It’s not really a blue Monday… Blue is just one of my favorite colors and I’d love to be anywhere near these photos instead of in the office today!

Can’t believe it’s already the last day of June. I need to remember “Rabbit, Rabbit” for tomorrow morning!

Photos via Flickr:
Monday Blues; Color Me Lonely; Oh, The Blues; Deep Blue: Heaven; Blue Twilight; Untitled

Happy Friday! I don’t have any big plans for the weekend, but sure am looking forward to it.

How about some sprinkle sweetness today?

It would make my day to be walking down the street and see something like this.

From the portfolio of the lovely Kristi Sword

I recently came across Waterstone’s – What’s Your Story? competition. I’m a little behind the times I’m afraid on this one because it is now closed, but you can view all of the entries in their gallery. (Beware, there are more than 4,000 entries and clicking the link might make your productivity fall through the ground!)

Here are a few of my favorites which you can click to make them larger:

“Miss Taken Identity” by Beth Whales

“This Is The Title Of My Story” by David Clayton

“No Fate” by Charlie Fish

“Everyday” by Kaja Grzegorczyn

“Flying” by Rachel Kolman

“The Nature Of The Soul” by Zoe Badowska

What would you write about?
Oh, and when you go to the site be sure to click on the authors link for stories by the greats, including J.K. Rowling and Nick Hornby. I don’t dare take a screen shot of their work…

See you tomorrow for the Friday Eye Candy I’m really excited about.

Today, I’ve got Letterpress on the mind! Well, actually it’s on my mind just about every day. I really need to get in gear and get one… But this isn’t about me, today’s artists are designers and letterpress printers Julie Gibb and Christian Morrison who make up Pantry Press in Toronto. You must read their profile information on Etsy in full because their story is quite interesting. I can give you a peek:

“After visiting the Wayzgoose, an annual fair of letterpress printers and their wares in 1994 we were even more taken with the craft of letterpress printing. The first business day that followed the fair, Christian called an equipment dealer and by the end of the week we had our first letterpress sitting out on the street in front of our home. It took a few neighbours and our brother-in-law to move it indoors, to our pantry. It is here that Pantry Press was born.”

Design… Food… Printing… Where can I sign up to work here?!
Take a look at some of my favorites:

They have a shop on Etsy where most of these items are available for purchase to those who appreciate design and fine printing. (Like me!)

Also included in their portfolio of custom wedding invitations I found this beauty.

“We created this invitation to illustrate a wedding staged in Colorado by Wedding Bells Magazine. The invitation is printed on wood veneer in dark and light brown inks. The outer envelope was die-cut from our own duplexed leather and recycled cork.”

Happy Wednesday!

Brilliant Ads.

Via the always inspiring NotCot

A few weeks ago I “met” a fellow blogger with some serious passion for the creative industry. Jeff Hamanda emailed me yesterday with exciting news. He now has a new blog that is updated daily with interesting things, but the best part is the collaborative art projects. These projects will be held for a few weeks at a time- all with varying themes. Right now he has a photography project going where you can send your photo of a beautiful sunset. Take a look.

Check back with him often as the next project might be drawing, painting, writing or creating. I can’t wait to see where this goes. It’s so refreshing to see people getting creatives together for the unified cause. Go and take part now!!!

P.S. He also has some amazing photos in his Flickr stream.

See you tomorrow for Paper Artist Wednesday.

So I made it through the entire day yesterday! I also had a fun, new adventure in Gocco. Flourish is printed on my favorite paper yet (yes, even more than the wood cards). It is dark charcoal on the printed side and natural white on the writing side. I printed these in silver ink and have silver envelopes to match. The best part of the paper is the heavy linen feel.

I tried to post this last night- but Blogger was down, so don’t count this as my post today. I am still working on getting my Tuesday post together. (My actual job is busy, and it has to come first!) See you soon.

I’ve got it bad today. It was one of those days where you sleep in late because you don’t want to face the day, then realize you have no choice, so you hop out, tripping on your own feet walking to the shower- in which you drop every possible container because your reflexes aren’t even that of a drunk. I made it to work, but only because I found that my favorite shorts were clean. It’s amazing how a material item can change your entire mood…. My hair is still wet and I need this cup of tea I’m drinking very badly, but the sun is shining and I hope to wake up entirely within the hour.

I was late so I didn’t have time to snap a photo of the comfy bed with my cozy puppy. Instead I went straight to Flickr and found the one above. I love the description below the photo. It’s exactly what I thought when I saw it.
“Sometimes I wish this was my bed. It’s just a mattress on the floor, but it’s tucked into a little space under the roof that used to be a closet, and it’s very cozy. Plus, all the glow-in-the-dark stars look really cool when you’re lying underneath them. This is as empty as it gets. There’s usually a monkey or two and various other stuffed animals, Hot Wheels, sippy cups, etc.”

I’d like to crawl back into bed with a sippy cup.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I sure did.
Enjoy the day.

(Oh yeah – I wasn’t paying attention and was almost run down by a co-worker in the parking lot this morning too. Thanks matt for sparing my life)

Feast your eyes on some stunning photos from Enrique Badulescu‘s editorial portfolio. He also has an entire section dedicated to Polaroids, but that’s a completely different post. Check out his website for lots more eye candy.

Love the car and architecture in the last one!
Have a great weekend.

This was on NotCot, but I had to repost just for it’s awesomeness. Read all about this yarn -including the making of- here.

Image from here.

While Mother Nature was busy pouring on us and even more so up north earlier this spring, cities along the Mississippi and other rivers have been preparing for floods. Today on the front page on CNN there was an article about St. Louis preparing and levees breaking. This reminded me of the great flood of 1993 and made me think about the St. Louis floodwall. Not to bore you with history, you can click the links to read up if you’d like, but the floodwall here in St. Louis is a tourist attraction on it’s own to graffiti artists. I haven’t been to that part of the city in a while, so I’m posting other people’s photos and links. Thought you might like to see some of the street art in my city. There’s even a Flickr set dedicated to St. Louis Graffiti.

I’m a regular reader of Design For Mankind and thought I’d post a link to the conversation there not to long ago about graffiti and it’s unknown beauty. I personally am a fan of graffiti if it’s well done- not just a person’s tag.

Love the photo. Click to make it larger. Image from here.

Image from here.

Image from here.

While they aren’t predicting the level of a ’93 flood, I hope the floodwall does it’s job and everyone stays dry. My heart goes out to those in Iowa. Look at some of those devastating photos here.

Have I mentioned that I have a thing for VW? Just in case I haven’t, I thought I’d share these cute ads with you. They were just too cute.

Via I Believe in Advertising

Have a lovely Thursday, see you tomorrow for some Eye Candy.

With all the excitement of the new Coldplay album yesterday, I completely forgot about the Eames stamps being released. Pick them up online or at your local post office.

While you are ordering, don’t forget about Old Blue Eyes.

Happy Corresponding!

This week’s paper art is deep.
Book sculptures are always fascinating,
and Jennifer Khoshbin takes it to a new level.

Photos from Refarm Spectacle
“Refarm Spectacle is a collaboration between artist Jen Khoshbin and philosopher Paul Lewis.
Second in a series of Book Projects, RfS has created 30 carved books to be “lost” on the sidewalks and alleyways of Houston Street, San Antonio, Texas.
By chance or inclination, pedestrians may discover, examine, take, or just ignore these books. RfS continues to delve into facts and fiction, as a way of understanding our world.
Just inside the cover, we have altered the books with carvings, drawings, and intricate cuttings by imagining how books might react and alter themselves as an adaptation to harsh conditions. This is a fairly open experiment, in which we are trying to ask some questions about the continual loss and recovery of meaning. We are trying to uncover the highly improbable appearance of authenticity somewhere and somehow under our feet.”

Photos from Digging For The Truth
“In these experiments I am trying to delve into the books, into facts and knowledge, as a way to understand my world. Using the surface space to express what I “dig-up”, I seek some resolution between the organic and the inorganic, hoping for the authentic.”

I am really loving the thought behind each and every piece. Oh, and I realized after I put this together – this is my second book related post this week! I promise no more… this week anyway.
Have a great Wednesday!

I love this adorable idea.

Via idealist