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Posts Tagged ‘bureau bits’
Eli, No! Lucy, Yeearrrchhh!
Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of meeting some new designer acquaintances who were on a travel adventure across the USA. When Nathan Strandberg and Katie Kirk of Eight Hour Day made a stop in Portland, we bonded over our chocolate labs on a rainy day spent walking the dogs at Thousand Acres on the Sandy River Delta.
Eli: no mischief here, no sir, not at all.
While the Northwest weather may have driven Nathan and Katie on to their next destination with haste, their pup Eli and my pup Lucy didn’t seem to mind the rain, mud and driving wind that makes Portland fall something special. Those labs seem to have an unwavering love for life that shines thru so clear that it makes it easy to put up with some of their eccentricities.
Lucy: the face that could trick you into just about anything.
So when Katie wrote and illustrated the book Eli, No! about her faithful companion’s shenanigans, it all felt very familiar. If I had to write a book about my dog pal, it would be titled LUCY, YEEARRRCHHHH! because that is the pterodactyl noise that I make when she is doing something inappropriate. It’s not the most endearing sound to come from a human, which is why you probably won’t be seeing a sequel from my neck of the woods anytime soon. Instead, I’ll just use Katie’s book to relive Lucy’s less glorious moments.
Katie loves her dog, so she wrote a book about him.
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Vintage Danish Postcards
Another one of my finds from my trip to the Webfooters Annual Postcard show was this set of Danish postcards from the 1920s. I went with my fellow adventurers Jen and Melissa, who respectively picked up a postcard with a bulldog crying because it was paws reach away from a sausage link and a postcard delivered by the Pony Express.
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Vintage Airmail Envelopes
The other weekend I went to the Webfooters Annual Postcard show with my fellow adventurers Jen and Melissa. Beforehand, we weren’t sure if it was going to be a total bust or totally awesome. Turns out, it was awesome+. One of my finds was this series of airmail envelopes with sculpted embossed stamps.
After the jump, click to zoom and flip through...
Anaco Pears Placard
I went to California recently, and although I visited the area canvassed with strip malls and big box stores, I was able to find a small town general store that had some fun vintage fruit placards. I love pears, so I took this one home with me (and totally got through border control with it!).
Central Oregon Shroud
I see settlement.
Agency plains between Warm Springs and Madras.
Home again, home again: all of Madras, Oregon.
Detecto Scales
I like to measure things so when I found this old scale I just had to get it. It has a neat font for the face and tells me exactly how much my lunch weighs. If my lunch weighs under 10 pounds, that is. If it weighs more than 10 pounds, I guess I have bigger problems than inaccurately weighing my lunch. Mmmm, lunch. Want a Danish sandwich?
How Globes Are Made
My Dad was a geography, history and politics teacher, so I’ve always been surrounded by maps, atlases, and globes. My sister and I would rise early on school mornings to compete on the local radio quiz show, the Geo Bee. There were only two other families in our small town that also competed regularly in the Geo Bee, so we quickly amassed a stockpile of geography related items: map placemaps, globe-topped pencils, keychains, you name it.
When I started my studio and moved into the Povey Perch, one of the first decorations I bought was a vintage globe on a stand, featuring Czech and Slovakia united as one. So when I saw this video on how globes are made, I had to share it…
Welcome Jen – Yay!
Since striking out on my own, I’ve shared a 3rd floor studio in the Povey Building with a developer, Tim “Schnitzel” Trautmann, and a web designer, Darin “Factor 45″ Richardson. And while I enjoy their company and conversation, sometimes it can be a bit much when they’re both grumbling about cucumbers and server modules and database errors.
So I’m happy to say that we’ve finally formed a quartet by adding Jennifer Heuer as our final independent desk renter. Jen is a designer – yay! Jen designs books – yay! Jen is also another girl – yay! Now that Jen is here, the girls outnumber boys 3 to 2 (if you count Lucy). I have yet to give Jen a nickname, but these things take time, you know. And if you see Jen around town, say YAY!
Check out some of Jen’s work at www.jenniferheuer.com.
Noilly Prat and Isabel Branco
You might have seen the vintage liqueur bottles my neighbors brought me a while back; here are a few more that didn’t seem to fit in with the first batch.
Noilly Prat and Isabel Branco: two mean mofos in the miniature alcohol bottle world.
Noilly Prat and Isabel Branco seem like the alcohol version of Bonnie and Clyde in comparison to the Crema Liqueur series. If they met in dark alley, I have no doubt Noilly would off the Sabor de Platano without a second thought. Upon further scrutiny it turns out Noilly Prat is a French company that uses floofy flourishes all over their website. I’m guessing that means the “t” in Prat is silent, which negates most of the badass connotations. That ALSO means that Noilly PraT (emphasis on the “T) is up for grabs (just like the URL www.discountbordello.com).
Therefore, let it be known that I claim Noilly Prat as a pen name for times when I need go undercover to tell tales like Turkey: 1, Mormon Boyfriend: 0. Like all legendary duos, Noilly needs a comrade, so I am hereby seeking an Isabel Blanco to be my partner in crime. The position is currently undefined (I’m imagining we can have cheese eating contests, watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Musical, and see what a turtle on roller skates can accomplish if they set their mind to it) and will stay open until filled.
Noilly Prat, quick draw, seeks partner in crime.
Be my Isabel Branco.
Toasters VS Bananas
The Povey Building (where I work) is filled with creative folk. Sometimes that leads to tangential exchanges that aren’t even understood by the people taking part. I-kid-you-not correspondence in its entirety transpired as follows. Get me my paymaster, I’m putting this on the tab.
My New Old Paymaster
Trolling the thrift stores on Hawthorne can be a laborious way to spend an afternoon, but every once in a while you find something that you just can’t leave behind. That is how I came home one day with a Paymaster (original price: $278.50, my price: $40). So far I’ve only punched a few fake invoices with the highest number possible, but in the future I’d like to learn more about the “repeat” lever and what happens if you disregard the WARNING: BEWARE OF UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL label on the front.
Behold my Paymaster!
Dollars and cents, dollars and cents.
Vintage Liqueur Bottles
My neighbors were recently cleaning out their basement and found these cool vintage liqueur bottles (if you want to be fancy, say it with a French accent). Since they know I like to collect things, they gave them to me (score!). Since I also like to share things, here are a few photos:
