it seems like every day...

karen (my twinko business partner) and i

talk about what are the steps we need to take to

"do what we love"

for a living.

a lot of my posts are written with a little bit of envy

for those who get to kind of

live the dream

i know one day karen and i will make it there...

we have nights like tonight when we meet up

not to necessarily work on anything specific for twinko

but end up doing something anyway because we get so inspired.

in march

we'll be in a great store in PA

(more on those details later)

but they wrote us that wholesale order on the

"Kathy Zimmer, Kimmy's visit, ANOTHER twinko order!!! woot!" 

post last week...

this order includes our new 7 days a week bib set

coming soon to the website!

it'll be shipped in some pretty packaging...

and today

...on a whim...

...after our regular "day jobs"...

we created this for the packaging labels

this.. or at least a version of this

will be the packaging for the container

the bib set will come in

soon enough

we'll share with you the final product

things get crazy sometimes

-stressful-

and work just doesn't seem that fantastic when you have

bigger dreams

but nights like these make it all a little better

----

:)

light stage house, japan

http://knstrct.com/2012/02/24/light-stage-house-japan/

Dana Tanamachi, the incredible chalk letterer

so my brother's wedding is coming up

and he, being the awesome designer he is,

(his website)

designed his invitations

sorry, had to blurrr out some info- for all those crazies out there! ;)

his dark grounds against the beautiful crisp white font reminded me of

dana tanamachi

she is this amazing graphic artist and custom chalk letterer

and seriously- there's no other word for her but

amazing

the naturally dark grounds of the chalk boards with the bright white chalk,

the choice of fonts and the general layout

reminded me of my brother's invites

the best part of her website is being able to see the time lapse videos

holy moly.

i am in love.

see time lapse video of her at the ace hotel here!!!

(i love that hotel- there's even an opening ceremony!)

here's also some of her recent work:

on her twitter page there are pics of her with oprah!

this is nyc! i have been to this store! wish i could've been there to see the chalkboard in person

this was featured in Style Me Pretty not too long ago
[this is pretty much one of my favorite blogs in the world]
[it's filled with my most beautiful images- all happy of course!]
and i DID think to myself, how awesome would this be at my brother's wedding!
this was all before of course knowing who she was

wow, is she living the dream or what?!

really beautiful work.

she must have great arms! ;P

a little reminder

my last post i wrote about the oregon couple who hand paint those beautiful dolls and sell them on etsy

i was going through their blog

and came across this image:

ohhh dr. seuss, you're oh-so-wise

sometimes you just need a little reminder to put things into perspective

i wouldn't mind going to oregon...

so much beautiful hand crafted stuff lately has been coming from oregon

i'd love to go one day.

there's this one contemporary folk art husband and wife duo

that hand paint these really wonderful and whimsical dolls and ornaments.

their etsy site is called

cart before the horse

these are some of my favorite but you can find all of them here

elephants are my favorite :)

my favorite shop section is storytime

BUT a close second would be there paper dolls and patterns section.

diy dolls:

etsy recently did a little interview with them

(you can read it here)

the husband and wife each have their own blogs too:

http://thecartbeforethehorse.blogspot.com/

http://dylansnewsletters.blogspot.com/

they seem like they're really living the dream.

hope one day i can build a life making art.

how awesome would that be?! :)

happy birthday big bro...

love you!


time really flies

object of desire

i came across this pretty tumblr page

object of desire

i want to go on vacation.

cutest little thing

for some reason this makes me want to move to hawaii...

and get a pup

found on stylemepretty.com

__________

tgif

Hong Yi

coffee mug stains

make a pretty beautiful piece of art

i love the earthy colors

see hong yi's video

Kathy Zimmer, Kimmy's visit, ANOTHER twinko order!!! woot!

Kathy Zimmer was my guitar teacher a long time ago-

she is such a wonderful and beautiful person

that even though i stopped taking lessons

(because i had no money and no time-- not because she's not an amazing and fun teacher- believe me, she's so wonderful!)

i continue to work with her on a lot of projects--

She's a singer/ songwriter

(check out her website to the rightt- link is there :))

i took this photo a long time ago and made that floral dress she's wearing
she's so much fun!

everything from CD covers, music videos, clothes for her shows...

name it, and i've been fortunate to be able to participate somehow

This is just something silly I made for her-

it was only a 20 minute project,

but i think all her loving fans will enjoy it non-the-less

K Zimmer animated invitation

I've also had the fun opportunity to make these too:

(p.s. i am no director or film person at all- this was all done with my mediocre skills on imovie ;P)

-in other words, it's all in good fun so don't judge too hard; it's easy to see my heart's in it for KZ :)-

farinelli video

obsolete video

whatever gets u thru the day video

*****

i'm so happy to say that while i was making the KZ invite video,

the lovely kim was with me the whole way through

(kim's fav quote on facebook: "I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite. - Buddy the Elf"

and if you know me, you know that THATS enough for me to love her forever)

we worked on a very special project for her apt today after the video that i will share soon...

i've been lucky enough to make this beautiful girl's wedding dress

and ties for the groomsmen at her wedding...

one day very very soon i hope to post up those pics

ok.. a little sneak peak... ;)

<3 <3  <3

SPECIAL NOTE:

TWINKO GOT ANOTHER WHOLESALE ORDER TODAY!!!

all finalized just a minute ago---

WOW

we are so happy---

one step closer to opening up a store!!!

*BIG DREAMS!*

p.s. we're in the midst of making HANDMADE packaging for our products:

i almost uploaded a picture, but no---

i can't...

soon though, very very soon :]

11-11-11

i realized that though i started this blog to log all my projects,

i haven't done that yet.

i think i've just become overwhelmed with all my old projects that i've been wanting to put on here...

finally, i picked one!

it's from 11-11-11

my very amazing, inspiring, talented, creative, and closest friend,

char

-her birthday gift-

i haven't made her something since we were freshmen in college,

so i decided to grab some silk, super super thin fabric markers

and draw away...

of course, our initials "cc + al 11-11-11" is incorporated into the artwork

to be honest, if i could do it again, i would have used paint.

you can't really see it in these photos, but i filled in each section with thin lines

so nothing is completely solid- i should try to get some close up pics :)

took me FOREVER-

but for char- i'd do it a million times over again!

i definitely want to make another one

possibly with a darker ground, and using paint.

<3

over president's day i went to

b l i c k

and bought some fabric paint that is made to be applied on dark fabrics

---hopefully it'll be used very soon---

<3

colorful vintage inspiration

i love these vintage suzani's

by south social and home

though i'm a girl that doesn't really incorporate much color in her life,

this totally inspires me to change my ways.

i'd totally save up my pennies for one of these to hang on my wall,

but considering my financial situation i'll have to think of a plan b..

:] boom, project!

profanity cases

asha loo,

this one is for you

<3

saw this on opening cermony's website

(haha, after our date on saturday i had to take another look...)

 of course i love these

oh, and there are these too!

had a great time with you ashaloo-
can't wait to hang out again!

<3

this struck me as awesome...

not that one would like to work so closely to where they work

(i already do this)

but what a great way to do it if you have to.

i want this in my small chinatown apt...

this way,

i'd be able to create all day and night long in a bigger space than i do now...

i've been "creating" lots lately..

hopefully i can share soon :)

binder shelf + clothes reference library

somehow at the office i have been "chosen" to design a wall

for easy access to a million binders we have that are currently by our desks.

we access these binders

EVERY DAY.

(oh dear)

this area also has to store a lot of

vintage clothes,

bought samples,

swatches etc...

i'm not too bummed that i'm doing this to be honest,

cause i'm short.

and it's probably better that i figure out where all this stuff goes.

Soon, the search turned from the ideal office library,

to ideas for

my dream closet.... ;)

(if you're anything like me, and read a LOT of blogs, you'll most likely recognize some of these spaces)

ahh- i'm far from figuring out what we're going to do-

but can't wait to get it going-- we are in desperate need of the organization

construction = next week

woot!