28 May 2012

monday madness


photo via: rucjurlove x yjcreative



I LOVE this picture of Carita of RUCJURLOVE in her Cheshire Cat costume she made for Phoenix Comicon. It is has so much emotion, so genuine, and its everything I love about her. 

“but i don’t want to go among mad people,” said alice.
“oh, you can’t help that,” said the cat. “we’re all mad here.”
- lewis carroll



24 May 2012

Ira Glass on Storytelling // "Nobody tells people who are beginners,"

Ira Glass is the host and producer of This American Life, a weekly public radio show broadcast and is recognized as one of the greatest storytellers/broadcasters of our time.

I only discovered Ira Glass recently from a publicized fiasco about Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory (interesting read at your leisure) and have been fascinated with him since. A google search comes up with an amazing video made by David Shiyang Liu
David took Ira Glass' words (encouraging those who feel like they fall short in what they are passionate about to persevere)  + three days of Illustrator and After Effects work to create a motion-graphic, inspirational recharge for creative folks who feel like their grinding away day-after-day. 

Watch: Ira Glass on Storytelling

07 May 2012

words to mom

Our regular monday mantra is going to be postponed; instead its a dual-purpose Mother's day post. 

  1. Reminder that Mother's Day is this coming Sunday on May 13th, 2012
  2. Our moms deserve some nice words. 

Growing up in a non-affectionate, functional-yet-dysfunctional chinese fam doesn't make saying "I love you", hugging, or even giving cheesy cards very easy (my mom can't read english & I <3 cheese!); instead I throw all my love-energy-for-mom into a tangible item so that it can throw my love to her for me! It works. There is also non-tangible-love-energy-for-mom like being her travel agent, form completer, translater and driver to doctors appts, etc. 

This year, I'm planning on giving her a terrarium (from Green with Envy) and a photo collage frame of everyone in the fam.

For the rest of you who have moms that you do hug, say affectionate things to and can give cards with sentimental words, skip the generic cards and pick her up this love-filled card with the perfect words from dani press. (who is currently based in Vancouver, BC!) 

"she is what's good about the world. in her i can see what we all hope still exists, here and in us."

image via dani press
I met Dani (of dani press) at the Make It! Vancouver show and fell in love with her products the minute I saw them (Dani + her sister Emily) set up their booth. They had that energy. The kind of energy that you just want to veer to. Dani's photos are travel-inspired and have these beautiful words/quotes that gave me the goosebumps. Looking at her beautiful photographs with the simple font is so magical that its like you can feel what she was feeling when she took that picture .. or that its like she was reading your mind. 

This card bundles ALL the love-energy you have for her and when she opens it she will love it. She will feel all that awesome love-energy. serious. 

Intrigued? of course you are. Now, where can you find her cards? online, if you are impatient then in select stores

ps: I'll be showing off her cards that I'm going to have framed and also talk about how 10% of the proceeds go to a non-profit organization called These Numbers Have Faces that is based in Portland, OR. yup.

Happy day all the past/present/future moms out there. 

06 May 2012

music video | Caravan Palace - Rock It For Me

Everyone needs to watch the new Caravan Palace song Rock It For Me AND watch the super awesome music video. Who doesn't love music videos that are based in a sci-fi jazz era with dancing robots? I DO!