2013 year in review

Well, 2013 sure was a busy year. Our life got a whole lot more interesting with the addition of Theo to the family, and it's been quite the whirlwind ever since. I did manage to document at least some of it on Instagram though, so I thought I'd do a year in review post again this year with some of my favorites.

January

February

Nothing from March, but this was April!

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

And 2 for December. Wishing you all the best in 2014!

back in action

As of Saturday, Theo is 9 weeks old and doing splendidly. Of course, that also means that it's been over 2 months since I last posted here - my longest break away from this blog in its 4 years of existence. And while the time has passed remarkably quickly, albeit in a bit of a sleep-deprived haze, I'm ready to get back to work bringing you all of the best art, craft and design out there. I hope you'll join me!

welcome to the world

Baby Theo. Born April 6th - two weeks early but definitely ready to be here. Such a cutie.

30 weeks

That's right, friends. I'm now 30 weeks pregnant and have the belly to prove it. Luckily though, despite the fact that it's become increasingly difficult to do everything from get up off the couch to sleep through the night, I'm still feeling pretty good. Patrick and I have been slowly transforming his office into the baby's room (he's taken over my desk while my work space has moved next to our bed), which is now moving along quite nicely with a new rug, freshly painted white walls with some nice prints on them, mobiles on the ceiling, and a major piece of furniture in the form of a crib. There's still a ton to do between now and April, but it's becoming increasing more apparent that we'll soon have a baby in the house, and we're doing our best to get ready.

2012 year in review

January always sneaks up on me, and this year is no exception. I'm not really one for resolutions (although it has been known to happen), but I do generally like to spend the end of December/beginning of January looking over and thinking about the past year. While I don't have any best of lists for you or words of wisdom to impart, I did realize that I do have one thing to share with all of you: Instagram! I started playing around on Instagram over the summer, and while I don't post very often, I do find it to be a whole lot of fun. So today, I present you all with a very abbreviated account of my year according to my Instagram. It may be only half a year, but it will do.

June: Dia garden

July: Fifth Avenue Building

August: salmon chowder

September: Quogue Beach Club

October: Ca' d'Zan

November: Diwali

December: birthday bowling


See more (and follow me!) @sarahleighberg.

Costa Rica

We just got back from a week long family vacation in Costa Rica, and I thought I'd share a few of the incredible views of the country, plus one obligatory photo of me in a hammock. There were mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls, tropical jungles, and beaches, not to mention monkeys, sloths, crocodiles, and more birds, butterflies and flowers than I can possibly name. Yes, it is hard to be back in 40 degree weather after being in the tropics, but it's also really nice to be home. Today, we're off to see the other side of the family in Long Island, and to enjoy a few more days of vacation before heading back to work on Wednesday. And so, while the only thing that you'll see on this blog tomorrow are these same photographs, I'll be back up with regular posts beginning on Wednesday, starting with some more calendar goodness. Until then, I hope that all of you are fortunate enough to spend this time with your friends, family and other loved ones as well, and that all of your holidays are merry!

a little announcement

Hey, friends! I've got some very exciting news to share today.

I'm going to have a baby!

Not only that, but we already know that it's a baby boy, due to arrive sometime near the end of April. I wasn't exactly sure how, or even whether I was going to make the announcement here, but now that I'm already 5 months along, and as Patrick and I are thrilled at the prospect of welcoming a new little person into our home, I thought it would be nice to share such exciting news with all of you, my dear readers. In case you were wondering, yes, this does mean that I'll probably end up throwing in at least one baby-related art/craft/design post a week, but other than that, things should pretty much remain the same around here until the baby arrives. So I hope you all enjoy the additional posts, and I can't wait to introduce you all to the newest member of our family!


(Baby porcupine photograph by Sharon Montrose)

Designer of the Month: Marimekko

While we're now in December, and should technically be moving on from November's Designer of the Month, Marimekko, I thought that it might be fun to slightly extend things by bringing this historic company into the present day. For the last month, we looked at the history of Marimekko, and in particular, the company's founder, Armi Ratia and the many wonderful designers associated with Marimekko during its early years. Although a lot has changed for the company over its 61-year-history, today, Marimekko remains as popular, and as recognizable a brand, as ever. And so, I present you with a look at the modern world of Marimekko fabric printing.

(Photos by Tuukka Koski, Toni Rosvall and Marimekko, via Design Milk)

P.S. Today's my birthday - I'm 30 years old!!! To celebrate, Patrick's taking me here for dinner tonight, and tomorrow, we're getting together with friends to go here. I hope you all have a fun weekend as well!

inspiration and giving thanks

Hey, friends. I was inspired by this wonderful piece by Maira Kalman on sfgirlbybay's blog the other day, and was so inspired by the sentiment that I wanted to share it with all of you, too. I'm off to enjoy Thanksgiving in Philadelphia with my family, so other than the scheduled Designer of the Month post on Friday, I'm done with posting this week, but I hope that you all find some inspiration in your lives as well. I'll see you all back here on Monday!

playing with mobiles and gifs

Patrick has been playing with making mobiles and gifs lately. That he found a way to involve the cat is amazing.

lately

My other handsome fellow and socked feet.

a kitten named Noguchi

has come to live with us.

moving, boxes and a lack of internet

Hi friends. This past week was a whirlwind of being sick as well as overwhelmingly busy, but I'm happy to report that things have finally settled down a bit. Patrick and I moved into a new place on Saturday, which is incredibly exciting. The only amenity we're currently doing without, however, is internet access, which won't be set up until this coming weekend. Rather than worry too much about it, I'm going to use my lack of connectivity as an excuse to take a week off from blogging to settle into the new place, tackle the mountain of boxes within which all of our belongings currently reside, and catch up on some work. Until then, I leave you with this fun Ben Kweller cover of Ice Ice Baby. Have a great week!

Blog About It

Because it's what I write about and love, I generally gravitate towards design blogs. When it comes to writing about myself, however, I tend to have a very difficult time. I've never been to much of a public sharer - I have a facebook page, but rarely sign on to it, much less post on it, and twitter is pretty much out of the question - and while I've now been blogging for over 2 years, I feel like I'm still trying to work out a good balance between just writing about art, craft and design and sharing personal details about my life. As I want this blog to be a positive space, I like to keep the personal bits as upbeat as possible, rather than sharing about any of the bad times. I know that this is an issue for many bloggers, and I don't think it's necessarily either a good or bad thing in and of itself, just something that I think is important to consider. But it's for these very reasons that I'm totally in awe of the people out there who do use their blogs as a public forum, sharing their thoughts on life, work and family in a candid fashion. For today's Blog About It, I wanted to two of my very favorite personal blogs with all of you: sweetfineday and Pacing the Panic Room.

Sweetfineday is the blog for Whimsy & Spice, Brooklyn-based confectioners whose cookies are as beautiful as they are delicious (my personal favorites are the honey lavender shortbread and rose & black pepper thumbprints - try them, you won't regret it). Jenna, who's a freelance designer, uses sweetfineday as a public journal, sharing her thoughts and beautiful photographs about everything from running a business (along with her pastry-chef husband, Mark), to freelancing, raising a family, living in Brooklyn, and pretty much everything in between.

I greatly admire Jenna's honesty in her writing, regardless of the subject. She's written about being the breadwinner in the family, the ups and downs of freelance work, even about sharing personal details in such a public space, and it's exactly this honesty and openness that I most admire about sweetfineday. While I've only been following sweetfineday for a little less than a year, it's a daily read of my mine that I always look forward to.

(Images copyright © 2008-2011 Sweet Fine Day)

I first discovered Pacing the Panic Room, the blog of Florida-based photographer and videographer Ryan Marshall, through the maternity series of photographs and letters that he created when his wife Cole was pregnant with their daughter Tessa.

 

What originally started as a public forum for Ryan to candidly discuss his growing family has evolved into a space to share bits of his life, personal and professional photography work, and stories about balancing being a freelancer, husband, new father, and step-father of a child with SMS. Ryan is a hilarious storyteller, and his combination of honesty, the ability to laugh at himself and absolutely incredible photographs have made Pacing the Panic Room a favorite of mine for the past 2 1/2 years.

(Images © by: Ryan Marshall 2008 - 2011 Pacing the Panic Room)

peonies and a summer fruit bonanza

Due to my lack of photoshop skills, you might be tempted to say that you've seen more beautiful peonies than these, but I promise you that you truly haven't. I picked up these lovelies a few weeks ago from Eric at Saipua, and while they only lasted for a few days, for that brief amount of time, they certainly were the highlight of my apartment.

In other news, it is, without a doubt, summer outside, and that means an abundance of fruit at my local farmer's market. After purchasing what are possibly the last strawberries of the season with the hope of making a strawberry shortcake, I instead came across a recipe for strawberry summer cake on Smitten Kitchen, and couldn't resist. Not only is it a good as it looks, with the cake part just light and fluffy enough for summer, but it was so fragrant, even hours after coming out of the oven, that the smell alone would have probably been worth it for me. I made some lavender whip cream to go along with this baby, and it was pretty much a perfect 4th of July cake. 

Patrick also got in on the fruit bonanza. After bringing home some cherries that were just a little too sour to eat, he continued on the galette-making spree that he'd started a few months before (we still have leftover pâte brisée in the freezer, so I have a feeling that there's more to come) by baking this beauty. It also made an appearance on the 4th, and was happily enjoyed by all.

So what's up next? I'm thinking that either blueberry or raspberry picking are in my immediate future, and definitely peaches later in the season. And until then, there are always farmer's markets.

two years

From Lisa Congdon's A Collection A Day.

That's how long I've been writing this here little blog, and oh boy has the time flown by. Luckily for me, I still find myself just as inspired to continue to use this space as a creative outlet, both in terms of sharing all of this great art and craft and design with all of you, as well as continuing to keep myself researching and writing and excited. 

I also thought that this anniversary would be a good opportunity to do a little update on my goals for 2011, number 6 of which was to continue to build and improve it's like she's on a secret mission. I hope you all enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it. For any of you who are willing, I'd love to hear from you about how often you visit, what you like to ready about, and what you'd like to see more or less of here. Feel free to write in the comments section, use the "contact me" button on the right, or shoot me an email at asecretmission{at}gmail{dot}com. I'm working on putting together a formal survey, but for now, I do appreciate the feedback. 

As for the my other 2011 goals, I'm happy to report that number 4, find a new job, not only occurred back in February, but that it's been working out very well. I've moved from working at a classical music-based non-profit to working at an art museum, and I couldn't be more thrilled to have landed in such a great place with such wonderful people.

Number 3 on my goals list, see an article that I wrote published, has also happened, and I'm proud to say that Carnegie Hall's Blog posted a piece that they asked me to write about the collaboration between Martha Graham and Isamu Noguchi, back in March. Hopefully, this is just the beginning, and more writing opportunities will come along during the year.

So here's to two wonderfully fun blogging years, and a hope for many more to come. As always, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you all continue to stick around.