happy holidays

Our holiday card, personal message by myself and design by Old Tom Foolery.

I am giving myself a nice little holiday break this week, and I hope all of you can do the same! It has been a busy, busy past six months - I have moved from Cleveland to NYC to Cleveland to Brooklyn to Boston and soon back to Cleveland - and with the new year comes the stresses of job hunting and yet another move, city TBD. My Honda Fit has been a champion through this whole thing - it's like a Chinese takeout box, you don't think there is much room and suddenly you've got an entire apartment full of stuff crammed inside it.

{ dv } will return next week!

holiday: alexander girard nativity set

So, I'm not religious by any means, but I was raised Catholic and it always troubled me how joyless nativity scenes looked. I mean, c'mon, your savior is being born! This Alexander Girard nativity set is everything that I think the [religious Christian] holiday should look like, and it would look swell under the tree, too.

holiday: DIY food gifts

Recession or no recession, I am always appreciative of a thoughtful, low-cost handmade gift. I know cookies are a holiday food staple, but why not make it more personal? Tweaking the following gift ideas would make wonderful, useful gifts for any admirer of lover and/or cooking: DIY herb arrangement, flavored sugars and salts and homemade caramels (or another specific well-loved treat).

I love it when I get something from someone that says, "Perhaps you don't think I pay attention to all the little details of your life, but I totally do" - like when my friend Richie bought me the best poster ever (lower left): a Decemberists poster (favourite band) that was black (favourite color), silkscreened (well-loved activity) and had both a pirate ship (because pirates will always be amazing) and a skull on it (my most favourite icon).

holiday: gift wrap by color me pretty

Lovely holiday packaging ideas from Leslie of Color Me Pretty. Simple and crafty - the less extravagant, the more I love it!

via Decor8

holiday: gift wrap by ikea

Kotte gift wrap by Ikea. This is my first holiday being in close proximity to Ikea, and I just love their options! Bold "Alice In Wonderland/Queen of Hearts"-like prints, modern double-sided red-and-white prints and kraft paper gnome and floral Swedish prints.

The double-sided prints are awesome, I used them this year and I associated colours/prints with each person without having to get a bunch of crazy holiday patterns.

holiday: gift wrap by kikki.k

Folk gift wrap designed by kikki.K. Lovely Swedish design, as always!

holiday: DIY christmas stocking

This DIY Christmas stocking from Maggie Makes is a great way to "get rid of" fabric scraps!

via Twig & Thistle

holiday: dried floral ornaments by land rich

Absolutely beautiful bulbs filled with dried florals - my favourite of course being the moss! By Land Rich.

via Oh Joy!

holiday: DIY rubber origami ornaments

Wow! DIY rubber origami ornaments - get the full tutorial at Instructables.

holiday: plush woodland ornaments

Cute plush cone and squirrel ornaments and bird and cage ornaments, designed by Ferm Living and available at Le Souk.

via Style Files

friday inspiration

Today I am inspired by other people, and their contributions to others!

Justin and I attended the Creative Mornings hosted by Tina of Swiss Miss. The guest was Charlie Tod, founder of the incredible local group Improv Everywhere. He was an inspiring speaker and we had a great Q&A session about how the group has changed from a tiny, underground group to a huge collective.

As usual, there was a tasty breakfast, and as a surprise freebie the sponsor of the breakfast - Field Notes - gave away a set of their Colors Notebooks to everyone in attendance! WOOT!

The event was hosted at The Invisible Dog, a space with a great history and an even more amazing owner Lucien Zayan. The building originally housed a factory that made (you guessed it!) the original invisible dog toy, but it is now an open studio used for gallery events and artists studios. That Christmas tree by Ian Trask is made entirely of left over roping and belts that were left behind by the original owners!

perfume packaging by nasomatto

Nice wood topped perfume packaging by Nasomatto. Nice, precious little proportions.

via The Cool Hunter

metallic tyvek bags

I know these are blatantly trendy, but I really like them anyway! Metallic Tyvek bags available from Abitare.

via Swiss Miss

cuckoo clocks by naoto fukasawa for isetan living

Beautiful cuckoo clocks designed by Naoto Fukasawa and customized by 50 artists and designers in Japan for an exhibit at the Japanese department store Isetan.

"[For] Isetan and Association NPO - "More Trees" (an organization devoted to the maintenance and conservation of forest and forestation activity in Japan and overseas), designer Naoto Fukawasa has developed a cuckoo clock, using timber removed from over-planted forests. the Isetan living exhibition consisted of 50 customized interpretations of the clock... developed with the hope of presenting a product that can help make life more fun. 5% of all sales will be donated to forest preservation."

via designboom

vermont farm table

Vermont Farm Table is a boutique woodworking studio building handcrafted, custom farm tables, windsor chairs, and table benches. They design both modern and traditional farm tables with non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and no VOC table finishes. Their traditional table designs are constructed from antique Pine, reclaimed Pine, wide plank Pine, reclaimed Oak, reclaimed Wormy Chestnut and more.

500 colored pencils gift idea

Do you need a gift idea for an artist, crafter, designer - or me? *wink* Well, why not give the gift of colored pencils? 500 pencils in 20 months - "like a time release of inspiration and color."

linkable notebooks by starthere

This may be old hat to you, but I recently became totally smitten with the linkable notebooks created by StartHere. Not only do they produce handy notebooks - my favourite being the 3 level notebook with blank, graph and lined paper - but the notebooks are linkable!

Each notebook has an exterior front pocket that houses the rear flap of another notebook. Accessorize with spine binders, sticky tabs and interior pockets and you have yourself an incredible little library of thoughts, doodles and notes.

the suitcase series volume 1: camilla engman

The Suitcase Series presents the lives of select artists and designers, this book featuring Camilla Engman:

"The books are image-based, full of artwork, sketchbook pages, beautiful photographs and artifacts from where the artists live and work. The book becomes a precious souvenir of a creative journey shared between the reader and the artist."

tap water packaging

Tap Water Bottle - A "water bottle" designed without the typical "sports" aesthetic of many existing bottles - meant for dinner parties, on your office desk, etc. Making a bold lifestyle statement with minimal design. I love the retro top!

via The Dieline

square root table by josh tuminella

A clever and attractive table! Square Root Table, made of walnut and aluminum, designed by Josh Tuminella.

via Design Milk

nos da blanket by donna wilson

Um, yes pretty please? I would die if I woke up Christmas morning with one of these blankets under the tree! Nos Da blankets, designed by Donna Wilson for SCP.

friday inspiration

Inspired by these amazing photographs of frost by Sandra Juto! - especially that frost that looks like graffiti on the bus stop.

holiday: muji and lego

What a fun collaboration! Muji and Lego have teamed up to create some fun holiday-themed paper and building block sets. More here if you can read Japanese!

via Today and Tomorrow

flat project by schemata

Japanese company Schemata provides an alternative to planing wood - liquid epoxy! The coating creates a smooth surface that, when clear at least, provides full appreciation for the wood below. Not to mention a beverage spill on an antique wood table wouldn't be such a disaster!

What do you think? I'm swooning over the colored desktops.

via designboom and MocoLoco

factory 20

Yowza. Virginia-based Factory 20 sells some exceptional industrial, vintage and rustic furniture. If only I could afford it!

via housemartin

resent envelopes by ardour bookbinding

Resent envelopes by Ardour Bookbinding are hand-folded from full-colour enlargements of vintage correspondence, affixed with first-class postage, at least three vintage stamps per envelope and a self-adhesive address label. Beautiful!

via Creature Comforts

lovely illustrations by rich gemmell

I am madly in love with these illustrations by Rich Gemmell. Each has an incredible texture, attention to detail and beautifully executed overlap of color and shapes.

via Pikaland

colored pencil jewelry by maria cristina bellucci

Please excuse the horrendous Photoshop cropping jobs on these photos - which I did NOT do - and instead focus on the beauty of the objects. Maria Cristina Bellucci models her jewelry from coloured pencils! My favourites are the pieces with longitudinal cuts that create surprising outines of colour and wood.

via Sub-Studio