CreativeMornings - April

Hi!

Last month Alex got to come with me to CreativeMornings because he doesn't have class on Fridays this term!  Woohoo!



The talk this month took place at Maryland Art Place and the speaker was Greenspan, a rapper from Baltimore!



The topic was Humility, and Greenspan spoke about what that word means to him.



It was a great talk!  It was really interesting to hear about some of his experiences in the music and performing business, and also how regular life has had an impact on his career.  Many members of the audience knew and had worked with Greenspan in different musical and business situations, and at the end, some of them were able to share stories about how nice it is to work with him.



Including past CreativeMorning speaker, Jamaal "Mr. Root" Collier!



Here are part one and part two of the videos of the event!

Dooby's provided super delicious treats, as always: lemongrass glazed poppyseed muffins and Fruity Pebble cookies, and coffee.



There were also some adorable s'mores kits with CreativeMornings and Maryland Art Place logos on the marshmallows!  How cool!



We had those for dessert that night :)




At the very end of the event, we watched a trailer for a documentary about Greenspan, which looks really good.

Other sponsors of this monthly event are Strangers with Style, Stuckey Design, and Shine Creative.

Such a fun morning!  I'm so happy Alex was finally able to go to one of these with me!  Today, this month's speaker was announced and I'm so excited!

Thanks for reading!

CreativeMornings - February

Hi!

It's been a while since I've posted anything about CreativeMornings because I missed the one in January (it was while we were in Puerto Rico)!  I got to go to the one in February though, and it was great, as usual!  This one took place at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and the topic was Climate.

       

       

This time, the speaker was Joseph Giordano (J.M. Giordano), a photojournalist for the City Paper, among many publications.



One of the main topics he discussed was his series called Summer of the Gun, published in the City Paper last summer.  That summer there were so many homicides, and he was one of the only (usually only), photojournalist (or reporter in general) at the crime scenes.  He talked about how hot it was that summer, and how so many of the poorer areas of Baltimore don't even have trees and shade.  He thought that may have contributed to the homicide rate being so high.

It was so interesting to hear his stories about  being at crime scenes, talking to witnesses, family members, or even just people in the neighborhood.  He said it is so important to be human first.  He found that when he knew the name of the person/people murdered, and used it instead of saying "the victim", people were much more likely to talk to him about the person and what happened.  All he had to do was be respectful, and people trusted him.  He was even invited to one of the victim's funerals, and he attended it.

Another topic was his piece called Camp 83, which told about the homeless people who live (or lived) under the I-83 overpass in Baltimore.  I remember that this was one of the first City Paper articles I ever read after we moved here.  So many people walk and drive past this area every day, and no one had ever paid attention until he interviewed some of the people living there.

After the article came out, many of the homeless people received help.  One of the women lives in a women's shelter now, and we saw a picture of her in her new room.  One man had gangrene in his foot and since then, has received medical help and can walk again.  It was so great to hear about these things that happened just because he took the time to talk to these people and write about their situations.

During the Q&A at the end, someone asked why he chose to do the Summer of the Gun photos in black and white, but the Camp 83 series in color.  He said that he doesn't use color unless it is needed to make a photograph more effective or if it's important that something in the photo to be seen in color.

His job sounds so interesting, but very hard!  He said that, especially with the Summer of the Gun series, being a photo journalist can be very taxing and emotional depending on the topics and subjects you're shooting.  He said, "I don't take sides, I take photographs."  I love that!  He said that at all of these crime scenes, he wasn't there to judge anybody or decide anything, but that he was there to capture situations so that the public could learn about them.

At CreativeMornings, yummy breakfast and coffee are always provided by Dooby's.  This month we got spicy sausage strata and lemongrass glazed poppyseed muffins!!





So good!  They usually have extras afterwards so I try to take some home to Alex!

CreativeMornings happens all over the world - in over 100 countries - and Katie, who hosts the Baltimore CM wanted us to try a new, fun idea that she had.  We all took selfies with the people sitting around us and posted them to social media, tagging the host of CM in Germany.  That way, he would wake up with tons of notifications on Instagram, Twitter, etc. from us!  Katie knows him through CreativeMornings and she called the game "Confuse the Germans".  I think we're going to confuse someone else next time!

Here is my selfie partner, Chinwe, and me!



You can see us taking the picture in this screen shot of Baltimore_CM's Instgram pic :)



They have already posted what this month's topic is, who the speaker is, and where it will be!  It's a week from Friday and I'm so excited!

These are the sponsors of Baltimore's CreativeMornings:  Dooby's, Strangers with Style, Shine Creative, and Stuckey Design!

Thanks for reading!

Dooby's Bread Club

Hello!

There is a coffee shop/restaurant down the street from us that I've mentioned a few times called Dooby's.  We've gone there several times for coffee but we haven't gone for dinner yet!  It's super cute and they're always posting pics of yummy looking food and drinks on their Instagram!  Which is where I heard about their bread club.


Yeah, like Birchbox or a magazine or something else you subscribe to, but you get delicious surprise BREAD.  Of course I signed us up right away.  You sign up/pay by the month and it costs $37.10 with tax.  There are a limited number of spaces available (I need to sign up for March, quickly!  If it hasn't filled up already!) and every Tuesday you pick up your new bread (and a little surprise they throw in) anytime after 12pm!  Oh, and there's even a hashtag, #doobysbreadclub, to use when you post pics on social media.  It's so fun.

We've gotten two weeks of bread so far.  Week one was a gigantic, pretty loaf of sourdough with garlic olive oil.  It was so good.  We ate the bread plain, used it for sandwiches, made a basil pesto/mozzarella/tomato situation, and of course had it with the olive oil on it.


Isn't it pretty??  There's a cute note included every week, too, written by Katie Boyts (pastry chef/baker extraordinaire, who I've written about before because she also hosts Baltimore's CreativeMornings!).



This week we got four French demi-baguettes - one ready-to-eat and three that were par-baked with instructions to finish baking them.  



The extra surprise was some super delish apple citrus spice jam!  Oh my goodness.  We've eaten two of the baguettes so far and have two more in the freezer!




This is such a fun idea!  Besides that it's super yummy and convenient to pick up, I love that it's made fresh right there!  Plus, I love surprises, and posting pics of things, and bread.  So it's perf.

Can't wait to see what we get next week!

Thanks for reading!

CreativeMornings #3

Hi!

I've been busy getting ready for my craft show that was yesterday!  Alex and I had fun!  I'll write all about it tomorrow :)

On Friday, I went to another CreativeMornings, this time at Center Stage!  It's about a ten minute walk from our apartment and it's really nice inside!  This month's theme was Education and the presenters were Max Bent and Jamaal 'Black Root' Collier.  The started out beatboxing (super good and funny!) and then they talked about their experiences in schools and did a Q & A session afterwards.  

They go into schools and use rhythm, beatboxing, rap, and music in general to teach things like math, language, and even history.  You could tell how much they love what the do, and they're really good at it!  At one point they had the audience stand up and just move around a little.  Max beatboxed and Jamaal rapped things for us to do, like wiggle our fingers, wave our hands back and forth, etc. and we were cracking up :)

The theater was really nice and it was another great talk!  I really love going to these!  Before we went into the theater, everyone was in kind of a lobby area right outside (the room we were in was on the forth floor...the place is big!) and we had more yummy treats from Dooby's.  

The new snack this time were chocolate hazelnut rosemary bars!  So good!

They also had a playwright that was writing plays about anyone that wanted to do it.  I did, and I think she's going to email the plays to us!  We'll see :)  That's a fun idea!

The other CreativeMornings Baltimore sponsors besides Dooby's are Strangers with Style and Shine Creative.

Pixelated Photo Booth was there again!  I got pixelated twice in two days!

Next month's talk is going to be at Creative Alliance.  I hope it's while we're in town!

Thanks for reading!

CreativeMornings - Take Two

Hi!

Two weeks ago I went to my first CreativeMornings at MICA and the November one was today!

This time it was in a huge warehouse called Area 405, which, I just learned on their website, is 160-years old and artist-owned.  It's about a ten-minute walk from our apt, but in a slightly different direction than MICA is.  Area 405 is in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, which we don't know much about yet!

 The topic for this week (which is the same topic for all of the CreativeMornings around the world) was "chance" and the speaker was Stephen ESPO Powers.

Here's his website.  It was such a cool presentation!  He used to be a graffiti artist, then (and still) a sign-maker, and now he does murals and has huge art on buildings and bridges in 13 cities!  We got maps that show all of his work around Baltimore.  In his slideshow we got to see art that he's done in countries like Japan, Brazil, South Africa, and in many US cities.  It was so neat to hear the stories behind some of his murals.  His book, A Love Letter to the City, shows pictures of his giant words all over the world.  I want to get it!

Dooby's brought yummy treats again, along with delish coffee!  This time they brought lemon, espresso, and porcini shortbread in the shape of letters (how approp!), onion and gruyere scones, and clementines!  Everything I tried was so good!

After the presentation I met Olivia, the creator of Strangers with Style, who I won the Uber gift card from!  Katie, the host, introduced her at the beginning of the presentation so I had to say hi afterwards!

I'm so glad I learned about CreativeMornings!  Both presentations that I've attended have been so interesting and so different.  The next one will be on December 5th!

I finished Sharp Objects tonight!  Ahh!  I will write a review about that soon!

Thanks for reading!

I have a blog!

Hello!

I've been thinking about starting a blog so today I did!  I think this will be a fun way to keep our family and friends updated now that we're living in Baltimore.  I can't believe we've already been here for a month!

We've done so many fun things and we're finding more to do everyday.  Alex is finishing his first week of school and he's really liking it so far.  I'm looking for a job but having a lot of fun not working for the time being!  We LOVE our adorable apartment.  Don't worry, I'll post a ton of pics.  Charm City Yoga is right around the corner and we've gone to about six classes there already!  We love it.  We really like Dooby's.  It's really cute and they have yummy coffee.    

Yesterday, we went to the last of the First Thursdays concerts at Canton Waterfront Park (we also went last month).  We got Home Slyce Pizza and sat in the grass by the water.  The weather was so nice!  

I'm looking online right now to find a fun place to go walking/hiking this weekend.  We're thinking maybe Gunpowder Falls State Park or Rocky Point Beach and Park.  That should be fun!

Thanks for reading!  There will be more stuff soon :)