Froggy’s Arts & Crafts a welcome haven for adults and kids

BY CAROLE ROSNER

When it’s 110 degrees, you’ve already baked cookies, cupcakes and brownies, and have spent too much money on amusement parks, water parks and laser tag, head over to Froggy’s Arts & Crafts in  Toluca Lake for a fun, inexpensive and creative way to spend a day.

Froggy's owner Ali Porter had a successful career in entertainment management and event planning. Photo: Karen Young

Located at Tujunga and Camarillo, Froggy’s will keep kids busy all year long. As a matter of fact, forget the little kids — it can keep teens and adults busy too!

Froggy’s Arts and Crafts is the brainchild of Ali Porter, who envisioned a drop-in place for kids and adults where they could embellish clothing, paint, make jewelry, do woodworking and cook. It’s a place where it’s okay to be messy, dirty and imaginative.

The  colorfully designed  space  also incorporates  music, storytelling, puppeteering within its walls.

Kids and adults can work together or separate.  Those older than 6 years old can be dropped off.  Adults can come alone, and don’t need to be accompanied by a kid.

Birthday parties at Froggy's are available for children and adults. Photo: Courtesy Froggy's

Porter decided to open Froggy’s after the births of her two  children and very successful careers in both entertainment management and event planning. Her experience clearly correlates as to how best to please the customer and handle every minor detail to make one’s experience ideal.

Froggy’s offers a wide array of activities, classes and events.  There are drawing classes, cooking workshops, knitting nooks, and gardening projects. Birthday parties, baby showers or a “Girls Night Out” can be  also be hosted here.  Most recently, there was a “Hello Kitty” party for women.

Shelves are lined with a diverse assortment of individually priced “do-it-yourself” projects  in a range of prices.  Froggy’s has a boutique with unique gift items, and even carries American Apparel tees for fashionista kids and adults.

Through mid-August, Froggy’s also offers a daily Summer Camp with a different theme each week.

Storytime with an art project. Photo: Courtesy Froggy's

“I like making monsters out of paper and foamy paper.  I like making edible Play Doh,” said Nora, 6, who was creating at the Froggy’s camp.

“Froggy’s manages to be both kid-friendly and parent-friendly at the same time.  Usually kid places are, by design, loud and overpowering,” says her mom, Jill.  “At Froggy’s you can sit with your child and do art projects.  Or sit off to the side on the nice cozy couch and read.  I like being there as much as my six-year-old.”

Drop-in studio rates are $6 per hour plus the cost of the project.  (These range from $3-$10, with one or two projects slightly higher.)  Froggy’s offers a monthly membership which costs $55 per child with unlimited studio time, as well as a Rewards Program where you earn 5% back on all your Froggy’s purchases.

Froggy's sits on the edge of Toluca Lake.

Froggy’s  two hour private birthday parties include full use of the studio and outside patio. The host can choose from many projects.  As a special treat, each guest decorates a square of a “Birthday Quilt” and Froggy’s assembles the quilt and gives it to the birthday child as a wonderful keepsake.

There’s plenty of free parking in the back as well as metered parking on Camarillo. And there’s wi-fi. What more do you need?

11332 Camarillo Street Toluca Lake, CA  (818) 980-3764(FROG)  Log onto www.froggysartsandcrafts.com for more information and upcoming events.

Carole Rosner is a native Valley Girl who has lived in Studio City for the past 11 years. She is a strong supporter of her local public schools and an active volunteer in her neighborhood. Some of her favorite things to do in Studio City are to celebrate 4th of July at CBS Radford, walk along Ventura Blvd. and browse through the racks at Crossroads Trading Company.

Curator and photographer chat at Two Roads

BY SOPHIA LOUISA LEE

Charlie Morey is a fine art photographer who is currently exhibiting “From Stunning to Sublime…” at Two Roads Gallery in Studio City.  It is a collection that includes images of nature, specifically time spent at Yosemite, to moments captured on the streets of Los Angeles.  Morey uses digital and film cameras, as well as in color and black and white.

“I’m a visually-oriented person,” says Morey.  “I learn best when my lessons arrive through my eyes rather than any of my other senses. I think visually. I dream visually.”

Capturing nature, like this photograph from Yosemite, drives Charlie Morey's artistry. Copyright: Charlie Morey

Why then photography?  Morey explains, “I guess it’s the slice of left-brainedness in me that helped me easily grasp the technical concepts of cameras, lenses and print-making. With those capabilities in hand, my creative whims are free to express themselves.  And I may have an attention span that prohibits me from working on a single piece of artwork for days or weeks…photography is fulfillingly fast!”

“I find myself framing compositions as I walk or drive around LA,” continue Morey, “and when I find myself in a location that’s filled with amazing imagery (Yosemite National Park is a good example), I feel an overwhelming need to record those compositions.  That’s what I’ve done since buying my first ‘good’ camera almost four decades ago. My current show at the Two Roads Gallery displays images taken on film alongside ones I captured in recent years with my digital cameras.”

Morey started his photographic journey by initially taking family pictures.  It was one photograph in particular that made him want to learn more, one he took of his daughter “with a silver foil Christmas tree in the background. The flashbulb reflected off the tinsel-like tree creating soft blurs of lens flare surrounding her, creating a dreamlike image.”  He felt the image was capture by luck.  It was this that made him want to learn technique.

Morey, then living in his hometown in Maine, purchased a used Minolta Hi-Matic 7 35mm rangefinder camera along with some how-to books on photography.  “I also bought a film developing tank so I could process my own black-and-white film at home,” shares Morey.  It was just the beginning.

Charlie Morey speaks to a patron at the Two Roads gallery opening earlier this month.

Based on his self-taught talents and his passion for photography, in 2005 he received a grant to be an artist in residence at Yosemite.  (Some of the daily images he photographed are on display at Two Roads.)  Morey describes Yosemite as a “theme park for nature photographers, and I love nature.”

Morey lives with his wife Amy.  “We met in 1992,” proudly shares Morey, “got married in 1995, and lived in Sherman Oaks. Our first Studio City home was on Wrightwood Drive (a busy local commuter route into L.A.) across the street from actors Mitzi McCall and Charlie Brill, just two doors down from where The Scorpions bass player lived. We now live off Wrightwood Lane, and as far as we know, nobody’s famous here.”

“From Stunning to Sublime” continues through July 28th.  Both framed and unframed images are available.  For more information, visit www.tworoadsgallery.com www.charliemorey.com

Studio City local Sophia Louisa Lee curates exhibitions at the Two Roads Gallery located at 4348 Tujunga Avenue in Studio City.  With a passion for the arts, she’s a painter, a member of the Board of Directors for the MOCA Contemporaries, and a contributing writer for Artillery and Coagula, both art magazines.

Gallery Listings

Cella Gallery
5229 Lankershim Blvd, NoHo www.cellagallery.com (213) 291-7908

Gallery 800 Local IASTE
5108 Lankershim Blvd at the Historic Lankershim Arts Center, NoHo (818) 763-8052  www.gallery800.com

Satsuma Gallery
5447 Satsuma Ave. North Hollywood (818) 508-7459 www.satsumagallery.net

SpringLeft Coast Galleries represents contemporary artists throughout the USA and world, emphasizing classical and modern technique and 21st century impressionism. The credo of the gallery is: “The Artist/Collector Connection”.12324 Ventura Blvd. Studio City (818) 760-7010 www.leftcoastgalleries.com