Archive for August, 2007
according to my four year old:
me: … and *blahblahblah* happened a long time ago.
her: when? how long ago? yesterday?
me: no, a long, looooong time ago.
her: before the dinosaurs?
me: (laughs) well, no, not before the dinosaurs.
her: before pirates?
me: (laughs again) yes, before pirates. At some point in between the dinosaurs and the pirates.
We have this same conversation almost constantly. I realize that children have no sense of time, especially on such a grand scale as hundreds of thousands of years ago. 
But it seems her only frame of reference is either today, yesterday, dinosaur time, or pirate time. Which, really, may not be a bad way to look at it all.
August 31st, 2007
It’s a sad, sad fact of life that there are not nearly as many cute/cool clothes for little boys as there are for girls. But, despite this fact, little boys must still be clothed and shod (heh, I accidentally typed “shot” there!). The clothes problem can be gotten around, with jeans and a funky t-shirt. The shoes are another issue — little boys can only wear Chuck Taylors for most of their lives, but eventually they’ll need something a little less skate. And the solution is… See Kai Run shoes. They have that Euro design influence, crossed with a bit of bowling shoe charm. But none of the bowling shoe public fungi.
(um, yes, I do realize that the middle pair are not boys’ shoes, but they were too cute not to include!)
August 30th, 2007
It is an immutable law of physics that one cannot — CANNOT — have too much storage where children are concerned. Completely physically impossible. Because, no matter how many bins, cubbies and hooks you have, their stuff will somehow grow to outnumber even your finest organizing skills.
And so I continually search for cute and/or cool storage. My current obsession is with hooks… mostly because it’s one of the few things my children will actually do for themselves. Ask them to pick up three Legos and put them in a bin? Impossible. But they always seem to be able to hang up a backpack on a hook.
My most lusted-after hook system is, of course, the Eames Hang-It-All. But, as much as I love Charles and Ray Eames, I can’t bring myself to spend $150 on hooks. And so my current second choice is this Movable Peg Hanger from Garnet Hill. It looks like so much fun… both a toy AND hooks!
(thanks to Katy for the link!)
August 29th, 2007
A big happy birthday to Paul Reubens, creator of not only one of my very favorite movies, but also one of my favorite tv shows ever.
Mekka-lekka hai, mekka hiney ho…
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August 27th, 2007
I thought that the best thing about today would be the fact that Grandma took my two youngest kids for the day, so that I could have a few uninterrupted hours to eat chips and watch HGTV work on the 500 projects I’m behind on.
Then I opened my g-mail and, lo and behold, there was a message there from John Hodgman. Yep, that John Hodgman. Mr. Resident Expert on the Daily Show. Mr. “I’m a PC” from the Mac ads. He’s one of my heroes… not only do I love his sense of humor, but anyone who can write a work of fiction, without the bother of having to work out a plot has to be a genius of the highest order.
I’d e-mailed him about this adult toy blurb from Daily Candy that referenced him. He deemed it both “very disturbing and very awesome. Awesturbing…”
Awesturbing, indeed.
August 27th, 2007
I’ve concocted a mid-year resolution to buy more art for my kids. And one of my recent favorite finds are these alphabet cards from Smack of Jellyfish. Either set along a picture ledge, or perhaps matted into one big frame…
August 24th, 2007
If you run a newspaper, and you *finally* make it to the year 1995 and get yourself a website, I have a spectacular piece of advice for you…
After you get all done swooshing up your masthead for the web, you might then work on including your contact information somewhere. Anywhere. Any sort of a bit of contact information — address, phone, maybe even that thing called the electronic mail. Because people just may want to get a hold of you sometime… I know it sounds crazy, but you just never know.
August 23rd, 2007
So I know you all hear the words, “I’m a graphic designer,” and think, “WHOA! that sounds like just about the most fascinating job I’ve ever heard.” But it’s not. In fact, most of our time is not spent on the fancy earth-shattering designs with the oh-so witty concept. Most of the time we’re just slogging away at crap jobs, a big part of which is trying to track down all the stupid shit important information we need to finish some exceptionally boring brochure. Mundane things like photos of Important Business Man Number One shaking hands with Important Business Man Number Two, while they both pose awkwardly for the camera. Or some logo that a company has been using for 20 years, yet no one seems to have a usable electronic copy.
I say this all as a preface to the incredibly rare thing that happened to me today. I needed a logo for a project. People were not forthcoming with said logo. On a lark, I sent it through What the Font?! and, lo and behold, it was just a font! And, even better, the font was free. FREE! FREE FONT! AND NOT SOME DIPWEED ONE LIKE COMIC SANS. ONE THAT I ACTUALLY NEEDED!
WHY AM I YELLING? BECAUSE THIS… NEVER… HAPPENS. Never. Ever. Not in real design life anyway. Somebody pinch me.
August 22nd, 2007
So, did everyone tune in to Yo Gabba Gabba! yesterday? We had to, if only in deference to what looked to be a half-hour of crazy Krofft-inspired mania.
And mania it delivered. Lots of bright colors, lots of funky music, lots of crazy monster-like characters. But still, I was afraid the kids (growing up in this “just say no” era) wouldn’t take to it, but it seemed to go over well.
Really though, how could something that involves both Biz Markie AND Mark Mothersbaugh *not* go over well!?
August 21st, 2007
So two of my favorite things: Threadless and Blik wall decals have gotten together and formed these cool little bastard children stickers for your walls. I’m especially loving Happy Creatures, somewhat because, and somewhat in spite of the fact that it’s a bit of a Genevieve Gauckler rip-off.
Still, if Genevieve won’t make stickers for our playroom wall, I guess these just might have to do…
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August 20th, 2007
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