little days

a while ago I was searching for some nice, cursive fonts for my computer that sort of resembled my own handwriting. (read: a mix between cursive and print which is at times illegible). In my search I found this lovely guy called Little Days, which I use for HH tags. It is available for free download here.



I'm not super crazy about a lot of the upper-case letters of this font, but if you're like me and look at capitalization only as a suggestion (unless it's for business or when I'm writing-writing), it won't really be a problem.

hair model

Here I am in Kindergarten, sporting a very awesome hair do. In fact, this is the goal I have in mind while growing my hair out. It's only been a year since my hair officially grew out of the long-pixie cut and it's already at my shoulders, if not past it. Sometimes I miss having short hair because I could wash it only once a week and I never had to brush it, but then I look at this picture and my goals are reinforced: I want my five year old hair back.

"real" virginia

as a former Virginian, and specifically northern Virginian, I seriously took offense to Nancy Pfotenhauer's (geesh, what a name!) take on what "real" Virginia is:



But much to Nancy Pfotentooter's chagrin, it looks It'll be the first time since 1964 that Virginia went blue, with Obama leading in the polls 52% to 44%. This Fake Virginian will have the last laugh after all!

fashion/function

Driving in the car the other day, I spotted this chick wearing high heels and cruising around on a scooter. Where am I, Italy?





Don't you just love my blurry paparrazi shots?


anyway I always loved the impracticality of wearing heels while riding a bike, but I never do it anymore because: a) I don't wear heels now that I've moved to TX (even though I could, Tom is 3 inches taller than me!) and b) wearing heels while riding a cruiser is cute. wearing heels while riding a road bike is just kinda dumb.

i love halloween

like most people it's my favorite holiday and i do have some big plans for pumpkins and costumes, but right now i'm up to my knees in business-related business stuff. you know... the other side of owning two small businesses. ugh.

I will have something fun to post on here from Haunted Housewares, little mini things if you will, within a couple of days. HH will also be undergoing a total revamp, which is how the other part of today is going to be spent.

Since I have nothing crafty to offer you, I leave you with these cute little printable cards from The Black Apple

(click on picture for a link)

how cute is that? It's in a pdf form so you can use em as invitations or something. If my apartment wasn't the size of my foot, you can bet I'd be having a carving party.

ikea

this is really freakin cute little kids chair:


and this (which I can't find on the website) could be made using bleach and a black lampshade a la the diy acid wash jeans

sales

In some exciting news, pommes frites had our first sale (it is strange to me to say "our" because it's just "me") - the in memory of jfk book you can see two posts below. Holla! I also posted a new book that also had a gun carved into it - check it out here.

And if you're in Austin, you can stop by East End Craft Gallery at 11th and Navasota to pick up some awesome Texas shaped pillows from Haunted Housewares.

port aransas, tx

This past weekend, Tom and I went to Port Aransas, TX. We left after I got off work on Saturday and drove back last night, making the total time spent in Port Aransas about 25 hours, but here's what we worked in: bought neon sunglasses at the corner store, made a bonfire on the beach, got kicked out of the hot tub by the angry old front desk man, ate fried shrimp, walked through a giant shark's mouth, swam in the gulf of mexico, hunted for seashells and broken fragments of sand dollars, played dice on the beach while drinking miller chill, tried to take a ferry, made another bonfire on the beach, cooked brats and smores over the fire, drank a fruity drink out of a pineapple. october in texas, not so bad!

cutie patootie

from etsy seller ulmer.

more books

New books up over in the Pommes Frites shop...

in memory of JFK


the secret diary of harold l. ickes

a peek

Here is a glimpse into the current show at Art House, called Reset/Play.


Above is the piece I spend most of my day staring at - it's in a nook slightly behind the entrance and the desk. Brody Condon made this piece which is a graceful mix of technicolor video games and Flemish paintings. It's awesome, and unlike every other piece in the exhibit, does not make noise.


Eddo Stern created this piece (called best.. flame war... ever...) by using dialogue from a (real) fued from an Everquest messageboard. One guy calls the other a "noob" and the dialogue progresses with the two players trying to out-masculate (i made up a word!) the other. The "masks" are meticulously created out of Everquest pieces.


This was done by a young artist, Guthrie Lonergan. He reprogrammed Microsoft Paint in the form of a video game, so that you are actually altering the game as you play - painting, erasing items, etc. You can change the whole scene to a "night" scene, collect jewels, and fight dark-robed villains.

sunday

as some of you may know, my previous incarnation was a blog called 'i hate sundays.' it's funny then, that this post is about the most perfect sunday ever. well, how can you hate 'em when they look like this:



mason jar mimosas, home made hash browns, fake bacon, gimme lean, and a veggie/egg/cheesy scramble





It was Tom and mine's first (whole) day off together for a bit so we slept in, cooked brunch, watched tv and went for a cute little walk on Mount Bonnell, the highest point in Austin. Per usual I wore incredibly inappropriate shoes (pointy toed flats) and (my new favorite) dress for clamoring up the "hiking" trail of mount bonnell (hiking is just really walking on rocks and an incline) but when have i been known to dress "comfortably"?

stick a bow on it

I admit it: I am a girl obsessed.

The latest diy piece I did over a Paper Dolls is a tutorial on making your own interchangeable bow-tie. (what's the interchangeable part? It doubles as a headband, silly) (ps no one does bow headbands or head pieces in general like Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl. Yeah, I watch it. I admit it freely and openly.)

Even as I type this I sit with a little bow headband in my hair. It's the accessory that inspired me to make my own... I got it at Forever 21 when I still lived in NY. The bow has come out of the middle piece on one side and is held in with a straight pin, and the whole bow apparatus is merely glued on to the headband piece. How crappy... anyway wanted to find something to do with all that extra plaid we have leftover from state pillows>, and this seemed like a good solution.

Another good solution? (we're getting off topic here) Check back at Haunted Housewares in about a week for little treat!

But back to bows: I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but for some reason I really want a bow necklace. I have been doing some serious cruising on etsy because of this, and here are my finds...



I was kind of thinking of doing a vintage mesh bow with a nice long chain. Although, I don't necessarily feel like drilling holes and putting something together...



I like this but the chain doesn't look too good and the pictures on etsy tell me nothing.



This is actually not bad at all... but just goes to show you might hesitate to buy something based on the etsy picture... in this one I can't really get a good feel for how big it is, and the description says there is a nice pattern on the surface of the bow, but you can't see it. On the flip side, they say they'll adjust the length for you.

Maybe I'll just make a bowtie on my own out of some gold fabric. Someday...

in transit

One major thing I miss about nyc/brooklyn is all the street art, from neckface to smalltime graffiti tags to wheat pasted posters and gallery-quality murals. I used to find these signs all over Williamsburg that said "Doo Wop Singers Wanted" and listed a number to call. They were written on pages torn out from paperbacks. I never found out if it was some RISDI kid doing a social experiment or someone who seriously wanted to form a doowop group. I didn't call.

I would have love to have seen some of these in the subway... they're made by an artist who uses a razor blade to mishmash billboards and the like on nyc transit.

read more about it over at new york magazine.

sweet dreams

One day I want a wrought iron bed like this...



Ikea has something similar. These beds are really only between $150 and $200, which makes them affordable, but I'm wondering how good of quality they are.

Flower Power

'scuze the cheesy name, but I couldn't help it. This past week I've been kinda obsessed with the idea of bikes-as-planters, especially old vintage bikes that have been painted and sat out in the yard. Here are some of my favorite flower-bike images from flickr...

Bike Basket Bouquet
Originally uploaded by scampion

"share more " cycle
Originally uploaded by vintage.olio

Bicycle with Flowers, Rhinebeck, New York
Originally uploaded by Jeff Wignall

"flower" cycle
Originally uploaded by vintage.olio

flower bike
Originally uploaded by Henri Bonell

Originally uploaded by Tina Keller

You could also always keep it low key with some plastic flowers woven into your basket...

Quintessential Copenhageness
Originally uploaded by velomama

I no longer have a basket, or even a cruiser, but I not-so-secretly want one so I can ride it to the grocery store or library and stack it full of loaves of bread and hardback novels. (because I will instantly be transported to '70s Paris, duh)

I was at the bike store the other day and I couldn't help ringing the different bells (I'm sure they loved that) and gushing over pink streamers and plastic baskets. and, for the record, this isn't some sort of childhood regression: my bike growing up was a bright purple and pink-paint-splattered mountain bike.