Brand New's Best & Worst

Nice wrap up of the best & worst rebranding of 2008 over at Brand New.

Poolga: iPhone Wallpapers

Finding it harder and harder to show how cool you are when all your friends have iphones?
Then download a super awesome cool wallpaper from Poolga to remind everyone you know that you like things that are cool, which, in turn, makes you cool.

Arcade Fire/Benjamin Button Trailer

perfect? yes. except for the movie trailer guy voice at the end. here's a link in case the embedded video doesn't work.

Buttons!

Justin and I are now proud owners of our very own button maker! These are a few festive ones we made over Christmas vacation.

So you thought you knew my husband...

2008



2004

Here he is in all of his 128 pounds of glory in 2004.

(We call this the Merrifield era)

A Warning

Friends, if you ever hire a designer to do anything for you, do NOT (i repeat) DO NOT make them design a word document for you. I don't care if you need to edit it. I don't care if you don't have Adobe Acrobat. DON'T DO IT. You will waste your money on all the time it will take and you will make your designer want to cut off her hands just so she has an excuse not to use Microsoft Word. the worst. program. in. history.

Bill Gates, you suck.

Ok, here's a kitten. Sorry for the rant.

Merry Christmas!

I'll be spreading Christmas cheer with these cute little cards from LemonLovesPaper on Etsy.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing long weekend. I'll leave you with a link to a flickr set of this great Golden Book from 1959.

ThePaperNut

Total instant gratification buy for today:







I'll be framing these wonderful little letterpress cards and adding them to the collection (sorry to disappoint if you thought I was going to send you one), but you should definitely go pick up a few for yourself or a friend -if you're nicer than I am- at the brand new etsy shop ThePaperNut.

Things clients shouldn't be allowed to do....

...ask you to have another go at a design and say "we give you total creative freedom" when what you're designing is their word document.

you want to give me creative freedom? how about i use a DESIGN PROGRAM to design?

Too Good.

Nothing to do with art or design, extremely hilarious.

Work Conversations #4

i sent my mom the picture of you and ruthie

oh my!

and then i said "we're having a baby"
"and we're moving"

did you reeeeeallly?
because that would be hilarious.
and would unleash a sh%# storm of epic proportions.

Gift Tags

This is what I do when I have a million other things to do.

Picture Day!

This morning I went with Cara to a park nearby and took some pictures of her as a Christmas present for her parents. The weather was beautiful today, so it was great to be outside for such a big chunk of the day.


i think this one is my favorite from the day.


these gorgeous swans swam together all across the pond.




this was the 'mary tyler-moore' graduation shot. cara performed with enthusiasm.




This afternoon we also finally got to meet our newest little neighbor, Ruthie! She's a precious little one who we've already seen laugh, cry, and make one heck-of-a fish face.

The Threadheads!

Remember that old-lady crafty quilt group I'm part of? I finally made my quilt squares and we had a meeting! In a building! At a specific time! We also now have a blog, so be sure to check it out from time to time to see how we're doing. And if you ever want to get in touch with your own craftiness, come to our next meeting! Its full of fun and vegan snacks!

Norwegian Photographer: Hanne Hvattum

Beautiful images of people and their stories. I especially like the project where she stayed in a train station in Copenhagen that sees 100,000 people go through in 24 hours. Photography like this reminds me why I love people.

Designing a Book Jacket

Picked up this little tasty treat on ebay for a mere $8 after seeing it on this new blog, jacket mechanical. The only thing that could improve my current job is if I got to design book jackets every now and then. If any of you ever writes a book or knows someone who is, send 'em my way.

I Love Dust

This firm out of England has a full portfolio with especially nice typographic work and illustration. A fun one to browse all the way through.

This is Where We Live

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.
seen on NOTCOT this stop-motion video was made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of 4th estate publishers. Produced by the AptStudio.

Simple Shoes

Just bought a pair of these to replace my completely worn out black chucks. Price is actually not bad at all for eco-friendly footwear.

Work Conversations #3

Justin's response to finding out that a guy has been quasi-flirting with me:

now i'm distracted, gee thanks. i need awesome fist names.
hahahaha
you're hilarious
you don't need fists
man, "wind" and "fury" would fit perfectly as knuckle tattoos.

Yuken Teruya

Caught a glimpse of this artist's work on one of my new favorite blogs Oh Joy! run by Joy Deangdeelert Cho (of Oh Joy! Studio, which is definitely worth a long look).

Every little bit helps

GoodShop
My mom sent me this link today. If you do any shopping online its a great way to contribute a little bit to good causes.

Things that make me feel cozy

For me, the winter season is all about things that make me feel cozy, like a warm drink and a good scarf, a soft melody and a warm embrace...

Hug Mug by Max Brenner (via Design Sponge) my favorite winter drink this year comes from Crooked Tree, a pumpkin spice latte. yum!



White rose scarf, anthropologie



really enjoying the title track from Sarah Jaffe's ep Even Born Again

this isn't a video of that song, but its good too, of course. and that's my friend becki in front of the texas flag! yeehaw!



detail of print by belleandboo