trinkets

I buy a lot of useless stuff. A lot of pretty, but useless stuff. It's not that they provide no utility, I just seem to like owning them but not using them. I have hipster glasses gathering dust on top of my dresser, brooches that sit in my drawer never seeing the light of day, and fancy rings and earrings that I couldn't resist buying but have yet to wear. I suffer the same problem with shoes, high heels in particular. All the flat shoes I buy get trodden on right away, but those skyscraper heels are another story. I buy them because they look sooo beautiful (and sexy), but I almost never wear them because I can never find the right occasion to subject my feet to the torture of the eternal tiptoe. But that's just my excuse.

I realize I must put a stop to this nonsense. Either I stop buying the stuff altogether, or I should start wearing all of them so that they don't go to waste... I've decided on the latter. I don't think I can resist the urge to buy something if it's already caught my eye, so I better just make sure I depreciate its value properly through use.

To start off this new resolution of mine, I pinned this brooch onto my blazer and wore it to work yesterday. I got this for (I think) $2 at a flea market on 6th Avenue more than a year ago. It's missing one dangling thing on the left (you can't really tell from this picture) but it's not very obvious. And I can always just take off the one on the right to make it symmetrical again, haha :)




Now let's see if I can keep the habit up!

update on my living room

Here's a picture of my living room taken from another angle. The door on the left leads to my room while the door on the right leads to what will be my brother's room. :) Right now I've got some of my clothes piled onto his bed, hehe, I will have to start putting them in their proper drawers soon. He'll be graduating from Cornell at the end of May and he'll be living with me by June. I am excited to have someone to talk to at home but I am dreading having to pick up after his messes. *laughs* I hope he'll clean up after himself!



Anyway, I now have a clock and three frames hanging on the main living room wall. The leftmost frame houses a hand-painted illustration from a German costume book from the late 19th Century that I got from a bookshop in D.C.

The middle frame holds a silk scarf from the Met printed with the work of Henri Toulouse Lautrec. This was gifted to me on my 18th birthday by my dad's friend, Paul, way before I ever even imagined I would come to New York and learn about Lautrec in my History of Graphic Design class. I'd forgotten I ever had this scarf. I found it again, after 7 years, when I was home for the holidays just this past December and cleaning out my old stuff. Isn't it funny how Paul seemed to have psychic powers? I was so amused when I found that scarf, still in it's Metropolitan Museum of Art box, and still with the birthday card stuck on it that I had to bring it back with me to New York. It's now back where it came from. :)

On the right is a silkscreen poster I did for class in 2008 with silver and gold ink. This is probably one of my favorite pieces from my time at Parsons. I still have a few more prints like these tucked away under my bed. I used even blacker paper for the others; those turned out beautiful.

And of course, in the corner on the left, you can see the rear wheel of my Linus Dutchi. Because there really isn't anywhere else I can park it, my bike has to stay right there. The wheel somewhat obstructs the entrance to my room but oh well. :)

doing a little victory dance.

I think I just heard what is by far the best piece of work-related news when I came into the office today. Much of the design work I've done here in the past year have not really seen the light of day. They may make it to the last round but clients never seem to choose my work, even if they're sometimes the designs that we as a company recommend they adopt. Work has to go through so many corporate hoops that it takes months to have a single logo chosen and approved. That's just the way it is.

I was my usual 5 minutes late. So after plopping my bag in the corner and taking off my cardigan, I quickly settled into my chair, typed in my network password to log onto my computer and did the first thing I do each morning. I checked my mail. There shone a single new message sent at 6:53 pm the night before, and the subject line read "Good meeting!"

Excited, I clicked to open the email that had come from one of my bosses who had been at a client's office yesterday to present a visual identity system (aka what we at Landor call a House Style) that I had worked on. They apparently had an unusually successful meeting (the client required no changes at all!) and the CEO had signed off on the design pretty quickly. So now it's time to create the guidelines for the system and get it through implementation. I will FINALLY have something that will actually live in the real world! :) Granted, this process will take another few months, and the company probably won't be able to implement the system and roll out designs until maybe early or mid-2011(?) but whatever, I'm happy :D In a year, I will be able to see the fruits of my labor at branches of this company across the city, and all the work will have been worth it. :) I'm excited!

bike snob.

I found this book as I was reading through Cool Hunting and I am putting it on my wish list! It seems like the perfect primer for my foray into urban cycling. It's humorous and unpretentious with a fresh mix of historical nuggets, cycling-disaster anecdotes and straightforward bike safety information. But the 2-color line illustrations by Christopher Koelle are really what sealed the deal for me. I wouldn't be able to resist buying this book even just for the illustrations if I had seen this at a store.


Bike Snob cover


I will probably find myself ordering this online from Chronicle Books tonight when I'm sitting at my desk back home. They have a 20% discount + free shipping, which puts the original price of $16.95 at $13.56! Granted it's a small book at 5" x 7" but it's got a hardcover. I'd say that's not bad, not bad at all.

my linus dutchi!

I finally bought my bike last weekend! It's soooo european retro chic :) I love it! It's even got its own little bell. :)

Linus Dutchi Single-Speed
I'm now just waiting for my Bern Watts helmet to arrive in the mail. It's equally cute! I can't wait to put it on and ride my bike through Central Park. It reminds me of those helmets Italian girls wear when they're riding down the streets in Vespas although it's really a skate helmet. They didn't have the glossy white helmet in my size so I had to order it online. My head is apparently a men's size medium! I always knew I had a big head, I'm just thankful I'm not a men's XL!


Bern Watts Summer EPS Helmet
I hope my helmet comes this weekend because I already told Henry I'd go biking with him! I did order a basket to put on my handlebars too, and according to UPS tracking it should arrive tomorrow, so I can start installing it when I get home from work. Yey! I will post another picture when I've got that basket on there.