Needless to say, I can barely contain my excitement.
Reserve your copy now!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
What I'm loving right now...
1: Hiking through Steer Swamp after the rain.
2: The new season of "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" on the Cartoon Network.
3: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Official Jennsweb Decree: Anyone in political discourse caught longing for/invoking "the good old days" as a call to arms against the new administration shall be locked in a room until they have read the entire book.
4: "Victoria" by The Kinks. (see #3)
5: Cupcakes. They're kinda like rabbits. They seem to multiply when you're not looking and disappear as soon as you get near them.
Thanks Neat-O-Rama!
2: The new season of "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" on the Cartoon Network.
3: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Official Jennsweb Decree: Anyone in political discourse caught longing for/invoking "the good old days" as a call to arms against the new administration shall be locked in a room until they have read the entire book.
4: "Victoria" by The Kinks. (see #3)
5: Cupcakes. They're kinda like rabbits. They seem to multiply when you're not looking and disappear as soon as you get near them.
Thanks Neat-O-Rama!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Site Love: Sticker Mule.com
Stickermule.com I love the way this site is laid out. It's so clean, yet colorful and you can tell in the half-second it takes to read the site title what it's about. Check out their blog too. The flickr badge is "TD4". Just the "visual caffeine" I need for a case of the Mondays.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
First scarf!
2 skeins of medium weight, sort-of-knubly wool or wool/blend, size 8 US needles.
Cast on as many stitches as you want to determine the correct width for a 3+ toddler
Knit as many rows as it takes to use up both skeins.
For extra credit, sew on some big sequins around the ends (3 YO's suggestion)
Friday, December 11, 2009
Cool Site of the Day
Up until 11 am this morning I did not know a thing about Yayoi Kusama. The BBC's Day In Pictures for Dec. 11, 2009 included an image of her work in an auto showroom and I felt compelled to look her up on Wikipedia. Which is where I found her amazing website. Enjoy!
Mainly what I love about this site is the attention to detail. Every feature, the language choice buttons, site navigation and return to the top link, reflects the artists vision in a way that is truly inspiring.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
A Guide to Filtering Facebook Friends
Think about it, does your mom's ex-hairdresser's cousin's lifecoach need to know everything about you? Besides, what if you are sitting across from them right now in a job interview? Then read and bookmark this helpful guide from the NYT to sorting out your friends on a need-to-know basis on Facebook.
Fun With Jane
My anti-holiday-cheer gift to you, a link to 20 Outrageous Sue Sylvester Quotes as determined by Entertainment Weekly (a publication that seems completely enamored with "Glee" and that's, OK). Each one made me laugh and that's saying a lot considering a) I've never seen the show and b) I think I may have what, in polite conversation is called, a "stomach bug".
Enjoy!
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Coolest Thing I Found Today
I was doing a search of house painting stock images and came across this.
It's a doorway somewhere in Paris. I wonder how they got that by the Historical Commission?
It's a doorway somewhere in Paris. I wonder how they got that by the Historical Commission?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
How I found Shame-on Flickr
Dollars5 is always good for a fun tweet and this link to an online display of retro propaganda posters did not disappoint! (thanks Hongkiat.com!)
Looking at the amazing array of pro and anti fascism art reminded me of seeing anti-AIDS posters in Vietnam a few years ago. Usually the tableau depicted was a gigantic condom-shaped warrior waving a sword at a cowering Gollum-like creature. Tried looking for an example on Flickr and came up with this awesome Flickr set which I am linking to just because the idea of creating a photoset that titles the page "Shame on Flickr" makes me smile
Monday, October 19, 2009
Not Your Mama's Fiber Optic Lamp
Any real '80s refugee has a suppressed memory or two involving Spencer's Gifts. My favorite obsession, which continued into early college trips to Boston's Chinatown, was the fiber optic flower lamp which would incandence into a revolving rainbow of hues over and over. These lamps are like the futuristic projections of a bygone era.
(plus, how can I resist passing on two of the best urls I've seen all month?)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
We've Moved!
Only down to about 12 square feet of boxes and a mysterious amount of space left over which I think is a good sign that we got rid of just the right amount of stuff.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Things I learned about Gorillas today
One of the perks of working on the set de-construction for Zookeeper is you get "behind the scenes" access to the exhibits. It's a little surreal looking up from dismantling a streetlight to realize that you are the main attraction for a herd of kangaroos, but it beats "cubicle world".
Went to the Tropical Rainforest exhibit on my coffee break and started talking to one of the gorilla handlers. We found out that:
1. Gorillas will adopt other gorillas' babies.
2. They regurgitate their food so they can digest it better.
3. Their diet is so low in protein that they eat their own poop so they can get as much nutrition as possible.
4. They love parties and opening presents.
5. You can bake a gorilla-digestible birthday cake by substituting ground monkey chow for flour, sugar-free pineapple juice for sugar and frosting it with frozen yogurt. Apparently they cannot digest sugar or fat, so that's why their muscle tone is so amazing.
Oh, and also, I let a capuchin monkey nibble on my earlobe during my afternoon break but don't tell my husband!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Re-Union (Kinda)
Since quitting my "regular job" about 2 years ago, I hadn't set foot in the Park Plaza Hotel. I actually ended up back there for "Zookeeper" at 5am to set up for a big wedding scene. In the five years I worked there I never had reason to set foot in the Imperial Ballroom and it was pretty amazing to see the place. Kind of felt like the ballroom scene in "The Shining". The photo above is what the room looked like from the stage after 11 hours.
I had to get up yesterday morning at 3:45am and I have to say, the lady who works the overnight shift at the Salem Dunkin Donuts is a riot and managed to make me laugh at 4am.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Strange Synchronicity of the Day
Went to a birthday party and while talking to (commiserating) with another mom over the frequency of Laurie Berkner videos on Noggin, I mentioned my surprise at discovering that the Iowa Rapper Story that's been on CNN.com the past few days is about "Leslie" of "RazzleDazzle" fame on "Yo Gabba Gabba". Turns out that mom's husband is the guy who started sending her videos to all his friends and sparked this whole frenzy. Thanks Kras! This story made my Saturday.
In other news...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Um, the BBC needs to check its Adsense...
And, while we're on the subject, can we all agree that Tasers are going to be viewed by our great-grandchildren as a completely barbaric tool that "fell out of fashion" sometime in the early 21st century?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Rebirth of the Cool
I don't know why this title jumped into my head. I've always associated with some half-remembered/half-imagined photo of Miles Davis. Plus, I found some interesting results when I searched the title one of which you can see here. (bonus points if you can actually navigate this site)
Anyway, I've been busy, really busy, but still kind of freaked out when I saw the date of my last post on this blog. Around mid-March, I started to really experience the trickle-down effect of the current economic cluster-F*%k and every day became a dogged hustle for new business. I learned a lot and have tried to keep a positive spin on things. Clients dropped off the radar due to being downsized, others became so pre-occupied with trying to keep their business afloat that they didn't respond to emails asking for feedback on projects. What's a good way to cope with MIA clients? Keep trying to contact them. I kind of feel like a cyber-stalker sometimes, but it's worth it when someone compliments you on being proactive.
What work I did get tended to be labor-intensive and a real exercise in customer service. An email at 6am frantically asking for help in figuring out a webmail dilemma? I'm on it! Wordpress-based site that needed to have 8 mini-sites all utilizing the same stylesheet? No problem, just let me brew another pot of coffee.
So why go back to this now? I guess the main reason is that I felt like I was starting to get stale. Even when the client is a company that makes low-impact stress gaskets for the aluminum packaging industry, I hate to feel like I'm just "phoning it in". Of course, surfing around the web for the latest design news is easy, but unfortunately I suffer from a deep-seated uncertainty of the line between "inspired by" and "slavish ripoff". So, I have been trying to turn away from the monitor and find inspiration elsewhere.
Unfortunately, when I did turn away, what I saw was a big alcove crammed with all kinds of clutter: programming books, cd-holders, project notebooks, binders full of downloaded articles and about 20 different varieties of kids' art supplies. The visual impact was one of messy, paint-splattered, stuff-I-wish-I-had-time-for, chaos.
So, after a week of 14-16 hour workdays, my husband knew it his turn to occupy Chloe for a few hours before mommy started buying Vicodin by the metric ton. I took a good long look at the disaster area and started to do triage. What was going to stay? What needed to be easily accessible? What was unused and creating clutter? I waded in. There was a deep bookshelf that held all my design books, cds and notes. That could go up to Chloe's room to hold toys and games and the contents could go in the shelves on top of the fishtank. The only problem was that removing the shelf exposed a big gap between the tank shelf and the wall that had been hiding 4 boxes of boxing videos (I'm not kidding). Luckily, I had some composite boards from an old enlarger stand that had been dis-assembled and between the boxes and one of the sides, I was able to create a little shelf-table that fit perfectly under the tank and could function as a holder for paint supplies and play-do. I pulled a couple of baskets of toys from upstairs to fill up the gaps and there it was, a bright corner for my daughter to play in that could also hold some non-essentials without clutter!
Anyway, I've been busy, really busy, but still kind of freaked out when I saw the date of my last post on this blog. Around mid-March, I started to really experience the trickle-down effect of the current economic cluster-F*%k and every day became a dogged hustle for new business. I learned a lot and have tried to keep a positive spin on things. Clients dropped off the radar due to being downsized, others became so pre-occupied with trying to keep their business afloat that they didn't respond to emails asking for feedback on projects. What's a good way to cope with MIA clients? Keep trying to contact them. I kind of feel like a cyber-stalker sometimes, but it's worth it when someone compliments you on being proactive.
What work I did get tended to be labor-intensive and a real exercise in customer service. An email at 6am frantically asking for help in figuring out a webmail dilemma? I'm on it! Wordpress-based site that needed to have 8 mini-sites all utilizing the same stylesheet? No problem, just let me brew another pot of coffee.
So why go back to this now? I guess the main reason is that I felt like I was starting to get stale. Even when the client is a company that makes low-impact stress gaskets for the aluminum packaging industry, I hate to feel like I'm just "phoning it in". Of course, surfing around the web for the latest design news is easy, but unfortunately I suffer from a deep-seated uncertainty of the line between "inspired by" and "slavish ripoff". So, I have been trying to turn away from the monitor and find inspiration elsewhere.
Unfortunately, when I did turn away, what I saw was a big alcove crammed with all kinds of clutter: programming books, cd-holders, project notebooks, binders full of downloaded articles and about 20 different varieties of kids' art supplies. The visual impact was one of messy, paint-splattered, stuff-I-wish-I-had-time-for, chaos.
So, after a week of 14-16 hour workdays, my husband knew it his turn to occupy Chloe for a few hours before mommy started buying Vicodin by the metric ton. I took a good long look at the disaster area and started to do triage. What was going to stay? What needed to be easily accessible? What was unused and creating clutter? I waded in. There was a deep bookshelf that held all my design books, cds and notes. That could go up to Chloe's room to hold toys and games and the contents could go in the shelves on top of the fishtank. The only problem was that removing the shelf exposed a big gap between the tank shelf and the wall that had been hiding 4 boxes of boxing videos (I'm not kidding). Luckily, I had some composite boards from an old enlarger stand that had been dis-assembled and between the boxes and one of the sides, I was able to create a little shelf-table that fit perfectly under the tank and could function as a holder for paint supplies and play-do. I pulled a couple of baskets of toys from upstairs to fill up the gaps and there it was, a bright corner for my daughter to play in that could also hold some non-essentials without clutter!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
What IS in DJ Lance's bag?
I've often wondered who the geniuses are behind Yo Gabba Gabba, a Nick Jr. feature that makes up for the sensual assault of shows such as "Toot and Puddle" and "Pinky Dinky Doo". And now I know! They have a blog! It's awesome, go add to your blogroll right NOW.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Pregnancy 2.0
Widgetbox has some cool widgets to track the progress of your own little "widget".
BTW, if you are looking for a fun way to share the news...
BTW, if you are looking for a fun way to share the news...
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