Saturday, November 30, 2013

2013 : Cards and Gift Wraps


This is a ritual I am never going to give up ! I write post cards from everywhere I go and I send out greeting cards to every one near and dear for Chirstmas New Year.. I am known for following it through for the last 10 years and I am going to keep up with it for as long as I can read and write... There is something about opening letters and enjoyign the crispness of the paper , unfolding it and reading in hand written notes - and this feeling has been described as amazing by most of my receipents. So... This weekend I am going to have to send out my cards as far as Brazil and as near as Santacruz...Do you receive a post card ?? 
When picking out gifts for the holidays, it’s sometimes easy to forget that small things can count the most. A beautiful greeting card that comes unexpectedly in the mail or a thoughtfully wrapped present can say light-years more than a hastily chosen gift that will be discarded by year’s end. Although they may be tiny, these small mementoes warm the heart and create fond memories. We’ve combed the internet for some of the best card and gift wrap designs, items that are sure to invoke cheer in anybody who receives them. 
Featured above: 1. Aluminum Tree Letterpress Card, $5 | 2. Season’s Greetings Letterpress Cards, $16 for a set of 6 | 3. Merry Christmas Letterpress Card, $4 | 4.Wooden Cards, $20 for a set of 4 | 5. Happy Hanukkah Letterpress Card, $16 for a set of 6 | 6. Merry Christmas Letterpress Card, $14 for a set of 6 | 7. Embroidered Bear Card, $24
More cards and gift wrap after the jump!

1. Happy Holidays Silkscreened Card, $5 | 2. Pine Branch Card, $13.50 for a set of 10 | 3. Cozy Christmas Card, $4.50 | 4. Wreath Holidays Card, $24 for a set of 6 | 5.Evergreen Letterpress Cards, $28 for a set of 8 | 6. Balloons New Year Card, $3.50 | 7.Merry Christmas Letterpress Card, $6 | 8. Antlers Notecard, $6

1. Barn Owl Gift Wrap, £6 | 2. Hedgehog Gift Wrap, $2.50 | 3. Peony Gift Wrap, $8.50 | 4. “Favorite Things” Gift Wrap, $8.50 | 5. Gumdrops Gift Wrap, $3.50 | 6. Pine Branch Gift Wrap, $2.50 | 7. Rosette Gift Wrap, $2.50 | 8. Forest Animal Gift Wrap, contact seller for pricing | 9. Numbers Gift Wrap, $5 | 10. Pink Reversible Gift Wrap, $8 | 11. Constellation Fabric Gift Wrap, $31.50

Friday, November 29, 2013

Creative Pie Crust Designs for the Holidays

Creative pie crust concepts to try now through Thanksgiving and on into the winter holidays.Flipper
Listed here are nine favorite crust concepts and our simple directions on how to achieve them. Oh, and don’t be afraid to make a pretty mess of things— the rustic imperfections of pie is one of the aspects that make them so incredibly alluring.
  • The key to a good decorative crust is trimming your dough to a 1/2-inch overhang and rolling the overhang underneath itself to give yourself a thicker edge to work with. It’s always better to prepare too much pie dough rather than too little.
  • Be sure to refrigerate your dough after you have crimped the edges for 30 minutes to an hour before baking. Doing this will help the dough keep its shape.


Crimping tips before you begin:
Cesar’s Crown Crust
Cesars Crown Crimp
Checkerboard Crust
Checkerboad Crimp
Criss Cross Crust
Criss Cross Crimp

Rainbow Crust
Rainbow Crimp
Sailor’s Rope Crust
Sailors Rope
Scallop Crust
Scallop Crimp
Double Crust Crimps:
Braid Crust
Braid Crimp
Cut-out Top Crust
Cut Out

Lattice Top Crust
Lattice Top

Ready to make your pie?

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Tear-off a daily drink with the hälssen & lyon tea calendar

tear-off a daily drink with the halssen & lyon tea calendar

one of europe’s leading tea companies, hälssen & lyon has blended the oldest drink in the world with an age-old promotional medium in the conceptualization of ‘the tea calendar’, an agenda made from pressed leaves. together with hamburg-based creative agency kolle rebbe, they have created a daily chronological book that features individual pages crafted out of compressed tea. each of the 365 days in the year are represented by a unique flavor and should be torn from the booklet style folio one at time and dropped into hot water, where the small, dated piece dissolves and brews into a drinkable beverage. the singular layers were compacted into 1mm thin sheets and configured into printed pages. for now, the annual calendar has been developed as limited special editions for the company’s business partners. 









Wednesday, November 27, 2013

UNDERWATER HOTEL

THE UNDERWATER HOTEL ROOM

TheUnderwaterRoom1

TheUnderwaterRoom8

TheUnderwaterRoom2


To escape a bit from this dark days of the unknown, I'm mentally traveling to a little Tanzanian island to spend a night in an Underwater Room at The Manta Resort, 250 meters offshore. Wanna meet me there? I bet it's like sleeping in an aquarium. At night, the lights attract neighborly octopus friends.

P.S. The same architects also built Utter Inn, the very first underwater room in the middle of a Swedish lake. I'm going there next!


{Images via CNN by Jesper Anhede}

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Michael Hughes: This Is The World As Souvenirs



Tourists will be tourists. There's no denying them their instinct for being drawn to the most popular vacation spots, taking pictures of famous landmarks and buying small souvenirs for family and friends back home. These rituals have become such cliches that the solemnity and significance of these places and objects have  almost been lost. One person however has found a way to reinvigorate both by combining the two into one spectacular image. World traveler Michael Hughes has made it his mission and passion to collect tourist souvenirs and turn them into icons that are larger than life.



Michael Hughes is a British photographer now based in Germany, but he seems to be more at home with any part of the world that he's visited. Although he has been a professional photographer since the 1980s, it's his pictures of his vacations that have ironically gained him world fame.

His Souvenirs series, taken all around the world, consists of images of kitschy souvenirs and trinkets in the shape of a famous landmark or tourist spot strategically placed in front of the original thing. The results are refreshingly entertaining optical illusions that double as priceless vacation mementos.



Hughes started his ongoing series around 1999 while on vacation and soon perfected his technique while traveling to other parts of the globe. Originally something he did as a side project while on holiday, it soon became an obsession for him to the point where he would deliberately travel to other countries just to photograph souvenirs in front of their landmarks.

To date he has traveled to over 200 destinations just to document these little keepsakes.



Hughes' popularity soared when he started posting his photographs on Flickr, which now has over five million hits to his credit. His portfolio includes popular tourist destinations from the (in)famous Big Ben in London and Eiffel Tower in France to St. James' Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela and the Santa Catalina Arch in Antigua.

Whereas before Hughes would only buy the most expensive souvenirs for his vacations, he now goes straight for the cheapest items at the nearest souvenir shops. His creations however are anything but cheap.



The beauty of Hughes' photographs lies in combining two tacky elements which together become fun and inspiring. While tourists usually take a photograph of popular tourist spot, purchase toys and souvenirs, and then move on, these things by themselves don't add any real value to your trip. Hughes however makes his trips more memorable while at the same time still bringing something back that's intrinsic to the area. In effect, he connects the souvenir to the place in a much more meaningful way.

While the idea is quite original and requires some skill and patience to pull off, there's no stopping you from trying the same thing on your next vacation. So the next time you go on holiday, be it to one of the newseven wonders of the world or just to your local museum and gift shop, you'll know what to do with those little souvenirs. Just be sure to credit Michael Hughes for your own souvenir shots.


There are lots more fun and creative souvenir photos over at Michael Hugheswebsite and Flickr account. Spending a few minutes browsing through the images is a great way to learn about the most popular tourist spots around the world through a different lens. He also has a blog which details some of his trips and how he managed to pull-off his souvenir shots. Finally, you can purchase a compilation of his best shots or pick from among some of the web favorites to print out for yourself.

VEGGIE FOOD BLOGS

MY 3 NEW FAVORITE VEGGIE FOOD BLOGS

PrincessTofu

VegetarianVentures
MyNewRoots


I like my food blogs sans meat with big juicy artfully styled photos. Here are 3 are my new current faves...
What food blogs have you been following lately?


{Images by 1-4. Princess Tofu; 2-8. Vegetarian Ventures; 9-12. My New Roots}

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Wilderness's Guide : FOR ART LOVERS


Yes... it is my birthday today !!! Wooohooooo .... And I am accepting all Art-related gifts !! Art related gifts might not be as practical as sweaters, socks or kitchen tools, but they are one of the few gifts that can last forever. It’s easier than ever to find great art online, and I had so much fun culling the slew of online galleries and boutiques to pick out my favorite pieces. Don’t let anyone tell you art must be non-functional — I’ve found some home goods that are every bit as well crafted and conceptually striking as a fine art painting or monograph book. There are pieces here to suit a range of budgets, and hopefully you’ll find something for gifting me to add to my  collection, in addition to the perfect gift for the art lover on your list. 
Image above, clockwise from top left: Untitled (Landscape) by Tchmo, $37 for 22″ x 26″ print | Untitled — Plain Series 3, Oil Painting by Anna Ura, 48″ x 36″, $3200 | The Separation Print by Kai-Samuels Davis, 13″ x 19″, $50 | Two Whales and Coral Print by United Thread, 8″ x 10″, $20 | Black Mountain print by Debbie Carlos, 11″ x 14″, $40 | Framed Flower Sky Print by Pirooni, 45″ x 33″, $1499.95 (on sale) | Framed Sepia Woodcut Print by Bryan Nash Gill, 24″ x 21″, $750 | Web Bubble One Painting by Jen Garrido, 10″ x 10″, $750
See 30 more gift ideas for art lovers after the jump . . .

Image above: Untitled by Paul Wackers, 2009, 24″ x 28″, $2500

Image above: I Wish I Had a River by Zoe Pawlak, 20″ x 26″, $950

Image above: Shannon Shaman Oil Painting by Katie Vida, 60″ x 40″, $1400

Image above: Butte Aux Canons by Alexandre Duret-Lutz, $13–$253 (options for posters, framed prints, canvas prints available)

Image above: A selection of art from Dwell Studio. The collection includes paintings, wall sculptures and one-of-a-kind vintage finds. If you have a larger budget, one of these pieces would make an incredible gift for an avid art collector.

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