Going West

Incredible papercut video [via Rag and Bone]

Australia Post's ad campaign

[From Post Letters. Found on Everyday Correspondence]
A very accurate representation of what a letter feels like! So get writing people!

Linky dinks

-MEN AND URINALS - an investigation: A truly hilarious and insightful look into one of the few places we ladies don't have access to. So many rules!

-The Taste Makers: It was the food issue of the New Yorker last week, something that I anticipate every year (along with the fashion issue). Unfortunately, most of the articles in that issue are only available for subscribers online. This means you should get on it and SUBSCRIBE.

This particular article was on the folks who make all those food flavorings. I would say "unnatural" or "artificial" flavorings, but the article makes me think twice. It's a fascinating article on the science of flavor and smell, the development of flavors, the very secretive relationships between flavor firms and food corporations, like Coca-Cola and McDonald's (did you know that there's extra flavorings to make their fries extra tasty? Is that a really naive question?).

-Saturday Thankful:  Elise writes about being thankful for the ability to change and adapt. I found the second half particularly inspiring. She writes about the job search and then finally biting the bullet and choosing to make her store her job. Inspiring and makes me think...

-How to recover an umbrella: AWESOME. You can make umbrellas to match your outfits! Or at least have an umbrella that's not a boring black. [from Threads magazine via Grosgrain]

-This doesn't have anything to do with anything, but it's funny.

[Originally uploaded by dpsullivan]

Greens, blues, yellows and grays

I've meant to make these flowers since I made blue and green paper. I love the dark and lime green particularly. The colors aren't exactly like the ones on the cardigan, but they're a refreshing change from the typical red and pink roses I've been making.

Coincidentally, Coco+Kelley posted up an aqua and green color inspiration board today.



[Color palette by coco+kelley]
In other color news...


The gray is Kona cotton in charcoal and will go towards curtains. The upper yellow fabric is polyester lining and the lower is Kona cotton in I think buttercup? Those are going towards a Beignet skirt from Colette Patterns.

Geometry of Circles

Do you guys remember this cool animation from Sesame Street? I absolutely LOVED geometry of circles!!! And now it's on YouTube and I can watch it on command.

Linky Dinks

-Grosgrain has a great listing of scarf tutorials, 25 of them from across the web! I'm still working on the tube scarves a la the one's over at Nitca's etsy, but I think one can never have enough scarves (the trip Egypt probably bumped up my scarf count to at least 12). My picks? the summer braid scarf (it's no-sew!), the ruffle shrug, upgraded scarf, Anthropologie-inspired cluster ball scarf and the t-shirt loop scarf (also no-sew and potentially a good way to upcycle an old shirt).

-The Bible translated into LOLcats.

-How incredible is this paper couture? 

These amazing works, along with a few other, were featured on Paper Crave. These "clothes" were by the Doberman Studio for a spread in L'Officiel, which apparently is the oldest French women's magazine still in print (here's a link to its archives. Tous en francais, mes cheries!).

Tim and Eric

When does Tim and Eric start and Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim begin?!

Yarns and ropes

 Took advantage of the yarn sale at Michael's last week to feed my new spool knitting obsession. For some reason I've been feeling what can only be defined as "color hunger." I have no idea why, it's not like my life really lacks it. Susie over at Style Bubble posed a "Let's cram as many colours into one outfit just using solid block pieces and no prints and patterns" challenge. Maybe I shall participate... Meanwhile, check out this woefully lacking-in-color braid of spool knitted rope.

 Here's a link to a pretty comprehensive overview about spool knitting. Everything from different types of stitches to reviews of machine spool knitters.
 My mind is spinning with ideas on stuff to make with these ropes... But really, I need to focus on the situation at hand! Focus? Totally not a strong point of mine.

Linky dinks

-Check out this list of awesome paper-made clothes, including a line of paper-cotton blends that are actually washable.

-Found some great freebie embroidery patterns through a new blog find, No Pattern Required. My favorites are the hula girl and the hat dancer.

She also has a beautiful flamenco(?) dancer in progress (but no pattern. Boo). Also through the blog, I discovered one of my future homes. But it's in Michigan, so somehow it'll have to move itself to California.

-Also was introduced to the Vivian Maier photo blog. The man who runs this blog, John Maloof, acquired thousands of her film negatives at an auction. He's developed a lot of them and found she took a lot of photos of everyday Chicago life. She died , but he's still on the search to piece together who this woman was.

-The Food Lab: Animal Fat Mayonaise: Honestly, not a fan of mayo. It doesn't really make a difference for me in burgers and sandwiches and it just has an unnaturalness to it. The way it looks, the way it jiggles... For some reason, those characteristics make me think mayo is actually human fat collected by liposuction surgeons, bypassed by the FDA and sold in supermarkets. Maybe I feel this way because I've never had basic, fresh mayo.

But anyways, fascinating recount of attempting to make mayo with various animal fats. My inner chem geek came and out ate up all the bits about the different molecular structures of the fats... I considered taking chemistry in college and then I thought, "Wait. I don't hate myself that much." So ended my science career.

!!!!! Sanna Annukka is selling her screenprinted prints from her website!!!!!

The only thing preventing me from snapping all of them is that she is selling them in pounds and STARTING at 100 brit pounds and up. If you're an adoring friend with lots of money to spare... I'd like these two prints particularly!!!! (And of course I choose quite expensive ones, they are 175 pounds and 250 pounds respectively...)

Michaela's photos

Here are the gorgeous photos she took with the roses I sent her.

Here's her advice on awesome photos:

With a lot of help from Picnik;)
It's the best kept secret of most bloggers!

Actually, I invested my money {which I scrimped and saved for over a year} in a Canon camera... the Rebel type, because it suit me... but there are really fine EOS cameras out there just waiting to be picked over... Try Target for the Canon Digital Rebel EOS and have a few Benjamin saved... Its a purchase you will not regret! and don't forget to use all the fun aps. from picnik... and adjust exposure if needed...

Well, a SLR camera is a bit out of reach for me, so I'll have to up the photo editing game.

I did play with Picnik for the first time with the photos of Michaela's post, but didn't change them much... But I suppose that's the point -- to show something at its most natural state (then again, fashion magazines are a counterargument to that).

I also have Photoshop, which is probably more powerful and something I should get more proficient with anyways. But it's on my laptop and the house has no wifi. Sadly, because of the latter reason, I don't go on my laptop too often and use all the great programs on it. Lame, I know.


***
In other news... I'm kind of surprised, but I got an inquiry from New Zealand for notebooks, to be used for mommy diaries. Made them up last night and I'll be shipping them off soon. She's my 40th sale and I'm still amazed that I'm making sales.

For some reason the past week or so have been incredible productive. Not sure what's going on, but I like it and I hope I can keep it up. I was a bit upset last week and I just forced myself to MAKE to stop thinking about it. I need to figure out a non-miserable reason to make now. Hahaha.