Happy Birthday

LOVE these birthday cards!! Probably because I love elephants (and frogs) so much. And check out these envelopes.

More Rooms

I love the color of Eleanor Rosch’s kitchen - of push me pull you.


And here's an interesting (interesting in a good way) room from French designer Emma Cassi. I've been looking online to find creative ways to hang and frame prints, and like the shape of the frame above the fireplace.

Yellow

This happy little yellow print and modern red print are from Papermoth on Etsy. The yellow one is simple, but with a nice beige matte and a light colored wood frame I think it would brighten up any room. I like the bold pattern of the red print.

Rehabilitated Dishes

Sarah Cihat buys used dishware from secondhand stores such as the Salvation Army, and then reglazes and refires them. This is her "subtle statement of the importance of recycling and the renewed value of unwanted things." Very very cool. I love designers who reuse things.

Fabric and Hippos

These Clive + Sunshine animals from Rose and Radish are custom made by Jennifer Muskopf, and she can even make one of these using a treasured piece of fabric (from your childhood blanket or your mom's old blouse). I like the hippo best. I like these because they remind me a great baby gift I recently gave my friend Kate's baby Olive. It was a Noah's ark set I picked up at a market in Kampala, Uganda, all handmade from fabric, complete with twin sets of giraffes, lions, hippos...really cute. I liked it so much, I kept it at home for a year before finally giving it away.

Little Women

I found these quirky prints by way of Esty, from a woman named Laura George. These 8" x 10" prints are drawn by hand with ink and then colored digitally using a graphics tablet. And very reasonable, at $20 each.

Photography Helps People To See

Ohhh this fab print of a vintage Kodak Duaflex II is by Citrus Tree from Esty ...and at $20 a total bargain! The artist is having a buy two, get one free sale on his prints. So go get em'.

Glass Bottles

These bottles were designed by Tapio Wirkkala in 1968, and employs the "Incalmo" technique wherein two different types of glass, worked separately, are fused together to obtain, within a single object, separate areas differentiated by colors. From Moss. And sadly over $8,000. I found some similar glass here in Jakarta, for what now seems a reasonable $90...

Vintage Camera

Ohhh this super cool print of a vintage Kodak Duaflex II is by Citrus Tree from Esty ...and at $20 a total bargain! The artist is even having a buy two, get one free sale on his prints

Coral Throw

This is a very pretty Essma Wool Throw with Cotton Coral Design Embroidery, from Allegra Hicks. What does one do with a 'throw' anyways, or is that just a fancy term for a blanket? And if yes, isn't it too pretty to sleep under? Hummm...

These bottles were designed by Tapio Wirkkala in 1968, and employs the "Incalmo" technique wherein two different types of glass, worked separately, are fused together to obtain, within a single object, separate areas differentiated by colors. From Moss. And sadly over $8,000. I found some similar glass here in Jakarta, for what now seems a reasonable $90...

Hula

I love these glasses. From Fish Eddy, whose products you will be seeing a lot more of in these coming posts.

Green

Thanks, Ken Orvidas for this cool illustration from the New York Times. That's all I have to say.

Meet Moi

Thats my little brother, who is the co-founder of a really neat mobile dating service, Meet Moi. With MeetMoi, computers are left behind and people connect while on the go. So whether you are at a bar, an office, or a restaurant, you can open your cell phones and use MeetMoi to browse, chat, flirt, and meet people near you. Using groundbreaking technology, MeetMoi looks for people in a specified location and helps its users find local matches.

If you don't believe me about how cool this all is, check out what the press (such as the Wall Street Journal, ABC News and the Today Show) has to say about Meet Moi here.

Birds

I would be happy to see this beautiful print or neat painting hanging in my home. From Three Potato Four, and some other website I forgot. Sorry about that.
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(And in case you forgot your fourth grade animal physiology, birds are NOT mammals. Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, endothermic (warm-blooded), vertebrate animals that lay eggs).

Sudden Flowers

My friend Eric has been working in Ethiopia for nearly 9 years on a number of documentary projects with children affected by HIV/AIDS. One of my favorite of his projects was a video about the 1st Annual AIDS Orphans Comedy Festival (2006). A still from the video is below. To check out more of his projects see the production company Sudden Flowers or The Work of Eric Gottesman and His Collaborators.

Wolanani

These paper mache 'fishbowls' are made by the Wola Nani project in Cape Town, South Africa. The project helps provide an income to women living with HIV. If you are in South Africa, definitely stop by one of their shops. I have about 5 of these fantastic bowls.

Bhutan

In December my mom and I went to Bhutan. Don't feel stupid if you aren't sure where Bhutan is - its a pretty small country. Here it is on a map.

Bhutan is the only country in the world with a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index - an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicator. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.

Below is one of my favorite photos from Bhutan, of a Layap woman. Layap are an indigenous people inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan, with a population of around 800 people.

Bateyes

A few years ago, I spent time in the Dominican Republic working to increase access to HIV/AIDS treatment for poor Haitians living on former sugar caning plantations, called Bateyes. The poverty there rivaled poverty I have seen in much less touristed-countries. But thats really true of much of the Caribbean.

You can learn more about the batyes and HIV/AIDS here in Jon Cohen's article in Science magazine, or here in a Human Rights Watch photo essay. Below, some of the women I met.

Birds

I would be happy to see this beautiful print or neat painting hanging in my home. From Three Potato Four, and some other website I forgot. Sorry about that.
.

(And in case you forgot your fourth grade animal physiology, birds are NOT mammals. Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, endothermic (warm-blooded), vertebrate animals that lay eggs).

Typewriters

My friend Beth pointed out how cool old typewriters like this one here are. I agree. From Three Potato Four.

School Maps

A friend of mine (Hi, James) has a fantastic old Africa school map hanging in his foyer. I tried to buy one on Ebay, but I couldn't get the whole time-it-so-you-beat-the-other-person's-price thing right. And now I can't find another online that I like nearly as much. But this science map which I ran across on Three Potato Four is pretty neat.

Color Makes Me Happy

I love the colorful, whimsical look of these rooms.



From the Domino Decorating Contest

A Scandal in Bohemia

In Singapore, we ate at a Mexican restaurant called Montezuma at Clarke Quay, and they put our margaritas on these neat Frida Kahlo coasters. Nevermind if you turned them over there was an advert for Budwiser. I got about 12 of these coasters from the confused waiter, and intend to shrink wrap them or whatever it is called when you coat paper with a plastic covering.

Love these letterpress printed coasters. Thanks Green Chair Press."With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner." And so Holmes invites Dr. Watson to sit down to hear the tale of "A Scandal in Bohemia."

Tin Cans

Some of you may know about my collection of tin cans. This came from moving to Asia, and discovering that both a number of the offered food items that come in a tin can ('Peanuts Soup' or Dutch Chocolate Chips) as well as the actual can design, combines to make one visually interesting home decoration.

Orwell

I find this image beautiful. Maybe I mean intriguing. Or maybe I just like the clean lines. It is by an artist named Stefanie Posavec, who uses craft and design to understand the symbolic and representative nature of maps.

African Barbershop Signs

If you have been to West Africa (or Kenya), you may recognize these colorful and creative signs usually hung outside barbershops (and shops selling other goods - not really sure what some of these are indicating to potential customers, though - a Christian hardware store?). I love the ones that look aged, but you can also visit one of the informal sign stands and commission a sign to your liking. Then beat it up to make it look old.

I brought two home from Ghana in 2004 and hope to purchase some more next time I'm in the region.

The Couch. If I Were Rich.

This couch from ditte sofa is awesome. Unfortunately, it is also $3498.


Thanks Design*Sponge for the link.

I Love Julia

A designer I just stumbled upon is Julia Rothman. She has the most funky designs that seemed familiar to me. Then I realized its because she designs (I think) for Urban Outfitters and Anthropolgie, which stuff I usually wish I owned. Here are some of my favorites:


And this one:


And this:


Just one more: