Monthly Archives: March 2012

Friday Link Hootenanny. Cool Stuff to Browse

Link Hootenanny

Well OK, so it’s Saturday and not Friday….but that’s the kind of week it was! I still found a buncha cool things I think you’ll wanna check out. So let’s hop to it! And have a great rest of your weekend! It has been raining cats and dogs over here!

1. MINIMALIST FAIRYTALES.


I have to say these  minimalist children’s story posters from designer Christian Jackson are so clever! They’d be great in a kid’s room. See more of them here.

2. SUPER DUPER COOL HOUSES.

Taschen books is at it again with a tantalizing new coffee-table book, this one crammed full of insane/modern homes from around the world. (Grown-up treehouse in São Paulo anyone?) The book is called 100 Contemporary Houses. 

3. QUIRKY COOL PHONE APP.


Mr. Chiizu is a verrrry cute lil photo app that I recently discovered. As they describe it, it’s “the ultimate photo decoration app that puts your favorite artists and designers in your pocket!” Decorate photos with awesome illustrations and send to friends. What’s not to like? It’s super cool and will only set ya back 99 cents.  Get it here.

4. BIBLE STORYLAND FROM DISNEY IMAGINEERS? WOW.

My friend Rusty over at Laughing Squid posted these amazing visuals about a failed “bible” theme park from the 1950s. Watch the short trailer. Amazing.

5. I LOVE HER WORK.

Jennifer Davis’ work is lovely. Check her out.

6. Dreamy Wallpaper Tape.


WOW. Imagine giant rolls of washi tape for your walls. The Japanese are kind of the most clever people on the planet. Check it out here. The site is in Japanese but you can still oogle the photos.

7. FRIENDS, IT’S TIME TO GET HEALTHY.

Julie over at Olivine’s Charm School has launched what she is calling Bikini Summer 2012. It’s NOT about dieting and squeezing into a bikini. It’s more about what she calls  “Sparkly Self Love”. Kick starting healthy eating and learning to lover your body. I haven’t read all the posts, but I’m very intrigued. I need to do this! See them here.

8. LIKE CATCHING STARS IN A JAR.

From Panka With Love shares the secret behind her most popular photo. See it here (via design mom)

9. & 10. Mad Men Mania.


So did you watch?? What did you think? The highlight was undoubtably THE PARTY. We got to see Peggy shimmy and the leggy new Mrs. Draper wowed the crowd with Zou Bisou Bisou. Hot! You can shop her look over here with Tula at whorange or just revel in the catchy sexy cuteness here:

I’m obsessed! This app is drawsome.

Things We Like, , ,

I’m the kinda girl who loves charades and pictionary. And I really love drawing! [As a semi-related side bar: When I was pregnant, my friends had a New Year’s Eve party where they asked everyone to perform a “talent”. I dressed up as “Preggo Picasso” and did goofy caricature drawings of everyone at the party like a boardwalk artist…see? I love to draw.] ANYWAY, that was a round about way to tell you that I’m officially obsessed with this new app I have on my iPhone called Draw Something! it only costs 99 cents but offers 99 thousand dollars worth of FUN!

It works like Pictionary…each round has three options for you to choose to draw (easy/medium/hard). You get 5 colors to start, but can add more colors with the coins you earn for successfully drawing/guessing.

You only play against people you invite, so there is no random people thang going on (unless you want to play random people…). A round takes about one minute, so its not tooooo big a time suck. Unless you invite everyone to challenge you via Twitter and have a million games running at one time. Ahem.

Lemme tell you, it’s harder than you think. The iPhone is so small and you feel like you have big fat Fred Flintstone fingers while you are drawing….but that’s half the fun!! Some of my favorites:

Here are some of my not-so-shining moments….oooooh angry Rihanna! And that sad sack pirate. Sigh.

 

I wish I had saved my “TUPAC” drawing. It was s0ooo bad….I was cracking up drawing it. It looked like a pirate hobo with a gun. My friend Heather was brilliant and guessed it anyway.

One of my friends is officially the spazziest drawer EVER and I look forward to what she comes up with all the time!!  I have covered up her name to protect the innocent (but girl….you know who you are!!!). I love her drawings. They crack me up. Like these two. Can you guess what they are??

Yep. That’s a “sheriff” on the left and the scrubbing bubble cutie is actually Darth “Vader” on the right. Hee.

So what are you waiting for? Download it here! It’s sooo fun. And then feel free to challenge me (galexina). But tell me who you are, ok?? Better yet, give us your user name in the comments so we can get some Modern Kiddo rounds going!! PS There is a free version of the game too you just have to deal with pop up ads, so i say splurge on the 99 cents. And for the record, it’s WAY easier on the iPad. But i’m an iPhone purist.

(this isn’t sponsored or anything…I just really have fun playing this crazy game…)

Real Life:: Traveling Mama!

Real Life : Dottie

March was a busy month for me at work.  As a PR director for major media company, I work with a lot of cool people in the tech and media world.  It is a high-paced job and at times very very stressful. There are a lot of long days and the workload can be grueling, but every now and then I get to do things that are a bit out of the ordinary.

This month had me traveling quite a bit, but for two very different reasons.  Business travel can be brutal. We actually wrote a post last year on tips for traveling. But it can still be exciting and a chance to check out a new place (if you have time…)  First up was a quick trip to L.A. for my brand CHOW.  Lessley Anderson was going to be on the CBS show THE TALK!

Lessley and I did a ton of media prep for the five minute piece on the talk. This is essential for nailing the interview.  Lessley talked about cool ways to make popular dishes more healthy with Aisha Tyler and Julie Chen.  We had to arrive at the studio at 7:30AM to do a run through with the producers and then Lessley had to head over to hair and make up to get ready for her spot.

Needless to say, she totally rocked it! You can see her full interview here. (And get some cool cooking tips—like adding avocado to chocolate mousse–trust me, it’s amazing!)

A couple days later, I was Texas bound for SXSW.

I went last year to SXSW and it was great. This year I was busier because I had more brands on panels. We began working on these panels in May of last year, so it was quite cathartic to see them actually happen. Hundreds of hours of work for an hour panel? Yup! But it was so worth it!

The biggest coup was getting Lisa Kudrow (who was super nice and so. Darn. Funny.) to talk on one of the panels I placed.  Her panel was about Web original shows and Lisa was there to talk about her hilarious online show, Web Therapy, which was picked up by Showtime. Have you seen it? It’s genius! Molly Wood from CNET rocked her panel on Big Data privacy and CHOW had an amazing panel on online video production.  We were so lucky to have such amazingly talented and smart people talk about their businesses and issues that were near and dear to their hearts.

But in between all of the meetings and events, I had enough time to slip out to do some vintage shopping one afternoon!  I pretty much went to only two stores due to my hour time constraint, but man, they were packed to the gills with awesomeness!

The Austin food scene has kinda exploded over the past few years with brilliant artisan restaurants and food trucks.  CHOW created this brilliant little guide to the best of Austin food, so I knew I had to check a few of those places out and report back to the CHOW editors.  Oh, and I did!  Franklin’s BBQ redefines what BBQ brisket is all about. It is a masterpiece of smoke.  And you can do quite a bit of networking in the queue. I met two reporters that way! And I will also dream of the duck pastrami Reuben I had at the Noble Pig. Wonderful stuff.

And of course, there were the parties.  Oh yes, the parties. My CHOW panel was full of some of the funniest people ever (like the managing editor of The Onion’s AV Club).  We decided to celebrate our panel afterwards with dinner and drinks.  Dinner was at this steampunk crazy yummy restaurant where a kick-ass klezmer band was playing right next to us.  Somewhere along the line we picked up another hilarious gent who was a NYT/Slate magazine writer in town to speak on a panel titled, “The Evolution of the Douchebag in Cinema.” After a little trip to TGIF and more booze and many nutty hijinks, we ended up in a karaoke bar under a parking garage singing Pat Benetar.

Now, THAT was a fun night.

But throughout it all, I was missing my Peach.  Eric would send me little pictures throughout my travels of her. Thanks to Facetime on the iPhone we did manage to get a bit of time, but still, these trips are hard on the heart.

Do you travel for business? Have you? What do you love or hate about it?

Rainy Day Vintage Sale Fun.

Mama Style



It’s been raining like crazy over here in the Bay Area. Like MEGA rain! Despite the weather, my friends and I decided to have another vintage sale. While the turn out wasn’t as big as we had hoped for (hey, when it’s pouring rain you kind of just want to snuggle up on the couch at home!) we still had an awesome group of peeps stop by. We always serve mimosas and tiki punch, so it’s a festive day for all! There was clothing and tons of brick-a-brack. I have as much looking at everything as I do selling!

I’m always trying to lure people to our sales with the promise of seeing Enid’s pad. I’ve posted about it before (like this one) and I still can’t get enough of her kooky retro pad! She is officially the girl with the most [vintage] cake. Her house is PACKED full of awesomeness. I think I need to go over there with a proper camera and do a house tour for you guys!

But enough house oohing and ahhing. Let’s see some of the goodies! I sold mostly clothing. My racks really thinned out, which was awesome. I gave my heart a shove and got rid of some really lovely items that I just don’t wear (or don’t fit me!).

There was so much color everywhere! So fun….

My friend Karen was selling this dress from the 40s— and it was spectacular!!! Look at the leaping poodles!!!

My friend Denise didn’t buy those, but she should have! It was amazing on her. “Kay Windsor…Half Sizes!” Love it.

A little Liberace? He’s so understated here….he demanded I put those ceramic poodles next to him for a little extra oomph!

This is a favorite—an enamel daisy pin still in the package! I actually have one too, a gift from Karen and its so excellent.

I have a thing for ephemera (aka vintage paper goods). And greeting cards are right up there! There was a whole box of mint birth announcements….

I mean who finds a box of vintage birth announcements for TWINS?? Enid. That’s who. I scooped up some fun birthday cards too, including this sassy fella.

Yeah, yeah. I’m supposed to be selling, but I can’t resist eyeing the other girls’ goods!!  Check these babies out. I resisted. but…

I also was in love with these mugs:

At the end I was pooped. And my footsies were sore. But I was able to unload some of the treasures I’ve stockpiled and see them go to wonderful new homes. All in all, not a bad way to spend a rainy day!

The Most Awesome Letter Ever.

Things We Like

*My apologies for this going up early and unfinished friends!  But here is the final post! Thanks for understanding!*

Remember when professionals used to come to your classroom and talk about their jobs.  It was always so inspiring. I remember a nurse coming into my classroom and handing out special Raggedy Ann band-aids and I was so sure I’d be a nurse from that day on! I remember writing her a letter and included a sweet picture of a lady in a nurses uniform.

It’s nice to see that this tradition still happens.  And even the thank you notes continue.  But then there was THIS thank you note… Oh, what a thank you note it is.

Written to an Austin weather man who came to visit a class of fourth graders, this letter is a masterpiece. It is everything amazing about childhood and I dare you not to smile after reading it.

Here it is:

 

Dear Mr. Ramon,

Thank you for coming to our school and teaching us about weather.

Some day when I become supreme Ultra-Lord of the universe I will not make you a slave, you will live in my 200 story castle where unicorn servants will feed you doughnuts off their horns.

I will personally make you a throne that is half platnum and half solid gold and jewel encrested.

Thank you again for teaching us about meteoroligy, you’re more awesome than a monkey wearing a tuxedo made out bacon riding a cyborg unicorn with a lightsaber for the horn on the tip of a space shuttle closing in on Mars while ingulfed in flames … And in case you didn’t know, that’s pretty dang sweet.

Sincerely, Flint.

P.S. Look on back for drawing.

What? You mean THIS drawing of super awesomeness!

That really is MARVELIS, isn’t it? And here is the real letter…

Have you ever received or written such a letter? LOVE!