Whoa. This was cut out by hand. And preserved all the veins in the leaf. Amazing, huh? And I thought this cut-out paper art was about as intricate as you can get.
[via Hither and Thither]
Baby on the Way!
My loyal readers might have noticed that I’ve made a few mentions of a “baby on the way” in this week’s blog posts. It’s true – I’m pregnant! Ian and I are expecting our first child to be born in April. Pregnancy is a crazy ride… the first trimester was difficult for sure. I was sick and really exhausted. Now that I’m almost 4 months along, things have been much better lately. My energy level is up, and most of the queasiness has subsided (although I do still get the occasional wave of nausea).
Ian and I are starting to get really excited for the arrival of “the tadpole” (whose first portrait is above, at 12 weeks). We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet, but we’ll be finding out in a few weeks! We have no idea what we’re going to name the baby (somehow we don’t think “the tadpole” is a practical name choice for life). Whenever I think of a baby name, I love to enter it into the Baby Name Voyager – a website that will show you the popularity of that name over the last hundred years or so. It’s so cool to see trends in names (like my name – barely unheard of when I was born, but it’s now very popular). Go to the website and enter your own name – it’s fun!
Ordering Cabinets…
The plans for our kitchen renovation are well underway. This morning I’m heading to Ikea with our designer to order the cabinets. We’re going with black lower cabinets and white uppers, since we have black appliances. That picture above is from the Ikea website, so of course it’s not what our kitchen is going to look like – but it’s the same black cabinets we’re ordering.
The reno won’t start until January, but we’re ordering cabinets now to take advantage of Ikea’s “15% back in gift cards” deal that expires at the end of the month. Ian and I will get a few hundred bucks in Ikea gift cards, which we can use for furnishings for the baby’s room and random stuff around the house. It’s such a good deal!
I finally finished it!
I’ve been working on this cable knit afghan (blanket) for almost 2 years. Mind you, I took a one-year break in the middle there, but it’s still been way too long. I finally finished it this weekend! There’s a shot of it above on the armchair in my living room. It’s really chunky and 100% wool so it is warm.
Now that it’s finally done, I can start on a new project. I went to my neighbourhood yarn store, The Purple Purl, and picked up some Mission Bay 100% merino wool in navy blue and white. I’m following up the afghan monstrosity with a small, simple project – a scarf for Ian.
I found a great (and free!) pattern for an Irish Hiking Scarf on the knitting website Ravelry.com. Yay, more cable stitches! I can’t get enough of cable knits, and it seems I’m right on trend. Check out this recent blog post from Lonny for more cable knit pieces. I’ll post photos of Ian’s scarf when it’s done – probably in a couple weeks.
Font Day at Design*Sponge
Swoon! It’s “font day” over at Design*Sponge. Check out these typography-inspired posts:
Interviews with type designers Jesse Ragan, Louise Fili and Jessica Hische
And my favourite, Typographic Home Decor
I heartily encourage you to slack off for a few minutes and check this stuff out.
[img: Type art in home of Fossil art director Shay Ometz. From the Fonts in Homes post]
Daily Deal for Travel: TripAlertz
A new website is launching today amongst a lot of hype – TripAlertz. You have to sign up for a free account, which gives you access to a limited number of hotel travel packages at seriously reduced rates. And unlike Off and Away, more than one person gets the deal (although there are limited quantities). And the more people that take advantage of the deal, the more everyone saves (the price drops after a certain number of packages have been purchased, and everyone that already bought gets the extra discount).
This is the “daily deal” group buying concept taken to a new level. I’m excited to see what happens on this site, and to see what hotels come up. For now, it’s mostly places in Florida and California, but the site promises more to come.
Searching for Bedding
Ian and I finally upgraded to a Queen size bed in our room, after 5 years of sleeping in a double! With the dog at our feet and a baby on the way, we figured it was finally time for a bigger bed. We got a good mattress on sale at Costco, and after lots of deliberation, bought the Lillesand bed (headboard, footboard and bed frame) at Ikea. It wasn’t my first pick, but the price was right.
Now I’m on the search for the perfect duvet cover. Most of the furniture in our room is white, and with a black bed, I’d like something graphic that ties in black, white, and maybe some other colour. I’m really digging this Dwell Studio duvet cover at Target, but Target doesn’t ship to Canada. There are services that can forward packages to you across the border, so it might be worth it if I can’t find something else I like in town.
Once the duvet cover is chosen, then it’s time to choose a paint colour for the walls (right now they’re a hideous bright blue. Other people say they like it, but I can’t stand it.) More on that later…
Funny on Friday: Zach Galifianakis
These recent swimsuit photos of Zach Galifianakis in Vanity Fair reminded me of how much I love him. From The Hangover to Bored to Death, I find just about everything he does super hilarious. Have you seen his “Between Two Ferns” videos on Funny or Die? If not, I recommend this one with Jon Hamm (someone else I adore):
Internet Time-Waster: Globe Genie
Need a quick break at work? Wanna look at something other than the report/file/design/blank screen you’re working on? Check out Globe Genie. Select which continents you’d like to explore, click “transport me”, and be taken to a totally random Google Street View shot of a location. Globe Genie has been described as “Chatroulette for Google Street View” (I guess because of the random results). Seriously, this is a complete waste of time and has absolutely no purpose, other than to delight you with the random joy in discovering new scenery. Which is worth a few seconds of my time, for sure.
[via Design.Work.Life]
Cool Travel Planning Website
I just heard about Stay.com and wish I knew about this site years ago! As you’ve probably noticed by now, I really like to travel. I seem to always be planning my next trip, and I think research is one of the best parts of traveling (I get really excited reading about new places).
Sign up for a free account on Stay.com, and start compiling information about a trip you’re planning. Read about a cool attraction or restaurant? Add it all to your Stay.com account to keep track of it. Then, at the end (and this is the best part), Stay.com will compile it all for you into a map and a guidebook (like the screen shots above). Download a PDF for free, print it out, share with friends, etc. All for FREE! Amazing.