When I have the chance to step into Fishs Eddy, I feel as though I should get my sketch book out immediately and begin drawing repeat patterns … every item in this eye candy store is in repeat.  100 cups, 200 plates, 50 cake stands, 500 soy sauce holders. You name it, there are 100s of it … dishware of every kind in tidy rows, flowing from baskets, piled in corners and stacked to the ceiling.

One feels as though she has stumbled upon something between a restaurant supply store and a dish lover’s attic.  Aside from providing excellent sketch book fodder, the prices are great and the dishes are fun to touch … smooth and round and sturdy.

Many of the offerings are creamy white, ready to go anywhere and mix with anything.  But, there are plenty of buckets of colorful dishes to wake up your imagination.  In fact, you might find yourself planning a party just so you can say, “May I please have 100 of the tomato bisque plates … oh, and could you throw in 50 turquoise soy sauce dishes? Thank you.  We’re having a fiesta … with a japanese twist.”

“Excuse me, could you also add 5 cake plates, it’s actually a japanese fiesta … birthday party!”

On day two of our American Northwest Coast road trip 2010, we said goodbye to green and growing (and full-service gas-stationed) Oregon and drove up to Seattle, the city of waterways and coffee shops.  As it was the first visit for both of us, I don’t have many eclectic finds to share, since we diligently hit the top few tourist hot-spots suggested by all the guidebooks.  The space needle was fun, but it was a shame not to be able to see it from inside of itself – we didn’t realize how much character it gave the skyline until we saw everything else without it!  Pike Place Market, on the other hand – full of good smells and busyness – got better the farther in it we walked.  We had a perfect French breakfast at Le Panier, and wandered around the stalls of salmon on ice, berries, and desserts between the coffee houses.

From what little we now know, I would definitely recommend finding a place to stay as near to Pike Place Market as possible – especially if you are staying for several days.  It would be so decadent to be able to have breakfast there every morning in a different little place each time!

In the evening, we strolled the Pioneer Square First Thursday Art Walk, where we spent most of our time at Davidson Galleries, which was showing some of my recent print work.  (This event was the original impetus for our road trip, and it was a lot of fun.)  The gallery was filled with people and flat files full of masterworks and contemporary prints – heaven on earth – and for those few hours, it wasn’t even raining anymore!

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Not long after the Surtex extravaganza in the big city, my sweet husband and I took a four-day road trip from the Bay Area to Seattle and back.  This prophetic fortune from our favorite restaurant was discookied the day before, so we were feeling good about the adventures ahead – I don’t think we even checked the weather forecast until right before our 6am departure time.  “A SOGGY, YET ENJOYABLE VACATION IS AWAITING YOU” might have been more accurate…

Here are some pictures from the day we drove the scenic Columbia River Gorge.  It’s a segment of Historic Route US 30 that runs alongside I 84 and is dotted with waterfalls and waterspouts and water oozing from rock walls and blooming lime-green saturated sculptures of moss.  The first few are amazing, but there are so many that like watching fireworks, after awhile, we started getting picky; a brown sign would announce another approaching fall and we would crane our necks to see if this one was majestic enough to park the car.  Here is one for which we stopped to climb closer (left) and me (right), getting mist-soaked in an effort to record the moment, which lasted for about as long as it took to snap the picture.

Here are a few products that we put together for Surtex that would have come in very handy on the trip.

I guess that if you decide to live on the Northwest Coast, you need a great umbrella, impermeable shoes, and a bottle of Vitamin D.  The benefit is so much green that you feel if there were such a thing as Minpins, this is where they would live.

No matter how many hip new restaurants pop up in New York between our visits, I always try to save one meal for a visit to Trattoria Dell’Arte. This trip, we found ourselves there three times! It was only two blocks from our hotel and it was still as wonderful as I remembered. On our last night we popped in late and sat at the antipasti bar.  It’s so much fun to pick and choose from the sumptuous platters of seafood, vegetables and cured meats.  Our official trip favorites were the fried cauliflower, broccoli rabe, and the tomatoes and mozzerrella.  If you find yourself there after the theatre, the pizzas are perfect … light, delicate and crispy. (Looking like the tourist that I was, I took these pictures with my phone!)

For me, there is another added sparkle, which is the fact that Trattoria Dell’Arte was designed by Milton Glaser, from whom I took a class at School of Visual Arts when I was a young illustrator.  I am still inspired today by some of the lessons I learned in his amazing and intense class.

When you enter the restaurant,  the space opens into a large, beautifully lit room – the kind that makes you glow even if you feel tired and pale.  The classic space is filled with art and sculpture … all odes to the body.  Monumental body parts, with a special affinity toward noses, surround midtown diners.  Sometimes, my girls will say, “Can we go to the restaurant with the noses?” and we know exactly which restaurant they are requesting.  I’m sure this is not what Milton had in mind when he created this space, but then again, perhaps he did, because, in a way, it’s just another form of branding.  Apple = Macintosh, Nose = Trattoria Dell’Arte.

There are many other examples of anatomy throughout the restaurant … from lips to feet to bottos.  In fact, I also have a picture of a pure white, 3-foot-tall bas-relief bosom hanging above one diner’s table, however I didn’t think I should necessarily feature it here on our family-rated blog.  But, it was impressive!

Left:  Cathy and Ellen discussing the busy day at Surtex and enjoying chicken paillard while sitting under a very large drawing of this splendid nose.  Can you guess which famous Italian belongs to this nose?  Well, I guess you will just have to go to Trattoria dell’Arte and take a look at your napkin ring.

I LOVE to walk everywhere in New York City.  With every step there is new inspiration. Around every corner there is a seed for a new idea.  Here are some visuals from a lazy walk back to our hotel: Fat ceramic chickens, jewel-toned glass pitchers, yet another cupcake shoppe, and a Mother’s Day cake oozing with flowers.

I had forgotten about that great cake we saw.  I’m glad you took a picture!  The pattern on the surface of those balloon-like chickens reminded me of the skin on a ceramic antelope we saw at Donna Seager Gallery yesterday when we went to their Art of the Book exhibition.  So here’s one more square of sidewalk stimulation – but from sunny San Rafael…

If you find yourself walking home through Chelsea in New York City after a long day of work, (like we did after our first day of Surtex) and you are certain that you deserve a little reward, (like we did) I would like to recommend Cocoa V on Ninth Avenue.  The only issue might be the length of time it could take to choose just one little something chocolate.  Neat and tidy rows of beautiful chocolates are displayed like jewelry, so making a decision seems a little bit like choosing between the diamond ring on the right and the sapphire bracelet to the left.

Some of the delicacies are so pretty that one might be hesitant to actually eat them, so we chose the Pretzel Clusters … not that they were ugly, they just weren’t quite as intricately decorated.  (Due to their deliciousness they are not pictured above.)  They were excellent–the perfect blend of sweet and salty.
Not only are the chocolates lovely, the staff is lovelier.  And if you need an excuse to appease your guilt for eating sweets too close to dinnertime, you can be content knowing that Cocoa V is the first 100% vegan, organic and fair trade chocolate shoppe in the city!  And, if reading this little post is making your mouth water for chocolate, you can also buy these gorgeous confectioneries from their online shoppe here.
Here I am below in my chocolate coat choosing a chocolate snack. Bon Chocolat!

The season for tapping birch sap is very short, but we were in Lithuania when it happened.

I don’t think I had ever seen the sap of a tree before – not in its watery-state, at least.  In California, we have eucalyptus trees that ooze crystals of red amber and make the sidewalk sticky, so I suppose I imagined that all trees have a thick-bodied circulatory system – that maple trees are filled with syrup – but apparently this is not the case!

Birch sap, I have learned, tastes (to me) like a very green version of those new flavored-water energy drinks with no calories that come in hi-tech bottles.  Here is some real information about it.  So, even if you are a city slicker like I am, if you happen to have a birch tree in your back yard, it might be a fun project for early spring…

Here is my husband inspecting the sap bucket, and a quick watercolor of the glass mason jar after it had been filled.  Happy memories.

Have a great week!

The California office is now back from Lithuania and enjoying the flower-perfumed air of Berkeley.  It was still chilly over the Easter weekend up there, but it was fun to be able to see the countryside in its pre-verdant state.  Lots of puddles!  I will post more about the trip in the coming weeks, but first, here’s a glimpse from the beginning of the holiday of the neighbor’s tidy snow rows:

and another after the rains began:

In the Lithuanian language, they make it very easy to say, “It is raining” – lyja.  But all those April showers are sure to make it a gorgeous summer!

We recently discovered a paint-your-own-pottery studio here in Berkeley’s “Potter’s Ghetto.”  Brushstrokes is a great place to go on a rainy day – or in our case, a Monday evening, when it’s pretty quiet and they waive the studio fee if you bring contributions to the Alameda County Food Bank.  The delayed gratification of painting a piece in dusty un-revealed colors, waiting a week, and then meeting your new now-shiny creation makes the whole experience very satisfying.

If you have any hand-painted creations you’re proud of, we’d love to see some other favorite cereal bowls and coffee mugs out there!  Just send us pictures here – we’re looking forward to it!