Spring is in the Air

Yes, I know it's fall here in North America but we're feeling awfully spring-y because of these great new Valve Spring Paper Weights we've just received. These are part of our Reincarnations line which is made up of functional metal pieces created from recycled engine and auto parts. They're painted with sparkly metallic automotive paint and then finished with clearcoat, just like your car. I'll let you in on a little secret....our Dad is the mastermind behind all of the awesome Reincarnations stuff. He ran his own automotive repair business for over 30 years and has the discarded parts to prove it! We love that he's doing his part to upcycle by creating useful things from old parts that would otherwise end up in the landfill. And since we have a "no frills or bows" policy here at Four Idle Hands we're especially partial to the industrial look of these pieces.

We'll be adding the spring paper weights to the store in the next week or two. You've seen the spark plug pencil holders right? We'll have those back in the store shortly too.

Teapots Get Disturbing

I am one of those people who is drawn to teapots. It is hard to explain exactly what I find so appealing about them. Part of it is the overwhelming design possibilities for something that seems so straightforward. They can be very clean and simple all the way to over-the-top elaborate. This all explains why I sat up and took notice when they showed Richard Notkin's teapots on the PBS special "Craft In America." (Ok - it aired several months ago but it took me a while to find the time to watch the recording.) Of course I love skulls so it is no surprise that these caught my eye. But I was also intrigued by the shapes he uses for the skulls. I find the cube-shaped skulls particularly captivating. Gives a whole new feeling to afternoon tea.

Be Still My Beating Heart

Have you seen this adorable PINK vacuum cleaner from Dyson? Now, truth be told, I probably wouldn't actually plunk down hundreds of dollars for the pink one, purple would probably be my first choice, but something about this lovely shade of bubblegum pink on a vacuum cleaner is very appealing to me. (Maybe it just reminds me of my totally cute, circa 1980's, pink Reeboks that I wore all the time.) They're available only at Target and $40 of every sale will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Target will also give you a free $100 e-Giftcard when purchasing online.

Graphic Design Makes a Difference

Here's an interesting article about graphic designer Deborah Adler's thesis project: redesigning prescription pill bottles. I really like her idea to use colored rubber rings that attach to the neck of the bottle to differentiate prescriptions for each family member. Amazing that someone hadn't thought to improve prescription packaging before now.

A Blog After Our Own Hearts

This post could have just as easily been titled "Why didn't we think of that?" Accompanied by a resounding forehead smack and a loud "DOH!" We love skulls, how did we not think of creating a skull a day for a whole year? The important thing is that Noah Scalin thought of it, and he's been diligently creating a skull a day for the last 88 days.

The SAD blog says that it's a project of Another Limited Rebellion, which according to their web site is a design and consulting firm founded by Noah. Here's a blurb from their home page:

Another Limited Rebellion is a socially conscious design and consulting firm dedicated to creating high quality communications in a sustainable manner.

I especially like that the company philosophy includes, among other things, a "committment to work with clients who are not involved in the creation of cigarettes, alcohol, or weapons." How great is that?!
You can also buy this awesome Skull-A-Day t-shirt which was skull #10 in the series, the United Skull of America. While you're at it, vote for the image you'd most like to see on the next t-shirt.

This is so inspiring; it makes me want to commit to a daily creative exercise for a year and really test my limits. Although, *ahem*, maybe I should just try to work on my weekly illustration for Illustration Friday before I get all hepped up on delusions of grandeur. heh.

Another Fun Craft Book to Put on the List

I posted a little crafty news update over at Craft Tutorials. One of the things I mentioned was this awesome pincushion book that is coming out soon. Remember the eyeball pincushions I posted about months ago? Well, VeryBigJen, the pincushion goddess, has some of her pincushion designs, including the eyeballs, in this book! You can pre-order it from Amazon. (Note: link goes to Jen's affiliate account.)

We Survived Kendra Kaos 2007!

Our niece Kendra got to take a three week cross-country road trip with her grandparents this summer, stopping at some fun places along the way and spending one week with us in LA. (The above photo of her was taken inside Disney's Innoventions under the blacklights.) Entertaining a 10-yr-old for a week was a lot of work but HOLY MOLY did we have fun!
To commemorate her trip we made matching t-shirts for our group to wear while at California Adventure and Disneyland. This turned out to be one of the best things we did! We didn't plan it, but the bright yellow shirts made it SO much easier for us to spot each other across the park or among crowds. For the front of the shirt we used a graphic from the movie Vacation. Remember when Clark is showing the kids the trip on the computer, and Rusty goes after him with the pacman type character? Well, it technically wasn't pacman, but that's how we remembered it, and we thought it looked better that way so we made it pacman.
Dan dubbed their "Griswold-esque" adventure Kendra Kaos 2007 and had the idea to make the back of the shirt similar to a concert shirt, listing all of the places that they stopped. They started out from Detroit and stops included: St. Louis Arch, Roswell UFO Museum, Grand Canyon (they even went out onto the Skywalk!), Hoover Dam, Calico Ghost Town, California Adventure, Aquarium of the Pacific, Disneyland, Hollywood, and Natural Bridges National Monument.
While they were in LA we also hit the beach a couple of times, silkscreened a bunch of girl scout t-shirts and went to the newly renovated Griffith Park Observatory. phew! Our good friend Sean (from Social Studies Design) was kind enough to hook us up with a behind-the-scenes tour at the aquarium and it was so cool! We got to put our hands into a tank that held cleaner shrimp, and they actually crawl on your hand and clean off bits of food and dead skin cells. Kendra decided that she needs a cleaner shrimp at home as a pet so that she never has to wash her hands again! We also got to feed pieces of fish and shrimp to some rock fish by hand. (Well, you know, with tongs.) The aquarium is really an amazing operation; if you haven't been yet you should definitely go!

Still sorting through the hundreds and hundreds of photos we took and there was some video too. Next we'll start putting it together into a slide show and a DVD. You know, in our spare time. heh.

If You're Dorky and You Know It....

This is the long-overdue part 2 of our adventuresome Friday a couple of weeks ago. In addition to the Yummy Cupcakes outing we also made a pilgrimmage to the Kwik E Mart in Santa Monica. More photos are in my Flickr gallery.

We parked about a block away and were able to walk right in as soon as we got there but by the time we left there was a line outside. People inside were a little crazy and buying all of the Simpsons merchandise they could get their hands on. Store employees were restocking as fast as they could but there were a few things they said they wouldn't have until later in the day. The parking lot was downright dangerous with people just pulling in willy nilly and parking wherever they felt like.

One thing I was really disappointed with was the Jasper in the Freezer graphic - they put it on backwards! (Here's a good photo of the one in Seattle.) I didn't even take a photo of it; it didn't look right unless you opened the freezer door and viewed it from the inside. Only twelve stores in the country got these graphics and they couldn't get them all applied correctly. Weak.

Despite the the crowds (and the backwards graphic!) we were really glad we went. It was a good transformation and of course all of the graphics were great to see in person. At first I thought we'd feel a little self-conscious about taking our photos with giant plastic cartoon characters but everyone was doing it so it didn't matter! Now I just need to find time to go see the movie.

Pranksters and Marketers Will Use This for Evil

How cool is this?! Kameraflage technology works by using special colors that are invisible to the naked eye but can be detected by a digital camera. (Notice that you can see a lightening bolt coming from the cloud on the shirt only in the display on the iPhone.) I'm thinking of not only the art/craft possibilities, but the practical joke possibilities as well. Wouldn't you love to sport an invisible thumbs-down symbol on the outfit you wear to the next wedding you attend where you just *know* it won't last? ha ha It would only shown up in the final photos!

This technology could be good (or bad) for some stealth marketing too. What if you took photos of well-known buildings or landmarks only to find a giant advertisement revealed when you looked through your digital camera's viewfinder? Or graffiti! What if graffiti artists started using these colors. That could actually be a good thing. Maybe I shouldn't be giving anyone crazy ideas. I'll go back to thinking about fun art/craft projects.

via Gizmodo.

(edited to note: Okay, I just took a more in-depth look at the Kameraflage site and they *are* marketing Kameraflage Billboard™ as a way for "advertisers to place messages in new locations and situations." All I have to say is thank goodness for Photoshop.)

The Holy Grail of Cupcakes

I haven't had a chance to blog about our adventuresome Friday, two Fridays ago, so this is the first part. One of the places we had to check out in Santa Monica was Yummy Cupcakes. Holy Moly does this place live up to it's name! They have a group of standard flavors they make every day but then they have the add-ons. The extra-special flavors that are only made on certain days. We tried Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Brown Sugar Cinnamon. The PBCC was my favorite, and I have to say the BSC was a little too sweet for me. Although Dan definitely did NOT agree. He loved the BSC!

On July 25th and 26th they're having Christmas in July! Woohoo! You can enjoy holiday flavors like Eggnog, Peppermint Patty and Candy Cane. And on a charitable note, they're also collecting school supplies for homeless children ages 5 - 17. So drop off a donation and treat yourself to a Christmas cupcake at the same time. Win-win.

[I'm not affiliated in any way with Yummy Cupcakes, they're just my current food crush.]

Friday the 13th Super Sale!!

We couldn't let a Friday the 13th pass by without doing a little something to commemorate it. So we're having a super-duper one-day, one-item, liquidation sale! The creepily cool Wraith Necklace is available all day for only $14.00. This one is high on my list of favorites that Robin has made because it combines two of my favorite things: skulls and the color purple! Also check out the Wraith Earrings and Bracelet.

Felt Club This Weekend - Oh It's ON!

Just a reminder that Felt Club is happening this weekend, Sunday, July 15, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Ukranian Cultural Center. We went last year and it was packed! You'll have to get there very early if you want to snag one of the 250 swag bags they're handing out.

A one dollar donation at the door gets you a raffle ticket for a door prize and then you'll have access to over 70 DIY vendors including my BFF's Sean and Aldo from Social Studies Design. They've been cooking up some great new products lately and they always sell out quickly so be sure to run straight to their booth as soon as you get there! Seriously.

Craft Is As Crafty Does

I'm happy and proud to announce that I'll be co-writing on another crafty blog! Eve of Craft Tutorials put out a call for bloggers and she's got a really talented group lined up to post tutorial try-outs, new tutorials, and any other craft related tidbits we find. I'm excited about this because I have a ton of backlogged projects that I've been meaning to try and I think this will be the motivation I've been needing.

I just posted yesterday with a round-up of fun pincushion links so please go over and have a look. Lisa posted some great photoshop effects yesterday too!

My New Best Friend

I found this library receipt in a book I recently checked out.

• Book of the Dead? Check.
• Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus? Check.
• Toy Story 2? Check.

I want to party with this girl.

Old School Crafty Goodness

Robin and I come from a very crafty family, and thinking back to my childhood there wasn't ever a time when I wasn't making something. Both of our parents were always making things (still are actually) and the family tree is loaded with great-grands, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who are multi-talented and creative.

This got me to thinking about how many items I still have that friends and family have made for me over the years. (Go ahead and say it: pack rat!) And, no surprise here, I've noticed the things that mean the most to me, and that I've kept the longest, are almost all things that were handmade by people I know. I thought it might be fun to share them on the blog once in awhile because some of them are really great.

First up is a little blue bag from 1973 or 74. My aunts made these personalized bags for all the cousins for Christmas one year. Of course they were filled with pencils and notebooks and other presents and even had a matching drawstring coin purse inside. I just love the red top-stitching and the hand-embroidered name. This one is Robin's, but I have mine packed away somewhere. It has a groovy heart patch on it! You can see this one was used a lot as it has a nice big glue stain in the lower lefthand corner.

Now that I sew I have a much better appreciation for this bag. It must have taken quite a bit of time, not to mention patience!

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.