in store

LEIF is the kind of store that I love. They don't have a giant stock of items, just a small selection of housewares and accessories with a fantastic eye for simple, well designed loveliness. If I could, I would buy one of everything. Don't you love it when you find a little treasure trove of items that fit your aesthetic to a t?

Here, a selection of my favorite items.

1/ batik coffee scoops 2/ clint box 3/ speckled boulder mug 4/ quartz cluster necklace 5/ spear towl

dead rising

can you spot the allison? photo by light grey

Aw man, guys. I'm so happy to be living in the Twin Cities right now, for so many reasons. One of them is the amazing Light Grey Art Lab, who put on the aforementioned Pokemon Show and Illustration Bootcamp. Last Friday was their latest opening, and what a surprise: IT WAS GREAT.

my merlady! woo! photo by light grey

Night of the Exquisite Corpse is a paper toy/exquisite corpse/undead mashup show, combining a wonderful smorgasbord  of talented artists. Light Grey has a write up of the show, so I won't wax poetic about it too much. I had a ton of fun creating my undead mer-lady, and it was so great to see her in such fine company!

sketchy

I doodle a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Are you having an extended phone conversation with me? I am probably doodling. Did you pass by me waiting for someone in a coffee shop? I am probably doodling. Am I saving a large file at work and it's taking forever? I'm probably doodling. Generally it helps me focus, and sometimes it saves my sanity! It's nice to rest my brain and just fart somethin' out real quick onto paper.

You'll see a lot of ladies with long flowing locks and messes of flowers, because those are my favorite things to draw. Sometimes it gets funny, and when I particularly like a doodle I'll save it... which has lead to me owning a lot of little scraps of paper.

Look, here are some recent faves, with a little bit of Photoshop touching up, because I can.

this is a bigg'un

General laments.

I was inspired to draw a snake after I saw Celine Loup's amazing Snake Awareness Day poster!

Did anyone else read The Song of Roland in high school? I always thought the mysterious "AOI" was sort of funny and sort of creepy.

film club

 

Herrick the Lobster // Alli the PuttPutter

Film, film film, film photos. Go go FILM PHOTOS, tra la la. There, I wrote a song to accompany this set of photos from my camera. ENJOY.

Fire at the Domestic Partyship

Did you know my bestie Chance is in an AMAZING BAND CALLED HEVY SYRUP?

Bill friend, duck friends

 
Last morning in California // Bryan makes steak

Obligatory Cat Photo #1: Tadgh

Obligatory Cat Photo #2: Aoeife

winter is coming

star siblings tote by fencing & archery | mcalister wedge boots from j.crew

Yeah okay, the last post was pretty nerdy. Hopefully you were okay with that because this one might be equally nerdy, if not more. I am coming quickly to the end of the first book in the A Song of Ice & Fire series (you might know it as the tv version, Game of Thrones, which is what got me started on this whole thing). It's so good, oh man. You see the same event through the eyes of multiple characters, and it's easy to get attached to every single one of them - even the baddies.

I'm loving the overall tone of Game of Thrones, too - it's dark and cold, even though the first book takes place during a very long "summer". That tone carries over into the show, which has some GORGEOUS costume design. There's even Helmut Lang's most recent collection, also inspired by Game of Thrones.

So yeah, I figured I should do a round up of my favorite Game of Thrones-y things, for more nerdy fun. Enjoy, and remember: a Lannister always pays his debts (as in someone should buy me that antler chair post haste).

hybrid No1 by merve kahraman | vintage celluloid brooch from the greedy seagull

game on

image from swordandsworcery.com

I'm guessing that not many folks that read my blog are super duper into video games (although if you're out there holler! Fashion-art-videogame nerds UNITE). Even if you're not that into something simple like Tetris, I'm just going to let you cast your eyes on the visual feast that is Sword & Sworcery. It's this amazing little iphone game that combines adventure, puzzles, and a few bear fights for good measure all in the most detailed pixel-y goodness imaginable. I love nature in video games, and this game does nature in a gorgeous and unique way.

image from kotaku

The folks that made this game are pretty great, too. You can tell they have a sense of humor AND an appreciation for the arts - as evidenced by their crowd sourced "A/V Jam", a call for art and music and whatever else based on their game. I love this one by Annie Carbo!

Oh, and did I mention the music for the game is gorgeous? Like, listen to it by itself gorgeous? Jim Guthrie knows how it's done.

I'm not exactly a game reviewer or anything, so I won't say too much about the game itself - but it is terribly fun and you should probably give it a try. Here's one last look, for funsies...

Walk in the Woods from Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery on Vimeo.

rock & roll

Inside this little bowl I found at a garage sale there are secrets. 6 little rocks, each to be sealed in a small envelope and attached to the back of each copy of It Will Be Known to Us.

The idea to make these totems came from my love of collecting snippets of nature when I'm in a new place. It's the sort of thing your mom probably did when you took your family vacation to the ocean back when you were young... at least, that's what my mom did. And now I'll do it too, and soon you will have the fruits of my weird, collect-y labor.

We collected them along the shore of Tenmile Lake during our recent trip to the cabin, but hopefully they'll travel much further than the three hour trip back to the Twin Cities. Get the word out! This thing is going to be all sorts of greyscale creepy fun, in one little zine-y package!

Alli took the last two photos in this post, and man. Talk about another lady making some great new work - some of it creepy as well!