Valeria Out Loud

Hey Everyone!

Guessing most of you, like myself, are gearing up for tomorrow!  My Mom was over all day prepping with me, which was a lot of fun.   As I mentioned in my Girl Cooks Food post, this is my first time hosting Thanksgiving, and I am sorta nervous.

Thanksgiving.  I cannot believe it!  I know I keep saying this, but didn’t 2014 fly so far? It’s already Thanksgiving!!
Slow down time!!  Before ya know it December 14th will be here and bam New Year’s!!

Yes, that is my birthday. In less than 18 days! Best day of the year!! Wahoo!

Well, I wanted to share a trip we made over the weekend to the BAA, Brickbottom Artists Association, in Somerville. The BAA offers gallery shows, artist resources, programs and classes, is housing, etc., and it’s a really great location!

This place has always been on our radar, because, location wise, they are right off of McGrath O’Brien highway, a road we have traveled almost every day since we were in our teens. Our draw has always been the design of the building. It is designed in a way that the corner of the building has amazing large apartments that you can see from the highway facing Boston. This has always intrigued my husband the most. Then last year my husband worked a job inside the building during the holidays. This was something that made him very happy because he finally got to see inside the building at all the artist’s homes/studios. Needless to say, he fell in love with the location. It is right down the street from his office. The buzz of art was everywhere and people seemed really cool; and of course the views from some of the apartments were of the skyline of Boston, everything that he’s ever wanted; to live near the city in an inspiring place.

Last weekend they had open studios for their 27th year, where any of the tenants that want to participate can, so we went. It was real fun. They had a lot of artists, I believe somewhere in the range of 60 artists, that showed all types of art including music. Some of the artists use the space for mainly studio work, others do both -live and studio. Some have really interesting lives, and we got to share in their perspective through their space. A few had large shared spaces, where they are in relationships with another artist and their homes are split studios. The living arrangements were super neat. A lot of talent in those buildings. I had a great time walking around and meeting people.

Here a few snaps of our day. Most times I was so into the spaces I forgot to take my camera out. Heh

Afterwards, we headed to the museum of Science for the girls’ behavior reward. I started this new good behavior reward program at home. The kids get rewarded for doing good deeds around the house or with each other- like not arguing with their sibling, unloading the dishwasher, or cleaning up, without asking. I am trying to reinforce subconscious good behavior so they think about what they do before doing it. They receive tickets at the end of each day. Then those tickets get tallied at the end of each month for a prize (we drew up a prize board). They get a special prize for a certain number of tickets. For example, up to 40 tickets = planetarium tickets, 50 – 60 tickets= omni theater tickets, etc., each tier is a better prize of tickets.   

At the MOS: