Jonathan Adler is crazy. I love it. From his 15 Fabulous Design Tips.
On Saturday we spent a glorious afternoon at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Part of what made it glorious was the nap we took on our picnic blanket in a secluded spot. Usually I have a hard time sleeping in public places because I'm always afraid I'll get in trouble. I'll miss my train stop, I'll drool on the person next to me, someone will take my stuff, a policeman will knock on my window and arrest me, you name it. But Saturday I felt nice and safe under a tree, way back where no other visitors wandered. Now I just need to figure out how to make some kind of DIY inflatable neck pillow. Stay tuned for that tutorial. (Yeah, not likely.) And does anyone else struggle against the temptation to eat any wild berry thing you find in the woods? I just wanted to pop one of those green things into my mouth. But I didn't.
Um, you may not have noticed, but I have a thing for desktop wallpaper. I also have a thing for fabric designers, particularly of the Nordic and Scandinavian variety. (Is it in my blood? My mom's side of the family is Norwegian. The only time I ever give it a thought is when we eat lefse at Christmas time. But maybe my genes predispose me to love Scandinavian design? Beats me.) Anyhow, while poking around Marimekko's site, I came across some downloadable free desktop wallpapers and some ecards. Reading about their designers' individual creative processes was also really interesting. If you're a creative type, maybe you'll be interested, too.
Our friend Janet Moran offered us a free photography session in exchange for a couple of paintings. We just got the pictures she took of us—and she's a genius! She led us around her neighborhood in Rogers Park and managed to find all kinds of interesting places to snap photos. (Don't you love that sticker?) So if you're in the Chicago area, hurry and book Oijoy Photo for a shoot before all of Janet's time slots fill up.
Several people have sent me a link to Wordle, a site that automatically arranges words on a page. You paste in your own text or a web address, then pick the typeface and colors. Kinda fun. Here's my blog, Wordle-ized. Did I really write "naked" in a post sometime? Yikes, apparently so. This blog is so risqué.
Maybe everybody knows this already, but I found it to be life-changing. When your candle is burned up and you want to get the wax out of the holder, put it in the freezer for awhile. The wax contracts, loosens up, and you can dump it right out in one big piece. Awesome.
While poking around in my cupboard the other day, I found a shot glass that would make a lovely little bud vase. Except it wasn't very cute, so I put a removable jacket on it. This turned out to be so easy and so much fun that I couldn't stop making these vase covers. Here's how.
1. Cut a piece of fabric large enough to wrap around your glass or vase once, plus about an inch of overlap. Make it as tall as your vase is, plus an extra half inch. (Of course, vary this depending on how much glass you want to show at the top.)
I put some cuttings of pothos vines (is that what these are?) here in water. They'll grow for years like this. A fresh flower centerpiece would be nice, too. Or maybe at Christmas I'll sew new holiday covers and put in some holly or branches. So many possibilities.
If you're feeling industrious...
Having a productive day? This site should stop you in your tracks.
Canon's website has a massive list of printable papercraft projects, including matryoshka dolls, paper airplanes, and basic boxes. Not to mention a whole gallery of printable origami paper, like this. I like this simple pattern here, which could be useful for something more contemporary looking. This oughtta keep the youngsters busy for awhile. (Um, or maybe me.)
I had leftover fabric from a pillow project, so I decided to try out Anna Maria Horner's silhouette idea. Worked like a charm! You stretch fabric over a canvas, paint it with gel medium to sort of seal it and make a smooth surface, transfer or draw on your shape, then use acrylic paint to fill in the outsides. You can see her tutorial here. (This design is based on some Chinese paper cutouts I saw in a book. The purple fabric is this stuff.)
This was a project for my friend's office. (Some of you know who I'm talking about.) She has a little sofa, a desk, a bookshelf, and some naked walls, so I put together a few decorations. Because nobody should have naked walls. Sewed some pillows, found this print on Imagekind, got a cheap frame from Ikea, and made the purple painting to take up some wall space. This Photoshop collage was my test to see if the things would look okay together.
A reader from Kuwait wrote to show me photos from a dinner party that she and her sister organized. The girls invited friends to come, and they all made paper ornaments based on the tutorial I put here. Look at their work! Amazing! To see more photos, visit their blog here (it's in Arabic, but if you can't read it, you can still look at the pictures.) I was thrilled to hear from far-away How About Orange readers. Does anyone else outside the U.S. want to say hello? Leave a comment and mention what country you're from. It would be fun to share where we all are and exchange greetings. (Access to this site is blocked in China. Hello to you anyway, Han and Ming. Miss you!)
Got some time to kill? Go to this site and click the little box at the top of the window. You can read more about the digital sand project right here. Thanks, Rich.
That's what the instructor who gave me four free lessons told me, back when I got a sewing machine for Christmas two years ago. She meant because the needle disrupts the woven threads in the cloth. But I think it's because it makes you want to pull your hair out or shoot yourself. This simple little bag took me hours. I had to rip out seams four times (twice because I accidently sewed part of the bag to itself on the other side; once because I forgot to leave a hole to turn it right side out. Once because I just sewed really crooked.) Somehow I always put the pins in facing the wrong direction. I forgot to match up the pattern at the seams, and I forgot to change my bobbin thread color to match the white lining when I did the topstitching. Next time I'm paying someone to make me a bag. Forget this. (Nothing wrong with the tutorial I used, though. Try it out right here. I made the strap about an inch shorter and made the bag 3 inches deeper.)
Download and print some bookplates for the little ones, created generously by Emily Martin and available for free at CraftSanity. Click here and scroll down a bit to fetch the PDF.
Andy Sargent, fellow orange aficionado from Australia, sent over a link to see his artwork painted on salvaged wood. I like! See more at his site Seven-nine. 
On my desk today, and more attractive and tasty than the fly in the last post, is a yummy glass of iced coffee made with this recipe. My usual method for making iced coffee is to brew some super strong stuff in the drip coffee maker, dump in some sugar, let it cool, and keep it in the fridge. When I want to drink some, I pour half a glass and fill the rest with milk. But the recipe for this one doesn't involve any appliances whatsoever. My verdict: straining the grounds through a coffee filter takes a long time. (In the future I'm making it in a French press.) The resulting coffee has a slightly less acidic, smoother taste. It's really good. (Oh, and I didn't add more water to the concentrated mixture like the recipe instructs. I just added milk. Creamier! And supports the dairy industry!)
This happened just seconds ago. There I was, innocently making teapots in Illustrator, minding my own business, when a giant fly landed on my monitor right in front of my face. My first thought was to squash it, but I didn't want guts on my monitor. My second thought was how funny this looked, and since my camera was right next to me, I took his picture. Just a little window for you into the life of a designer. I will probably delete this post soon because it is disgusting.
I've been wanting to stick some fabric on my walls ever since I saw this project using starch. I figured I should start simple and keep it small in case something went haywire, so here's my experimental door decoration.
I started by sketching out my plan. And then I ignored it when I cut out and assembled my pieces, apparently. I used a disappearing fabric marker to sketch out the shapes on fabric, then cut them out. The thinner the fabric you use, the easier this project is. I used varying weights left over from making pillows (that tan stuff there is canvas, but it still worked).
After cutting out pieces, I laid them out to make sure they looked okay together. Then I used one or two pieces of double stick tape to attach them to the door in the same arrangement.
Somewhere in the middle of the cutting, it occurred to me I should be mixing up the starch and letting it cool off so it's not boiling hot when I want to use it. I used this recipe:
I painted the starch onto the back of the fabric pieces, soaking them thoroughly. After you stick the pieces on the door, smooth more starch onto the fronts of the pieces, squishing out any air bubbles with your fingers. Starch will probably drip onto your floor, so if you've got carpet, protect it with something. When you're done smoothing, wipe off any fugitive drips and let the pieces dry.
When you want to take the design off, just peel off the pieces and wipe off any leftover starch with a damp cloth. Supposedly this will not harm your paint job at all, according to reports from many people online, making this the perfect wall treatment for apartment dwellers.
Just when you were thinking to yourself, "What the heck are high res woodgrain textures good for," here's the answer. Desktop wallpaper! (Which I consider to be the answer for everything, really.) Download this one here.
Download high resolution wood grain photos here.
