or trucks of people who came out to buy or look at farm stuff. There really must be nothing else that happens in this area because it was a huge deal. Ok ok back to NYC. Its a 2 hour train ride into the city. Its well worth the 55 dollars roundtrip for the 2 of us- so much better than driving. We got off at grand central station and off we went. I would like to say I know how to get around there but my trips are not consistent enough to remember what I learned the last time I was there. I had to keep getting out my map and subway info. Anyways we werent so concerned with where we went-we just wondered around for most of the day. We were going to try to do one touristy thing and that was go one the NBC studio tour but it was sold out for the day. Oh well. We just spent time in the NBC store instead checking out all The Office stuff. We had dinner at BLT Burger – and kev was in love. We got burgers (him meat, me a falafel burger) waffle fries and a milkshake to share. It was a great place. Kev now has told mehe wants to go back there on his birthday. We also got to go to the Room and Board store and I was in heaven. I love that furniture. I want it all!! Our train ride home was filled with drawing and adding our own pictures into the urban outfitters catalog pictures. It was a good adventurous day spend with kev!
everyone should include this phrase in their vocabulary…jk
kev and amy are best frenemies… hehe
who buys this crap?
the bed I want from Room and Board
drawing game- where I draw a line and kev has to make a picture out of it. Can you see our Elephagator?
most amazing and expensive chairs…
So I just was looking online at some shows that I really want to go to in the coming months. Mates of State are playing at the hob in boston in May so I went and tried to look at the price of tickets. $20 bucks! plus if you order them online it promts you to ticketmaster who adds a $7.55 service charge on each ticket! Thats 30 bucks!! That is just crazy. What happened to being able to go see them at TT and the bears for maybe $10. I know I know they need to make a living too and I am so glad that they are doing so well, but I can’t even afford to go see them anymore. Its like a $100 dollar night then for 2 tickets, driving into boston, parking the car, getting food. Thats just expensive and something we can’t just do with out thinking it thru a little. Jenny Lewis is coming there in April as well and opening for her is Deertick!! Now who do I choose to go see? I def. cant afford both. Why do shows have to be so expensive?!?!?!?! ugh! I’ll take the old days thank you!
So today I took the kids in my portfolio class on a field trip to Williamstown, MA to the Clark Art Museum. It was a french + art combination field trip. The French teacher likes bringing her kids there because they have a large collection of impressionist paintings plus right now they are having an Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit (which i was psyched for!). Anyways the day was amazing! I mean I usually love my job- but today was one of those days where you just feel it in your heart that this is want you were meant to be doing. I couldn’t stop smiling. First off we got there and we had a guided tour with the director of education. He was this older gentleman from scotland and he was just wonderful. He was so funny and had the kids so engaged it was unbelievable. Haha he had them lying on the ground looking up at paintings, getting them to figure out where the painting would have hung, who was the audience, the reason behind things. It was just great. I mean I cant stress how awesome this man was. I think the kids enjoyed the giant painting of naked nymphs pulling a peeping fawn into the pond to cool him down- with the symbolism of one of the nymphs pulling the fawns horn the best but I do really think they liked the whole tour. During the tour he was asking questions about a monet and one of my kids starting saying all this stuff about how it was an impressionist painting and they focus on light, and it looks better if you step away so that the color will blend and all this stuff and I was like wow they really do listen (well some!). I was so proud!
Anyways after lunch we gave the kids free time to walk around and I was just so proud of them. They kept wanting to talk with me about things they were seeing and were pointing out things different things and letting me know what their thoughts were. It was just so fun. I didn’t want to leave. There are a few students who really just make every bad day in teaching seem worth it.
I got a few mins to walk around the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit by myself and oh man I love that stuff. What an awesome era- they paintings mostly depict the 1890’s and the city life in Paris and the Moulin Rouge. If I could time travel i would go back then and dance the night away at those places wearing all those awesome dresses.
I leave you with some Toulouse-Lautrec paintings…
So there was this piece of artwork by Lautrec there of this guy performing surgery. I read about it and I guess Dr. Pean was a surgeon back in the 1890’s and he would perform public surgeries for people to come and watch. Lautrec would go a lot and draw what he would see. How crazy huh?
So today I used kev’s camera instead of mine and the picture quality is way better. I am slowing learning how to use an SLR instead of my point and shoot. I might have to use another corner of the house when I start wearing things that don’t match the purple walls in my craft room.
So I leave for Paris in exactly 22 days and I couldnt be more excited. I have dreams of wondering around the city of love and fashion capital with my new (well really old) nikkormat film SLR, wearing adorable flats, skinny legged dark jeans and a super cute spring trench. I have been looking for the perfect coat (for me that means perfect fit, great color and unique details) but havent found one yet. I really like the ones below but of course when looking on the interent you can find anything any price. So of course all the ones I find are way to expensive for me, but its my mission (22 days and counting to complete) to find the perfect spring coat. I’ll let you know…
So I have been going back and forth about this for a couple weeks now and have decided to go ahead with it. I have been enjoying on other blogs people who post pictures of their ensembles everyday, as I have stated before clothes are as much a creative outlet for me as painting or any other kind of art. I find it kind of inspiring to see what other people are wearing, seeing different styles and different budgets and how they present it all as one package for the day. So I after debating if I really wanted a picture of myself on here every day- I decided to take on the challenge of going into my closet each morning and creating an outfit that will inspire me and seeing how far I can stretch the clothes that I have to create as many “new outfits” as I can. I mean lets face it I am a teacher who makes no money so I can’t be out buying new clothes every week (although I wouldn’t be against that). I am going to call the section “Teacher Style Files” because the pictures will be of the outfits I wear to school each day. I will list where each item of clothing is from and the approximate cost so people can see that you can have style (well I guess if I have style is debatable) without breaking the bank. I know for me if I feel good in what I am wearing I feel confident through out the day. It has nothing to do with how others see me- its not a vain thing. For all I know people think I look crazy, but in my head if I like what I am wearing it makes me feel good and it makes my day a little brighter. I just hope that others can feel the same way.
So we had some people over yesterday for the first bbq of the season. Although it was cold and I actually saw flurries we had an amazing time and even played soccer over at the park. We are hoping that from now till it gets to cold again next fall we can have a get together once a month on the 1st sunday of the month at our place. It will be an open invitation to anyone that can or whats to come.
Anyways on another totally seperate topic there is this letterpress studio who’s blog I follow and they just had a post about a guy who proposed to his girlfriend but as well as a ring he gave her a handbound letterpresed book of their emails they had written back and forth between each other. Now that is amazing! Oh how I love letterpress books!!
Check out pictures and the entry here
I turned the 3rd bedroom in our house into my studio and although its rarely clean i love just being in there creating stuff. I have to stay on top of myself to keep it tidy because when it gets to messy I find I’d rather just move myself down to the dining room table and work then clean up and stay in my room. I painted the room purple well like a rasberry color and have an easel, a drafting/work table and a sewing table in there. Its not a huge room so its a little cramped when I have stuff everywhere but its full of inspiration in there with all the colors and craft supplies everywhere. My cats like to sleep on the bottom shelf that i have stuffed with fabric. I always find there little noses peeking out from under the piles.
So Hannah and Sean are getting married next month and the wedding fun is beginning to start. Her shower was the other weekend followed by her bachelorette party. We all met at the Melting Pot in albany to surprise her. She had to go around town on a crazy scavenger hunt trying to find where we were. Have I expressed how much I love the melting pot? Its like the most amazing place. I love fondue!!! It was fun to dress up and it was great to get to celebrate with Hannah!!
hahaha oh man we rewinded and pause this like 10 times. It totally cracked me up (thank goodness for on demand channels). So there is this amazingly awesome brewery next to our church called Brown’s Brewing Co..we love it there- they have great food and the beer to SO SO GOOD! Anyways, they have a tradition every St. Pat’s day that they invite our pastor to come over and do a blessing of the bar. It’s like this huge event with bag pipers and tons of people and tons of news coverage. Anyways Kev went last night with some friends from work and haha in the about 30 second clip on the news Kevs head was clear as day for about 10 of those seconds. haha just standing there with his big smile on- its so funny to me. Kev said Ed (our pastor) did an amazing job and we honestly feel truly blessed to be part of this church
Watch video from last years Blessing of the Bar Here
(Ed’s Blessing comes a couple mins. into video after shots of people at bar)
So I’d like to start showing recipes and pictures on here when I actually cook something that is worthy of posting- but here is the first one.
Mmmm so good. I usually make this with some garlic bread and a Caesar salad.
Aren’t our green plates cool?
Wheat Pasta in a Spinach Sauce:
1 Pound Whole Wheat Pasta (Penne,Rotini)
2 garlic cloves
2 ounces goat cheese
1 ounce reduced fat cream cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
I first saute up the garlic before I put it in the food processor.
Cook pasta while you make the sauce (the sauce really only takes the amount of time the pasta takes to cook)
For the sauce all you do is in a food processor throw- sauteed garlic, goat cheese, cream cheese, salt, pepper, and 6 ounces of chopped up spinach. I pulse it all together until it is creamy. I chopped up the remaining spinach and put in the bottom of the serving bowl. When pasta is cooked and before I dump the water I save about 1/2 a cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta dump into serving bowl on top of chopped spinach. Mix in the sauce from processor and then add alittle of the pasta water to help coat and spread of the sauce- it gets alittle thick without it. Mix it all up. Dish out and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Viola!
So kev got me a sewing machine for my birthday (not last year the year before) and I was so excited!! I love to sew things. I am pretty ok making things like pillows, sewn little creatures, tote bags and things like that but I really wanted the machine to learn how to sew clothes. I’ve had my eye out for a dress form for a while now too- anyways I MADE MY FIRST SHIRT last night!! From far away it looks pretty darn good if you ask me for my first shirt. Up close you can def. see its not sewn all that straight but hey it was my first try. I guess I maybe should have used an easier fabric but I dont like making things easy for myself- hehe. I also made the pin. The chain is from one of my grandma’s old necklaces -anyways, love it- its like my new favorite thing!!
So I love love love she&him its such good music and she always has such great style- a very modern vintage look… I got to see this special on my sundance ondemand channel- Elvis costello has a show called spectacle and he has musical guests on where he chats with them and then they perform with him. She&Him were on the other day as well as Jenny Lewis and jakob dylan. It was an awesome episode!
Amazing…
so I found this post on the Martha Stewart Craft Blog and its just so cute I can’t stand it… Me, Gully and Pirate could all have matching little scraves
some close ups…
what they look like on…
So here is the deal. I need your help!! I am doing an art show at a gallery in Troy, NY with the opening at the end of June during Troy Night Out and I am really excited because its going to be a show with me and kev!! We are doing it together- a couples show! Anyways, I have always loved making comics/graphic novels (thanks to marc cote) and I have been going back and forth about what I wanted in the show and well I decided I want to make these really large 1 panel comics about different stories. I am thinking like 36″x60″- they will be mixed media self contained pieces so like you wont need the other pieces to know the story. I want each one to be its own story.
So this is what I need from you. I dont want them to be of made up stories and I dont want them to be all about me so I need you to write me stories that have happened to you in your life time. They can be happy, sad, ridiculous, scray, miraculous, regular, heartbreaking they can be of anything. It can be from recent or from years ago- any time is good. Maybe its like your favorite thing that has happened to you or something that happened in your life time that has totally changed who you’ve become. Just email them to me at jenloveskev@gmail.com or send me a message on facebook. I am really excited about this project and getting people I know and maybe people I dont even know that well invovled in this art project.
If you send me a real long story I may have to edit it to fit into a painting- I def. will love to read any length of a story but keep in mind it needs to be told in only a few frames. So maybe story isnt so much the word I should use as moment or memory and story is the secondary word…
Here are some sample pages from a graphic novel I made in college. They might be along these lines- well a little less dark, more painterly but def. lots of mixed media.
So remember that really nice chess set that I made for kev last year? You can read about in in our Valentines Day Post 2008 well it died the other day. Sniff Sniff.
We had been keeping it up on top of our tall 6 drawer dresser in our bedroom because it’s not something we want to cats to jump around on. Well we came back from being gone for the weekend to find it smashed to pieces all over the floor. Now I can understand if the pieces were knocked off- like the cat jumped up and knocked them over BUT THE ENTIRE BOARD was pushed off the dresser. Every piece and the giant piece of wood that I made and painted as the game board was pushed off. Now that was deliberate. Come on kitties!
Here are the before- it was so nice I was so proud of it. I worked so hard on it!!
and here is it now…
RIP
so i decided i would try to draw more and by more I mean everyday. I am hoping to draw everyday m-f and then be able to post them all on here of what I drew thru out the week andmaybe get some critique fromyou guys. I can take the critism dont worry. Now I am not a good drawer. Its hard and it takes alot of patience to sit there and look at what you are drawing. I am at least trying to do it for a couple weeks. We’ll see how it goes. Its wednesday today and I have yes drawn something monday and tuesday. Tuesdays I was already tired of doing it and kinda half assed my drawing. ooops Today I wil be better. I always feel like my drawings come out cartoon like. Is that just my style? I dont know if I like that? I feel like I am cursed by marc cote to always feel like my stuff is too cartoony as he would say. Wel drawings will be up by saturday sometime….
1. Headbands
2. Tinted lip gloss
3. Blasting and dancing around my living room to the ting tings
4. Watching LOST and Making homemade pizza on wednesday nights with kev
5. Getting to go running outside again- spring!
6. Wearing rubber boots in puddles
7. The fridge after I have gone grocery shopping
8. My 3 cups of green tea with mint every morning when I get to school
9. Freshly painted nails (even better are freshly manicured nails from the salon)
10. Hearing kev call me swee-tie. I dont know how it started or why its continued but it makes me feel all warm on the inside- haha
11. my orange cinnamon candles
12. Jakes Fault Shiraz
13. Succulent Plants
14. Simply Orange with Pineapple juice (can brighten any morning)
15. Homemade burritos (with yellow rice, black beans, gauc. tomatoes and spinach!)
16. Seeing the kitties sleeping in the pile of fabric in my craftroom
17. Accessories
18. Thinking about going to France in 6 weeks!!
19. Saturday Mornings
20. Doing an artshow with kev in june in Troy, NY
so take that.hehe jk
ok ok i have one more- cat videos!
here are some photos of when we went to go see deertick play on valentines day.
they were awesome as usual.
Louis ck.
not the greatest video quality…
so I promise I will be better at repsonding to peoples comments. You can now expect a response to any comment you leave for me! So comment away!
so can i just say that I am totally in love with Jcrew right now… I keep getting new spring catologs in the mail and i keep ripping out all these pictures with such amazingly cute outfits. I have always loved the “suit” section of jcrew. I use to tell myself when I was in high school “when I am a teacher I will totally wear these.” They always looked so professional and gorgeous. haha well I am a teacher now and I do not wear these suits- haha can you image me wearing this like 500 dollar outfit to the artroom. I get bummed when I wreck a 20 dollar shirt. I wish I had a job (well not really because I love being an art teacher) that I could wear such dressy outfits to. Anyways I love how they have pair casual and formal together!! I love all the necklaces they are selling right now- so vintage and chunky looking. Here are a few of my favorites… oh and by the way- they have lauren hutton as one of the models. Can you imaging looking as good as she does when you are 66 years old. I sure hope I can wear a pair of skinny jeans like that.
Im in love with this causual cool look- plus i have been trying to find a pair of glasses like that!
love the rolled pants with the high heels and the necklace with the ribbon…
so good!
this skirt is amazing…
skirt sweater combo also amazing…
I love this necklace so much- its like over $100 dollars though- yikes!
Jillian is the NEW BACHELORETTE!!! This is great- I loved her and she is from canada just like me- yay!!!! Lots of canada in this bachelorette season I hope!!! Wasnt it great when Jillian brought Jason home to meet her family and her dad wrapped him in the canadian flag? or when her grandma bought him boxers with maple leaves on them. Oh canada how I love you!
canada + jillian as bachelorette= one great season!!
hey my new website is coming out awesome- The design is almost finished. Kev has been working real hard on it and has been doing a great job at listening to what I want it to look like. I am so excited!
www.jenloveskev.com COMING SOON!!!
holy Crap! Thats all I have to say. Kev and me have been watching the bachelor this season (no laughs please) And last night was the finale and then The After the Rose Cermony. It was the craziest episode ever! He came on the special after he proposed to melissa to break up with her and to tell the girl he didnt picked he loved her instead. It was the most awkward uncomfortable thing to watch but we were sucked right in. Oh man what a jerk to do that on tv? Do you think he had to? Do you think they knew all along? I mean Molly’s reaction seemed pretty geniune that she was in shock? What do you think? haha it was awesome when Melissa called jason a Bastard. The previews for Jimmy Kimmel looks so funny I ended up staying up till 1am to watch it. He was making fun of Jason so bad- it was awesome. Even Kate (LOST) who was on the show was taking shots at him- so good. Seriously!
just a test
so amy was the first one to show these to me and kev and they are so good!! First you have to watch the actual one of the cats meowing to each other and then watch the translation of it below. It matches up with their mouth movements perfect. I love when the cat actually says “meow”…
Welcome to my personal lifestyle blog. It features topics such as motherhood, family life, fashion, cooking, and all sorts of adventures. I hope you enjoy what you find!
