The Simple Hours

Turning neglected spaces into constructive places.

2011-03-31T18:47:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan and street art, graffiti and anything that throws everything a little off. I found this woman in the online world and think she is pretty brilliant.

http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/

Beautiful Bicycle Rush Hour Traffic

2011-02-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite videos. If you bike you will love this video. If you don't bike, it'll make you want to go out and get a bike. I ride mine with traffic which is fine, but if there were bike lanes like this set up all over I imagine it would be a world full of more and more bicycles.

Recreating your old self.

2011-02-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

If you haven't run into these in the online world, these photographs are pretty brilliant. It takes looking at old photos to a whole different level. Wouldn't it be great if we could all have our childhood photos recreated?

http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/

Winter Garland

2011-02-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Got the idea from the blog Two Chicks and a Hen, which looked really fun. Sometimes during winter, you need a little color to help with the long snowy days. We used petit four molds and a few measuring cups and even ended up having way more ice molds than we needed. It was really pretty during the few days that the sun didn't peek through, but they have slowly started to melt since yesterday.

Boston Biker Rant

2011-02-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

As a person that rides my bike in town, I so loved reading this...and relate to it.

Boston Biker Rant

Indoor Snow Activity

2011-01-30T07:12:00.000-08:00

Last week it was very cold outside and Thao really wanted to go out and play. Normally, I'm up for going outside no matter what the weather. Except when it's freezing cold and we are advised "keep yourselves, your children and your animals inside"...also if it is so cold that after a certain amount of time, my lips can barely move and I have slurred speech...then it means stay indoors. I had remembered when I use to work at a preschool here in New England, snow would be brought inside for the texture table. Something that would get messy with multiple kids reaching over each other, but nonetheless was fun. So I had no excuse for us to not play with the snow, even if that means not going outside.

Note. The roads were quite busy, despite the weather conditions. The townspeople heard about the gigantic snowman that someone had built and also heard how some pandas decided to show up.

Shameless advertising.

2011-01-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

It had been years since I had a marshmallow. Being vegetarian, I don't eat marshmallows since they contain gelatin. I had tried some vegan marshmallows years ago, but they just didn't do the trick.I gave up on trying other alternatives, most probably assuming they would all taste like the not so yummy vegan marshmallows. I don't remember who made them, it was a while back. I would be lying if I didn't admit to missing roasted marshmallows or having hot burning smores. There are several recipes online for making them and I'm sure one day I will test out one of them.....except I was at one of our local health food stores and spotted some Sweet and Sarah marshmallows. I'd heard of these, but had never tried them. I had been reluctant to ordering them online when I first knew of them. I had no idea the aisle I have walked past many times, has these vegan marshmallows waiting for some hands to grab them. I brought them home and it was like being a kid again, eating marshmallows! Our 3 1/2 year old had her first marshmallow, we can say it was a love at first bite. Soooo looking forward to roasted marshmallows and yummy smores in the near future.

DIY Watercolors

2011-01-21T20:38:00.000-08:00

In our household we try and do arts and crafts every day if possible and if we aren't able to, we generally try to make up for it. I found this recipe for d.i.y. watercolors and we just had to try it. We make so many other things, but hadn't even thought about making our own watercolors. It was very fun and satisfying. Next time we make these, I think we'll use a much bigger palette for color variety(and just because it's fun). D.I.Y. Watercolors

Mixing the ingredients, oddly we had everything in our house already.

The watercolors sitting, drying and waiting to be tested by us.

We paint!!!

Seasons of Change

2010-12-30T22:02:00.000-08:00

It's pretty amazing how drastic the seasons will change things. This is one of my favorite places to hang out in town. In fact, it's just one of my favorite places in general to hang out. During the not-so-cold months of the year, it's pretty busy with people, children, and unleashed dogs taking a quick dip in the river. Despite how busy it can get at times, it always has a calmness to it. It's not unusual during warmer days to see poets writing in their journals, students from the local college reading literature or painters painting a picture. By the time winter comes in, the trees have become bare, the pond freezes over, the sound of birds has become far less than what it was months before yet there is still a strong presence of what is here and what is to be. Love it!!!

We love sledding!

2010-12-28T22:30:00.001-08:00

By far one of the most exciting things about winter is sledding!!!Luckily we have a variety of hills to choose from for when we want to go sledding. Our little one is pretty fearless, so she has a blast on her tube sled. In the summer time I bought a vintage flexible flyer for $5.00 at a huge tag sale. That was a great find for me since I always wanted one. Needless to say, the flexible flyer lived it up to its name and I plan to put lots of use to it!

Catching snowflakes

2010-12-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

A couple nights before the snowstorm blew in(which is blowing outside), I went outside to try and capture a couple snowflakes. I have a few small glass panes around the house collecting dust. So I just laid one of those out for a few minutes till it was cold enough to catch a snowflake. I looked up what kind of snowflake this is but can't tell whether it's a stellar dendrite or a fern stellar dentrite. Nonetheless, this could become a new habit of mine. If I still had my old Nikon with a macro lens I would be getting a little obsessive with this.