Inspiration things

I found this beautiful book on traditional Japanese design at the bookstore the other day and promptly ordered it from the library when I got home (the thrifty persons friend). Well designed and crafted useful objects make me feel so happy and content. As time goes on I'm less interested in having a lot of bric-a-brac that doesn't serve a purpose around me, and I'm more interested in having the useful things that I have also be beautiful (I count "making me happy" as a purpose though, so I still have some bric-a-brac). Anyway, I was just about drooling over some of the pages in this book. These are some of my favorites from Katachi:

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Freckled Magazine

Open publication - Free publishing - More 2011

I was asked to contribute some images to this lovely online magazine. Freckled features photography, writing, traditional art forms, fashion and music, there is so much prettiness! Please take a look!

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Bread & Work

I finally tried the NY Times No-Kneed Bread, which I've been meaning to for ages. Sure enough, like it's supposed to, it turned out perfect.

I also made muffins to snack on during my late afternoon energy crash. At the beginning of this week I said "I'm going to bake a different kind of bread every day this week!". And I pretty much have! Good thing I'm running a lot...

I got some little bird visitors.

This drawing in progress.


This angry little dog drawing is for sale in my store!

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This Is My Home

This Is My Home from Mark on Vimeo.

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Weekend Excursions

This past weekend my friend Sarah & I decided to take a little road trip to Eugine to visit a special hellebore nursery that was having an open day and plant sale. I turned out to be the most perfect spring day, with sunshine and everything! The nursery had wonderful landscaped gardens full of early spring flowers. It was a lovely day!




I think hellebores are nice, some people get really crazy about them, but I did end up buying one, it's called "Black Diamond".

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Logo

I did this lettering for a coffee shop in Detroit some time ago & realized I never posted about it. I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to logos, like I don't know how to make text look very computer polished (anything I can do in photoshop I've taught myself, which only gets you so far), so I usually tell people they might want to get someone else for that part, but I love, love, coming up with ideas and working on them.

This is a little logo I thought up for a made up company. I wonder what they sell? Possibly brine shrimp.

Also, I wanted to let you know that I'm having a sale in my store this week: FREE SHIPPING on all brooches.

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Drawing

I've had that little rhyme going round in my head for a while. It's from a 16th century ring inscription, and pictures of it keep showing up on my Tumblr and Pinterest feeds. I wanted to experiment with some things and this drawing is what came out of it, I'm pleased!

Also! I've added two new prints to my store: You can now get a print of "Couple" and "Babes in The Woods", hooray!

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Green Things Valentine's Day Edition

It's been rainy again, the ferns love it.


Yard chickens. I live in kind of a fancy neighborhood and I like it that even here you can come upon a flock of chickens roaming the streets fairly often.

I started a ton of paperwhite bulbs. They're going slow because my apartment is North facing, but that's okay, they'll last longer.

I got the most wonderful surprise flowers from my Valentine! I love those red beany things.

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Beautiful little film

out of sight from kynight on Vimeo.

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Februaryness

There was a heart in my homemade latte the other day. It just happened like that!

While flipping though the latest issue of Anthology magazine I noticed a copy of Menagerie in one one of the shots of Chloe Fleury's studio. It's still exciting for me to see it places, I worked on that book!

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Letters

Practicing some lettering for fun. I actually get asked to do a lot of logotypes & wedding invites, which has helped improve my hand drawn lettering, but I'd always like to get better. Plus it's fun. I always give myself a lot of grief for not doing "real work", so I never let myself just play around as much as I should. Even though I know that's how you grow and make discoveries and improve techniques. I'm trying to get better about that. The whole theme of this year is going to be "stop feeling guilty".

I've decided to start selling boxes of assorted cards, as well as single cards, in my store. I don't know why I didn't offer that option before now actually! At any rate you can now buy a box of six different designs, or a box of six Thank Yous.

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Green Things & some shop news

"Green Things" is becoming a regular feature on my blog I think. I can't help it, I love plants, especially this gray time of year. The sun has been out & its been warm the past few days & it's been refreshing to say the least, I'm really excited for spring.

I've been starting every morning with a green smoothy: coconut water, mango, celery, spinach, kale, ginger. So good!



Down to business: I'm afraid because the Post Office raised it's shipping rates I too have had to raise my shipping. Domestic orders and orders to Canada wont notice much, but international orders have gone way up, and I'm sorry for that!

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Monday Mornings

Because they are Aradan's days off Sunday & Monday have become my weekend days as well. This Monday I got up enough energy to make pancakes from scratch, and it turns out it's so easy, I'm never buying a mix again! Rather than syrup we used honey and blueberry-lemon-basil jam made by friends. I love leisurely weekend breakfasts.

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