nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 24 Comments

“October is the treasure of the year,/And all the months pay bounty to her store . . . ” ~ Paul Laurence Dunbar

1. Happy October!! Surely the prettiest fall month. Poland-based artist Asia Spettel’s cozy “cottagecore” paintings are the perfect way to celebrate the season.

I couldn’t find any information online about her other than she works mainly in acrylics and enjoys imagining herself in the scenes she paints.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind sitting on that porch sipping tea and nibbling on cake, or hanging out in this lakeside kitchen with soup bubbling on the stove, a plate of cinnamon rolls and a copy of Wuthering Heights on the table. My kind of place! It’s so much fun studying all the details.

Don’t you love the beautiful rustic colors and the animals that wander through her pictures (fox is my favorite)? Of course her table settings, filled with fruit and baked treats, are what caught my eye in the first place. 🙂 In these crazy times, Asia’s work provides much needed comfort and solace.

You can purchase originals, prints, and postcards featuring Asia’s work at her Etsy Shop. Other places to enjoy her online: FB Page and Instagram.

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[review] Sweet Dreams: Moon Poems for Bedtime by Charles Ghigna and Jacqueline East

~ jama ~ 27 Comments

When we were little, we likely heard about the cow jumping over the moon and the dish running away with the spoon. We learned the moon was made of green cheese, and that when the man in the moon tumbled down too soon, he burned his mouth eating porridge.

Whether in nursery rhyme or popular folklore, the moon continues to charm us. No surprise that kids are especially captivated by its presence in the night sky and curious about its changing appearance.

In Sweet Dreams: Moon Poems for Bedtime (Schiffer Kids, 2025), beloved Alabama poet Charles Ghigna serves up a delightful platter of lunar treats illustrated by Jacqueline East. The fourteen short poems in the collection invite young readers to explore the moon’s many guises, whether playful, evocative, majestic or enchanting.

When night has fallen and children are tucked safely in their beds, they can imagine the moon as a lollipop, orange, pumpkin, ice cream cone or lost balloon. They can see the moon as artist, magician, or guardian of safety.

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[review] Giving Thanks with Halmoni by Kathleen Choi, Sook Nyul Choi and Il Sung Na

~ jama ~ 9 Comments

In less than a week, millions of Koreans will be celebrating Chuseok, a mid-Autumn harvest festival that’s one of the biggest holidays of the year. They will travel from all over to visit their ancestral hometowns, where they’ll spend time with their families, honor their ancestors and share a big feast.

Since my family didn’t observe this wonderful holiday when I was growing up in Hawaii, I knew very little about it until I read Giving Thanks with Halmoni: Celebrating Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Festival by Kathleen Choi and Sook Nyul Choi, illustrated by Il Sung Na (Red Comet Press, 2025).

Children’s books about Chuseok are actually few and far between, so this delectable title is a very welcome offering. Love that it was written by the same mother-daughter team who collaborated on one of my favorite Korean American picture books, Halmoni and the Picnic (1993). I still remember how excited I was when first reading it 32 years ago (back then, picture books by and about Korean Americans were almost non-existent). How wonderful that all these years later, the Choi family is bringing us yet another heartwarming intergenerational tale. 🙂

The halmoni (grandmother) in this new story has recently moved to America. She describes Chuseok (which coincides with the big, bright Harvest Moon), to her granddaughter Su-Jin and her friends Maddy and Keisha, who notes that it sounds a lot like Thanksgiving. Later, when Su-Jin tells her friends that Halmoni likely misses hosting Chuseok dinner with her family and friends in Korea, the girls decide to ask Halmoni to help them throw a Chuseok party for all their friends.

Halmoni is only too happy to oblige, while the girls are excited to pitch in with all the preparations. As the moon grows smaller and smaller, Halmoni first shows the girls how to wrap special Chuseok presents with a pretty cloth called bojagi.

When the moon finally disappears, it’s time to begin serious preparations. The next night, a tiny sliver of the moon appears; while it grows each night after that, Halmoni and the girls shop for ingredients and make several traditional dishes such as Korean scallion pancakes (pajun), japchae noodles, a traditional beef stew called galbijjim, and three-color vegetables.

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lori levy: a peach of a poem

~ jama ~ 30 Comments
art by Melanie Parke.

Happy to share another insightful poem by California poet Lori Levy today. Last time she wrote about her love of eggplant, wanting to make it her special hobby. Now, what about a peach?

Sometimes we just have to be still and let joy find us.

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“Summer Peaches” by Robert Papp via Fine Art America.
PEACH
by Lori Levy

A woman writes about a peach.
I don't know the woman, don't know why,
out of all the poems and stories in a book I've just read,
I remember her and her peach --
how, as she bites into it one August afternoon
while reading on her patio, birds chirping around her,
scent of roses in the air, her depression lifts.

Nothing more than a peach, but it's enough,
the taste just right, juicy and sweet,
fresh from the local farmers' market.
Or maybe it's the woman herself, not expecting anything,
but ready somehow. Open, alert, ripe as her peach.
Four months of crying, grieving,
numb from the death of her husband, and, suddenly,
there it is for a moment: a thrill
she thought she'd never feel again.

A peach. But it could just as well be a baked potato
on a blanket at the beach, as it was for me once,
picnicking with family as the sky turned as luscious
as this woman's peach.

An awakening. A jolt to the senses.
We search and search, and the moment we stop
and pay attention, it's here, not there, and simple as
a peach on a patio. Or a slice of chocolate cream pie
by an open window, sun pouring in.
Or just the sun, a patch on the table,
like a note. A reminder.

~ posted by permission of the author (first published in Iris Literary Journal, March 2023).
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Paige Spearin: of bunnies, bars and beds

~ jama ~ 12 Comments

Basket of apples, please. Or maybe a baguette from the local bakery. Then we can settle in for a relaxing game of backgammon, cozy up with a book, or putter in the garden.

(I like your long ears and whiskers, btw.) 🐰🐰🐰

Fun, whimsical, playful: when you step into a Paige Spearin painting, you know you’re going to have a good time. Inspired by things she truly enjoys (travel, tennis, skiing, interior design, parties, flowers, bike riding), Paige works her magic with India ink, watercolor, gouache, and sometimes acrylic and oil.

Paige Spearin in her home studio.

An artist and surface designer based in Winnetka, Illinois, Paige specializes in creating fine art, illustration, textile design and custom stationery. After earning a BFA in Fibers from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2008, she began working with Lilly Pulitzer, where she was a print designer for over 16 years. She’s now self-employed, having established Paige Spearin Studio in 2019.

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