d.Sharp Journal

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom - remember ages, oh, 10 through 15, sorry about that.  Love you!

-----------------

Wishing all the other mamas out there a happy day this Sunday.

 

Chanelling my inner Martha.

I moved my studio back home this past winter and settled in, but didn't manage to get it quite as organized as I would have liked.

In the last week though,  if you sat still in my studio long enough I would have put a label on your forehead. I have been an organizing, studio-dandifying force to behold {at least for me}.

In addition to my product orders and few smaller magazine projects, I have been working to make the studio purdy for a photo shoot next week for a brand new magazine.

I created my own labels on the computer. I have so many of these rubbermaid boxes I should have bought stock in the company.

I covered my small file cabinets with fun gift wrap - they are under my long work counter and were black, too dark. Completely frivolous?

Now the challenge will be to stay organized.

#

Eighteen? Words fail.

No, my ears did not deceive me.

C is making loud raspberries while we are in the car.
" You are not only emitting air, you are also emitting spit," says M " please stop."
C stops {eventually} but it took me a while to regain consciousness , I kind of slipped away there upon hearing such a polite request.

Rocks

Here is the rock candy the boys and I made, I was inspired after posting about the rock candy jewelry here.
I followed these instructions and the crystals grew large enough that they ended up encrusting much of the jars as well. Next time I will put them out of M's reach so I won't be wiping up little sugar drops on the counter from fingers being submerged.

A sea of ink

Austin Kleon finds poetry by blacking out words and allowing others to float to the surface. Like these.

I wish my hands could do this. I would settle for even just one hand.

I look at these calligraphy portraits and it is hard to comprehend that a hand could make something so sublime. Aren't they phenomenal?

I  read BibliOddyssey , where I came across these portraits, and wonder how one person can navigate the internet and find so many utterly amazing illustrations and documents and write about them in such an interesting and informative way. One of my favorite blogs and the book is on my wish list.

portraits via BibliOdyssey

The Duke Spirit

Loving this song by The Duke Spirit - The Step and The Walk

Without joy, joy, joy in the rain I could feel forever the same.
Without joy, joy, joy in the rain, yea I could feel forever the same.

Oh my.

I guess I am headed to you-know-where in a handbasket, because this is hilarious to me.

{via fffound}

swashbuckling

Portland has its own Pirate Core band. Weekend before last, my mom took M and I to see The Ghosts of Treasure Island by the Oregon Children's Theater - a mash of Robert Louis Stevenson and pirate rock music by Captain Bogg and Salty. Costumes were encouraged and the auditorium was full of pint size swashbucklers. Luckily, M still had his pirate costume from Halloween before last. 

I am a firm believer in homemade Halloween outfits, also that they are {mostly, if not all} no-sew. Hot glue is my thing, I have the asbestos fingertips for it by now. I made the hat out of nylon backpack type material and all of the clothes were from the thrift store. The ruffle for the front of the shirt was made from the cuffs that were cut off. I also picked up the vintage metallic braid and tassels for the belt at an antique mall. M's peg leg of thick card stock covered in vintage wood grain Contact paper opens and closes with a length of Velcro in the back. I covered one of his rubber rain clogs in the same paper, which peels right off.

M really worked the limp that afternoon. We had great fun - before the show,  kids could Walk the Plank, which was a like a pirate fashion show, complete with an announcer introducing each pirate. The Plank was the catwalk, with waters below filled with shark fins. 

After the show, M had a chance to meet Captain Bogg and say Arrgh.

Thanks again Mom, we had a wonderful afternoon and one that M won't soon forget!

Cutting Corners

Okay, this is my new{to me}favorite idea. I found it in one of my vintage kid craft books and it is so simple - I love it. Clip the lower corners off of envelopes that are destined for the recycling bin and they can be used as bookmarks that simply slip over the corner of the page. {If you seal the envelope the upper corners can be used as well.}

The bookmarks have a bit of room to write a message, like this one{below} - a reminder, perhaps, that I am quickly approaching my Geritol years.

They also work great with magazines, marking out a favorite feature. I like these simple bookmarks for their stealth - I used to use small post-its to mark magazine pages and C would find them and feel compelled to pull every single one out, often ripping pages. These are less likely to attract unwanted attention.

I almost always give books for kid's birthdays and quite often as gifts to adults as well. I  think these could be fun to include as a tag when giving a book, perhaps by re-using the corner of a decorative envelope or making a corner out of decorative paper.

The best ending

I shared my favorite beginning of a book and this is one of my favorite endings:

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

The last lecture.

This book is one that I have on hold at the library. As described by the New York Times:

Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who has terminal pancreatic cancer, has attempted to distill a lifetime of parental advice for his children because he knows he won’t be around to deliver it in person. The result is “The Last Lecture,'’ an inspirational new book that outlines Dr. Pausch’s ideas for achieving one’s childhood dreams.

The book is based on the last lecture he gave his students and the video that has since become an inspiring sensation.{ See here } You can learn more about Randy Pausch and his story here on his journal. Really, an incredibly inspiring man - guided by what I can only describe as the most pure, distilled love for his family, living his life with so much grace.

A few weeks back, the Times held a contest and invited readers to share their best parental advice, either given or received. The responses, all 496,{HERE} were interesting to read through:

I remember muttering a quote from Kurt Vonnegut while holding my newborn boy 30 years ago:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

I also like this:

In trying to teach our two kids that they should ALWAYS do the job right (whatever the job is), we ask them to consider this: if you “don’t have time” to do the job right the first time, how are you going to have time to do it over again (which you will almost certainly have to do)?

You can read a summary of the responses as well as the contest-winning nuggets of wisdom HERE. This is not one of the winners, but it is my favorite - so true:

“You will always be an amateur parent with professional children.”

What is the best advice {parenting or otherwise} that you have received {or have given}?

Bookshelf Menagerie

So clever - Hiroshi Sasagawa transforms the ho-hum book divider into captivating animal silhouettes to populate your shelves. {via ffffound}

Bizarre Books

This looks like a fun read - Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities is an exhaustive list of quirky and unforgettable book titles, including a number excerpts and covers. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover , but the title alone may be entertaining enough. Bizarre Books lists such titles as Correctly English in 100 Days {Shanghai Correctly English Society, 1934} and The Zen of Bowel Movements - A Spiritual Approach to Constipation {Rock House Publishing, 1995} - it also has a chapter dedicated to author names and book titles that are curiously and humorously matched, like Motorcycling for Beginners by Geoff Carless,  Oh! Sex Education! by Mary Breasted and a fruit growing manual by Raymond Bush. Click on the book below to see more.

Behold - Vitalogy

Medical books are a self-diagnosed weakness of mine. This is one of my favorites. It may look familiar, I picked up this 1910 edition at a doctor's estate sale a few years after this came out, whose packaging and booklet was reproduced from a 1920's edition.

Many vintage medical encyclopedias have fold out 'manikins' {as Vitalogy describes them} - these four layers display the brain and neck muscles, the center of the head, the arteries and veins and the principles of Phrenology.

Another manikin, this one a favorite, it keeps opening like a book.

Vitalogy also makes for interesting reading, take this for example:

"Young man, if you want your wife to be as attractive in your sight and as loving toward you after marriage as  before, see to it that you occupy SEPARATE APARTMENTS most of the time."

An illustration demonstrates the physical response from a snake bite. Another warns us of  ' The Greatest Destroyer Of Health, Life And Beauty In The Civilized World ..... The Waist Belt'.

{Oh, how I wish that was the worst of our problems.}

Out of Order

I have seen pictures of this installation, Out of Order, by Laurenz Brunner and Marianne Viero in a number of places including the lovely collection of posts at Found Object, and each time I see it the colors do a number on me. So gorgeous and, I thought, a nice way to wish everyone an equally colorful weekend.

Out of Order #1 is a collection of wall mounted library books with sun-faded back covers that rival a rainbow. Detail below.

 

Book'em.

These bookcases are a pleasure to look at.

Draper's Cabinet, from Sundance.

Opus shelving unit from Sean Yoo, available here.

Vintage shelf by Jaren Goh, info at JG Design. Found via Yatzer.

Pulp Fiction

  Thomas Allen selects the pulpiest of pulp paperbacks and then lovingly slices out a figure from the cover, gently folds it into position, and constructs a witty scene around it.

This looks like a really fun book, available here.

 

Ouch, that bitch slap has gotta hurt.

Pardon my French.

I don't read many novels, more often than not you will find me reading non-fiction. Some novels require a gradual easing into that I just don't have the memory for. Do you know what I mean? With a slow start sometimes it feels like work to keep track of who is who until you are actually interested in the story. Other books grab you right away and you immediately want to spend more time with the characters. I read this book a couple of years ago and it is one my favorite novels, also probably the best opening paragraph ever.

Nine year old Oskar is unforgettable from the first:

I have a nine year old boy and the interest in farting is spot on.

Don't fuck with love

Wonderful pop-up book in this video - you can guess from the title of the song that the lyrics are probably not safe for work.

 

Things I like to find in vintage books.

Handwritten inscriptions or drawings.

Animals in formal clothing.

Dogs.

Illustrations of people exercising, especially partial to boxing.

Games I have never heard of.

I love finding printing mistakes.

Runaway items, surprisingly, I have found quite a few.

 

The Tree of Life

Peter Sis is one of my favorite illustrators, we have a few of his children's books and they are really just so much fun to look at. The Tree of Life is about the life of Charles Darwin.

The endpapers, I am a sucker for those.

The book is written in a way that children can relate to:

"Charles sees things his own way".

Thankfully, Peter Sis does as well and we are treated to these splendid visions.

 

The rest of the posts this week will be about books.

Love this print ad for Anagram Books.

Crazy great.

G and I saw an amazing and hilarious movie this weekend.
Four years ago, I read this article in Vanity Fair and started hoping for the chance to see the movie. As I mentioned in this post, Raiders of the Lost Arc- the Adaptation is by three young kids, starting at age 12, who set out to create a scene by scene remake of the Steven Spielberg original.
Due to copyright, all screenings of the movie are for charity, and we had the opportunity this weekend to see The Adaptation for the Austen Miller Scholarship Fund.The movie itself, while obviously suffering film and sound quality, is unbelievable! What these kids attempted and accomplished,{ by, their own admission, keeping their mothers in the dark as much as possible} is really something to behold. Like Indiana Jones being dragged by a truck or the bad guys being set on fire. Actors going through puberty {and back} in a single scene and {my favorite} Snickers the dog playing the part of a spider monkey and riding around on Marion's shoulder.

Even better, after the screening, two of the filmmakers - Eric Zala and Chris Strompolos - talked a bit about making the film, eventually meeting Spielberg, and answered a few questions. When asked what it is like to watch the original Raiders of the Lost Ark, they explained that for every one time they have seen the original movie they have watched their own at least 100 times with all of the screenings and talks they have given in the past 4 years, so when they do watch the Spielberg classic they say it is a little like watching a big budget remake of their movie.

{Keep your eyes peeled - if there is ever a screening in your city, go!}

Can't hold back.

I know I don't really talk about celebrities {certainly not a Jennifer Lopez fan} and never write about tabloids, but I saw this a few days ago at the checkout and I need to get this off my chest - ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I think part{ not all} of her secret trick to losing 40 pounds might be giving birth to twins.

Bizarre Bazaar

I have a soft spot for vintage pieces with a folk art sensibility -  naive paintings, hand painted signs, kooky things made with bottlecaps and other crafts composed with care, thrift and a sense of mirth. Delighted to look upon the offerings at Odd Fellows Art and Antiques, found via Anonymous Works. Plus, with a name like Odd Fellows, I knew they were kindred spirits - fraternal items have long been fascinating to me, and I have a few items I have collected over the years. I once had the opportunity to help organize a sale for a woman I know that bought an old Odd Fellows lodge - it was quite an adventure going through all the items; they were, after all, odd fellows and that is what is so wonderful.

Gaming Wheel, mid 20th century

Set of three Carnival Sideshow Paintings, circa 1930

Two African American quilts, circa 1930 -1940

OddFellows Ceremonial Axe, front and back, circa 1860

Masonic Tins, circa 1850

All of the photos above from Odd Fellows Art and Antiques , check out more of their incredible offerings here.

On the tip of the Tunng

From the band Tunng, both of these videos are a fun watch.

Dreams of Flying

Dreams of Flying is an ongoing project by photographer Jan Von Holleben -  inspired by classic children's literature  as well as modern superheroes, Jan creates fantastical  photographs with children from his local neighborhood in South West Germany. The photographs touch on the childhood imagination, the capacity to play and childhood memories. See more here.

Dreams of Flying was also issued as a book in 2007, which sold out. Look for a reissue of it in 2008. Even more fun,  Dreams of Flying has inspired children to create their own photographs in which they play the starring role {like those below} and Von Holleben posts them in the gallery here. I wonder what M and C would want to create.

In Living Color

Gorgeous flowers in this spread in Martha Stewart Weddings. I adore monochromatic bouquets - here are a few of my favorites from this feature as well as a couple of small props I made for the shoot { peach wallpaper box and green fan}.