love forever

Have a Fabulous Halloween!

pop pumpkins by Happy Mundane, right from Martha Stewart

What are you doing this Halloween? Are you dressing up? I'm not but the dogs at my office do and they have a little parade! Then I think I'll go home and pass out candy. I'm still new to trick or treaters actually going around to my house (in New York, kids in my neighborhood trick or treat at the stores!) and I love to see what everyone's wearing.

These are my current favorite jack o'lantern variations. I love the idea of painting on pumpkins (plus when you don't cut them, they live practically forever!) in non-traditional colors. On the other hand, I dream of having a big porch spilling over with gorgeously carved pumpkins with leaf motifs. I tend to not get into the spooky side of Halloween as much as the fall-time, harvesty side. Any new pumpkin "trick" you're trying out?

A few more fun Halloween-y links to get you in the mood:

The New York Public Library gets crafty with a video showing how-to carve their famous lions (otherwise known as Patience and Fortitude) into a pumpkin!

Diana Schoenbrun of the Beasties book (you can see my review here!) made this ah-mazing stop motion animation of her Beasties coming to life. I don't know how she did it but it's awesome.

 

Dominic Wilcox

I love good design with a sense of humor and a healthy dash of the absurd. David Wilcox totally fits that bill.

24k gold leaf skipping stones with their own handmade pouch. The fleeting experience of skipping a stone presents a challenge when you have a very valuable stone.

By a Thread, a simple cane hand-wrapped in colorful stripes of thread.


Watch sculptures capturing a moment in time.

Anti-Theft Bike/Car Device. Oh my lord, this is genius. These are just "rust" stickers that you can apply to your bike or car.

 

Susanna Bauer- Artist

 

While Susanna Bauer's full-time job is model-making for TV and movies (like the cheese in Wallace and Grommit- oh my!), her more personal work is much more quiet and introspective. Incorporating traditional craft techniques like crochet and weaving into small objects from nature, Bauers sculptural objects focus on the juxtaposition of material, "fragility versus strength" and the process of making itself.

 

Catherine Ryan- Artist

Catherine Ryan's work is both serene and unsettling, capturing a moment that hangs in the balance of real and surreal. I also love the mix of the opaque gouache and the sketchy charcoal, the intense and opaque color with blacks and greys.

 

 

Every Day

Print by Groundwork (buy one on Etsy!)

I had a very scary reminder today that to just be present in my day is the simplest and hardest thing in the world. I hope you all have a relaxing and happy weekend! I think that, for what's left of the weekend, I will too.

 

In my world, everyone has cotton candy hair.

Kenzo fashion show finale

So, I am taking this online life coaching class called the Declaration of You (run by these two super-duper ladies), which is fantabulous and making me think like a mile a minute about my life and my future. I highly recommend it to anyone feeling like they need a good kick in the pants on the “realizing life goals” front. This week, our topic was “Success”; the first part of the exercise, we were asked to meditate/daydream in our own fantasyland, just getting lost in your perfect place. Of course, the only things I found frustrating about this exercise was giving myself five minutes alone to think.

But once I did, it was amazing: I let my mind completely wander and here's what I found in my fantasyland...
the city is painted a riot of different colors and patterns. People just sort of float around right above the ground and their hair is colorful like cotton candy. My job is to constantly reinvent what the city looks like, repainting and wallpapering buildings and streets (hey, that's a little bit like my job right now!).

Then you take this fantasy and start translating it into reality and find your definition of success.
I determined that I feel successful when I am wildly creative and free to play, when I am collaborating with others and when my job is able to make me and others more happy and fulfilled. 

In honor of my fantasy-land, a few candy colored inspirations...

 
Editorial from Dazed and Confused

Jonathan Zawada


Three photos by Tim Walker

Biscuits in a line by Joel Penkman

Lush Bella photograph. via Nest Pretty Things

via.

Will Cotton painting

pom pom factory. via oh joy.

What do you think your fantasy land would be like?

 

Again with the nails.

Lately, my favorite weekend activity is making a big cup of tea, putting on a good movie and doing my nails. I know, riveving, right? Honestly, it is the most relaxing thing on earth. And look at the nails! This is a variation on the last DIY mani I did a few weeks ago, which was a variation of this tutorial. Instead of using the binder reinforcement stickers at the bottoms of the nails to mimic a french manicure, I placed them on my nails randomly. You could do this with a million color variations too-imagine the possibilities!