I love calendars

It’s my favorite time of year. Not for the reasons you might think (although I do enjoy the vivid colors of Autumn and pumpkin bread is quite delish). October is when I start seeking out my calendars for next year. In my dinning/living room area I have been hanging a Stendig calendar for many years now. It’s big, it’s bold and I love the typography. They sell them over on Crate and Barrel’s Website.

In the bedroom I’ve been hanging the big Snow and Graham calendar for a couple of years now. I do like their patterns.

There are lots of lovely calendars being sold on Etsy. Some of the ones I liked this year are already sold out. So if you want any of these, you may want to order soon. This first one is from Saddle Stitch Studio. My favorite pattern is February, but I’ve got an ex-coworker who would love June.

The next calendar is from Two Hand Design. It has beautiful patterns that were carved into linoleum blocks and then letterpress printed.

A Little Hut’s calendar has abstract patterns die-cut into the paper with a small part of each pattern printed in a color. Very cool.

Cicada Studio has 2 lovely tea towel wall hanging calendars for 2010. I like this one (called Queen Anne’s Lace) the best.

And this last one is not sold on Etsy (at least I don’t think it is). Egg Press does some very fun work. I’m a fan of their cards which I’ve seen sold at The Paper Source. Their desktop calendar for 2010 has not only interesting abstract patterns but for each month they make use of both sides of the card. So the back features a complimentary pattern, lists some major holidays, and has an area for you to write your own days to remember for the month.

 

My Little Pony Action Figures

Oh lord, it’s amazing what you’ll find out on the Net. I’m not a fan of “My Little Pony” and I’m not into comic book super heroes (with a few exceptions) but put the 2 together and you get some pretty funny results (and let’s face it, they are pretty awesome).

CATWOMAN

PRINCESS LEIA

HAN SOLO IN CARBONITE (how fab!)

And I was psyched to see that someone had done versions of characters from “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog“.

DR. HORRIBLE

CAPTAIN HAMMER

Now all they need is a version of Penny to make the Dr. Horrble set complete. There are more examples and a more info on these at comicsalliance.com.

Paperclip lampshades

I have pretty fond memories of spending time as a kid hanging out in my mother’s office. I busied myself with whatever I could find. I loved to link paperclips together (much to the annoyance of everyone working there). So when I saw these lampshades, I couldn’t help but post them here. Yes, these are made from paperclips!

They don’t really provide much “shade”, but they cast cool shadows on the walls.

You can find these for sale on Etsy at ReDesign Technologies‘ shop.

(Via Mint)

Hotline typographic video

I adore these kinds of videos. A designer comes along and represents the audio with type (one of the best ones I’ve seen done was of a speech from Pulp Fiction: CAUTION the language is not office-friendly). This one is illustrating a fictional automated answer for a mental health hotline. Very clever.

(Via Share Some Candy)

The ultimate mixed tape

This is a very cute idea. I don’t think I’d pay $45 for it, but still. The folks at Contexture Design are selling these iPod Nano cases made from old cassette tapes. Looks like they fit the 4th gen Nanos. Very fun. Probably not too difficult to do yourself. Now where did I leave my old tapes?

(via SwissMiss)

Cup ‘o doodles

I like to doodle. I am lousy at illustration, but I do like to scrawl endless patterns on my notebooks (especially during long meetings). And I also like to scratch patterns on styrofoam cups. So when I came across this illustrator’s work, I was smitten. Meet Cheeming Boey, he likes to “doodle” on styrofoam cups and his work is terrific.

I wish I could doodle like that. Read more about him here. And he’s got tons of pictures of his cups on Flickr.

(via design work life)

Tim Bjørn: Handpainted sign

This made me do a double-take. This beauty is a handpainted sign with custom typography that was designed and drawn by Tim Bjørn. He designed it for the Mademe Madsen shop in Denmark that specializes in home decor. More pictures of the project below.

I discovered this project on yet another excellent design blog called design work life; which I plan to check out often.

Sandali: sandals from Israel

So if you haven’t guessed by now, I love sandals. And this summer I’ve been on a major sandal-quest. Recently I was going through Etsy and I came across Sandali. This shop is located in Tel-Aviv and they sell a nice range of beautifully-crafted leather sandals that are very affordable. I bought the pair shown above (the Plain Zing) for $40 (plus shipping, which wasn’t bad). My experience with Sandali was great. The seller emailed me several times on the status of the order. I received my sandals this morning (exactly 2 weeks after I ordered them, which is about the time it normally takes). The wait was worth it. The sandals really are both cute, different and comfortable. I was surprised to find that they actually have some arch support. The soles are flexible and the toe part did not bother me at all (some sandals cut my feet up if they go between my toes). The leather is beautiful and the sandals are well made. I wore them all day and had no “breaking in” period necessary. The sizing seems right, I wear between a 6 or a 6.5 shoe and the size 37 fit just right.

I highly recommend this Etsy seller (they sell men’s styles and some for children, too). I’ve already got my eye on another one of their sandals.

None of your business cards

I thought this was a cute idea for a self-promotion piece for a design firm. These sheets have perforated contact cards that you can tear out and use. Each card has a fake name and phone number. The idea is to give them out when you don’t want to be contacted. So the cards have names on them like: “Kheel Menow” set against the image of a razor blade or “Xavier Self” set against the sun’s rays and a cloud. They are designed by Mauseth Design and they call them “None of Your Business Cards”.

I saw this project featured on Studio on Fire’s blog, Beast Pieces. They are the company that printed the cards and their blog highlights beautiful letterpress work that they do. I like visiting their blog.

Too funny

So I’m going through some of my favorite blogs and design sites this morning and I come across this image on Design*Sponge from their profile on Lisa Mayock. The bedroom is not really my taste (although I love french doors and long billowy curtains), but what instantly caught my eye was the poster above the bed. Read the headline. Yes, I’m being childish, but it did make me giggle and I wanted to share.