Wednesday giveaway!

Today's giveaway is from Ruche, a fabulous California boutique with vintage-inspired pieces. They're offering one lucky winner a $100 gift certificate to perk up her summer wardrobe.

(Ruche has super reasonable prices, so $100 would get a bunch of cute things -- for example, you could get two tops and a skirt, or a dress and sandals.)

For a chance to win, please visit Ruche's shop and leave a comment below. A winner will be chosen at random tomorrow. Good luck!

Update: Kelly from Maine is our lucky winner. xoSource URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Guest Post: Bocce Ball

Recently, I came across two bocce ball sets, and they're the prettiest I've seen. The $2800 Chanel one, of course, is for serious players and would take your bocce ball to a whole other level. Which outdoor games do you enjoy playing?

Restoration Hardware Bocce Ball Set; Chanel Bocce Ball Set

-- By Rachel from Black EiffelSource URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Tadanori Yokoo

Tadanori Yokoo (横尾忠則, Yokoo Tadanori) born 1936 in Hyogo, is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter.




Yokoo (pronounced "yoko-o") is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. His early work shows the influence of the New York based Push Pin Studio (Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in particular) but Yokoo himself cites filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and writer Yukio Mishima as two of his most formative influences.




In the late 1960s he became interested in mysticism and psychedelia, deepened by travels in India. Because his work was so attuned to 1960s pop culture, he has often been (unfairly) described as the "Japanese Andy Warhol" or likened to psychedelic poster artist Peter Max, but Yokoo's complex and multi-layered imagery is intensely autobiographical and entirely original.




By the late 60s he had already achieved international recognition for his work and was included in the 1968 "Word & Image" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Four years later MoMA mounted a solo exhibition of his graphic work organized by Mildred Constantine. Yokoo collaborated extensively with Shuji Terayama and his theater Tenjo Sajiki. He has also starred as a protagonist in Nagisa Oshima's film Diary of a Shinjuku Thief.




In 1981 he unexpectedly "retired" from commercial work and took up painting. His career as a fine artist continues to this day with numerous exhibitions of his paintings every year, but alongside this he remains fully engaged and prolific as a graphic designer.












Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Guest Post: Mini things for mini people...

...that i'd totally wear in grown-up sizes...

{left to right, top to bottom: roxy little girls romper, smallable striped tee, j.crew girls dress, giga & zaza shoes, j.crew boy's tie, and trumpette metallic mocs}

-- By Joy from Oh Joy and Oh Joy EatsSource URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Guest Post: Magical Bubble Photos

When I came across these photos by Romain Laurent, I let out an audible *gasp." I wonder how he was able to capture such a magical moment? What are your thoughts?

-- By Rachel from Black EiffelSource URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Guest Post: Picnic Ideas

I love Joanna's idea of having a picnic club. What a blast that would be throughout the warming spring and summer months! I envision delicious food picked up a a local deli or nearby farmer's market and lots of outdoor games like bocce ball and croquet and just having fun hanging out with a group of friends. Here are a few things to bring outside. Happy picnicking, everyone!

From top left: Disposable wooden forks; Portland picnic plates; Weber Smokey Joe Grill; france cheeseboard; Belvoir fruit juice A.P.C. dress; John Lewis picnic hamper Anorak kissing rabbits picnic blanket

-- By Rachel from Black EiffelSource URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Artist of the WEEK 6-28

Diana Krall, is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer. She is known for her contralto vocals.



In 1993, Krall released her first album, Stepping Out, which she recorded with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. It caught the attention of producer Tommy LiPuma, who produced her second album, Only Trust Your Heart (1995).


Her third album, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio (1996), was nominated for a Grammy and continued for 70 weeks in the Billboard jazz charts. Love Scenes (1997) quickly became a hit record with the trio of Krall, Russell Malone (guitar) and Christian McBride (bass).


In August 2000, Krall was paired on a 20-city tour with Tony Bennett. They were paired again for a song on the TV series Spectacle: Elvis Costello.


In September 2001, Krall began a world tour.


In 1999, she was awarded as Best Jazz Musician of the Year.


After marrying Elvis Costello, she worked with him as a lyricist and started to compose her own songs, resulting in the album The Girl in the Other Room. The album, released in April 2004, quickly rose to the top five in the United Kingdom and made the Australian top 40 album charts.


Krall and Elvis Costello were married on December 6, 2003. Their twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, were born December 6, 2006 in New York City.


Studio albums
Stepping Out
Released 1990

Only Trust Your Heart
Released 1995

All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio
Released: October 3, 1995

Love Scenes
Released: August 26, 1997

When I Look in Your Eyes
Released: June 8, 1999


The Look of Love
Released: September 18, 2001


The Girl in the Other Room
Released: April 27, 2004


From This Moment On
Released: September 19, 2006

Quiet Nights
Released: March 31, 2009























Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Gerrit Rietveld

In the fourth posting on the theme of architect/designer I am looking at Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888–26 June 1964) who was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. One of the principal members of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, Rietveld is famous for his Red and Blue Chair and for the Rietveld Schröder House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rietveld designed his famous Red and Blue Chair in 1917. In 1918, he started his own furniture factory, and changed the chair's colors after becoming influenced by the 'De Stijl' movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect.



Red and Blue Chair (1917)

He designed his first building, the Rietveld Schröder House, in 1924, in close collaboration with the owner Truus Schröder-Schräder. Built in Utrecht on the Prins Hendriklaan 50, the house has a conventional ground floor, but is radical on the top floor, lacking fixed walls but instead relying on sliding walls to create and change living spaces. The design seems like a three-dimensional realization of a Mondrian painting.






The Rietveld Schröder House. 
Note how similar in style the above detail looks to his Berlin Chair (1923)




Rietveld broke with the 'De Stijl' in 1928 and became associated with a more functionalist style of architecture known as either Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen. The same year he joined the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. He designed the "Zig-Zag" chair in 1934 and started the design of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was finished after his death. He built hundreds of homes, many of which are in the city of Utrecht.



Zig-Zag Chair (1934)

His work was neglected when rationalism came into vogue but he later benefited from a revival of the style of the 1920s thirty years later.



 Dining Chair (1919)



Steel Chair (1927)



Steltman Chair (1963)
Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Fernando Botero

Following on from my blog on the artist Roy Carruthers I thought it would be appropriate to feature the work of Fernando Botero. Fernando Botero Angulo (born 19 April 1932) is a Colombian figurative artist, self-titled "the most Colombian of Colombian artists" early on, coming to prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958.




In 1948, at the age of 16, Botero published his first illustrations in the Sunday supplement of the El Colombiano daily paper and used the money he received to pay for his high school education at the Liceo de Marinilla de Antioquia. 1948 was also the year Botero first exhibited, along with other artists from the region.




From 1949 to 1950, Botero worked as a set designer, before moving to Bogotá in 1951. His first one-man show occurred at the Galería Leo Matiz in Bogotá, a few months after his arrival. In 1952, Botero travelled with a group of artists to Barcelona, where he stayed only briefly before moving on to Madrid.




In Madrid, Botero studied at the Academia de San Fernando. In 1952, he traveled to Bogotá, where he had a personal exhibit at the Leo Matiz gallery. Later that year, he won the ninth edition of the Salón de Artistas Colombianos.




In 1953, Botero moved to Paris, where he spent most of his time in the Louvre. He lived in Florence, Italy from 1953 to 1954, studying the works of Renaissance masters.




Botero gained considerable attention in 2005 for his Abu Ghraib collection, which began as an idea he had on a plane, finally culminating in more than 85 paintings and 100 drawings.




The Circus collection followed in 2008, with 20 works of oil and watercolor. In an interview promoting his Circus collection, Botero said: "After all this, I always return to the simplest things: still lifes."












Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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The Kids Are All Right

This movie looks great (as does Mark Ruffalo). It comes out July 9th.Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Childrens TV Shows

Does anyone else find that some of the cartoons on TV are just a little bit disturbing? Or  am I the only freakin one?

Although my kids are mostly too old to watch “kid type” shows anymore. I am pretty sure that when they were watching shows like Sponge Bob the adult type humor was going way over their heads.
Which was probably a damn good thing.


FYI- Just cause it’s a cartoon or animated doesn’t make it something that is kid appropriate.


My beef in general is more with the fact that some of the kids shows seem to me to be just a little bit on the violent side. I know this is nothing new. Its been going on for freakin years.


Which makes me think that maybe kids shouldn’t watch tv at all. I can tell you that my kids would not agree with that assessment.


Now that I think about it, when you look back at the childrens shows in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. I most definitely find some of them distrubing.

WTF?
Why it is that in most of the shows the people look more like child molesters? And why would they think that would be so appealing to a small child?


Some of the shows I watched when I was little were Mr. Green Jeans, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, and Captain Kangeroo.

Then there are those shows from the 80’s/90’s, like Sponge Bob, Ren and Stimpy, the Simpsons, and Beavis and Butthead.

Definately NOT a kids type of show.
I guess I must not have paid too much attention back in the day when my kids were little, cause I let them watch cartoons all the time.


Really aren’t cartoons put on this planet for the soul purpose of shutting up your kids and to give the parents a little bit of freakin F R E E time.


What do you allow your kids to watch? How much do you let them watch? Do you know what they are watching?

and
Do you find any of them just a little bit disturbing?


Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Roy Carruthers

Roy Carruthers was born in South Africa in 1938 He is an Illustrator, Painter, Graphic Artist and Sculptor. Roy lived around the world after leaving South Africa, had a career in advertising, working in London in the late 1960's where I first came across him, and emigrated to the US in 1968. I stayed with him for a week at his home in Connecticut in 1969 when he was working at a New York advertising agency as an Art Director. In the 1970's Roy turned to painting as well as illustrating. Clearly influenced by the painter Fernando Botero's unique take on the human form he developed his own 'body' language in his paintings and lithographs.









 














Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Toby after dinner

A few readers asked for more family photos, so here's one of Toby and me after feeding. He always looks like Wallace Shawn when he's getting burped, which we find adorable and hilarious.Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Commando- Is it just for men?

Here is a question I have often wondered about. Is going “commando” only allowed for men? Or should I say is it only acceptable for men to do ? I’m not saying I go every day without panties, but what the heck there are days I just don’t feel it's necessary. Hell, if it's ok for the Victoria Secret gals, its good enough for me.



Why is there such a double standard for men and women. I am pretty sure that I can do about 90% of the things a guy can do. Some of them even better than a guy.


I know a lot of women who go “commando”. I am no fan of the “Thong”. To be perfectly honest I would rather wear N O T H I N G at all then have a tiny piece of material riding up my ass literally all day long, and all for what no pantie lines??

What the hell. If you can see my pantie lines then your looking way too close at my ass. Besides I don’t necessarily find the “thong” to be all that flattering.


The problem I have is with people who think there is something wrong with going without panties. It honestly is NOT a sexual thing. It is more of a comfort thing, a freedom thing, a I can do what the hell I want kinda thing.


Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that a good ole pair of cotton panties are a bad thing.

To each his own.
What my beef is, don’t you find it strange, that people wear underwear? Why is it the norm? Why isn't going commando the norm? Does anyone really need to wear underwear at all, if you have pants on? Who made the decision that people should wear underwear anyways?

The person who invented them?
I’m not saying that everyone should start going commando, I’m just saying don’t you ever wonder about it?


I mean hey come on, Adam and Eve were naked running all around the land, and nothing was said about that. It’s all natural.



Just a thought.
Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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Guest Post: Wedding Inspiration

Since I'm in the midst of planning our wedding which is *gasp* only a few weeks away, I thought I'd leave you with some inspiration for the big day.

Clockwise from top left: Cheese display; cake flags; May 4th tie; butterflies; fieldwork flowers; long guest table; airplants.

Couple in boat; guests.

Thanks again to Joanna for having me here. I've had fun blogging about babies, dresses and weddings. Congratulations to Joanna and Alex, and welcome to the world, Toby!

-- xo, Alyson from Unruly ThingsSource URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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BAND of the W E E K

Rainbow
Right after the split-up of Elf, four members of Elf and ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore formed band called Rainbow.

The name supposedly came from the Rainbow bar located in Los Angeles, where Elf and Ritchie Blackmore used to spend their free time.



Blackmore and Dio found they had such a creative rapport that a full album's worth of music was soon composed, and they recorded it with Elf as a session band

Rainbow is an English rock band. The band moved from the East Coast to California.

Ritchie Blackmore fired the rest of the Elf  who remained except Ronnie James Dio in September 1975. After several changes in the band during a relatively short time, the band started touring in November 1975.


Rainbow's music was different from Deep Purple's. The music was more directly inspired by classical music, and Dio wrote lyrics about medieval themes. Dio possessed a versatile vocal range capable of singing both hard rock and lighter ballads. Although Dio never played a musical instrument on any Rainbow album, he is credited with writing and arranging the music with Blackmore, in addition to writing all the lyrics himself

The most common story is that Ritchie wanted to change Rainbow's musical direction to more commercial, than what it used to be and as the other band members, especially Dio, did not want to do that, he split up the band. Other stories tell about monetary problems, some ex Rainbow members claim that Blackmore didn't give them their money, or gave too small proportion of the money.

Rainbow's debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released in 1975 and featured the minor hit "Man on the Silver Mountain".  The single, "Stone Cold", was a ballad that had some chart success (#1 on Billboard Magazine's Rock Tracks chart) and the video of which received heavy airplay on MTV. "Live Between the Eyes" also received repeated showings on MTV.


Band members-Final lineup
Doogie White – lead vocals (1994–1997) Former- Ronnie James Dio – lead vocals (1975–1978)
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar (1975–1984, 1994–1997)
Greg Smith – bass, backing vocals (1994–1997)
John Micelli – drums (1997)
Paul Morris – keyboards (1994–1997)

Rainbow discography

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)
Rising (1976)
On Stage (1977)
Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978)
Down to Earth (1979)
Difficult to Cure (1981)
Straight Between the Eyes (1982)
Bent Out Of Shape (1983)
Finyl Vinyl (1986)
Stranger in Us All (1995Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2010/06/
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