!nkspiration: Anna Williams Photography

As a regular Martha Stewart Living reader, I've been coming across Anna William's fabulous photography but today I took some time to look over her website and it blew me away.

Her images are refreshing and so inspiring.. To see more of her work, you can visit her website..

(images via Anna Williams website)

Have a great weekend!

Z is down with a flu so our weekend plans might go up in the air! I hope she feels better soon!

Meanwhile, here's a lovely video I came across earlier this week. It's a tribute from a man to a city he lived in and loved. He attached theatre tickets to balloons that he set free from a building top; he wanted people to enjoy, explore and love the city as much as he did.

 What a great idea; the video made me happy!

Bed-book

To resolve the issues of lack of space faced by a lot of urban-dwelling Japanese families, photographer and innovater, Yusuke Suzuki, created a 'fold-up' bed in the shape of a book. When the book is opened at night, it's pages serve as a duvet and pillows and it comes with large cut out shapes and illustrations. During the day it can be folded up and used as a playmat.

So very creative!

!nkspiration: Olimpia Zagnoli

One of my favourite illustrators Olimpia Zagnoli has art directed Timbuktu, the first children's magazine designed especially for the iPad. I've always loved the clean, crisp yet whimsically joyful feeling of her illustrations and so I am absolutely loving Timbuktu's modern design.

 (first three images via Olimpia Zagnoli)

(Timbuktu first spotted on SwissMiss)

!nkspiration: Nidhi Chanani

 

I stumbled across Nidhi Chanani's illustrations while browsing on etsy recently. And I fell in love with her joyful pieces; each conveying their own story... Originally from India, she grew up in California and currently lives in San Francisco. Her work is whimsically infused with references to her diasporic background and her everyday life.

I would love to get a piece for Z's room, but I have so many favourites, I wouldn't know which one to pick!

Day Dreaming...

Love, love, love this kitchen workspace...

(via mixr)

!nkspiration: Jillian Tamaki

While looking for inspiration for a project I'm working on, I came across these exquisitely beautiful images on pinterest. I covet Penguin Classics' covers and these are just perfect; I love the details, the colours and the choice of titles (Emma and Black Beauty are on my list of favourites). They were hand-embroidered for Penguin Books by the talented Jillian Tamaki, an award-winning illustrator and comics artist. The covers took her almost two months to complete; below are a few pictures of her work-in-progress.

Jillian is a woman of many talents; she illustrates for magazines, newspapers and books and also teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NY. 

I have been in search of a vintage over-sized Penguin Classics cover to frame in Z's room, however wouldn't these embroidered covers look beautiful too?

photos: Jillian Tamaki (with permission)

How to be an Explorer of the World...

Z started attending Montessori five full days each week, when I started work last April; it was a transition of sorts, emotional and physical. Her constant bout of illness eventually led to my resignation and I'm back to being a stay-at-home mom/freelancer (and loving it!). This April, she will only spend three days at school and two days at home. I'd like her to stay in school because Z is an introvert and the constant exposure to and interaction with children her age has allowed her to develop her social skills tremendously and she loves her time at school. But at the same time, I think we're both super excited about the days we get to spend together.

It's always been an effort to find activities that stimulate Z; she's super-curious, gets bored easily and tends to drift towards art-related activities. On our recent travels to Austin, and in my constant search of new resources; I came across a beautiful book, written and illustrated by the talented Keri Smith. "How to be an Explorer of the World - Portable Art Life Museum" is a guide to exploring your own environment with new eyes. What I particularly like about it is that it encourages activities that allow you to stretch your imagination and explore something familiar in a new way. It's certainly not a traditional parenting book and nor was it meant to be, but it is certainly perfect and exactly what I had in mind to inspire both Z and I on our days together.

What resources do you use to inspire your parent-ego?

So, you need a new typeface...

While looking for inspiration for a project I'm currently working on, I came across this ubercool infographic by Julian Hansen, originally created for a class at the Danish School of Media and Journalism at Copenhagen.

I particularly like the path from "Are you alone?" to 'Comic Sans'.

(via on Swiss Miss)

My Favourite Things

I am in love love love with this short film; excellent videography and music. I'm a huge fan of silent films and this captured the beauty of simplicity so very sweetly. So Amelie & Chocolat inspired!


My Favourite Things from kidswithcrayons on Vimeo.

What do you think?

(via kate spade)

!nkpression #5: Confessions of a Chocoholic-Designer...

 Created by extremely talented Tithi Kutchamuch. 

 

For the Choco-type...

Can be purchased  here.

Chocolate-pencils: Nendo's collaboration with patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu.

'Scrabulous', don't you think?

To purchase, click here.

Beautifully 'crafted' chocolate tools.

To purchase, click here

!nkspiration #4: Type Chest of Drawers

My heart flipped a million times over when I saw these set of drawers! Aren't they just awesome? They are a perfect gift for a type-a-holic and can be purchased here. I so WANT one...

via (Jammie's Type Whimsy)

!nkspiration #3: Matteo Pericoli

In his book of drawings "The City Out My WIndow: 63 Views on New York", Matteo Pericoli asks well-known New Yorkers to describe what they see from their windows. I just LOVE the black and white sketches!

via (The New York Times)

the non-blog entry week & other happenings...

I haven't blogged in over a week now, simply because it has been a crazy busy week. Last weekend was thanksgiving weekend in Canada and we enjoyed a great couple of days with family and friends. Our dear friends Nikki (baker extraordinaire) and Omar (chef extraordinaire) hosted an intimate dinner for Sana's family and ours. As always, the menu was simple and the food, par excellence.

On the menu:
Bite-sized pitas with eggplant chutney from Sue's
Pecan and peppers green salad (I will share the recipe this week, I tried it out for a dinner at my mil's and I got a lot of compliments!)
Italian bread with garlic butter
Mashed potatoes with beef gravy
Turkey with your choice of cranberry sauce or pepper sauce

For desert, Nikki had baked the most decadent chocolate cake I've ever eaten. It was soft, moist and it melted in your mouth and the best part is, prep time is only 15 minutes.

This week started off rather well because A and I enjoyed date night #2 on Tuesday. We watched Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's documentary Children of the Taliban at the beautiful University of Toronto campus downtown. Just being at this campus makes me want to start school again - it envelopes you in this rich academic bubble!
The documentary screening was extra-special since I got to meet Sharmeen herself! I've been wanting to meet her ever since I interviewed her for The Grind Magazine a couple of years ago. She is as charming in person as she was over the phone! It was such a pleasure!

I've also been prepping for fall - putting the summer flip flops away and bringing in the boots and coats. This normally mundane activity was a ton of fun because Z participated. Our morning walks have come to a halt because the weather's been dangerously low unfortunately. I think winter's come knocking at our door rather early this year!

On a positive note, this weekend is really busy and we have a lot of fun things planned :)
And...and.. I'm starting grad school next week. I will be an MA/MFA grad-in-the-making...I'm so excited and a bit anxious too! I hope the transition to student-mom is smooth :)

Date Night 1: Cirque du Soleil

One of the resolutions A and I made this Eid was to take out time for each other. We thought about how we could make it happen sans Z, sans work, sans work, sans blackberries/iphone and it translated into 'date night' one evening each week. Our first was last night and it was totally planned by A as a surprise for me. And it BLEW me away. I've been wanting to watch Cirque du Soleil forever now. We missed the show this summer and I was really disappointed.

So imagine my surprise, excitement, anxiety (I could hear my heart beat) when we drove into the parking lot that said Reserved Parking for Cirque du Soleil. We watched OVO, a story about the vibrancy of life in the ecosystem. The performance was mind-blowing. The choreography was brilliant. I loved the sets, the music, the acts. It defied gravity. 

I highly highly recommend you get your hands on some tickets (it was sold out in TO the last time we checked) and go watch it! What a perfect start to our date night tradition. Thanks A!

ps: we weren't allowed to take cameras inside the big top so A banned, yes banned me from taking my camera! It's big he said. sigh and i had to follow instructions since he was the master planner of the evening. All pictures are from the website.

pps: yesterday was the first night Z spent away from me, at my mom's. I was anxious to say the least but she had a blast! YAY for grandma's.

Salman Farooqi - A Contemporary Pakistani Artist

    

 

Sana's email about the Hanging Fire Exhibit got me thinking about my bare walls. I'd love to own any or all of the above pieces by popular contemporary artist Salman Farooqi? Aren't they just riveting?

!nkspiration: Two

AMI SIOUX

I came across her work via one of my favourite blogs A Cup of Jo. Her latest book is inspirational-y brilliant, Sioux asked 50 people to draw an area of Paris that they love. She then sketched maps of those areas and photographed each destination. It makes me want to re-visit Paris and use the book as a tour guide. Wouldn't you want to?

!nkspiration: One

PAPER

A week before Eid, I go in search of paper (even though I have a stock at home), I always buy some new paper on Eid. It's a traditional to give Eidhi (money, instead of a gift) to family and children and each year, I get all excited about creating a new way to present the Eidhi. It has to be pretty ofcourse and childproof.

Here's the paper I purchased for this Eid. I didn't have a chance to get a pic of the envelopes but they did look oh so pretty!