Green Space Travel Case

Given my love of paint-by-number (see here and here), I am enamored with this DIY project on Design*Sponge. Such a fun idea for city dwellers.

MadeByJulene

You simply must check out the amazing blog of papercutter Julene Harrison. Above are two of my favorites. How crafty-sweet is that proposal?

Leaf Cuts

I started following Jenny Lee Fowler's photostream on Flickr after my first experiment with schrenschnitte. She is a super-talented paper cutter, and when I saw her new work with leaves I got all sorts of excited and asked if I could share them here. She was kind enough to oblige!

Jenny also has her own blog and offers custom silhouettes (leaves and paper) in her Etsy shop.

In other news, I picked up a 2" x 4" vintage camera at a tag sale today, along with plates, a light meter, tripod, and unexposed film for ten bucks. I have no idea how to use it, but it looks like fun. Once I take a photo, I'll post it here and beg for advice.

Wishing You a Happy Easter

Or whatever it is you may celebrate. This weird bunny and egg balancing-act is one of my favorite vintage postcards from my collection.

More Diana Camera Pictures

Well, I was hoping that my Diana pictures from our trip to Taos would be really fabulous, but they're not. The batch was pretty overexposed, but I'm also not very happy with the local film processing. This is the second place I've tried that does not "get" the whole Diana thing. They crop photos oddly, and most annoying of all, they edit/don't print the entire roll because the pictures are overexposed and blurry. Um, Diana pictures are supposed to be overexposed and blurry. Why don't you let me take the pictures and I'll let you print them?


Sorry if this post is a bit of a rant. It's annoying to spend money on a service that businesses don't fully provide. One of the things I love about Diana photography is it's unpredictability, but if someone else is editing out the "bad" images I have no idea how other shots turned out! The images I did post here I had to scan, straighten, and re-crop myself (but other than that they are unretouched).

So I have a favor to ask of my readers . . . if you know of an online processing service where you can send your film and that will fully print the roll and send you everything, will you please post the link here? Because I think that is the probably the best option at this point.

You can see my earlier Diana rolls here and here.

I Have Issues

There is one other reason I cannot go see movies in the theater. What have I spent an inordinate amount of time doing this evening? Tracking down the yellow shirt that Rashida Jones wears in I Love You, Man. I want this shirt. Have to have it. Even looked up the film's costume designer on IMDB. Turns out a lot of other bloggers did, too, because through posts like this one I found out that not only is the shirt far, far, far out of my price range, it is (thankfully, because I am sick) sold out.

Maybe I need to dust off the sewing machine and try to make it. It's a basic yellow cotton top with some circles hemmed and layered, right? Maybe it can sit unfinished with the Built by Wendy dress I started. Oooh, wait! I just realized that the BBW dress pattern has a shirt option. Which I could pin little circles onto . . .

I knew there was a reason I started this rambling post! Any advice, my lovely seamstresses?

A Cold Weekend

It was cold here this weekend, which means this is what I saw when I let the dogs out in the morning.

It also meant that I worried about our garden, covered the spinach, and brought the geranium indoors. Bloom, little flower, bloom!




It also meant, since it was cold and the end of spring break, that I went to not one, but two movies this weekend. First I caught a matinee of Sunshine Cleaning (filmed locally!) with a friend. Then Billy and I saw I Love You Man, and since we're in a new-ish city in the process of making adult friendships, we found the movie all the more hilarious. But what inevitability happens when I finally go to a movie is that I want to see more. There was a trailer for Away We Go (play above), another film written by Dave Eggers. It looks lovely and touching and funny and smart. And does anyone know who is singing in the trailer? Because it sounds vaguely familiar but I can't quite place the music.

Oh, and if you have not watched the Where the Wild Things Are trailer below . . .

Where The Wild Things Are

I had my doubts, but this trailer looks amazing. And with Spike Jonze (director), Dave Eggers (script), The Arcade Fire (soundtrack), and actors like Catherine Keener and Mark Ruffalo, I don't think I can resist. Between that and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I have high hopes for movies coming out in the coming months.

By the way, if you have not seen the Where the Wild Things Are cake on Cake Wrecks, it is totally worth a look.

Thrifted Plate

I found this plate at my local thrift store yesterday. I love the poppies and colors, and I think once we finally purchase a house it will inspire some kitchen paint choices. This is the starter for the plate wall I've been wanting to do for so long!

Public Poster Art, Etc.

Readymade asked five artists to recreate Depression-era poster art in response to the current economic meltdown. You can read the artist's statements and get free downloads here.

Also, if you have not streamed the SXSW Music Festival on NPR, it is so worth it.

Also, if you have not looked at Emily Martin/The Black Apple's new kitchen, you totally should.

Yeah, essentially today is just a random mix of interweb goodness.

Yellow and Purple

My favorite shades of spring. At least for today, when a random iris bloomed in our driveway.

Taos

We got back last night from the best weekend in Taos. Here are some things we did, and if you are ever in this neck of the woods, I highly recommend all of them, with the exception of walking over the bridge that spans the Taos Gorge. I made it about five feet out and then . . . I believe the phrase that would most accurately describe the moment is completely losing my shit. This is about the second or third time I got vertigo and severe panic on that bridge, and yet I keep making myself try to do it in the name of conquering my fears. Maybe I should just start to let it slide.

Anyway, on to the good stuff:

• We had lunch at Eske's Brew Pub, including their famous green chile beer and an amazing vegetarian green chile stew.
  
• We browsed the shops along the Taos Plaza, including my favorite, FX-18.
  
• We stayed at the Historic Taos Inn, had drinks and dinner in the super-lovely lobby, and listened to some great live music by Gregory Alan Isakov and The Freight. They were really good!
• The next morning we checked out early to take a scenic drive to the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente. You can get a day pass to soak in their mineral springs. It was so amazing to be in my bathing suit in March!

For two homebodies we had quite the full weekend. Billy was good enough to drive so I could take pictures with my Diana camera along the way. I'll post those later, but in the meantime, here are some of the digital shots from our weekend road trip (best viewed large, click on them):

{Camel Rock}

{Lonely Tree}

{Road from Santa Fe to Taos}

{Taos Gorge}{Road from Taos to Ojo Caliente}

I want to do a lot more traveling in the West, as it still feels so new and huge to me! If you have any recommendations for camping or weekend trips in New Mexico, Colorado, or Arizona, please share them with me!

Blue Highways

We had a great weekend in Taos. I'll post more later!

I came across this stop-motion film on Design*Sponge today, and since this blog functions as my digital commonplace book, I wanted to post it here. It truly is a must-watch; the concept and music are so amazing.

Order

Our office/workspace is a mess right now, and I'm trying to make myself gear up for a good spring cleaning session. I could use something like the inspiration wire above (from Sunset).

Happy Valentine's Day

Good morning! I thought I would mark this sweet day with three more amazing vintage Valentines from riptheskull. I think the last one is my favorite.

In real life I'm not such a traditionalist . . . Billy and I are going to separate movie matinees! It's our favorite sort of date. Really.

Holy Amazing!

This is not an original post by any means, but the artwork is so amazing that I had to stash it here for posterity's sake. Apparently the image above is a giant, loosely quilt based on a vintage cross stitch pattern. How amazing is that?!
{Artwork by Grant Heaps, originally discovered via DesignSponge and make something.}

Vintage Valentines

Check out this amazing collection of vintage valentines on riptheskull's Flickr page (originally discovered via The Black Apple). I'd love to have some of these beauties in my own vintage postcard collection (you can see selections from my own collection here).

More Diana Photos

After some film processing drama, I finally managed to have the second roll from my Diana Camera printed and scanned. I'm not entirely pleased with this roll (and there were a few shots of dahlias that I was hoping would be lovely, but did not come out at all), but I do realize that part of this camera's charm is its unpredictability with composition and color. It was definitely fun to walk around Albuquerque this past fall with a camera in my hand, getting to know the city.

{The sunrise from our backyard}

{Fall foliage on the trees outside the library.}

{Ristras at the Farmer's Market.}

{A whole truck hung with ristras.}

{A cottonwood tree near the Rio Grande.}

{Same tree, new light.}

Button Seating Cards

I am a bit late in the game in discovering these, but I love them! What great conversation starters at a wedding reception--- 1" buttons attached to each guest's seating card.
These are from Martha Stewart Weddings (but of course), and I stumbled upon them via two great blogs, Ritzy Bee and Weddingbee.

And now for . . . my shameless plug. A lot of people on both blogs were looking for button suppliers (and especially suppliers that did not require a ridiculously large minimum order). I would love to do custom orders for a project like this. Love. I have a 1" button maker and usually make one-of-a-kind buttons from vintage book illustrations, which would make great conversation starters in and of themselves, but I could also work on designing something special for your event.

You can contact me via email, or through the contact page on my website. And, you can see examples of my vintage book buttons (along with feedback) both on the website and on Etsy.