Back From the Time of Vacation

Feeling a little slow and fuzzy this week as I try to get back into the swing of things after vacation. We went to Cancun, where it was very, very, hot with hardly a cloud in the sky. Oven hot. Wring out your socks hot. Fry an egg on your forehead hot. But the snorkeling was great so it was all worth it. We had a couple of little glitches with United for the return flight, but after reading this and this (via BoingBoing) about what has come to be known as the Poop Plane, I'm really counting my blessings and thinking we didn't have it so bad after all.

More To Love About M&M's

As if being the website for a yummy chocolate candy wasn't enough, the M&M's website has lots of fun things to see and do. I usually don't plug advertising but I just love the M&M's Addams Family commercial. It is finger-snapping good. Another great diversion on this page is the Find 50 Dark Movies Hidden In A Painting. It is a great way to test your memory of scary movie titles. If you are feeling creative you can create your own M&M character. Making yourself into an M&M character is fun but I have even more fun creating M&M characters of people I know. (I am still laughing at the image I created of my brother as an M&M.) Once you have a character you can put them in front of backdrops for snapshots or put them in a movie. I can't think of a better way to waste an afternoon as long as I have the bag of M&M's to keep me going!

What Happened in the 80's Should Stay in the 80's

About two years ago I saw the first signs that 1980's fashion was circling around and becoming popular again. Girls at the local community college where I print were wearing leg warmers with their mini-skirts and flip-flops. Yes, yes, I know, it makes no sense, but wearing Uggs with your mini-skirts in sunny southern California doesn't make any sense either.

Now it seems there's a little trend back toward Tyvek clothing. Remember Tyvek jackets from the 80's, with lots of nice bright colors and eye-popping graphics? As with all returning fads they are somewhat reinterpreted for today's fashionistas but it looks like Tyvek clothing is on the way back.

Make Your Own Tyvek Bag

And in more exciting and crafty news, via laissezfaire, here's a bag kit using Tyvek! Created by Sac A Faire, it comes with one giant sheet of Tyvek and patterns for 10 bags so you can sew them yourself. I like the clean crumpled-paper look of just the plain white Tyvek, but I wonder if you could print on it? I'm thinking silkscreening, possibly linocut. I guess I know what I'll be shopping for this weekend!

Leg warmers photo by fran-cis-ca via flickr used under a Creative Commons License.

Spooning

You have to see these beautiful spoon pendants! Just found them via the Make magazine blog. Love these! I'd like to see smaller ones; maybe made from little baby spoons.

Supremely Good Idea

The awesome and talented Communicatrix just helped Megan Mullally launch a way-cool web site called Supreme Story Program. The goal is to get people in touch with their creativity. A topic is presented and anyone can submit their personal stories which are then posted on the site. I've already spent way too much time reading them; there's just something very compelling about people sharing these little parts of their history. Lots of good links for inspiration too.

What a Character

I found this little book from the 1940's at a yard sale recently. It contains the "secrets" of analyzing a person's character by the size and shape of their heads. Here's an excerpt from the preface:

"You will find yourself described in this book; also your friends, your sweetheart, your husband or wife, and your child. It was written from a practical point of view after the author had made thousands of analyses of students, soldiers, statesmen, executives, farmers, people prominent in society; in fact, men and women in every vocation and in every department of life."

The first chapter talks about using character analysis in business, and the "new profession" of vocational analyst, to help people find the jobs for which they are best suited. The author also talks about resolving conflict with business partners and family members by understanding your own specific personality traits as well as those of others. He then goes on to describe the traits of different types of profiles, head size and shape, and body type to name a few.

Some of his "scientific" findings are pretty funny; a person with a narrow forehead is narrow-minded, a person with thin tight lips is secretive. He even surmises that people with crow's feet are jovial and like to laugh. Interesting little handbook on psychology and character judgements though.