• somber party •

A poster I just did for the band my friend Rachel is in: Somber Party. Go see the show if you're in Utah!

__fun fungus__

Mushroom Garden made from upcycled wool sweaters. Too bad it sold out already! By Wandering Lydia.

- old sesame street abc video -

Sesame Street was once the foundation for truly great art, music, comedy, and even social and political principles. Now it is basically, as one YouTube commenter stated, "a babysitter for suburban toddlers." Sadly true. Elmo is sure cute, but I miss the SS we grew up on. Check out this beautiful ABC video.

* crewcuts *

Cute dressy-up styles for warmer weather from Crewcuts.

:: bee things ::

A latest Etsy find: Bee Things, handmade, limited edition screen printed works. Charley-Harper-esque art prints, tees, and clever hand printed lunch bags. More images at their website, and an impressive body of graphic design work at barfootworldwide.com.

* new from jennifer davis *

I keep checking back to Jennifer Davis' site to see what new stuff she is putting out. Some of her works are extremely bizarre, but I love the sort of Yellow Submarine quality to them. So imaginative.

:: lil' shopper ::

Isn't this toy shopping bag set from Earlyears just too cute? I may have to get one.

+ shortbread +

Shortbread really is ridiculously easy to make. I thought I'd try it out and it turned out great! I used this recipe from Martha Stewart. I didn't even both with the parchment paper, instead just putting it in a buttered glass casserole dish. Next time I want to use nuts and chocolate.

Ingredients

Makes 8 to 10 wedges

* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1/2 cup confectioners' or granulated sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8 1/2-inch round cake or springform pan. Sift together flour and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, cream butter until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to beat until very light in color and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, about 2 minutes more. Add flour mixture, and beat on low, scraping bowl if necessary, until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when squeezed.
2. Pat dough into prepared pan. Use a paring knife to score dough into wedges; prick all over in even intervals with a wooden skewer or fork.
3. Bake until firm in the center and just starting to color, about 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Cut into wedges. Cookies will keep, in an airtight container, at room temperature 3 weeks.

( trompe-l'œil )

I just bought the above military jacket design T at Forever 21 and I LOVE it. Granted, I can't really wear it now, being almost 6 months pregnant.

< almost there >

K and V join the throng! Just F, H and L left. See the rest of my almost-finished alphabet here, here, here and here.

- MaeMae -

I discovered MaeMae Paperie through Brooklyn Bride, and have been very inspired and impressed as I've perused the site. The company was created by Megan Knight Gonzalez, and offers amazing, totally custom invitations, announcements, and branding. MaeMae offers printing choices of letterpress, flat, or print-at-home. Pretty cool. Above images taken from her blog. Also, visit Megan's Etsy shop here.

[ I Love Rifle Paper Co. ]

=

I am convinced nothing could be cooler than the work of Rifle Paper Co. I have a mixture of feelings about discovering their work, because I am amazingly inspired, but also horribly jealous! Even the website and blog are just perfectly perfect.

* Folkart from India *

These images are from a post a few weeks ago on the well-worth-visiting blog, Bibliodyssey. I'd like to just directly quote from there:

"Tara Books from Chennai (Tamil Nadu, India) very kindly sent me a few of their books, not for review, but as thanks following their contacting for some advice. After I saw the books, I asked - would have begged - if it was ok to scan some samples. Illustrations from three books appear below.

I'm afraid these images hardly do proper justice to the textural wonder of the handmade paper and crisp, silkscreened illustrations. The scans themselves could only have been improved by breaking the books which wasn't even a consideration: these glorious books are treasured works of art that I'll not be destroying or parting with in this lifetime."

The London Jungle Book' © Tara Publishing 2004
(in association with The Museum of London)
Art: Bhajju Shyam
Text: Sirish Rao & Gita Wolf (from Bhajju's oral narration)
Design: Rathna Ramanathan, Minus9 Design

{ Free Amy Butler Patterns }

In case you didn't know...there is a whole page on fabric designer Amy Butler's site offering free quilt and sewing patterns (and they're really cool ones). Just click and download the PDF and it's yours forever! Thank you, Amy.

[ J. Crew Spring ]

Just my favorites from the latest J.Crew fashions. I have yet to find anywhere that has clothes as consistently lovely and wearable. J.Crew is my first source of inspiration for color palettes...and I love to try to copy the jewelry (surprisingly, it's not easy to make for less cost).