happy new years (eve) to you, happy birthday to me!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Years! 

I was born on this day in Pasadena, CA. The Rose Bowl Parade route ran between us and the hospital, which caused my parents some stress, but luckily I decided to arrive a few hours before the parade start. Otherwise I would have most likely been born in our car.

Anyway, I am mentioning my birthday as an excuse to show off a most excellent present:

A lovely necklace from the uber talented Puiyi of Munted Kowhai!

I would like to thank my husband for following my gentle guidance (I've given him guidance ever since the one notorious year that I received a set of tires).

And I would like to thank the awesome Bliss blog for introducing me to Puiyi's creations.

Here's hoping 2009 treats us well. Hope and change are on the way!

birds and a fox (?)

A little (ahem) Christmas present to myself - Chan Luu bird shell pendant necklace from ebay for a significant percentage off.

Russian ring holder. The birds are made of a soft stone called honey selenite.

A tiny antique button that I hope to make into a ring. It was hard to capture, but the background is dark green celluloid.

Odd little British regiment clip that I also found on ebay.

deck the walls

Some favorite prints from Gallery Nucleus...

"Tiger" - Ogi Ryuichi

"Bonfire Night" - Patrick Leger

"Jungle Eyes" - Tang Heng

Proceeds of the print go to the Totoro Forest Fund.

"We Spent it Well" - Chris Appelhans

I have this print of a rabbit and girl enjoying oranges. It's even nicer in person.

the postwar boom

In 1947 Mademoiselle magazine launched "Living for Young Homemakers". The young postwar generation was moving out of their parents homes and searching for a life to call their own. They were faced with limited incomes and a huge housing shortage, and Living showed them how to handle those issues creatively. 

Some articles in their 1st issue:

We Live in a Barn, and Love It!

A Garage is Our Castle

I Live with My Family

Space is Where You Find It

This woman and her husband live in a converted stone garage.

"Penny and Pete Find an Apartment and Furnish It"

"...four whole rooms!"

I think maybe that generation had the right idea...

thorns

For some reason I'm having a bit of a fascination with thorns. My last (and ongoing) obsession has been with arrows, so I guess this is a natural progression.

The rosewood "dornstab" lamp. Danish for thorn staff, the stem of the lamp has thorn-like hooks, which let one adjust the light to varying heights. The New York Times has an interesting piece on how this design and others were almost lost...

DL & co. silver thorn apple

1. * rose thorn earrings, 2. :: lemon ::, 3. Agave americana, 4. captured thorn

on the road

I hope everyone has survived the holidays so far! We took a long trip down toward the bottom of the country, and I occupied myself by taking pictures with my new camera from the confines of the car.

A heavy blanket of clouds as we rolled through the Cumberland Gap. Someday I want to explore this region...

We stopped for a night in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The city had languished for years, at one point winning the dubious distinction of having the dirtiest air in the United States. Now it has cleaned up dramatically, and there is a beautiful art district along the wide and curvy Tennessee River. Now if only the sad cities of Ohio can follow its lead...

My parent's dining room prepared for Christmas breakfast...

...and my son and husband prepared for Christmas presents. Husband seemed to slide further and further down the couch as the day wore on.

Approaching Cincinnati near the end of a long ride home. I think this shot accurately depicts my state of mind after hours on interstates. So worth it though! It's hard being so far from family...

Merry Christmas (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice etc.) to all...

I'm off to prepare for our twelve hour drive to visit family in Montgomery, Alabama.  May you all have a happy holiday! Hopefully one without guns, tears, gluttony, copious amounts of alcohol, creepy uncles or acrylic snowman sweaters.

Flickr find - Christmas for a tomboy, 1960 Montgomery, AL

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

foxes on the brain

Lea's cool fox sketch reminded me of this:

a fun little logo I created a while ago in a design class. Super simple, but I was really enamored of the fox face I sketched out. Enamored, that is, until my husband pointed out that it was strikingly similar to this:

Fox racing and action sports apparel company.

Apparently quite a large and well known brand!

Rats. 

turn your apple into a ghost

Cool! Decals to cover your apple logo. You can find them here.

Ooh polar bears

and flannel. Perfect together! I'd love to make a big ole bolster pillow out of this. At Superbuzzy.

Do the Chop Chop!

Oversized postcard by Evah Fan. I have this front and center on my inspiration board. Its goofiness helps alleviate stress. $2 at

Little Paper Planes.

5 things I love every day...

Mette of the wonderful Ungtblod

tagged me, so without further ado,

five things I love every day:

This portrait of my mama...the kindest person I know. I love it because we live far apart, so it is like having a little bit of her here. The street artist who painted her in 1969 did her mouth a little too wide, but got her eyes just right.

My son painted this owl in a tree in kindergarten. I'm not one of those moms who think that everything their kid does is genius - but this is one of those things I would save in a fire. Plus I freaking love owls...

My macbook. I love and hate it every day. It has made school and my design projects so much easier, but two minutes on this thing quickly becomes two hours. Or three or four.

The wedding ring that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. It's delicate and different, and the citrine looks lovely with the thin gold band. The ebay seller that my husband bought it from found it at an estate sale in Vancouver, one of the places I most want to visit. It's circa 1930 and I like that it has a history. Hopefully not some tragic history!

Are kitties things? That's debatable, but I definitely love mine every day. As you can see, my husband loves them as well. He is squeezing a disgruntled Mackie...

and here we have Mimsy eyeing my chicken. They were both rescued from shelters that they were at for nearly a year. 

Oh and please excuse the wall o booze. Husband's idea...

I tag:

Roberta of Camp Comfort

Jane of Seen and Said

Diana of Please Sir

Puiyi of Muntedkowhai

Stephanie of Even Cleveland

a field guide to snow and ice...

Paula McCartney's limited edition Snowfall print from her project A Field Guide to Snow and Ice.

$20 at 20x200, but they're selling fast...

leaving the house for the 1st time in days

In my defense the weather has been icy and gross. It's still icy and gross, but I was driven out in search of food. I prepared for the cold in head to toe ebay finds: $500 Tocca wool and silk coat for $50, J. Crew hooded sweater for $20, Gap jeans for $10, $180 Michael Kors gum soled wedges for $17, and $250 Ananas bag for $25.

 I even found my wedding ring on ebay - a $50 dollar gold and citrine one circa 1930. Yep, I am the queen of thrift!

Beast Type

Fantastic type by the fantastic graphic designer Robert Hanson. First discovered a few months ago through the fantastic design blog GraphicHug. Fantastic!

the most frivolous thing I own

I never go anywhere fancy enough to justify the purchase of this little Andrea Brueckner bag, but it's just so pretty. I love the way the sea foam green leather drapes, and it was only $15 on ebay. I hang it on my bedroom wall as a piece of art.

cool kid books - part two

Oh how I loved this book! A tale of three toys that come awake at the stroke of midnight and climb into a painting. They wind up having a bit more adventure than they anticipated, but all ends well, and they make it back to their dollhouse in time to sleep the day away. It has these great little half pages throughout, and when you flip them over the scene completely changes.

It's long out of print, but you can find used copies on Amazon for as little as $4.20 to as much as $330 (!)

Bah Humbug

My 2nd Christmas and my 1st Christmas disappointment. 

Apparently I would scream whenever I had to put on this furry monstrosity. It didn't help that we were living in California at the time...

Piggysan!

The weird and wonderful Danish designer Henrik Vibskov finally opened an online store. I love the tiny "piggysan" print on his scarves and the unusual cuts of his clothing.