photo booth fun

What an incredible idea!
(Consentino's Flickr)
via Old Glutton

mugs!

Also from Shakespeare's Den, these mugs deserved a post of their very own:

The Shakespearean Insults Mug:

If you've ever read any Shakespeare,
you know just how amazing his insults can be.
Now you can read them every morning while you drink your coffee!
The Henry VIII & his Disappearing Wives Mug:
Since I was a little girl, I've always been fascinated with the Tudor era.
This mug pictures all of Henry's wives...until it gets a little steamy.
Then the wives disappear!
(It works just like the Hot/Cold mug from this post)

The Scrabble - Book Lover Mug:
Oh, Scrabble...how I love thee!

The Disappearing Dinosaur Mug:
This mug is truly awesome.
It's another disappearing mug...
& I love it!
Click on it to see it in action!

my literary love affair

This post began with a single item...but I quickly realized I needed to include so much more. If you've never been to Shakespeare's Den, you should really check it out this very instant.

Library Bookends:
(Lauren, I feel like you will enjoy these as much as I am right now)

Great Authors Coaster Set:
(I am not even close to kidding when I say I just studied all four of these authors in one class)

The lovelies that started it all:

Frog Prince Bookends via Rare Bird Finds who says "Perfect for the reader in your life who loves a fairytale." Really she means "perfect for Laura of Quirkology."

macro of the day #30

I can't believe April & the macro challenge is over already!
It was definitely a lot of fun...
& something I'd be willing to keep up for some time.
But don't worry! I won't continue the flood of photos here.
Future macro-a-day photos will only be uploaded to my flickr.

rosemary the modern owl

Loving this print from etsy shop Studio Lyon.

macro of the day #29

vintage finds

Diana of please sir has been posting some really lovely photos of her flea market ventures. Check them out at please sir & her flickr!
Here are just a couple of my favorites:

macro of the day #28

fun in my mailbox!

Today was full of surprises!

First I received this lovely postcard from Lea of Batspit (I actually think it came on Saturday or possibly even Friday, but we were gone all weekend so the mail didn't get checked until today):

This Pay It Forward package from Krissy

of Paper Schmaper came today, too!

As you can see, she included some very lovely gocco printed cards (like the bicycle, the beautiful damask design, or {my personal favorite} the wooden postcard!) all of which you can find in her etsy shop. Also included were some very cleverly packaged cinnamon gum packs, a pack of letter press note cards, & a miniature gnome! {don't you just love that gnome?!}

Thanks for making my day, ladies!
PS these photos definitely don't give proper justice.

camera lens bracelet

I am in love with this bracelet idea. It's just too bad that a bracelet such as this would never stay on my tiny wrists. boo.

via swissmiss

macro of the day #26 & 27

Here are both Saturday & Sunday's photos:

My mailbox:
My penny collection:

and the winner is...

The winner of the framed macro photo giveaway is Krissy who said:
"aw! that's cutest pup! hooray on 100 posts!"

Congratulations Krissy! I hope you enjoy your photo!
& thanks to everyone else who entered!

hello my name is

I've always loved these name tags. In fact, I use them to organize for class. Each folder gets a tag that says "Hello My Name Is Early Brit Lit History" (or whatever class it's for). When I saw this little ID purse...well, I have to admit I was pretty tickled. Get your own from The Spoon Sisters.

via swissmiss

felt weapons

Remember these colorful guns?
Well, MP Industries has created some felt weapons that look a tad more realistic.


via pan-dan

tree cozy

I'm not sure how I feel about Carol Hummel's "sculpture," which won the Heights Public Art Competition in Cleveland Heights, Ohio (2005).
On one hand, it's fun, light-hearted, pretty...
but on the other, that poor tree must be suffocating. According to Hummel's website, the sculpture was on display from 2005-2008 in front of the Cleveland Heights City Hall. That is an awfully long time.
How do you feel about using nature as an art form?

via swissmiss

an engineer's guide to cats

This one is a little over 7 minutes long...but worth it so before you start, make sure you have time to watch the whole thing!
Hilarious!

macro of the day #25

Perhaps the best Christmas gift I've ever received...
an Epiphone Viola Bass Guitar from Jason.

PS don't forget to sign up for the giveaway if you haven't already! it ends tonight at midnight. the winner will be announced tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

one shady mug for me please

Swedish designers, Front Design Studio, has created a line of wares, "using standard silhouettes of common household items and shading them as if on paper."
As Yanko Design puts it, "This is what home furnishings would look like if Dr. Seuss and M.C. Escher had a child that smoked really good pot and listened to A-Ha."
I've got to get me one of these!

via please sir

macro of the day #24

pretty pin-ups

So maybe it's not very feminist of me to love pin-ups as much as I do...but I'm not an uber feminist, so I don't feel bad about thinking the pin-ups on this flickr group are lovely. Here are just a couple of my favorites:

I've been trying to figure out what kind of instrument that is...it sort of looks like a lute, but it seems a bit too small for that. Any ideas?

via FFFFOUND!

mimobot

I want this flash drive! Owls are fastly becoming one of my favorite animals to see in designs & this is no exception. You can get your very own Owsley Owlbert USB Flash Drive here...or perhaps your a Star Wars junkie & would prefer one of these. They're all very quirky, indeed!
Check out the other fun flash drives mimobot has to offer while you're there.

via rare bird finds

macro of the day #23

It's reversible!

vintage-ish bookcase

I've seen this bookcase around somewhere before, but I can't remember for the life of me where. What I do know? ...I love it! (from Jaren Goh Design).

via FFFFOUND!

happy earth day!

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

I hope you are all doing your part to keep our world green!

PS leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of green things you're doing in your home & you'll double your chances of winning the giveaway!

macro of the day #22

The best part of my workspace!

creative vinyl

Check out other ideas for revamping old records here & here!

via Double Takes

macro of the day #21

This is where my rings sleep at night.

marketing vs advertising vs pr vs branding

This is so clever & exactly the sort of thing I'm studying in a class right now...certainly makes me giggle.

via swissmiss

post #100, macro #20, & giveaway #1!

Update: This giveaway is closed.That's right, lovely readers...in honor of my 100th post (sheesh! 100 already?), I'm hosting my very first giveaway!

Each of you has a chance to win one framed photo of your choosing from my April Macro Challenge! Just click that link to check out the choices (or you can see them all here).

Here's how to enter:
-You have until midnight (Central Standard Time) on Friday, April 25th to enter this giveaway.
-Just make a comment ON THIS POST to enter — any comment.
-Anonymous comments will be ignored/removed.
-One entry per person, please.
-The winner will be randomly picked and announced Saturday morning.
-Thanks to Design Mom for the layout of these rules!

PS this giveaway has been included in the Bloggy Giveaways carnival!

pay it forward

I posted about the pay it forward challenge a couple of weeks ago & thus far only one person has taken me up on the offer! I can't lie...I'm a little surprised! Who doesn't love to get fun things in the mail?
Check out the original post here to find out all the details...& leave a comment on that post to join in on the fun!
(I signed up for two different p.i.f.s so I need 5 more people to join!)

collections

I read a post early on ali loves curtis about ali's postcard collection. She asked what kinds of things other people collect.

This is how I responded:

past: miniature erasers. frog knick-knacks. wizard of oz paraphernalia. stickers. creative cardboard coasters. trolls. fanny packs. my little ponies. clever magazine ads. porcelain dolls.

present: tea cups/coffee mugs. ticket stubs. buttons. witty or pretty pins. bottle caps. received (post)cards. used postage stamps. colored paper clips. lists. retired daily planners. pens. plastic bags. negatives. shoe boxes.

future: chess pieces. photo booth shots. cameras. toys from the 70s/80s. vintage board games.

to be inherited: precious moments. cabbage patch dolls. christmas ornaments. disney movies. all 50 state magnets.

what things do you collect or wish that you collected?

images via flickr

macro of the day #19

Scrabble is the key to my heart.

macro of the day #18

top 5: most played songs

Yesterday I read a post on Black*Eiffel about Rachel doing a Spring cleaning of her iTunes. I think I might have a minor stroke if I "lost" all of my 3,000+ songs. Wouldn't you?

Also in her post, Rachel asked her readers what their top 5 most played songs are...
Here are mine (though these change rather frequently):
1) Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
2) Manifest Destiny - Guster
3) You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
4) I've Just Seen a Face - Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe)
5) If I Had $1000000 - Barenaked Ladies

& just because it's so hard for me to stop...
6) Happiness is a Warm Gun - Joe Anderson (Across the Universe)
7) Zak & Sara - Ben Folds
8) Two of Us - The Beatles
9) Down Home Girl - Old Crow Medicine Show
10) On the Tower - Sondre Lerche
11) Saturday Night Thunderbolt - Ludo
12) To Be With You - Mr. Big

Psst...you can listen to this playlist on muxtape.
What are your top most played songs?

mod cloth

I took a quick glance around Mod Cloth this morning after I spotted this lovely dress on Ali Loves Curtis...
The first thing I came across?

The Midsummer Night's Dream Tote

What could be more fitting for an English Lit major?

(MND is actually one of my favorite Shakespeare plays...

I had to memorize the epilogue in high school & can still recite it to this day.)

macro of the day #17

making my day

I just love this photo by Mr. E. Cipher
&, therefore, couldn't avoid posting it.

via old glutton

brilliant

I fall more & more deeply in love with this etsy shop every time I visit it.
"Brilliant" is very aptly named...I have been officially convinced that it was not merely coincidence that I stumbled across this shop. It was fate.

From my favorite authors to my absolute favorite musicians, Brilliant has them all.

I painted some very similar pieces while I was in high school (&, of course, have had every intention of creating some more of them) & then here they are...& for as little as $20!
You just can't beat that.

1) Lincoln 2) Balloon 3) Wizard of Oz

road maps

If you haven't been following (or perhaps, aren't even aware of) Erin's Road Maps posts & you are in the process of deciding just what the heck to do with your life, I strongly recommend giving them a peek. Erin, of Design for Mankind, is a brilliant young woman (just a few years older than me!) & her posts are not only extremely insightful, but also utterly encouraging. After reading her latest Road Map addition, Creating a Life Plan, I came away with so much conviction...now I just can't wait to get out of college & start doing my own thing!

macro of the day #16

happy birthday, kaylen!

My lovely friend Kaylen, of Happy Notions, turns one year older today! She is actually the reason I am addicted to blogs & blogging, so I owe it all to her! She is a wonderful girl & a fantastic source of inspiration (as you can tell from the pictures pulled from her blog bellow!).
I hope you have a spectacular birthday, Kaylen! ...eat lots of cupcakes!

Photo 1: tea cups; Photo 2: red coat;
Photo 3: over-sized clothespins; Photo 4: cupcake print

macro of the day #15

macro of the day #14

21 gun salute

Check out these colorful felt guns by Sarah Applebaum:


via smarts & crafts

new kids on the block

Yes ladies & gentlemen, the moment many of you would never dream could come true has arrived. New Kids on the Block have officially announced a reunion tour. I heard some rumors about this a little over a month ago, but this morning I saw an update about it on Cup of Jo & had to go check out the official dates & whatnot on nkotb.com.
So if you happened to have a nkotb pillow many years ago, or ever wore out a vhs of one of their concerts...you just might be as excited as somebody I know.

Did you have a crush on any of the guys...& if not a crush, at least a favorite?
My very first crush was for Jordan, but shh. Don't tell anybody!

macro of the day #13

flickr!

macro of the day #12

shorpy

This morning I came across this post & fell in love with the photograph pictured there.
That photo & the ones pictured here are from Shorpy, a "100-year-old photo blog."
The site is truly lovely. I could spend hours browsing it.

Starting Over, 1935

Family Gathering, 1938

via a room somewhere

macro of the day #11

This is a picture of one small corner of my bookshelf...

probably my favorite little area of our entire house.

macro means BIG; photo #10

Kaylen (& anyone else who has been wondering), in response to your not-dumb-at-all question, "how do you make a 'macro' photo? Is it a specific camera or the settings or PhotoShop or what?" ...
my answer (though not anywhere near a professional response):
Macro literally means large like micro means small, which I'm sure you all already knew.
So macro photography, in a round-about way, is about making small things look bigger than they really are. (which is really strange now that I think about it because a microscope does the same thing) Anyway, in other words, this means you're taking photos of things really close up.
Most of the time (at least with manual cameras like the Canon AE-1 that all of my macro photos are being taken with), this requires a special macro lens that will allow you to focus on something that is mere inches from the camera, but some newer digital cameras actually have a built in macro function.
Oh how nice that would be.

I hope that answered your question!
& by all means, if any of you know more about professional photography than I do & think I am mistaken somewhere, please correct me!

ron mueck

This artist's work is quite possibly the most awe-inspiring I've ever seen.
He creates lifelike (& when I say lifelike, I don't mean pathetic-attempt-wax-museum-lifelike...I mean see-one-of-these-&-wet-your-pants-when-you-realize-it's-not-a-real-person-lifelike) sculptures.
Every detail is impeccable.
The only tip-off that these aren't real people is the larger (or smaller) than life quality...see for yourself:

CRAZY, right?

I discovered Mueck's work a while back (I have no idea where) but most recently I've seen a post about him on the curious life (you should really check it out, every single post is awesome & crazy).
I did some real searching to try to find an official Ron Mueck website...but the best I could find was this if you want to take a look at some more of his work.

PS he was also the voice of Ludo in Labyrinth!

macro of the day #9

macro of the day #8

"change we can believe in"

Please read this post by Jonathan about these...

vs. this:It will surely get you thinking.

via swissmiss

macro of the day #6&7

I've decided to keep all of you updated on the challenge...daily I will post the macro images I upload to the flickr group.
So be expecting a month full of up close & personal via me.
Today's photo:& this one, since I was still one day behind:

the log off challenge is over!

So perhaps I didn't succeed by terms of limiting myself to only a half an hour online each day (actually, I'm really not sure how much I went over...I did a terrible job of keeping track of the time). I did, however, spend much less time than I normally do online...which was the point.
Challenge successful!

& although I think the time saved was very helpful...I am certainly happy to be back in full force (if you couldn't already tell by my bombardment of posts last night & this morning).

30 day macro challenge

Orange flower is hosting a 30 day macro challenge for the month of April...a macro photo a day to be shared on the flickr group.
I think this is a great idea...macro photography is my personal favorite!
I'm bummed that I didn't find this sooner...I'm already a week behind! Lucky for me, I've got a handful of macro shots on my computer already!

Plus the fuser bead photo above, here are the photos I've added to the group:

elastic bookshelf

These would be so fun! ...but a little unpractical for an English Lit major!

via swissmiss

making my day

Almost as good as "Charlie bit me" ...here's another adorable & funny baby video:



Thank you Kaylen! via happy notions

pay it forward

Here are the rules:
"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

So let the comments begin! I'm really excited about this, by the way!

Check out the chain of PIF posts (they start with the most recent, i.e. where I picked up the challenge):
Red Aprons & Lunchboxes{I believe there is still one spot open for this PIF...so if you're quick you might be able to hop on over there, too ; ) ...you would then of course need to do twice the number of gifts!}
Smosch
Camilla
Bibbi
Heather
The list goes on obviously, but it got too hard to keep tracing it without stopping to investigate all of these lovely blogs! You should really check them out, you won't regret it.

button photo via flickr

clever advertising

I've been working all day on a project for my advertising class & decided I needed a little break.
All the advertising talk got me thinking about this amazing commercial from Ikea that a friend showed me about a month ago, so I decided to share it with you. Hope you like it!

punctuation cards

I am quite fond of these fun note cards available at violet.com. ...because, as you might know (if you've read my profile on 20something bloggers), I'm an English major & "slightly addicted to punctuation marks."
These cards would be perfect for fun quotes or to pass along special notes to loved ones...I would probably end up using them as postcards.

All this talk of punctuation is reminding me of my dear friend Kaylen of Happy Notions who has a darling foot that looks a little something like this:

I love her & her semi-colon tattoo...
I only wish I'd thought of it first!

cards via in(side) the loop

a feminized abbey road

I have yet to mention my (sometimes ridiculous) love for The Beatles.
I'm a little afraid that once I start, I won't be able to stop... but I just had to post this photo:


I honestly can't decide how I feel about it. Part of me thinks it's pretty clever (especially the new vw beetle in place of the old), while another part is repulsed by it.

What do you think?

photo via this is adele
...I'm not sure where the photo originally came from, probably a fashion ad.

making my day

All week I've been thinking about the fun stuff I'm expecting in the mail & every day I can't wait to get home to check the front porch. It's such a fun game!

I thought I would share my excitement with you today because I'm sure you will think these things are as beautiful as I do!

1) Rainboots from Target.com! I have needed a pair of nice rainboots for some time now. (I'm so sick of getting wet pants when it rains). So I finally stopped putting it off & ordered these lovelies:

2) The Flora & Fauna poctcard set from The Black Apple Etsy shop! I loove, love every print that's included in this set. I can't even describe how excited I was when I saw the listing.

3) The Sampler Pack postcard set from Vol.25 Etsy shop! ...alright, so this one is cheating a little bit. I've actually had the set for a while now but I still wanted to show it off! They are lovely:

You should really consider purchasing some art from these lovely shops! Both women are very talented & really put heart into their work.

*Update* ...the boots came today! & I definitely just wore them while I 1) did the dishes 2) made dinner & 3) baked a cake. I love them!

help!

I'm in charge of a group project that I'm working on for a class,
& frankly...I'm starting to feel a little like this:Anyway, the project involves promoting a website...
So I figured, who better to ask for advice then all of the lovely browsers who visit my blog?

Here's my big question:
Setting actual content of the site aside, what could a website do that would really grasp your attention?

We've had a lot of really good ideas...but you know how it is when you've been working on one thing for a long time. Everything starts to look & sound the same. I think taking a step back & getting some outside input is just what we need.
Any suggestions would be extremely helpful! Thanks so much!

photo via here

The Girl Names Mixtape

A couple of days ago, Jo from Red Aprons & Lunchboxes posted her version of the "Girl Names Mixtape." I've seen this around a few other places, but Jo's playlist is really the one that inspired me to make my own.
The rules are simple, create a playlist of songs for which every title is a girls name.
You can listen to mine here!

Which leads to me to another fun find...muxtape.com:

The first time I saw it was, of course, through Jo's mixtape...but then it popped up yesterday on Lauren's blog Double Takes. (I have a theory that Lauren & I are actually twins, separated at birth...more on that in a post to come).
Muxtape is great...it allows you to upload any 12 songs from your computer & share them with the world. Which makes games like the Girl Names Mixtape all the more fun!

What songs would you include on your Girl Names Mixtape?

top photo via steve the alien's flickr

log off challenge

V. from Here Kitschy, Kitschy created

the Log Off Challenge for this week.

I've decided to join in. This is going to be super difficult for me because (I can't lie)

I am slightly addicted to the internet.

I will still be posting, but as the challenge says...

I will (hopefully) limit my time online to half an hour a day.

If I can pull it off, this will be really good for me

as I have a thousand & one things I need to get accomplished.

Wish me luck!

& join in if you're feeling up to a challenge!