Japan countdown

Less than a week. Spotted this card on The Scoop. Dreaming of sushi just about sums it up!

via Fomato. They have some other really cute cards too. check it out!

Diana

Ben got me the most awesome v-day present EVER!! A Diana camera... and just in time for my Japan trip too!

I have been wanting one of these for years and can't wait to take it out and play with it.

Check out its capabilities here.

Thanks b!

on a happy note:

Check out these gorgeous windows I saw at ABC while in NY last week. They have a very ethereal yet funky chic quality... no?

This is pretty much the only time I got out and saw something cool.

spotted.

The lovely Heather sent me the link to find the faceted table. The Meteor table by Arik Levy. so cool. And the site she found it on is pretty cool design too. Thanks Heather!!

scenes from the weekend

Lunch at Bolsa.
Stroll through Bishop Arts District.
Windows at Niemans.

DesignForObama

This website, designforobama.org, has hundreds of posters and prints by designers from a pretty big variety of backgrounds, all showing their (nicely creative) support for Obama. I have a few favorites shown above, but this, seriously, isn't even a small fraction of those on the site. Check it out.

ps: "graphic designers for obama > you had me at the logo." -- LOVE.

Monday Huddle

Every Monday, if not other days, one of the partners of my firm sends a company-wide email with a link to an article / project / point of interest that's design-related on some level, and we kind of discuss them / go-over them during a weekly, company-wide 'huddle' phone call. I usually end up posting them on here, but why not make a point of sharing the wealth??

So, consider this the first (of many) official Monday Huddles. I won't take credit for this unless I actually come up with them (rare), so assume that I'm getting them from an outside source.

'Second Lives' at the Museum of Arts + Design

Roberta Smith writes: In “Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary” at the new Museum of Arts and Design, masses of plastic utensils and combs, vinyl LPs, dangling eyeglasses, syringes, ladies’ pumps, pieces of crockery and spools of thread are marshaled into works of art or design, most of them derivative and gimmicky.

Shiny Red Shoes

image from an open [sketch]book

I'm so in love with this design, I can barely put it into words. Suzanne (amazing) posted on her blog a design that she did for (the former) Megan Tremblay (now re-married) for a company she's started - a concierge service called Shiny Red Shoes. Having been in studio with Megan for 4(?) years straight, I know that she sported identical red shoes all the time - and pulled them off like no one else. The idea of the company is really cute - I especially like the assistance with gift-buying - so fun!

I'm so in love with the red + robin's egg blue combination these days, plus the white background of the site, the clean font used = a totally modern, simple, 'jcrew meets real simple' feel that works beautifully.

Love it!

Nature meets Architecture

One of the partners at my firm sent this article through this morning. I'm in love with this house, especially because if they hadn't said it, I never would've known it was in NYC.

barcelona anyone?

I saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona on sunday.... besides renewing my want (need) to go to Barcelona it was a truly fascinating, thought-provoking, lovely movie.

The cinematography was incredible, "very golden" as my friend Lindsy described it. The thing is, i could begin to describe the plot of the movie but the truth is it sounds sleazy until you go and see it for yourself. A story of adventure and Love... go see it this weekend, seriously. and Javier Bardem is hot... need I say more (and the actresses too... if you are into that.)

ABC carpet and home

ok, so if you have been to this legandary place you know about the 6++ floors of brilliance in the two buildings. You also know that there is a lovely merchandising scheme that keeps you discovering new things around every corner. You are aware of the groovy merchandise from all over the world. But mostly you are wondering when you finally found this glorious land of things for home.... why you had never been there before?

This was the thought in my head as I went to ABC carpet and home while I was in NY. I felt like I was a kid in a grown up candy shop (substitute candy for lovely home and crafty goods and a few pieces of clothing as well!) And there is a kids section too... I am sure they would be just as delighted.

I floated from floor to floor and if I were rich with a place to put anything at all it all would have come home with me... or better yet I would have just moved in. but alas, I brought home a pretty cool wood-cut stamp to try out some new printing ideas from Lena Corwin's book that Ben picked up. How fab is that gieant bowl I dug through to find the perfect one.

The nest... and happy friday!

image from nbc.com (games start at 7.30-6.30 tonight)

08.08.08.... prosperity as the Chinese say.

I am so psyched about the games tonight. (despite human rights issues I am not so happy about). But you have to admit, although there are farmer's without water so that China can look good.... China looks good. The nest (main stadium) in particular is pretty RAD.

GO TEAM USA!!!

image from nbc.com

100++ degrees!!

Go for a swim this weekend... it is HOT! or stay inside and check out Brigitte Sire photography portfolio.

motivate!

These prints from Orange Beautiful sounded like motivational words of wisdom from my mother. I had to have them. Get them here.

sinfully good....

I just arrived back from Las Vegas late last night. I thought I would do a little recap of things we did when we weren't busting it to finish the black, white and yellow bonanza in time for market.

Here you go:

1. Visited the Hoover Dam

2. Had drinks at the new groovy Sushi Samba at the Palazzo

3. Checked out the model condos for the new LEED accredited CityCenter Las Vegas. They had these rad Chihuly glass sculpture reeds in the fountain outside.

Now I could go on and elaborate about these things but I think a little visual candy will do just fine. You can check out more on my Flickr site.

FLW

I just got back from Chicago, hence the no posts. Although alot of these trips are all work, no play... we busted it so we could do at least one fun thing while there.

We did the whirlwind tour of Oak Park. Which for those of you who don't know is the Mecca for Frank Lloyd Wright. We barely had enough time (after getting on the wrong train) to go to the Unity temple and FLW home and studio. On the in between, we saw a few houses by FLW on Forest ave.

We saw pure evidence what detail he shows to every project from exterior to interior with the arcitecture to the furniture. Some call this unified fluidity, I call it control freak.

However, no matter what your stance on FLW is, he is a mastermind that gave alot to modern design and he has some truly inspiring design. I absolutely loved the design concept behind the Unity Temple and the experience you got from traveling from the outside into the sanctuary. GENIUS... if you have never been, you must go!

You can check out the rest of my photos of oak park here.

Dansk Design Center

One of the things that I insisted on us doing while in Copenhagen was go to the Dansk Design Center. It was a small museum but very cool and informative nonetheless. They had an interactive Living Wood exhibit going on which was really neat because you could go up and examine the way the pieces were made.

I bought one of those little wooden birds by Danish architect Kristian Vedel (although I got it later in Aarhus because I was obsessing over it. I knew I would be sad if one didn't come home with me).

My other favorite thing that I saw at the museum was the Stingray rocking chair by Danish designer Thomas Pedersen. You can read more about it here.

Then there was the Muuto Nordic design group that I learned briefly about... this one is definitely worth some more research.

othello

Last night Ben and I went to Shakespeare in the park. His friend Jacob did the costume designs, and hung out with us and gave us some little insites (like "that wallet he just threw on the floor, it is an $800 Fendi I got as a gift"). what girl doesn't like tidbits like that?! We took a picnic and a rug (no blankets to be had) and sat out on the lawn for a little cultural enrichment.

I recommend this for anyone in the Dallas area for a couple reasons: 1: even if you arn't a Shakespeare buff or understand it for that matter, it is still fun to go out and have a picnic... and the custumes rock! 2: it takes you out of the city for a moment so you feel like there is nothing else going on (except for the occasional ambulance you hear in the distance).

Progress

Throughout the last couple of weeks, as Barack Obama has pretty much earned the democratic nomination for President, I've heard, read, watched, and seen a lot of commentary on the subject. It's like everyone that had started to "get over it" is now wide awake and back in the game- both in a good way and otherwise.

I understand everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I also understand that none of these candidates are perfect- can someone please tell me when we've had any in the last 24 years? Exactly. However, as torn as I was in the last election trying to pick the lesser of two evils, I'm totally sold this time around.

I love- LOVE- this poster and it's *subtle* support of Obama. I'd love to have one, but the price on a post-college girl's budget just isn't going to fly... so for now, I'll drool about it.

River Thames... england denmark

ok... so after my computer crashed (for a week) and I made a quick 4 day jaunt to Las Vegas (more on that later) I am back in Dallas and have the second installment from the england denmark trip.

So we are still on the first day. As anyone who has been to London can tell you, there are quite a few tourist attractions along the River Thames. So we started at the Tower Bridge and weaved our way down until we got to the Tate museum hopped on the tube and popped out at westminster to find Big Ben towering over us. Now we did go on the London Eye the next day.