February 29, 2008

Rückblende



A customer came in the other day who was visiting from Denmark, and we got to chatting. Turns out he was in town for the independent games festival, and had developed an interactive animated film, which you MUST check out here. It's called "Rückblende", which he said translates to "Flashback". It is a huge download (400MB), but it's the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time. Or you can check out some previews here, on YouTube.

February 27, 2008

Favorite post this morning

I love having my Google reader feed on my homepage. Why didn't I ever set that up before? On this morning's perusal of all my favorite blogs, these felt pens were the first thing that caught my eye. So simple and smart, and you know I'm a sucker for anything made out of felt.

via Swiss Miss

February 26, 2008

Miles and miles of yarn!

Merino wool in rainbow colors

My yarn stash!

This weekend I made my way down to the Santa Clara convention center with my mom to attend Stitches West, a yarn convention and marketplace that is a dream for knitters and fiber lovers. We didn't have time to attend any of the workshops or classes, but did spend a few hours winding our way around the booths full of yarn and trimmings. There were skeins and balls and bags full of hand-dyed wool, natural alpacas, space-dyed cottons... there was more yarn in that building than I've ever seen! While we were at first drawn to all the beautiful vibrant colors of the hand dyed yarns, we both ended up buying earthy, natural colored yarns (mostly alpaca blends), and picked up a pattern book to share.

February 21, 2008

Lovin' the Arts

Oooh....Look what came in the mail today! Our 2nd issue of The Thing!!! I helped out at the packing party last week so I already know what's inside, but I'm still thrilled it's here. While I was at my post at the "stamping station" I met Andy Vogt. Super nice guy, super talented artist. I'm especially in love with these wood pieces he makes.
Which reminds me how excited I am for Southern Exposure's Monster Drawing Rally tomorrow night. So many friends and awesome artists are going to be at the Verdi Club drawing and selling from 6-11pm. Can't wait!

February 20, 2008

That is a GREAT question!

Yes! 41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments. Via the fine folks at Coudal.

National Park Blankets

Grand Canyon National Park Blanket

Rainier National Park Blanket

Pendleton has been making these National Park blankets since the early 1900's. Since we have a little obsession with National Parks and a little obsession with Pendleton Blankets, these are now officially our new obsession.

February 19, 2008

Paper stop-motion


Saw this Su Blackwell stop motion commercial not long ago and I can't get it out of my mind.


Then I saw this piece on swissmiss this morning and have been thinking about the endless possibilities of stop motion paper shorts all day. So amazing!

February 15, 2008

We Dance


I can home last night to find this painting hanging above our bed! We have both been obsessing over it since we saw it on display at Tartine Bakery a little while back, and then boom, here it is... my Valentine's day gift from the best husband ever. (The painting is entitled "We Dance", by the lovely Katie Vida.)

February 13, 2008

Roast-a-rama!

Last year I caught the coffee roasting bug while working on this fun story for ReadyMade. I got myself a popcorn popper, a bunch of beans from Sweet Maria's and haven't looked back. We recently upgraded to a Fresh Roast Plus (I kinda melted the popper) and have been roasting up a storm around here. So delicious, so fun!

February 12, 2008

Crochet Workshop


Thanks to everyone who came out to the Shoppe on Sunday for Jessica Polka's crochet workshop! We had such a great time!

Jessica's show, Figure Legend, features new embroidered works and will be up until March 2nd. Works will be available for purchase online by the end of the week, and stay tuned for more photos! In the meantime, click here to see images of the installation and Sunday's workshop.

February 07, 2008

Braille is beautiful!

Over the years, I seem to have accidentally been amassing a small collection of braille-related ephemera. I'm not sure when it started...perhaps when Lauren and I were curating a show in Venice and one of the artists had this wonderfully clever piece with a big message in braille that read, "Non toccare, pericolo di morte." Haha, get it? Anyway...so I've been picking up things here and there...A Rolling Stone magazine, some bowls (ashtrays?), a little wooden braille "practice box", a notebook (from Rare Device). And then last year I noticed Braille popping up EVERYWHERE: braille graffiti, braille tattoos, braille wallcoverings, braille maps...I LOVE it!

whoops!

I was browsing around on Google Books, and came across this lovely little mishap. I've screwed up my share of scan jobs, but they never look this pretty.

February 04, 2008

Finished!



This weekend I finally finished the sweater I've been working on over the past year. After much head scratching, ripping out and re-knitting, I ended up with this turtleneck that I am growing to like although the pattern was definitely for a boat neck sweater. I'm not sure what happened, but here's what I ended up with!