One of my favorite artists is Frida Kahlo. I even visited her exhibition in Philidelphia last year! Frida had a tragic life, but remained strong and confident nonethless. So, it’s no surprise I’m in love with this children’s book aptly called Frida (somehow I managed to own the Spanish Language Edition, along with the adorable Frida plush doll).

The book describes Frida’s life loosley, poetically, and non-didactically, but the most dashing aspect is the beautiful paintings by Ana Juan. I love her take on Frida as a child, and especially love Frida’s skull-stuffed doll (I wish they had that for sale!):

The book is by Jonah Winter, who has written a plethora of  other children’s books about famous people (I really want to read The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven).

My mom always found a way to teach her children about famous artists in a way that would make sense to us and we would understand, and I think this is a great way to be introduced to one of the most famous female artists in the world. Of course, I’m not a child anymore, and have read much on the history of Frida, and still find it a wonderful book!

So I’ve been MIA because I took a visit home, & now I am sick : (. But while I was home, I went through some of my favorite children’s books, taking lots of pictures!, so I could post them here.

This week I thought I’d feature an out of print book called My Head is Full of Colors by Catherine Friend. (If you want a copy, you should troll half.com, amazon.com, and the like.) (more…)

In my effort to see more “New York City things” before I leave NYC (sniff, sniff), I finally went up the beckoning steps of the New York Public Library.

“Where are the books?” my friend and I asked when we entered. It looked like a museum with all of its marble and stodgy portraits and professional exhibits (AND I did not know the Gutenburg Bible was there! I will have to go back!). Eventually, we found the books, as well as the secret reason I wanted to visit in the first place:

YES. That is the REAL, original Winnie-the-Pooh (aka Edward Bear) and his friends, Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet (now we know why he is so small!), and Tiger. These are the actual toys Christopher Robin Milne were given as a gift from his father, A.A. Milne. The only lost friend is Roo (in an Apple Orchard), since Rabbit and Owl were invented. They were apparently well-played with, both by Christopher and the family dog.

Of course, since I was IN the children’s section, I had to take a quick look around. It’s not the children’s book area of my dreams (or the library of my dreams), but it’s still pretty cool. The murals were superb, and after a million years of internet research, I discovered the artist is Susy Pilgrim Waters (whose style reminds me a lot of Miroslav Sasek — unless that’s just because they are drawings of New York). Tucked away into her web-site, I found an image of all the mural panels:

I happen to really like the Guggenheim (not always the art inside of it, but the shape, which I feel as if I should be allowed to rollerskate down):

Anyway, The New York Public Library (this is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, which is on 42nd and 5th next to Bryant Park) is *free* and open to the public, and also a good set of steps to sit down and eat lunch on : ). Check the hours before taking a trip!

I have no time for witticisms and preambles! This is going to be short + sweet! I’m a woman on a mission! (If you see less of me this week, it’s all because of Number Five.)

(1) Jack Kerouac’s Invented Game of Fantasy Sports: Read the NY Time article (GO!). This is especially interesting if you are a writer or other creative-type who has an active imagination, even as an adult.

(2) Cute Outfit: Of all of the things I have seen on the internet lately, this outfit has been on my desktop waiting for me to do something with it. All I could do with it was stick it here. I found it on NYLON (which generally does a shitty job of linking to anything helpful, and which I will follow suit in in the interest of time).

(3) Twitter & Threadless: They have teamed up to turn your Tweets into Twats. Er. I mean, shirts. Just link up your twitter account with the Twitter/Threadless conglomerate, and you can nominate the tweets of yourself or your friends for T-shirt fame.

(4) Free Coldplay CD: Ahhh, I was skeptical as to the quality of something so audaciously free, but I actually like some of the live versions better than the studios. My favorite song is “Death Will Never Conquer” (in a rare change of events, the drummer, Will Champion, sings this folksy ditty). Literally, I have been playing through this + Tricia’s Lilly Allen recommendation for three days straight.

(5) The Dictionary: I am reading it. For real. Cover to cover. Six+ hours a day. And taking notes. It is exhausting. (I am scheduled to finish in one month if I continue at this rate.)

(6) The Little Prince: It’s true, as a lover of children’s books I probably should have read The Little Prince sometime long before last week. You’ll be happy to know that now that I have read it, I understand why everyone is obsessed! Such a lovely, deep story. (Go flip through it on Google Books if you haven’t read it!) A little internet research lead to the discovery that James Dean (I heart him also, btw) also loved the book, and had many passages memorized.

Remember when I claimed Ray Fenwick was my boyfriend? Well, he still isn’t, but he does happen to have a library show tonight in Toronto (1086 Queen Street West, 6pm). If you can’t get there by plane, train, or automobile (or bike, we’re trying to save the environment!) then you can check out the whole library collection here. Then you can check out his awesome coordinating letterpress print (at least it looks letterpressy to me).

Finally, I was just re-surfing his GLORIOUS web-page, and found this painting set about finger & toenails,

which reminds me of Maira Kalman’s beautiful, rambling Op-Art in the NYTimes. Maybe these two should get together. (Sigh. Always a bridesmaid!)

First of all, YES I made a Catcher in the Rye wallpaper / desktop background! YES I am still painting books. What are you going to do?! I read, write, and paint books. I can’t help it!!! (If you don’t like books, you can check out some various other Unemployment Projects here.)

Second of all, you can click on the above picture and you’ll get a much larger version, that YES would be *especially* perfect as a desktop background if you happen to have a 15″ Mac Book Pro, though I am sure it can be usable in other formats, especially if you just use the all-over design below.

Or, if you are unemployed, you can just go off and make your very own wallpaper, like me. The best part is you can tailor your paper to your exact needs and likes! For example, I started with the overall print (below) and then realized I HATE OVERALL PRINTS because all of my icons, which I keep on the right half of the screen, get visually lost. So, I made a new version (above) which has a clear side for my personal convenience.

Here is a larger version of the above wallpaper in case you need larger (just clicky):

Anyway, here’s a How To if you want to make your own book wallpaper like mine. As usual, I will stress that you can have very little drawing / painting ability to get something cool. For example, I have this brush which mightaswell be a collection of twenty bristly dog hairs. It’s horrible. And stumpy. No one should ever paint with it. Yet I do. Because I do not have another little brush. I actually cut it all up with scissors to make it smaller. It’s awful. Moral: Professionals need not apply.

You will need:

• Photoshop or other some-such program
• Scanner or possibly a camera
• Paint or artsy supplies
• Book you are obsessed with (must have simple background if you want it to be easy, dirty and creased is acceptable!)
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1. Paint a picture of your book. Ugly and miss-sized is okay. It will most likely look cute later. Let dry, then scan.
2. Scan the real book.
3. Use Photoshop to combine covers. For example, this is how I combined my covers. I used the Magic Wand Tool to cutout the background from the painted book, and then I used the Clone Stamp Tool to get rid of the words and designs of the real book. Then I put the painted book on top of the real book. (I did this in pieces, so I could re-size each piece.)
4. Fashion your layout. Make a page the same pixel size as your desktop. Group your combined book together (but save copies of it ungrouped!) and lay it out as you will, using different elements to spice it up as you like. For example, I used my rainbow in the upper corner of my first wallpaper and I also used the Eyedrop Tool to take the slightly-yellowed book-background for my wallpaper background. As I was doing this, I thought about all the awesome book screens in the Royal Tenenbaums movie:
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Yasmine just put up the newest issue of Parasol Magazine. I liked #1 but with #2… I am really in love. Honestly. THERE ARE CUPCAKES ON THE COVER (see picture below).

Consider this. It is 5:30 am and I am writing a post on this even though I have a combination of a headache & insomnia & the magazine was issued less than two hours ago.

It’s up in both an online Issuu version and a downloadable pdf. Download the pdf, yo. Above are some of the highlights, a little taster-sample so you will think, my god!!!!!!!, I need one of these myself! You WILL need one — it will inspire you to be creative, eat cupcakes, wear vintage jewelry, cute shoes, and paint pictures with rainbows. Bestest of all, it’s so ridiculously free there is no reason not to get it!

Okay, okay…this post has been coming for some time, but after getting the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living, I just couldn’t put it off any longer. Little known fact about Lorraine: I am currently obsessed with Martha Stewart. From her awesome packaging design (I would LOVE to work for them…are you listening Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia??) to her line of crafts, from her cute kitchen line at Macy’s to my recent discovery of her Martha Stewart Living magazine, I am in love. In love with the fresh colors, the helpful mom/grandma-like tips for ironing, and the easy decor ideas from her craft line. If I weren’t already a designer, I’d buy all of her wedding stationary at the first sign of an engagement ring. (It’s nowhere in site, but heck, I may just do that anyways for a party!)

So without further ado, Good Things I LOVE:

1. Her Logo. (I know, I’m a total design nerd…) I fell in love with it last fall while reading this Case Study on AIGA’s Voice blog. Check out the sweet logo patterned on gray at the bottom.
2. Her Packaging. Every time I walk into our Michaels, the Martha Stewart Craft line is right there inside the doors. Love the color-scheme, the polka-dots, how clean and organized, yet hip it looks. (again with the design-nerd-stuff…I know…) Love that they highlighted “ART” in “MARTHA”.
3. Her Crafts. I absolutely adore her crafts: hip, cheap, chic! Her craft page alone is enough to inspire, but then I saw the above Easter eggs on the cover of the latest magazine. Who knew eggs could be so hip? She also has a craft blog full of inspiration.
4. Her Kitchen Line. I’m totally jealous of my mom’s aqua colander that she got at Macy’s: it’s so cute! Seriously, the thought of a matching aqua kitchen set is almost enough to get me to learn how to cook. Almost… (I’ll get there one day, don’t worry…)
5. Her Decorating Ideas. I know these poof-balls are meant for parties and weddings and such, but I’m seriously tempted to decorate an apartment with them. You can get the kit at Michaels or just follow the instructions here. (They also come in aqua, so I could make it match the aqua kitchen I don’t have.)

And as the finishing touch, Martha reported on her visit to Prague in the latest issue of Living. Seriously: big brownie points in my book for featuring the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic. (Now if only she would just invite my grandma on to the show to share how Grandma bakes authentic Czech pastries such as kolaches. Yum!)

Happy Friday! I will be gone to good ol’ North Carolina next week, but perhaps Tricia & Lorraine will keep you company while I’m away! Here is just a little-something before I depart : ).

Remember that post where I RAVED about the UK-based magazine Anorak (The Happy Magazine for Kids)? WELL, I STILL LOVE IT. And I have a subscription (yes, I am a very big kid).

It is almost weird, though, it is sort of like they made the magazine just for me. It always contains bright colors and is beautifully designed. The last issue was ALL about chocolate, my favorite food. And the current issue, I kid you not!, is about WORDS, which I am obsessed with. That sounds very general, I know, but it’s not! I’m a writer, and I actually read the “Word of the Day” from dictionary.com and write down the words!

Anyway, so here is just a small excerpt from this week’s issue with my answers filled-in!

Feel free to answer any or all of the questions in the comment section! & check-out Anorak because they make me smileeee.

1. What’s your favorite word? Deipnosophist. That is, someone who is skilled at table talk. That was the word of the day on Thanksgiving two years ago. And yes, it is very obscure.
2. What’s the cheesiest word? Cheese. I really think it’s a cheesy word, and not even in a corny or ironic way. I hate when people say things like, “Oh look at all that cheese” when they are watching something like Full House.
3. What’s the funniest word? Spoonerism. This was the Word of the Day on Monday. It is “a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect.” For example, if you said “sew you to your sheet” instead of “show you to your seat.” It’s called a “spoonerism” because some Reverend Spooner apparently did this all of the time.
4. What’s the nicest word someone ever used to describe you? I like when people call me creative. Or unique. And they really mean it.
5. What’s the word you repeat the most? Probably “the” or “a” or even “cool” but apparently I also have been known to say “random” a lot. As in, “that is so random” or “so the other day I was randomly watching this mock-Billy May’s YouTube video.”
6. What’s the word you wish you had invented? Schadenfreude. This is an awesome word which means “to feel pleasure at another person’s pain or misery.” You know you’ve felt it.

When you are unemployed, or just trying to go green, it’s important to remember to the second of the 3 R’s: Reuse. In order to use up some scraps I had lying around my “studio,” I decided to make them into a sketchbook and thought I’d share with everyone how I did it.

Materials:

1. Scissors or X-acto Knife/Ruler
2. 10-12 sheets of Letter-sized paper (I used paper from my recycling bin that had only been printed on one side.)
3. Scraps of chip board or matboard
4. Old file-folders or card stock
5. Spray-mount or rubber cement
6. Old wrapping paper or wallpaper, etc for the cover

Step 1: Fold Your Paper
If using paper with printing/writing on one side like I did, fold it in half like a hamburger so that the clean side is to the outside. Stack all of your sheets together with the folded edges to the same side.

Step 2: Cut Your Covers
I used old matboard that I had lying around, but you could also use something flimsier. (If you go thicker, it will be too hard to bind…) Since my inside pages were 5.5 x 8.5″, I cut my covers to be 5.75 x 8.75″ to give 1/8″ border on the top/bottom edges when bound.

Step 3: Cover Your Cover
Laying your front cover down on your decorative paper (I used left-over Adhesive Wrapping Paper I had lying around from a press kit I developed for Hallmark), trace the cover of your book and leave about 1/4″ to wrap around the edges. Cut it out. Then, with your heavy cover centered on your decorative paper, cut a triangle off at each corner like so:

Spray adhesive to one side of your heavy cover and to the reverse side of your decorative paper. Center the two adhesive sides together and wrap the decorative paper’s edges around the cover as such:

Step 4: Cut Out and Adhere the Endpaper
Use your back cover to trace out an endpaper on the old file folder.

Spray with spray adhesive and mount on inside of front cover. This should ensure your decorative paper doesn’t come unattached.

Step 5: Bind Your Notebook/Sketchbook
Stack your book pieces together in this order: back cover, folded paper, front cover. The open ends of the folded paper should all line up on the edge that is spiral bound. Either take to Kinko’s or bind by hand: I prefer a wire coil as such:

Step 5: Use Your Book
Not sure what to do with it? Might I suggest referring to UE Project 1 and 3 (Make a Portrait of a Portrait and Make a Portrait of Your Bookshelf) for starting points?