Rehabilitated Dishware.

Rehabilitated Dishware by Sarah Cihat is an exercise is sustainability that reincarnates existing products. Used or unwanted ceramics are redesigned and resurfaced then presented as new collections. Interesting designs and modern colors enliven the dish, extending its life cycle past the thrift store or overstock pile. Rehabilitated Dishware is a subtle statement of the importance of recycling and the renewed value of unwanted things.


The process begins by buying dishware from various second-hand stores, such as Goodwill and Salvation Army, or rummaging through reject piles at retail stores. The dishes are then glazed and refired. Most are priced between $34 and $59.


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Paper Monkey Press.

Being a graphic designer I really appreciate a well thought out business card. I love seeing something that makes me wish I had created it myself. These are the things that you tend to save and tuck away in an Idea File or inthe back of your mind (or if you’re me, both).


That’s exactly how i felt when I saw this business card for Laura Suzanne Foote by Paper Monkey Press. It’s beautiful and ingenious. Mission accomplished.

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Blackboard Paint.


Up until now I’ve not been a huge fan of blackboard paint used in adult environments (i.e. outside of a kid’s room). I don’t know, maybe I just associate it way too closely with that nails on a chalkboard sound. But I think Ikea finally did it right by painting all vertical surfaces in a kitchen with the paint. Or maybe it’s that really hot stainless steel refrigerator right in the middle. Fine. It’s a combination of the two.

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The Cupcake Deck.

I am a cupcake connoisseur. I love baking them, I love buying them and I love eating them.


The Cupcake Deck is really cool because you don’t have to worry about lugging out an entire cookbook, propping it open, keeping it clean… You get the idea. You can just pull out one of the 25 cards and go to town! No worries, just lovely cupcakes. You can buy your own set for $14.95 here at Amazon.

(On a separate note, I think that this may also be a book and that I already own it. Hmmm….)

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A Fanciful Twist.

Vanessa Valencia of A Fanciful Twist is simply this: amazing. Her art is completely beautiful and terrifying all at the same time to me. She has such a variety from original art, prints, greeting cards, ceramics all the way to jewelry. Take a look and let me know what you think. You can purchase her work online at her Etsy shop.



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Rare Device: Necklaces.

What is Rare Device? (Besides and awesome store in Brooklyn.) If you are an English major or an English teacher, you know that ‘Rare Device’ is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan. (If you are a true bookworm, you know that Ray Bradbury took a stab at that phrase too.)

Rare Device is, simply, good stuff for you and your home. Rena Tom, the creator, is a former jewelry and graphic designer who loves design. Every object in the store has its own story, and has been chosen because it is either handmade, well-designed, useful, beautiful or all of the above.

I’ve been semi-obsessed with this Razorblade Necklace ($110) for almost a year now. It comes on a 16″ sterling chain and isn’t sharp enough to cut, sorry.


This Currant Necklace ($60) is a little bit closer to my price range. It’s made from thin, recycled stainless steel and sterling silver.

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Magazine Envelopes.


A few days ago I came across someone on Etsy selling homemade envelopes. Seeing them made countless memories of summer camp in Ligonier, PA come rushing back to the forefront of my mind. Not only did I spend two weeks of my summer at Camp Ligonier for three years in a row, but it’s also where I met my first legitimate boyfriend, Adam. This was back in the day before email had really arrived, so we wrote letters back and forth after the two weeks were over. Adam’s letters to me always arrived in envelopes ripped from the pages of Rolling Stone and Spin. My boyfriend was. So. Cool. Magazines became a new outlet for creativity – instead of reading the articles I immediately flipped through the pages looking for the perfect page that was coincidentally centered so I could fold one rockin’ envelope.

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Amy Jean Porter.

Amy Jean Porter is an awesome artist I’ve come across lately in My Search for Amazing, Life-Altering Art and Design (if i said that out loud, it would echo with immense importance). Her drawings, some of which resemble pencil and crayon mediums, make me think of what Napoleon Dynamite may have done with his career had the Liger made it big.

My favorites are the antelope jackrabbit (jackelope perhaps?) and the jaguar which is strangely Liger-esque. Don’t miss the best part – at the bottom right hand corners. The jackelope reads, “There’s something savant-like about you” and the jaguar, “Man, you’ve got good-looking handwriting.”


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How to know when you’ve done a good ad.

I love this…

It’s not an easy thing to know. A good ad isn’t like a ball everyone sees sail over the fence for a homerun. Or a kiss, that when it’s over your eyes open on someone else’s heat. A good ad is a tricky, slippery, evasice beast that doesn’t like to be caught, won’t stand still, won’t come out when called. A good ad is a greased pig when it comes time to put your hands on one. Masters of disguise, good ads sneak out of you in bars, the shower, dreams, even in advertising meetings, and run away to lost pages in your workbook or torn up sheets in office wastebaskets. There are even good ads that hide inside other ads and remain unrecognized even when shown on television. (Heck, there’s likely a good ad hiding inside this one.) Some people think you can only tell a good ad when it appears in an advertising award show. Some people would say theonly good ad is one that “sells product.” Whether or not these are helpful identifiers of what makes a good ad good is not the point here. (I would say emphatically they are not.) What we’re interested in is how do you know – the moment you’ve done it – when you’ve done a good ad. How do you decide to stop writing, talking ot thinking and grab the little bastard before he makes a getaway, pin him down on the floor and call for the creative director? One word. There’s one word that, if it fairly describes your ad, tells you you’re done. It’s not honesty though that’s an excellent virtue good ads often contain. It’s not funny or provocative or wow or … The word is art. In my gentle opinion, the word is art. An indefinable monster of a word that means something slightly different to each person is the secret to good advertising. When you’ve made art, stop. Until you have, don’t. I believe it’s that simple.

(stolen from Mark Fenske)

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Essimar.

Essimar (at Etsy) had some of the most adorable “mini” cards – the Pink Citrus Mini Card set to be exact. Two mini cards (2.5 x 4″) and two mini envelopes for $6.50. All silk-screened and printed by hand. Reminds me of summery goodness!



I’m also really into the Tea Chat cards. Get a set of four in peach, lilac, pink and white with matching envelopes for $12.

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