Orange holidays

I think I would like to be in Amsterdam tomorrow. April 30th is Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) in the Netherlands, celebrated with orange food, banners, and "extreme amounts of orange clothing and creative accessories" to commemorate the queen's birthday.

Photo by Hans Bouman; the rest of his Queen's Day set is here.

And then there's the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea, Italy which takes place during Carnival, 40 days before Lent. Apparently reenacting a historic insurrection, teams throw oranges at each other. A lot of oranges. I'm fascinated.

What other orange holidays am I missing out on?

Photo by Semantico; see the whole set here.

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Maybe your bedroom needs something orange?

Mary found this vintage chenille bedspread for sale and sent over the link. I think it's great, but I don't need it! Anybody want to give it a good home?

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Artful desktop wallpaper

Check out Kitsune Noir's Desktop Wallpaper Project: a new submission from an artist will be featured every Wednesday. To see the collection so far, click here. This one is from Mike Perry.

(On an unrelated note, is my new favorite color becoming aqua? What the heck? I'd better post something orange here soon.)

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Paint color inspiration

Domino Magazine has a gallery of 50 lovely rooms with paint colors listed for your reference. Take a look if you're thinking of redecorating.

As we all know, paint colors can have rather unusual names. (Wouldn't it be fun to name paint as part of your job? Does anybody who reads this blog do that? Do share!) If you think you're good at guessing a color based on a name, try this quiz. It's hard. Good luck.

(Image from dominomag.com)

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Hello down there

Send a geoGreeting written in the most unique typeface ever: each letter is a building somewhere in the world, viewed from above using Google Maps. If you've got lots of spare time on your hands, feel free to spend some of it combing the earth in search of better letter shapes. The creator of geoGreetings, a grad student at the University of Minnesota, welcomes submissions. And happy Earth Day!

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Nifty coasters

My friend Megumi sent these plastic coasters from Japan (purchased at FrancFranc). Aren't they cool? She always knows what floats my boat.

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I like Rex Ray

Rex Ray is a graphic designer/fine artist based in San Francisco. The first time I saw his work was at art.com, oddly enough. I have a thing for circles and curves, and I think his collages are beautiful. Originals are available exclusively through Jonathan Adler, whose manifesto makes me so happy. Alas, when it comes to Rex Ray, art.com is more my price range. (And I see you can get 25% off there for the next two days.)

(Images stolen from Rex Ray's website)

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Hot little numbers

Recently I came across etsy seller Perdoozy, who makes "pin up girl aprons." They're awfully fun and would make unique bridesmaid gifts. (Assuming your bridesmaids are the cooking type.) And business is booming for Perdoozy, since she's sold almost 500 of them, each handmade. Wow.

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Business card box made of business cards

I discovered instructions for making a six-sided cube from business cards. It results in weird flaps on the outside, so I modified it to make the box above.

For this box, you'll need 5 business cards and 4 pieces of double-stick tape. Follow the folding instructions here, but fold 5 cards instead of 6. (You don't need a top piece.) Follow the assembly instructions, but make sure all of your flaps stay to the inside instead of the outside. Use tape to stick down the two loose flaps on the inside bottom and the two side flaps at the top.

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IKEA quiz

I heard a story on NPR yesterday about IKEA which referred to an online quiz about the retailer's product names. "Sounds fun," I thought to myself, so I googled and found this game. Try to match the IKEA name with the product. (I got 2 out of 10. Outstanding.) Every time you play, you get a new quiz. To learn how IKEA's naming conventions work, click here and impress your friends with your new factoids.

(Images from IKEA)

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Sipping chocolate

My parents visited this weekend, and while out shopping we stopped by World Market and picked up some Bellagio Sipping Chocolate to try out. The verdict: great. Ever since Starbucks did away with Chantico, we've been looking for a replacement. I'm sorry, but Swiss Miss is icky. I want to drink thick, rich, dark chocolate that's really fattening and bad for you. So we made this stuff with half and half and sipped it out of tiny espresso cups. Delish. Available online here.

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Modern Flora photo shoot

The fabric I designed will be shown at a textile trade show in L.A. next week, thanks to some fancy footwork by Caroline of jcaroline creative. With one week to prepare, she managed to slipcover a sofa and do up pillows, a crib set, a lamp, dining chairs, a tablecloth, napkins, totes, and cosmetic bags. Yeah. Just a few things, right? She employs some wonderful ladies who helped pull this off at the speed of light, all culminating in an emergency photo shoot by Brooke Schwab Photography. Brooke took some gorgeous pictures for the booth—you can see more on her blog right here. I'm embarrassed to admit that meanwhile, all I did was stay in Chicago and send pesky emails. Caroline and Brooke, you are both amazing. I'm so lucky to know you.

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Fold a US candidate

Can't remember where I came across this, but I think it's hilarious. You can download and fold your own US presidential candidate.

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Easy butterfly paperclips

I have these teensy, tiny little 2" pieces of origami paper that were begging to be used for something, so here's my idea: fancy paperclips. I should probably label this post a "time-waster" since this is not very practical, but who cares. If you get a kick out of cutting tiny bits of pretty paper like I do, the fun is in the making of them. And who wouldn't love to get a note clipped to a file with one of these? Well, maybe lots of people. But that's okay.

To make some, just fold a little piece of paper in half and cut out a butterfly profile. Free hand it, or click here to get the shape I made and print it to use as your template. (Cutting tip for accuracy: turn and move the paper, keeping your scissors in the same position.) Open up the butterfly, poke it with a pin, and thread it onto a paperclip. These will probably fall apart after one or two uses, but at least all the tiny leftover scraps of paper in the world can have a brief moment of glory.

P.S. That's my new kirigami book from Megumi, which I can't wait to try out.

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Things to make

First, download yourself an orange April computer desktop calendar from Smashing Magazine. Click here and scroll down a bit.

Second, take a look at these crafty projects you could make:
Boxy zippered pouch at Three Bears
Origami Japanese maple leaf at Yasumoto
Decorative switch plates at Pink Chalk Studio
Pleated tote bag from Artsy-Craftsy Babe
Terrarium from Inhabitat
Image transfers using clear packing tape at Wishing on Clovers
Lace earrings at Minding Prismera
Re-covered lampshade at Howcast
Lamps made from bottles at Hallmark Magazine

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Why does the peacock's head face right?

Test your brand awareness with this little logo quiz. Kinda fun.

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Paper therapy

This afternoon I needed instant craft gratification, so I flipped through my brand new origami book from Megumi to find something that looked cute, easy, and fast. Ta da: chopstick envelopes. These will be fun when Alex and I get take-out sushi and have a little sushi date. The book's instructions are entirely in Japanese, so I might need to enlist the help of a Japanese-reading friend if I get stuck in the future. But the diagrams are great, so I feel confident I can get pretty far by myself.

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Apartment Therapy behind the scenes

So here's how the AT house tour worked, for anybody who's curious. Last October, an editor from AT emailed asking if we were willing to do a tour of our place. Silly me, I thought that meant they simply wanted some snapshots from around the house, so I dashed off an email saying they could grab some from past posts on this blog. Turns out they send a photographer! Who knew? So months went by, and the shoot finally happened in February.

They sent out Evan Thomas, who is the most personable photographer in probably the whole world. You can check out his great work here. Evan carried in about four tons of lighting equipment and extension cords and set to work. It looked like a movie set in here. Fascinating. I hid in the living room or the office for most of the several-hours-long photo shoot, but at one point I walked past the hallway and discovered Evan doing this:

Which cracked me up. That's been taped to the hallway floor for ages. Obviously. After shooting the rooms, Evan wandered around looking for some interesting little detail shots. Unfortunately, we don't have any interesting little details. He asked if we had any knicknacks or collections, but alas. No knicknacks. So that was it. We hugged, and Evan went home. The end.

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Apartment Therapy

Okay, I'm back and feeling much more caught up. And I've regained some perspective, too. Last Friday I had announced to Alex, "I have decided I'm never going to design anything again." Um, a little melodramatic in hindsight, but I was feeling very low after a string of projects hit some setbacks. I thought by now I was beyond taking it personally, since I recognize that art is so completely subjective, but I still felt like a sub-standard human being. You know how it goes. Guys, your kind comments were so great. Thanks for your graciousness! So I'm feeling better now. Just in time for our home tour to go up on Apartment Therapy! Let the snarky commenting over there begin! :)

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