brilliant!

Having recently been challenged to see worship and creative expression through an intergenerational lens, I find myself inspired by two places on the web.  Adie Loves Polly is the photoblog of 4-year-old Adie, who takes pictures with her polaroid camera named Polly (she has a good eye and takes some rather charming photographs, in the vein of her very own mother).  I adore that she been given her own camera - and a blog too!  

Further:

The Blog WeeMade is another visual blog that showcases the mini masterpieces of kids from all over.  I've said it before, we are all artists!

things i learned from sesame street:

who knew crayon manufacturing could be so pretty?  or have such a great soundtrack?

new, old

{Thanks, mom and dad, for passing along these lovely and old analogue cameras...  Can't wait to load up some film and explore the city through these lenses}

designed for good.

Silkscreen with a local, social conscience... These guys find a need in their community, document the story, design, screen and sell only enough shirts to meet the need, then give the proceeds to the people who need it, and post a follow-up on their website. I get the goofiest grin every time I check their site!  I have the green one, and I'm already eyeing 2 more...

33 rpm

Many years ago, after stumbling upon the interweb home of 33rpm designer, Andrio Abero, and finding myself quite enamoured with his screenprinted gig posters, I began to listen to the bands and artists who had been his clients, unwittingly beginning a happy journey into the unique spaces and sounds of indie music.  Thank-you, Mr. Abero!  I am greatly indebted.  

curiousity shop

currently eyeing

vintage shutters, 

paint peeling and 

slightly askew

{photo: decaying elegance}

vintage mint sheets

As a 12 year-old kid, I went on a brief foray into the world of stamp collecting.  Mainly I would just carefully steam the stamps off the letters my family would receive, and delicately place them into my wax-paper-lined stamp-collecting book.  At the time it all felt very official, and I would often marvel at the little vignettes and old-school typography.  What a find today, to come across a book full of mint sheets from the late 60s. Given to me years ago by my Grandpa Jantzen (and purchased long before I was born),  the collection is entirely middle-eastern in origin, and worth decidely more than my own initial collection of individual stamps.  I really love the vintage illustrations and fonts, and am already dreaming up ways to showcase them properly in my home.

A sheet of stamps from Israel.

Futuristic images of satellites on these stamps from Ras Al Khaima (United Arab Emirates)

I adore these bright brontosaurus stamps from Fujeira (U.A.E.), dated 1968.

These stamps bear the name, "The Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen," and are dated 1967.

I love the rich colour of the portraits featured on these stamps from Dubai, 

celebrating Children's Day, 1968.

Two more sets of stamps from Fujeira (U.A.E.) featuring weather balloons (?) and locomotives.

These feature a metallic silver background, dated April 1969.

j'adore

Amelie reminds me how much I love french, and films with subtitles, and accordions, and, most of all,  photobooths.  The first time I saw it, I was huddled into a cavernous, vintage high-school theatre, with my friend Dan, in the dark of night, in Trois-Pistoles, Quebec.  There were no English subtitles that night, as we were learning French and speaking it toujours.  Though I didn't catch all the subtleties of the plot,  I did fall madly for the juicy richness of the colour, the spaces and the silences, the beauty in the mundane, and the hopeful optimism of the titular character (and let's not forget the bestest, chastest kissing scene on film to date!).  Amelie remains my favourite film, and je pense, a subconscious influence on my  own aesthetic.

Note:  There are a couple of shady scenes in this film.  You have been warned!

small town, alaska

Some of my favourite small towns are in Alaska.  I've travelled there numerous times, as a crew member of the Dawn Princess, and in my travels with friends and family.  From the sweetest used record store I've ever visited, to the candy store (aptly named, Ketchicandies; be sure to get some of the chocolate-dipped Oreos) to the sweet hikes overlooking the salmon ladder and fridgid ocean vistas, I like everything about these towns.  

lomo love

What I love about Lomography is its carefree, shoot-from-the-hip, happy-accidents attitude towards photography (the banner at the top of this page represents one such "happy accident" - I double-exposed a roll of film in my Lomo Oktomat without realizing, and voila!  Layers of photos on top of one another!)  Even more, I adore the vintage quality that the developed pictures have.  Every picture looks like it was taken 30 years ago (indeed, these cameras were first introduced almost that long ago, in 1980, the year I was born.  How fitting!).

Further:

My Lomo Oktomat (see below) takes 8 frames in sequence and prints them all on one photograph.  I've posted some of my favourites at my "lomohome."  Go check them out!

Watch this documentary (part 1 of 7) for a run-down of the Lomo aesthetic:

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This is my Lomo Oktomat!  

hermes 3000

I like to make stuff.  Especially stuff out of paper.  And this week, I've been working on homemade valentines for all of my most favouritest people.  In the midst of cutting and pasting, collaging and tea-dying, it occurred to me how charming it would be to afix type-written phrases to my petit works of art.  Ever since, I 've been longing for a vintage type-writer, to tap out all of my most ardent thoughts (this one, at threepotatofour, particularly caught my eye).  

What a sweet surprise tonight, then, to receive a Hermes 3000 typewriter, rummaged from the very back corner of my grandparents basement (in the ping-pong room, to boot!).  Circa 1958, it is the very same machine on which my grandpa typed each and every university paper in the late 50s.  I think it's marvellous!