Papercraft Friday 6: Bovey Lee

Bovey Lee is a true storyteller. These images are so striking that I had to keep returning to them in my bookmarks just to take in all the detail. Backbreakingly (and heartbreakingly) lovely work.

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Nuanced, Ambivalent, or Guarded Bumper Stickers

I really do hate bumper stickers, but I think these are so wonderful. I would almost consider sticking one on my car. Almost.

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Propeller Studio - Kawaii!

Looking on some of the stationery I brought back from Japan, I noticed a label I hadn't seen before. Happily, it led me to discover Propeller Studio, which has the cutest designs ever! This guy and the bear make me so happy.



Aren't these just too beautiful? They make me want to jump on a plane for Japan right now.

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Map Inspiration

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The wonderful Desire to Inspire has put up some beautiful images of houses with maps - my favourite! Aren't they just beautiful?

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Honest Scrap Award

The lovely LPC has given me the 'Honest Scrap Award' for my "initiative in starting new things and following through on what I began." This is such a delicious award - I feel really happy to have received it. Thank you.

Initiative can be a tricksy beast. Sometimes I despair at all the projects I have started, letters I have to write, things to learn, chapters to finish. But on the other hand, I know that in the event I finished all my current to-dos, I'd immediately start on the next one! So for now, I'm concentrating on being ok with uncertainty and unfinished-ness: works in progress have to be like that in order to get finished, n'est-ce pas?

So, the award has certain 'requests', as LPC notes, which are as follows:

-Each blogger to whom the award is given must post these rules.
-Each blogger to whom the award is given must list ten random facts/habits about themselves and pass the award on to other recipients.
-The award recipients then need to do the same.
-Don't forget to leave a comment telling the recipients about the award!

In the spirit of not boring you to tears, I'm only going to tell you 4 random things about me - all of which have to do with taking initiative in some way or another:

1. I love stumbling upon furniture in op shops or by the side of the road, and working out how to fit them into my house. Same, of course, goes for clothes in cute op shops.
2. I am finishing my PhD, which is equal parts amazing and gut-wrenching. So it's fair to say that I am more looking forward to having it done than actually doing it at the moment.
3. I like to make things. Anything, really. New things are especially exciting.
4. I have always wanted to write a novel, and I started one this year. It's not very long so far, but I hope to get it written after I hand in my thesis. For now, it's a really fun distraction.

I'd like to pass the award onto Alice, for turning her blog world into "real" writing for various mags and even being interviewed for a podcast! (Edited to say: technological 'isyoos' have gotten in the way of the podcast this time, but I'm sure she'll be there soon.) Her initiative too (and just plain loveliness) is most definitely deserving of such an award.

Racing Swoon

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By the way, I've happily been featured here today, too!

Papercraft Friday 5: Jolis Paons

I am always blown away when paper meets something else, in this case, fashion. Who knew phonebooks would look so good? Jolis Paons did, I guess.All images

Featured in the Etsy Gift Guide!

Hurrah! I noticed this morning that I've been featured in the Etsy Gift Guide - how delicious!

I've been feeling like this lately...

New Stickers

I ordered some new stickers for the shop last week and I thought I'd share. How cute is that owl?!

The Uniform Project

The Uniform Project is where Sheena Matheiken has pledged to wear one dress (eeep!) for a whole 365 days "as an exercise in sustainable fashion" and to raise money for poverty-stricken school kids in India.
So, this woman has amazingly excellent motives and politics - and she also happens to look ridiculously wonderful in all of these shots! I wonder if a uniform could be a very handy way to stop wardrobe dilemmas? I love the way the uniform (she has seven, by the way, so she can stay clean!) is reversible and has deep pockets. Sigh. Pockets are amazing.

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Wallpaper Frames

I have seen this wallpaper (or variations thereof) in some design mags for a while, and I think it looks amazing as a poster, as seen in this picture. Dreamy, huh?

Michael Jackson Remembered

UPDATED: It is perhaps Stephen Metcalf who expresses my sentiments the best:

The falsetto speaking voice, the licorice eyes, hair steam ironed and Zambonied until it was straight. The skin—what? We still don’t know. Bleached? Blanched? Poached? The barely suppressed facial hair. Effacement, defacement, refacement, unfacement. What word could do justice to the creation, out of a perfectly normal human countenance, of the dilapidated faerie mask that MJ’s eventually became? It was as if the slightest concession to the normal human horizon would let in a besieging pain. To substitute for the childhood he never had, he picked, with uncanny accuracy, exactly those things that don’t substitute for an actual childhood. Amusement parks and toys—the placatory devices of the bad parent.

A genius; an angry dancer; a grotesque among grotesques. What to make of Jacksonian America, now that the King himself is dead? An immense and spectacular frenzy; an urgent celebration; the affect of triumph; at its center a derangement; beneath that, in all likelihood, nothing.

Papercraft Friday 4: Richard Sweeney

Richard Sweeney is unlike other paper artists I've seen. It's primarily because his designs don't even look like paper!
These organism-like structures feel weighty and almost as if they have been fossilised. The way these seem to use art and mathematics also reminded me of a beautiful talk about crocheting hyperbolic space.

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And the winner is...

I used the old random number generator found here to work this out - much easier than pulling strips of paper out of a hat!

And the winner is: Hello Sandwich! who wrote:

Hello Kate!
Oh wow what a lovely birthday present this would be!!! It's my birthday on Saturday 27th! :)
So sweet of you to offer a give away to your readers!
Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

I'll contact you Ebony to work out how to send this little pack your way!