d.Sharp Journal

Behold - Funky Lunch Box

Some dear soul spent many an hour carefully cutting out hundreds of images, from Clark Gable to Bourbon Street, and artfully decoupaged them on this metal lunch box. I bought this at her estate, which was overflowing with vintage paper - no kidding, the person running the estate sale told me that there were over 2000 pieces of sheet music alone and they found them all alphabetized. This was $2.00, it called to me.

Drawing from the inside out

This is worth checking out. { Thanks, K.} I wish the eraser tool in Illustrator worked on real hips.

Positive Affirmations

That kid, he might have a future in advertising. I don't know if he saw an Oil of Olay commercial or an advertisement in one of my magazines, but one day M., who is 8, says to me: "Mama your pores must say 'Aahhh!' because they aren't as old as Papa's {your d*mn right they're not}, and Papa's pores must say 'Cool!' because they aren't as old as Grandpa's and Grandpa's pores must say 'Whoopee!' because they aren't 100." I don't know about the two of them, but that makes me feel pretty good.

Shout out!

A good friend dropped off a Brocade Home catalog this past summer and I was immediately smitten. They are a new company owned by Restoration Hardware. I love the modern styling paired with the vintage inspired furniture. Makes me want to paint a room white. { Although it would never work in my house.} They have extraordinary, shapely furniture and beautifully detailed accessories like filigree wall shelves and die cut wool rugs. I love the wall of silhouette plates with the chartreuse fabric.

The furniture is so shapely and graceful. The colorful show ribbons inspired a look on Ebay.

I scored a lot of 1940's - 50's fox hunting ribbons super cheap. The handwritten tags on the back note that most of them were won by Sun Dial Sam. { a pointer maybe?}  They are hanging next to an old painting of a priest I felt compelled to buy a number of years ago because of the sideburns and because he reminds me of a friend from college. { Hey, I am not the only one who says so.}

I want to give a shout out to them as well because of their excellent taste in props! {glitter tiara}

Well, the new fall catalog arrived and I love this banquet settee with the table:

and I really like the prop person, seriously, call me! I'll hook you up.

Alphabet City

Typography kicks ass. That is the name of this site that kicks ass if there were an ass that needed kicking. It is an interactive project created with photographs of found typography from Flickr. You can email a short message to someone and post it on the site. 
Also check out Flickr's one letter pool for more inspiring photographs of type like a, b and c below.

Last summer I am heading to Target before picking up M. at {year-round}school and notice that they are finally really getting to work tearing down the Montgomery Ward Auto Center next door. And there are all of the big fat metal letters sitting there. So.. cue the soundtrack to Sanford and Son.
Some nice guy came down from his cherry picker to say I could have them - so I set to work. This involved having only 45 minutes to tear out both car seats, attempt to stuff ten large metal letters in my station wagon, drive home, unload them, reinstall at least one car seat and then pick up M. at school. Halfway through loading the car the foreman pulls up and asks me what I am doing. Did I not notice that they were actively dismantling the building I was just feet away from? Now, let it be said that this is one of those instances where it helps to be a woman. Any kind of woman. I have found that construction workers are far more willing to bend the rules for you. This is without batting any eyelashes. He even let me come back for the two vowels I had to leave behind. The car was packed, the back windows had letters jutting out of them so that I could at least close the doors and the back of the wagon was up with the hazards on. My husband had been home with C. and had been expecting me to return with stuff like diapers and shampoo. Not me, just working to keep our marriage interesting...now quick help me!

open, read, repeat.

Kids learn through repetition, we all know that. That is why the question "How many times do I have to tell you..?" is probably best unanswered. Kids get in grooves were they want to wear the same thing for two weeks or only eat pink food. Get stuck with the wrong book that they want to mainline through repetition and it can be a pretty long day. There have been a few books that I have been only too happy to return to the library. Books that we have at home are books we are happy to read and read again. One of our favorites is A Hole Is To Dig - A First Book Of First Definitions by Ruth Krauss with pictures by Maurice Sendak. Originally published in 1952, available at this great bookstore.

The end papers make me smile.

I love the friendship of Sendak’s line illustrations with the charming definitions.

Kind of sums things up. Hands are to make things. Children are to love.
Legos are to vacuum up. Books are to read and read again.

On Randomness

I collect a fair few things, one being old books, I have a few old Victorian tomes that are these great mishmash of bits - diagrams of sides of cattle and lamb cozy up next to what to engrave on your beloved’s tombstone which follows a rousing article of conundrums {What does a lawyer do after death? He lies still!}. I love the randomness of it all. Most of these books I collected for the illustrations, one of my favorites is of a dozen hand shadows that an eager learner checked off as they were mastered. Occasionally I will dip into the text and read a bit, some of it a good laugh {um, how to be the perfect wife} and some of it thoughtful. Happy Homes and The Hearts That Make Them or Thrifty People and Why They Thrive published in 1886 begins "The art of living deserves a place among the fine arts... To live happily, the exercise of no small degree of art is required.” The book continues,

Happiness is not, like a large and beautiful gem, so uncommon and rare that all search for it is vain, all efforts to obtain it hopeless; but it consists of a series of smaller and commoner gems, grouped and set together, forming a pleasing and graceful whole. Happiness consists in the enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the common path of life.

    As I started thinking about this journal and what I wanted to do I kept coming back to these volumes as inspiration - each article has its own importance, whether for amusement, etiquette or utility. While I am not the go-to gal for etiquette -{some days you would swear by the stain on my shirt that I drink carbonated coffee.} and I will have to drop the Victorian pretense that I actually know what I am talking about, I would like to make this a place to share a bunch of different things, to gather and arrange a few smaller “gems” if only to remind myself to stop, breathe, enjoy, be grateful. No pearls of wisdom here, but maybe a really great rock when one of my kids finds one.

With that said, I stumbled upon the wonderful Pixiegenne and this fitting video:

Brilliant. Brightened the day.

Well, what am I waiting for? An engraved invitation?

I am so late to this party. I have been an avid reader of many creative blogs over the past few years and have been so inspired by the gang of talent out there. Yet with each ounce of inspiration came a little nudge. Eventually, I just plain caved. I want to do this. So here I go.