Early 1900's Photography

These are just a few examples from an early 1900's photographic collection, put together by a man named Albert Kahn. Representing cultures and locations from all over the world, each photograph offers a glimpse into another place and time, resulting in sometimes hauntingly beautiful moments.

e-decor, anyone?

This is a fun and cheap way to get decoration help for those of you who have a hard time designing spaces within your home. I Heart Design by Avenue offers an online alternative to the often times costly process of interior decoration. Through a simple 6 step process, you can select a style, the room you want to re-decorate, and provide some direction of what you're looking for, and the three women who run this business will create a customized design package specifically for you and your room. With their trade discounts, you can get a decent deal not only on their design services, but on the actual pieces of furniture. Go to their site to read through their process more thoroughly - if only I had a place of my own to get their help with. Someday...

Poppies & Posies

I just found my dream come true. Poppies & Posies is a "boutique floral and event design firm" here in NYC started by two women who share a love for "design, flowers, and parties." I love the composition of textures, colors, and shapes in all their work, including unusual elements like mushrooms and moss. This inspires me to experiment with the artistic display of plants in my own home, and I hope I can someday share my floral designs with others and plan parties the way Poppies & Posies does!

OCC in the house

Last Friday (May 21, 2010) Orange County Choppers came by our office in DUMBO to deliver our very own Domani Studios chopper! It was pretty awesome... with Paul Sr. cruising down the street, the bike seemed normal, but once you sit a short (that's me) to average height person on it you realize just how much of a monster their creations really are. I could barely reach the handle bars (that's the reason for my facial expression). It was a trick to get the bike onto the cargo lift in our building's garage (it's a good thing we even had one), and now it's sitting in the waiting area of our office, where on average 5 people a day can't help but take a seat.

Photo Credits:
1) Jessica Hills
2) Micah Acinapura
3) Greg Solenstroem - he used the Cross Process iphone app to achieve the unique film look

Cat in a Hat!

I think I've just died from laughing so hard. I admit that I'm usually one of those people that pities animals forced to wear any type of clothing, and immediately judge the owner of that poor creature. But these hats by xmoonbloom are just way too adorable to resist! I'm seriously considering buying one for my cat, and she will love it (or at least I will!). I have to say that what sold me on these hats is the model... I love the bear ears photo!

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike!

I have to start this posting by addressing those of you who know me, who are probably crying from laughing, because the truth is that I haven't ridden a bike since I was about 7 years old. Sad but true! I started learning to ride horses when I was at the tiny age of 5 and loved it. I started learning to ride a bike a little after that and became terrified. I think the bike I was learning on is partly to blame, because it was my mother's and my little legs couldn't reach the ground unless I literally fell, which made starting and stopping terrifying. So I gave up before I could figure out how to turn, and now I'm 25 and bi-wheeled challenged. But now that I'm a grown woman who can reach ground on my very own, I really want to finally learn how to properly ride a bike! And I think the best incentive to learn is a pretty, blue, retro one.

I found this photo of a guy on the cutest powder blue retro bike and decided that I wanted it. After searching through various sites selling original and new retro bicycles, I actually found the very same bike that I fell in love with in the photo! Damn I'm good! Turns out it's the Super Deluxe 3i from the Cruiser Collection, made by the Electra Bicycle Co. Don't you just love the classic lines? I've already added it to my wishlist! Another site I found with sweet retro bikes is Republic Bike... they only offer two body types, but you have the option to customize the colors. Happy bicycle hunting!

The Perfect Type

Choosing the right typeface for a project can be very hard. The curve of the serif isn't quite right, the x-height is too high, it's not quite condensed enough... there are so many factors to expressing what it is that you're trying to communicate. A friend of mine sent me this well-designed poster by 22-year old Danish designer Julian Hansen, and I had fun exploring the different paths for choosing a font. Check out his site for this and other fun posters!

My Vinyl Army

I only recently started collecting dunnies, but I'm already completely obsessed. I love the mystery of not knowing what I will get, and the process of unwrapping and discovering which one is my newest addition. I unfortunately didn't get into this until the end of the third series, but my army is slowly and steadily growing. Check out the My Vinyl Army section to the left to see who's joined the ranks.

Places to check out to start (or add to) your own army:
kidrobot
my plastic heart
toy tokyo

Letterpress!

A blog that I follow, "oh, hello, friend," is celebrating letterpress with studio tours, artist interviews, class locations around the world, and beautiful examples of the art form. I went to my first letterpress class back in February at Studio on the Square in Union Square, NY, and immediately fell in love with the organized trays of beautiful blocks of letters, numbers, and punctuation. The above photos were taken during my class... the first phrase, "My bike is faster than your shoes," was something that a little kid said to me as he passed me on his tricycle.

If you're a fellow type/letterpress geek, check out the blog's letterpress articles and giveaway of awesome letterpress stuff! I'm personally hoping for MonkiVintage's wood type block set, a tomboy letterpress linoleum print (I have a special place in my heart for old cameras), or one of VermillionStarPress's beautiful letterpress calling cards.

Jamais Toujours

This is a project that I've been working on for a few weeks now, a sort of creative distraction during my down-time at work. I came up with this phrase a couple years ago - not for any particular reason, other than that I love French, and I like how both words look and sound. And because most people (other than those who understand French of course) don't know what these words mean, they can appreciate them simply as beautiful shapes. Those who do understand, can enjoy :-)

Jessica Florence

I can't remember how I first came to know of Jessica Florence's amazing photography of her rats, but I've been following her work for awhile now. She started by photographing her rat, Bug, and has become famous for capturing these adorable moments of her rats sleeping, sometimes with tiny teddy bears. You can see her work on her site and flickr page.

It really makes me miss my own two little girls, Sadie and Cinder, who were two of my best pets as a kid. Rats have unfortunately suffered a lot of bad publicity as filthy creatures, but they actually make wonderful pets. They're clean (but only as clean as you keep their cage), and can be very affectionate. Sadie used to ride around on my shoulder, loved cuddling up either in my sweatshirt pocket or near my neck while I watched TV or read, and loved baths (strange but true!). I highly recommend that you consider making these wonderful little creatures your next furry friends! For more information about rats as pets, check out these links:

American Fancy Rat & Mouse Association
The Rat Fan Club
Paper Heart Rattery (a great place for info and to buy ratties from)