L&G Typewriter Round Up!

L&G Shop is back!! And oh boy, do we have some fantastic finds! First things first, I just have to say that this Olivetti graphic for their typewriter is the coolest thing I've seen! We happened to have painted one of our walls similar to that green! Plus we have an aqua Olivetti typewriter which we're totally gonna hang it on the wall as a display! Now I just gotta convince Dylan to paint one of the walls with that pink...Dylan and I gathered a collection of diversely vintage typewriters. The antique industrial Remington, mid-century Italian Olivetti and classic Olympic, and all are available on our L&G shop! We're psyched about these since each and every one of them are in great working condition. They all have fantastic color schemes and design details! There's nothing that compares to the satisfying clicking sound of the keys.
Check them out! If you're into Olivetti typewriters, check out this site to see all their vintage designs!

Sea Stones Vases

Just saw these series of beautiful carved sea stones vases by Mitsuru Koga on Tortoise shop's website. Toroise is a fantastic shop showcasing many contemporary Japanese crafts, art, and designs. I got to check out the their two shops on Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice Beach when I last visited, and I have to say it was one of my favorite shop! I'd love to see these vases in person and hold them....and carry it in my pocket where ever I go. Aren't they precious?!

Chasing Pigeon? Gayest Chase? WHAT!?

Since the last post, I've been wondering about that book "The Fugitive Pigeon" written in 1965 by Donald E Westlake...So I looked it up and this is the ACTUAL story line...

"Listen carefully to this story, originally published in 1965, to catch the occasional telltale clues to its age. In this comic crime caper, Charlie Poole works the bar in Canarsie (Brooklyn) for his Mafia-connected Uncle Al, occasionally holding packages for late-night pickup. Suddenly, life gets exciting when two hit men show up to silence Charlie. He manages to escape, but he's on the run, hiding from the organization and at the same time trying to contact the boss to find out what error brought all this upon him. Of course there's a beautiful girl."

I do like how it says it's the "gayest chase of the year!" But, seriously...how can a story about someone running for his life be "gay"? But it doesn't matter, because there's a beautiful girl involved.
Still, I think I like my story line better (not to be cocky).....I just like the idea of an actual pigeon running for its life from two humans. Just picture that in your head for a second.....yeah...heh heh....that's WAY funnier. :D

Wool blankets+Doilies+Chair= Most awesome chair!

Spotted this fun colorful upholstered chair in quilted wool blankets by Jan Schouten from All The Luck in the World based in the Netherlands. The colors, the patterns, the warmth of the material, the little added delights of the doilies and stitched on words...everything about it makes me want go to the Netherlands and steel that chair. I especially love how she treated the back with the fringe still intact. It seems as if the blanket is just draped over the chair. So cleaver!Jan also has a vintage shop where there are lots of awesome stuff that..once again... makes me want to go to the Netherlands and raid all the flea markets to find stuff like that! I want that black Joe Colombo-esque lamp so bad!!

Check out Jan's flickr with tons of great photos of her space and work.

Always Judge A Book By Its Cover

I was browsing around on ebay and found this ebay store selling tons of great vintage books with awesome graphics!! I just love the fantastic color pallet and the simplicity of shapes and illustrations used. Since I'm on a spending freeze (recommended by you know who), I figured why not just save all the awesome graphics for reference!I spent way too much time looking through every page to find the best ones. So you're in luck ladies & gentlemen. Here's a little feast for the eyes of fun book covers!! ENJOY!
All the muted colors on these kid's books look so well all together!
My favorites are the two covers using pink and grays with the playful texture. The beaker filled with letters! It's just brilliant!
You can see all these covers plus more on my flickr vintage graphics set.I'm REALLY curious to find out what this book, "The Fugitive Pigeon" is about..... Maybe it's a suspense thriller story of those two guys (on the top left corner) chasing the pigeon for stealing their lunch. But the main character (the Pigeon) was in fact framed by another pigeon who looked a lot like him. The fugitive pigeon had to leave everything behind...even it's family of 3 eggs. He migrated to an entirely different state with a new identity, life, wife and eggs...everything. The Pigeon was living a peaceful life working at some small town Wal-Mart getting by with amazing employee discounts. Until one day, the guys tracked down the pigeon with their GPS navigator & iPhone and found the Pigeon and kidnapped his family. Will the Pigeon save his wife and couple of eggs? Will the Pigeon be able to find out who framed him and be able to resolve this misunderstanding? Will the Pigeon escape this predicament? Will the guys come to a realization of how ridiculous it is to be chasing a pigeon? What could this book possibly be about?!

-Jean

All images provided by Locobeans Loft

Little Faces

Just spotted these series of darling little photos of fall leaves with faces on it!! It was on Fine Little Day, by multi-talented illustrator/graphic artist, Elisabeth Dunker, based in Sweden. I love things with faces on it....as you may have remembered from my last week's post about my coffee cup. I think everything should have faces on it! I wanna design a whole line objects with just faces... a pencil...a spoon...remote control...door knob...underwares...etc. The possiblities are endless...
Elisabeth had recently started a callaborative shop and blog with another artist, Camilla Engman, called Studio Violet with more adorableness! I'm VERY envious of their amazing looking loft studio...all the natural lighting, the cool mid-century chairs, and the simple stark white interior...sigh. Why does god tourture me like this? You can see lots of her other lovely work via Lula.

Intro to our new home!

This is it! Finally are we able to catch our breath since our move from our apartment to our NEW HOME!! Our new home is a duplex in Ballard, Seattle, where Dylan and I purchased it with Chika and her boyfriend, Jared....yes, two unmarried couples buying a place together and living next to each other. I know what you're thinking...."that's crazy!"
But besides all the fist fights, I promise you that this is actually a super well-thought out plan that's even better than the new economic bailout plan.
This is a set up where 4 designers still gets to live in a city area and work together on their first home while sharing all of their resources. And at the same time, running 2 home-based businesses (Chikabird, and L&G Vintage).
Chika took the time to write up an introduction for our group blog, Thrity. Thirtytwo (that's the last two house humbers to each side) Which will be a seperate blog from L&G blog specifically documenting all of our home improvement projects, our decorating ideas and processes, our life in Ballard and as home owners, and all the drama that happens in between....the best part. :D

So check it out!

An Eye for Annai

This is a darling animation by Jon Klassen & Dan Rodrigues. I love their use of colors, patterns and texture....they also play a recorder for the music! How cute is that!? Watching this made me feel as if I was getting a big warm hug! :D
It's about a cute little creature, Annai, with one eye in search for a matching eye....the moral of the story is...you'll always find what you're looking for when you least expect it. So remember boys & girls, just think of one eye Annai whenever you're down and turn that frown upside down!

Found via For Me For You.

My Dream Man!

FINALLY!! The moment I've been waiting for....Beard Papa is in Seattle!!! I've been dreaming about him ever since my unforgettable encounter with him in Japan when I studied abroad there in 2003....Oh! how I still remember it like it was only yesterday! I don't talk about Beard Papa to Dylan much.....since he gets jealous. But it wasn't 'til now that he came to understand my obsession with him.
Last weekend, we went to Uwajimaya by the food court, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw this BRIGHT yellow & white booth with Beard Papa's adorable face and a whole table covered with beautiful golden cream puffs!!If you don't know about Beard Papa, you should watch this animated story which will explain everything. Beard Papa is a Japanese franchise that started in Osaka, Japan. Not only is Beard Papa super cute and kind, he also makes the BEST cream puffs...actually WORLD'S BEST! They have great texture and are not too sweet or heavy. I love Japanese sweets for that fact.
For mere $2.75, you can get these delicious cream puffs with the perfect outer crust and creamy filling that are freshly filled right when you order! Their Choux pastry puff is this brilliant well-engineered patented TWO layered crust with crunchy texture on the outside and soft within. Their original whipped vanilla custard cream is a classic. They also have special flavors like green tea, strawberry, chocolate, earl grey where they change it up everyday.
I think even Dylan is in love with Beard Papa now. :D

I guess this is goodbye...

So this is it! It's our final goodbye to Dylan & I's very first apartment in the hip Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. We did what our landlord called "terminal" cleaning on every inch of the 1400 sqft apt/studio....one that would get us back the non-refundable $150 cleaning fee. We thought...."$150..that's money that we can use in our home improvement fund! YAY!"
Little did we know...it took us a whole week to fully, TERMINALLY clean!!

We had to scrub the walls, all the cabinets and doors, the lights, the ceiling (10 ft tall), all the appliances(inside & out, behind & below), all the molding, the radiators, the tub inside and underneath (the curse of claw foot tubs), and the toilet, etc....EVERYTHING!
We gathered the most essential and effective cleaning tools ever assembled..as we switched between a spray bottle to disinfect, a sponge to scrub the wall, a toothbrush to brush the nooks & crannies, a rag to wipe, and a bucket to rinse. We cleaned through the late nights while the city slept. We scrubbed, wiped, sprayed, and then scrubbed some more.....We were determined.
But mostly it brought out the worse side of me (Jean)...the anal retentive, OCD side of me....or I like to see it as the BEST side... the detail-oriented, meticulous perfectionist! Is the glass half full or half empty? HMM? There's really no right or wrong answer for that now, is there?
One may ask...Was it worth it? But I would ask... can one put a price on a spiritual experience that taught us the value of patience and endurance? And can one really put a price on the intimate personal experience I had cleaning the bathroom where I was practically giving the toilet a lap dance as I scrubbed the walls behind and around?...no, you can't...neither can one put a price on the feeling of accomplishment and success as one walks through the dust-free dirt-free space and seeing the apt is cleaner than ever!But I suppose you CAN break it down in money terms...so Dylan and I each put in about 15 hours....and also Chika help with the studio where she put in about 5 hours....so that gets us... $150 divided by 40hours of work...3.75. That's what we made on an hourly basis for terminally cleaning this place. Wow...$3.75/hr huh? I didn't realize that's what we'd get. Why didn't we calculate this out before we started cleaning??

Oh wait! I take it back. We actually got $150 AND a quarter!! After cleaning all 7 radiators in the apt coughing and sneezing away...it wasn't till the VERY last radiator I cleaned that I found a quarter!! Maybe it's not so bad after all. Oh yeah.... I also found a dust ball weighing roughly a pound, one little baby sock, and one popped kernel of popcorn!!
...Life is just full of freakin' surprises, isn't it?We're really gonna miss this place...especially the kitchen....So, goodbye....and hello new home!

Happy Accident

Just wanted to share this little happy accident I had while drinking coffee at home today. I was just doing some emailing, I turned over to get my cup, and then I see THIS! A perfect little happy face! CUTE huh?
It brighten up my day even with rainy weather in Seattle. I drank from a different side and kept it till I had to wash it off. It was pleasant while it lasted. :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

Get Dolled Up

I recently found this great bag company, Dolly Bags based in Amsterdam. They use fabulous colorful one-of-a-kind, retro/vintage fabric for all their bags. They're limited edition and handmade with TLC. Once they're gone...they're gone! I was looking at their etsy shop and found myself favorite-ing so many of them...it's a tough decision. ...And of course they have to make this adorable clutch to make my decision making process even more difficult!