vistaprint

A friend referred me to an amazing website a few weeks ago called Vistaprint that's brought on some great gift-giving ideas.

This online printing company creates all kinds of products for its users - business cards, address labels, customized thank you cards, you name it. Now that we're entering the holiday season, they're also offering seasonal products: customized Christmas cards, anyone?

But the thing I'm most excited about are their calendars. Photos that I've taken over the year have been piling up on my hard drive, and although it's fun to post them on Flickr, I love the opportunity to share my hobby with family and friends. It's personal, functional, and completely unique - plus it travels extremely well, a quality that's valuable to anyone like me who has family far away.



I'll be choosing photos that are more scenic and artistic in nature, but this is a great way to share pieces of your life and family with loved ones. Travel pics, photos of your family, pet, home or city - anything goes!

Make sure you sign up for their mailing list -- they frequently send out members-only promotions that will keep you up to date on worthwhile discounts and promotions.

my photo for March...

... June...

... and November.

fall's here!

Oops. I haven't been here in a long time. With summer, moving, vacations and elections having taken over my life over the past few months, I'm taking a second stab at posting (semi-)regularly here.


It's fall now, and as someone who loves being indoors, I'm always ready to welcome this season. The great food, the comfy sweaters, the coziness of curling up with a book and a blanket... what's not to love?

Fall also means that party season is just around the corner. With the busy-ness of summer having taken over our schedules, my roommate and I never had a housewarming party after our move in July.

I have plans to change that within the next few weeks, and I found lots of inspiration in Style at Home's recent edition. Domino also has a great some great ideas on their website, and Better Homes and Gardens always has lots of budget-friendly decor and entertaining inspiration.

With tons of ideas for parties both formal and casual, this has shifted my imagination into high gear... I have some planning to do!

attractive headlines

When I'm at work, my day is all about the news and the headlines, and National Newswatch is permanently open in the background of my computer monitor. So when the weekend hits, I take a break: no headlines, no editorials, no six o'clock coverage. (Say it with me now: "c-o-m-p-a-r-t-m-e-n-t-a-l-i-z-e.......")

But who knew headlines could actually be pretty? (Granted, in a technological, web-pagey sort of way)

Marumushi.com, an interactive design site, has managed it with its newspage application:



It's almost enough to make me read the news on weekend.... Almost.

EDIT: for Flickr enthusiasts, check out Marumushi's Flickr application as well!

design for mankind's e-zine

I love magazines. I love getting them in the mail and stacking them up on my coffee table, flipping through them and seeing friends enjoy them when they visit. I love the photos, the articles, the constant inspiration.... even the "I'll never have this, but gosh is it beautiful" wish list that seems to get longer with every month's installation.

Unfortunately, my barely-post-student budget means that only a fraction of all the magazines I love actually appear in my mailbox each month. But today I discovered a new magazine -- one that is available online, for download, FOR FREE -- and one that features the best of the online design community.

Issue 1 (January 2008)

Design for Mankind is a wonderful blog -- beautiful designs, great ideas, and I love the photography featured there. And as of January, it has published a monthly e-zine featuring the best of all of the above. My favorite is the photography -- especially in the April issue. Amazing!!

As if I wasn't spending enough time getting lost in this new world I'm in the middle of discovering... good thing it's a long weekend!

Issue 3 (March)

Issue 4 (April)

compact... laundry?

A friend once commented that the difference between poverty and luxury for apartment renters was in-suite laundry. I'm not sure if I would go quite that far, but now that I am a less than two months away from leaving my own washer and dryer behind for a new apartment with coin-operated laundry in the basement, I'm definitely willing to consider any option that will make the transition a little less painless -- or at least, more convenient.

Then I stumbled across CompactAppliance.com and their compact, portable washing machines. Small enough to store in a closet, just attach the faucet adapter to your kitchen or bathroom faucet, et voila -- no more need to save spare change or trek up and down several flights of stairs with baskets of damp clothes.

Is this a luxury? Well, it doesn't really qualify as a necessity, so perhaps.

But for someone who was all prepared to mourn the loss of clothes-cleaning convenience, it's a luxury worth thinking about....

gorgeous helen

After a long Ottawa winter, we're finally coming up on summertime... which of course means patios, picnics, and any other forms of outside entertainment possible. These pretty lampshades will add the perfect -- and unique -- touch to any outside dinner party, both before and after the sun goes down.


Gorgeous Helen, a lampshade designed to fit over a wineglass holding a tea light, is being featured this week on Charles & Marie's Soupe du Jour. Each package comes in three different designs -- just roll each one up, throw a tea light in a wine glass, and cover with these mini lamp shades.

Charles & Marie calls them 'enchanting'. I agree.

cookthink

If you're like me, you don't often think about dinner much before 4:30pm. And unless you want to be eating frozen pizza, a huge salad, or spaghetti again, it can be a little difficult to come up with original supper suggestions
seven nights a week.

Enter Cookthink.com, an ingenious little tool that lets you choose from a list of keywords organized by ingredient, dish, cuisine, and even mood, and then presents you with a list of meal suggestions and recipes that fit the bill.


Add in each recipe's "goes well with" suggestions and an impressive reference section, and you've got a website definitely worth keeping in easy bookmarking reach.

the first one

I spend far too much time hopping aimlessly from one website to the other. Maybe I distract easily; I prefer to think that it's because there's no end of great articles, pictures, and ideas that inspire me and make me want to dig deeper... leading me to another page, and another, and another.

I'm hoping to make this blog my collecting-place for those random strokes of genius that, if I can't put in my house, at least I can store here. There's so much out there that's pretty, or artistic, or inspiring, or inspired, and it's all begging to be seen and shared.... by at least one more blogger!