I love Studio Ghibli, as any self-respecting gal with an interest in illustration and animation would. The Japanese studio that brought us Totoro, Spirited Away and most recently (my favourite) Ponyo is branching out into video games!
To my mind, it is an incredibly natural progression. Their first outing (in collaboration with Level 5 – who makes the Professor Layton games, which I have heard nothing but good things about) is Ninokuni, a RPG for the DS and (thank goodness!) Playstation 3.
Fingers crossed for a timely North American release people!
Liam has a white collar job now, so he gets to dress up to go work, which we are both enjoying. He’s been hunting for bowties, specifically, but are they ever hard to find!
I would buy him one of each of these! They are so very pretty! I especially love the colours in the fat-striped, linen one.
There is pretty much nothing I love more in the world than the French nautical look. I own way too many horizontally striped tops.
But I didn’t realise there was actually an original company (Saint James) that still makes the same sweaters as worn by turn-of-the-century french seamen.
So now a Saint James Breton style sweater is going to the top of my wish list. They are a little dear, so it will probably stay at the top of my wish list for a while, but they are so classic and well made, I bet it would be worth the expense.
Here in Ontario, owning a vacation home is actually quite commonplace, and not as hoity-toity and well-to-do as it is other places… or at least it was anyway. It’s becoming very dear and expensive these days, with our ever raising real estate.
So, even though my extended family shares a cottage, I dream of having our own little place someday, that’s just ours. Someplace I don’t have to worry about taking from or adding to in any way, or cleaning up when I leave it.
I’d like to buy an shiny old airstream, and refurbish it. I’d kit the thing out adorably. I’d put old quilts and army blankets on the beds. I’d collect pretty old plates and mugs for the kitchen. I’d spread one of my vintage tablecloths on the little table in the eating nook. I’d build a little deck under a striped awning, and plant geraniums in little window boxes.
Ideally it’d it’d be entirely self-sufficient too (solar power and all that stuff).
Then I’d rent a far corner of a farmers field (preferably next to some kind of body of water – a little creek would do nicely) and park it there.
It would be so lovely.
There’s more examples of lovely little vintage trailers on poppytalk and love forever.
Yeah, I’m a sucker for bright colours being splashed about. So are most human beings (with the exception of those poor suckers who happen to be colour blind) which is why Dulux’s “Let’s Colour” project is so neat.
I’ve never had a proper shaved ice before, but this New York Times article makes them sound amazing! I’m not a fan of the unitasker, but it makes me want a shaved ice machine.
All the crazy flavours sound like my kinda heaven heaven!
They’d be so good for summer barbeques – those beautiful, vivid syrups poured over sparkling ice are so pretty and impressive looking – but really, the whole process sounds quite easy – make a syrup, shave some ice. Easy and impressive, perfect for summer entertaining!
This killer example of mid century graphic design (along with many others) was found and documented by London Underground workers in an long abandoned part of the Notting Hill Tube station in London.
I love that the patina of age and neglect has only added to this poster.
There’s more amazing treasures from the past to be found in the set on flickr.
Now I bet you’re wondering, how best to celebrate this wonderful holiday?
Well, you should check out the lovely illustrator Rosemary Travale‘s Captain Picard Day blog! She’ll be posting art all week long, including a little something by yours truly. I’m pretty honoured to be able to participate, as Jean-Luc is definitely my favourite Star Ship Captain.
For some reason, I have been of recent far more attracted to discussions of men’s fashions than women’s.
There is far more tradition to the way a man dresses. Far more comfort, quality and thought.
I think I’m finding that men’s fashion is more about functional and beautiful design, where women’s fashion is about fickle and artificial trends.
I am definitely the kind of person who is more drawn to design over trends. Classic style, over momentary cachet.
White cotton t-shirts. Navy pea-coats. Tweed jackets with leather elbow patches. Oxfords. That sort of thing.
So, I highly recommend the blog Put This On. It is an in-depth look at the intricacies of dressing like a grown up male. This is an example of a particularly good post.
The author espouses some pretty strict rules for dressing sometimes, and I don’t agree with him all the time, but like many things in the design world (typography certainly comes to mind) they are good rules to keep in mind when beginning on a journey to bettering yourself (sartorially). Once you understand the rules, you can go ahead and break them.
I love girlhurla (aka Andrea, aka Ward-o-matics lovely wife). I love her blog, I love her lighthearted outlook on life, I love her style, I love her photography… But most of all I love the colours she uses in her images. Soft, saturated, sun-faded vintage tones I just want to snuggle up to and nap in forever.
This sketch turned out much better, I think. I’m pretty happy with it, for once.
I tried blotting out the bleeding ink with a wet towel, which just ended up making the lines a bit fuzzy… So I gave in and just used my Tria markers.
I was worried it would look funny, since I don’t have any grays, but the grayish tones I got from combining pastels turned out to look the nicest, I think.
Altogether, it looks effortless, not like a mistake. Hopefully now that I’ve figured out a style for these things, they’ll all look at least this polished from now on.
I was never terribly interested in the handbags themselves, but I have always loved the branding of Kate Spade. When they launched their clothing line a year or two ago, I began to love them even more. Oh, to be rich enough to afford it, though!
I think the line is perfectly edited – everything co-ordinates and works together as a whole. This season bright, jewel-toned colours are mixed and matched expertly with a vintage, sixties silhouettes, which is pumped up by a whimsical touch of naive patterns and estate-jewelery-style embellishments.
Thankfully, I think it’s a look that can be recreated with basics and vintage pieces from elsewhere. Although you have to be careful – there’s a fine line in between suburban housewife and Spade’s freewheeling, bohemian socialite. It’s easy to accidentally fall on the soccer mom side of things.
Vivian on 
