Happy New Year!

If you miss out on your New Year's fireworks, here's a video to show you what you missed. Happy New Year! See you in 2008!

Thursday Challenge: Broken

Broken or vandalized tombstone in century-old cemetary.

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday!

Photo Friday: Best of 2007

This has to be my best of 2007. Standing at the "Top of the Rock" in Rockefeller Plaza looking at the Empire State building and down at New York City on the second day of January, 2007 on my 10th wedding anniversary trip.

LensDay: Futuristic

A very futuristic and at the same time retro robot visited us on Halloween!

Snow Miser vs. Heat Miser

Every year in December I look forward to all those stop motion animated Christmas specials. My favorite is "The Year Without a Santa Claus" (It first aired in 1974). I love the Snow Miser and Heat Miser duel. Those songs are great. Here's a link to find out more about them. You know I've got all these movies on DVD, but there's something about watching them on tv that makes it better—even with the commercial breaks.

Thursday Challenge: Happy

Photo Friday: Two

Two thankful hands.

The Last Rose

In our yard, fall is definitely here so I was surprised to find two roses still alive. I like the combination of the pink rose against the backdrop of fallen leaves.

PhotoSharks: Body

Photo Friday: Dangerous

Tuesday Challenge: Blue

Kimono Inspiration!

Seasonal Glories of the Old Capital, originally uploaded by mboogiedown.

After viewing kimonos at Yamatoku Vintage Kimonos via Something to Say, I searched and found more wonderful kimonos. Kimono Etcetera is a Flickr group with great shots of kimonos of all colors and this photo from mboogiedown on Flickr is an awesome example of her Japan related photography—definitely a must see.

Home Sweet Home

"Home Sweet Home", a wonderful animation short by Gillian O'Connor. Found via "Drawn!".

Lensday: Roadside

Things are often much more interesting off the beaten path. My fear is that in the near future everything will look the same as small towns and roadside joints all become chain stores, will be updated or mowed down. I love the character in these older roadside businesses.

Tuesday Challenge: Garden

Thursday Challenge: Autumn

Neat Nightlight

Sunlight in a vintage mason jar. What a neat idea. I'd also like to see "fireflies" in a jar done this same way. Found via Something to Say. Purchase this gem from Bouf Super Boutique.

Wonderful Lego Ads

These ads for Lego are great. Why do I love these Lego ads? The simplicity, the colors, the negative space, and the great concept that is truly unique. See more here. Found via Graphic Design Bar.

Forget Mr. Potato Head. Try Mr. Picasso Head.

I had found this site awhile back and lost the link. If you have time to spare, go create a "Mr. Picasso Head".

PhotoSharks: Blur

Photo Friday: The Beach

The perfect beach...quiet, secluded, tranquil and natural.

Illustration Friday: Wedding

Ok, here was my thought process. I started out thinking "bridezilla" and then realized I wanted to do a female King Kong instead of a godzilla bride. Same concept without the snappy name.

Pizza Moustache

I know. ANOTHER Youtube? But I love this commercial. If I wasn't being calorie conscious right now I would definitely run out and get a Dominoe's Oreo Dessert Pizza. The spot is hilarious and the product looks YUMMY. Makes me laugh every time. Has anyone had it? Any good?

Showing My Age

On this Friday night, for some reason I started thinking about the old "Schoolhouse Rock" segments from Saturday morning. These were so great. Entertaining and educational. This is the one showing "No More Kings". Brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it. :-) We even have them all on videotape. Ahhh...good times. Enjoy.

LensDay: Home

A home for birds, ants, insects, bats, squirrels...you get the idea.

Tuesday Challenge: Rock

Between a rock and a hard place and somewhere in between.

Thursday Challenge: School

First day of school.

Design Gangsta...

This is great. Got to see the gangsta for yourself...

Thursday Challenge: Outside

Simply described as a throwback to Key West in the 1950s—Apalachicola, Florida.

Photo Friday: Purple

I love hydrangeas.

The Many Lives of a Graphic Designer

Love, love, love this poster print of "the bittersweet journey of the many lives of a graphic designer". Some of the great lines sprinkled throughout: "beat up your client in a meeting", "become a sculptor", "start a design blog", and many more you need to read yourself to appreciate. If anything, it shows how many paths a graphic designer can take during their career and some comical mishaps that could happen along the way. You can purchase a copy of this poster through johnson banks. Found via Black. White. Bliss.

Get Smorty With Your Blog!

We heard you like to blog. You also appreciate money as well...like most people do. Why not combine the two and get paid for blogging. Smorty is a service that connects advertisers with bloggers. When you sign up with Smorty they analyze your blog and send you advertising campaigns for products or services that would appeal to people that read your blog. Think of it as getting paid for your opinion. Then you write a post on your blog if you accept the campaign. Accept or decline a campaign, it's up to you. Smorty pays you through Paypal if your post is accepted. Depending on your blog's rating and the campaign that's chosen, you can receive a minimum of $6 or up to $100 for a higher level campaign. You get paid weekly for each post after it's approved. It sounds like a great concept and a win-win opportunity for the blogger, the advertiser and the reader. Sign me up!

Leave a Comment After the Beep!

Over at my daily read, Fresh Vintage, Colleen is giving away a cool recipe box filled with goodies. All you have to do is leave a comment! The deadline for the giveaway is Sunday. If you love vintage, check out her blog anyway for her daily flea market/garage sale finds. She really has a knack. :-) Hmmm, maybe I should do a giveaway...

PhotoSharks: Clean

Photosharks: Plastic

Once you start thinking about everything that's made from plastic the list goes on forever. Once I read this article, "Our Oceans Are Turning To Plastic—Are We?" I decided to rethink what I buy and how it is packaged.

Thursday Challenge: Yellow

Black-eyed Susans which are dead now from the summer heat made a nice showing earlier in the summer.

Tuesday Challenge: Paper

Give a child some red, yellow and blue paint with a clean sheet of paper and their work of art is only limited by their imagination.

Practical Yet Fun—Digital Photo Frames

I've got a friend that is diligent about changing out her picture frames. There's a different photo of her children for every holiday and occasion. How doe's she find the time? Then there's me.:-) I'm lucky if I can change out my photos every other year. For anyone that takes digital pictures, you can relate to the dilemma of taking so many photos it's hard to print them all, let alone changing out your frames with physical pictures. That's why I've decided to convert to digital photo frames from digitalframez.com. You can download all your photos to the frame and let it rotate as many pictures as you like. They have 7" up to 10" frames in different styles to fit your decor. You can even transfer video with sound! And you get a FREE 256 MB memory card with every 10" frame order! I'm thinking this would be an excellent gift for the grandparents so they would have a year's worth of photos of their grandchildren and their own personal slide show to present to their friends. Now I know what to get them for Christmas!

Illustration Friday: Visitors

"Visitors" used to always leave a calling card. Thinking of the challenge I thought this might be a little different from the norm.

Illustration Friday: Captain

I'm a week late on the topic, but I wanted here's my pirate for "captain". Aarrrgh, me mateys!

Thursday Challenge: Hot

This is an older picture. Recently temperatures have been up around 100. So this might not be so "hot" after all.

Shutterday: Closer To God

LensDay: Street

More like "under the street". One of many mosaics in the New York subway system. This one is at the Chambers Street station stop.

Wonderful Screenprint Artist...

I found this screenprint artist through Sub-Studio Design Blog.
This print on the left is what you see in the light, the second is what you see with the lights off (90% of ink is glow-in-the-dark). Check out all of Dan McCarthy's work. It's really amazing.

Thursday Challenge: Young

Photo Friday: Oddity

Found these in a thrift store. Oddly cute. Available in my etsy shop (click on link in sidebar).

Tuesday Challenge: Metal

My computer has been sick for a week and I finally got it back. It had a minor operation but is feeling much better these days. Hence, my inspiration for this challenge. :-)

Photosharks: Signs

A travelling snake show comes to town...

Illustration Friday: Missing

Thursday Challenge: Toys

Fun with bubbles. Saw a guy on The View this summer that did amazing things with bubbles. He enclosed Joy Behar and Paula Abdul in a huge bubble—now that's a feat.

**Found out his name is Fan Yang, Bubble Scientist His site is pretty cool and if you didn't see him, check him out on his site.

Early Christmas List...

Been reading about Gocco and found out that Paper Source has large print size Goccos in stock with all the supplies. Until now, Gocco had been discontinued and they were hard to find until Paper Source began stocking them. If you don't know about them they are like mini screen printers and seem to be a lot easier to use even if the format is smaller. In case you were wondering, it's pronounced like "Loco", as in "Loco for Gocco".

Drunk Love Anyone?

I first heard about Denyse Schmidt some time ago in Martha Stewart's magazine and fell in love with her funky quilts. I especially love "Drunk Love In A Log Cabin" (the first quilt on the left), then comes "Snake Charmer" and "What A Bunch of Squares". These are couture quilts costing thousands so I guess I will just dream. Denyse Schmidt Quilts

Shutterday: Train

I tried to find something a little less expected for this theme. Not your typical "train". It was fun to ride, though.

Thursday Challenge: Food

Enviro Bags to the Rescue!

Ever since I found the article about plastic bags and their effect on the environment (I'm sure I always knew, but this article really hits home with how serious it is), I have been taking my bags back to the store for recycling and have looked for some reusable shopping bags to keep in the car. I think Envirosax will fit the bill. They are fashionable and hold twice as much as the typical plastic bag. You can buy separately or in packs of five. They also have monochrome and organic versions. Found via Fabulously Green I can't decide which pack of five to get. Which do you like?

*Edit: 8/13/07 - I ended up ordering the set on the far right and they came in the other day! I used them for the first time on Sunday when I did some grocery shopping and got some weird looks from the checkout person, but I felt so great when I got home with NO plastic bags! These bags are wonderful and really are at least twice the size of a normal plastic bag if not larger. The pack of five also fit wonderful in a small purse and they are easy to fold back up after use! If you're looking for reusable bags that are stylish and easy to use you need to give these a try. :-)

PhotoSharks: Chaos

Yes, this photo is so photoshopped so I may be breaking a rule but I think it totally fits the challenge. (It's christmas lights doctored and filtered to look like the end of days)