Hey Guys, It's Spring!

Hey, so remember those 2 months I didn't blog? Let's forget that ever happened and start fresh. Like spring fresh. Because spring is here, and when the temps are above zero I actually venture outside and wander around town sometimes!

Yesterday, my main squeeze and I tried out the Arepa Cafe, a new spot pretty close to our pad. Well, to be honest he was all about trying it and I was really skeptical (I'm not the most adventurous when it comes to food, but I'm trying!). Good thing I stopped being an idiot and relented, because it was delicious! And the decor (which is almost as important - to me, anyway) was totally my style. Good food, good vibes - and excellent staff, despite this dude's reaction to me taking his picture:

Really nice guy who happened to bust me pointing my phone at him while I thought I was being stealth

I love the look of this place - really open and modern, with brick walls making it feel kind of cozy. Oh yeah, and the food is SO GOOD. I'm definitely no foodie and I'm still not sure what an arepa actually is, but the inside has burrito-like stuff (mine had beef, cheese, avocado and tomato) sandwiched with 2 thick cornmeal-like patties. Oh man, I'm the worst at describing food. Here's what mine looked like:

I probably should've taken a picture with it open-faced

Here's Glenn tearing into his soup, which was also delicious:


Expect a lot more pictures of us eating food, because now that I've become addicted to the awesome iPhone photography apps I've downloaded (ShakeItPhoto and Hipstamatic) I actually like taking pictures again. Kind of sad that the digital camera I've owned for years will remain dusty and unused, but such is life. Maybe in 10 or 20 years low-megapixel digital cameras will become cool again like the recent Polaroid craze, but until then I'm sticking with the phone.

Until next time...


Enjoy this beautiful spring weather with a refreshing can of Coke!

January = Worst Month Ever

Ugh, so far 2010 really sucks. I wanted to blog, I really did, but January totally kicked my ass. I wish I could say my absence is just the result of a bad case of the mid-winter blues, but unfortunately it was due to a family illness.

I've been so incredibly lucky to grow up with all of my grandparents in my life, but now my (maternal) grandma is in the hospital and things aren't looking too good. I haven't been able to see her because she's in Green Bay with the rest of my family, which is damn tough to get to quickly from Toronto. I'm still hoping she'll pull through, but I've made my peace with the fact that she might not. Whatever happens, my thoughts and prayers are with her.

Less depressing posts to follow, but in the meantime...

I love you, Grandma!

Post-Holiday Hangover: Welcome to 2010!

{all images from weheartit}

Man, 2010. I'm not much of a resolution-maker - love coming up with them, hate sticking to them - but this time I've got one to publicly declare: post more on this blog! Oh, and also: take more photos. So that's two!

Not that I accomplished much during my holidays (unless you count long bouts of eating, sleeping, and TV watching as accomplishments), but there were some flickers of inspiration here and there I wanted to take a few snaps of and blog about. Unfortunately, I'm a tool and didn't carry a camera/hijack one of my relatives', so I have absolutely no photo documentation of my holidays. However, my resolution to take more photos in 2010 will be much, much easier now that I have this:

{source}

That's right, I am now an iPhone owner! I'm soooo in love with it, a love that will hopefully endure a huge spike in my monthly phone bill. I have a feeling it'll all be worth it, though, because there doesn't seem to be anything this thing can't do. Web browsing? Check. Applications that will make me lazier than I already am? Check. Multiple prop usages? Check. It even has a level. A GODDAMN LEVEL! Welcome to the future.

So now that I'll always have a camera at the ready, here's hoping I actually use it and find more inspiration in my everyday life. Speaking of inspiring, have you guys seen Fantastic Mr. Fox? Wowee is it ever great! The story, the voices, the colors, the detail - I want to live in every frame of this movie!

The color scheme is so rich and autumnal and I want to wrap myself up in it. I think the colors sum up why I like this so much more than Where The Wild Things Are. The colors (and everything else) in Fantastic Mr. Fox are fun, vibrant, and alive while the palette in Where The Wild Things Are is dull, dark, and depressing. Sorry to any Wild Things lovers, but I was really disappointed in that film. Good thing I listened to my brilliant friends' recommendations and gave this one a chance.

I can't even imagine how much time went into creating all the tiny details in a single scene of this movie, let alone the entire thing. Come on, look how tiny these guys are:




I feel like the painstaking detail that goes into work like this would be right up my alley, but maybe not the stress and carpal tunnel that probably go along with it.

Aside from all its visual splendor, the characters themselves were just so damn adorable. I'm definitely not a warm and fuzzy person by nature (get me near a cat and you'll see), but these little guys are some of the cutest creatures I've ever seen. Just delightful!

{all Fantastic Mr. Fox images from weheartit}

Here's to a Fantastic 2010!

Show Card Writing

Hey dudes! While I'm holed up inside avoiding these FREEZING temps we've been having I thought I might share a personal relic with you. Behold:


The book I hold in my eerily pale hands first belonged to my (maternal) great grandfather. It's taken quite a beating in passing between him, my grandfather, and me, but the fact that its pages and even its spine are intact is amazing because this book is 106 years old. That's right, ONE HUNDRED AND SIX.


It's hard to see in this crappy photo, but the book is called Show Card Writing. Published in 1903, it's an instructional textbook on the (pretty much) extinct art of 'show card writing', a.k.a. advertorial art. The text is really straightforward and sometimes pretty boring (it being a textbook and all), but the images are rendered in painstaking detail and, of course, they're all done by hand! Now that almost everything is done with at least some help from computers, it's easy to forget just how much time and effort went into art (in all its forms) back in the day. Sure, computers are a huge time saver, where would we be without them, blah blah blah, but there's just something special about handmade art.

I really wish you could hold it in your hands and read it, but unfortunately these scans will have to do. Here are some 100-year-old ads:








Amazing, huh? The book also details many, many different styles of lettering. You can't get fonts like these on a computer! Here are some of my faves:

I was 12 when my grandfather gave me this book as a Christmas present, and it definitely shaped my style as an artist. I mean, how can you not be inspired by this stuff? Tree-shaped letter E? A peg-legged letter A? Genius!

That same Christmas I was given the book, I was also given a set of calligraphy pens (once an art geek, always an art geek). The moment I flipped to this page, I made it my mission to burn this alphabet into my memory:


This is how I learned calligraphy, a skill I mastered a few months after first drooling over this page. You might think it's a useless skill, and maybe it is, but I always have it in my back pocket to pull out on a party invitation or place setting or what have you. In fact, I used it to write an inscription in the opening page of my great-grandfather's book. I don't have a scan of it because the ink is too faded, but this is what I wrote:

This book belonged to my great-grandfather Alfred Laakso, who was born in Kauhava, Finland on September 20, 1878. He died in Wakefield, Michigan on April 9, 1961. His son, my grandfather, gave me this book. January 5, 1995.

It's the oldest thing in my family, and I'm so proud to own it! A few times a year I'll leaf through it and find something new and interesting. Here's what's on my mind this time:


He's almost too beautiful to eat, but not quite. It's almost turkey time, which means it's almost time for a visit from this guy:


Only 11 more sleeps, guys!

Let's go to the Movies!

It's been almost a WEEK since my first post? Man, I suck. Well, while I haven't been posting, I've been checking out film title cards I found on this awesome website.

Here are some of my faves:













I've always been a sucker for bright colors, and these ones above definitely pop. More than that, they sum up the mood of their respective films so well. Admittedly, some of these come from my favorite movies, but even the ones I've never seen tell me a lot just based on the artwork in the title cards. And they're so pretty!

I think the ones below, even though they're much simpler, are just as powerful. Sometimes a distinctive font says it all:
















I just died and went to type heaven. The Virgin Suicides might just be my favorite.

Of course, there's nothing like classic black & white:

{All images are from the Movie Title Stills Collection}

I could go on and on about these all day, but I'll probably work on my style school homework and watch more of this instead:



Not exactly inspirational, but so, so trashy. It's a fine balance.