January 30, 2009

Photo assignment: Seeing Spots

We just got back last night from a fun few days in NYC. Woke up this morning feeling sick sick sick (I blame it on stale airplane air) so I'm off to take some vitamins and crawl back in bed... In the meantime, here are today's photo entries! Thanks so much and a big welcome to Alissa and Katherine! Next week's photo assignment is: "3-D". Interpret however you choose, and email me your photos (to info@curiosityshoppeonline.com) by next Thursday at noon PST so I can get them posted by 1pm!

Derek's photo


Lauren's photo


Katherine's Photo


Alissa's photo


Feelin' nutty

In honor of all their new stores that opened last year, the unstoppable creative team at Kate Spade created this series of limited edition silk screened tote bags featuring phrases that were inspired by the store locations (14 total). These are my favorites- I was lucky enough to receive the "Nutty" bag for Xmas, and I love it! (More info here- click on "Projects".)

Walnut Creek


Nashville


Pittsburgh

January 25, 2009

Daniel Nevers at SOEX


Derek recently joined the board of directors at Southern Exposure, an amazing local arts organization that I'm sure you'll be hearing lots more about on Smarts&Crafts in upcoming months. Last weekend we dropped by their current gallery space to check out an installation by Daniel Nevers where he created an incredible labyrinth of building materials, stacked and arranged in seemingly precarious configurations. The installation has been taken down now, but you can click here to see more photos from our visit.

January 24, 2009

Crafting the night away


I've been trying to spend a little more time crafting for fun (as opposed to crafting for work, which is also fun, but there's a little more pressure involved) the past couple weeks. And I'm determined to make a quilt and some wearable outfits this year! So far I've knitted a couple neck cozies with yarn purchased at last year's Stitches West, and stitched a reverse appliqué t-shirt from an Alabama Chanin kit. Now I'm determined to finish knitting the sweaters that I started ages ago, before we leave for NY on Sunday. Wish me luck!

January 23, 2009

REAL small town

Guerneville, in miniature, using this.

"Desk Cleaner"



Our friend Ilana gave us these cute cute "desk cleaner" brushes and I love them! Strange and somewhat practical (especially after spilling crumbs all over our computer keyboard), the best part is that you can fold the packaging into a handy origami-esque dustpan. Only in Japan...

January 22, 2009

Camera Love! AND a photo assignment!

Derek scored a 1966 Mamiya Sekor camera (in the box!) at the flea market last weekend, and we've been having a blast shooting photos on FILM over the last few days. If only I could drop the habit of looking at the back of the camera for a preview every time I shoot an image...

I've also been playing with the flash I got for Xmas, and I swear it's changing my life. It's already come in handy while shooting our weekly projects for design*sponge. Hurray for camera fun!

So now that we're back in the game with our picture taking, it's time for a new photo theme for next week. If you'd like to participate, just email us your photo before next Friday (the post will go live at 1pm PST on 1/30). Next week's photo theme is: "seeing spots".

Have fun!

OMG!


Advance copies of our new book arrived this week!! MUCH MUCH more to come later...

January 21, 2009

Felt Goodness

In the Shoppe the other day a friendly customer mentioned that he had seen an item purchased from us on a blog that featured cool pictures of cool people's homes. Hmmm... Normally we'd need a few more clues to figure it out, but since the item was a felt gun by Sarah Applebaum, we took a sorta wild guess at which website would feature such an item. And we guessed right! The Selby, of course! Not that we needed another excuse to visit, but seeing our old felt friend displayed so lovingly is an extra special treat.

January 15, 2009

Thomas Wold show on sfgirlbybay!!


Check it out here!
Thanks Victoria!

See you all tomorrow at the opening....

January 14, 2009

Come Together @ the Shoppe!

Please join us this Friday, January 16th to celebrate the opening of Come Together: New Works by Thomas Wold.

Thomas is an amazing artist, designer and furniture maker and he's created a very special installation here at the Curiosity Shoppe. I've had the pleasure of working with him on his column in ReadyMade magazine, and now I'm thrilled to have him at the Shoppe.

So please come down, have a drink and a snack, mingle with Thomas and the rest of us, and if you're lucky, you can buy your very own, very affordable piece of Woldian wonder.

Come Together
Opening reception: Friday, January 16th 6-8pm
at the Curiosity Shoppe
855 Valencia St. (btwn. 19th & 20th)
45-671-5384

January 07, 2009

Pancakes for dinner


Last night we had pancakes for dinner- (pancakes filled with spiced pumpkin and peanut butter!) a recipe called "slutty cakes" from the Kenny Shopsin book Derek got for Christmas. We ate them on the couch while watching the Zero Effect. A perfect Tuesday evening!

Derek can probably go into more detail about the book than I can, since I haven't read as much of it as he has- I'm still oohing and aahing over the photography and the pop-up book-esque pull tab on the cover. These "donut seeds" are by far my favorite thing in the whole book!

A computer vacation


I have managed to stay away from computer-land for almost 2 weeks and have been slowly making my way back over the last few days. Sorry for the lack of posts and emails! It's taking some time to get through the Shoppe's in box, but hopefully I'll get done with those tonight. We have lots to write about here on smarts&crafts, but in the meantime, you can check out our DIY Wednesday post from this morning over at design*sponge. Looking forward to a fun 2009!