FUNtastic Legos!

A friend brought this artist installation using legos by Jan Vormann to my attention the other day. I just love this brilliant use of these bright colorful plastic Legos to to fill in between ancient bricks on the side of the buildings around Italy and Israel. What an unexpected way to incorporate these legos. The contrast of color, material, purpose, and association between the bricks and the legso are virtually the polar opposite. Yet, it seem as if that's where the Legos should live all along...just perfect.

Say Chee..Is that For Reals?!

via abbytrysagain

I was browsing on abbytrysagain's flickr. She takes fantastic dreamy photos with her talented camera eye and I always end up spending way too much time just admiring her photos and her blog. There, I saw the MOST beautiful camera...a vintage Falcon compact camera. Look at this beauty. Isn't it stunning?! The rich green, the sleek form, the art deco graphic lines, the proportion....everything! It's an art piece in itself!

via sh--4--rk

Then I startedd looking for vintage cameras and I found this RIDICULOUSLY adorable mini spycam, and it EVEN comes with a leather case!! SHUT UP!! FOR REALS?!

It's through this ebay-seller who sells lots of other beautiful antique cameras. But THIS by far is the coolist little camera I've ever seen. But I think I'm more in love with molded leather case than the camera itself.

Feel The Holiday Spirit!

For some reason I've been feeling super holiday-spirity-lately, but maybe it's the jolly feeling that is still resonating since the election. Either way....It got me and Chika excited for the holiday season...and life in general!! So, here it is! Our Chikabird cozy fuzzy wozy holiday items!
Left: Mama bird's nest made by Chika's talented mom, Tsuneko. Top Right: Linen zipper pouches with sulple indigo Vera Wang Linen. Bottom Right: Custom felt/fabric monogrammed slippers. (the one in the photo is for me...heh. J for JEAN!)These are the vintage ornaments that I'm making for L&G. I have it in various series: Monogrammed letters, Safari animals, forest animals, farm animals, birds, and classic ornaments.
Jan from Poppytalk was nice enough to mention us on her lovely blog! oh and this..I really just LOVE the Mama Bird's nests, which made me go camera happy with it. I was expereimenting with these felted eggs....what do you think?? The face is just a piece of paper with pushpins for the eyes. They're gonna live next to our sewing machine now. :)

Is this making you feeling all warm&fuzzy inside?? no?? Hmmm.....Okay. Maybe I'll try something else...like putting all of our things on a puppy or a kitten or a baby...or all the above where the baby is on the puppy and with a kitten on top....That should do the job, right? :D

L&G on Decor8!

Yay! L&G's exclusive holiday ornaments has just been featured on Decor8 with her weekly etsy take five Tuesdays! Holly from Decor8 has super wonderful taste, so I'm thrilled to be mentioned!
These L&G ornaments are made with 1/8" birch plywood and vintage wallpaper that I've collected over the years. They been mostly sitting in a pile...as much as I love having them around, I'm much happier making things with it!

I've been getting into the whole holiday season and is brewing up all these ideas and projects. So stay tune for more things that's gonna make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside. :D

Otl Aicher

Lola Bits and Pieces' post about Otl Aicher just totally reminded me about this awesome graphic designer of yester-year. Otl Aicher was an co-founder and instrumental member of the Ulm School in post-war West Germany. I have been a big fan of Ulm School design since getting into Dieter Rams when I first started design school. Aicher was their graphic design super star and is best known for being the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics graphics. It's incredible to see the breadth of his work for those games and how clever and unified every piece is. His use of color, geometry, and iconography is simply a cut above the rest. Feast your graphic-loving eyes on this Otl Aicher flickr pool.

Ballard Duplex Team Round up!

Just posted a blog entry on our house blog, Thirty.Thirtytwo, where I made everyone a Power Ranger with our character break down. I'm proud to say that this blog entry is by far one of the best entry I've composed. You can take a look at it, and disagree if you like, but I can assure you that it's gonna make you LOL. We're the Ballard Power Rangers...Home Edition! Woo Hoo!!

Beautiful Victory!

Finally! This is a new beginning for a brand new America.....with our new elected president Obama!! Is this really real!? Is this a dream?? Am I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and realize McCain won, but then he dies and then Palin as the VP takes over America letting teen girls run around and get knocked up left and right, passing out bibles and guns to all the kids in school, while she spending hundred thousands of American tax dollars to dress herself up like a whore....a MILF whore that is. I admit...she is still a great American hockey mom. You Becha!
Luckily...this isn't a dream!! Palin isn't the VP, so all that won't happen to us...except in Alaska. PHEW!! sorry, people and animals in Alaska.:P
With all this anticipation and anxiety that I've been feeling for the longest period of my life, it totally went away when I saw Obama's number rising up beating McCain's with incredible speed...He even won states that we never thought it'd be possible! Obama....is a true miracle.

When we watched Obama's victory speech intently and quietly as everyone absorbed every insightful word that came out of his mouth. Watching the TV screen as the camera switches between his face and the hopeful tearful faces of the people, it just filled me with joy, hope and love for America for the very first time. Honestly, for the fact that I wasn't born in the States, I never understood the meaning of America or felt any sort of patriotism what so ever....until now. I'm sure this goes for everyone...to finally be able to be proud as an American....and it's beautiful. tear...(;_;)In memory of this amazing historical election I'm getting these fantastic pair of posters by Flora Fauna. It's $35 for the pair of prints. I love the colors and the composition of the mirrored image of the doves symbolizing peace, hope, and love. We ARE the United States of America!

We're making History!

This is it...today is final election day. It's hard to imagine how EVERYONE's lives will change depending on what happens on November 4th, 2008. I mean..this is HUGE! It matters not only to the people in America...but also to the rest of the world!
I have a feeling that I'm gonna cry either way...If Obama/Biden wins...it'll be tears of immense joy and new hope for America. But if McCain/Palins wins (which they WON'T!)...it'll be tears of what-the-F*&K and S^#T-we're-all-gonna-die!!
So, to ensure that that no voting fraud can happen to our ballots, Dylan and I took photos of ourselves as proof to show who we voted for. But also to document us experiencing this extraordinary historical event. I'm imagining 10 years from now when we share this with our kids....oh, about how back in the day we had to use a device called, pen, to physically write in our votes and how we carefully and precisely darkening in the bubble area next to Obama and Biden's name, sealed it in a separate paper-made pocket called, envelope, and sent out our ballots to a place called, post office, which sort out millions of other envelopes, which then gets delivered to the final destination and gets counted. We'll most likely have to explain all this, since I'm sure 10 years from now the technology will be so advance that our kids will be voting with their minds or using some blue-toothy GPS robot-humans, whom will count the votes and teleport that to the central voting HQ, which will be stationed on Mars or perhaps, Saturn...I'm pretty positive that's gonna happen.Oh yeah, I also had to document this beautiful work of art by Dylan & I where we drew hearts and a halo around Obama's photo and little sparkling marks by Biden's shiney white teeth on the voter's pamphlet. And here's McCain with that goofy swim goggles and douche-bag-looking mustache and that man-lady Palin with a Hitler mustache and Adam's apple. Despite their looks, I think they make great candidates as president or vice president of Wal-Mart superstores.....Alaska.

This is the mark of 2008 election....Let's all witness history tonight.

Me So KOO!!

Finally! I got my beautiful mustard colored YOKOO scarf!! I've been obsessing over it since my last post about her amazing handmade scarves before Fall even came...I finally just had to get it. It was hard deciding the colors since they're all so amazing. Just look at all the colors of yarn on her shelf...and that great teal wall. Check out her flickr where you can see great work, great photography, great portraits, great inspiration!Not only does this scarf makes you feel like the coolest person, wearing it also keeps you warm!! DOUBLE BOO YAH! The yarn she uses is big and soft, and feels so warm&cozy even on a depressingly wet & cold Seattle day. So here's me wearing my Yokoo scarf....."Oh! you like my scarf? Yeah, I know, Me too! Oh! and you think I'm the coolest person ever as well!? aww...jeez...thanks!! yeah...I TOTALLY agree with you on that..I AM cool!"