Rain Rain

Living on the west coast, you have to do everything possible to try to enjoy the rain, otherwise this season is totally unbearable. Wellies, raincoats, rihanna on the radio, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. So, this season I have embraced the gum boot. I searched high and wide and found a few lovable (ie. not too obnoxious) options. Hunters, Tretorn, and Chooka, are legendary around here. Then I ran into Moov Culture and was quite impressed ~ love their cut-and-paste graphics too.

But, just when I thought I had seen all rubber boots imaginable, I spotted a girl on the street with boots painted in that victorian/grunge look that is so fabulous. Assuming it was a brilliant diy project, I looked it up and found this and this. So, I'm now mighty tempted to pick up some basic boots,
krylon and stencils and see what happens....

Design Police

Made me laugh. Learn color theory. Ha. via Josh Spear

While we're at it, ruthlessly making fun of the less design-inclined, check out clientopia.

Chalkboard Tuesday

Probably my favourite thing in my apartment is the huuuge chalkboard in the kitchen. Everyone should have a chalkboard, it's seriously simple and totally fun. I like to switch up the image every Tuesday; it makes for a nice routine, a jolt of inspiration, no waste, doesn't matter if it's complete rubbish.... The above chalkboard aquarium was inspired by this flickr photo, found in the Domino Magazine pool.

Idea for Hanging Small Prints

I've been having a long-term love affair with small pieces of art. Gems from Tiny Showcase, Etsy, Art Magazines, Student Art Shows, Postcards, ATCs.... they're everywhere and they're often affordable. So I have this collection. Now what? I want to display some, I want to avoid frames, I want to enhance the textures and rough edges, I see a creative opportunity. So:



Materials: 12x12" sheets of wood, needles, hammer, hooks for back, some small pieces of art. To do: 1. Attach hooks to back of wood. 2. lay small piece of art in center of piece of wood. 3. Using hammer, lightly tap the needles into each corner of artwork and into the wood, just enough to hold it in place. 4. Once all four corners are nailed, lift artwork away from wood so it rests against the head of the needle. Art should rest about an inch away from wood. Voila! Hang on wall and admire your handiwork.

The above artworks are two of my personal favourites. On the left is the amazing Camilla Engman. On the right is a print I found in a little boutique in Paris. Ah memories. Makes my heart skip a little.

Declutter Your Desktop

This is surely the easiest, cheapest, most useful DIY I've seen in a long time. Most useful - because I have been battling a mess of cables for so long, and it actually seemed to worsen when I switched from a desktop to a laptop; and let's not forget the addition of an ipod, cellphone, and digital camera (to quickly equal messy).

I saw it on the ever-industrious Ikea Hacker. It originated over at Decluttered, where you can find the full instructions, as well as extra tips in the very lengthy list of comments.

For future reference, when my career is more solid, I would like to start another blog devoted to turning my apartment into a home. I have so many clippings and swatches and ideas floating around. They need to be put in a place that might inspire me into action. This might be it. But no time now.

OSX Shortcuts

I was recently reintroduced to Pocketmod, via the wonderfully resourceful Creative Tech Blog. Pocketmod is a program that allows you to print and make little booklets as a way to organize your stuff. They have templates for various types of calendars, lists, games... Also check out their pdf to Pocketmod converter.

The guys over at Creative Tech have used the template to create a handy little book of OSX Shortcuts. AND they have even provided us with the original InDesign file so we can easily plug in our own shortcuts... the ones we keep forgetting, or ones for different types of software. Imagine the possibilities. I think this type of fold could also be an amazing design solution.

By the way, while on the topic of books, Five and a Half now has their book-making tutorial listed at JPG Magazine. I can't wait to try it out.

Endpapers

I absolutely love the colours in this marbled paper (seen via the domino blog). What great inspiration. I am reminded of endpapers found in books lining old libraries and antique bookshops and flea markets. That smell of ink and paper. Everything faded, yellowed, pastel-coloured.

What are endpapers? They are the leaves found at the beginning and ending of a book. They are not only decorative... they actually serve a purpose. They lessen the strain on the book cover and hide all those raw edges. In some cases, the endpapers are the only thing holding the cover to the inside of the book.

Here is a great flickr set outlining slices of the process of bookbinding. I just love the art of bookbinding; the careful choice of materials leads to such a wonderful sense of touch and texture, outlasting any mass produced paperback by miles.

Publish it Yourself

The ultimate Design-it-yourself project, in my mind, is to publish an entire book. Now that various self-publishers are gaining great reputations and offering endless options, it’s quite viable, maybe even easy.

Lulu seems to be an online favourite, but I really like the site design and page samples over at Blurb. I am seriously tempted by the portfolio section. And my dream-project-list has been swimming with cook books, picture books, colour-inspired books, travel photo books, books, books, books.

Or... if you aren’t up for creating a whole book, perhaps you’d like to create your very own Penguin Book Cover. It’s interesting to see how people have interpreted/designed/visiualized the works of greats like Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde. Frankly, I love the books left blank; all white with the little orange penguin perfectly composed in the corner. Beautiful.

Or... if you don’t really want to make anything... Remember those great little Choose Your Own Adventure books? They were way ahead of their time. And now, you can even download them onto your Ipod ( for free! until Jan 25).