Thank You!

[Mo+boy share a birthday dessert at Extraordinary Desserts in Little Italy, San Diego]

As of 30 minutes ago, I am officially 25. Woohoo!! Tonight we celebrated with friends at Karen Krasne's Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego. I also got a special birthday surprise from my coworkers---more gocco inks, more screens, and more bulbs to add to my new toy! I can't wait to play with it! Thanks to everyone who chipped in and came out to celebrate, it was lots of fun!

Here's a pic of me and the boy. It was unfortunately pretty dark in there, but I like the picture anyway. =)

My New Toy: the Gocco PG5

[Fun projects made with Gocco: Thank You notes; Mix Tapes print; Flora print; Loco for Gocco logo; Gocco PG-5, image from Paper Source]

Don't know what a Gocco is? Click here.

Yesterday I came home to a large box sitting at the front door. I picked up the Fedex slip and saw that it was for the boy, and then I saw the sender's address: PAPER SOURCE, CHICAGO, IL.

Heart skips a beat. Why would the boy buy something from Paper Source, if not for me?? WHAT IS INSIDE THIS BOX?? After fumbling with my backpack and purse, I bring the box inside, and I'm sitting there with the cat, and I turn to the cat and I say, "Cat, do you think we should open the box? When do you think the boy will be home so we can open the box? Can you accidentally jump on the box so that it will open? No? Ok, I guess we have to wait than."

And so we sit. And we wait. And sit some more. And we wait until MIDNIGHT until the boy finally comes home. At this point I had the box cutter in my hand ready to rip it open.

And inside, covered in white packaging peanuts was *drum roll please* the Gocco PG-5!! It is now sitting proudly on my living room floor, begging me to hop onto Illustrator and come up with something FANTASTIC to print.

I am also excited because my good friend, hyperartpro, recently got a PG-11 so we will be gocco buddies!! Now I just need a cool design and some paper and then I'm ready to go...after I figure out the instruction manual written in Japanese...

Thank you for the new toy!! I LOVE it. o_O

Print Free Postcards Through Facebook

[Image from Hippopost]

I have a few applications on Facebook. I'm addicted to Scramble. I have a pet through Fluff Friends. And I like painting on graffiti walls when a birthday rolls around.

But none of those applications are really practical. They don't provide me with any sort of service...just pure entertainment and a slightly better vocabulary and typing speed.

Enter Hippopost! Props to hyperartpro for sending me a link to Hippopost, an application that allows you to send postcards FOR FREE using images you've posted on Facebook. I don't post many pictures on Facebook, but I know some people who use it exclusively to store their photos. And now they can send me all sorts of postcards with their pretty faces FOR FREE. These would be great when traveling. You can send a personalized postcard with a photo of you on your travels instead of a generic one from the gift shop. Great application idea. If someone has sent one, let me know what kind of paper they are using.

I Hope You Know That This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record

[Image from featherproof books]

*This post to be read with the Violent Femmes playing in your head.*

Chicago indie-publisher featherproof has a neat little section where you can download and print your own free mini-books. Who needs a printing press when I have a trusty HP Laserjet and a stapler?
This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record, by Susannah Felts, caught my attention because of its awesome title, way cool cover--what can I say, I'm a shallow pig when it comes to book covers--and storyline surrounding a young photographer. Chapter 3 of TWGDOYPR is available as a mini-book, so I'll be printing and stapling and reading in no time.

Thanks to the Ya Ya Yas for reviewing the book and leading me to featherproof!

Think outside the box, but show us the box too.

[Uploaded by: Anonymous. Niki In the Garden exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL.]

[Uploaded by: Carl. This is the view from 225 N. Michigan Ave.]

[Uploaded by: Alberto Aleman.]

[All photos from Wired.com's Photo Contest, Squares; title of blog posting from text written by the Wired Photo Department]

I just discovered the photo contests over at Wired.com, which makes me very happy because I like easily accessible eye candy like this. Anyone can upload a photo (a photo they took of course,) and then visitors to the website vote on their favorites and the winner gets a super cool prize and total authority to gloat that their photo won a Wired photo contest. Photographers? Start posting!

Here are my favorites out of the current top 10 of this month's contest, Squares.

The Big Picture

[Photos from Olympic Preparations on The Big Picture:
Chinese paramilitary police practise a performance for the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on May 7, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images);
Kenyan athletes train at Eldoret's Chepkoilel stadium on May 30, 2008 in preparation for the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games 2008. Recently the Kenyan athletics federation announced the setting up of two training camps in Eldoret and Nairobi to cater for a selected team of 120 athletes ahead of the Beijing Olympic trials on July 4-5. (TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images);
Minxia Wu of China takes part in the Women's 3m final on the second day of the 2nd FINA Diving World Series in Sheffield , May 25, 2008. Coming three months before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the FINA event will attract the best divers in the world with competitors set to prove their worth to their national teams. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)]

I am really loving Photojojo, a photo newsletter that I look forward to every week. If you haven't subscribed, you should because they have such handy tips and news about all things photo that you can then pass onto your friends who will think you're super cool and with it.
Today's entry was a great find. The Boston Globe has a photo blog called "The Big Picture" in which super large photo essays are posted to illustrate the news. I love how these photos are so big and beautiful. It really fills up my screen and forces your eyes to see details you might have never seen before. Go check out the blog for some visual inspiration and a daily dose of the news.

Fresh out of the oven

[Absolutely adorable cinnamon rolls from My Paper Crane]

Speaking of the Renegade Craft Fair, I almost forgot to mention one of my favorite vendors: My Paper Crane. I just discovered Heidi Kenney's blog and found this adorable post of cinnamon roll plush dolls. TOO cute. I want to eat the whole batch.

Renegade hearts SF

[Logo and illustration from the Renegade Craft Fair]

My dear Bay Area buddies, mark your calendars for JULY 12-13!! The 1st annual Renegade Craft Fair is being held at Fort Mason's Festival Pavilion. A few years ago I attended the original Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn and was majorly star struck from all of the craft geniuses in my presence (The Small Object! Bird and Banner! Kathleen Habbley!) I'll be here working, but if you loved me, and many of you do and live within driving distance of SF, you would go and drool over all the crafty merchandise. Go and support local artists and buy some handmade goods!

Summer's Calling...

[Two Tone Leather Zip Holdall and Bright Stripe Dress, both from Orla Kiely.]

...and it wants me to wear this outfit. I want to get out of jeans and finally put on something pretty. I really love red and green together these days, and if I had a lot of money in the world I'd donate a large chunk of it to charity (of course!) and then set a few (ok, possibly more) hundred dollars aside for some Orla Kiely. I'll probably scour the racks of H&M and Forever 21 instead to get the same effect this summer, but y'know, one can always dream.

Pet and Zoo Rubberbands

[Pet and zoo rubberbands from See Jane Work]

It's time to reevaluate my work space! My desk is looking pretty sad right now. There are papers all over the place, my handy dandy organizational tray with all of my cute office supplies is currently cluttered with a whole lotta stuff I do not need. And I'm pretty tired from the weekend from flying up North and back again, so my lethargy isn't really helping the cleaning bug inside of me.

At one point I need to buy rubberbands, but I wish I didn't have to settle for really boring rubberbands. Why can't all rubberbands be in the shapes of cute animals? Hmmmm?

They'd be perfect right next to my Star Wars mailing envelopes.

TMBG for budding audiophiles

[Here Come The 123s, music by They Might Be Giants, image from TMBG; Screenshot taken from TMBG's Bed Bed Bed, music by They Might be Giants, illustrated by Marcel Dzama, published by Simon and Schuster]

Yesterday I took out all of my old CDs. I've been pretty bad about cataloging them and downloading the songs onto my computer, and something hit me over the head yesterday and told me I should organize everything before I lose even more music. Every time I move I lose music and books. Now I realize that 1) My copy of Fountains of Wayne circa 1996 DOES NOT WORK! Even if I wanted to listen to Radiation Vibe right now, I can't, because my 12 year old CD is broken. 2) I have a lot of music still on tape. Back home. In the room I grew up in. I had so many great mixed tapes! Moby's Play? Tape. Fiona Apple's When the Pawn...? Tape. Ani DiFranco's Living in Clip? Tape. Frente's Marvin the Album? Tape. Where did all my music go?

So, seeing as how this weekend is the baby shower for my future niece, I'm dedicating this post to They Might Be Giants, who has a whole line of stuff just for the kiddies so that they can build their music libraries early...and hopefully not let it slide into a huge mess like mine. They have a charming website for their music+book combo, Bed Bed Bed, which Marcel Dzama illustrated. You can also download free MP3s there from their album, NO!.

For a whole gaggle of TMBG merchandise for budding audiophiles, shop some more here.

DIY Kids

[Images from DIY Kids, by Ellen and Julia Lupton, published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2007]

This book came out more than a year ago, but it missed my radar and now I want it NOW! It looks like it's dying to be on my bookshelf next to my two other awesome Ellen Lupton titles, Thinking with Type and DIY (the grown-up version). The website already has a lot of useful crafts and tips for those who can't make it to the library or bookstore to get the book. This would be a great resource for anyone working with kids and looks super friendly for those who are art+design phobic.