5 minute candles

these little packages are designed to look like an ordinary book of matches but inside are 10 small candles. they were created by poketo. spotted on packaging world.

reusable fabric gift wrap

chewing the cud, a san francisco design shop, created this fun and reusable fabric gift wrap.

it's beginning to look a lot like finals

at least i'm in good company...i went to skyline ranch tree farm last weekend and chopped down this tree with a saw. it's one of my favorite holiday traditions.

tree farms stabilize soil, protect water supplies and provide refuge for wildlife while absorbing carbon dioxide and emitting fresh oxygen. often, christmas trees are grown on soils that could not support other crops and as long as they are cut properly, the trees grow back each year.

happy holiday weekend!

my first pumpkin pie...

i used this bon appetit recipe for pumpkin pie with brown sugar and walnut topping from epicurious.com. i found and followed the recipe using the wonderful epicurious app on my iphone. it always provides a welcome distraction while riding home on the 38 bus.

itty bitty coffee shop

for now it's just a hole in the wall (quite literally) but the brothers behind sightglass coffee are planning to use the rest of their space in SOMA to build a bi-level coffee cafe and roastery. a quick peek behind the curtain made me wonder whether they would actually be done by their january goal, but that's the plan. the coffee is excellent so i wasn't surprised when the barista mentioned that one of the owners used to be a roaster for blue bottle. i think sightglass will grow to be one of their few competitors.

the lazy designer’s guide to success

designer, michael bierut, shares his seven steps to success. very amusing, especially number five. read the rest on azure.

1 keep it simple.
2 don’t reinvent the wheel [part 1].
3 don’t reinvent the wheel [part 2]: rotate the tires instead.
4 do as you’re told.
5 steal.
6 once you come up with something, never let it go.
7 make other people do the work.



(image: fast company)

stripes!

fabrics by paul smith. found on maharam.com. thanks np!

amazon kindle commercial

i think this commercial for kindle is quite charming.

take time to play!

like many of my classmates, i've been spending hours and hours and hours on flickr looking for images for a re-branding project. carl zoch is one of the few photographers that has the image style i'm looking for and these fun shots stood out.

the problem with loving typography

this ny times article about the problem with loving typography made me chuckle. here's a quote from michael bierut:

“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy,” said Michael Bierut, a partner in the Pentagram design group in New York. “My font nerdiness makes me have bad reactions to things that spoil otherwise pleasant moments.”

dynamo

stopped here for some four barrel coffee and donuts this weekend. the lemon pistachio and chocolate rose donuts were delicious but i wish i tried the maple glazed bacon apple donut that's pictured here. next time...

script font

you can find it at myfonts.com

wonder

lovely image by jessica bellemare. we could all take a little more time to daydream.

smitten kitchen

the smitten kitchen blog has great recipes and gorgeous images that make you want to drop everything and head to the nearest farmers market. their photos are now available for purchase on their site. the chocolate chip shot is making my mouth water.

reMade USA

reMade bags are made in san francisco from used leather clothing and scrap. you can purchase a bag based on a design in their collection or you can try to snag one of the one-offs that are sold as is.

matta scarves

beautiful, delicate and elegant. you can find them here.

designed by me :: leslie and pavel's invitations

here are some rough images of the invites, reply card and program. i'm hoping to get some shots from the photographer and will update these at some point.

the invitations were letterpressed at one heart press in san francisco. i've included a couple photos and a video that i took while we were on press. it was a wonderful wedding!

flickr find :: sarah mavro

love her balloon set. the lighting and colors are soft and delicate. you can view the rest on her flickr page.

the botany of desire

the michael pollan documentary premiers tonight at 8pm. check here for local listings. i heard parts of it on the radio last night and it's definitely worth watching.

par avion

i just received a birthday gift from keep calm gallery and it arrived with some great par avion stickers. i found a few more on wackystuff's flickr page. the gift is this screen printed poster with metallic ink. love it.