circle a line

15 July 2009

LIST 165) A dozen orange things I saw on the way to my studio

1. 2.

10.

11.

12.

14 July 2009

LIST 164) An addition to list #159: I'm still making arrangements

1. From my mom's garden in Texas

2. Ditto

3. Wildflowers in Tuscany

4. Deli flowers in NYC

5. Ditto

6. Selected stems from a flower shop in Southern California

03 July 2009

LIST 163) The catalog game*: Herrschners Fall 2009

If you are familiar with the Herrschners catalog, then you are familiar with their perennially saccharine offerings: kits for latch hook rugs featuring eagles and puppies, cross-stitched ballerinas and lighthouses, grandmotherly acrylic afghans, and things like "Dolphin Sequin Art Wall Hangings." So, I challenged myself to play the catalog game with the most recent Herrschners catalog, and it was surprisingly easy to find ten items I would happily own.

1. Easels are great for displaying stuff when not in use. This one is portable and looks great on a shelf.

2. Basically another easel, but for needlework.

3. You know how much I love an assortment of colors. How about 454 colors of embroidery floss?

4. I know I complained about saccharine imagery, but these 50's kitties are just sweet enough...

5. to embroider on these kitchen towels.

6. I also like to crochet dishtowels out of this yarn. I'm trying to achieve a white, yellow, and orange color scheme in the kitchen.

7. I've been covering one of our kitchen walls in decoupage and I could use more Mod Podge. I love looking at the Mod Podge label too.

8. My godfather's mom used to make these ornaments and send them to us every year. They remain my favorite ornaments on the tree. These seem so 1960's ecclesiastical / Good Housekeeping... in the best way possible.

9. Quilling reminds me very much of that 1960's craft / church bazaar era. I don't know how to describe it, but I also liked when I used to get greeting cards emblazoned with photo-realistic graphics of crafts like embroidery and quilling.

10. I can say without a doubt that this is the best quilled chess set I've ever seen.

*see LIST 154 for an explanation of the catalog game.

28 June 2009

LIST 162) A guest list, by Brittany Watson: 10 Pops of & Facts About Yellow

Brittany Watson, author of the blog, The House That Lars Built, writes:

I don't claim to have a favorite color--much too restricting. But, somehow, I can't deny a teeny, and sometimes huge, dash of yellow. Here's a collection of yellows I've been collecting for the past few years.

1. During Elizabethan times, English law dictated who could wear the color yellow.

{photo from Blueprint magazine. RIP}

2. Traditionally, yellow symbolizes renewal and hope...

{photo via Hygge & West}

3. ...although yellow is also associated with envy, greed, and treachery. Judas Iscariot is often portrayed wearing yellow.

{photo via Design*Sponge}

4. Yellow fever, yellow journalism, yellow streak down your back, yellow (cowardly).

{photo from Blueprint magazine}

5. Yellow is found in banana squashes, corn, yellow peppers, sweet potatoes, bananas, lemons, grapefruit, and pineapples.

{photo via Lacoste}

6. To the ancient Greeks, yellow denoted air.

{photo from Domino magazine. Also RIP.}

7. Leonardo da Vinci wrote that yellow represented earth.

{photo from the J. Crew catalog, 2006}

8. To the Navajo, the western mountains are yellow and bring the twilight. To the Hopi, yellow is north.

{photo from Domino magazine}

9. In India, yellow is the symbol of the merchant and farmer, although at one time it was considered the dress of the ascetic.

{Ingrid from Darling Clementine}

10. Pure, bright and sunny yellow is the easiest color to see. People who are blind to other colors can usually see yellow.

{photo from Oscar de la Renta, Spring Collection 2009}

10 June 2009

LIST 161) Seven ways I'm feeling wired

1. I've coveted this Warren Platner chair for years.

2. This planter from Heal's is modern, but I could see it fitting in in any kind of garden. And I could definitely see it fitting in my living room.

3. The Wire Pouf from Tucker Robbins is especially great because of the play on soft and hard in the name, and for its buoyant airy look.

4. The High-Wire Act Chair from Anthopologie is on sale! I wish it were yellow. I see yet another spray painting project in my future.

5. Though not technically made of wire, this CB2 bamboo pendant is kinda hot.

6. Ariel Levy's Wire Table for Zanotta is also compelling.

7. Something about all this wire construction makes me feel like a bird happy to stay in its cage...

...just as long as the door stays open.

LIST 160) A guest list, by Leigh Labbo*: The most ridiculous moments of motherhood

1. Threatening to send my child to "time out" for beatboxing too loud at the dinner table.

2. Having a philosophical conversation with a four year old about the downfall of Anakin Skywalker and how he came to be Darth Vadar.

3. Saying lame things like, "When I was a kid we didn't even have Google. If I wanted to learn about something, I had to look it up in an encyclopedia."

4. Bribing my child with candy to try a bite of pizza.

5. Preparing dinner and setting up a place at the dinner table for my son's imaginary friend.

6. The fact that "family time" consists of all of us gathering around the television and playing Zelda for eight hours straight.

7. Allowing my son to blow $150 worth of Target gift cards on every single Star Wars action figure in the toy aisle. That should really teach him how to spend his money wisely.

8. It is staggering how many times a day I say the words, "get your hand out of your bottom."

*Leigh Labbo is the author of Leigh vs. Laundry, a blog about her misadventures in homemaking and her wonderful adventures in life. View my guest list "10 Things I Imagine About Motherhood" on her blog here.

09 June 2009

LIST 159) I've been making arrangements

07 June 2009

LIST 158) A guest list, by Bryan Mealer*: Items on my desk: April 10, 2005; Kinshasa, Congo; 1:17 AM

1. Stack of receipts (Feb-April expenses: Kin-London-Bunia-Kin)
2. Map, Cartographia: Democratic Republic of Congo
3. Map, United Nations issue: Ituri province
4. Two lamps
5. Bottle of water
6. Swiss Army knife
7. Studded bracelet
8. One ball point pen
9. Roll of toilet paper
10. Three spiral notebooks, used
11. Pack of cigarettes: Ambassade lights, three left
12. Pack of cigarettes: Camel lights, bought in London, two left
13. Headphones, earbud
14. Bottle of vitamin C
15. Tube of Airborne Formula
16. Antacid tablets, Rennies
17. Visine
18. Bottle ibuprofin
19. Insect repellent, spray
20. Anti-malarial tabs, Lariam, three
21. Roll of clear tape
22. One new lightbulb, 40 watt
23. Certs, three left, covered in crusted shampoo from bag
24. Saddle and leather dressing
25. Tube of Chapstick
26. VPN SecureID passwords
27. Silver dope tin
28. Hole puncher
29. Two candles, new
30. Two cellular phones: one local (Celtel), one roaming GSM (Thuraya)
31. List: bean yields for Djugu territory, Ituri – source: German Agro Action
32. Money: 9 GBPounds
33. Money: 25,600 CFA, West African States
34. Money: 20 Congolese francs
35. Business card: Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, opposition leader, Togo
36. Bill for dial-up internet service: $197.33
37. One glass tumbler
38. Press credential clamp, metal
39. Bag of raw peanuts, source: Bule, Congo
40. Book: Oxford French Dictionary
41. Book: Webster English Dictionary
42. Book: Roget’s International Thesaurus
43. Book: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown
44. Book: Bescherel book of French conjugations
45. Book: Allah n’est pas oblige, by Ahmadou Kourouma
46. Book: The African Stakes of the Congo War, edited by John F. Clark
47. Book: The Mosquito Coast, by Paul Theroux
48. Book: Traveller’s Guide to the Belgian Congo and the Ruanda Urundi, 2nd Edition
49. Book: The Great Lakes of Africa: Two-Thousand Years of History, by Jean-Pierre Chreitien

*Bryan Mealer, author of All Things Must Fight To Live, was the Associated Press staff correspondent in Kinshasa, Congo, and has reported from locations across the African continent, including Nairobi, Somalia, and Togo. His writing has appeared in Harper’s and Esquire, among others... including our high school literary magazine.

06 June 2009

LIST 157) An ebay find: Modernism 101 Rare Design Books

While visiting one of my favorite blogs, grain edit, I learned about photo lettering. That lead me to ebay (it's not difficult to lead me to ebay), where I found modernism 101, an ebay purveyor of rare design books. Here are some of my favorites:

1. I like how the lowercase "i" fits so well into the uppercase "I" on the cover. I also like how each of these brochures has the sales pitch, "26 good reasons to use..."

2. Love the colors and the composition of the cover. You can barely see it, but I also love the scrolly composition of the "Photo Lettering Incorporated" logo.

3. Great layout.

4. I think the Bauhaus typeface is great.

5. I chose this one for the fighting cat and dog and the toy soldiers discussing "More Business."

6. I wish I could order from this poster, at the original prices.

7. If only plastic were a more environmentally sound material, I'd gladly live in an all plastic Utopia.

8. I just think the Saarinen tulip base is super swell. Great "K" Knoll logo too.

9. Herman Miller sales materials are always outstanding. How terrific it would be to own this one, with the fabric swatches and all.

10. I'm intrigued by the layouts and colors shown in the interior pages of this magazine.

11. How great is this cover?

12. Fashion layouts and pussy galore. Hee hee.

13. Another great abstraction of a pencil.

14. Who doesn't love a mechanical bird?

Note: I'm only linking the books, magazines, etc. shown here back to the store, not to the individual items, due to the temporary nature of ebay listings.

05 June 2009

LIST 156) Thirty things older than my youngest sister*

1. E-mail

2. The Post-It

3. The 1979 Corvette

4. The Bicentennial quarter

5. The Heimlich Maneuver

6. The Sony Walkman

(depending on how you look at it... it was introduced to the public 17 days after my sister was born, but it already existed at the time of her birth)