So I'm thinking...

If I give up eating for... I dunno, 20 days give or take a few I could totally pull this outfit off.

via People

My best friend is prettier than your best friend!

I was in San Diego Monday doing a little photo shoot for my best friend April. She is the GM [jeez I hope that's her official title] of the most awesome restaurant in La Jolla, Georges at the Cove. We had some fun playing around with some set ups. I threatened to cut a piece of hair off of her head that kept sticking out, and whined that I didn't have an assistant to futz over her while I stressed if I was getting the photo or not. But seriously, how pretty is she? don't you just want to barf? She's just as nice as she is pretty so don't hate too much.




You're probably saying oh how nice, La Jolla...restaurant blah blah blah but let me tell you, just in case you're ever in the area. This isn't Denny's folks. I'm not just bragging because I know her.

"One of the World's top 10 restaurants" Fodor's, America's 10 best Chef's Food and Wine Magazine, "Where to eat right now" Gourmet, Award of Excellence Wine Spectator are just a few of the feathers in their hat.





Three levels to suit whatever you're in the mood for. Fine Dining and a super chic wine bar area, A more casual bar on the second floor with lunch and dinner options, then the top floor Ocean Terrace, where your best sandals will do. All three overlook the cove at La Jolla. It's beautiful and yummy all in one.

If your visiting San Diego, go out of your way to make a trip there you won't be disappointed. Call ahead for reservations though they are busy bees.

Georges at the Cove
1250 Prospect Street
La Jolla, California
858.454.4244

Post secret

I was reading Post Secret tonight like I do every Sunday or Monday and I was thinking about what I would send in if I was doing a postcard.



Life sort of feels like this right now. I'm not sure how it's all working out but I think it is.

------
If you're not familiar with Post Secret:
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.

New In the studio - Jenn and Michael via Kenya

Jenn and I got to be great email buddies over the past few months! We began her project, jeez, in March or April I think. She and her fiance are living in Kenya currently. They are both in public health and are working on projects overseas [I think I understood her correctly?] I often got notes from her that said I'll be out of reach this week... off to Afghanistan or the Congo this week! It was amazing to me that we were working on a project and she was on the other side of the world.

Jenn sent me a scan of a napkin sketch that they had in mind. They have lived in a number of different cities and wanted to incorporate each piece into their invite. Texas, Washington DC, Boston, London and Kenya. So each week I worked on a new component of the illustration. She gave me feedback each week and I altered and changed based on those comments. I lost count on how many weeks but I think it was pushing 12 before we printed! It just goes to show you that anything is possible these days on the web. Jenn and I only spoke once on the phone during our planned press check via twitter and the email images.



We stuck with a one color letterpress piece navy blue on pearl white Lettra paper and I was able to add on last minute, the kissing icon in a hang tag size with some room left over on the plate. How much do you love their silhouettes? They took a photo of themselves against a white wall and I traced them for the illustration.



Components printed: Invite, Map/Info Card, RSVP, fold over Thank You card, and hang tag for the event and gifts.
Congrats Michael and Jenn have a wonderful wedding in October!

Cute.

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters and email blasts. I also might mention that they are most always of products that I can't afford but that I lust after. It's the modern day equivaliant of window shopping I guess. Net-A-Porter is one of those email blasts that I love to hate to get.



I love it because I want one of everything, hate it because, well, a $300 sweater isn't exactly a "steal" for me as it might be for someone else.


Today their newsletter had some fun, low cost headbands to offer though. Something a girl like me could get their head around -pun intended. Oddly enough, because this NEVER happens...the one I want is the cheapest in the bunch $38!! prices go up to $50-ish



Check them out here

Thinking Smart Doesn't Cost A Lot

This story [copy and images] is from Springwise, a newsletter I receive. I just wanted to pass it along today.



Creative agencies seem to have embraced corporate generosity with open arms, if a few recent initiatives are anything to go by. Much the way Bushfire Housing and SmallCanBeBig were donated by the Sputnik Agency and the Boathouse Group, respectively, so a new, guerrilla ad campaign for the Salvation Army was donated by an agency with the help of more than 50 local businesses.



Known as the "This Ad Cost Nothing" campaign, the three-week initiative was designed primarily to raise awareness for the Salvation Army's Northern New England division. It was conceived and created in Portland, Maine, by local agency VIA Group, which turned to area businesses for help carrying it out. Part of the campaign included broadcast time and print ad space donated by traditional media; the majority, however, employed less conventional tactics. Pizza boxes and coffee sleeves were transformed into ad space for displaying the Salvation Army's logo and URL, for example, as were bathroom mirrors at local restaurants—with the help of a little grease paint. VIA employees and willing friends parked their intentionally dusty cars in downtown Portland, with the logo and slogans written on their back windshields, while dozens of shops sported the logo on their own windows as well. Painted rocks, tarps and tennis court floors were also among the more than 5,000 "creative units" included in the campaign.



Besides getting the word out about the Salvation Army and no doubt updating its image, the "This Ad Cost Nothing" campaign is also yet another nice example of the types of efforts increasingly being expected of companies by Generation G. As the saying goes, 'tis better to give than to receive—and that's never been more true than it is today! ;-)

Website: www.salvationarmydonate.org
Contact: Craig_Evans@use.salvationarmy.org

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

Thanks to Springwise for an outstanding story. I hope that it works and The Salvation Army sees a great response to it.

Isaac Mizrahi - cuteness

I think I might need this...my cell phone, a lipstick and a $20 bill to go in that pocket



I don't have the legs to pull this off but if I did...



elegant little suit. I think Mrs. Obama should wear this

Isaac Mizrahi Spa 2010 collection

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll

I'm a bad party girl, as in I can't drink 2 drinks without falling asleep, never tried drugs etc. At this point in my life I'm too old, it isn't offered at parties anymore where I hang out. To be honest I don't think I've ever seen a line of coke...ummm let me take that back, I have, but I was too young to know what it was. I just knew I shouldn't tell my mom that the babysitter had a mirror that she snorted stuff off of. I'm fine, mom, not to worry. It was never offered to me probably too expensive to share with the kiddies.

Still, I always had dreams of being bad-ass punk rock. I think my twin set and pearls got in the way of being able to hang with that crowd. If I was ever there I left before the party started. I was the equivalant of the Narc in the girls bathroom at school. Did you have those? Adult cops posing as students? We did. We all knew who they were. The girls would wait till they left to start smoking and whatever else they did.



I clicked through to read a story today about an artist Dash Snow who died recently of an overdose. Apparently, this is no surprise to the people who knew him. He lived on the edge and documented his adventures along the way. Clicking through his Poloroid's today you get the sense of a group of friends full of life, love and sometimes conflict. The story that led me to the images is elegantly written by a person traveled in similar circles but not enough to be witness to the antics he documented. The tale was alluring enough for me to investigate him further: the sex, drugs and rock and roll is always a curious tale for me.



"Dash admitted to picking up a polaroid camera to snap memories that he could not remember the next morning, possibly to create breadcrumbs back to himself. What did his lens capture? Orgies, fist fights, vomiting, seedy hotels, bloody noses, snorting coke on a penis, hookers, etc…you name it… it was the modern-day Nan Goldin or Larry Clark peephole, but on high octane — probably explaining why both Nan and Larry outlived this kid born in 1981. His rooms were destructive, harshly lit, raw, unapologizing, damaging, and bonding.

As I write this, I’m trying to remember what the hell I had in common with him? At first thought… Nothing. In fact, I don’t identify with any death-embracing behavior. As much as I walked in and out these parties, art galleries, dive-bars, hotel rooms, and sketchy pads, it seems I always left right before the climax… right before the pants went down, before the needles came out, and before the mountains of white powder got tossed on the table. This territory was something saved for Dash’s polaroid camera."



You can view Dash's work here at Tiny Vices [warning some NSFW]
and the full Starworks article here

It's too bad that the drugs got in the way of the sex and the rock and roll

New In the studio - Vin's 40th birthday card

Rebekah contacted me through Etsy about her boyfriend's [husband? I can't recall] 40th birthday party. She had seen my greeting card that I had done "it's that special time of year again booze, free stuff and a flaming dessert" We decided for cost savings to keep the card as it was but add on the additional line of "join us for Vin's 40th birthday" that you see here at the bottom.


Additionally, we needed to include the party information on the interior. I suggested we do the interior of the card digitally [flat printing] and that it could be adheared via glue stick or double stick tape to save money.



I designed the interior to match the font and style of the exterior and still be a humorous play on the day's event. [please note address and phone numbers have been retouched out]

-if you are interested in letterpress for an upcoming project but are afraid it will be too expensive please contact me and I can offer up suggestions on keeping costs within your range. It never hurts to ask!

A little somthin' somthin'

Have you been over to see SGM's new blog makeover? I can only take credit for helping her out with some logo/type work as I'm a total retard when it comes to programming anything [uh duh have you seen this blog?] Now I'm a little jelly that she's all spiffy with squarespace [tried it a while ago and it's SUPER COOL and easy] so jeez I guess the cobbler's kid needs a new pair of Manolos.


I wanted her logo to look like a combo of a fashion Magazine headline and a Bergdorf's logo. Kinda fun don't you think? I'm trying to talk her into turning her logo into coffee mugs and what not don't ya think?



The whole enchilada.

interested in some help on your blog or site? I can hobble through the tech stuff to get you spiffy.. for hire or pimpin'
richele[at]richiedesigns.com

SGM is mostly about the oddities of reality television...namely Bravo shows, Real Housewives, Jeff Lewis and occasionally a Pamela Anderson WTF is she wearing.

Just because

On a friend's FB update today. PERFECT


"if you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."

Joseph Cambell, The Power of Myth

iPhone App recommends

If you love good music ie not top 40 but new upcoming groups, and established such as recent guest Tori Amos or Monday's guest Ray Lamontagne this iPhone application is for you.



KCRW is a community radio station out of Santa Monica Community College here in LA if you're not here locally. They have the most amazing morning show "morning becomes elclectic" of any radio station I've been privy to. They feature new, obsucure, and a little mainstream along side. It can be accessed through iTunes if you have it loaded, it's in the radio section should you like to preview it. It streams in the eclectic section of course.



But the real reason to get this super cheap app [99 cents] is Saturday's show...as in the whole day. The morning starts out with This American Life [The best story-telling radio show ever], moves on to Good Food with Evan Kleinman a food and cooking show that includes interviews each week with local farmers & Chefs about what is currently in season and how they are preparing it in their kitchens. The actual interviews are done on the spot at Santa Monica's famed Farmer's Market. She in the latter part of the show interviews chefs, food critics and writers about the current weeks conversation. [ you know you're old when you love a cooking show] Third up on Saturdays is Chris Douridas who always has a great mix of music on, generally an interview or a live performance is also featured. Essentially the best of "morning becomes elcectic" smashed into one show. Then my favorite....Anne Litt my homegirl. The one who mixes Aretha next to Ray Lamontagne next to Dolly Parton. She seriously is my favorite DJ on the station [she is on Sundays later in the day as well], Saturdays finish with my punk rock boyfriend, Henry Rollins from Black Flag fame before the night show begins [club and other Saturday Night Specials].

Since I work in the studio most Saturdays and I don't have a radio down there I was missing the weekend show a ton lately. When I learned last week they had an application that allowed you to listen live I downloaded it immediately. Fast forward to Saturday and I was listening in the car doing errands and there was something really interesting on probably This American Life and I began to sit in my car like I do most weekends to finish the story and realized I could stream it on my phone. I hooked up my ear piece, turned it on and it was flawless. I listened to the whole of Saturday's show [with a little power charge break at lunch] and didn't miss a beat.

KCRW on air: has capabillities to stream live on air, so NPR is included in their day-to-day along with other great shows such as Bookworm with Michael Silverblat [you'll either love his voice or hate it btw] along with the Politics of Culture and other great weekly afternoon shows. Evenings host Chocolate City and more club style music, Saturday I've mentioned here and many other treats along the way.

If you don't have an iphone or itunes but you want to check them out you can listen to news, music or Live to whatever is going on via their website

You can't swing a hammer from India

I've been thinking about this for some time. Craftsmanship in a digital world. Maybe it's because I work with my hands these days and my brain less than I was [before the layoff]. I am a creative. I like to doodle, do things, make a tangible object whenever possible. I get such joy out of the finished product.



I heard part of an interview with the author of Shop Class is Soulclass on NPR sunday night. He posed the question, if all of our manufacturing and now our tech services can be outsourced cheaper overseas...what is left for us here in the US? I think he said something to the fact that "well you can't swing a hammer from India". Teaching the trades has dropped off and college is the aspiration for a white collar job, something respectable. But what happens when that doesn't fulfill you?

an excerpt from the book:
The wad of cash in my pants feels different than the checks I cashed in my previous job. Following a doctorate in political philosophy at the University of Chicago, I took a job as executive director of a Washington "think tank." I was always tired, and honestly could not see the rationale for my being paid at all—what tangible goods or useful services was I providing to anyone? This sense of uselessness was dispiriting. The pay was good, but it truly felt like compensation, and after five months I quit to open the bike shop. It may be that I am just not well suited to office work. But in this respect I doubt there is anything unusual about me. I offer my own story here not because I think it is extraordinary, but rather because I suspect it is fairly common. I want to do justice to intuitions that many people have, but which enjoy little public credit. This book grows out of an attempt to understand the greater sense of agency and competence I have always felt doing manual work, compared to other jobs that were officially recognized as "knowledge work." Perhaps most surprisingly, I often find manual work more engaging intellectually. This book is an attempt to understand why this should be so.

you can read a longer excerpt from the book on the NPR site and hear the interview

The devil wears Prada, or DG, or Kors or Donna

Anna Wintour, The queen of fashion and editor-in-chief of Vogue, is humanizing herself. I'm sure you've heard already about it? The September Issue on the inner workings of Vogue and the woman who can make or break a designer overnight.

can't wait

L.O.V.E

I don't know anything about this artist Ben Shahn but this graphic is making my head spin with love. How awesome would this be letterpressed?!?!

I have a thing for shopping carts and laundry mats... or rather images of, if I haven't mentioned. It started about 15 years ago, never have shaken the love.

Don't be surprised if you see a shopping cart printed sometime in the future.

via Kate Spade "things we love"


Available at the Davidson Galleries for $4500 ouch

Fresh as a daisy

If you're a fan of Susannah over at Petunia Faced Girl's hilarious blog, you'll understand my special treat to her this fine day. She is woman, fond of all terms related to Vagina. Vag, Vaj-ja [a few f*ck's and a shit or two really if we're all being honest] and any given week she drops it into a sentence whenever possible. I love toilet humor so I'm down with it, love the vaj-ja talk, though it seems quite odd to be coming from my mouth...errr...keyboard.



I decided to take the afternoon off today [well, actually there was a problem with a plate being made for my next job it was forced] so I landed on the big bed watching all things bad afternoon tv. A little Dr. Phil and OCD, a little Ellen and we can't forget Ms. Tyra. While clicking between the three I caught this very bizarre commercial while waiting for Ms. Thang to come back on. It's an IV bag that you fill with water and it has a stainless steel "sprinkler" at the end to "clean and freshing" all the girl parts you want. I thought it was part of a SNL skit or something it was so bizarre, but alas it's a real thing. FDA approved no-less.Waterworks if you should know...or want to know that is. I dare you like we're 11 yrs old making crank calls to random phone book numbers to click on the link. Double dare you.

or you could watch this bad You Tube video





So, Susannah, you're welcome. Merry Christmas in July!

Sneak Peek

I'm too tired to tell you the whole, super cool story about this latest project so I'll just give you a peek. Jennifer and Michael's wedding invites, we've been working on them now for 12 weeks? it could be longer I'm not sure.



But today...I've been printing for 8 hrs and there is much more to do. I think my feet are going to fall off. Off for some wine, a epson salt bath and foot elevation.

Target cuteness

I've bought a couple of dresses at Target recently. Super easy summer dressing and looks like I put effort into getting ready.


this one I bought in grey first and liked it so much I bought a second one in plum $24.99 I think it's sold out online but available in stores



$24.99 I just saw this one and it looks super cute.


this one I have questions about but it could be good and it's on super sale $14.98

Onion

Someone once told me that life is a layered onion, we continually peel the layers back to discover new things. I think it's probably a good analogy one that involves tears, substance and something to chew on should you be so inclined.

I won't lie about this. The onion thing pisses me off because it seems over the years as soon as I have got a hold on an issue in my life a whole new onion appears. They are breeding babies when I'm not watching.



I might be nuts by the way if I have never mentioned it before. I have seen a professional to work through life stuff on and off for 20 years. I call her my second mom, she is a friend and a professional, a professional mom you could say - one that I pay not to add emotional baggage to advice. In my early 20's she was someone who saved my life, as I'm sure that I would have done harm to myself had she not been there to offer suggestions on getting thorough a very rough period. For that I am grateful.

Today, she's someone I bounce ideas off of, she helps me get though some sticky life questions, calms me when I'm freaking out. A few weeks ago I bounced the idea off of her about all of these physical ailments I've been dealing with in the past few months. What if they are related to THIS XYZ THING?

I am and have always been a person who absorbs stress and turns it into sickness. Ever since I was a child I've done it. I know now that when something is falling apart physically that I need to ask myself "what is it that I'm not talking about?" So I began to ask myself that question, pulled out old books on medical intuition and began to ask "what is it....that I'm not talking about?"



What came of it was another f*%$ onion. One that I thought I had flushed down the toilet a LONG time ago. When I posed this question to her she came forward with a question so alarming to me that it has taken me two weeks to talk about it. What is it you ask? It's a long story, one too long to go into here but essentially she asked the question about my "toxic family" [not my blood family I might add], my "XYZ family" the one I went to each day for a number of years. Toxic? I would not describe it as toxic...a lot screwed up for sure, but not Toxic. And then the words came that you don't want to hear from a therapist..."hum, maybe you should journal on that, why you don't think it was toxic after you told me X, Y, Z". And then I realized another onion had appeared.



I thought I was bigger than "IT". I knew what IT looked like [the crap] and I knew it wasn't about me, I thought I was walking around it, dealing with it, working the issues in my behalf. But looking at it again from this new perspective, I was absorbing it still and I didn't even know it. Sometimes the thing I'm not talking about, isn't even obvious to someone skilled in 20 years of this sh*t.

But here are the words she provided to ease my guilt [of course it's my fault] there is a saying:

YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET AND FALL INTO THE HOLE.
YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET, SEE THE HOLE AND WALK AROUND IT.
YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET. YOU TAKE A DIFFERENT ROAD.

Many years of walking around the hole. I'm taking a different road.


beautiful onion/egg via TR.iPod
the hole via Tone

New over at Etsy

New here at the ranch:



I called an illustrator friend of mine and asked him if I could use this image he did for my office a number of years ago. I'm not sure about your neighborhood but it's all cafe racers around town here these days. I love to see the boys zipping around town on their vintage bmw's and triumphs with their fun metallic helmets, cuffed levi's etc.

Mark Sasway Illustration, should you be in need of someone with great talent, is available here he also has a lovely show hanging at Portfolio Coffee House over on Retro Row/4th Street here in Long Beach at the moment and can also be seen on his site.


If you have a moto fan in your life [or it's you], this illustration was originally done approx 10+ years ago for a poster my former office did for a vintage motorcycle event at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The poster won some awards if I remember correctly.

available on Crane's lettra in pearl white with a choc brown envelope or also on kraft with an off white envelope.
ink is a vintage green-glass color on both



lastly a fun little birthday card.

both available over at Etsy $4.75 each - I highly advise choosing a couple things if you're buying second item is only 10 cents to ship if you purchase more than one card!

"looking for some hot stuff"

I'm hearing Donna Summer's playing "looking for some hot stuff" in my head right now. Unless you're 15, actually 13 please don't. I want to keep my lunch down.

via the uber fashion site Net-a-Porter $200 if you're nasty.

We all scream for ice cream -Coolhaus mobile ice cream

If you've been reading for a while, you'll know that I've had a thing for mobile food for a few years now. I just thought that the whole business model of the ice cream truck was underutilized, seems is as if I was right once again. As we've seen in the past few years gourmand airstreams up in Portland, the insanity of Kogi here in Los Angeles, Long Beach's own Ice Cream Man, Sprinkles cupcakes have recently took the road and now the gourmet ice cream cookie.

Coolhausthe fancy ice cream sandwich maker is partnering with Kogi, doing the twitter thing too. It sounds like a perfect match to me late night tacos followed by a yummy dessert.

Now I just need a Peet's coffee truck to come singing down the street and life would be perfect.

via> Springwise