Petty Vices

"Impossible" Is a Dare

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." - Adidas

These are words I aspire to live by. As I start 2011, I've got lots of big ideas. My overall goal is to keep focused on incremental progress and not allow myself to be crushed by the weight of "everything" all at once. That said, I'm not a fan of "baby steps," either. Challenges: patience, perspective, motivation.

One of my (many) goals: start posting again to my personal blog. I hope you all are looking forward to new personal challenges too!

Those Brits...

I love vintage. How fun would it be to attend this dress-up Vintage at Goodwood festival? Of course, I would have nothing to wear <sigh>. Hopefully the kickboxing will whip me into shape soon.

DIY mod tables

I've been busy getting married! It was truly glorious -- I'll recap and perhaps share a photo or two soon.

I'm excited about having time for crafts and reading and well, life, now...after we get through Christmas, that is.

I came across a tutorial for altering some IKEA side tables with bamboo veneer; I think they're great. Thanks, Crafty Nest! I found these via the inspiring blog Dude Craft. Check it out.

 

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays!

Dior sells us springtime in Paris

...I'm sold! If only a spritz would take me there. Thanks to A Cup of Jo for sharing (and wishing her a happy, happy bridal shower)!

My tribe: Indie-scenester. What's yours?

I was wrapping up my work day doing research on trends, scanning a bunch of the email distributions I'm on, when I got distracted by someone announcing their tribe. Well, I just had to know where I would be categorized. Indie-scenester, they say. I say I don't fit anywhere perfectly (and that's the way I like it), but hey, if you've got to put me in a box, I do like having indie sprayed on its walls.



You can find your tribe via the FindYourTribe app. Are you like me?

Embroidered Toile

Embroidered, Decorative, Graphic and Fine Art work by Richard Saja of Historically Inaccurate -- what a great idea. Found via Absolutely Beautiful Things.

Infused sugars

The March 2009 edition of Food & Wine magazine has some enticing foodie items pointed out in their "news & notes" section. One in particular that caught my eye is the spiked sugars from Allstar Organics, who sells compelling sugar (& salt!) sets like the following:

While their flavors sound compelling  -- Rose Petal, Lavender and Spearmint sugar -- I think the price of $36 for a set of three 6.5 ounce jars is a bit steep.

If you're feeling flush with cash -- congratulations! and go sugar shopping...if not, though, consider making your own. I found some good recipes from Lynne Smythe on Suite 101 that will get you started.

A good source for food-grade flower petals and herbs is Layla's Shop on Etsy; note, too, that she sells a quarter-pound of lavender sugar for $5.00. We work at the same company so I can vouch for the quality of her goods. Excellent stuff.

Herbs By Diane on Etsy also offers culinary rose petals, lavender, spearmint and more for good prices.

If you're more of a savory person, you'll find some interesting flavored salt recipes from the Steamy Kitchen -- Curry, Matcha Green Tea, Citrus and more (thanks, Kim Vallee, for the link).

Have you ever made infused sugar or salt? Do you have some recipes or suggestions to share? I'd love to see photos of packaging ideas. I'm considering making wedding favors of sugar or salt...

Clear rose rain umbrella

As a Seattleite, I don't use umbrellas very often (for some reason, its always been anti-cultural here). That said, we seem to be having monsoons lately and not just a light, steady drizzle, so I'm reconsidering my adherence to this wacky "get-wet like a real Seattleite" rule.

My absolute favorite umbrella when I was a kid was a clear vinyl, dome-style one with, I think (?), a mickey mouse design.

I am delighted to share with you an adult version of a clear, domed umbrella (from Umbrellas.net), which I would like to have in my rain gear arsenal. I would like the yellow roses, please, should santa be reading.

Sometimes the kid in me just wants to go shopping for herself

Polyvore to the rescue!
Tweening out with myself by http://pettyvices.typepad.com

My 3 a.m. pancake suit

Stepping out for a bite by http://pettyvices.typepad.com

Nicolette Brunklaus Shady Tree Lamp Shade

Loving this lamp shade design. Am putting this on my "to buy someday" list...

From the website Rose & Radish, where I found these: "Shady conceals a virtual forest underneath its plain drum shade exterior. Nothing from the outside would even hint that there’s anything out of the ordinary, but when night falls and the lights are flicked on, this shade reveals the forest image that hides underneath." How fun!

Evidently, designer Nicolette Brunklaus' signature is adding layers of meaning to her work; I love the whimsy and "secret garden" effect she provides with these lights. 

Coveting Catherine Holm enamel dishware

I love Norwegian designer Catherine Holm's vintage enamelware collection, like this dutch oven being sold on ebay. Adore the orange, too!

Congratulations, President Obama

I'm at a loss for words, so I'll let our new President speak for me (thank you, Life Beyond the Well, for providing this as your 'quote of the moment'):

"I will never forget that the only reason that I'm standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't popular. And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world." -Senator Barack Obama

I'm so inspired. Yes we can! 

Perfect sofa for the basement of my imaginary mid-century lake house...

CB2 continues to offer some compelling stuff at pretty good prices, like this piazza sofa.

More Obama Love

Obamakin, from 2000 Dollar Budget Wedding.
 

Modern wax luminaries: a tutorial

These wax luminaries are chic, simple, and easy to make yourself. Oh, and cheap too. Glorious combination of attributes, no?

Peak Candle Supplies tells you how. Oddly, it involves water balloons. Found via Elizabeth Anne Designs.
 

Accessory=Art

Truly fine iPod speaker requires no power, but rather its form supplies the necessary amplification. And what a beautiful form it is!


The Phonofone is pretty slick. Unfortunately its a pretty expensive designer gadget -- selling for $500. Found via {frolic!}.

Adorable t-shirt, based on a 1927 knit sweater design

Lulu Bliss shares a link to the knit inspiration, and  then shows how she made a reverse-applique t-shirt instead. Really terrific.

Bathroom faucet bling

Hmmm. Maybe its just me, but this seems a bit much. In just the right place it could be quite the statement, though. Its from "the aqua jewels" collection of diamond-cut chrome bathroom fixtures by Marcel Wanders. Via MocoLoco.

Words, visualized

Cool recognition & visualization engine based on the concept of synesthesia, or in other words: "code that feels the words visually". The synesketch app actually tranlates words into visual patterns, by having applied emotional weights to them. What if you could automatically illustrate your emails, and your christmas cards? I wonder what type of pictures "flame mails" would generate? Physics? Shakespeare? Interesting.
Found via Information Aesthetics.

Really good turkey bacon (honest)

My long-running favorite turkey bacon has been from Applegate Farms, and while I still love it, there's a new kid in town (to me, anyway) that I equally adore. Garret Country Farms produces a delectable, extremely low-fat, nitrate-free turkey bacon that also tastes like , well, bacon!

Truly, both of these products rock, and can make real bacon lovers (my hand is raised) happy. None of that nasty faux-bacon that no human or animal should ever consume...<shudders>

I'm cooking some Garret Country bacon up now for brunch. I'm going to serve it with Salish Falls Lodge buttermilk pancakes, which I doctored up by adding a really ripe banana and a handful of chopped pecans. With an organic egg on the side and some real maple syrup, we're in business.

Ciao.

More politics from moi. I'm OCD on this election.

Okay "my friends" <wink>...here's a call to action:

PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified. Why bother asking, you might wonder? Yes, I know, but I am, unfortunately, serious. Read on.

Rumor has it that the Republicans knew about this PBS poll in advance <gee, is this possible?> and are flooding the voting with YES votes.

And, um, while I might normally be dis-inclined to believe such a "flooding" accusation as just being so much hype and hyperbole...I just put in my response and currently 49% are saying YES to Palin being qualified. For the role of Vice-President. Of the United States of America.

Clearly, then, I must conclude that some flooding is probably actually occuring. There's just no other logical explanation other than, perhaps, hacking.

I beg of you -- flood back!!

The poll will be reported on PBS and then, of course, picked up by mainstream media. The worry is that it could influence undecided voters in swing states. <can the undecided really be this unclear about who to vote for at this stage of the game? its hard to believe...but then again...they are still...undecided! or are they? i'm starting entertain conspiracy theories. are they holding out for gifts? a check? a forgiven mortgage? what's really going on here? but i digress...>

If you, like myself, don't in fact believe Palin to be qualified to act as the Vice-President of the United States of America <gheesh, just saying that in my head gives me the shivers), please do two things.

The time commitment here is less than 20 seconds. Truly.

Please:

1) Click on the link and vote yourself! Here you go: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html.

2) Send this to every single Obama-Biden voter you know, and urge them to vote and pass it on.

Go! Go! Go!

Craftsters for Obama

Check out this great bag, via The Obama Craft Project -- "crafting for change" (a very cool site).

The real deal: a pie chart for...pie

From Information Aesthetics; I'm going to have to find a way to include this in a presentation one of these days...

Google books

I've discovered a new tool available for the GoogleBooks Search that enables one to embed a book reader into a blog entry -- much like one can do with YouTube videos. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Google Books, its an initiative Google has been working on for several years now, with the goal of digitizing all the books of the world (more or less). They've been partnering with libraries to scan their book collections, and then they make them available online. Truly grand.

Even better: When the book or magazine is out of copyright one can download the entire text, thus, I've been developing my own library of old books.

I've found some super interesting and often amusing stuff; I'm particularly fond of old craft and homemaking publications.

Here's one for you:

The Home Cook Book: Tried and True Recipes

By Christ Church,  East Orange,  N.J. Women's Working Guild. St. Thecla Chapter

Published by T.J. Brown, Eager & Co., 1876

Original from Harvard University

Digitized Dec 28, 2007

304 pages

You can search and read the whole thing right here, below. You can use the Search bar or browse, and navigate by holding on to your mouse button and just moving up or down.

Also, if you click on the "More About" link on the bottom right of the embedded graphic below, you'll be taken to the GoogleBooks search result for this book, and be able to download the whole thing as a PDF.