Painting with Foodscraps - Dipingere con le Verdure

Don't throw away your food scraps! Look at what wonderful flower stamps they can make! Here you can see an apple core and three types of lettuce. We used watercolours and a plastic plate and you can see how delighted Sera was to paint in this way!

I''m thinking of trying the technique on a stained tablecloth I've been hoping to upcycle. Stay tuned!

Non buttare via i resti tagliate delle verdure! Guardate questi meravigliosi timbrini aforma di fiore che diventanno con un po di fantasia. Qui potete vedere il centro della mela e tre tipi di lattuga. Abbiamo usato acquerelli e un piatto di plastica per la pittura.  Vedi come felice Sera sperimentando la nuova tecnica?

Penso di riportare la tecnica anhe su una tovaglia macchiata. Restate sintonizzati!

♥ Jess

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A Little bit of Autumn

As October is nearly coming to an end I thought I'd fill you in on our Autumn so far:

-This year I decided not to carve any pumpkins and instead to draw directly onto the pumpkins wth Sharpie markers. It's a quick solution and though I can't put candles in them they will last a little bit longer this year.  I can't wait until Halloween... Sera wants to be the tooth fairy!

-There are still flowers blooming in our tiny urban garden outside. Until last week I couldn't remember what colour these flowers would be but then as soon as they bloomed I remembered. Pumpkin orange! Perfect for the season.

-Sera and I have found a beautiful park behind her new school. Every morning we arrive a little early and park on the other side of the park so that we can walk through it and listen to the birds. After I pick her up, we do the same ont he way back to the car but this time can stop to walk across a log, collect leaves or pick the last wildflowers of the season.

-I pulled out my old Halloween decorations this week and found this old friend in the box. He's a papier machè cat I made for myself quite a few years back after reading an article about Lori Mitchell's version.  It's clear I didn't stray at all from her design so all the credit goes to her. Check out her other characters!

Testing Out Canva Giveaway

I just got access to Canva, the coolest on line graphic design web-app suite and have been playing around with it to see what it can do.  It's really awesome!  It's a drag and drop system with really wonderful graphics to choose from. The image above was made in less than 5 minutes and the whole thing has been customised.  It's a great little tool to have for quick party invites, e-cards, blog graphics, photo collages and more. You'll definitely be seeing more of it's uses here on Buonaserababy in the future cause I'm super excited about the possibilities!

I had to wait a few weeks from the time of registration for my account to be set up because the program is still somewhat closed, but the great news is I have 5 instant access accounts available for my blog readers to join up. I'm holding my first giveaway for my readers to be able to grab their access to Canva immediately.

You can join in 2 ways. Either like Buonaserababy on Facebook, or leave a comment to this post. Or, if you do both you'll have more chance to win!  Use the widget below to join! The giveaway ends on Monday so act fast!

Best of luck! And happy designing!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Tallest Building In Italy - Torre Unicredit

We were lucky enough to have a guided tour of the tallest skyscraper in Italy this past weekend, the Unicredit tower.

The construction of the tower, designed by César Pelli was completed in 2011 and has only recently opened its doors to the 4000 Unicredit employees who will be working there. The whole work is actually 3 towers in a circle with a gorgeous fountain and completely pedestrian piazza below measuring 100 meters in diameter.  The piazza currently houses a bookshop, cafè, some shops and a Gelateria (find out the difference between Ice Cream and Gelato here). There are thousands of tiny solar panels in the piazza helping to power the buildings. The complex has won global sustainability awards and can boast a reduction in energy consumption of 37%.

The tower we went up in was tower A (The Unicredit tower) and is the tallest in Italy, clocking in at 231meters or 758 feet. We were allowed to visit the rest area on the 25th floor just before the spire begins (the entire tower is 32 floors high).  As soon as the elevator opened I felt nostalgic for my days working in a cooperation as a graphic designer in London....Of course it differed from my days at Blackfriars in considerable ways due to the newness of everything and the spectacular 360° views of Milan and in the distance the majestic alps.  I jokingly said to hubby that I almost wanted to work there he replied that he's look into it (... I really was just joking... I didn't really mean for him to start scouring the wanted boards for Graphic Design jobs, but oh well, the view is nice).

Sera had a great time pressing her face up against the glass and leaving the cleaners with tones of sticky fingerprints to clean up. On the way in she was gifted a giant lollipop which she proceeded to crumble and stick all over the new carpeting and on the way out they gave her a pink balloon. She thought she was in heaven.

Even if you don't have the opportunity to get to the top (or near top in my case) of the Unicredit tower you should definately visit the Piazza Beneath it and the whole renovated Porta-Nuova, Garibaldi, Corso Como area if you haven't already.  I'm glad to see that Milan is doing its best to try to up its international presence in a lead-up to EXPO 2015 and that they have had such a success with this beautiful project. I was sceptical and wrongly so before I went to see it for myself but am glad to have been pursuaded otherwise.

Rendering of the entire PortaNuova plan with
the Unicredit towers in the middle

 **All photos in this post except for the rendering copyright Fabrizio Lingesso 2013**

Hangar Bicocca - A Cultural Day Out In Milan

La Sequenza

On Saturday the family and I had a chance to go to the Bicocca Hanger to see some contemporary art.  I'd never been and have been trying to find some time to go for a while now so it was all very exciting.

Upon arriving you're greeted by Fausto Melotti's La Sequenza, an impressive sculpture which acts as a beautiful entryway to this hangar converted into art space.

The Visitors - photo courtesy of www.hangarbicocca.org

The exhibit they have currently running in the first hall is called The Visitors by Ragnar Kjartansson.  My first impression was very mixed when I walked past the black curtains and into the artwork.  The nine lifesize video projections of musicians playing a composition together but each completely isolated from the other seemed very very intimate to me. The music was melancholic and the setting of each musician equally full of dispair.  The entire work last over an hour and unfortunately, Sera didn't take very well to the dark room and the projections, so I couldn't stay too long, but I think I'll return and soak up the entire experience. This exhibition runs until November 17th.

The Seven Heavenly Palaces

Another of the permanent exhibitions can be found inside by passing through the first hall to the back of the hangar. Anselm Kiefer's The Seven Heavenly Palaces is a huge installation of reinforced concrete towers ranging from 14 to 18 meters each. As soon as you enter the vast hall you are stunned into silence. It is bleak, desolate and very very impressive.  Sera refused to climb down from her stroller. It was probably a good thing as some of the towers don't look very stable at all! I suppose she felt the sensations that the artist was transmitting as well.

We rounded off the morning by playing in the Hangar's kids centre which boasts a large collection of art supplies, art books and organised activities for kids over four and then ate a lovely and delicious brunch at the Dopolavoro Bicocca. The plates are ordered a-la-carte but juice and american coffee are included. It's a lovely setting for lunch.

Overal a wonderful day out and we will certainly return for future exhibitions (and I'll sneak back to see the Visitors.

memory quilting: part 2

< back to memory quilting part 1

I've finally decided on a quilt that I'm going to use as inspiration for Sera's memory quilt.  It's from Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I wanted something simple with sashing that showcased the individual fabrics and yet kept everything neat and tidy. I came across this quilt while researching how to do the math for planning the quilt I had in mind and found that if instead of the 9-square blocks I just use plain, simple blocks then the quilt is exactly what I'm after and will allow me to use even more of the clothes I cut because of the beautiful and colourful border made up of tiny blocks.

Check out more of Amanda Jean's amazing blog and beautiful quilting!

I also started cutting up the "materials" for the quilt (sounds better than destroying my child's precious clothing). I knew it would be a hugely emotional task if I did it alone in the quiet of my upstairs office so I took a few items downstairs at a time and cut them while sitting in front of the TV with Sera and hubby.  I started with my favourite pieces/memories first figuring it would be a lot like ripping off a band aid and in fact it was a smart choice. From the moment I made the first cut into her raspberry corduroy romper with the tiny pockets there was no going back. From then on the quilt had-to be made or I would simply be a vandal.

I swear, not all of her clothes are pink of fuscia!!

On my third trip back from the clothes stash Sera spotted me holding a really fun skirt and stole it back. What do you know!?! It still fit! It goes to show you that the sizing labels on baby clothes are really crazy because the last I checked she's quite a lot bigger than an 6-month old. I'm going to let her wear it for the rest of the summer and then find it a spot in the quilt in a central location, now that I know how much it means to her.

There is still a very long way to go, even with just getting through the clothes so I can start cutting my squares, but so far I'm feeling a lot better about the project than I thought I would.  

Here's a quick idea of the numbers to get an idea of how much cutting ill be doing in the next few months. The finished quilt requires 70 coloured 6.5" squares and 308 2.5" squares for the border + all the sashing, which I haven't bothered calculating yet and possibly some more coloured squares for the backing.  I'm waiting for my nice new ruler and rotary cutter to arrive before I even let my mind wander towards those cuts at all yet.

Oh my oh my! I'd love to have this done by the end of January for Sera's 3rd birthday but who knows!

Self-Interview: "Hick!", My Day Job

I don't currently earn an income. I haven't for ages now. I'm lucky enough to have a primary breadwinner in my household so I can concentrate on raising Sera, taking care of our home and pursing my hobbies and interests.

I do however have a self-imposed day job and have been working for the same company now on the same project for coming on 4 years. I have no boss, which most people would like, but I don't earn anything either, which most people wouldn't find as nice.  I'm at my computer for several hours a day working working working.

The project is called Hick! and it's an animated 3D short film.  It's an on line collaboration with artists from all over the world and me at the helm. What I get out of it is much needed help in the creation of the works, what they get is feedback, exposure and work under a director. Everyone is a volunteer and adds what they can for as long as they can and then moves on. What follows is an interview with the part of my person that is the artist, filmmaker, director and producer of the project:

Q. Back in 2009, why did you first decide to create an animated short film?
A. In the summer of 2009 I had just finished Animation Mentor, an online intensive character animation school based in San Francisco and was trying to figure out what to do next. I'd been interviewing for animation jobs here in Milan with little success. The 3D market here doesn't call for specialisation of that kind and instead hires 3D generalists, which isn't what I wanted to do with my life. I went to Annecy, France for their annual animation festival that June and realised tat although here in Europe there weren't the huge studios like Disney or Pixar, I could still be an animator on a smaller scale and on my own terms. I was inspired!  My brain started churning for an idea for a short.

Q. Where did the idea eventually come from?
A. In all honesty, I don't know! I was in an airport in transit back to Montreal for the summer and suddenly the whole film came to me in a flash. I had a half hour and wrote it out right there in the departures lounge. It's changed very little since.

Q. Did you always plan to invite other artists to collaborate?
A. It's a huge undertaking to create an animated short film.  At first I planned to do it all by myself but the script wasn't really conducive to that. The film has 13 characters in it which means 13 times the development resources were needed. Also, right from the start I was pretty specific about how I wanted it to look, and I'm neither a character designer nor a rendering specialist. I knew I would definitely need help sooner or later.

Q. And how did you find that help?
A. Online! The Internet is a marvellous thing! Soon after I started production I started to look for my character voices. I found them on Voice123 which is this amazing site to find voice over artists looking to expand their portfolios. Then I found my character designer, Lorenzo Milito, on facebook through friends of friends. He was brilliant in bringing the characters to life.  After that I stumbled upon Devils, Angels & Dating which is a similar online contributer's film and its director Michael Cawood gave me some tips on how to get started... including how to use Dropbox for file sharing and Ning for network communications with all the project members.  Help can be found in loads of forums as well. It's important for me to keep up on the recruitment side of the project as well as the production side to keep everything running smoothly.  Today the project boasts 252 members, though not all are active.

Q.What stage are you at now?
A. It's an exciting phase for the project as we're finishing up the 2nd round of character rigging, getting through the texturing phase and finishing all the scene layouts. It's hard to put dates or time-scales on the project as it's all volunteer based. I don't feel right giving strict deadlines, but so far it seems to be working out ok.

Q. Have you ever been discouraged?
A. Almost every day! I find the hardest part of this project not being the actual work but the motivation. It's hard to wake up and put yourself in front of the computer every day when there's no one to check what you're up to and there's no check in the mail! There are only 2 factors keeping Hick! alive. One is that I feel I have a moral obligation to all the artists that have worked with me and dedicated so much of their precious time and the second is that I believe in the content of the short. I have become friends with the characters, as wacky as they are, and without my constant trucking on, they won't ever really come to life.

Q. What will happen to Hick! when it's finished?
A. I'm hoping to submit Hick! to animation festivals such as Annecy.  Maybe we'll win a prize or two. In my dreams, having worked on this film will lead me to writing and producing others. Maybe Hick! could be picked up as a series.... who knows?


More on Hick! and my journey as a film-maker to come. Stay tuned!

Kid Art - To keep or to bin?

Every parent has been there at some point... What to do with your little angel's masterpieces?

Should you devote a room in the house to them?
Bin them as soon as they arrive?
Make a photo scrapbook for them and put the originals 'in storage' (generally meaning they're being stored at a recycling facility).
Or maybe an entire wall? The above photo comes out of Vogue and sure looks lovely!

It's a real dilemma... And becoming more of a problem in our household as Sera is starting to bud into a little VanGogh. Here's some strategies we've used or tested:

Last holiday season we used quite a bit of Sera's art as homemade wrapping paper. It went over very well so we've continued the trend through to birthday, new baby, and housewarming gifts as well.
There's an app for all you iPhone users that hopes to resolve the problem of archiving the kids' work, Artkive. I haven't personally been able to use it because the whole idea is to take photos of the artwork and then get rid of them. it has lots of options to add the date and to use for more than one kid but what ended up happening in my case was i still couldn't bring myself to throwing the originals. I've effectively managed to double the problem!
Letting the little one be creative digitally. This strategy works because kids are fast learners and can figure out a way to be creative in almost any form, you can stored loads of digital info nowadays without losing precious square meters in your apartment and its mess-free. It does have its downside as well. No computer or iPad program could ever compare with the delight children feel when they've actually created something they can see and touch. That's why parents for generations have been investing in fridge magnets for prime display positions in the house. I think that digital artwork should be a compliment to and not a replacement for finger paints, potato stamps, wax crayons, craft glue with tissue paper and rainbow coloured markers.

What about you dear readers.... Have you got any creative ways to display, preserve, store or filter your kids works? Do tell!

Shells on Uncooked Salt Dough - 2013 SJL