today's terrarium

Crate & Barrel had really adorable cheap butter dishes that I thought would be perfect for a tiny terrarium. Surprise, they are!



My succulent plants are the only things that are thriving outside- could it be because I never, ever do anything with them but clip them occasionally to plant the cuttings and watch them proliferate?



Nico is helping! Yeah right.

Jessica Swift rain boots

Cue girlish squeals! I am soooooooo excited about Jessica Swift's rain boot line coming out! I get her regular email updates and have been watching her Kickstarter page get closer and closer to her goal and voila! It's happened!



Her patterns are super fun, colorful, bright (just like her paintings) and I just love them. Sadly (kind of), we don't get much rain here in sunny San Diego, so buying rain boots isn't exactly the most USEFUL way I could spend my money, but it's one of the funnest!

I think what finally got me to realize that drooling over the wonderfulness of the boot project wasn't going to get me merrily clomping around in a pair was when she kept blogging about painting and being inspired just by getting off the computer and into the studio. I particularly liked the pink whale painting:


I knew that this pattern-making spunky lady of the South is a woman after my own heart and I must, simply must, get a pair of these boots. I eagerly anticipate the next chance of showers (a.k.a. marine layer threatening to spit about a half inch) so I can throw on my bright yellow raincoat and splash around in the "puddles".



You can help too! She's reached her goal, which GUARANTEES that the boots are soon to be a reality! Pledge any amount, and $100+ means you get AT LEAST one pair of your choosing (I'm having a hard time deciding) and larger pledges = more swag! Plus, the more money she gets, the more patterns she can release from the start, so get your friends over there too via Twitter, Facebook, or one of the badges available on her site!

This is a total sales pitch, but whatever. I'm just stoked to see talented ladies pull up their bootstraps and get it dooooooone.

Fort Day

As you can see, I've been completing many important projects recently.

Knitting Narwhals!

Knitting Narwhals!

SadlyHarmless at Etsy

paper frames

for an el cheapo like me, these are awesome!

today

i've been swamped. here's a colorful design sponge post that i love and can't beat.

mustache by font

I'll admit, I got a little carried away when the whole mustache craze really took off, and why not? They're funny and if properly used, hysterical with irony. However, it's gotten a bit out of proportion with fingerstaches and the high number of handlebars now being sported by men under the age of 60, but this handy guide to mustaches by font is still pretty funny and clever.

You can also download different sizes here from wit + delight.

Andrew Holder

What is it with this guy? I swear, I hadn't heard of this local artist until about a month ago, and now I see him EVERYWHERE. I even saw his work on a local retailer American Express door sticker for stores in San Diego! Obviously his work is super hot right now, in San Diego and beyond. His simple use of shapes and more complex use of color palletes represent his ideas in unique, fun, fresh, and contemporary ways. These are all pretty generic terms, but his work is anything but. Today he's the featured artist on Tiny Showcase, and the charity he has selected is WiLDCOAST, which "works to protect and preserve coastal ecosystems and wildlife in the Californias and Latin America by building grassroots support, conducting media campaigns and establishing protected areas. $250 dollars from the sale of his artwork will be donated to the organization." (tinyshowcase.com) The print pictured above is available for $20, and is a series of 200.

His website is phenomenal, and I'm hoping that I'll have the opportunity to see more of his work for many years to come. Here's a few of my favorites below. Enjoy!

The illustration for American Express


Memories of the Desert, 12.5" x 6", mixed media on vintage paper


Jelly Fish, 11" x 30", 6 color screen print on hand painted paper artists edition of 10



Owls, An ongoing series of owls on vintage slides


Trophy Deer Heads, personal project

Adam Juresko + Catcher in the Rye = Making Richmond proud

First the Penguin clothbound classics by Coralie Bickford Smith, and now this. Newly vamped book covers are a hot design trend, and I am super stoked to see a Richmond not-so underground art powerhouse making his mark in the literary world as well.



Adam Juresko has long been a figure in the Richmond art scene, and I have to say I am extremely pleased with his newer works and the direction in which he's headed. I've always been a fan of his collages and paintings, and to see his work take a more tightly-knit focused approach to layering paper and assemblage techniques is way exciting, to say the least. Even from across the country it's apparent that he's headed for big things, and I'm sure this won't be the last we hear of him.

Not to mention Catcher in the Rye is a badass book. Nice first choice!

Fingerprint rings

I'm guessing getting engaged, going to a wedding, and picking out wedding rings keeps that particular item of jewelry on the mind, so today I would like to share one of my recent finds that I think would be a totally awesome wedding ring option.

Fingerprint rings by Etsy seller fabuluster are a great way to say I do while keeping a unique momento to commemorate the union. Apparently, via Kaboom this is the latest Etsy trend, but I'm sure by next week Etsy will have come out with some other totally awesome and unique rings for me to pine over.