LABOURious

T.G.I.F! And what another great day to watch more inspiring videos and take off work early!
Here are couple of playful & captivating videos by Labour.
They're an amazing Brooklyn based multimedia studio founded by couple of RISD guys (Ryan Dunn and Wyeth Hansen). There's also an interview with Labour via Designing Minds where you can see lots of other interviews with talented artist and designers...Another good interview is with Julia Rothman. They're mostly people who graduated from RISD, Cranbrook, Art Center....Ugh!!! I loath people from from all those schools!! ...But only because I wished I was able to go there. (-_-) sigh...
I suppose it's not too late. Maybe with the whole economic downturn those art schools might start lowering their tuition....perhaps a liquidation sale of 50% off for masters program or something....I'd buy that.

New Year MUJI Resolution

My new years resolution for 2009........is to cross off the list of ALL the MUJI things I want!! I don't need to eat healthier, drink more water, watch less TV, read more, exercise more, be nice to people....yeah yeah yeah...I can always do that when I retire.MUJI recently launched their 2009 screen saver calender, PLAY MUJI where they showcase one of their brilliant, simple & clever product each day right on your computer screen....everyday!! Imagine that...they're really not making it any easier for me to resist them!! Why do I have such weakness for them? or are they simply just TOO powerful? But whatever it is they're hypnotizing me with, it's working.
Oh! How I would sell my soul to live the MUJI life!!Must have....everything MUJI....everyday.....every week....every month....forever and ever and.... ever....

Phat Phurniture Phinds

Had to post some of these great updated mid-century furniture pieces sent to me by our friend Terri. They're offered up by the UK's Fears and Kahn and appear to be vintage pieces recoated with great color combos. Makes me want to take a paint brush to some of our furniture and livin' things up!

Happy Lunar New Year!

It's the first day of Lunar New Year starting today until February 13th. Dylan and I did a special guest blog for Poppytalk on some fun photos & findings we got in Chinatown. Check out Poppytalk to read more!
If you're in Seattle, there will be outdoor new year celebration this Sunday, January 31st. Click here for details. A good excuse to get some dim sum before hand!

Can You Handle This?

Video By Hine Mizushima, Titled "Can Camera camera case walk?"

Yet another post about CAMERAS...well not entirely. But even if you're not camera crazy like us, you will still fall in love with this incredibly adorable stop-motion video, by a talented Japanese plush artist and stop-motion animator, Hine Mizushima.
The word "adorable" doesn't even do justice in describing her work. Hine has the power to make Care Bears look like bunch of assholes, to make Strawberry Shortcake look like a whore, and can tell Hello Kitty to shut the hell up....well...not in those words exactly...It's almost as if she collected all the good & happy thoughts in the world....a child's laughter, some fairy dust, a bunch of hugs and kisses, tons of puppies and kittens, all the rainbows and sunshine, millions of baby pandas rolling around, and infinite amounts of delicious french macarons...she takes ALL of the above....compresses it... and spits out little happy creations of miniature felt puppets, plush dolls, and colorful stage sets...simply...just for fun.
The concentrated dose of all that goodness was so intense that I was literally having internal seizures from all the cuteness. I must warn you...you can try to fight it, but you'll soon realize that you just have to succumb and surrender to these feelings...of...happiness...and joy.

So be prepared....


Video By Hine Mizushima, Titled "The Secret Life of Six?", Music by TMBG

Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!!

Hine's Flickr site is even more unbearable!! And if you want to get one the camera cases go to her Etsy shop!

Dylan's Blast From The Past Birthday Cake

For Dylan's birthday, I put together this strawberry birthday cake....
I said put together, because I didn't actually bake the cake. I was lazy....but still wanted to make it seem like a "special" birthday cake.
So I went to the store and got a chocolate angel food cake, some fresh strawberries, and heavy whipping cream. (told you I was lazy.)

My vision: Make a light tasting cake that mimics Asian cakes.

My plan: Slice the cake into three layers, put some whipping cream and sliced strawberries in the middle. Put icing around it and some decorate with strawberries.

My outcome: An unintentional Betty Crocker style cake from the 50's....I didn't realize it till I saw the photosl!! I had it in my head that this is simple! (simple to do..making it pretty, was a different story) I worked on it, the cake got more out of control. (out of MY control that is...) The cake was too fragile and crumbly, and the whipping cream didn't have enough structure either to ice around, so I had to improvise and dabbed the slightly liquidy whipping cream on top...and made some intentional-looking drips...Then in the attempt to try to hide the ugliness of the icing, i decided to put some whole strawberries on top....and voila! A "special" ugly-looking cake for my special man!

So, now you know the secret of making an ugly & unappetizing cake that looks like it traveled from the 50's, what are you waiting for?! Go make an uglier one so I'll feel better about mine!

*The bright yellow counter is our new kitchen project (will blog later)...the yellow definitely amplified the whole 50's look....heh.

M.I.A at Obama's Inauguration? Don't worry!

For those like me who's not fortunate enough to go to DC to witness the history of our lifetime....don't worry....we have another chance to be part of it!! Thanks to the world famous building block toy company....ANYONE can go to Legoland California to witness and be part of Obama's inauguration (Via Telegraph) Lego-style! You'll get the best view...literally!! (you know..since you'll be 20 times bigger and all..)This amazing detailed installation shows LEGO Obama, LEGO Michelle, LEGO Joe, LEGO Jill on the center stage along with handful of famous people and hundreds of excited LEGO American citizens at the magnificent 7-ft tall LEGO Capitol building!! If LEGO haven't proved themselves that they're still awesome...well...they are..and they just did. If only they can actually manufacture the Obama/Biden set along with star wars and Harry Potter ones...I'd get a set.And then there's Oprah.....hiding behind the columns for some odd reason. I'm imagining LEGO Oprah balling and trying no to smear her mascara at the same time. (but is it just me or does she look a little creepy standing there in that photo?)OH! Look! they even made porta-potties for the LEGO people..how thoughtful!! Although the LEGO people doesn't even realize that they're totally missing the inauguration as they're waiting in line!!....ooh..they're gonna be PISSED when they go back and realized they missed the whole historical event while using the porta-potties covered in LEGO crap!

This amazing installation will only be up till May of this year! So, better make it there soon, so you too, can shake hands with LEGO Obama!

Happy Obama Inauguration day!! WOOT WOOT!!

Fakin' it: Poladroid

While we're on the polaroid kick...

I wasn't quite sure how to react when a friend of mine told me about Poladroid, a free program you can download that takes digital images and applies a magical mix of filters to pump out a polaroid-esque effect. You of course can never TRULY replicate the quality of a polaroid nor the experience using the real deal, but long after the film has expired and run out...Poladroid may be our only hope. I was curious, so I downloaded the program expecting the worst (a terrible hack of a filter that didn't come anywhere close to the real thing). Much to my delight, it works quite well (how could I have doubted you Virginie?). It's as easy as finding the desired photo on your computer and dragging the file into the little polaroid camera icon. Poladroid processes for a few seconds and then makes the familiar rolling gear sound the real machine makes. Now you've got a developing polaroid version of your digital file on your desktop slowly transforming. Once developed, it saves as a jpeg. So fun and easy and the resulting images are very close in color and quality to real polaroids.


I even tried to trick it by sending through a photo of a real polaroid, but it barely changed it...very clever poladroid, very clever.

A few more random pola-conversions:

Unlimited Fun Blocks!

Found this via Tas-Ka blog. Love this set of colorful wooden blocks. Look at all the possibilities! you can make funny faces to snakes to birds to dogs...anything! I want it for myself to play with all day!

Designed by Zoe Miller and David Goodman
They have series of beautiful photos of objects, textures, colors, and beyond. A total feast for the eyes.

Origami Magic

You know how obsessed I am with paper art from my Paper Goodness post and Books Sculptures By Nicholas Jones post. But this video is beyond amazing!
This is a commercial for Asics athletic shoes. It's a super neat video in stop motion with origami. ....and by the end, you'll totally want a pair of Asics, too. But I also want to hug the narrator, he's an adorable Japanese grandpa! :)

Have a good weekend!

First Polaroid SX-70 shots

You may remember we blogged about these classic cameras way back when. We recently got our acts together, put our money where our mouths are and got our Polaroid SX-70 up and running. Here are some of the best of the preliminary shots taken around the Henrybuilt shop (SODO Seattle) and our house (yes, we live right by humping saw-horses...get a room guys!). We still have to master the settings because most the shots didn't turn out, but its a blast to use of fun to use.

Remembering Andy's

Once upon a time in Seattle, there was a cozy little place called Andy's Diner. It was a magical place located in the Sodo area (south of downtown/dome that isn't there anymore...) made up of train cars, wood paneling, and old people's souls. It was a place of yester-year's glory, a place to enjoy the finer things in life like a Top Sirloin with a heap of mashed pototoes topped with 1/4 stick of butter. It was grandly decorated to exact specifications circa 1960's when it adopted a 1930's railcar theme. One of the cars (the presidential car) was actually used by FDR on the campaign trail! We dined where FDR dined! Andy's was also rumored to be haunted by revelers of the past...and I believe it. You would walk down one of the empty cars and feel cold spots...I see dead people!

We were so sad when they shut their doors some time last year. We thought the rail cars were doomed, so we went down south one Sunday, hopped the fence and started shooting (photos) before they tore the relic down. Here are the highlights on Flickr.


The silver lining is that they actually did not tear Andy's down. The Andy's complex is still there. Unfortunately, they painted over the beautiful cars, bastardized the brilliant sign and turned it into a bad Chinese food place called "Oriental Express". The interior is still very much intact, which we feel thankful for. Hopefully these cars will remain a part of Seattle for many more years to come...it'll never be Andy's again though...thanks for the memories Andy...