I was recently commissioned to redesign the website and look for Skata Products. They’re a fairly new company that specializes in eco-friendly wallpaper-free solutions for beautifying any interior space, particularly with their Decorative Wall Stamp.
Photo taken at the Bride World Expo in Los Angeles
This weekend has been full of wedding planning adventures, food, beer, wine and of course, good friends. I am super tired and am planning to camp out in this Irvine Coffee Bean until 5:30pm this evening until I meet up with my coworker to see 311 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at 7pm. That was a long sentence. That’s what happens when I’m exhausted. It’s ok though. It was worth it.
Friday night our friend (and fellow bridesmaid) flew down from San Francisco and landed 40 minutes early! This never happens! Anyway, we picked her up and headed to the Yardhouse in Long Beach where we drank beers and caught up (even though I had seen SF friend two weeks ago). We had a great time, even though our waitress forgot about us for about half an hour (or longer). I was too delirious at that point to tell time. Everything was funny. Pretty much all weekend I could not stop laughing.
Saturday we headed over to the Bride World Expo at the LA Convention Center. Word on the street was that it is the “largest bridal expo in California.” We were not that impressed. We all agreed that it didn’t feel like 200 vendors were in attendance. We did get some free cake samples though. I like anything that’s free. The best cake sample was a yummy taro cake.
The rest of the weekend flew by crazy fast. Onto the new week!
As you are aware, I’m not at home today, so I don’t have my sewing machine handy, BUT I will be posting a super super quick project tomorrow inspired by this photo from The Sartorialist:
Photo by The Sartorialist
Perhaps you can guess what the project will be? Eh? Eh? That will be coming at ya tomorrow evening. So get ready for it!
In other news, I have been dedicating a lot of time lately to modifying, building, and writing for TV Rots Your Mind Grapes.
It’s our new baby. Marissa is the co-creator of this super fun project, and an excellent writer. We love TV, particularly good TV and like to write about it. You should check it out! We just started it this week; the blog will get juicier as it ripens. (Ha!) I crack myself up.
Yogi tea is pretty much amazing. If you don’t drink it already… what the heck is wrong with you. Just kidding. It’s a little early. I think it was my old roomie Kate who introduced me to the wonderful world of Yogi. I think the first tea I tried was Women’s Moon Cycle. I am now a regular drinker of the Detox and Kava Stress Relief varieties. Good for the body and mind. I decided to find their website the other day to send my mom some info, and I was pleasantly surprised to find what I believe was a BEAUTIFUL site for their products. Simple, elegant, and peaceful. Really great, detailed illustration, and nice flash animation on the first page. Not overwhelming with motion graphics, just simple and effective.
Also… a quick tip I received from my coworker the other day. If you use Firefox (and you should, as it is the superior web browser), you should download this plugin, FireShot: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648 It’s a quick and easy way to capture screenshots (like the one above). It’s as simple as clicking a button in your web browser, it then opens a preview window, and then you can edit and save the screeshot. Pretty awesome. I recommend.
Happy Thursday everyone!
A good friend of mine works with FACTS (Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes), and asked me to make a site for their tenth annual benefit. This was a pretty exciting project for me. I made the site in Flash, which was really good practice, and I absolutely love doing work for non-profits and small businesses. It makes me happy to help them achieve their goals, and I feel like my time will, in the end, help better someone’s life. I know it’s a stretch, but non-profits just make me feel all gooey inside.
I just emailed my files to Radical Designs (who are hosting the site). Ahhhh, I’m so relieved that this project is finished. On to the next one!
In keeping updated with the web world, I have a handful of credible, wonderful sites/blogs I read on a daily basis. One of which is Best Web Gallery. Maintained by the same guy who writes Web Designer Wall, this is a great way to see the latest and greatest in web design. Today, my attention was brought to this site:
Power to the Poster which, obviously, is a well designed site, BUT it’s the mission of the site that pulled me in. Anyone can download their political posters for FREE, and utilize them to make the members of their communities think about the issues we are facing as a nation. I love it.
THEN I stumbled upon Smashing Magazine’s feature for today, which ties into this whole concept of sharing our thoughts or showcasing ideas in a public space.
Although, sometimes grafitti is not always 100% political, I think that the simple act of reaching outside of social norms and utilizing space that is not meant to be utilized for expression is in and of itself making a bold statement. A very brave one, at that.
This idea of rebellion got me thinking of one of my favorite anarchist collectives, Crimethinc Ex-Workers Collective. Although I cannot forsee ever not having a job and being content with that (unless the U.S. decides to provide Universal Healthcare, which it should), I really respect Crimethinc and admire what they do. They’re such a giving group of people. I’ve probably written about them before. They don’t care about profits, or publicity, all they want to do is spread their message of ultimate autonomy. One of my favorite books Off the Map was purchased from their website (for a measly $2, seriously! seriously awesome), and not only did I get a handful of free posters, stickers and zines, someone from Crimethinc wrote me a handwritten message thanking me for my purchase. I can’t say enough good things about them and the work that they do for no money. Again, love it.
Lastly, going with my theme of bad-ass-ness, I think more people should know about the SPRFKR line of apparel. Why more people aren’t as crazy about them as I am is a mystery to me. I am a plain kind of girl, but the only graphic apparel I seem to like and want to support is SPRFKR.
Their illustrations are amazing, and I love that they don’t put their label name all over their clothing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy paying money to be a walking billboard for clothing companies. And that is why I like SPRFKR. Good design. Smart design. Great conversation starters.
