Life is Balance

Design for Obama

Sheryl — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:59:19 +0000

"Design For Obama Posters for Change. A Grassroots Anthology.

My "Vote for the Polar Bears" Poster design shown on the left page of the Design for Obama book.

Vote For The Polar Bears Poster design featured in Design for Obama book.

I am honored to have one of my designs selected by Spike Lee and Aaron Perry-Zucker for their new book, “Design for Obama,” published by the design and architectural book publisher, Taschen. This book is a compilation of some of the best designs submitted to designforobama.org during the campaign and is being released this week to commemorate the one year anniversary of the presidency.

Contextual essays written by Spike Lee, Aaron Perry-Zucker and Steven Heller create a compelling documentation of this historic campaign. They will be signing copies of their book on Wednesday, November 4 at Taschen’s New York store, at 107 Greene Street in New York City.

This design is available on t-shirts and other gift items at WearMyArtTees.com

Autumn Palette

Sheryl — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Curves of Garlic

Every season has it’s share of natural beauty. The fall, known for its vibrant colors shows off the brilliant beauty of the trees before losing their glorious coats as well as the wonderful earthy hues of autumn’s harvest.

During my visit upstate last weekend I found some really beautiful colors and shapes at a farm stand that I visited. The green curves made by the stems of garlic that lay displayed in a basket caught my attention, as did a display of multi-colored squash in all different shapes and sizes. Deep purple peppers with their green stems resting in a basket along side the better know red and yellow ones, made a still life worthy of an artist.

Squash of Different Colors

Purple Pepper

Peace, Love & Fall Weekends

Sheryl — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:41:12 +0000

Last weekend I was invited upstate to a friend’s country house for a birthday celebration. Fall was definitely in the air, the weather was crisp… maybe a bit too crisp for early October but the leaves were turning all the beautiful shades of red and orange that they do every year at this time. My friend’s house is in Narrowsburg, NY, a town in the Catskills, not too far from the Bethel Woods Arts Center, the site of Woodstock.

One of the neighboring towns, Callicoon, resides along the Delaware River. It’s a quaint town with some interesting antique and thrift shops. We walked in and out of the shops on Saturday and I found a great 100% wool beret in one of them for $3.00! What a find. But, my favorite find was the sign over the local bar/restaurant, Mathews on Main. Who could ask for anything more?

Food • Bar • Happiness: What else could you ask for?

A visit to a crafts festival at the Bethel Woods Arts Center was on our itinerary for Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day for an outing. I might not have gotten to Woodstock in 1969 but I finally made it in 2009. We walked to where they have a plaque commemorating the 1969 concert and had a great view of where the original stage was as well as the hill above it where all the thousands of people listened and partied for three amazing days.

At the site of Woodstock

We didn’t have the time to go into the museum, which I hear is a must so I now have a reason to return.

My version of the Anniversary T-Shirt

Talk Like A Pirate, Arrgh!

Sheryl — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:48:44 +0000

September 19 is “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” What is this fascination that we all have with Pirates? Is it the secret desire we all have to throw caution to the wind, leave our safe, steady lives, our 9-5 desk jobs and the monotony of doing the right thing to run off to the high seas and throw caution to the wind? Or maybe we just want to trade in our business suits, if only for one day, for the garb of a swashbuckling pirate or a saucy wench. Of course you just might want to grab one of our pirate t-shirts…

Pirate Diver design on a sweatshirt

Ladies Pirate Diver dark t-shirt

Captain Jack's Scuba Shack

The light version of Captain Jack's Scuba Shack design.

These designs are available in both of my online shops: in the Scuba section of Wear My Art Tees! as well as in the Pirate section of my Zazzle shop

You might also like to check out the official site for Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Life is Balance Loves Tennis!

Sheryl — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:07:26 +0000

Life is Balance Tennis T-Shirt went to the US Open

Tennis is one of the few spectator sports that I actually enjoy going to. I usually would rather be out there playing a sport than sitting on the sidelines watching. However when it comes to the US Open I really enjoy the whole experience of being at the Tennis Center, walking around the grounds and watching the the fans and, of course, watching the matches.

Last night I first saw Serena Williams beat Flavia Pennetta in the Women’s Quarterfinals and then watched as Nadal won his match against Monfils in the men’s Quarterfinals at the US Open. What a great night for tennis! I even wore my Life is Balance tennis t-shirt for the occasion! I got my photo taken in front of a giant tennis ball, courtesy of Lexus.

Getting ready to watch some great tennis

The Nadal/Monfils match was poetry in motion. It was one of the most athletic, exciting matches that I’ve seen in a long time. They both played incredibly well, but I think Rafael Nadal just out lasted Monfils in stamina.

Life is Balance Gets Away!

Sheryl — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:33:46 +0000

Practicing yoga at Club Getaway wearing the Life is Balance Yoga Tee.

One great way to balance out your life is with exercise. Another is to get away from your daily grind, even if it’s just for a nice long weekend. This past Labor Day Weekend I managed to do both! I spent three glorious days in the Berkshire Mountains of Kent, CT at Club Getaway, a weekend sports resort for adults. It’s like going back to camp! During the course of three days I managed to take a yoga class (wearing my Life is Balance yoga t-shirt of course), play lots of tennis, swim across the lake and hike alongside a waterfall, kayak around the lake and even strap on a regulator and scuba tank and go face to face with an inquisitive fish! All the stress of my daily life disappeared the moment I stepped off the bus from NYC and into the fresh country air!

At Club Getaway you can practice your favorite sport or learn something new. There is something for everyone: tennis and mountain biking, hiking and rock climbing, kayaking, trapeze, yoga and fitness classes and much more. The food is terrific and there is never a lack of things to do. There are still a couple of weekends left before they close for the season. So go check it out!

If you like this t-shirt, check out the rest of the designs here.

Finishing Touches

Sheryl — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:14:24 +0000

black & blum's Flower Loop flower vase.

I recently went to the Gift Show at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York City. I like to go and get inspired by some of the innovative designs that I come across. Having recently finished re-doing my apartment, I walked the show looking, not only for designs to inspire my own business, but also for ideas for those small finishing touches that might add that finish to my apartment. I found one such finishing touch from a team of two London-based designers, black & blum. Their simple philosophy is that ‘designed’ products can be made affordable without compromising quality. The products that I saw showcased were original, sometimes humorous and really beautifully designed. I bought a flower vase (see photo) that looks terrific on top of my wall unit. A perfect finishing touch to my newly designed space!

An elegant yet minimal flower vase made from free flowing steel wire. The form looks appealingly simple and unique from every angle. It can be used individually or interlinked to create a cluster. Flower Loop is inspired by the Fibonacci curve that is seen throughout nature and looks correct and balanced to the human eye.

Salad Plant

A removable water tube for easy refilling and a very high quality artificial cala lily which complements the design are included.

Another whimsical, yet functional product design of theirs that I loved is their “salad plant.” This is a pair of salad serving spoon and fork, designed to look like large blades of grass which sit in a salad dressing mixing bowl that looks like a flower pot! What fun!

These leafy salad servers stand upright in their own pot and will give life to any table setting. The pot can also be used for mixing (and serving) your salad dressing. They are also the ultimate salad decoration when stuck into the salad upright!

- melamine salad servers and pot

– 44 x 11 x 6.5cm

Why did the swan cross the road?

Sheryl — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:45:32 +0000

Why did the swans cross the road?

This past Monday I took the day off and stayed out in Quogue on Eastern Long Island. My friend Judy and I went for a nice bike ride along the beach on Dune Road. We were riding along when Judy stopped to make a phone call and while waiting for her I happened to notice a very strange site: a whole family of swans were crossing the road from the bayside to the ocean side! They really didn’t care about the oncoming traffic – it stopped for them of course! What a sight to see: two grown parents, all white and regal looking, with 6 youngsters following behind!

Two adult swans and their brood

They made it all the way to the dunes were trying to figure out how to get over them to the ocean when Judy and I decided to continue our bike ride. Later that day we came back out that way to go kayaking in the bay. On our way out we remarked that there were a few swans in the bay. Probably not the same ones we thought. When we came back to land our kayak on the beach where Judy keeps it, believe it or not the entire swan family from that morning was sitting on the beach waiting for us! What are the odds of that?

I want this camera!

Sheryl — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:31:17 +0000

Canon G-11I have been waiting to upgrade my current point and shoot camera for quite a while. I have a Canon SD700 Digital Elph camera which I have been very happy with -- up to a point. In addition to using it for snapshots I also put it into an underwater housing and take it diving with me. Here's where it falls short of my expectations. While I can get some pretty good photos and color using the custom white balance feature I find that when shooting either up from below or towards white sand or coral, I tend to get a pink fringe. I also get some pink noise. I'd love to shoot underwater and get pictures that would be photo magazine worthy! I'm not ready to spring for an SLT with alls the bells and whistles and expensive housings required to shoot like a pro but I do think there is a happy compromise. I have always loved Canon's cameras. Their optics as well as their design have always been superb.

I’ve been waiting for Canon to introduce the next version of their G Series and it seems that come September the G11 will be available. I read about this new camera on Dive Photo Guide. Here is a link to the article by Matt J. Weiss.

This camera sounds like just what I’ve been looking for, now all I need is the green stuff to buy it. I want it! I was hoping that I would have won the Mega Millions Lottery last night in which case I wouldn’t think twice about ordering it as well as the underwater housing for it as soon as it comes out. Now I guess I will start saving my dollars for a few months and hopefully can pick one up soon. Of course, if anyone wants to send me a gift (LOL) I wouldn’t turn it down!

If you’d like to see some of my underwater photography go to my Imagekind Online Gallery

It’s 5:00 Somewhere!

Sheryl — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:02:36 +0000

I have this wall clock that has hung on the wall of my kitchen for more years than I can remember. It was designed by Dietrich Lubs and made by Braun, and is so well designed in it’s simplicity, that I never even thought of replacing it. That is until one day I noticed that it was 5:00 all day long. I tried changing the batteries. But 5:00 never became 5:30. I thought maybe new batteries were bad, since they came from the fridge (I heard somewhere that they last longer in there), but I swapped out several others and still no time change. I even tried taking the clock apart to see whether there was some easy fix (yeah right, like it would be that easy!). I noticed that there are some very tiny wires that go into what must be the clock mechanism and that one of the wires seemed to be attached to nothing in particular. Ah ha! Now that I could see what was wrong, I tried to see if I could get the wire to go where I thought it should. No luck!

I really like this clock and would love to see it back up on my wall working. I can’t tell you how many times I look for the time on the blank wall where it should be. I miss my clock and would love to find a service center or someone handy who could fix it!

It's always 5:00 here!

I just found some information on this clock at 50 Years Braun Design Innovation
It is called the ABW 30 Wall clock.